Page 68 of Fatal Deception
He laid there in the grass, feeling like a chump. He was a cop, damn it, and this unstable woman, who was trying to paintAudra, of all people, as some kind of villain, was winning.
He couldn’t let that happen. Unable to bite back a groan of pain, he managed to sit up again. He was sweating despite the freezing temperatures, his teeth chattering now as the pain seemed to come in strange waves that were both numb and excruciating. But he met Karly’s wild gaze with a calm one.
“I think you’ve got a lot of facts mistaken, Karly. But I think we can clear it up. If you put the gun down, if you stop trying to scare Audra…”
“You’re right. I need to stop scaring.” Karly was nodding now, swallowing as her eyes filled with tears. “I need to starthurting. The way she hurt my father.”
Copeland had been in dangerous situations before, and he knew how to keep his calm. He held her gaze, and spoke low and firm. “Audra didn’t do anything to your father.”
“He was trapped by them!” Karly yelled. “Trapped. She was always keeping him here. It washer. It’s all their fault. Everything he did. Every promise that didn’t come true. It wastheir fault.”
She’d known. Before Tim Young’s death, she’d known about Audra and Rosalie and she…blamed them. And if Copeland wasn’t mistaken, Tim Young had leaned into that blame. Let it fester there in his child.
Copeland didn’t know how to work around that. Clearly, Karly believed it wholeheartedly, so trying to convince her otherwise wasn’t going to get him anywhere.
“What about your brother?”
Karly’s scowl dug deeper, but Copeland’s gaze was on her other hand coming up to steady the dominant one pointing a gun at him. “Austin wassupposedto stay put. He wassupposedto take the fall. A little connection toher, and you would have picked him up in Idaho. You thinkhewas smart enough to create a persona and fool that woman?”
Karly shook her head. For a second, the gun came down a little and Copeland thought if she took one more step toward him, he could use his own legs to kick out, to catch her off guard.
“What woman?”
Karly looked at him like he was somehow completely brain-dead. “You’re supposed to be a detective? Thatwoman. I won’tspeak her name. But her connection to Austin’s fake identity was supposed to lead you tohim. She fell for it. Hook, line and sinker. Of course she did. But Austin didn’t stay put. He wouldn’tlistento what needed to be done. He didn’t care about our legacy. Spoiled, spoiled,spoiled.”
She was all but shrieking now, and she sucked in a breath. Clearly trying to center herself. The gun came back up steadily, and was aimed at his chest. “I didn’t want to hurt anyone, but you all are making me.”
“I’m not making you do anything, Karly,” Copeland replied, keeping his voice calm as he tried to inch closer to her without her reading anything into it. As he tried to make sense of what she’d just told him. Karly was behind making Austin the internet boyfriend of Audra’s mother? This wasn’t just…scaring or grudges. It was full-on insanity.
So he had to keep his cool, his calm. He held Karly’s wild gaze. “I just went on a horseback ride, Karly.”
“You looked in to me. Not him. You keptpokingin tome, not him!”
“I investigated both of you.”
She curled her finger around the trigger, and Copeland stilled his movement forward. Close range, that bullet was going to end him in less than a second.
He couldn’t let that happen.
“She’ll come looking for you,” Karly said to herself. “I bet she will. And then… I’ll just have to kill all of you. I’ll just have to. I don’t want to, but I have to. It’s mine, and it’ll never really be mine if I don’t kill you.”
The poor woman was crying now. Copeland had been in a lot of messed-up situations, but he’d certainly never felt a modicum of pity for the person holding a gun on him.
But he did now, and it made it difficult to go after her the way he knew would save his life. “Karly, the wires got crossedsomewhere.” He got onto his knees, carefully, watching for any indication she might shoot. “But if we take this step by step, we can uncross them.” He managed to get to his feet, even though the pain threw off his balance. He held his hands in the air, a sign of surrender, even though he wasn’t surrendering. “And no one has to get hurt. I promise you. No one has to get hurt.”
Karly stared at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. “You believe that,” she said, almost like it was a revelation. But then she shook her head. “What a shame you believe that.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Audra didn’t bother to wait and see if Rosalie was keeping up. She had one mission. Get to the back side of the property.
She was certain that was where Copeland was. He was either digging into things alone, in which case she might shoot him herself. Or he was…
She threw thatoraway. Let the terrified version of her deal with it. Right now, there was only getting to him and figuring out what was what.
The answer came before she reached the back of the property. She heard the pounding of hooves, looked over to one of the pastures, where Bo was running in a kind of endless circle.
Bo. The horse Copeland took when he rode with her. Audra swallowed. She wanted to run, but that would only scare Bo even more. She approached, in careful steady strides, speaking in low, calming tones.