“I do. After my mother died, I was a dealer. I also know that job kept me alive until I was able to get into the Coast Guard Academy.”
“You’re lying. You were too young to work in a casino!”
Lilith’s ignorant indignation amused Kateri. “There are ways to get a false ID.”
“You … lied? You falsified legal documents?” Lilith broke in to houses, stole a key, held a weapon, threatened to kill—and was horrified about a little falsification. “How can you enforce the law?”
“I understand the law as it applies to the shady side better than most people.” Kateri’s gaze flicked to the pistol.
“If you had simply asked Father—”
“For support?” Kateri’s resentment rose. “I think not. When I got away from him, I swore I would never accept his help again.”
“You did, though. He got you into the Coast Guard Academy.”
“He made me eat dirt to do it.” Kateri had to take deep breaths to continue. “He was an awful man. Why do you defend him?”
“Why do you defend your mother, a hopeless alcoholic and sometime whore?”
Kateri grew cold with rage. This ghastly, manipulative, greedy, shallow bitch dared to malign Mary Kwinault? No. Never. So Kateri said the thing guaranteed to hurt. “At least I know my mother loved me.”
Where Kateri’s rage was cold, Lilith’s flashed like fire. She lunged, slapped Kateri across the cheek.
When she came in for another blow, Kateri caught her arm, twisted it behind her, made her drop the pistol. It landed with a thunk.
Didn’t go off … yay. Maybe the safety was on.
“Really?” Kateri was furious. “After what you said, you hit me?”
“You deserve it, you filthy … you don’t even know if you’re really part of the family!”
“Did you think your father took me in without checking my DNA? Of course I’m his! Do you think I want to be related to you? To him? God, no!” Kateri flung Lilith’s arm away and spun her around.
Lilith had tears in her eyes. From the pain in her arm? Or from Kateri’s cruel taunt?
Of course Kateri felt guilt. Damn it. “Look, I’m sorry that I said that about your mother.”
“My mother taught me dignity. She taught me to make the most of my assets. She taught me good grooming.” From the sweeping, gimlet-eyed glance Lilith shot at her, Kateri knew grooming to be her greatest failure. “From my mother, from our family, you learned to survive in a civilized environment.”
“I learned deception. I learned secrecy. I learned that to express my opinions was a sin punishable by loneliness, rejection and heartache.”
“You appear to have forgotten it all.”
“Virtue Falls is a small, barely civilized corner of the world where some people, at least, allow a woman to speak her mind.” Right now, Kateri had never been so grateful to be in Virtue Falls.
“You can have your barely civilized corner of the world. Now give me that certificate!”
“To hell with you, lady!”
Lilith lunged, grabbed the envelope, wrestled with Kateri for control.
Kateri fought back, angry enough to punch Lilith in the face but too aware of Lilith’s desperation to do it. Lilith dragged her across the room.
Kateri saw a flash of movement behind Lilith. Someone—a man—stepped through the doorway and slammed his rifle butt into Lilith’s head.
Lilith dropped like a rock … leaving Kateri facing John Terrance and the rifle that was pointed right at her.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Time froze. Kateri froze. And what had been terror when she faced Lilith’s pistol cooled and hardened to become something more, something stronger. Courage, maybe, in its rawest and most foolish form.
She eased back a step. “John Terrance. I knew you weren’t dead.”
John Terrance grinned, all triumph and dingy teeth. “You aren’t that lucky.”
“Obviously not.” Her walking stick was leaning against the wall. Her service pistol hung on her belt holster. She didn’t dare reach for either one.
He wanted to kill her. He intended to kill her. Options were limited. She needed time. “How did you get in?” she asked.
“Back door was unlocked. Practically an invitation.”
Great. Lilith had used her key to get in and like the damned idiot she was, she had failed to lock the door behind her.
Kateri glanced at Lilith’s unmoving figure and the giant lump forming on the side of her head. “You hurt my sister, may have killed her.”
He poked his mud-splashed boot at Lilith. “Might have. What do you care? I couldn’t believe it when I came in the door and you two darlin’s were havin’ a catfight. Nothing like a couple of women wrestlers to get my juices flowing.” He dropped one hand below his belt and cupped his junk. “I always wanted to fuck a sheriff.”
“Any sheriff?” Since all the previous Virtue Falls sheriffs had been male.
“I prefer female, but sure. Any sheriff.”
Or any knothole in a tree. Maybe being shot by a deer rifle wasn’t such a bad fate. She shifted back another step toward her staff. “I hoped you had died.”
“I’ll bet you did.” He leaned toward her, skinny, sunburned, his faded blue eyes alight with malice. “I’m all infected on my backside. I can’t survive this. I am going to die. What do I care what happens next? As long as I get revenge for my boy, for myself.”
Crap. This was a suicide mission. He didn’t have anything to lose.
“I don’t know who killed your boy,” she said.
“Bullshit. You ran the ballistics on the bullet.”
“The gun’s not registered.”
“Bullshit. Bullshit!” John Terrance went from coldly pleased to hotly furious in an instant. “You … you’re lying. You know who killed my boy. You killed my boy!”
“I was bleeding on the floor of the Oceanview Café!”
“One of your officers…”
“No!” She caught a movement out of the corner of her eye.
Lilith was crawling away.
So she wasn’t dead. Thank God. She might be the worst sister in the whole world, but Kateri didn’t wish death on her. Kateri moved to the side, away from her walking stick, drawing Terrance’s attention from Lilith’s slow escape. “The shot that killed your son was from an unregistered handgun.”
Lilith scraped the button of her cuff across the linoleum.
John Terrance half-turned. The rifle dipped and wavered.
Kateri said, “But I won’t lie to you, Terrance. I don’t give a shit who killed your son. As long as he’s dead.” She screamed a war cry and attacked.
Martial arts favored the underdog. Trouble was, the tsunami and its aftermath had left Kateri with more than her fair share of artificial joints. She didn’t jump well, she didn’t run swiftly.
John Terrance stood halfway across the room. Before she reached him, the rifle was pointed at her.
She went in low and tackled him around the ribs.
John Terrance staggered.
Over her head, the rifle discharged.
Behind her, she heard wood splinter, glass shatter.
Still hanging onto his waist—he reeked—she balled her fist and slammed the junk he had so proudly cupped.
The air whooshed out of him.
She jumped away, stumbled when he grabbed her hair.
He jerked her head back, smashed the rifle holster against her throat.
She gagged, fell to her knees.