She cocked the rifle.

Jeannie’s heart nearly stopped.

A shot rang out.

Jeannie screamed as Mrs. Patrick toppled forward onto the table, which collapsed under her weight.

Doors crashed open as officers in armored gear rushed in.

“Chief McBride is safe,” one of them said over the radio. The announcement echoed through the house on the radios of the other officers.

Someone removed the cuffs that had locked her to the chair.

Jeannie flexed her wrists, which ached. “Those are my cuffs.”

The officer handed them to her.

“Who’s here from my house?” she asked the Fairfax County officer.

“Chief and captain.”

“Am I free to go?”

“We’ll need you to file a report.”

“I’ll do that later today.” Jeannie took the card he handed her. “Thank you.” She glanced at Mrs. Patrick, dead on the floor from a gunshot wound to the head and felt a pang of sadness for the senselessness of it all. Two people were dead because a man had chosen to end a relationship that was no longer making him happy.

She grabbed her phone and service weapon off the counter where Mrs. Patrick had tossed them, walked outside and took a deep breath of the cold air, relieved to be out of that house.

Captain Malone and Chief Farnsworth rushed over to her.

“Are you all right?” Malone asked.

“I’m fine.”

“Took five years off my life, Chief,” Farnsworth said.

“Sorry about that.”

“All that matters is that you’re safe.”

“Call your husband,” Malone said. “He’s out of his mind.”

Jeannie called Michael. “I’m fine,” she said when he answered.

“What the hell, babe? I was scared shitless. Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m fine. I’ll tell you about it when I get home.”

“Thank God you’re all right.”

“I’m all right,” she said, but her knees were weak after another close call.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Sam immediately regretted the heels she knew she shouldn’t have worn. Her hip was on fire, and the wake hadn’t even officially started yet.

The family had been invited to come in early, to have a moment alone with Spencer before the doors opened to guests.

Seeing her husband laid out in the coffin had made Angela hysterical. Sam and Tracy had held her up as best they could, but it had been a scene none of them would soon forget. Sam was deeply rattled by it all, agonized for her sister and wishing to be anywhere but in a room with her dead brother-in-law’s waxy remains on display.

It was brutal and wrong and horrible and every other terrible word she could think of. How she longed for her dad and his steady presence to make sense of this for Angela and the rest of them. He would’ve known what to say and do, and Sam ached from missing him.

Tracy’s daughter Brooke came in with Nate, the Secret Service agent she’d been seeing for quite some time, though the family had only recently learned of their relationship. This was the first time the family had seen them together. Brooke took one look at her uncle in the coffin and completely lost it. Mike and Tracy went to her, and Nate kept an arm around her while she sobbed helplessly.