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Tate moved toward the podium.
“Tate!” It was impossible for her to be heard over the blaring band. At the sight of their hero, the crowd had gone mad. “Oh, God, no. Let me through. Let me through.”
A blast of adrenalin strengthened Avery’s flagging energy and rubbery legs. With no regard to courtesy, she kicked and clawed her way forward, batting aside drifting balloons.
Jack finally caught up with her. “Carole,” he panted, “what do you mean Tate’s life is in danger?”
“Help me get to him. Jack, For God’s sake, help me.” He did what he could to create a furrow through the crowd. When she saw a space opening up in front of her, she jumped into the air and frantically waved her arms. “Tate! Tate!”
Gray Hair!
He was standing near the edge of the dais, partially hidden behind a Texas state flag.
“No!” she screamed. “Tate!”
Jack gave her a boost from behind. She stumbled up the steps, almost fell, caught herself. “Tate!”
Hearing her cry, he turned, wearing his glorious smile, and extended his hand. She rushed across the platform, but not toward Tate.
Her eyes were fixed on his enemy. And his were on her. And the sudden realization that she knew about him caused his eyes to crystallize.
As though in slow motion, Avery saw Eddy reach into his jacket. Her lips formed the word, but she didn’t know that she actually screamed “No!” as he withdrew the pistol and took aim at the back of Tate’s head.
Avery lunged for Tate and knocked him aside. A millisecond later, Eddy’s bullet slammed into her, throwing her into Tate’s unsuspecting arms.
She heard the screams, heard Tate’s bellowing denial that this was happening, saw Jack’s and Dorothy Rae’s and Fancy’s blank expressions of horror and incredulity.
Her eyes
connected with Nelson Rutledge’s the same instant Eddy’s second bullet struck him in the forehead. It made a neat hole, but its rear exit was messy. Zee was showered with blood. She screamed.
Nelson’s face registered surprise, then anger, then outrage. That was his death mask. He was dead before he hit the floor.
Eddy leaped from the dais into the crowd of hysterical spectators. The Lone Star flag fluttered. A man stepped from behind it and fired his previously concealed weapon. Eddy Paschal’s head exploded upon impact.
It was Zee’s voice that Avery heard from afar.
“Bryan! My God. Bryan!”
Fifty
“I thought it would be best if we all met together like this, so I could clarify everything to everyone at once.”
FBI Special Agent Bryan Tate addressed the somber group assembled in Avery Daniels’s hospital room. Her bed had been elevated so that she was partially sitting up. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying. A bandage covered her left shoulder; her arm was in a sling.
The others—Jack and his family, Zee and Tate—were sitting in the available chairs or leaning against the walls and windowsills. All kept a wary distance from Avery’s bed. Since Tate had disclosed her true identity to them, she had become an object of curiosity. After the tragic events of the night before, Mandy had been taken to the ranch and left in Mona’s care.
“All of you experienced what happened,” Bryan Tate said, “but you don’t know the reasons for it. They’re not easy to talk about.”
“Tell them everything, Bryan,” Zee said softly. “Don’t leave out anything on my account. I want them, need them, to understand.”
Tall and distinguished, he was standing beside her chair, a hand on her shoulder. “Zee and I fell in love years ago,” he stated bluntly. “It was something neither of us predicted or wanted, particularly. We didn’t set out to make it happen. It was wrong, but it was powerful. We eventually surrendered to it.” His fingers flexed on her shoulder. “The consequences were far-reaching. They culminated in tragedy last night.”
He told them how he had returned home from Korea a few months ahead of his buddy Nelson. “At his request, I checked on Zee periodically,” he said. “By the time Nelson got home, the relationship between Zee and me had grown way beyond friendship or simple mutual attraction. We knew we loved each other and would have to hurt Nelson.”
“I also knew I was pregnant,” Zee said, reaching up to cover Bryan’s hand with her own. “Pregnant with you, Tate. I told Nelson the unvarnished truth. He remained calm, but laid down an ultimatum. If I went with my lover and his bastard child, I would never see Jack again.”
Tears welled in her eyes as she smiled at her older son. “Jack, you were still a toddler. I loved you, something Nelson knew very well and used to his advantage. When I vowed never to see Bryan again, he said he forgave me and promised to rear Tate as his son.”
