“Well, he has a very beautiful daughter,” one man told her. “You’re even prettier when a man can see those big, dark eyes.”
Evie frowned at the neatly dressed and decent-looking man. His teeth were a bit yellow, and one eye tooth was missing, but he seemed clean and gentlemanly. “Excuse me?” she asked. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
He moved around the table, standing closer. “You have beautiful eyes. I couldn’t see them that day back at Dune Hollow, when you were blindfolded.”
Evie felt as though all the blood was running out of her through her feet.
“Something wrong?” he asked. “You look pale in spite of that lovely dark skin,” he told her. “I’ve always thought women with Mexican blood were more beautiful than most.”
Evie stumbled backward, reaching for something for support but grabbing the punch bowl instead. It tipped over and went crashing to the floor, drawing everyone’s attention.
After that, her whole world changed—as did that of her whole family.
Nineteen
Seconds.
Everyone turned at the sound of the crashing punch bowl.
Brian saw Evie standing speechless, gaping at a man near her. He knew instantly who it was. “My God!” He charged toward her, unaware the music had stopped, or that people gasped and backed away, or that he shoved some of them out of the way as he ran to Evie.
Seconds.
Lloyd was faster. As soon as the punch bowl crashed and he turned to see why, he, too, headed for Evie. Somewhere in the unreal events unfolding, Brian heard Lloyd roar, “Get away from my sister, you sonofabitch!”
Someone else shouted, “Everybody down!” Was that Jake?
Lloyd reached Mike Holt, bolting right over the food table and sending food and punch cups flying.
More crashing sounds.
Brian and Lloyd reached Evie at nearly the same time.
Holt had already drawn a gun that just one second earlier no one knew he even had.
Seconds.
Brian grabbed Evie and literally tackled her to the floor, staying on top of her to shield her. Even as they went down, he heard the loud boom of Holt’s gun…heard people scream.
“Oh my God! Lloyd! Lloyd!” Was that Katie screaming?
More people screamed. People were running out of the room. Brian saw someone duck behind chairs in one corner of the room, and at the same time Lloyd’s body came crashing down close to where Brian held Evie on the floor.
Seconds. How many had passed? Two? Three?
“Lloyd!” This time it was Evie, screaming at the sight of Lloyd lying there with a bloody hole in his chest. He didn’t move. In wide-eyed terror, Brian saw Mike Holt move to stand over Lloyd, preparing to shoot again. “How does it feel to be shot down when you’re unarmed?” he screamed.
A dark figure loomed close then.
“How does it feel to have your head blown off when you are armed?” a voice growled.
Jake.
The room became dead silent.
Holt froze. “I was told no one could bring guns to this dance,” he told Jake.
“I’m never without a gun, and you are fucking dead!”
“My gun is cocked!” Holt told Jake, panic in his voice. “You shoot me, and it will go off—another bullet into your son or maybe your daughter or some innocent—”
He didn’t get a chance to finish. In an instant, Jake grabbed the man’s wrist and shoved his gun hand upward. Holt’s gun went off, skimming across Jake’s shoulder.
More screams.
“Jake, no!” Randy screamed from somewhere.
Seconds. Jake didn’t even flinch when Holt’s bullet ripped through his upper shoulder. In a black rage he shoved Holt to the floor, his knee in the man’s chest and his .44 pressed against his forehead. “I wouldn’t want my bullet to go through your skull and into someone else,” Jake growled, “so it’s best you’re against the floor when I pull this trigger!”
Holt stared at him in wide-eyed terror.
“Daddy, don’t!” Evie screamed. Too late…and fruitless. She watched in horror as Jake fired the gun. The boom of the famous .44 made people jump and scream.
Evie broke into terrified sobs as she buried her face into Brian’s shoulder. “Daddy! My God, Daddy!”
Mike Holt lay there with a huge, gaping hole in his forehead while blood streamed from under his head.
Jake rose, his shoulder bleeding, smoke coming from the barrel of his gun.
“Lloyd!” Katie screamed again, running across the room to kneel beside her husband. “Oh my God! Oh my God! Lloyd! He’s dead! He’s dead!”
In a moment, Randy was beside her. Jake looked around at those remaining in the room, all staring as they stood frozen in place, women whimpering.