Gone With the Nerd (Nerds, #4)(38)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

"Uh, no." She had a bad feeling about where this discussion was going. "I take it you have?"

‘Briefly." Margo’s gaze hardened. "When the father refused to marry me, I got rid of it."

Zoe swallowed. "The father was Rob."

"Yeah, Rob."

"So why aren’t you shooting him?” Then she felt instantly guilty for putting ideas in a crazy woman’s head. "Scratch that. Shooting is not the answer. Shooting is never the answer."

"I could never shoot Rob. I love him."

Oh, boy. Zoe was dealing with a total fruitcake. "What about Bob? Aren’t you engaged to be married to Bob?"

"There’s no Bob."

"Sure there’s a Bob!" Hysteria nibbled at her, threatening to take over. "You said he’s crazy about blueberry cobbler!"

"I made him up." Margo raised the gun. "I think it’s time to shoot you."

"You know, maybe you should reconsider that idea. It’ll end badly, with you going to jail. I’ve never been to jail, but I’ve seen movies, and the wardrobe options are not good."

Margo shook her head. "I’m thinking Kristen will go to jail. While I was in her motel room I snagged a couple of personal items which I can leave at the scene of the crime. Everybody in town knows Kristen is crazy with jealousy. Even your precious Flynn thinks so."

"But Flynn went to see her at the motel! He’ll be her alibi!"

"She’s not there." Margo aimed the gun right between Zoe’s eyes and squinted down the ban el. "I told her Flynn wanted to meet her at a little picnic area by Bigfoot Lake."

"There’s a lake around here?"

"No, but I gave her directions that should keep her busy for a while. She’ll have no alibi."

"Then Flynn will be back any minute." Zoe struggled to breathe. "Once he finds out she’s not there, he’ll come back here."

"Maybe, except he’s a thorough guy. When he gets no answer, he’ll go to the motel office and ask about Kristen. The motel office will call the room. The manager might even decide to check the room. I stopped by the office and said Kristen was depressed and might be a danger to herself."

"Sounds like you planned this very carefully."

"I tried to." Margo sounded quite proud of herself. "But I’ve also made use of the good luck that came my way at the last minute. Let me tell you, I was thrilled to find out Kristen was in the picture. We’ve had several long talks."

"You convinced her to come out here, didn’t you?"

"Of course. She didn’t want to, but I explained how you’d stolen my boyfriend and then ditched him, so you’d for sure do the same with hers."

"I didn’t ditch Rob! I quit going with him because he lied about you!"

Margo’s eyes glittered. "Yeah, and he blamed me for the breakup. I couldn’t win. But now I have you where I want you, and that’s all I care about. People don’t often get a chance to ruin the life of the person who ruined theirs."

"Margo, let me make it up to you. Come to the beach house in Malibu with me. We’ll sit on the deck and drink cosmos. I’ll invite Matt Damon and Ben Affleck over. We’ll have a party. You’ll be the guest of honor."

"Like that would ever happen. You can’t make it up to me, so don’t even try. The baby Rob and I were supposed to have is dead, and he’s married to somebody else."

Zoe felt herself getting sucked into the quicksand of Margo’s insanity. "Give yourself a chance to find someone else, too. Someone better than Rob."

"There’s nobody better than Rob. He’s perfect, and if it hadn’t been for you, he would have married me and my life would be perfect right now, too. I had everything planned—my wedding colors, pink and silver, my bridesmaids … I was planning to ask you to be a bridesmaid. Funny, huh?"

"Yeah. Funny. I look really bad in pink and silver." How bizarre. Other than the cheerleading activities, Zoe had spent no time with Margo, and yet Margo had scripted her into her wedding. The woman was a genuine wacko. No wonder Rob had dumped her.

"Pretty soon it won’t matter what color you wear," Margo said. "You’ll look bad in everything, because you’ll be dead." She put her finger on the trigger. "Let’s do a little cheer, shall we? Give me a A!"

Zoe began to shake. "What about the noise?"

"We’re in the woods. Everyone around here has guns. They shoot to scare off whatever wildlife is bothering them—bears, skunks, whatever. A gunshot in these woods is like a car horn in New York City. Give me an A"

"So guns are a total cliché, right? Surely you don’t want to do the obvious thing. Maybe you should think about a more creative way to do me in."

Margo groaned. "Trust me, I tried. I poisoned your food, I planted the bees you’re so allergic to, I raced back here while you were eating and turned on the gas so you could blow yourself up, and nothing happened! So I had to console myself up by watching you boinking your precious lawyer."

"You watched us?" Zoe’s tummy rolled.

"I deserved to have some fun. Now I can say I saw the great Zoe Tarleton getting it on. And you looked as sweaty and stupid as the rest of us. I have to say, though, he’s hung real nice… for a nerd."

"You’re sick, Margo. You need help."

"No, I don’t. I manage fine up here in Long Shaft. I’ll manage even better once you’re taken care of. Too bad the tree didn’t do the job for me, though. That would’ve been cleaner. Now I’m stuck with shooting you. Give me an A!"

"Margo, don’t you see?" Zoe worked to keep her teeth from chattering. "All those missed opportunities are just God’s way of telling you not to kill me."

"I have to, Zoe. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t. Give me another D! What does it spell? DEAD!" She pulled the trigger.

As Zoe braced herself for the impact, an empty chamber clicked. She nearly collapsed on the floor in relief.

"Damn it all! One empty chamber, and you luck out and get it. Trust me, it won’t happen twice." She started to squeeze the trigger again and paused as a howl sounded next to the house. "What the hell is that?"

It sounded like the cavalry to Zoe. "Bigfoot?"

"Can’t be. There’s no smell."

The howl was followed by a shriek.

Margo’s glance shifted to the window but moved quickly back to Zoe. "Okay, so something’s out there."

"I think you should investigate," Zoe said. "You could add another sighting to your list."

"You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Sorry. Bigfoot is important, but shooting you is on the top of my To Do list, even above Bigfoot sightings." She two-handed the gun she leveled at Zoe.

Zoe wondered if she could dive out of the way in time. Probably not at such close range. Maybe she should rush her. It looked like she was going to die anyway, and at least she’d go down swinging. Bigfoot howled again.

Margo darted a quick look out the window again. "Damn it, why did he have to show up now? I’ve never had a daylight sighting."

"That could make history." Zoe thought she heard a noise on the cement stoop outside the back door. She took a tiny step toward the back door.

"Stay where you are!" Margo repositioned her finger on the trigger. "I’m afraid the sound of the gun will scare him away, but I’ll have to take my chances on that." She began to squeeze the trigger again.

The back door slammed back on its hinges and Flynn knocked Zoe out of the way as the gun went off.

At the moment she realized Flynn had been hit by the bullet meant for her something snapped in Zoe. With a roar of rage she flung herself at Margo, who fired off another shot that missed Zoe and slammed into the wall next to the window.

Before Margo could shoot again, Zoe was on her, knocking her to the floor with a thud that shook the dishes in the cupboards. Then Zoe proceeded to give Margo the biggest girl fight of the century. She pinched, she gouged, she pulled hair, while Margo shrieked louder than Bigfoot.

"I’ll take over." The voice sounded young, but the costumed body that inserted itself into the fight and pushed Zoe away was substantial. Bigfoot looked like he could handle Margo, which left Zoe to check on Flynn.

She turned and crawled back to where he lay crumpled on the floor, his glasses lying several feet away and a blackened bullet hole piercing the material of his shirt, right over his heart. No! screamed a voice in her head. A whimper came from the open doorway. Zoe glanced up and saw Luanne standing there, hands to her mouth, eyes shining with tears.

Zoe gulped. "He’ll . . . be .. . okay."

"Yeah … I will." Flynn opened his eyes.

"You’re alive!" Zoe felt dizzy with joy.

"So far."

"Don’t move," Zoe said. "Don’t try to be brave. You’ve been shot."

"I feel like I’ve been shot." He lifted his head. "Jeff, you got Margo under control?"

"You betcha, dude. Like, I got her in a choke hold."

A moan of discomfort verified his statement.

"Don’t worry about Margo." Zoe said. "Just stay quiet." She spied the cell phone clipped to his belt. Unfastening it, she stared at him expecting blood to start gushing out of his chest any minute. Keeping her attention on that bullet hole, she held out the phone to Luanne. "Call nine-one-one."

"I’ll try."

"What do you mean, try! Just dial it!"

"Out here in Long Shaft, it doesn’t always work."

"Well, keep trying!" Zoe clutched Flynn’s hand. It felt so warm, but any minute he could go into shock. Why hadn’t she ever taken a first-aid course? She knew nothing about injured people. And now the injured person was the man she loved.

"Am I bleeding?" Flynn looked up at her.

"Not that I can see." She was afraid it was all internal. She didn’t know how it worked with bullet wounds. Maybe he was bleeding from the back.

"I think I should sit up."

"No, don’t sit up! Wait for the paramedics."

"Seriously, I don’t feel so bad."

Zoe tightened her grip on his hand. "Don’t talk like that. In the movies, whenever somebody starts talking like that, they—" She realized Luanne could be listening, so she leaned closer and murmured the rest. "They croak."

"I’m not gonna croak." He looked into her eyes. "I’m glad you’re not shot."

She swallowed a sob. "I’m sorry you are. You shouldn’t have jumped in front of me."

"We were hoping she’d get distracted enough by Bigfoot that I could shove both of us out of the way."

"She was distracted, but she shot you anyway." Zoe blinked back tears.

"Unbutton my shirt. Tell me how bad it is."

"O-okay." That was probably what she should do, anyway. Then she could rip up some clothing and make a pressure bandage. That sounded right. With trembling fingers she unbuttoned his shirt.

Ordinarily he’d be wearing an undershirt, but they’d had a wild night and certain clothing options had been eliminated, like her bra and his undershirt. Taking a deep breath, she pulled the shirt aside and found… no bullet hole. Instead there was the beginnings of a bad bruise, but no hole.

"You’re not shot," she said, marveling at the sight of his unbroken skin. "I’m not?"

"No." And then she figured out why. Reaching into his shirt pocket, she pulled out his PDA, which had a bullet embedded smack-dab in the middle of the titanium cover. "Look at this."

Flynn struggled to a sitting position and took it from her. "That damned Margo killed my PDA! I loved that thing! All my appointments are in there, and some case notes, and my address book, and my phone numbers!"

Laughing, Zoe reached over and caught his face in both hands. "Who cares? You’re alive! You’re not shot!"

He looked at her and his grin was sheepish. "Well, there’s that."

"You crazy idiot." She leaned forward and kissed him.

"What in God’s name is going on here? And what’s the deal with Chewbacca?"

The voice, a famous one at that, got Zoe’s attention immediately. She stopped kissing Flynn and swiveled so that she could see past where Jeff had Margo pinned to the floor. Standing in the kitchen doorway was a blond, exceptionally tan guy who’d made People’s fifty most beautiful list. Twice.

He looked upset. Behind him stood a brunette in a tailored pantsuit. She didn’t look too cheerful, either.

"Everyone stay calm and we’ll work this out." said a uniformed officer who appeared at the back door.

Luanne squealed. "Calm? You expect me to be calm? I’m standing in the same house with Zoe Tarleton and Trace Edwards! My dreams have come true!"

Zoe feared that her nightmare had just begun.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Flynn would have preferred that Kristen hadn’t come on the scene at the very moment Zoe had decided to kiss him. And he didn’t have a chance to talk to Kristen for quite a while. Eventually the squad car left with Margo in the backseat. Luanne immediately started rounding up scraps of paper and getting both Trace and Zoe to sign autographs.

Flynn took that as his cue. He glanced at Kristen. "Let’s go out on the porch."

"Okay." Her well-modulated voice didn’t crack, although there were definite signs of strain around her eyes. Her short brown hair was as neat and tidy as ever, though, and there wasn’t a visible wrinkle in her pantsuit.

Her eyes were hazel. Flynn made a mental note. And she wasn’t a crazed stalker. He was ashamed of the thoughts he’d had about her, disgusted with himself for letting Margo twist things in his mind. But that didn’t change his basic belief that Kristen wasn’t the woman for him.

On his way out to the porch he was aware of Zoe’s gaze. He would have liked to send her a signal, but he couldn’t do that without Kristen noticing, and that would be unkind. So he left with Kristen, all the while feeling the tug of Zoe pulling him back.

The porch held memories of Zoe, too. When Kristen sat in the same dilapidated rocker Zoe had used when they’d read the script together, Flynn wanted to suggest a different place. But that would be silly. They needed to have this conversation, and Kristen should be sitting down.