Emerson was backing down the corridor. Dressed as a doctor, he dragged Morgan along the hallway, hiding behind her body and holding a knife to her throat. Lance wasn’t a violent man, but at that moment, he wanted to kill Phillip Emerson.
Lance reached for the weapon on his hip, then realized the SFPD hadn’t returned it yet.
Fuck.
Thankfully, he still had his backup piece. Nobody had asked for it and he hadn’t volunteered.
His heart knocked against his ribs. He couldn’t let anything happen to Morgan, but he could see the desire to hurt her in Emerson’s eyes.
A security guard had his weapon drawn and pointed at Emerson and Morgan. The guard was obviously out of his element because his hands were shaking hard. Terror filled Lance as he imagined the security guard shooting Morgan by mistake.
Lance stopped at the end of the hall. “Let her go, Emerson!”
If Morgan moved just a few feet . . . one clear shot. That’s all Lance needed.
“One step closer and I will cut her lovely throat,” Emerson said, his voice oddly cold.
He wanted to do it. Lance could read the desire to end it on Emerson’s face. He knew he was trapped. He knew there were only two ways out of the situation: prison or a body bag. He looked as if he wanted to take Morgan with him.
Morgan’s gaze met Lance’s. One of her hands grasped Emerson’s forearm, as if to pull it away from her neck. She wheezed, “I can’t breathe.”
“Shut up!” Emerson shifted his grip, lifting his arm from her windpipe and grabbing a handful of her hair with his free hand instead. Her head tilted back, exposing her throat. But now there were a few inches between Morgan’s neck and the blade.
“We know Jacob killed Tessa. You can’t cover up for him anymore,” Lance said.
“Jacob didn’t kill Tessa,” Emerson shouted. “How stupid are you? I killed her.”
“I don’t believe you,” Lance shot back. “Jacob drugged and raped her back in July. Then he got mad that she was giving Nick what she’d refused to give him. He decided to teach her a lesson and got carried away.”
Emerson kept shaking his head. The knife quivered next to Morgan’s throat.
Lance needed a distraction. “Did you know Tessa was pregnant?”
Emerson’s eyes went wild. “That’s impossible.”
“The police didn’t make that public,” Lance continued.
“You’re lying.” Emerson scanned the hallway and edged toward Lance. “Move back.”
Lance kept pushing. “No one blames you for covering for your son. That’s what parents do, right? But the DNA test will come back, and it’ll show that Jacob was the father of her child.”
“He was not!” Emerson jerked his head toward the corridor that led to the elevator. “Now move out of the way or I’ll kill her.”
If Emerson thought he was doomed, he might kill her anyway. Hatred gleamed darkly in his eyes.
Morgan’s free hand was on her thigh. She was shaking her fist, as if trying to get Lance’s attention.
He watched as she extended three fingers, then two, then one.
What is she going to do?
Her hand shot upward between her neck and the blade while her body dropped to the floor. Blood streaked the back of her arm as the knife sliced it open.
As soon as she hit the floor, Lance had a clear shot at Emerson. He squeezed the trigger twice.
The bullets struck Emerson in the shoulder and chest. He jerked backward. The knife sailed from his grip and clattered to the floor.
Morgan rolled away, and Lance rushed forward. He had a boot on Emerson’s arm, pinning him down. Emerson’s fingers clawed for the knife.
“You’re going to pay for what you did.” Lance loomed over him, anger coursing hot through his veins. “You and your son.”
“My son had nothing to do with it,” Emerson wheezed. “I killed Tessa Palmer.”
Lance leaned closer. “Did she threaten to tell everyone how Jacob raped her?”
“No.” Emerson shook his head. “I didn’t even know about those pictures until the police called me.” He wet his lips with his tongue. “I loved her.”
Lance couldn’t believe what he’d heard. “What?”
“I loved her from the first time I met her.” Beads of sweat broke out across his brow. Blood welled from the wounds and stained the green scrubs and stolen lab coat red. “She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. She was going to betray me. She made me do it. It was all her fault.”
A doctor rushed forward and began treating Emerson, but he grabbed Lance by the shirt.
“You have to hear this. In case I die. Jacob didn’t do it.” Emerson licked his lips again and kept talking. “Jacob came home from the party. He told me about the fight with Nick over Tessa. He was in his room when she called. She told me to meet her at the gazebo. If I didn’t show up, she’d tell everyone. I knew she was going to break it off with me so she could be with Nick. Jacob had said they’d gone off together, but I had to have her one more time.” He took two wheezing breaths. “Afterward, she was crying. She said it would never happen again. She was going to tell her grandparents. I lost it. How could she turn on me? I loved her. I barely remember attacking her, chasing her, killing her. It’s all a blur. I couldn’t stop myself. When it was over, I realized what I’d done . . . I knew she’d been with Nick that night, so I drove to his house and buried the knife in his yard.”
His hand dropped from Lance’s shirt, too weak to maintain his grip. “It was me. Not Jacob.” His eyes rolled back in his head, and he passed out.
Lance holstered his weapon and went to Morgan. A nurse was holding a pressure bandage on her arm. Emerson’s blade had sliced the outside of her arm open from wrist to elbow. But the wound wasn’t critical, and relief poured through Lance like cold water.
He could have lost her.
“Did you hear any of that?” He took her uninjured hand.
“Yes.” Her face was grim, either from the pain or from the truth they’d finally discovered. “Tessa moved here when she was twelve. I wonder how long it was going on?”
“Long enough to be sick.” Lance watched two orderlies hoist Emerson onto a gurney and wheel him away. He almost wished his aim had been a little truer. Lance had no pity for Emerson, not after what he’d done.
“And long enough to be a felony,” Morgan said.
Long enough for exposure of his crime to be a motive for murder.
“I’ll bet she was going to tell him she was pregnant, but he never gave her the chance.” Lance turned from the sight of Emerson disappearing down the hallway. “I can’t believe that either Emerson or his son could be the father. Two monsters, one family.”
Morgan’s face was pale, her features pinched with pain. Enough of the Emersons. He wasn’t going anywhere. There would be plenty of time to worry about him later. He rubbed her hand, and she smiled at him through the pain.
A doctor approached Morgan. “Let’s have a look.” He lifted the bandage and checked the wound. “That’s a nasty cut. You’re going to need some serious stitches.”
She nodded. “But better my arm than my neck.”
The thought almost made Lance sick.