Chapter Eighteen
Greg had just merged on to the Interstate when his phone rung. “You’re not going to like this,” Detective Cummings, one of the detectives from the Manitou Springs police department working on the breaking and entering vandalism case, had said. “We found a print and it belongs to Janet Duvall; your partner.”
A print could have meant anything. Maybe Janet had been snooping around Clair’s room; maybe she had been checking the security levels. Even though he had been the one to check the security, Janet was a stickler for details. It wouldn’t have been unimaginable that she would have checked it again.
“The print was in blood on one of the pieces of the cutup boot we found.”
He knew the meaning behind the detective’s words. Like it or not, Janet had committed the crime, and he had just left her alone with Clair. He did an abrupt lane change and took the next exit. Horns blared, curses were uttered—mostly his own, but he was sure the people he cut off were probably uttering a few of their own choice words. Hell if he cared. He had just left Clair with the enemy and now he needed to rectify the situation.
He had gotten there in time, just as Janet was about to kill Clair. He had stopped her, but he’d let his guard down and that was his mistake. Now he sat there, tied to a chair with the inability to help her, to save her from her nightmare.
He watched Levins touch Clair, caress her body. “Get your damn hands off her,” he had yelled. Levins laughed and resumed his hands on exploration. Yelling wasn’t doing any good. Levins wasn’t going to listen to him, not now, not ever. He needed to get free, needed to, and would God damn-it.
He worked on the ropes, trying to quickly free himself.
Clair struggled against her own bindings, struggled to keep Levins’ lips off her lips, off her cheek, off her body. They were powerless, and Levins was enjoying that. But he wouldn’t enjoy it for long.
The rope was giving way. He felt it loosening, not fast enough, but slow. Levins had already begin trying to remove Clair’s pants, and Greg knew with Clair’s position it was only a matter of time before Levins won the struggle.
“No!” Clair cried as Levins jerked her pants down.
Greg kept working on the rope, kept fighting the coarse threads of fiber until he got one wrist free and then the other.
He lunged for Levins so fast the bastard hadn’t had time to prepare. He knocked Levins off of her and then he attacked him without mercy, beating one fist after the other against his face.
The bastard had the nerve to come at him with a knife. It was all he needed. He shifted his weight, clipping Levins in the gut with his shoulder and flipping him effortlessly. In a matter of minutes Levins was down on the ground. Greg cautiously kicked his body over so that Levins’ back was on the floor. Then he saw the most pleasant sight he’d seen in years. Levins dead on the ground with his own knife sticking in his heart. After twelve long years, the nightmare was finally over.
He untied Clair’s ankles first; then he secured her pants around her waist, buttoned the buttons and zipped the zipper. And then he untied her wrists. She went into his arms, shaking violently and crying. “It’s okay,” he assured her. “He’s dead now. He can’t hurt you. It’s okay.”
She buried her face against his neck and pulled closer to him. He lifted her into his arms, carrying her from that room, from that cabin. She didn’t need to be in there, didn’t need to keep reliving the events that had taken place there.
“Thank you,” she finally said when she was able to speak.
“Don’t thank me. I should have never let it get this far.”
“You can’t stop everything, Greg. But you stopped this, and I thank you so much for that. You saved me…that makes twice today.”
He grunted. He should have seen the signs of Janet’s obsession. God knows she hadn’t tried to hide her desire to be a couple again, but he never thought it would come to that. He never thought she would resort to murder in some desperate attempt to get him back. Had she seriously thought he would love her, want her, after what she had planned to do?
“Greg,” she whispered.
“Yes, baby?”
“If you put me down we can try to make the main road before it gets dark.”
He didn’t exactly want to put her down, but they did need to get to the main road, and it was going to be a long walk. “I can walk and carry light weight at the same time,” he said, and he did. She was in his arms and he was not letting go.
“I guess we have a lot of explaining to do to the cops, and your boss.”
“That’s an understatement,” he said. “But the cops know about Janet…well, mostly about Janet. I got a call from one of the detectives today; they found her fingerprint in blood on one of the pieces they gathered.”
“She destroyed my things?”
“Yeah. She was crazy, delusional, psychotic; whatever you want to call it, she was it.”
“It’s a good thing you got that call.”
“Yeah it is. I wasn’t one hundred percent at ease with leaving you, but that call…when I got it I think I broke every traffic law in the book to get back to you.”
“And you did, so I guess it was worth breaking the laws for…”
“You’re worth breaking the laws for,” he kissed her lips softly. “Are you okay?”
She smiled up at him. “I am now. I was so scared. Scared of what he would do to me and scared of what he would do to you. But now, I don’t have to be afraid anymore.”
He cradled her tighter in his arms against his chest. “You know I was thinking—”
“That could be dangerous.”
He laughed. “I was thinking we can get the marriage license, and get married early next week.” He walked with her in his arms so easily that he barely noticed his own throbbing head.
“You probably have a concussion or something; there are two dead bodies, and you’re talking weddings.”
“Yeah, why not? Weddings are good. Our wedding is even better.”
Now it was her turn to laugh. “Okay, then I was thinking too.”
“About what?”
“We could go to Vegas and be married before the weekend even gets here.”
“Vegas. You didn’t strike me as the type to like Elvis.”
“Oh no, an Elvis impersonator is not marrying us. I’m sure we can find a nice, respectable place to get married that doesn’t include Elvis. Then we can go to that exotic place you talked about for our honeymoon.”
“I like that plan better than mine.”
“I thought you might.”
Just as his luck would have it, the bad guys were now dead, he got the girl, and life couldn’t have been better. They could discuss living arrangements later. Right now he just wanted this moment, with Clair in his arms, alive and safe.
Capri Montgomery
Capri Montgomery is the bestselling author of e-books including Ride A Cowboy, Across the Lake, The Thirteenth Floor, 1965 and The Bride Wore Black. She enjoys nature—unless the insects are biting her, traveling, old movies, art, photography and music.
Find more books by Capri Montgomery at: www.lulu.com/haremnights
Dangerous Obsessions Page 19
