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“Neither did you,” Armond said on breath that dragged with fatigue. “Neither did you.”
Vanessa moaned and tugged at her restraints. Waving his gun in the air, Sherwood marched over to her chair and lifted her up. “Let’s let your wife tell the real story, so we’ll all understand why I had to do what I did. Let her explain this whole bizarre twist in our circumstances.”
Vanessa shook her head, pulling back as if she was going to her execution. And maybe she was. Maybe they all were.
Josie shifted her gaze back to Connor. He shook his head, shock brightening his eyes. How had he not known that the man he’d tried to put away was his own father?
Sherwood ripped the tape off Vanessa’s mouth, causing Lou to lift up out of his chair and do a bull run toward the agent.
Sherwood pushed Vanessa to the floor and turned at the same instant Lou butted his head against Sherwood’s chest. Sherwood’s gun went off and Lou collapsed in a heap by Vanessa. She screamed and fell over her bleeding son.
“You’ve killed him,” she shouted at Sherwood. “You’ve killed the wrong son, you idiot.” The hatred in her dark eyes seared through the cloying humidity. She dragged herself up and started hitting at Sherwood.
Connor came out of his stupor and went into action. He rammed one of the big guards in the stomach and snatched the man’s rifle, then slammed it against the giant’s head. The man went down with a moan.
Josie saw that distraction and made her own by knocking her chair over so she could do a roll toward the now-confused other guard. He barreled toward Connor, but she leveled her body near his feet, causing him to trip and fall over her. When his handgun clattered to the floor, Josie grabbed it with her tied hands and held it near his head.
“Don’t move,” she said, her breath rasping with each word.
“You won’t shoot me, lady,” the big guy said on a smooth note.
“No, but they will.” She motioned to the two even-bigger men who’d rushed through the door.
Mama Joe’s men.
Her doubtful hostage glanced over his shoulder and let out a long sigh.
Josie kept the gun on him. “Now untie me before I decide I will shoot you just to prove a point.”
He did as she asked and soon she was free. In the next few seconds, Mama Joe’s men had secured the room and more of them had converged on the group to settle everyone back down. Two of them held Sherwood away from the still-screaming Vanessa Armond.
“It’s over,” Connor shouted to Sherwood, taking the pistol Big Toby handed him so he could hold it on Sherwood. “It’s all over.”
Sherwood shook his head and laughed. “You just think it’s over. For once in his life, Armond told the truth. You are his son.”
Josie came to stand beside Connor. “One of you had better tell me the truth, because I’m going to call the New Orleans Police Department and have you all hauled in.”
Connor grabbed her and pulled her close. “Josie, I didn’t know. I don’t believe him,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s impossible.”
“No, it’s not,” Vanessa said, her energy spent. She tugged past the posse and came to stand by Armond’s bed. “It’s a long story, but you need to hear it.” She glanced down at Armond and their eyes met. “But first, can we please get my husband to a hospital?” Then she glanced back at where Lou lay in a pool of blood. “And...take my son’s body away, please.”
* * *
Two hours later, Josie sat spent and shocked in a conference room at the FBI building in New Orleans. She’d just been through one of the hardest hours of her life, having to explain why she’d brought their boss in wearing handcuffs, his face scratched and dirty, his gaze fevered with a certain rage that would never go away.
She wasn’t sure she could do this job anymore.
The door opened and Connor came in with another agent and Vanessa Armond.
He sat down beside Josie, his demeanor shell-shocked, his mood somber.
“Okay, she’s ready to talk,” Agent Benton said in an I’ve-heard-it-all-now voice. His sharp-edged crew cut matched the set of his stubborn jaw and near-black eyes.
