Heidi, whose gun was held strategically behind her back, but pointing at Jasmine, made the statement in a happy-go-lucky voice.

  “I do it!” Bella’s equally happy voice rang out from the kitchen table, where Josh was feeding her breakfast and she wanted to hold her cereal spoon. Thank God for that baby. If she hadn’t woken up at Josh’s sharp rebuke of Heidi when she’d pulled the gun on Jasmine earlier, Jasmine would most probably be dead.

  And the three of them would be on their way to Mexico. And beyond.

  Greg was here. The knowledge gave her a sense of calm. It was all going to be over soon.

  In the space of time since Heidi had first pulled the gun on her—a couple of hours, at least—Josh had tended to Bella, sat with her first and rocked her back to sleep for a bit, right there on the couch with Jasmine. Held his daughter while she slept. And then washing her up and getting her dressed—with clothes he’d brought for her from home, probably for a much longer trip—as was her usual routine.

  Her “Hi, Mommy” when she walked out was as normal as could be. Bella was secure. Happy. With her family. But she didn’t rush over to hug her mother. Didn’t go to her at all.

  The entourage outside had arrived while Josh had been dressing Bella. Only God knew what would happen next. Would Heidi kill them all? And then shoot herself?

  Like she’d shot off rounds when she’d first known cops were outside?

  It happened. More often than a lot of people knew.

  Jasmine had to pee, but there was no way she was going to get up off that couch, give Heidi a chance to accompany her through the bedroom and get her alone.

  And yet...an idea occurred to her. They were all out there. If she got Heidi away from Bella, Greg would get the toddler and get her to safety...

  Looking at Heidi by the door, she leaned forward, planning to stand, figuring she had to time things just right. A shard of pain hit her left side so sharply it took her breath away. She relaxed again, knowing that she’d have to factor the ribs into her plan.

  “I’m coming in!” Greg’s voice sounded in the distance. “I’m unarmed. Just want to talk.”

  “He’s got his hands in the air,” Heidi said, again in that singsong voice, as though giving good news to a child. At least the woman had learned enough to keep things light and easy around Bella. Josh had gotten through to her, at least a little bit. “I’m letting him in.”

  Tears sprang to Jasmine’s eyes. Staring straight ahead when all she wanted to do was look at that door, to see Greg at least once more, she didn’t move. Didn’t dare give Heidi any indication that she cared one way or the other about the man. Josh knew she’d fallen for the detective. If Heidi didn’t, they needed to keep it that way.

  Not that she could count on her brother to be on her side anymore. He was so in love with his abusive wife, so controlled by her that...

  The door opened.

  Chapter 25

  “Detective, I’m so glad to see you.” Heidi sounded like she was welcoming royalty. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

  What?

  “I just knew, after you sent the officers to my place last night, that you’d have someone watching me,” she continued, as though passing along an interesting piece of gossip. “I knew that I’d be followed up here. And we can end this once and for all. When I heard they were gone, I figured this was where they’d come and if I could get you all up here, you’d see what I’ve been saying all along. Jasmine and Josh...they’re this impenetrable team. They were planning to run away together. To take all their money and my daughter and leave the country and I’d never see my sweet Bella again...”

  What in the hell? What in the...

  Her head screamed so loudly she couldn’t find a clear thought. Heidi and Greg were in this together? But...

  No, that didn’t make sense. Why would Greg need to trap her and Josh? They already had their win. Whether Josh took the plea or not.

  Obviously, someone had noticed her and Josh missing.

  That had to mean Greg had been trying to contact her, right? Because they were...more than friends. He’d found out the truth like she’d asked. It would have been unethical for him to tell her. He’d wanted to wait to make love until after the trial.

  She might not get out of there alive, but she could sit there thinking about Greg if she wanted to. Obviously distracting Heidi wasn’t going to work now.

  “Is everyone okay here?” Greg’s voice, soft and sure...it was like warm blood in her frozen veins.

  “We’re all fine, but only because you got here,” Heidi said, lowering her voice as well. “Josh had a gun. I had no idea.”

  “Shots were fired.”

  “That was Josh. Warning you all to back off.”

  Feeling like the statue she’d become, Jasmine didn’t say a word. Wasn’t sure how much Josh could hear. He’d taken Bella fully into the kitchen alcove and was talking to her loudly. About the difference between chocolate and regular milk and how chocolate had sugar and cereal had sugar and too much sugar in the morning...

  “Ms. Taylor? You okay?” It took her a second to realize that Greg was talking to her. And had the inane realization that her ponytail had come loose. He could probably see her bald spot.

  She made a half turn before her ribs screamed at her. “Yes. I’m fine,” she said, knowing she didn’t sound like herself at all. Hoping he’d hear the pain in her voice. Realize that she was injured. In case he was counting on her climbing mountains in the next minute or two. She’d do it, of course, but she couldn’t guarantee how well.

  Or how long she’d remain conscious.

  “Okay, Heidi, what you did, bringing us here, helped a lot. Except, maybe, it would have been safer for you if you’d just told us where you thought they were.”

  “I could have been wrong,” Heidi said, sounding completely rational now. “Besides, I had to see for myself,” she told him. “I need to see them both taken away, and I knew if I asked if I could come along, you wouldn’t let me.”

  The woman was diabolical. She truly did have an answer for everything.

  “We’ll get to that,” Greg said. “But first, before anyone gets excited here, we need to get Bella out of here. Just let me take her out and then I’ll bring officers in to arrest these two.”

  Greg was placating Heidi. He had to be. Surely he didn’t believe her.

  But Jasmine might have, given the same circumstance, if she didn’t have years of living with Heidi’s lies behind her. The other woman had twisted her and Josh up in knots for over a year before they’d come together, talked and figured out what was going on.

  “Bella, look! It’s a police car with bright lights! You want to go see it?” Josh’s voice sounded behind Jasmine. She couldn’t see him. Couldn’t see her precious little baby girl. But she held her breath, waiting for Bella to get safely past her mother.

  “Police car! Let’s see! You want to see, Auntie JJ?”

  “In a minute, sweet pea!” Jasmine called, wanting to turn but fearing the pain if she did so. She had to be ready and able to move. While Heidi’s gun was no longer trained on her, she had no way of knowing whether or not Greg knew Heidi was the one armed.

  “Detective Johnson’s going to take you out to show you how the bright lights work,” Josh said. “Daddy’s going to put the milk away and be right out and then you can show me what you learned!”

  Josh sounded as though they were going on a ride at the playground. A testament to how much he loved his daughter. And wanted her life free from witnessing violence. After all this, he was handing her over without a fight. Making it fun for her to go. Without even a kiss goodbye.

  Jasmine wanted to be surprised by that. Strangely, she wasn’t. Josh had always put Bella first.

  Heidi locked the door again as soon as Greg was through it. Locking the three of them in. And that’s what this was all about. Heidi was insanely jealous of Greg’s relationship with Jasmine. And then, later, with Bella, but mostly it was Jasmine.

  “Josh, come over here.” Heidi was pointing her gun straight at Jasmine again. With Bella out of the way, there was nothing stopping her from shooting. Josh had already made his choice between the two of them clear.

  She wasn’t going to beg.

  “Here’s how this will work. You say Jasmine was the one with the gun. It’s stolen, so there’s no way to tell who really brought it up here. She knew you were up here. She purposely brought Bella to put you in a position where you’d be violating visitation if you were caught. She’s here to force you into giving her custody of Bella, which is what she’s been after all along. You and I, we love each other. We’re just trying to get through our issues, get our counseling and be a family.” She looked at Josh. “Right, sweet man?”

  Josh just looked at her, standing there holding the gun trained on Jasmine. Heidi barely glanced in his direction. She was too busy doing what she did.

  “Jasmine held you at gunpoint. Then I showed up unexpectedly, because she didn’t know you’d told me about this place, and told me you were going to be up here, and I’d just managed to get the gun away from her before the cops got here and that’s when you grabbed it and the gun accidently went off...”

  Pounding came from the other side of the door. “It’s Johnson. Let me in.”

  Heidi looked at Josh. “Got it, sweet man? We pin this on her. You go to your hearing on Thursday and take the plea—you’re right about that. You need to have things all cleared up. And then we’re through our counseling and put this mess behind us, we take Bella and go. Just like we planned...”

  Josh looked at Jasmine. Greg pounded on the door a second time. Calling out for Heidi. Asking if she was okay.

  “We didn’t plan to leave the country, Heidi,” Josh said, moving in slightly, closer to the couch. “I didn’t tell you I was up here. You must’ve figured it out when the cops came to you last night, thinking you were involved in our disappearance. That’s the first you knew of it, but you tried to reach me, you couldn’t and so you came up here. Hoping they’d follow, just like you said.”

  Jasmine’s eyes filled with tears, and this time, they spilled down her cheeks.

  “I do love you,” Josh continued. “I’d do almost anything for you. But I will not hurt Jasmine because of you or anything you do to me, to Bella, to anyone. I won’t hurt her again. Not ever again.”

  She couldn’t see through her tears, gave a single sob that rent through her upper body with blinding pain.

  “Lower the gun, Heidi, please,” Josh said. “Open the door. We can say whatever we need to say about what happened up here. We’ll let the current charges play out against both of us and see where that leaves us. We can talk about the future. But right now, just put down the gun and open the door before you do something from which we can’t recover.”

  She saw the look come over Heidi’s face and knew that her brother had failed. Jasmine loved him so much for trying, though. He’d come through for her. Greg had, too. Bella was safe.

  She could go.

  “No!” Heidi screamed. “It’s never going to end. You and her. Shutting me out. Treating me like I’m the crazy one. The bad one. It’s all because of the two of you. You... No!” Jasmine saw her trigger finger move.

  Was almost relieved to know it was over.

  She saw flesh in front of her eyes. A body, flying through the air. Heard glass break.

  The shot, when it hit her, wasn’t nearly as painful as she’d expected. More like a heavy splash. On her face. Her neck. Maybe her hands.

  Greg was there, by the window. She could see him. Was still sitting up, afraid to move in case she died.

  “Josh, no!” She heard Heidi’s scream. Saw her face, stricken and broken, as she rushed forward, only to be stopped by an armed officer.

  Greg was on the floor, kneeling. At her brother’s unconscious body.

  It took her that long to figure it out.

  She hadn’t been shot. Josh had.

  Her brother had jumped in front of the bullet meant for her.

  * * *

  Greg felt a pulse. Blood oozed into a pool on the floor beneath Josh Taylor, and Greg couldn’t tell if it was coming from the man’s neck, head or upper back. But he felt a pulse.

  Officers swarmed the room now. Heidi was being handcuffed. Orders given. A paramedic came rushing in and Greg stood, only one thing in mind.

  She was sitting on the couch, crying, holding her stomach, while she stared at her brother. Blood spatter dotted her forehead, cheek and neck.

  “He’s alive,” Greg said to her, the rest of the cacophony in the room fading away as he sat down beside Jasmine, putting an arm around her. “He’s losing a lot of blood. His pulse is a little weak but regular.” He told her the truth.

  “It was meant for me.” Her lips mouthed the words more than she spoke them. “It was meant for me.” She wasn’t sobbing. The only real motions coming from her were the tears dripping down her face.

  “He was protecting you,” Greg said, trying to pull her more fully into his arms, to put himself in between her and the vision of her brother lying on the floor.

  There was talk of blood pressure and other vitals behind him. Someone called for a stretcher, which was already coming in the door.

  “Gunshot to the back,” someone said.

  “That’s good news,” Greg told Jasmine. It wasn’t his head or neck. It still could have his heart.

  Jasmine didn’t respond to him. She’d slipped into a hell he couldn’t penetrate. This wasn’t the first time she’d witnessed violence. Or seen blood pooling from her brother’s back. The fear Greg had felt after his father’s accident, and again the night before, was back. He couldn’t lose her now. Couldn’t let her lose herself.

  “Bella’s out there. Are you going to be able to be there for her? Or do you want me to have someone take her?”

  He had no idea where the words came from. Was shocked when he heard how heartless he sounded.

  “No,” Jasmine said, blinking, and looking away from the movement around Josh for the first time as she wiped away her tears. “No. She needs family. Stability. Now more than ever. I’ll...um...am I free to go? I’m not under arrest or anything?”

  “God, no, you’re not under arrest.” How could she think so? She was the victim here and...

  Heidi’s words came back to him. All lies. He’d known that immediately. Just known. And he suspected that Josh Taylor was the victim of an insidious woman, as well.

  “Let’s get you cleaned up a bit,” he said, standing and reaching to support her under her arms as he helped her to stand. After the shock, she might be a bit weak-kneed. “You don’t want Bella seeing you like...”

  He stopped as Jasmine winced markedly as she stood.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, heart pounding. Was the shot a through and through? Had she been hit after all and hadn’t said anything? His gaze was poring over her. Looking for blood pools. Other than the spatter, and the tears, she looked unharmed.

  “I just...fell,” she said. “I actually tripped over Josh’s foot on the way in to get Bella. Hurt my left rib.”

  He noticed a small redness on her chin, too, then. A little scrape. Had the feeling she was lying to him. And let it go. There would be time in the future to find out exactly what had gone on in that cabin.

  At the moment, getting her out of there was more important.

  * * *

  Jasmine watched the paramedics load Josh onto a stretcher. Followed it to the door. Heidi had ben cuffed and lead away. She didn’t watch that. Greg wanted Jasmine to ride in an ambulance to the hospital. When she wouldn’t even consider doing so, he tried to get her to agree to an emergency room visit. She refused that, too. Her rib might be broken. It wouldn’t be the first time.

  There was nothing they’d do for it, except maybe wrap it. It was a rib. It hurt like hell. And then it wouldn’t.

  She didn’t even tell him about the headache. One over-the-counter painkiller tablet and a good night’s sleep would take care of that. She loved his concern and bit back telling him this wasn’t her first rodeo.

  It was the first time she’d ever had a gun pointed at her.

  And the first time she’d seen her brother get shot.

  She was shaken up. And was glad Greg was there.

  Other than Bella, she couldn’t think about the rest of it. Not then. Later. With Bloom. She’d figure it out. Mostly what stood out was that Josh hadn’t purposely hurt Heidi. She’d been right about that all along. But Greg’s evidence, all lies from Heidi that the prosecutor had believed, had panicked him to the point of doing what he felt he had to do to get Bella and run with her. To keep her safe from her mother.

  Because he didn’t believe in the system anymore. And he hadn’t trusted Jasmine.

  Because of her feelings for Greg.

  She let the detective drive her and Bella back to Santa Raquel, to The Lemonade Stand. An officer following in Greg’s car, with a third car behind that to bring the officer back. Feeling guilty for all the fuss, she just hadn’t had the energy to argue about it.

  Bella kept asking where Daddy was. She told her he was busy with work. Told her it was a work and school day.

  “I s’posed to show him the lights,” she said.

  “I know, and he wants to see them, too. You’ll get a chance soon.” She hoped to God she wasn’t lying about that. Would deal with that obstacle when she had to do so.

  The little girl, kicking her feet lightly in her car seat as she often did, seemed satisfied with the answer. She never asked about her mother.

  Leaving her niece at daycare, where she knew she’d be safe and loved, she had Greg take her home, where their entourage left them.

  And then, there they were. Alone. In her house. She couldn’t stay, of course. She had to get to the hospital. To Josh.