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THE GIRL LOVED HIM. Clive could hear the desperation in her tone as Masterson just kept walking. Stupid of the boy. You never walked toward an armed gunman like that, even if you had a weapon of your own. No matter what the incentive was.
Clive had to admit, a woman you loved in trouble was damned fine incentive though.
He would have walked over hot coals for Maria.
Too bad he had been stupid enough to not realize how he felt about her until it was too late.
“You might want to listen to your girlfriend. I could kill you right now, then toss her right over the edge.”
He never would. He wasn’t going to hurt this girl. He had never had any intention of hurting her or her sisters. Not even those nights when he’d have a bit of fun with her alongside the highway.
It had always just been something to do to feel like he was doing something to help his boy. To protect him.
That twin of hers could have caused some serious trouble for Jay if she’d spoken up four years ago. It would have been much worse for his boy then.
Maybe he’d gone too far. Protected his boy too much.
Hell, maybe if he was still in jail for attacking that twin, Jay would still be alive.
Maybe what had happened would never have happened. Maybe things would be so much different then.
A helicopter soared overhead, drowning out the sound of himself thinking. Another was in the distance. No doubt from the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
Clint would no doubt have heard what was going on by now.
Clive’s hand tightened on the girl. She was the only thing keeping those damned kids in the helicopter from putting a bullet in him, he suspected.
He yanked her closer and took another step backward.
The road gave way beneath him.
His hands tightened on her—and on the gun.
The girl crumbled against him, her eyes wide now and filled with pain unlike any he’d seen in a long while—almost before the sound of the gun discharging reached his ears.
He gained his footing on the wet grass and gravel.
The boyfriend yelled her name.
Rushed toward her, not even caring that Clive had the gun.
That Clive could shoot him, too.
He’d shot her. Clive had really shot her.
He’d never forget the sight of those blue, blue eyes staring up at him. His hand was covered with her blood.
She wasn’t making a single sound. Not that he could hear, anyway. Over the rush of his own adrenalin and the damned chopper overhead. Of the boyfriend cursing and trying to take her from him.
All Clive had to do was take the gun and shoot that sonofabitch, too.
End it for them all.
End it for Clint. Then they couldn’t cause problems for his stepson, that way.
At least he could do that much good.
Sirens were coming. He could see them, maybe. He wasn’t so sure. Could hear them. Or was he just imagining them?
Masterson grabbed Clive’s gun and yanked it free. He tossed it over the guardrail and down the drop-off. Then he took the girl in his arms.
Bold move on his part. But Clive understood.
Masterson didn’t care if he lived or died now. Just that she did.
That all of that life didn’t leave this world, too.
Because of him.
Hands were there, yanking him away from the girl.
Someone rammed his fist into Clive’s face.
He just stood there and looked into the face of the patrolman in front of him.
Clint.
Fitting that his stepson was there to see the end of him.
Things had a way of working out the way they were supposed to.
Clive took another step toward the edge, the only thought in his head now of ending it for everyone. Making things easy on the girl, Masterson. Clint. The one person he had left. Clint and the baby.
He should have at least held that baby once.
Another step toward the edge.
“Oh no, you don’t!” Hard hands yanked him away from the guardrail one more time. Cuffs slapped onto his wrists, and he was secured. Good police procedure.
His first boy always had been the smartest of the Gunderson men. At least Clint would have a better life than Jay. Especially now that Clive wasn’t going to be around to mess it all up. He looked at Paula’s son, at his son, in every way that counted. “I’m sorry, son. I really don’t know what happened.”
Clint didn’t say another word.
He shoved Clive to his knees as Masterson did what he could to keep Perci alive long enough for the air ambulance to land near the police chopper with Masterson’s brother nearby.