Page 78 of Trust

Emily sighed. “Sorry about what happened.”

Surprised, he looked at the woman. She shrugged. “It was my job to protect your lady.”

“And I distracted you. Don’t worry about it.”

Conner Dillon came striding into the house, taking in the scene and nodding in their direction. “You might not worry, but that man is going to eat my lunch.”

He made his way over to them. “I need to see you both in another room.”

Emily and Jakob shared a look.

“Wait. What are you doing?” That came from HPD detective Rome Carino.

“Talking to my client. We will not discuss the assault. It’s about my client’s safety.”

“We won’t leave the house,” Jakob promised.

They went into the kitchen.

“What’s up, boss?”

“We have an issue. There is no way that Rick carried out all of the attacks.”

“Lani said it sounded like he had been working with Royal.”

“Yes. We are still digging, but apparently, those two used to work a lot of cons together. Some blackmail. That’s not what has me worried. We are missing something. Royal and Rick were both cleared for the parking garage incident. They either hired someone else, or we are missing something.”

Lani stepped out of the bedroom and started when she saw who was standing in the living room of the guest house.

“Sienna, what are you doing here?”

“I’ve been looking for you.”

The woman was a mess. Her hair looked like she hadn’t brushed it. There was dirt on her face. As Lani walked closer, she realized her shirt was soaked with blood.

“Sienna, are you okay? Did someone hurt you?”

“Yes,” she said, raising a gun and pointing at Lani. “You did.”

Sixteen

Jakob, Dillon, and Emily were halfway across the yard when they heard the gunshot. For the second time in less than two hours, his heart stopped. Even as he started running through the yard, he heard the shouting inside the main house. He ignored it. He knew that the gunshot had come from the guest house, and Lani was the only person in there. Or she had been until some bastard got through all the police protection around the area.

Ignoring Dillon’s shout, he busted the door open. His attention was pulled to Lani, who lay on the floor, then to the woman standing over her.

Sienna looked to be readying for another shot at Lani when she swung her arm toward him. Dillon grabbed him and yanked him out of the way. Then, he heard the shot of a gun, but it was much closer than he thought. That’s when he noticed that Emily had a gun out and had shot into the house. Ian was there backing her up, as was HPD Detective Carino.

He fought against Dillon’s hold. “Wait until they give the all-clear. It’s the only way you can make sure Lani’s safe.”

“She was shot.”

“She was down. You don’t know if she was shot.”

“Clear!” Emily yelled out.

That was all he had to hear. Jakob rushed back in, panic filling him as he ran to Lani. She was so still on the floor. Ian was checking her pulse.

“Strong pulse. I think she hit her head on the way down.”

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