I said nothing, curious.
“I did what I had to do to make Wyatt see that he and I were perfect for one another.”
“You mean you lied through your teeth the entire time.”
Another dismissive hand wave, this one nearly causing the drink in her hand to slosh over the rim. On top of desperate, Amy was most definitely drunk enough for things to easily get out of hand.
“I put forward a certain face. But isn’t that what everyone does when they start seeing someone? Pretty normal, as far as I’m concerned.”
“Lying, cheating, stealing – you consider that normal?”
“I’ll admit, things got a little out of hand between the two of us. Passions were heated, that’s for sure. But that’s what you should expect when you’re dealing with something as intense as love.”
Shock reverberated through me as I realized what she was saying. “You’re telling me you’re still in love with Wyatt?”
Another sweet smile. “I’m surprised you even need me to tell you that. All of this business I’ve been doing …”
“You want to keep him in your life.”
“That’s right. Wyatt needs time to understand his true feelings for me. And if he needs a distraction while he does, I’ll have to learn to live with that.”
No doubt she was referring to me as the distraction. The woman was totally delusional. Her kidnapping me to get him to hand over the money was cold and calculating, but at least there was some sort of rational end game.
This, on the other hand, was totally, bat-shit, off-the-wall crazy. And it scared the hell out of me. I wasn’t simply a bargaining chip, I was –in her eyes— the woman standing between her and the man she was destined to be with.
“It’s not going to happen,” I said. “You and Wyatt. I don’t know what reality you’re living in, but it’s not the same one as everyone else. Wyatt and you are done, divorced, and the sooner you accept that, the better.”
She locked those icy blue eyes on me as she slowly finished the rest of her drink. When she was done, she set the glass on the nightstand and rose, her eyes still on mine as if she were trying to destroy me with a look.
“Listen here, you little bitch,” she seethed, her words coming out in a hiss. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. You think you’re special? You think you mean anything to Wyatt?” She scoffed. “Please. A man like him with the money he has, he could have any woman he wanted for as long as he wanted. And he’s going to see that once I’m back in his life.” She looked at me with sympathy. “He doesn’t really want you.”
Anger rushed through my body. I should’ve kept myself in check and not fallen for her games, but I couldn’t help myself. “That’s what you think, huh?”
She offered a prim smile. “That’s exactly what I think.”
“Then if you’re so damn special, why am I carrying his baby?”
As soon as the words left my mouth, I knew I’d made a huge, huge mistake. The color instantly drained out of Amy’s face, and her arms fell to her sides. She’d been cocky and confident, but she sure as hell hadn’t been ready for the bomb I’d dropped.
“You what?”
There was no going back now. “I’m pregnant. And it’s Wyatt’s baby.”
She shook her head. “No. It’s not possible.”
“It’s possible and it’s true. The sooner you accept it, the better.”
Amy had no intention of accepting reality. She was as far from it as possible. She glared at me as if I’d said the most unbelievable thing imaginable, something that, if true, would totally turn her life upside down.
“I know that’s not possible,” she said, still trying to keep a cool edge to her voice. “Do you know how many times I tried to get pregnant? I had to lie about birth control to do it, but for months I tried. No –that man’s shooting blanks, and you’re trying some kind of sick head game. I’m not going to fall for it.”
She seemed so pleased after she spoke, like she’d laid down the real truth. It was almost as though I had a way out, that I could simply let her believe her delusions. But I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.
“I have proof,” I bragged, saying what should have remained in my head. “I took pregnancy tests, and I can tell you for sure that Wyatt is most definitely not shooting blanks.”
However furious she was before, this pushed her over the edge. Her body tightened into a coil before she burst over to me, her finger inches from my face. “I don’t know if you’re a liar or just a little slut. But it doesn’t fucking matter. You’re going to be out of our lives soon. And if you know what’s good for you, you’d better learn to keep your little bitch mouth shut. Got it?”
I said nothing, my eyes locked onto hers.
“Actually,” she said, standing up straight and tucking her hair behind her ears. “I have a better idea.”
She left the room, her shoes clicking on the tile floor. My heart raced as she left – I imagined her returning with the gun and doing something unthinkably drastic. I yanked at my restraints, but to no avail. When she came back into the room, it wasn’t with a gun in her hand but a sock and a roll of duct tape. Before I could react, she shoved the sock into my mouth and sealed it with a strip of the tape. I struggled, trying to push it off my mouth but not succeeding.
“There we go,” she said triumphantly. “One way to shut your lying mouth.”
She admired her work. As she did, a booming knock sounded through the home. I recognized the knock – I’d heard it on my bedroom door enough times for it to be familiar. Wyatt was here.
Amy pointed another accusing finger in my direction. “You stay put, got it? Not like you have a choice. This will all be over soon. Maybe if you’re lucky, you’ll live to see the other side of it.”
She stormed out of the room, leaving me alone. I struggled with the ties that bound my hands behind me. The knots were tight, but with a little doing I could untie them – not like Amy was an expert on knots. I fidgeted, and they loosened on my wrists. But being free was only the first step. Amy was still armed and totally deranged. I’d have to choose my next moves very, very carefully.
I had no idea how it was all going to play out. But if Wyatt was really there, it was going to end.
One way or another.
Chapter 23
WYATT
“Coming!”
Amy’s sing-song voice on the other side of the door grated on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard. She wasn’t expecting me, which was what I’d wanted. But she had to know who it was. My knock made that loud and damn clear.
“Amy,” I called out. “You’d better open this door right now, dammit!”
“Wyatt?” she called as if she was pleasantly surprised to see me. “Is that you?”
“You know it is,” I growled. “And we’re gonna put an end to this bullshit tonight!”
“Just a second!”
Fucking furious was the only way to describe how I felt. It took all the restraint I had not to kick the damn door down. And the restraint was loosening by the second. As I waited, I moved my fingers to the pocketknife I always carried it. I had no intention of pulling it out of my pocket. I was a big man; I could overpower a woman Amy’s size easily. However, I did feel better having it.
“Amy! Let me in now!”
This time there was no reply. I had no idea what the hell she was doing, but it couldn’t be anything good. And more than that, I had good reason to think she had Jess. There wasn’t a thing on Heaven or Earth I wouldn’t do to keep her safe.
More time passed, more silence. I was done waiting. I turned my body and slammed my shoulder into the door, the wood cracking and splitting around the lock. A shriek sounded from inside the apartment.
“Wyatt! What the hell are you doing?”
I pulled my shoulder back and hit the door one more time. Pain shot out from where my shoulder had made contact, but I didn’t give a good Goddamn about that. The door cracked and split even more, and it ca
me loose on the hinges enough for me to see a sliver of the apartment. Amy’s trim figure rushed around inside.
“Stop this right now!” she shouted.
I pulled back one more time and hit the door. The last slam did the job, the lock coming loose and the door swinging open. I rushed into the apartment just in time to watch as Amy raised a gun in my direction.
“Don’t move a muscle, Wyatt!” she shouted. Her hands shook as she held the gun.
Was Amy a killer? Lord only knew the lengths she’d go to to maintain her delusions, to get what she wanted. I wasn’t about to take any chances. I stopped in my tracks and raised my palms. As I did, I scanned the living room for any sign of Jess.
“Amy,” I said quietly. “Let’s not do anything crazy, alright?”
“Do anything crazy.” She spit the words back at me like they were the most insulting words she could imagine. “You’re the only one being crazy, Wyatt.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I asked. “You tellin’ me that I’m bein’ crazy for not givin’ you more money after the generous settlement you got in the divorce?”
“You’re crazy for all of it!” she screeched, the gun pointed at my chest. “For not seeing how good we were together, for not seeing that we would have been happier being away from your family, and for…”
She trailed off. I wasn’t sure what she was going to say, but I had a feeling I didn’t want to hear it. She had clearly lost her fucking mind.
“Where’s Jess?”
She narrowed her eyes and sneered. “Of course the first thing you do is ask about that little bitch. Screw her! You’ll be better off when she’s gone.”
“When she’s gone?” I asked. “What the fuck are you talkin’ about?”
Lord knew I didn’t want to draw a blade on Amy, but if she insisted on pointing that gun at me, it would be self-defense. She was shaky, nervous, and deranged as hell. What little grip on sanity she’d had was fading by the second. Amy was like a woman possessed, and a loaded gun in her hand was more like a bomb waiting to go off. It was only a matter of time before something got her jumpy and made her pull the trigger.
It was a potential tragedy in the making. But if Amy was going to act irrationally, it only meant that I needed to be even calmer in response. Two hot heads would make the situation blow up like a lit stick of dynamite.
“I’m doing what needs to be done, Wyatt. Jess is an obstacle. She’s standing between you and me. How can you not see it?”
I took a long, slow breath as I measured my next words carefully. My hands were still in the air. “Amy.” I murmured her name. “I know this is tough. But if you wanna talk about this, we’re gonna have to start with you puttin’ the gun down and tellin’ me where Jess is. Can you do that?”
She shook her head. “Jess is fine, for now. But there’s not a chance in hell I’m putting this thing down.”
“That thing is makin’ a bad situation even worse. I don’t know what you’ve done, but you can come back from it. You haven’t gone too far.”
“You sound just like her,” she spat, putting a hard emphasis on the word her. “Trying to be all rational and calm. But you’ve pushed me too far, Wyatt. I needed to do something drastic to get your attention.”
“Alright, you’ve got my attention.” I watched her with a calm expression. “Now, tell me what you want. Is it about the money? Because I can sign it over right here and now if you promise that Jess and I can leave safely.”
That didn’t seem to mollify her. If anything, it put Amy even more on edge. “You still don’t get it, do you?” she asked. “This isn’t about the money, Wyatt. This is about me and you, two people who are destined to be together. And the fact that you don’t see it…” Tears formed in her eyes – a look for Amy that I wasn’t used to.
“You think we’re supposed to be together? After all you pulled?”
“I was in love with you, Wyatt! I am in love with you! And love makes people do crazy things!”
“There’s a difference between the kinds of crazy things love makes you do and what you’re doin’, Amy.”
“It isn’t true, is it?” she asked, more desperation creeping into her voice.
“What’s not true?”
“The baby. You’re not really going to have a baby with her, are you?”
There was no sense in lying about it. “Yes. I am. And Amy, you’re gonna have to square yourself with that. It’s not easy to hear, but it’s the truth.”
She said nothing as more tears formed in her eyes and trickled down her cheeks as the gun continued to shake in her hands. For a moment, I worried she might pull the trigger accidentally.
“That baby was supposed to be mine!” she screamed, pushing the gun toward me for emphasis. “We were supposed to be a family! How can you not see it? How can you not see that you’re still in love with me?”
I was on edge. I’d known Amy to be a liar, a cheat, a schemer to the core. But this was a side of her I hadn’t seen before. She was totally unhinged, a desperate woman at the end of her rope. I began to fear she might know she was going down and decide to take Jess and me down with her. And where the hell was Jess? All I wanted was for her to be safe, her and our baby. I’d do anything for the two of them.
“Amy, you wanna talk about this, we can talk about this. But it’s not gonna happen with that gun pointed at my damn face.”
She glared at me furiously. “You still don’t get. This gun’s the thing getting you to listen to me. And it’s going to be the thing that makes you cut the bullshit and tell me how I know you feel deep down. So just say it, Wyatt! Tell me that Jess means nothing to you, tell me that you know you and I are meant to be together!”
She was right about one thing – pointing a gun at someone was a good way to get them to tell the truth. Or maybe to get them to say whatever it’d take for the person to put the damn gun down. But I wasn’t the lying sort.
“Amy, you need to end this right now. Put that gun down and it doesn’t have to go any further.”
“No!” She roared, like a violent, deadly storm. “I want you to tell me that you still love me! Jess means nothing to you, and we’re meant to be together. Just say it! How hard can it be?”
My gaze was fixed on Amy. I took a slow breath, weighing my next words carefully and speaking in a quiet voice. “None of that’s true, Amy. I love Jess, and there’s no future for you and me. And there’s certainly not gonna be any future for you if you don’t lower that damn gun.”
She looked as if I’d snatched the last bit of hope she had. The gun shook even more wildly in her hand, and more tears streamed down her cheeks, her mascara running. I might’ve just signed my death warrant, given her the thing to push her to pull the trigger.
But if that were so, I wasn’t about to go down lying about the woman I loved. I braced for whatever hell was next. And what was next wasn’t at all what I was expecting. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted her.
Slowly, Jess stepped out of the bedroom, a massive object in her hands. I recognized it as the antique vase Amy had stolen from the house the night she’d left. Jess hoisted the thing over her head with all she had, barely able to hold onto it as she moved toward Amy. Her eyes flicked to me, briefly meeting mine as she moved.
“You fucking prick!” Amy screamed wildly as Jess approached from behind.
Jess heaved the vase at Amy, the thing slamming into her before dropping to the floor and shattering into a million pieces with a deafening crash. The impact was enough to push Amy violently forward, the gun dropping from her hands. As soon as it hit the ground it went off, a crack sounding from the gun as the bullet pinged around the room, eventually hitting the couch with a soft thwack.
Jess had missed her head, having hit her on the shoulder. Amy was stunned but aware of what had happened. “You bitch!”
Diving toward the gun, I scooped it up and clambered to my feet. Once I was up, I pointed it in the air and yelled. “Amy! It’s over. Don
’t make another move.”
Amy’s eyes flicked from the gun to me. I didn’t point it at her, of course, but she raised her hands into the air anyway. With a click, I turned on the gun’s safety. Jess rushed over to me, throwing her arms around my body as I kept my eyes on Amy.
“Oh my God,” she sobbed. “I can’t believe you got here!”
“You think I’d stand around while you were in trouble?” I asked. “Gorgeous, you must be mistakin’ me for some other cowboy.”
“I knew you’d come. I knew it.”
Amy dropped her gaze to the ground.
It was over.
Chapter 24
JESS
“Wyatt, you can’t do this! You can’t be serious!”
I watched as Wyatt slipped the phone he’d just used to dial the police back into his pocket. After that, he put the gun on a table by the door, far from Amy, who Wyatt had told to sit on the couch.
“It’s done, Amy. Whatever you were trying to pull, it’s over.”
Adrenaline pumped through my body. The vase was in pieces on the ground all around us. I hadn’t intended to really hurt Amy, and it looked like I’d been successful. The slam of the vase into her shoulder had jostled her more than anything, and she seemed more stunned than injured.
“Wyatt, it’s not too late,” she said, pleading in her voice. “You can call them back and tell them that it was all some kind of misunderstanding. You don’t have to do this. I’ll leave you alone, I promise.”
“Amy, three of your neighbors already called the cops after all the racket we made,” he told her.
Amy sobbed loudly, shaking, and I couldn’t figure out if they were genuine tears or if they were another one of her acts. I wondered if Amy even knew the difference at this point.
He wrapped his arms around me and held me close. “You’re safe now, baby.”
“You came for me.”
“Of course, I did.”
Neither of us spoke, and we held each other. Wyatt kept an eye on Amy, who sprawled on the couch and stared off into space, totally stunned.
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