Page 103 of Under Pressure
“They ordered Dom to kill Ian when he was fourteen,” Dad said, sounding defeated.
“So Dom killed this boy Ian?” Marshall Shaw asked.
Blue shook her head to clear it of the forming cobwebs. They were back to accusing Dom of murder again, and she wouldn’t have it. “No, he didn’t. He was going to. Vito sent Tommaso with Dom to make sure he did. But I found out and stopped him.”
This time Gray spoke. “By killing Tommaso before Dom could kill Ian.”
She nodded. “Yes.” She remembered it all like it was yesterday. Dom had the gun and was aiming it at Ian. Ian got to his knees, but he didn’t beg. He didn’t plead. He didn’t even shed a tear. If anything, he’d just looked resigned. Like somehow he’d known this was coming, and he wasn’t going to make it harder for Dom.
“Tommaso got Ian on his knees and stood behind Dom, taunting him, telling him to be a man and prove himself,” Blue explained. “But I—”
“Yes?” Stroup demanded.
“I took the shot.” She let the confession lift off her like a boulder and suddenly felt as though she could really breathe. Though the words were still hard to say. “He came at me, and I . . . I took the shot.”
She’d gotten there just in time—taken the gun from Dom. Tommaso had come at her, his fist raised to strike and she’d shot him. In part, yes to save Ian. He was their friend after all, but really she’d done it for Dom. She’d killed, so Dom wouldn’t have to. She could only imagine how many shots Dom’d taken since then.
Stroup looked at the ground and shook his head. “I wish you hadn’t told me that.”
Yeah, she wished she hadn’t either, but Dom was her brother, and she would protect him no matter what.
“Shaw put Bluebell St. James under arrest for murder.” Stroup took a step back to let Shaw pass.
Blue’s eyes nearly bugged out her head. “Wh-what?” And to think, she was going to have him officiate at her wedding!
Shaw took a step forward, Blue took a step back, and Sean, Mack, Liam, Wolfe, Knox, Dad, and Don, closed ranks around her. To her, they looked nothing short of angels of mercy—or arch angels preparing for battle to save her.
Blue couldn’t believe it. Only two people had ever put themselves between her and the horrible thing that was out to get her. Dad and Sean. And now there were eight people going to bat for her. Suddenly her fear vanished so completely, it was as if it never existed. The weight she’d been carrying around on her shoulders for years lifted, and the world seemed to open to so many possibilities.
“Not her.” Sean fisted his hands at his sides. The line of his shoulders was so tight, she could see the cords of muscles flexing under his damp t-shirt.
“Stand down soldier,” Stroup said. “You don’t want to start a fight with me.”
“I’ll start a fight with whomever comes between me and my woman,” Sean said in a tone so intense, even Stroup seemed nervous.
Stroup pointed at Blue. “She just confessed to murder.”
“All our girl here did, was confess to self-defense,” Knox said.
“That’s what I heard,” Liam agreed.
“Same here.” Mack folded his arms over his huge chest.
Wolfe stepped forward. He didn’t have to say anything, his piercing gaze was intense enough to peel the skin off a man.
Don cleared his throat, and everyone looked his way. “What do you get by arresting her but a lot of paperwork? Give me five minutes and I’ll have her pardoned.”
“You can’t do that.” Stroup glared.
“Didn’t Don tell you on the way over here?” Gray asked. “He’s a three-star general in the army, and a lot of people owe him a lot of favors.”
“So, stand down, soldier,” Knox parroted his words back to him. “You don’t want to start a fight with him.”
Stroup glanced at his men, then back to Sean and the guys and Blue. “You were lucky today, Bluebell.”
Blue laced her fingers with Sean’s. “No, I was lucky ten years ago, when I stepped into a library at five in the morning hoping no one in my study group would be there, only to find this one waiting for me.”
Sean hadn’t taken his glare off Stroup.
