Page 120 of Day Break

“No,” Derrick answered. “I killed him because I’d been following him for a while. He met with Rod on several occasions. Then one day, after he collapsed on the beach, I watched as he met Rod at the bank. I’d heard Rod bragging to you at the diner about how he’d found something of ours. I knew instantly what it was. So I followed the two of them when they went into the bank and when they came out, our dear old grandfather was crying. I knew he had the proof. I followed him home, and he confessed to me that he had proof and my ring. I knew he must have found Sherry’s diary. He said the proof was all locked up in the safety deposit box. He swore that I would never get my hands on it and even tried to pull the whole “if anything happens to him or either of you two, that the police would get their hands on it” bullshit. But I’m too smart for those tricks. I hit him over the head with my gun. I thought about shooting him, but he was already dead. I guess I hit him too hard. Then I went over to Rod’s place and shot him in the head as he worked on his truck. Dumped his body in the same damn pond we dumped Sherry in. Course, they haven’t found him yet,” he added with a chuckle. “When they do, they’ll see the note we left in his pocket where he confessed to killing Sherry all those years ago. How he had faked his alibi and after all these years just couldn’t take the guilt and had shot himself.”

“Enough,” Phillip barked, straightening up. “Like we said, we saw you two going into the bank earlier today. The old man gave everything in the safety box to your whore, so where is the ring and the diary?”

I growled at the name they called Chloe, but held still, since the gun was still trained on me. At this distance, I doubted even Phillip would miss.

On the beach it had been dark, but here, under the lights of the kitchen, I knew he wouldn’t just graze me.

“Do you really think you can waltz in here, get the evidence, then what? Kill us?” I laughed, causing Phillip to point the gun at my head again.

“We did it before,” Derrick pointed out.

“And I’m so surprised that you two idiots were able to bungle your way through it and not get caught. This time, though, there’s so much evidence.” I pointed to Derrick’s bloody chin, Phil’s fat lip and black eye. “There’s no way you’re going free this time.”

“We will clean up after and explain it away. Everyone always knows we’re always fighting each other.” Phillip motioned between him and Derrick. “Where is the diary?”

In the next moment, I watched in horror as a tan-colored furry blob rushed through the back door and latch onto Phillips hand, the one holding the gun.

Byron’s teeth sank deep into my cousin’s arm, causing him to howl with pain as blood splattered everywhere.

A gunshot echoed in the kitchen, and the glass door shattered into pieces.

“Police!” several people shouted. “Drop the weapon and get down on the ground.”

Seconds later, Derrick’s body hit the ground. I watched for a moment as he writhed violently, his eyes rolling into his head. There were two taser prongs sticking out of his chest.

Phillip ignored the warnings and continued to try to fight Byron off. The dog was refusing to release Phillip’s arm and was emitting a low growl. He sounded satisfied.

“Byron!” Chloe yelled as more officers stormed in the room from all directions.

The dog released my cousin’s arm and rushed over to Chloe, who hugged him to her chest for a moment. Then they both crawled towards me.

“Lane?” she cried and held onto me. “They killed them.”

I held her, feeling extremely light-headed. Now that both of my cousins were lying face down on the dining room floor, being cuffed and read their rights, I finally felt all the aches.

When they rolled Derrick over, I noticed he’d soiled himself. For some reason, that made me smile, then laugh.

“Lane?” Chloe cried again as I started to tilt sideways and pass out.

For the third time that night, I woke up to a mixture of light and darkness above me. Then Chloe’s face appeared as memories of what had just happened flooded in.

“Hey,” I said softly.

“Hey.” She smiled. “We’re on our way to the hospital. They let me ride in the back with you.”

“Cool.” I nodded.

“It’s the second time I’ve been in an ambulance,” she pointed out with a grin.

“Cool,” I said again, making her smile even more. “Byron?” I asked.

“He’s getting checked out. Did you know that our neighbor is a veterinarian?”

“No, that’s cool. Think you could lean down here and kiss me?”

Chloe looked up and then smiled when the EMT nodded. When she brushed her lips across mine, I knew everything would be okay.

“You’re my everything,” I said, closing my eyes. “When we get out of here, I want to take a trip south with you. You’ve mentioned a few times that you wanted to go to Napa.” When she was quiet, I opened my eyes. “Will you go to Napa with me?”