Chapter Fifty-Eight - Fletcher

I drove to the house like a bat out of hell.

Levi said something to me but I couldn’t comprehend any of it. It was words smashed together into sentences that made no sense.

My fingers had turned white from the viselike grip I had on the steering wheel. I should have known this was a setup when I left that morning.

What were the chances of them handing over Charlotte and then Dad needing a hip replacement? I’d been frightened for Dad and didn’t think twice to leave

Ava. Poor Ava.

I couldn’t imagine the fear she had coursing through her right now. I felt a scared little boy wake up inside of me. I felt like a child seconds away from losing his puppy.

I couldn’t lose Ava. She didn’t deserve this. I loved her. Levi’s voice was loud when he yelled, “Fletcher, dammit, talk to me.”

I blinked and looked over at his wide eyes. “You’re scaring me. We’re going to get pulled over and not make it to the house. You’re going over one hundred. Slow down before you kill us both.”

I glanced down at the speedometer and gently pressed the brake. “I need to get to her,” I said through a rough voice. “I can’t let them hurt her.”

“I’m sure Duke is handling it,” Levi said, though he didn’t sound too certain.

Duke was an awesome bodyguard. He would go toe-to-toe with anyone, but he wasn’t Superman. He couldn’t fight a gun. And I knew the Capellos were cowards. There was no such a thing as a good old-fashioned fistfight anymore. Not when they had money at stake.

I slowed down when I saw the gate of my house open for anyone to get inside. I parked outside of the gate, not wanting to draw attention, grabbed the gun and stepped outside.

I couldn’t hear anything, but I smelled smoke. Had they attempted to smoke her out? Were they burning my house to the ground?

Panic formed in my stomach, but I pushed past it. Levi was hot on my tail when I rounded the corner of the gate and walked toward the house. The bodies of our guards were scattered around the yard. I couldn’t imagine how they got to them but it wasn’t the time to think about it.

I stepped over some that looked dead and others that looked passed out, but I couldn’t be sure.

The front door was ajar when I slid through the crack. Smoke had made it down to the bottom floor, but looked heavy on the top. Had Ava made it to the safe room? Were they attempting to smoke her out?

Levi grabbed my forearm and pointed toward empty shells from bullets on the floor.

I didn’t see blood but that didn’t mean anything at the moment. I stalked toward the second story with Levi protesting behind me.

I couldn’t let smoke stop me.

The runner in the hallway was bunched around the door of my old bedroom. A table down the hallway was turned over and the vase that sat on top of it was shattered.

I followed the disarray down the hallway toward where I hoped Ava waited for me. The last door on the left was the only bedroom we hadn’t checked when I heard Levi groan behind me.

I turned and drew my gun on Duke holding his finger to his mouth. “They’re in there,” he whispered while letting Levi go.

Angry tears threatened my eyes but I bit them back. I couldn’t wait around to find out. What were they doing to her in there?

“I have to go inside,” I said, stepping toward the door.

Duke gripped my shoulder. “She has a gun.”

She? “Heidi?” I mouthed.

I sighed heavily. Of course, she’d find a way to take away what she thought we would have one day.

Pulling away, I stepped into the doorway of the room and looked inside.

Two masked people stood in the room. One had his arm wrapped around Ava’s shoulders, pressing her back against his chest and the other one stood close

to the bed, with a gun hanging from his hands.

“Fletcher Hines,” Heidi said. “I thought you would never show up. I wanted you to be here for this.”

I stepped into the room and Heidi positioned the gun at my head. “Don’t you dare. I’ll put a bullet in your stomach and make you watch me kill her. You did this,” she said, pulling her mask off her face.

There was so much emotion that it startled me. Heidi wasn’t a person I pegged to have feelings. I’d always assumed that she grew up without a heart like I had. But this looked like a woman scorned.

“You thought we would end up together?” I asked softly.

Heidi laughed. “This isn’t about you. It’s about your father taking everything from us. He took our income. The nightclubs. And you get to run around Houston with your new bride? I won’t stand for it. You’re going to watch her die and regret everything you did wrong. Starting with marrying her instead of me.”

She turned the gun toward Ava’s head, and I made eye contact with her. Those too-blue eyes were scared. I hated in that moment that I had failed her. I’d told her from the start that I would always love her.

I would always take care of her.

Now, I was standing in the same room with her while someone pointed a gun at her head and threatened her life.

This wasn’t right.

Heidi pulled back on the gun, making that familiar clicking sound when I was shoved to the floor.

The same moment that Heidi turned a gunshot rang through the air. The sound vibrated in my skull as I stood to my feet in an attempt to get to Ava.

Her scream sliced through the vibration of the shot and hit me in the chest. I stumbled forward over something on the floor and Ava jumped into my arms.

Duke wrestled the man to the ground, landing hit after hit at his face when reality hit me. Ava was pointing toward the door, and when I looked, Heidi was running out of the house.

When I stepped, I realized what I’d stepped over.

Levi. He was holding his palm over his shoulder, rolling and groaning on the ground. “Are you…”

“Go. Get. Her,” he groaned through his teeth.

I turned as Ava bent down beside Levi to console him. It didn’t look as if he would die from this, but an angry knot formed in my stomach. Heidi’s footsteps

hammered down the stairs as I left the room and chased after her.

The smoke in the house was so heavy that I could hardly see. I prayed that Duke got Ava and Levi out of here in time.

Someone would see the smoke soon and call the fire department which would open a huge can of questions that I wasn’t looking forward to.

Heidi made it to the front door when I grabbed the back of her hood. She stumbled backward, back peddling as I dragged her across the marble floor.

The images of her holding a gun to Ava’s head ran circles in my mind. She was going to kill her if Levi and Duke hadn’t deterred her aim.

She wanted Ava dead, and it pooled hatred in my stomach for this woman. I’d never wanted to hit or kill a woman more than I did Heidi Capello.

I pulled her up to my chest and pinned her there while taking her to the closest room we could get to. The smoke wasn’t too bad on the first floor just yet, and we could easily get out of one of the ground floor windows.

“You think I’m going to let you get away with this?” I asked.

Heidi didn’t respond. I imagined she was afraid which was exactly how I wanted her.

I slung her toward the ground and watched as she clasped her palm over her shoulder. “Please…” she begged.

I laughed, wiping the corner of my mouth with my thumb, I chuckled at her. “You’re going to plead with me after you attempted to kill my wife!”

Heidi didn’t respond which was the best thing at the moment. The softest of touches feathered up my forearm and I looked back at Ava. She shook her head slowly. “Don’t kill her. I know you want to. I want to, but killing her won’t stop the rest of the Capellos, will it? We’d have to kill them all.”

She had a point but one I didn’t want to hear.

Sirens rang out behind us, and I looked down at Heidi. “Stand up. You’re not dying today, but you’re not getting away. I’d rather answer ten million questions from the police than let you get away.”

Heidi scurried up and attempted to climb out of the window. I wrapped my arm around her waist and dragged her toward the front lobby.

Several policemen ran into the doors with shocked looks on their faces. “We need everyone out. The fire department is on its way.”

I shoved Heidi into one of their chests. “She broke into my home, my brother is wounded upstairs and she attempted to kill my wife.”

They looked shocked, but I didn’t give them time to respond. I reached for Ava’s hand, which luckily she was unharmed in all of this, and walked her outside.

“Don’t leave,” one officer said.

“I’m not going anywhere.”