Monday night Cami was curled up in an overstuffed chair in the living room, watching Rosemary and Jonquil debate professional basketball teams. Rosemary argued that the Chicago Bulls were hands down the best while Jonquil thought the Seventy-Sixers would beat their socks off this season. Cami didn’t really understand the draw of watching people run up and down a court for three hours, but watching her sisters argue was plenty entertaining.
The doorbell rang and Jonquil jumped up to answer it. At the door she turned to face them, “Cami, you have a vis—” her words cut off as an arm came around her neck and a glint of silver lifted to her temple.
Cami felt her throat close off as she recognized the gun only an instant before seeing Trent was the one holding it. Jonquil’s blue eyes widened with terror as she looked at all of them. “What’s going on?” she asked, her voice high and squeaky.
“Shut up.” Trent’s arm tightened around her neck, making her bow to the side. “Camellia knows exactly what this is about. Don’t you, sweetheart?”
Rosemary and Delphi stood to face him. Cami rose to her feet and glanced to the kitchen where Sage had been only a moment later. She was huddled behind the kitchen island, tears streaming down her frightened face and texting with shaky fingers. Lana was in her room; with any luck, she’d stay there. “Hey, it’s going to be okay,” Cami said to Jonquil, though her voice quavered, belying the way her heart raced and her hands sweated. “Trent, I heard they released you this morning. You don’t want to hurt her. Let her go.”
“You really think I’d give up the advantage when I finally have everyone’s attention?” He chuckled, but didn’t look amused. “Do you know how hard I’ve worked to get it?”
“What do you want, Trent?” Cami used his name deliberately, hoping it would make him feel in control and calm him.
“A little respect would have been nice. You know, this is all yours and your dad’s fault. It didn’t have to be this way.” His eyes darted, taking in the room around him, but not really settling on anyone.
“Then you can let the others go and just deal with me.” The thought of being alone with him while he carried a gun was almost more than she could handle, but Cami couldn’t let one of the others get hurt. She was the real target here. “You can tell me exactly where I went wrong and how to fix it.”
“What do you think I am, an idiot?” He tightened his arm more around Jonquil’s neck, causing her to gasp slightly as her head was yanked back. “Besides, I’ve decided you’re all going to pay—you’re all his daughters, sharing in the spoils gained at my expense.”
“What are you talking about?” Rosemary asked.
He lifted his thumb and cocked the revolver as he glared at her.
Cami took the second of distraction to dart a glance at the balcony. She’d seen Lana’s auburn curls flash into her periphery, then disappear. Cami really hoped Lana was calling the police. And Joel. His special training had to be an asset right now and the police station was miles away. They just needed to hold Trent off until help could arrive. Was it possible? Would any of them come out of this alive? “Don’t do this, Trent. They’re not responsible for anything.”
“They exist.” He shrugged as if that were reason enough. “I should take you all out of the picture, make a clean slate. I should have done that in the first place, just set a bomb to go off while you all slept. The world would be better off without the DiCarlo blood trying to manage and control the world. Your father ruined my life, you know. If he hadn’t interfered, I’d be riding high and happy, even if we hadn’t gotten married.”
Cami must have looked as surprised as she felt because his chuckle held twisted joy. “You didn’t actually think I was in love with you, did you? I was trying to get an in with your father so he’d take my contracts, then when he didn’t, I figured marrying you so I had access to your fortune would be good enough.” His eyes narrowed again. “I don’t know what he told you to keep you away from me.”
“Nothing.” Cami folded her arms across her chest. “I knew he didn’t care for you much, but he didn’t say why you didn’t get the contract. He got sick, acting weird; I was busy worrying about him and juggling work. Then I realized you were being a pushy jerk and decided to end things.”
“Cami!” Jonquil’s voice was panicked and her voice high pitched. “What are you doing?”
But Cami ignored the question and kept her gaze on Trent. “It wasn’t until later, when I told my dad you’d proposed, that I’d accepted, but I’d already called it off that he mentioned there were some underhanded dealings going on and to keep my distance. He never elaborated.”
“You’re lying. I don’t believe it.”
“He had a few more important things to worry about—like the fact that he was dying. And trying to juggle visits from six daughters without us finding out about his illness or each other.” This last she added with a touch of irony in her voice. Funny how hard he worked to keep them apart while he was alive, only to force them all together the moment he died.
Trent moved farther into the room, stationing himself at the bottom of the stairs. “Whether that’s true or not, it doesn’t change things.” He gave Jonquil’s slim neck another yank, causing her to gag slightly as tears poured down her cheeks. “When your father pulled his contracts, I lost everything. He spoke to all the wrong people, people I owed money to, people who had the power to fix my problems. I can’t get a contract anymore.”
He seemed to enjoy elucidating every perceived slight. “At the gala I was just looking for information. I wasn’t going to hurt anyone, but you had to stick your nose where it wasn’t wanted.”
“You didn’t belong in the executive offices. And you’ve done plenty of sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong, lately,” Cami pointed out.
“Trina won’t have anything to do with me now.” Trent’s words came out in a growl, his eyes dark and his face harder than Cami had ever seen it before. “She was my ticket out of this mess. That’s your fault.”
That line of thought was faulty in so many ways, Cami couldn’t begin to list them all. She caught movement out the door window and saw Joel peeking in at them, a hand gun in his grip, and a rifle over his shoulder. Then he was gone. It didn’t change the fact that Trent had a gun to Jonquil’s head, but it did make Cami feel better. They just had to keep his finger from getting twitchy. “I didn’t say anything to Trina, but it’s not like she wouldn’t miss you when you didn’t come back. Someone had to tell her what happened to you.”
“Who’s this Trina chick?” Rosemary asked.
“Shut up. This is between me and Cami,” Trent yelled.
“So why won’t you let Jonquil go? If it’s between us, there’s no need to hurt her.” Cami took a couple of steps in his direction.
“Stop where you are or I will kill her.”
She believed him, but she needed to get just a little closer. “And then your situation will get worse than it is already. Why make it harder for yourself, Trent?”
Lana appeared at the balcony behind him with a softball in her hand. She was amazingly accurate when she threw stuff, but Cami needed to get the gun pointed somewhere else first.
“It’s not like I have anything left. You’ve taken everything from me now. Your whole family is responsible. And you’ll all pay. One at a time.” A grim smile slid onto his face. “Starting now.”
“Everyone get down.” Cami lunged for his arm, yanking it away so the shot plowed into the kitchen island. Sage screamed. Lana threw the ball, beaning Trent in the head. Jonquil gave him an elbow in the nose, making blood spurt. Both Joel and Vince pushed through the front and garage entrances, guns out and ready to fire.
“Get down!” Joel yelled. “Drop the weapon!”
Another bullet shot from the revolver and Cami rolled behind the coffee table just before twin blasts filled the air, almost simultaneously.
“Don’t you dare move.” Joel began swearing heatedly and Cami glanced under the heavy wooden coffee table to see Joel’s knee in the middle of Trent’s back.
“You shot me.” Trent sounded a little dazed.
“No shit, I’m glad you noticed.” He paused, turning to Vince. “Get the girls out of here. And call for an ambulance. The creep’s going to live, but he’ll need his wounds tended.”
Cami looked up to see Vince standing over her. She felt wetness on her cheeks, not sure when she started crying.
Vince pulled her up into his arms, wrapping her in a tight, if short embrace. “Hey, baby, are you all right? Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.” Cami felt the loss of his arms as he released her, but pretended not to as she wiped her face. She looked around at all of her sisters, taking stock to see if they were okay.
Sage cried and rocked behind the kitchen island and Cami went over, checking to make sure she was okay.
“Fine. I’m fine. I’m fine.” She continued to repeat the words to herself, not responding to Cami’s other questions.
Cami looked up to Vince pleadingly, and he took Sage’s other elbow so they could get her out of the house.
Joel looked up and saw Sage, his eyes widened and his nostrils flared. “Are you okay?”
Sage’s mantra continued.
“She doesn’t seem hurt. We’ll take care of her,” Vince said. “I’ll be out to check when the cops get here.”
Vince and Cami pulled Sage toward the door as police officers began pouring into the room. He grabbed Jonquil as they passed, dragging her out as well. Cami glanced back to see a dark red patch on Trent’s shoulder, but didn’t catch more before Vince led them outside, talking, “Someone is going to come speak to you. They’ll probably want to talk to you individually, so don’t discuss what happened while you’re outside, okay?”
He deposited them both around the corner of the house, out of view of the living room windows and driveway, which was full of police and sheriff’s department vehicles. Sirens announced more emergency personnel were on the way. “Stay here and I’ll go grab the rest of your sisters.” Before he turned away, Vince gave Cami a quick, hard kiss, as if to reassure himself that she was really all right.
A minute later he returned with the rest of the sisters and two officers followed behind them.
“Hi, I’m Deputy Peacock. Did anyone get hurt in there? Any injuries?”
Cami studied her sisters, but though they appeared upset, they all shook their heads. “It looks like we got away with no more than a bruise or two and enough nightmares to hijack our dreams for the next decade.” She had her arm around Sage still, who cried into her knees. She looked around and found Jonquil shaking slightly, but she didn’t look nearly as upset as Sage—which was confusing, since Jonquil was the one at gunpoint. Her skin, however, looked kind of gray. “Then again, maybe you ought to check her for shock,” she gestured to the youngest sister.
Vince pulled Cami close and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Luckily, you’re gutsy women and we got here in good time.”
It hadn’t seemed like good time. It had seemed like forever, but Cami didn’t mention it.
The EMTs brought out a blanket, laid Jonquil down and elevated her legs after they took her blood pressure, but after a few minutes she claimed she was feeling better. She refused to go to the hospital, though the rest of them encouraged it.
The officers sat all of them down, separated, with a pen and paper to write their statements in as much detail as they could remember. Sage stopped crying and Joel came out while the rest of them were writing and went to her, kneeling beside her and speaking in low tones. She leaned into him and answered back, her voice soft and shaky, but she seemed to calm faster with him nearby. After a few minutes they each wrote their own version of the events.