“Help me.” Tony’s plea sounded softer and breathy that time.
Joel started inside but Connor held him back. “Tony, this is Connor Bowen. Where is Charlie?”
“He left.” Tony’s voice filled with panic. He groaned and something fell.
Connor looked to Joel, then Cam. “Believe him?”
“No,” Cam shot back.
Connor nodded. “Let’s go in and get him.”
All three walked into the room with Connor in the lead. Broken furniture and clothes littered the floor. Papers and dust were everywhere. It looked as if someone had taken a wrecking ball to the place. Not a simple glass anything remained intact. Gunfire had shredded the comforter and curtains.
Joel recognized some of this as their work. But not all. Someone else needed to take credit for the opened drawers and the empty bag on the bed.
One thing was missing—Tony.
Filing in, they opened doors to massive closets and a room with boxes in it that Joel couldn’t even identify. If it was a closet, it was a big one. To the right, Joel spied shoes. He snapped his fingers to get his teammates’ attention. They all stopped and aimed.
“Come out, Tony,” Connor said in a stern voice. “This is over.”
“Can’t.” The guy practically cried now.
Joel recognized the tone as one of defeat and pain. He motioned them forward. The sight that greeted him would stay in his head for a long while. Tony slumped on the floor with blood soaking his shirt.
He balanced against the sink cabinet with his legs in front of him and his hands limp at his sides. It looked like someone had taken a knife to him and enjoyed it too much.
Tony’s head lolled to the side. Joel followed the line of his body to his foot. He jammed his heel against the door to another closet and it slammed against an inside wall.
A phone sat a few feet from his foot and just out of reach. Joel could only assume Tony was trying to reach it and kept moving his foot when the rest of his body failed him.
Connor squatted down in front of the seriously injured man and took his pulse. The guy’s eyes were open but glassy. He was fading, and they had minutes only. Even then Joel doubted help could get there in time.
Connor glanced up at Cam. “Call for medical.”
“Is anyone else here?” Joel thought about the report of his wife leaving and hoped they got that right.
Tony shook his head but didn’t talk.
Cam talked low in the background and Connor went to work trying to stem the flow of blood from Tony’s chest. Dropping to his knees, Joel took up the position on Tony’s other side. He grabbed a towel off the counter and pressed it against the man’s stomach. It stained with red almost immediately.
Tony’s eyes closed on a hiccup of breath. Joel worried they’d lost him.
“Hope.”
Joel leaned in. “What did you say?”
His heart clunked and Connor’s hands froze.
Tony’s head drifted farther to one side. “He wants her dead.”
Joel grabbed the man’s shirt in his fists to shake him awake again. This was about Hope and he didn’t care what he had to do to hear the message. “This isn’t the time for your bullshit.”
Tony panted and his chest jumped up and down as he forced out words. “Charlie thinks she ruined everything.”
Panic flooded through Joel as he sank back on his heels. He couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. He’d spent so much time walking danger away from her and here she was, alone with a nutcase on her tail.
“I’ll call and warn her,” Cam said.
Joel’s entire world froze. He could hear Cam speaking and Davis saying something over the comm, but the sounds muffled and mixed until nothing made any sense. It was as if someone had fired a gun right next to his ear and taken out his hearing.
Joel looked at his boss. “Connor?”
“Take Cam.” Connor held out his hand and Cam dropped the phone in it. “I’ll wait for the ambulance.”
A question finally pushed into Joel’s brain. “Did you reach Hope?”
Cam shook his head.
“He’s going to kill her.” Tony panted through the words but his eyes closed. His body became boneless as his hand fell open at his side. “I want him to fail.”
* * *
HOPE FORCED HER mind to stop racing. She needed to stay calm. A madman stood in her home and her alarm system was off. Joel wouldn’t be rushing in to help her. She didn’t even know if he was still in town.
That left only a few options, the main one being to scream her head off.
Something flashed and a cold hardness pressed against her throat. A knife. “Don’t try to be a hero, Hope. We’ve all had enough of that from you.”