Chapter 6 - THE ECHOES OF THE SHOT The thick leather book hit Marcus squarely in the jaw.
The gun went off with a deafening crack.
Nico tackled Bianca to the ground just as the bullet shattered the tile where she had been standing. Dust and ceramic shards exploded into the air.
I didn’t wait for Marcus to recover. I scrambled backward, grabbing a heavy brass pool hook from the wall.
Marcus stumbled, blood leaking from a split lip where the ledger had caught him. He raised the gun again, his eyes locking onto me with pure, unadulterated hatred.
“You’re just a maid,” he snarled. “You should have just taken the money from the laundry room and gotten fired quietly.”
He pulled the trigger.
Click.
The gun jammed.
Before he could clear the chamber, Nico was on his feet. The older man moved with a speed and ferocity I hadn't expected. He slammed into Marcus, driving him backward through the glass door of the pool house.
They crashed onto the patio in a tangle of limbs and shattered glass.
I rushed to Bianca, who was curled on the floor, hyperventilating. I grabbed her by the shoulders and hauled her up.
“Move!” I yelled. “Get to the main house. Call the police!”
For the first time in two years, Bianca didn’t look at me with disdain. She looked at me with desperate gratitude. She nodded and sprinted out the back door toward the mansion.
I ran out onto the patio.
Nico was on the ground. Marcus was standing over him, holding a jagged piece of broken glass.
“Your time is up, old man,” Marcus hissed, raising the glass.
I swung the heavy brass pool hook with everything I had. It connected with the back of Marcus’s knees.
He buckled with a roar of pain, dropping the glass.
I stood over him, breathing heavily, the brass hook raised again. “Don’t move.”
Sirens began to wail in the distance, growing louder by the second. Bianca had made the call.
Nico sat up slowly, clutching his ribs. He looked at me, then down at the man he had trusted with his life for a decade.
“It’s over, Marcus,” Nico gasped.
Marcus just laughed, a wet, ugly sound. “Is it? Do you really think Lily is safe at Juniper House right now? I didn’t come here alone tonight.”
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My blood ran cold.
If Marcus was here... who was at the hospital?
