Page 70 of Fatal Deception
Audra’s gaze didn’t move. The gun didn’t drop. Her finger was curled around the trigger. Karly was on his right side, so his arm couldn’t do much. He could maybe land a kick beforesheshot him, but he didn’t know what the hell Audra’s plans were.
Karly started counting, but Copeland couldn’t pay attention. He was focused on Audra. Her blue eyes were on her target, and they didn’t waver.
She was going to shoot…and whatever happened, well, he’d have to deal with it.
When the gunshot went off, Copeland didn’t even flinch. The gun fell from his temple, exploded loudly near his ear, but he didn’t feel any impact. He turned to Karly.
She’d fallen backward, and she was screaming…though it was muffled to his ears. Her hand was bloody, but even as she shouted and cried, she was trying to reach out for her dropped gun with her left hand.
Copeland scooped it up easily before she did withhisleft hand. Karly was screaming at him, but he couldn’t make out the words. The gunshot had exploded too close to his ear.
Then he felt arms come around him. He couldn’t hold back the groan of pain or stop himself from swaying. Audra held him firm though, and he wrapped his good arm around her.
She was saying something to him, though he couldn’t make it out. But he got the drift when she started searching him for signs of injury or blood maybe.
“I’m okay. I’m not shot. I just took a tumble off Bo. Hurt my arm a bit.” His own words sounded weird and muffled. Audra’s blue eyes were bright with tears, but they didn’t fall. Rosalie appeared, holding a gun pointed at Karly.
Both Rosalie and Audra were saying things, but he couldn’t make out the words, so he just squeezed Audra tighter, trying to ignore the pain. “Gun went off a little close to my ear, so it’s all a bit muffled right now.” Easier to admit that when she looked so worried than that his arm was broken.
“Audra.” He looked at Karly, still writhing on the ground with Rosalie holding her at gunpoint, then at Audra, who only seemed to have eyes for him. He had to tell her. “It was Karly all along. She knew about you guys, this place, and I think… I think your father convinced her it was all your fault you had this and she didn’t.” He spoke in low tones, keeping his good arm tight around her. “She was just trying to frame Austin for it. Down to the fake identity catfishing your mother.”
Audra watched him as he spoke.Dazedwasn’t the right word. She just seemed detached. Or partially detached, because he thought the emotion was starting to break through.
The muffled sound and pain in his ear were starting to ease a little, he thought, when he heard the faint sound of sirens.
It was when the police cruiser and the ambulance crested the rise that Audra began to shake. Then a tear slid onto her cheek.
He squeezed her tight. “Baby, you held that gun steady and shot somebody with about a centimeter of wiggle room. I don’t think you get to fall apart now.”
She pressed her forehead into his shoulder. She was still shaking, but he didn’t know if she was actively crying since she’d hidden her face. “Sure,” she said, her voice squeaky, even to his muffled hearing. “I’ll just keep it together then.”
“You kept it together when it counted.” He pressed a kiss to her temple. “Hell, Audra. I don’t know anyone who could have made that shot. Not a soul. Except you.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Audra gave her statement to Laurel while they loaded Copeland into the ambulance. She allowed herself to be fussed over by Rosalie and Franny, all while Copeland was taken to the hospital.
And she cursed the man when Laurel informed her he was going into surgery for a broken arm. “He knew it was broken,” she told Rosalie darkly back at their kitchen table with cops prowling the property. “He knew it the whole time and didn’t tell me.”
“Well, we’ll go down to the hospital and you can yell at him about it.”
Audra frowned, because she wasn’t going to yell at him. The minute she saw him, she’d probably fall completely apart. His words kept echoing in her head.
I don’t know anyone who could have made that shot. Not a soul. Except you.
Like somehow, it was all meant to be. Like somehow, she shouldn’t feel guilty about asking Copeland for help, about his broken arm he’d got because ofher.
She did, of course, feel guilty and blamed herself, but there was a little inkling deep down that maybe sheshouldn’t.
Still, once the police presence moved out, she let Rosalie drive her to the hospital because she needed to see Copeland. She wouldn’t take a full breath until she did.
It was late by the time they got to the hospital and made their way toward Copeland’s recovery room. Before they reached itthough, they saw Laurel talking to a uniformed police officer outside a hospital room at the front of the hall.
The two stopped talking as Rosalie and Audra walked by.
Rosalie studied them, then the door. “Is it Karly?” she demanded.
Laurel gave them a kind of cop smile. Sympathetic but guarded. “She’s doing just fine. She’ll likely have some permanent damage, since the wrist is a hell of a place to get shot, but she’ll make a full recovery. And then we’ll see about justice.”