Chapter Sixteen

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Jason had known this situation could quickly get out of hand. That was why he'd been so anxious to get the gun away from Erica. During all his concern about doing that, while also being worried about how to keep Lilly and Megan safe, he'd overlooked one important detail.

That Erica might not be working alone.

And she wasn't.

He became painfully aware of that when he came up off the floor with Erica in tow, and he saw Lilly. She didn't have a triumphant, we-got-her expression. But a frightened one.

Lilly was in the doorway of her bedroom, and even though the room itself was pitch-black, Jason could see the shadowy figure behind her. It took a moment to figure out why he couldn't distinguish any facial features.

The person was wearing a ski mask.

In addition to the ski mask, he or she had a gun aimed at Lilly. Like Erica's weapon, it, too, was rigged with a silencer. So, who was the brains behind this operation: Erica, or this person who had seemingly come out of nowhere?

The person didn't speak, but Jason saw the arm-grip tighten around Lilly's neck, and he saw the slight gesture with the gun. The gesture was directed at Erica.

"Jason, give me those," Erica insisted, obviously responding to the gesture.

She reached for the guns that Jason had in his hands, but he sidestepped her. He could have easily brought her down with one hard punch. Or with one shot. And, man, he wanted to do that after what she'd just pulled. However, the person holding Lilly would retaliate.

"Think of Megan," Lilly whispered to him. A warning for him to do whatever it took to prevent gunfire. Drywall wasn't much protection against bullets, and he couldn't risk Megan getting hurt.

But he could say the same for Lilly.

He couldn't risk her life, either.

Now, the problem was how was he going to convince her to play it safe? That elbow ploy had worked on Erica, but Jason had a feeling that the success had been more luck than anything else. He didn't want to rely on luck to keep his family safe. And it didn't matter that Megan wasn't his biological daughter, or that Lilly wasn't his wife, they were his family in every way that counted.

"I want the guns," Erica prompted, motioning for Jason to hand them over.

Jason said a prayer and made his move. He reacted as fast as his hands could react. He tossed one of the guns aside and, in the same motion, he latched on to Erica. He shoved her in front of him and put the remaining gun to her head.

"Drop your weapon," Jason ordered the person in the ski mask.

The person made a slight huffing sound. "Not on your life. Or rather, should I say, not on Lilly's life."

Jason didn't have any trouble recognizing that voice, and obviously neither did Lilly. Her eyes widened a fraction, and her mouth tightened. "Raymond Klein," she mumbled.

Another huff and Klein loosed his grip around Lilly's neck so he could peel off the ski mask. Jason almost made a lunge for him then and there, while he was briefly distracted with the mask removal, but never once did Klein take the gun from Lilly's head. Jason figured he was fast, but he wasn't faster than a finger already poised on the trigger.

"I'd hoped to avoid all of this," Klein said in a discussing-the-weather tone. He aimed his attention at Erica. "We need to do this quickly. We don't want those two cops waking up."

"They're alive?" Jason asked.

"For now. I used a stun gun on them once Erica had them amply distracted. Then, I gave them each a dose of barbiturates that should keep them out for a while longer."

Jason processed that information. And it didn't process well. With that ski mask, the two cops probably hadn't seen their attacker's face. But they'd sure as heck seen Erica's. Jason figured that meant Klein planned to set Erica up so she would take the blame.

Erica obviously hadn't figured that part out yet.

"Drop your weapon, Detective Lawrence," Klein insisted. "Or I'll kill Lilly before you've even had a chance to say goodbye to her."

Jason wasn't immune to that threat. It cut through him like a switchblade. But he pushed aside his fear and concern and focused on being a cop. Somehow he had to get Lilly and Megan safely out of this.

"Have you forgotten that I could do the same to Erica?" Jason fired back at Klein.

"Be my guest," Klein calmly said.

Because he still had hold of Erica, Jason felt her body tense. The quick, almost frantic intake of breath was an obvious clue that she'd just realized she was expendable.

"What are you saying?" Erica asked, frantically shaking her head. "The plan was to kidnap Lilly. That's it."

"The plan has changed," Klein informed her. "I can't leave witnesses behind, now, can I?"

"No!" Erica shouted. "We were going to kidnap Lilly, that's all. You said you could get her out of the country and put her somewhere so she wouldn't be able to come back. And she'd be out of the way so I could move back in here with Megan and Jason."

"I lied," Klein said, and he angled his eyes toward Jason. "Put the gun down now."

Jason knew he couldn't do that. "No way. You've already said you won't leave any witnesses."

"Go ahead, Jason," Lilly said. "Shoot him."

"If he does, you'll die," Klein reminded her.

"And then Jason will kill you," Lilly countered.

Jason must have conveyed his displeasure about that because Lilly nodded, as if trying to convince him that she was doing the right thing. "This way, one of us will survive," she told him. "Do it for Megan."

It was dirty pool. And it was a useless plea. Because if Lilly had her way, that plea would get her killed.

He had no plans to let her die.

Jason quickly went through the possible scenarios; he didn't like any of them. The risks were sky-high, but they were risks he couldn't do anything about. Doing nothing was just as risky. So he said another prayer and hoped like the devil that he could pull this off.

He shoved Erica forward, slamming her into Lilly. It had the domino effect that Jason hoped it would. Both Lilly and Erica flew back into Klein. All three went backward onto the floor.

Jason didn't waste even a second. With his gun aimed and ready to go, he launched himself at Klein so he could kick the gun from the man's hand.

He failed.

Jason heard the sound. Not a blast. But a muffled slash of noise. It didn't have to be loud, though, for it to be deadly. Because Jason knew that Klein had just fired the gun rigged with the silencer.

L ILLY KNEW that sound.

A gunshot.

It instantly fed the terror that was already snowballing inside her. That bullet could have hit Jason. Or Megan. God. She couldn't lose them.

She came up off the floor. Or rather, she tried to, but a punch to her jaw sent her sprawling. Lilly felt the warm, wet sensation on the side of her face but ignored it so she could launch herself at Klein. She couldn't let him fire again. No matter what the cost, even if it meant dying, she wasn't going to let him shoot Jason or Megan.

In the darkness, she saw the tangle of their bodies. Hers, Jason's, Klein's and Erica's. Erica and she were on the floor, and Klein and Jason were standing, more or less, and were about to square off in what looked to be a gun battle.

Except Jason was no longer armed.

Somewhere in the scuffle, he'd lost his gun. Oh, God. That meant Klein would no doubt try to kill Jason.

Lilly ignored the stinging pain in her jaw and reached out. She managed to grab Klein's leg, and she tried to drag him to the floor with her. She wasn't successful, but for a split second, she'd distracted him.

Klein looked down.

Aimed his pistol right at her.

And he would have shot her point-blank if Jason hadn't rammed his body into the man. Somehow, Jason stayed on his feet, and it became a struggle for control of the gun.

Lilly decided to put the odds in their favor. She spotted Erica's weapon on the floor and scrambled toward it. Her legs suddenly felt like a deadweight, and she cursed her lack of mobility. It was no longer just an inconvenience. It was a handicap that could get them killed.

If she let it happen.

She wouldn't.

She fixed the image of Megan and Jason in her mind, and she used that image, her love for them, to force herself to move forward. One inch at a time.

Behind her, she could hear the sounds of a struggle. Fist against muscle. Did that mean that Jason had somehow managed to get the gun away from Klein? Or, heaven forbid, had Erica joined the fight?

With her heart pounding and her breath so thin that her lungs felt starved for air, Lilly stretched out her hand and scooped up the gun from the floor. She came up and was face-to-face with Erica.

"I can't give up Megan," Erica said as if it would change what Lilly was feeling.

It was on the tip of Lilly's tongue to tell her that she had already lost Megan, but the slash of movement from the corner of her eye had her looking up. At Klein.

Once again, he had the gun pointed at her.

"If you move, Detective Lawrence, I'll kill her."

Normally those words would have terrified her beyond belief, but this time they didn't have the effect that Klein had probably intended.

Why?

Because Lilly heard Megan. Her baby was not only awake, she had begun to cry, and those cries were quickly turning to sobs.

Lilly made eye contact with Jason. Mere seconds. To let him know this was about to end. He gave a crisp nod.

Her cue.

Or at least Lilly made it her cue. She ignored her limp muscles and pulled back her leg. She focused all her energy and rammed her foot into Klein's thigh.

Klein reacted all right. He howled in pain. But that didn't stop him from re-aiming his gun. Jason yelled for her to move, but she couldn't, and everything seemed to crawl in slow motion. She heard the sound, like someone blowing out a candle, and felt the sensation of pressure against the right side of her head. It didn't stay merely a sensation.

It quickly turned to pain.

And Lilly realized she'd been shot.

She dropped back onto the floor. Around her, there was a flurry of motion. Jason cursed and grabbed Klein, knocking the man's gun away. Jason seemed enraged, and he landed a hard fist in Klein's face.

Klein went down like a rock.

Jason didn't stop there. He snatched up his Glock and aimed it right at him.

"Move and I'll kill you." That was all Jason said. All he had to say. Because anyone who heard the threat knew that he meant it.

Lilly wanted to help Jason. She wanted to make sure that neither Erica nor Klein had managed to regain control of one of the weapons. She also wanted to thank Jason for saving her life.

But she couldn't do any of those things.

The dizziness came with a vengeance. The room began to spin out of control, and though she was aware that Jason was speaking, she couldn't understand what he was saying. Worse, she knew she was losing consciousness. Lilly fought it.

But she lost.

Because she had no choice, she shut her eyes and the darkness came again.