‘Jason!’

But Jason was too injured. He tried to defend himself, but it only took a simple stab from Grant, the taser gripped in his outstretched hand – had he picked it up from Mary?

Jason’s body pulsed as it crumpled to the ground once more.

Dani surged forwards, a cry of fury erupting as she swung the cutters through the air. Grant had enough time to lift his arm up to protect his head but the huge impact still sent him reeling back and he shouted out in pain. The blow had been easily hard enough to shatter the bones of his lower arm.

The taser clattered away. But Grant wasn’t finished. With Dani’s body still twisted from the momentum of the blow, Grant barrelled into her midriff and they both tumbled to the floor and Dani lost grip of the cutters.

Her head smacked off the concrete and her vision blurred. She tried to move but couldn’t. The slivers of moonlight coming through the tall windows of the warehouse danced in front of her.

‘He’s my son,’ Grant said, tears rolling down his cheeks. ‘My only son.’

Dazed, Dani’s vision blurred. Ben? Standing over her. That hideous ornament in his hand that he’d tried to kill her with. She’d been lying on the floor then, in the lounge of the home he’d shared with his wife and kids. He’d wanted to kill Dani. He’d bludgeoned her. But he’d never checked that she was dead before rushing off to kill Gemma. He should have made sure he finished her off.

Suddenly the image – hallucination? – flickered and Dani realised it wasn’t Ben standing over her, but Steven Grant. And he wasn’t about to make the same mistake as Ben had. His face was creased with venom. She’d killed his son. Had she killed Mary too? It didn’t matter what Ethan and his mother were. Steven Grant still loved them. He lifted the bolt cutters above his head…

Then his eyes widened and his body jerked and jolted. He lurched forwards, much like Jason had moments earlier when he’d been tasered. He kept coming. Right for Dani.

All she could do as Steven Grant descended upon her was to hold up a hand to her face. It did little to soften the blow as Grant’s heavy body slammed down onto her, winding her in the process, and sending her to the brink of unconsciousness.

She couldn’t breathe. Grant’s listless mass was covering her face. She began to drift. She was going to suffocate.

Then she heard a muffled voice that gave her the focus she needed.

‘Dani. Are you ok?’

Jason.

Chapter Sixty-Three

Two months later

‘You’ll receive a formal letter confirming the decision shortly,’ McNair said.