Susannah moved faster than a striking snake. “That’s not my name!” She grabbed Heather. Held her tight with a wild strength even as the cop twisted in her grasp. Desperation was giving her power. Susannah put the gun against the cop’s head. “I’m Shelly! I was Shelly!”
Shelly Summers. The name clicked immediately. A home in Florida. Parents who’d filed the missing-persons report when their daughter had never made it back to them.
“It’s too bright in here,” Susannah muttered. “I like the dark. It used to scare me. Not anymore.”
I’m tired of the darkness. Kill me!
Dani swallowed the lump in her throat.
“Bring him out to me or I’ll kill her.”
“Bring who?” Ben asked her quietly. Unlike Heather, he hadn’t advanced toward the other woman. He also hadn’t put down his gun. It was up, and aimed right at Susannah.
“What happened to me?” Susannah—Shelly?—whispered with a shake of her head. “Why did I become like this?” She shook her head once more and seemed so lost that Dani hurt for her in that moment.
“Let me go,” Heather said but she didn’t fight against the other woman. Maybe she was afraid the gun would go off.
Susannah’s hold tightened on Heather. “Bring him out, and I will.”
Him.
Dani whirled away from the scene and ran back toward the interrogation room. She threw open the first door. Aaron Peters jumped. His eyes doubled when he saw her gun. “What’s happening?”
“Come with me,” she demanded.
He hurried to his feet. Rushed outside with her.
“Susannah!” She shouted for the other woman, trying to get her attention. If she could distract her, then Dani knew Ben could make a grab for her weapon.
They needed to take Susannah in alive because she was the key to so much.
The key to everything.
Susannah turned her head at Dani’s call. She stared at Aaron, frowning. Then she gave a negative shake of her head. “That’s not him. I told you I need him!”
Well, she had two more men left to go.
“He hurt Lily.” Susannah pushed the gun against Heather’s temple. Shoved it hard. “I should have stopped him. Why didn’t anyone stop him?”
Dani shoved Aaron away from her. She was so afraid Susannah was about to pull the trigger.
“Why didn’t I?” A desperate whisper. “After what he did to me, why didn’t I?”
The tension was so thick that Dani could feel it pressing down on her.
“Susannah!” Aaron suddenly shouted. “Tell them I was with you last night!”
What. The. Hell. The man was an idiot. He had eyes in his head. The guy had to see what was happening.
Susannah blinked. She seemed to weave on her feet.
Footsteps pounded behind Dani. She looked back. Saw both Captain Anniston and James Marsh rushing down the narrow hallway.
Dani’s gaze flew back to Susannah. The woman had taken the gun away from Heather’s head. Now she was pointing it at—
Me.
“No,” Dani said. Because she knew what was going to happen. With the gun pointed at her, with Susannah’s trembling fingers tightening around that trigger—
“Drop it!” Ben yelled.
But Susannah didn’t drop the weapon. Tears leaked down her cheeks.
“Don’t!” Dani begged her. “You don’t want to do this.”
A blast shook the station.
Susannah’s body jerked.
She smiled as she fell. As her blood spattered.
“No!” James Anniston ran toward her. His shoulder bumped into Dani, jostling her.
James and Ben surrounded the fallen woman. “I had to take the shot.” Ben’s voice was tight. “She was going to shoot.”
The people who’d been frozen before all sprang forward. A thick circle formed around Ben and James.
“Get an ambulance!” James shouted.
Someone was already calling for the EMTs.
They weren’t going to be able to help.
“Are you okay?” Aaron said, his voice shaken.
She looked down and realized Susannah had been firing. She’d fired even as Ben took his shot. The thundering sound had been so loud because—two bullets.
Blood dripped down her arm. “The bullet just grazed me.”
She turned, glancing back to see where the bullet had gone.
Jason Marsh was on the ground. Blood pooled beneath him.
Oh, hell, no. “Man down!” Dani shouted and hurried toward him.
His eyes were wide, shocked. Blood leaked from his lips and from the hole in his chest.
Susannah was smiling when she died.
Because she’d taken out the man who’d turned her into a monster?
Dani put her hands over Jason’s wounds. Others were coming to offer help but his blood was soaking her. Pouring out far too fast. If the bleeding didn’t stop soon, he’d be dead.
Cadence, I need you. Cadence would know what to do. She always knew.
Jason’s hand rose. Locked around her arm. She glanced at his face.
“Help’s coming.” She tried to reassure him, even if he was a killer, she tried. “We’ll get you sewn up.”
The bullet was still in him. It had torn its way through his organs. Where had Susannah even gotten that weapon?
Jason shook his head. “Not…”
“You’ll live!” Lie, lie. “Just hold on!”
She heard the screech of sirens then. When cops called for an ambulance, the ambulance rushed to the station.
Her knees were soaked in his blood. It covered her jeans. Every space of skin on her hands.
“Susannah.” His voice was a rasp. “She…okay…?”
Not based on the sounds Dani heard.
Then the EMTs were there. Pushing her back. Loading him on a stretcher.
Susannah had been loaded up, too. They were put in the same ambulance.
“Fuck, you’re hurt.” Ben grabbed her arm.
She pulled away from him. Stared after those swirling lights.
“Dani!” Cadence was finally there, running toward them with shocked eyes.
“What the hell happened?” Kyle demanded as he rushed behind her.
“Justice.” This came from James Anniston. He didn’t sound satisfied. Just tired. “Susannah said she was here for the man who’d hurt her. Dammit, she was a victim, too?”
One who had been there, all along.
Her arm throbbed. The lights from the ambulance were vanishing.
“She shot him. She took out Marsh. My own detective.” The words were a whisper from Anniston. “My detective…”