Bubba couldn’t believe how heartless the woman in front of him was. She not only wanted to kill him and Zoey for money, but had no qualms in killing an innocent woman as well. Well, Eva wasn’t completely innocent, she’d gone along with the plan to strand him and Zoey, but she hadn’t outright killed them.
He felt Zoey shifting behind him, and he panicked for a moment, until he realized she was simply pressing herself even closer to his back. That was okay with him. The closer she was, the easier it would be to protect her.
The fact that he had to protect her from his own flesh and blood was insane. But at the moment, Malcom’s pistol was more of a danger than the knife Tracy was holding. “I guess you were the one to tell Malcom what was in Pop’s will, huh?” he asked her.
“Of course. I’m my husband’s assistant, after all. Who do you think prepares all his documents?”
Bubba’s phone vibrated again, and he wished like hell he could answer it. Whoever was on the other end was very insistent on talking to him.
“Kill them,” Tracy ordered Malcom. “This has to end now.”
“How exactly do you think this is going to end?” Bubba asked. He felt Zoey shift against him once more…then realized she was slowly taking his KA-BAR out of the sheath at the small of his back.
God, she was smart as hell—and also scaring the hell out of him.
“If you kill us, what are you going to do with our bodies? How are you going to explain our deaths? Sean and Kenneth are expecting me at the office in about an hour and a half. And you might get my shares of the business, but that won’t give you enough to override Sean. And Zoey’s will go to her mom. What then, Mal? You gonna kill Sean too? Then his wife, since his shares will probably go to her? When does it end? When will you get to stop killing?
“It’s over, bro. Put down the gun and let’s figure this out. Together.”
“No. It’ll work. It has to!”
“Don’t listen to him, Malcom. He’s trying to confuse you,” Tracy told her younger lover.
“How am I doing that?” Bubba asked. “I’m telling him the truth. He wants the business, but if he kills us, he’s never going to get it.”
“We don’t want the fucking business!” Tracy yelled a little hysterically. “I’ve got a buyer already lined up for our half of Heritage Plastics. He’s ready to pay cash. We’ll be able to leave this shit-hole town and start over somewhere else.”
Bubba turned his head to stare at his brother. “I can’t fucking believe this. If you wanted to leave, why didn’t you just leave?”
“It wasn’t that simple,” Malcom argued, the despair and frustration easy to hear. “I’m not like you. I’m not strong. I didn’t have a choice but to stay and work for Pop.”
“There are always choices,” Bubba said sadly. “And I can’t believe you thought that killing me, your own flesh and blood, was your best option.”
“Tracy said—”
“Listen to yourself, bro,” Bubba demanded forcefully, interrupting him. “Forget about her for a second. She’s a desperate woman, sick of life with her boring husband and wanting some excitement. She picked you, and you fell for it—hook, line, and sinker. She talked you into killing Pop! Into trying to kill me. Look me in the eye and tell me you’re okay with killing me.”
Bubba stared at his brother and willed him to snap out of whatever trance Tracy Eklund had cast over him.
Behind his back, he felt Zoey slip the handle of his knife into his palm.
Everything slowed down then. The familiar weight of the weapon in his hand made him feel a hundred times more confident in the outcome of the situation. He could take Malcom out with a flick of his wrist—and then deal with Tracy.
But the thought of hurting or killing his brother was devastating. No matter what decisions he’d made in the past—even though he’d admitted to killing their dad, and what he was planning right that second—Malcom was his brother. His twin.
“It’s over, bro,” Bubba said softly. “This needs to end now. I’ll help you. Get you the best counsel possible. You weren’t the brains behind this, we both know it. You’ll probably get some jail time, but I’ll do everything in my power to help you make a deal. A few years. That’s it. Put down the gun, Mal.”
“Don’t you listen to him, Malcom,” Tracy bitched. “You killed Colin. There won’t be any deals. And you were the one who hired that pilot. He’s lying to you. You’re the one who’ll go down for this, not me. Kill him now and we can leave tonight! We’ll take the cash in Kenneth’s safe and disappear.”
An engine sounded from outside the house, and Bubba knew Phantom had returned. It had seemed like hours had passed since his brother appeared in the house, but he knew it had probably only been minutes.
“Do it!” Tracy screeched. “Don’t be a pussy and fucking shoot him already! If you don’t, you’re going to jail for the rest of your life!”
Just as Malcom raised the gun once more, Bubba moved.
The knife in his hand sailed through the air and hit its mark dead on.
Even as Malcom was falling to the floor, Bubba turned and took a step toward Tracy.
But he’d been too slow. Zoey had beaten him to the punch.
He lost ten years off his life when he saw Zoey reach for Tracy’s hand—the one holding the knife.
He took a step forward but Zoey was already executing the most perfect self-defense moves he’d ever seen.
As Tracy tried to bring the hand with the knife down to stab her, Zoey kneed her in the crotch as hard as she could. She obviously knew the move worked just as effectively on women as it did on men. Predictably, Tracy immediately hunched over in pain, the knife forgotten, and Zoey then rammed her knee into the older woman’s face.
Tracy fell like a sack of potatoes to the floor, blood pouring from her nose, knocked out.
Zoey pried the knife out of Tracy’s hand and spun as if she was ready to enter any fight going on between Bubba and his brother.
Bubba didn’t have time to be impressed, because when he heard Zoey gasp and look behind him, he turned, ready to defend both himself and Zoey from Malcom.
But he didn’t have to.
The knife he’d thrown into Malcom’s thigh had done what he’d wanted…made Malcom drop to the floor. His brother could’ve started shooting wildly, but he hadn’t.
Instead of training the pistol on Bubba, Malcom was holding it to his own head.
The front door opened, and Bubba knew Phantom would have his back. He didn’t have to worry about Zoey, his teammate would make sure Tracy wasn’t a threat.
“Put down the gun, Mal. We can work this out.”
“No, we can’t. She’s right. I’m going down for this. All of it. As I should.”
“She was the puppet master,” Bubba told him. “We’ll find a good lawyer who will show a jury that you were led astray. I’ll even testify on your behalf.”
“I will too,” Zoey said from behind him.
Love swelled up inside him, but Bubba couldn’t breathe. Not as long as his brother had that gun to his head.
“It’s no good. I killed Pop!” A sob escaped him. “She’s right about that. I could’ve said no. I could’ve stopped her when she came up with the plan to kill you and Zoey. I’m weak. And I’m tired. I’m so fucking tired.”