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Gun lifted to eye level with both hands, I cautiously entered and found my nephew covered in blood.A woman was strapped to the table, blood dripping from every corner, like a leaky faucet.Jack stood at her feet, his breathing even, his eyes hypervigilant on the woman before him.Her blood was splattered over his shirt and arms; it was in his hair and across his face.
His green eyes looked wild, feral, as he twirled the knife around his fingers while the pale woman on the table watched with pain and horror on her face.If I didn’t already know she was Deborah, I wouldn’t have been able to guess her identity.
“Jack, you should have called me if you had a situation,” I gently scolded.
“I had to make sure the one who hurt Nishia was taken care of.She still denies it was her.”
Guilt swam in my gut.I’d taken care of Amy, even though my instinct was that she’d been innocent.If Deborah hadn’t broken after the obvious torture she’d been put through, then perhaps she was innocent too.
“Jack, maybe you got it wrong.”
“No,” he denied, shaking his head, causing a little hair to come loose from the bun he typically kept it in.“It was her.”
“But maybe it wasn’t,” I soothed, taking a step closer to the table.“Let me help you.I’ll talk to her.Clear this all up, yeah?”
“No.”His breathing increased, his chest almost heaving.“No, it was her.”
Slowly, I lowered my gun and then tucked into the back of my jeans.He wasn’t a danger to anyone but Deborah.For now.As if I was approaching a rabid animal, I crossed to the side of the table.It was stupid to move toward anything that had rabies, but he was my flesh and blood.Even if he was caught up in his own twisted head, I wasn’t going to abandon him.
Putting my hands on the table, I leaned over the nurse.“Hello, Deborah,” I greeted in a low voice, smiling down at her as if we’d just bumped into each other at Aggie’s.“How have you been?”
“H-he’s insane!”she cried.“He… He…”
“Oh, don’t worry about him,” I laughed.“He’s just got a little too much Hannigan blood in his veins.Too much like his father.”I considered it for a moment.My heart hurt as I thought about Uncle Jack.Fuck, I still missed that old man so damn much.I barely remembered my dad, but Uncle Jack had always been around.Loving and protecting me like his own.“And his great-grandfather.Those two combinations are apparently lethal.”
Her eyes darkened.“He’s nothing like Hawk,” she spat.
My grin only grew.“Oh.Okay, then.I guess I should have had my eyes open sooner, huh?”Taking a step back, I grabbed a knife out of the butcher block that already had several missing.Leaning down again, I caressed the tip over her nose teasingly.“Someone has a crush,” I singsonged playfully.
Her eyes began to glitter with a madness not unlike what was in Jack’s eyes.Only hers weren’t nearly as wild.I let the blade slide over her cheek.“Aww, that’s so cute, Deborah.When did you fall for my brother?”
“He loved me too!”she seethed, growing bold even though her blood was still audibly dripping on the floor.“If that bitch hadn’t pretended to be a damsel in distress, we would have been together.”
I cocked my head at Jack.“She’s really mouthy all of a sudden, huh?”
He nodded, but his wild eyes were on me now instead of his prey.I winked and turned back to poor little Deborah.“Gracie stole Hawk away from you, didn’t she?”
“Fucking cunt played the part of sweet little innocent too well.She tricked him, made him feel sorry for her.When all along, she was just playing him so she could worm her way into her grandfather’s life.”She huffed.“Next thing you know, she was knocked up with that bastard, and Hawk had to marry her to keep Trigger from killing him.”
My amusement at her delusion bubbled up, and I laughed in her face.“You’ve been playing the long game, always in the background, panting for Hawk to notice you and leave his wife?”
“Yes,” she hissed.
“How did you connect with Clint Morgan?”
She grimaced.“I met him at Pepper’s.”
“The bar near the mall?”
“I stopped for a drink, and he was there.”
That told me he’d been watching who came and went from the shelter.He knew who she was before he approached her.“Why did the guys who dumped Nishia think you were Amy?”
She gave me a grin that chilled me more than the crazy I’d seen in my nephew’s eyes.“Because I knew someone would question them, and I didn’t want them to give my name before they were gutted like fish.”
“Smart,” I praised, and her eyes glowed brighter.“What does Morgan want?”
“He was going to take Gracie out of the equation.His plan was to let Nishia get comfortable and then lure Gracie out.His plan was thrown off when Jack took a shine to her, but it only helped her settle in more.And Gracie is smitten with her potential daughter-in-law.I told Clint to wait a little longer, and then they would probably be wedding dress shopping together.”
