Robbie smiled, relief pouring through him. He had the proof, but Alice’s trust meant everything. “Thank you, Alice.”
“Shoot him, shoot him,” Priscilla screamed to the guards.
The guards all pulled their guns and pointed them at him.
“Yes! Shoot him!” Priscilla cheered even as she backed toward the front door. She would probably try to make her escape during the bedlam. Her husband was already close to the front door, having come in with the medications. “James,” she whispered, tilting her head.
The security guards turned their guns on James and Priscilla.
“What are you doing?” Marianne shrieked.
“He’s the bad guy!” Priscilla hollered. “Keep your guns on him.”
Robbie smiled at Price, River, Merrick, and Curtis. They’d taken out the other guards and Alice hadn’t even noticed them.
“Price?” Alice whispered, leaning against a side table as if weak from all the stress. He wished he could hold her up, but they had to play this out first.
He unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt.
“What are you doing?” Alice asked, staring at his chest.
Chuckling, he revealed the listening device tucked into his shirt and then he pulled out the camera disguised as a pin in his shirt pocket.
“No!” Priscilla gasped.
“Priscilla Lavity, and probably James and Preston, have been scamming Marianne Marshall for almost twenty years. The investments through the Portsmouth Company started shortly after your father’s death, Alice. When I asked if she’d murdered Jack, Ruby, Natalie, and Odie, Priscilla said she’d put up with the ‘witch’ for years and she and Preston deserved much more money than they’d taken and Prestondeserved to be married to the angel Alice. Isn’t that how you phrased it, Mrs. Lavity?”
The lady’s face was turning an ugly purple. She flung herself at Robbie. Metal glinted in her hand. Dodging to the side, Robbie grasped her hand and twisted. She cried out in pain.
“You need a little help?” River asked, smirking.
“Nah. It’s all under control.”
“Looks like you’re struggling there, pal,” Price added. “I’ll take her so you can hold Alice. She’s looking a little pale.”
Robbie handed Priscilla off. The woman crumpled, sobbing, against Price. James and Preston looked as if they were going to bolt.
“Watch them,” Robbie cautioned River, Merrick, and Curtis.
The men nodded and approached the Lavitys as sirens sounded in the distance.
Marianne looked confused and paler than Alice.
Robbie swooped Alice off her feet and against his chest. She leaned into him and all was right with the world.
“You’re safe,” she whimpered.
“Thank you for believing in me.”
“Always.” The pledge was intense and the kiss she gave him even more so.
Robbie had to stay grounded so he wouldn’t fall over with Alice in his arms, but he was soaring from her kiss and her love.
Chapter
Twenty-One
It was latewhen a police officer drove Alice, Robbie, and her mother back to her mother’s house. Alice and Robbie had thanked River, Price, Curtis, and Merrick and said their goodbyes earlier at the station. Alice was counting her blessings that Robbie had the bodyguards from their trip come to help him out. She loved that he’d been so brave as to draw out Priscilla and end the Big Buddha, even though it had terrified her. Aiden’s guys hadn’t told her the whole story, but Robbie and Aiden’s tech guy, Ollie, had figured it out. She had been right to trust him.
