Tanner glanced at Leon and they both jammed their shoulders as hard as they could into the door. It finally moved enough for Tanner to slip inside.
He immediately saw what was blocking their entrance.
A woman’s body.
Tanner pulled the body away from the door so Leon and Bree could enter behind him. A wall had been raised inside the shed, creating a narrow hallway. He felt the wrist of the woman on the ground.
“No pulse.” As soon as he flipped her over, he saw why she didn’t have a pulse.
She’d shot herself in the head. The gun was still in her hand.
“We got a body. Looks like a suicide.”
Leon nodded and moved farther inside the shed, weapon still raised.
They all heard a strangled scream from behind the wall. Tanner dropped the dead woman’s wrist and both he and Leon sprinted toward the small door at the end of the hall, Bree right behind them.
Once inside they all immediately recognized the scene from the footage. They’d found the fourth victim.
And the woman was drowning.
They all rushed over, Tanner scooping his hand under the woman’s head to help her sit up as far as possible, Bree and Leon using their arms to splash out water as quickly as they could in huge strokes.
When the woman finally coughed out the water she’d swallowed and was able to take a breath, they all relaxed a little bit, although Bree and Leon kept shoveling the water out. Tanner reached in his pocket and grabbed his phone, calling 9-1-1 to let them know they needed an ambulance at this address. Then he took over shoveling water so Leon could call Penelope and give an update.
Bree was talking to the woman, wiping her hair back from her face, reassuring her it was going to be okay. It was Betty Neighbors, the woman from Waco.
He met Bree’s eyes over Betty’s face. Bree had done it. She’d done the impossible: saved all four victims.
Chapter Twenty
As soon as the paramedics and uniformed officers showed up and took over to help Leon, Tanner got Bree out of there. They had done their part. Bree had very definitely done hers, even under the most trying of circumstances.
Suspect four, Kelly Braun, had killed herself. Maybe she’d realized there was no way she wouldn’t be going to jail or was distraught to have been used by Rory Gresham. They were all just thankful she’d sent that one last message in the private chat room Bree could trace or they never would’ve found Betty Neighbors in time.
The rest of the case would be handled by Penelope and Leon. Bree and Tanner might have to come back and testify for the trials, but the work was done for them.
By the time the rest of the team arrived, Bree was swaying on her feet. Now that the action was over, her body was shutting down. Tanner let Leon know he was leaving and immediately took Bree back to the hotel.
She was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
Tanner got them booked on a flight home for much later that evening. He wanted to get her out of here, back to Risk Peak where she belonged—where theybothbelonged—but had something he needed to do first.
Check on Michael Jeter himself. See for himself that it was, in fact, Jeter in that hospital. Make sure everyone surrounding him was truly aware of the danger he posed, not just to Bree but the world in general. Even injured, he was dangerous.
Tanner needed to see Jeter with his own eyes. He’d been there when Jeter had been arrested, but things between Tanner and Bree had been tentative then.
They weren’t tentative now. Tanner was about to ask Bree to marry him. To be his forever.
He looked down at her asleep next to him from where he sat on the bed. He stood and walked over to his jacket and took out his mom’s ring. Soon to be Bree’s ring. He slid open the box and looked at it.
It didn’t belong in his pocket anymore. It belonged on her finger. Noah had been right all along, he’d been overthinking it. The important part wasn’t in the how or where Tanner asked her to be his bride, not for Bree.
The important part was that she understood that there was nothing in this world that could tear him away from her. That no matter what decisions they had to make—they would figure it out.
Together.
Michael Jeter also needed to understand that. That Bree was no longer alone. Would no longer need to run. Would no longer face any challenges that came her way with no backup.
