Page 56 of Wired Fear

“Because I’m being investigated for embezzling funds from the Merrie Monarch Festival. You and your partner pretended to be customers and fingered me! Did you think I didn’t recognize you from the news as the witness against Akane? And now, you shot my cousin.” Penny took a step closer. The black bore of her pistol seemed to expand in Sophie’s visual field.

“Killing me doesn’t accomplish anything.”

“It accomplishes me feeling better about all the shit that’s gone down.” Penny took another step toward Sophie. The woman’s hand was steady, her gaze unwavering. She was going to shoot Sophie; she just wanted a little privacy to do it.

Sophie raised her hands so that anyone watching could see that she was in trouble. “I refuse to make it easy for you.” She took a step backward.

“Oh yeah, you will, or I’ll shoot you in the gut and you can die slowly, right here.”

The baby would die first.

If only she could slow things down. Every moment of life was a moment of opportunity, a moment for things to change. She’d learned that out on the lava when she wrestled with death and came out the victor.

“I’m not going anywhere. I guess I’ll die right here in public, then.” Sophie dropped to her knees and put her hands on her head. Her eyes felt hot and her gaze filled with power as she cursed Penny with the only weapon she had: her words. “I’m pregnant. May my child haunt you forever. May your dreams be filled with screams and your womb be cursed, barren, and a source of death.Foul daughter of the devil!”

A flicker of something showed in Penny’s face for the first time—disgust? Regret? Fear? The woman had obviously never killed before. She was having to work up to it, and her mouth flattened into a line of determination. “I don’t give a shit what you say.”

Penny was close enough now that Sophie could see the woman’s finger tightening on the trigger.

Sophie shut her eyes—and a blow from the side slammed her to the ground, knocking the wind out of her.

The thunder of gunfire overhead caused Sophie to draw in her knees and curl her arms over her head, trying to shield herself—but another body was already on top of her, protecting her.

The barrage stopped.

Even through the odor of gunshot residue, Sophie recognized Jake’s unique scent and the heft and feel of his body on hers—but the heavy form on top of her didn’t move.

“Jake!” Sophie screamed his name but couldn’t hear it through the ringing of her ears, deafened by the gunshots. She wriggled out from under his body, scanning to see if Penny was still a threat—but the woman was crumpled on the ground, her pistol still in her hand. Sophie ran over and kicked the weapon away, then returned to crouch over Jake’s still form.

Blood poured down his face, obscuring it. His arm was extended, his weapon fallen from an unresponsive hand.

“Jake! Jake, no!” Sophie dropped to the ground and drew his head into her lap, heedless of the blood, and wept.

Chapter Forty-Two

Hot copper smell.

Pounding in his head, like waves. Surf swishing through his brain, erasing thought, memory, self.

Sobbing.

Loud, wretched sobbing, like someone had run over a puppy.Something bad had happened.

Sorrow suffused him.

Jake wished he could make the crying stop. Life hurt a lot, and no one told you that when you were a kid.

His head was pillowed on something soft—a lap.

A firm thigh under his cheek, arms around his shoulders. There were even breasts nearby, brushing him occasionally.

“Heaven.” He rubbed his face back and forth in the softness touching him. He dragged the logy weights of his arms up to encircle the thighs, buttocks and waist of the angel greeting him on the other side.

The crying stopped.

“Jake?” His angel was Sophie. She was wiping at his face with her shirt, crying again but in a happy way, and kissing him, little pecks that felt like raindrops. “I thought you were dead. I thought she shot you.”

“Not heaven?” Vague disappointment. However, waking up with his face nuzzled into the crotch of the woman he loved suited Jake’s idea of paradise just fine.

---