ABBY NEVER DUCKED. She zeroed in on Kent, aware of glass flying and ignoring her own personal safety. All she could see was Kent’s fleeing back. He disappeared through the door and she charged after him. Down a long hallway, he went through another door, heading toward the back of the house, the beach side, Abby guessed. She couldn’t imagine where he thought he was going to go; they were on a peninsula, for heaven’s sake. She accelerated as Kent led her through a maze of rooms, and suddenly she was in the kitchen.

A stunned woman leaned against the sink as if she’d just been shoved there.

“Where?” Abby yelled and the woman pointed.

Out the back door Abby ran, squinting when she stepped into the sunlight. She looked left and saw Kent jump over a retaining wall and hit the wooden boardwalk that ran along the beach, between the houses and the sand. He landed wrong, stumbled, and cursed before he got up and limped away toward the street, circling back to where the cars were. Abby hurried after him, adrenaline taking her over the wall easily. She hit the wooden boardwalk at a run.

“Stop, Kent! You’re not getting away!”

He came to a curb where the street and the boardwalk met and looked over his shoulder, a mocking grin on his face. As he turned back, he tripped over the curb, sprawling into the street and cursing as he slid.

Breath coming hard, fury her fuel, Abby reached the man and pointed her weapon. “Stay right there. You’re under arrest.”

He writhed on the asphalt and rolled over to face her, gun still in his hand. “Or what? You’ll put me out of my misery? Go ahead, I dare you.”

“Drop it!” she warned as her breathing slowed but her anger intensified. “I don’t want you dead. I have too many questions.” Abby heard sirens in the distance and tightened her sweaty grip on the gun. It felt like it was a hundred degrees outside.

“About your daddy? Or maybe your mom? I killed her, shot her right in the head. Is that what you wanted to know?”

Abby flinched, her finger tight on the trigger. A loud voice in her head screamed “Shoot!”

Kent sneered and pulled himself up to a sitting position. He held the gun across his lap while supporting himself on one elbow.

He looked behind her but Abby didn’t turn.

“Why did you kill them?”

“Shoot me. You want to. All you’ll get from me is that Sanders had it just about right.”

His hand moved and Abby tensed, almost squeezing the trigger.

But in a quick, fluid movement, Kent pointed the gun at his chin and fired. Abby lurched forward, but there was nothing she could do to stop him.

“Noooo!” A bloodcurdling scream came from behind her. Abby turned as Kelsey Cox shoved past her.

“No, no, no,” she wailed as she fell to her knees next to the man.

Abby knelt beside her, but she could already tell there would be no pulse. She put a hand on Cox’s shoulder to move her away from the body, and the woman shook it off.

“You killed him; you killed him,” she wailed. Sobbing, she cradled Kent’s head in her lap.

Abby stood and stepped back. Shocked at how close she had come to pulling the trigger.

Another set of footsteps ran up behind her. It was Luke.

“What happened?” His face said he feared the worst.

“He shot himself,” Abby said. It was then she saw the blood on Luke’s pants and hands.

“Not mine,” he said before Abby even had the strength to ask. “Asa didn’t make it.”

Abby felt punched in the stomach, and that was a punch too many as far as she was concerned.

She leaned into Luke, ignoring the blood and letting him place a supporting arm around her as a fleet of emergency vehicles began filling the street in front of them.