Penelope rushed me, knocking into me so hard, we tumbled to the ground. My elbow jarring painfully against the concrete floor. "You shouldn't be here," wailed Penelope, raising a fist. "You'll ruin everything."
I tipped my head quickly to the left, feeling Penelope's blow glance off my ear and hearing her painful yelp as her knuckles connected with the concrete. Above us, someone screamed. Penelope tightened her grip on me as she punched again, connecting with my wound. I tried to wriggle out from her tenacious grasp, sending a jolt of piercing pain all through me. "I should have finished you off," hissed Penelope, against my ear.
With all my might, I wrenched my knee upwards, driving into soft flesh as she grunted. A flash of steel on my right drew my attention and I saw the gun pointed towards my head. Her finger was closing around the trigger. Powerful hands reached around Penelope and made me blink with their swiftness.
"Gun!" I yelled, groping for Penelope's hand. I wanted to push it away as she continued to flail at me with her other hand. I closed my fingers around her wrist until she pulled her hand away, twisting it to loosen my grip. She wriggled, bucking and kicking, as an arm closed around her and I fell from her grasp. Someone grunted and Penelope fell forwards.
The shot echoed around the garage.
I watched my reflection in Penelope's eyes. My eyes widened in fear, and my mouth parted in a faint gasp. Then my reflection vanished as we slumped together.
Chapter Twenty-One
"Lexi? Lexi?"
From very far away, someone kept calling my name. I blinked, looking for something to focus on as my vision wavered. Above me, wooden beams and a roof came into view. A face appeared between those beams and I blinked again. Lily.
"Lexi? Are you okay?" she yelled.
"I'm fine," I gasped.
"I think you got stunned, or something. I don't think you passed out. You just lay there with your mouth gaping like a goldfish."
"She shot me. Again!"
"No, she didn't. She shot herself. Again." Lily's mouth struggled to remain worried as the edges curled upwards. "You have no idea how lucky you are. Again!"
"My mom should be so proud."
"She is."
"Scrap that. Don’t even tell my mom that I took you to a shooting! She will never ever let me forget how I put you and the baby in danger."
"You didn't. You promised to protect me, remember? And you did. I stayed outside the whole time."
My hands felt like dead weights as I lifted them upwards, checking my body for any stray holes. My fingertips touched something wet and I winced. "I think my wound reopened."
"You're bleeding," Lily confirmed. "I changed my mind. I don't want to borrow that blouse anymore."
"Penelope?"
"Rob's got her. He pulled her off you."
"Is she..."
"Dead? Nope. But she's got more holes than Swiss cheese now."
I wanted to ask her more, but someone dressed in black dropped next to me, his hands reaching out for me. "Lexi?" Solomon's panicked eyes searched mine.
"Lexi one, perp zero," I said as I smiled.
"You scared me."
"I like to keep you on your toes. Can you help me up?"
"Stay still. Paramedics are on their way."
"Hurrah! I bet I get a discount now."
"You're still on company insurance."
"Double hurrah!"
"Lexi?"
I looked around for the new voice, connecting with Juliet. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, her voice cracking. "I thought she killed you."
"No, not me..." I struggled to remember any pertinent information. My head hurt from where I hit it on the floor. A monster bruise would probably arrive very soon if the throbbing were any indication. "Solomon, check Juliet's drink. I think Penelope slipped something in it."
Solomon twisted on his knees. When he turned back, there were two glasses in his hand. He sniffed one, then the other. "Smells like almonds," he said. "It's very faint, but it's definitely there."
"What does that mean?"
"Cyanide." Solomon turned and handed the glass off to someone, instructing him to watch it until the police arrived to bag it as evidence. "Good save. Whoever drank from this flute would have been dead in a matter of seconds."
"Do we have enough evidence now?" I asked, my head whirling at the unexpected wave of dizziness and nausea. I didn't know if it was because of the bump to my head, my wound, or just finally catching Penelope in the act.
"Plenty. Stay still, Lexi."
"This isn't fair," wailed Penelope, a few yards away. I rotated my head. She lay on her back. Rob knelt at her side, holding one arm. Delgado was at her other side, holding her other arm. Someone else bent over her, pressing a bloody cloth over her wound. He moved his head and smiled. "Hey," said Maddox. "Nice work."
"Hey, yourself."
"Juliet deserved it. She ruined everything!" hissed Penelope.
"I...I..." stuttered Juliet. She stood between us, wrapping her arms around herself. "I am actually lost for words. I don't know what to say. How could you? How could you be so cruel to me? To Rob?"
"I did it for Rob. You destroyed our family! You deserved everything you got!"
"But... I didn't."
"I did everything right. I gave him his space. I let him move out, but we always talked. We did, Rob. We said we'd always be a family, and you promised you'd always be there for us. And always love me."
"Not like that, Penelope," said Rob, softly.
"Then she came between us! Her with her fancy education and her fancy job; and you just turned your back on us."
"We were over, Penelope. We were over long before I met Juliet, long before I even moved out. You know that."
"You said you never loved anyone like you loved me," wailed Penelope.
"Because you're you," said Rob. "Juliet's different. You're two different people and I love Juliet. I can't believe you'd do this to her. She helped you get a job and you tried to have her put in prison! You made people think she was crazy."
"She tried to kill me," added Juliet. "Twice."
"You don't deserve him," shrieked Penelope, wrestling against the arms that restrained her. "It should be me in that wedding dress, not you!"
"Seriously?" yelled Lily. "You want to argue over a man who doesn't want you? Don't demean yourself. You have enough problems without adding that to the list!"
"Very true," I agreed. "At least twenty years worth of problems."
"Shut up!" screamed Penelope. "Don't you see Juliet deserved it? She had everything and she still wanted more. It's not fair! All I wanted was Rob but you had to take him! You thought you would be Robbie's mom when he's mine, not yours! I just wanted to have our family back together but you lured them away with your money and fancy life, and all I got was your charity."
"We're having a baby. Did you ever think about our child? You would have killed our child along with Juliet. And our son? What about him? Did you ever think of him in any of this?" said Rob. Disgust simmered in his eyes as he released her arm. He began edging away moments before the police burst through the door, with Detective Donahue in the lead. A young, uniformed officer stepped into Rob's place, kneeling next to Penelope as she began to sob.