Before the Dawn(96)

Dawn blinked. "Anthony?"

He smiled at her. And when he smiled...a dimple flashed in his left cheek.

Fucking hell. "Dawn!" Tucker yelled as his fingers curled around the knife. "Get over here, get to me-"

Anthony swung the gun toward him. And he fired.

* * *

"YOU'RE GOING TO be okay." Macey squeezed Julia's hand-her fingers were still ice-cold. They were racing out of the coroner's building. Julia was on a gurney and two EMTs were on either side of her. "You're safe. Everything is okay."

Such a lie. Julia's lips were blue. She was bleeding from at least four different wounds, but the cold...it had actually helped her. It had slowed down her blood loss.

I'm betting the asshole who did this to you didn't count on that.

The EMTs rushed Julia toward the waiting ambulance.

"T-T..." Julia's lips barely moved. "T... D..."

What?

"His...initials..."

Julia was in the back of the ambulance now. The EMTs pushed Macey back.

"Take care of her," she yelled, right before those doors closed.

T. D.

His...initials...

"Oh, my God." She grabbed for her phone. She called Tucker and the phone rang and rang and rang...

* * *

WHEN ANTHONY FIRED at Tucker, Dawn lunged to her feet and raced toward the bastard. She swung the flashlight at Anthony as hard as she could, slamming it into the side of his head. He snarled and brought the gun up toward her-but not to shoot her.

Instead, he slammed the gun's handle against the side of her head. For a moment, she thought her cheek had broken. Stars danced before her eyes and she swayed.

Then he grabbed her. He yanked her forward and held her in front of his body. And the bastard-the man she'd mistakenly called her friend-jammed the barrel of the gun beneath her chin.

Her gaze-blurred and hazy because he'd hit so close to her left eye-sought Tucker. He was on the floor, slowly rising, and she could see the blood soaking the side of his shirt.

Her breath caught. Tucker was on his feet. Bleeding, but...he was coming toward her.

"Don't take so much as another step," Anthony snarled at him, "or I will kill her."

Tucker's head lifted. His blue eyes blazed as he stared at Anthony.

"Hello, brother," Anthony murmured.

Tucker flinched. "You're not my f-fucking brother..." His hand lifted to his shoulder and pressed to the wound there.

Anthony laughed. "Sure I am. Your half brother. Isn't that what the DNA match said? What? Did you think you and Jason were the only sons your bastard of a father had?"

Dawn's cheek burned and throbbed. Blood trickled down the side of her face.


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"He knocked up my mom. Did it when he was still married to your bitch of a mother."

A snarl twisted Tucker's mouth. "Don't..."

But Anthony just laughed again. "Don't what? Don't talk about the dead? What are you gonna do? I'll tell you...nothing. Not while I've got your sweet piece of ass in my arms." And his hold on Dawn tightened. "I really thought you'd be over her by now. I mean, aren't you pissed at her? At least a little bit? She's the reason you had to kill Jason. You should hate her."

Tucker's gaze slid to Dawn's face. It almost hurt to look into his eyes. So bright. My Tucker. "I could never hate Dawn."

"No, right. I got that as soon as I saw you two together. Knew that I'd have to change my plans. See...before you two got together, I'd intended to pin all this shit on you. That's why I gave Heather your name. Why I got her to come down to New Orleans right after you closed that Sorority Slasher case in Fairhope. You were gonna be the fall guy. But then I saw you and Dawn together." His hot breath was on her neck. "And I knew you weren't the angry ex-lover that I needed you to be."

"Y-you wanted me to doubt him," Dawn managed, her voice husky. She wanted to pull Anthony's attention back to her. She knew Tucker was just looking for a chance to attack. If she could distract Anthony...

"Yeah, you were supposed to doubt him...but you fucking wouldn't!" The barrel jammed harder, shoving into her chin. "Why not, Dawn? Why the hell not? I even left those gloves, knowing they would give a partial DNA match. You were supposed to think he was covering for someone else. You were supposed to think he'd always tricked you. You were supposed to think he was the fucking bad guy!" He wrenched back her head, forcing her to look into his eyes. "Why the hell didn't you?"

She swallowed. "Because I trust him."

His lips twisted.

"Because...I love him." She needed to say those words. She needed for Tucker to hear them and to know they were true. She hadn't stopped loving him. She'd lost her way for a while-they both had-but what she felt for him had never died.