Page 67 of Fatal Deception
“Where’s Copeland? We’ve got something we want him to look in to.”
Duncan stilled in the middle of moving toward Rosalie. He looked at Audra, blinked, and that feeling of dread in the pit of Audra’s stomach dug deeper.
“He didn’t come back?” Duncan replied, clearly confused.
Audra refused to panic. She absolutely could not let herself panic. She kept the placid smile on her face. Maybe he’d just been tired of chores, of having too many people in the house. Maybe he’d simply gone into Bent towork.
She didn’t want to believe those things, but worse, she couldn’t. He wouldn’t have left without telling her, no matter the circumstances.
“I haven’t seen him since you two left this morning,” Audra said, choosing her words very carefully.
Duncan looked behind him at the door they’d left through. “He was just supposed to finish up some things while I went over to my parents’. He was going to come in for lunch.”
“Lunch.” That was at least two hours ago.
All eyes turned to her.
“Call Laurel,” she said, very calmly, because she felt like there were two versions of herself right now. One that had flown off into the terror stratosphere, and one right here, who needed to handle the reality of whatever this was. “Tell her what we found, Franny. Tell her Copeland is missing. The cops will take it from there.”
Franny scrambled for the phone on the wall, but Audra didn’t stick around to listen to what she’d relay to the police.
“What are you going to do, Audra?” Rosalie asked, following at her heels as she moved to the back of the house, where her rifle safe was. Calmly and quickly, she turned the dial to unlock the safe.
“You can’t go searching for him if you actually think he’s in danger,” Rosalie said sternly. “What happened to letting the cops handle it?”
Audra said nothing. She calmly pulled her favorite gun from the safe, then a box of bullets.
“You can’t go out there, Audra. Do you hear me?”
Only once she had calmly loaded the chamber did she look at her sister. “I can. I will. I am. You can either bring your gun and join me, or you can stay here.”
COPELAND HAD TOblink against the roiling sense of nausea. He was glad he hadn’t passed out when he sat up, but he didn’t really know the medical risks of a broken bone that wasn’t seen to right away.
Of course, he had more pressing concerns. Karly Young pointing a gun at him chief among them.
“Put the gun down,” she said, very calmly.
It was the calm that worried him. Calm meant…in control. It meant…planned. It meant, she knew what she was doing, and it’d be harder to talk her out of whatever she was trying to accomplish.
And it made it very hard to relinquish his one chance at stopping whatever this would be. Not that he could use his right hand toshootthe gun, but still.
“Stand up and move away from the gun. If you don’t, the next bullet will hit its target.”
“Aren’t you going to kill me anyway?” Copeland asked, unwilling to let the grip on his lifeline go just yet. “Since I know you’re behind everything now. And you’re holding a gun on me.”
Karly seemed to give this some thought, eyebrows beetled together as she surveyed him. “I didn’t want to hurt anyone,” she said, still far too calm for comfort. “I just wanted what was mine. I am just taking back whatismine.” She started to move closer, the aim of her gun squarely on his chest the entire time. “She could have just left,” Karly mumbled, maybe more toherself than him. “She should have just left. It’s on her now. Her fault. All her fault.”
“Audra?” He almost couldn’t believe what she was saying. “She… She reached out to you. She thinks of you as a sister. I watched her try to talk to you, bekindto you.”
Karly scoffed. “You believe that? You’re a sucker.”
For several seconds, Copeland could only stare. He’d dealt with people who refused to engage in reality plenty, but this… It didn’t make any sense. But he was starting to realize, it wouldn’t. Because Karly… She wasn’t dealing in reality, and she wasn’t calm or collected any longer.
“I know what they are. I know whatsheis.” Karly stood next to him now. He could see her chest rise and fall in exaggerated puffs. He could feel the anxious, vibrating anger coming off her. He could see theintent, and the wild desperation behind it, now that she was close.
Copeland didn’t want to relinquish his grip on the gun, but with the broken arm, he wouldn’t get a shot off aimed properly or in time anyway.
“You don’t think my father told me exactly what she is?” Karly demanded. She kicked out, her heavy boot meeting both Copeland’s hand and the gun. The gun went flying. New pain shot up Copeland’s uninjured arm and he fell back, unable to brace his fall with his broken arm.