Chapter 36

36

Special Agent Fallon Baxter

S creams erupt as the audience scrambles in a desperate rush toward the exits. Chairs topple and people stumble over each other in their haste to escape immediate danger, right here in the auditorium behind the community center.

Jack heads for the stairs leading up to the stage, but I manage to leap onto it straight from the ground level. I dart to the right and find a door gaping open that leads to the dark night outside.

Jewel can be seen chasing a dark figure across a dirt field and it looks as if they're headed toward the lake.

I run as fast as my legs can carry me, the cold air burning my lungs, and each breath is sharper than the last. The ground beneath my feet is uneven as dirt kicks up as I push myself harder.

Just up ahead, Jewel's figure becomes clearer, her movements desperate and erratic as she chases Damien toward the shimmering surface of the lake.

The moonlight casts a soft glow across the field and I pull out my gun as we get close to the water's edge. I can hear Jack's footfalls gaining ground behind me. My heart pounds in my ears as adrenaline courses through my veins like a wildfire.

" Stop, FBI ," I shout just as another gunshot goes off and I see Damien's body buck in the darkness before he crumples to the ground.

I go to tackle Jewel from behind, but my foot catches on a root and I land sideways onto a bed of rocks, hitting my head as my gun jumps from my hand and scatters to the right.

In one monstrous move, Jewel swoops in and drags me to my feet, and soon the barrel of her gun is pressed hard against my temple.

"Jewel, drop the gun." Jack's command is forceful as his voice echoes across the expanse, his own gun poised in this direction

"We know you took Nikki. We have all the evidence we need," I pant.

"Shut up," she screams so loud my bones shake. "And you had better drop your weapon, mister," she growls at Jack. "Because I am not afraid to die, and I'm not afraid to take your friend along with me."

Jack gives a sober nod before lowering his weapon and landing it at his feet.

My eyes close because it's the last thing I wanted to see.

"Is Damien dead?" Jewel thunders as she glances at the lake. "Because he did this. This was his doing you know. He wanted me to kidnap Lydia. He wanted me to take that girl, too. It was all his doing. He orchestrated all of it. He even had me set up his neighbor. It was Damien who set fire to the hedges a few months back. He blamed Owen in hopes of getting him to move. He's an intimidator. A manipulator. He makes people do things. He wanted Nora silenced."

"Is that why you killed her?" Jack asks. "The neighbor, Connie Pickman, said she heard two women in the yard the day Nora died. That was you, wasn't it?"

That couldn't be further from the truth. Connie Pickman said no such thing. But good move on Jack's part if it works in our favor.

"Yes." Jewel's entire body shivers as she says it. "It's true. He made me do it. He made me do everything. He wanted Lydia dead, too, and for the blame to fall on Owen."

Jack's forefinger on his left hand twitches as if pointing up. His eyes dart left for less than a microsecond.

I try to glance that way as far as I'm allowed without moving my head, but I don't see anything. And aside from Jewel's ragged breaths, I can't tell if anyone is moving behind me either.

Jack's finger lifts one more time and I brace myself, slowly moving my right foot back, ready to hook one of Jewel's ankles with it to take her down. My elbow is ready to rise and knock the gun right out of her hand, hopefully before she fires it.

Jewel's right arm is yanked back sharply and the gun bounces from her hand as a body pounces over her from behind, taking both of us down.

" Nobody move ," Jack shouts. The next thing I know, he's pulling me to my feet, the gun is back in his hand, and I look down to see a redhead with a ratted mane of hair squirming on top of Jewel.

Hale runs this way with his weapon trained on the ground before he knocks the redhead off and quickly cuffs our suspect.

"Forensics just came back on that blood found under Nora Archer's nails," he grunts. "It didn't belong to Nora." He nods to Jewel. "That's going to cement a conviction."

"Nikki?" I shout as the redhead turns this way and gives a thumbs-up. Soon, Jack hoists her up and quickly unlocks the cuffs that bind her wrists.

"I'm all right," she pants. "I made it out of that hellhole."

A herd of footfalls thunder this way as the entire area is swarmed with every agent at the field office, along with the sheriff's department, the fire department, and a couple of ambulances that pulled up to the scene.

"Are you okay?" Jack asks me firmly as all-out chaos ensues around us.

"I'm fine," I say, ignoring the fact my head is blazing as if a sickle just sliced through it.

We help Nikki toward the cluster of ambulances, down where Damien is being tended to by a couple of medics. His shoulder looks as if it were grazed. But he'll live.

"Excuse me." Nikki breaks free and steps away into the crowd.

"I didn't do this," Damien calls our way. "I didn't—" He stops cold as he looks to my left and his face loses all color even in this dim light.

We turn around to see Nikki ushering over a disheveled brunette. Her face is dirty and she's wearing a nightgown that looks covered in soot.

"Lydia?" Damien gasps at the sight of her.

"That's right," Nikki sings with an edge to her voice. "She told me everything. How you were cheating on her with not one but two women. How she asked for a divorce and how you begged her to wait until after the conference. I guess you had a little something you needed to do first. Like promise your assistant, who you were also having an affair with, that you would marry her as soon as she cleared up a few things. You promised her everything in exchange for doing your dirty work."

"It's true," Jewel howls from across the way as one of the sheriff's deputies does his best to hold her back. "He gave me the gun, and he gave me the taser. He helped me load Lydia into my trunk. Then he shot himself in the hand."

"That's not true," Damien shouts. "That's not true. She's turning on me. She shot me in the hand. I didn't have anything to do with any of this," he riots as spittle runs down his face.

"It's true as gospel," Jewel shoots back. "The only thing that you were unaware of was the timing." She turns my way. "He wanted me to take her after the conference and kidnap her straight from the house. He wanted Owen set up to the hilt." She bleeds a black smile his way. "You don't get to tell me what to do anymore. We're playing by my rules now. And my rules say you're guilty and I'll make sure I prove it."

"I'm innocent," he thunders her way before shedding a dark smile of his own. "She set fire to those bushes. She was the one trying to set Owen up, not me."

Jack and I exchange a glance.

"Get her to an ambulance," Hale bellows. "Knight and Baxter, I want you checked out as well."

"What the hell happened?" I ask Nikki as I lunge at her for a quick embrace.

"She took me to a shed behind the Coles' cabin. She set it on fire," she pants. "We kicked out the door."

" She kicked out the door," Lydia says, and her voice is painfully hoarse. "The shed was ablaze. An entire wall came down. We broke into the cabin and she called for help." She nods to Hale. "Nikki insisted we stop here first."

Hale nods. "That's when the call came to head this way." He shakes his head at Jack and me. "Good job, agents. Now let's wrap this up."

He helps Nikki and Lydia as they make their way to the EMTs gathered near the community center and Hale follows suit.

Jack pulls me in hard, his heart hammers over mine as he runs his facial scruff over my cheek.

"I should have done better," he says, pinning me with his eyes.

"I'm the one who took the lead," I say. "Next time I'll let you take the lead and trip over the shrubbery."

"I'm sorry you hit your head."

"I'm in agreement it's your fault. I also lost my glasses. I'll send you the bill."

"You're impossible," he growls. "I'm trying to have a serious moment."

"What? I can't be serious when I say it's all your fault?"

"You know, you could have been killed." His voice rises an octave as he growls at me. "You're lucky you're alive."

"You're lucky you're alive," I growl right back.

"You know I should—" He grunts with frustration, not knowing where to take the argument next. "I should—" He frowns hard before diving in and stealing a kiss right off my lips and my heart detonates in my chest like dynamite.

Traitor.

He pulls back, looking just as ticked as he was before he did the deed.

"Not so fast," I snip before pulling him in by the back of the neck and forcing our lips together once more.

It starts out rough before we open up and I let him in and soon we're all teeth and tongues as we exchange one of the roughest, messiest, and quite possibly best kisses of my life.

My heart pounds ten times as hard as it was to begin with, far faster than the threat of a bullet could ever prompt it to.

Jack and I kiss under the cover of night, under the supervision of a silver moon, and perhaps the entire field team of the Denver office.

But we don't care.

It's not make-believe by a long shot.

This is happening, and this is real.

But something tells me the aftermath is going to be a real killer.