"She'll shoot you," Jake said. "I'm not familiar with the situation, but it sounds to me like she blames you for the death of her son."

"I did kill her son. I'd rather her take out her wrath on me than one of them," James said. "Plus, if I can just get in there, I might be able to take her out first."

Jake bit his lower lip. "Maybe we should wait for the police."

"I'm not trusting the lives of my sister and my ... Mandy to the police," James said. "I can't wait. Are you with me?"

"I'm with you," Jake said, his tone grim and his eyes set. "Give me three minutes."

"Go."

"ALLY is just nervous," Mandy said, trying to draw Sheryl's attention back to her. "She doesn't mean what she says."

"Oh, I totally mean it," Ally said. "Your son was a crazy loon, and you're even crazier. He stalked and terrorized Mandy. He stabbed a security guard. He tried to run her over. And here you are making excuses for him. It's pathetic."

"You shut your mouth," Sheryl said. "You just shut your filthy mouth."

"Sheryl," Mandy said, her tone desperate. "I'm the one you want revenge on. This is all my fault."

"This is all Troy's fault," Ally countered. "You're trying to blame everyone else for his mistakes, instead of just admitting he was a coward."

"Troy was not a coward."

"Oh, you're right," Ally said. "He was a stupid coward. He was also greedy and narcissistic. In other words, he was a total a.s.s."

Sheryl shifted the gun, leveling it at Ally. "You obviously want to die first. This actually works. Mandy can see you die, feel a little bit of what I felt when I heard about my son, and then I'll finish her off. It's almost ... poetic."

"No," Mandy said. "Ally doesn't have anything to do with this."

"I'm not afraid of you," Ally said. "I actually feel sorry for you. You lost your husband. You lost your son. You've obviously lost your sanity. The real tragedy in all of this, though, is that you've also lost your soul.

"From everything Mandy has told me, you fought tooth and nail to be a good person despite the losers who raised you," Ally continued. "You threw all of that out the window for revenge and it's revenge that's not even warranted."

Mandy's eyes were trained on Sheryl's trigger finger. She was focused on Ally right now, and that wasn't likely to change. Ally wouldn't let it.

"They killed my son," Sheryl raged. "He has to be avenged."

"Your son killed himself," Ally said. "He had every opportunity to do the right thing, and he did the wrong thing at every turn. He must have learned that from you. I mean, you killed a mentally ill vet to cover your tracks. What kind of person does that? A crazy person, that's who."

Mandy saw Sheryl's finger flex, and she knew she was out of options. She launched herself out of the chair, tackling Sheryl to the ground, knocking her arm up into the air at the same time.

They hit the blue linoleum in tandem. Hard. Thankfully, since she was on the bottom, Sheryl's body absorbed most of the blow. Sheryl squeezed the trigger reflexively but, since she wasn't aiming, the bullet went wild and lodged into the ceiling.

Mandy reached over, grappling for the gun. Sheryl was clawing at her face with one hand, and trying to aim the gun at her with the other. Mandy slammed her shoulder into Sheryl's chest, purposely trying to knock the wind out of her.

When that didn't work, Mandy used both of her hands to try and control the gun. Sheryl managed to draw it into the s.p.a.ce between them, causing Mandy to suck in a breath when she felt the cold, hard metal against her ribs.

"Ally, run!"

In the split-second after the gun went off, Mandy expected to feel pain. She was familiar with the sensation, the hours and days after the explosion filling her with nothing but agony.

It didn't come.

Instead, Sheryl slumped beneath her, ceding the fight. Mandy reared back, running her hands over her chest and abdomen to see if she could find a hole. There was so much blood, Mandy couldn't be sure what was happening. She heard the front door of the salon open, but she didn't look up. Her mind was a m.u.f.fled mess, everything dull and out of focus.

I must be in shock.

JAMES raced into the salon from the back room, cursing himself for waiting for Jake to get into position. Either his sister or the love of his life had just been shot, and losing either one of them would kill him.

He saw Mandy first. She was on the ground, Sheryl's lifeless body p.r.o.ne beneath her. He couldn't tell if she was hurt, but the blood coating the front of her T-shirt terrified him.

Jake was in the room, too, immediately moving to Ally's side. "Are you okay?"

Ally shook her head, her feet still planted in the water basin and tears coursing down her face. "I don't know."

Jake pulled her to him in an attempt to anchor her to reality. "It's all right," he said. "It's okay. Just ... it's okay."

James moved toward Mandy, worried she was going to keel over before he got to her. The dreams bombarded him. He was going to get to her, he was going to be able to touch her, and then she was going to collapse. She was going to die in his arms this time.

James knelt down next to his blonde, his hand shaking as he reached for her. "Baby."

Mandy turned to him, her lower lip trembling. "I don't think this is my blood."

James glanced down at Sheryl, an open wood spreading red liquid across the front of her shirt. "Were you hit?"

"I don't ... I don't think so."

"Let me check," James said, placing his gun on the floor and running his hands over Mandy's torso. When he couldn't find a wound, he practically cried out in relief. "You weren't hit. You're okay."

"I am?"

James pulled her into his arms, tugging her off of Sheryl's lifeless body. "You're okay, baby. G.o.d, you're okay."

Mandy sank into his arms, her sobs overtaking her, wracking her small body with tiny convulsions as he wrapped his love around her. "It was Sheryl."

"Something we should have considered from the beginning," James said, tangling his hand in her blonde tresses. "This is my fault."

"It's not your fault," Ally said, Jake's arm still wrapped around your shoulder. "It's that crazy woman's fault."

James glanced at his sister. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Good," James said. "Because I'm going to bring your what-harm-could-come-from-going-to-the-salon argument up to you every time you argue with me from now until eternity."

Ally rolled her eyes. "Bring it on."

James pressed his lips to Mandy's forehead. "The cops will be here any second."

"Well, great," Ally said. "I can't wait."

Terror made her belligerent, James realized. She was just masking now. Later tonight, when she was alone in her bed, that would be the time she let herself feel the events of the day. For now, he let her be.

"Is Mandy okay?" Ally asked.

"Mandy is just fine," James said, rubbing her back. "We're just fine. Everyone is going to be just fine."

Twenty-Seven.

Three days later, James found Mandy sobbing on the couch. Her knees were drawn up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them, and her face was buried into the s.p.a.ce between her knees and her torso.

He'd been expecting this. After the initial shock had worn off, and the police had questioned them for hours, she'd cried herself to sleep that night. He couldn't do anything but hold her, so that's what he did.

The next morning, she'd been dull and lifeless, slowly returning to herself as the days pa.s.sed. She'd seemed fine when he left a few hours ago. Well, fine was an exaggeration. She'd seemed resigned and relieved.

"What's wrong, baby?" James slid onto the couch next to her, pulling her to him. "Are you thinking about Sheryl?"

Mandy lifted her tear-streaked face up. "I killed Sheryl."

"No," James said. "You protected yourself. Sheryl killed herself."

"She's still dead."

"I'd rather her be dead than you," James said. "I'm not going to apologize for that."

Mandy sniffed.

"Things are going to get better now," James promised. "Everything is going to be better."

"I heard back from Tanya," Mandy said. "The house is gone. Someone made an offer to the owner before we got a chance. We lost it."

James stilled, running a hand over her shoulders. "Wait a second, are you crying about Sheryl or the house?"

Mandy's sad eyes tore at his heart, but the rueful expression on her face was almost comical. "I should probably say Sheryl."

"But?"

"But I really wanted that house," Mandy said. "I had all these dreams. Ally calls it angels dancing on the head of a pin. I shouldn't have let myself dream about it. I should have listened to you and not gotten my hopes up."

James leaned back, pulling Mandy with him. "Tell me about the dreams."

"Why? We've lost them."

"You can never lose dreams," James said, smoothing down her hair. "Tell me about them."

"You'll think they're stupid."

"No, I won't."

"It's just ... I imagined us doing stuff there."

"Like?"

"Like I thought we could use those two connecting rooms at the far end of the second floor as our offices," she said. "I thought we could peek in and talk to each other when we were working. You know, just check in during the day."

"That sounds ... corny," James said. "Cute, but corny. What else?"

"I pictured us skinny-dipping in the pool," Mandy said.

"Now, this is what I'm talking about," James said. "What happened then?"

"Then we'd get into the hot tub and steam things up together there," Mandy said. "I thought our summers would be spent making love in really hot water and never wearing a bathing suit."

"Uh-huh. What else?"

"I thought that you and your brothers could have fight nights out in the saloon, playing pool to your heart's content," Mandy said, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. "I figured, now that you've hired Jake as another employee, he could be there, too. You could finally have even teams."

"That seems like a practical idea."

"And I dreamed of that stupid art studio," Mandy said. "I pictured myself painting in there, getting dirty. I thought we could put a bed in the second room, so when you came to see what I was working on, and we both got covered in paint, we wouldn't have to go too far to find a bed."

James smiled. He'd pictured something similar himself. "That sounds really nice."

"It's gone."

"There will be other houses," James said. "We can build new dreams around another house."

"I know. I just wanted that house."

James was quiet for a moment, rubbing soothing circles on her back. "You know what you need?"

"My house?"

"You need to get out of here," James said. "We've spent almost a month straight in this place. I think we both need a change of scenery."

Mandy pulled back, letting James reach up to wipe away her tears. "Where are we going?"

"Just for a ride," James said. "I think you'll feel better if you just get out of here. I'll even buy you dinner afterwards. Just no seafood. I still haven't recovered from the puking incident from last winter."

Mandy glanced down at her outfit, the flannel sleep pants and tank top giving her pause.