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59
Slowly, quietly, Rule Shaker eased the bedroom door open, but Doulos didn’t hear him, he had his back turned and he was holding a gun on Molly. Domino gasped. Rich whipped around. Eve’s gun was raised to his chest. “Hello, Rich. Fancy meeting you here. No, don’t even consider firing at me or my father will shoot you between your eyes.”
Doulos couldn’t believe what he saw, just couldn’t. It made no sense she was here. Eve here at Williard House, in fricking Maine? He stared at his wife, frozen. He couldn’t seem to breathe or think.
“You usually have lots to say, Rich. Nothing this time?” Her gun never wavered. Rich slowly lowered his weapon, thinking furiously. “Eve? Mr. Shaker? What are you doing here? I don’t understand.”
Rule Shaker said, his voice hanging-judge cold, “Rich, drop your weapon now”—he moved his gun toward Domino, standing silent and disbelieving, her back against the wall—“and you drop yours. I’d rather not shoot you.”
Doulos felt light-headed. He slowly sucked in air. He still couldn’t believe all his dreams, his plans, his world, all exploding.
He saw death in Rule Shaker’s eyes. He dropped the gun as Domino leaned down and laid her SIG on the floor.
Sherlock scooped both guns up, kept one pointed at Doulos, stepped back to the bed, and gave the other to Molly.
Molly knew these two were here to help them, but she couldn’t begin to understand how or why. She said slowly, “I hadn’t expected to see you, Mr. Shaker, and you, Eve, but thank you for coming. As you can see, Sherlock and I have been held prisoner here.” She winced, pressed her hand against her side.
Rule said, “What happened to you, Mrs. Hunt? Did this moron shoot you?”
Molly almost smiled. “No, it was another moron named Nero. Well, either him or Domino, it was wild out there in the woods for a while. I’ll be all right. Where’s Ramsey?”
Shaker said, “Savich, Ramsey, and Mason are a bit behind us. They flew out from Las Vegas after we did. I sent your father a text so they knew where to come. Are you sure you’re all right?”
Molly couldn’t believe it. Everything seemed sideways and backward, but who cared? Both Rule Shaker and Eve had come to save her and Sherlock? Molly shot a big smile to the man she’d considered an enemy for many years, jerked her head toward Doulos. “Yes, no thanks to this clown. I’m wounded in my side, but I’ll survive. Thank you both for coming. How did you find us?”
Eve sent a frigid smile to her husband. “Easy, really. My dear husband was supposedly at our home in Palm Beach. When he didn’t answer his phone, I called my housekeeper. She told us where he was headed.”
Rich couldn’t believe it. Words spurted out of his mouth. “No, that’s impossible. Dorothea didn’t know, I didn’t tell her.”
Eve laughed at him. “You’re so smart, you left Williard House written on a piece of paper in your desk. You should know Dorothea is loyal to me, not you. She would have looked in your underwear drawer if she’d had to.” She turned away from him or she might shoot him. “We heard the recording he wanted you to read, Molly. I have to say it shows thought on his part, threatening and vague at the same time, but still clear enough to point squarely at my father.” She turned back to Doulos. “Do you think it would really work, Rich? With my father?”
Shaker’s voice was emotionless. “She’s right, Rich. It amazes me you could think for even a minute Mason Lord and I would believe that drivel. Then again, you don’t know either of us. Not very bright, are you, Rich? A man shouldn’t act before he has all the necessary intel and what did you have? Nothing but a six-year-old story Eve told you. Did you really believe we were stuck in the past?”
Rich took a tentative step toward his wife, his hand out, his voice earnest. “Eve, listen to me, please. You have to believe me. I did this for you, for us. I didn’t want you living under the threat of all that evidence against you. You know Mrs. Hunt could release it at any time and send you to prison. All I wanted to do was get it back and I would have. Sure, it was dangerous, but it was nearly done when you came in. Let me continue. We can continue. You can be free of her and the threat.”
Eve could only laugh at this man she’d believed she loved. She looked him up and down. “What a fool I was. You seemed so charming, Rich, and fun. You seemed to admire me, then to love me. And you were ambitious; I saw that and I in turn admired you for it. I actually came to trust you. What a shock to discover I was your mark, nothing more. Imagine, Dad, this worm says he did it all for me. And Rich, this girl, she’s your mistress, isn’t she?”
He shook his head, his voice frantic. “No, she’s my employee, she means nothing to me.”
“Rich!”
Sherlock said, “Sorry, Richie, you really are a crappy liar.”
He whirled around to Sherlock. If he’d had a gun, he would have shot her. “Shut up, you bitch! You don’t know anything!”
Eve said to Domino, who looked white and scared and was staring dumbly at Doulos, “I recognize you. I remember you were at Rich’s club. I wonder what he promised you. Didn’t you realize he was a born liar after he married me?”
Domino shot a look at Rich, slowly shook her head. “No, I believed him. If I’d been rich like you, he would have married me.”
“Possible. He played both of us for fools.”
Molly said, “Eve, you heard what he wanted me to record to send to your father. And then—you won’t believe this—he swore he’d let Sherlock and me go free. As if we didn’t have a brain. If you and your dad hadn’t come, I’m certain he would have killed us.”
Doulos was shaking his head, his voice frantic. “Sure, I had to threaten them, Eve, but I’m not a murderer, you have to believe me. I love you, sweetheart. Please, I would have explained everything to you. We can run the casinos together, you and I, partners in business and in life. Your dad’s going to retire soon, right? To his villa in Sicily. You and I can visit him there, we can—”
Eve walked over to her husband, smashed her fist into his jaw, and brought her knee up hard into his groin. He groaned, cupped himself, and slid to the floor in the fetal position. She kicked him in the ribs. “Are we going to kill him, Dad?”
“The little shite isn’t worth it, Eve. And there’d be too many complications.” He looked down at his watch. “We’ll leave them both to Savich. He, Ramsey, and Mason should be very soon now.”
Semiautomatic rifle fire sounded fast and obscenely loud from inside the house. On and on it went, as if the shooter was spraying a wide arc. Dillon and the others were in the house. Sherlock ran toward the bedroom door.
Rich Doulos saw Rule look away from him. He pulled his knife out of his belt sheath, aimed it at Eve, but Rule was fast, he fired first. Doulos yelled, grabbed his arm, and the knife clattered across the floor.
