Page 88 of Resisting the Lawyer (Dirty Hot Resistance 3)

The sound of air whistling whirs in the room and he lets out a howl, grabbing his hand, his gun falling to the ground. “The fuck?” There’s something sharp stuck in his hand.

I jump into action. Propelling myself using the couch, I leap over it and quickly grab the gun.

My father is older and slower and before he can reach me, I already have it cocked and aimed at my half-brother’s head.

Payden is staring at me hatefully with a vicious gleam in his eyes as he reaches for Elise as if to pull her towards him. But before I can so much as move, Elise, without moving her upper body, launches her right leg and kicks him in the chest, hard.

Payden goes down with a cry just as I hear Oliver’s angry voice, “I don’t think so!”

I wrestle Payden to the ground and look over to see Oliver towering over Leon, the bat no longer in his hands.

“Are you okay, Elise?”

To her credit, Elise is relatively calm. “Yeah. Yeah.”

“Well, it looks like you two have everything under control.” Caleb strolls in through the front door, nonchalantly.

Making his way towards Elise, he says, calmly. “Stay still.” He studies the mechanism and then without hesitation, rips out the knife. “How did he get you to sit long enough for him to set this up?”

Elise jumps to her feet, trembling, and to everyone’s surprise, she turns around and kicks Payden in the face, making the man shout out in pain. “He chloroformed me! The second I walked in. He was waiting for me and Sophie.” She raises her foot again.

I see the unrestrained fury in her eyes and pull her back. “Okay, okay. You don’t want to kill him now. Leave something for the prison inmates, love.”

“You’re going to go away for a very long time,” she vows at the angry man, her eyes glittering with rage. “And every day in your cell will be hell for you. And I hope it is!” She staggers into me.

Catching her, I lean down and grasp the sleek silver pen that’s embedded in Payden’s palm, and I yank it out. Ignoring his howl, I toss the pen to Caleb. “Thanks.”

He wipes the blood on the pen with a handkerchief before placing it back into his pocket. “Let’s call the police then.”

The rest of the day is blur of sirens and plain-clothed detectives questioning everyone.

Payden and Leon are taken away after we find out that Payden had sought Leon out in the first place. Since both men had similar disturbing tastes, they’d bonded and then it was my actions of destroying the video Leon held and then driving Payden’s family into bankruptcy that had them both devise this plan.

“Drink some more soup, Elise.” My mother hovers over her. “It’ll help with the shock.”

“She’s right, Elise.” Fayleen looks anxiously at her daughter who hasn’t let go of Sophie this whole evening.

Everyone has gathered at my house, aside from Debra. But my mother and Elise’s parents.

Her father has been in a temper since he got here but he keeps hovering over his daughter almost as if he’s afraid someone else is going to snatch her from him. “You need to take a vacation,” he tells her. “Why don’t you go to Europe? Travel for a bit.”

Elise shakes her head. “I’d rather stay here. I don’t want to go anywhere.”

“We can take Sophie to Disneyland,” I suggest.

Elise rolls her eyes, her lips twitching. “Don’t use Sophie as an excuse just because you want to go there.”

I put my hand over my heart, adopting a tragic air. “I would never.”

The atmosphere lightens and it’s when everyone is finally about to leave that Elise finally says, “I’m going to stay with Lucas, tonight. I want to be with him and Sophie.”

Richard looks to be on the brink of arguing but his wife pinches him and he begrudgingly says, “All right.” And then he glares at me. “You had better make an honest woman out of her soon or I’ll shoot you.”

“He doesn’t use that shotgun anymore,” Fayleen tells me, sweetly.

I suddenly fear for my life.

My mother is the last to go, hugging me tightly. “I’ve told Debra not to come. The danger has passed but do give her a call.”

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