Jesus. She’d nearly shot him. She’d nearly killed the man she loved and been left alone to die with the man she hated.
Her hand flew to cover her mouth, muting the horrified moan that escaped her lips, but it was still audible over the hiss of the gas streaming out of the pipe.
“Come out, Layla,” Wayne shouted, starting her way. “I’ll do it quick, baby. One shot, the way you were going to do me. You won’t feel a thing.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said, the words out of her mouth before she realized they were forming. “I’m so sorry. I don’t want to shoot anyone. I don’t want to hurt anyone. Please, Wayne, just let me go.”
“I can’t,” he said, his voice closer than it had been before. “You’re it for me, baby. I know I was a shit husband and didn’t always show it, but you are the only thing in my life that means anything.” He pulled in a ragged breath. “I don’t want to live without you. You’re everything, but you fucking hate me. You were going to kill me.”
“No, I wasn’t.” Layla retreated, catching a glimpse of Cole moving away through the darkness as she slipped behind another row of pipes. “I couldn’t do it. You saw me, Wayne. I couldn’t pull the trigger.”
Thank God. Thank God, she couldn’t.
Right then, she sent up a prayer of thanks for the fiercely decent voice inside of her that had refused to let her pull the trigger.
Because if she had…
She couldn’t imagine it. Wouldn’t imagine it. She had to concentrate on convincing Wayne to put down his gun and getting both herself and Cole out of this building alive.
“Let’s stop this, Wayne,” she begged. “Please. It doesn’t have to go any further. We can get in our cars and go home and forget—”
“I’m never going to forget.” This time, his voice was close enough to make her jump. “It’s over, Layla. I know you don’t love me. I know it’s over for good.”
“Please, Wayne. We can figure something out. Just put down the gun.” Tears rose in her eyes and panic tightened her throat as she inched along the pipes, back toward the entrance to the observation room.
She was considering running for the door, if only to draw Wayne away from Cole when Wayne stepped around the pipes, blocking her way.
Layla cried out in surprise, but she didn’t lift the gun she still held in her hand. “Please, Wayne. Please. Let’s not hurt each other any more.”
“It won’t hurt. I promise,” he whispered, throat working as he swallowed.
There were tears on his cheeks and a vulnerable look in his eyes that made his entire face look softer, younger. For the first time in years, he looked more like the boy she’d fallen in love with than the man she’d learned to fear.
But the boy she’d loved would never have touched her in anger, let alone lifted his gun and aimed it at the center of her forehead the way Wayne was doing now.
“It will be like with the cows,” he insisted. “You’ll be brain dead in four seconds. There won’t be any pain. Then, I’ll take care of myself. I promise. I won’t let you go alone.”
“I don’t want it to be over,” she sobbed, tears filling her eyes and her palm growing so slick with sweat she was afraid she might drop the gun. “I don’t want to die. I want to live! I just want to learn how to live again.”
“Without me,” he said, hand trembling as he pulled the hammer back on his revolver.
“Don’t do this.” She took a step away, lifting her free hand into the air in surrender. “Please. Listen to me. I’ve just been so sad and so scared of you, Wayne. That’s the only reason I even thought about—” She broke off, sensing it was better not to mention her plans to kill him. “I just wanted to feel safe again. That’s all.”
“I’m sorry I scared you.” He swiped at his cheeks with the back of his hand. “I’m sorry I didn’t make your dreams come true the way I promised I would.”
“It’s okay,” she said gently, hoping his apology meant he was one step closer to putting down his weapon. “Dreams don’t always come true, and people let each other down. That’s okay. Just let me go and we can say goodbye as friends.”
His lips twitched. “Friends? You want to hang out on weekends then? Start a book club?”
Layla hesitated, sensing honesty was important right now. “All right. So maybe not friends, but you go free to live your life and I go free to live mine.”
“Free?” His forehead furrowed. “Even though you think I killed your friend?”
“Didn’t you?” Layla kept her eyes on Wayne, refusing to let her gaze stray to the flash of movement behind him. If Cole was trying to sneak up behind Wayne, she wasn’t going to do anything to give him away.
“Why would you say you killed Lily if you didn’t?” she asked, wanting to keep his attention on her as much as she wanted an answer.
“I never said I killed her. I just said that it would be one of the kids next time if you didn’t come home.” His face crumpled and fresh tears flowed down his face. “Jesus, Layla, what’s wrong with me? How did we get here? Like this? With guns in our hands and so much ugliness between us?”
Layla shook her head slowly, ears pricking as she caught the faint wail of sirens in the distance. “I don’t know. But I know it’s not too late. Let’s put our guns down, Wayne. Both of us. The police will be here any minute and we don’t want—”
“No.” Wayne straightened his arm, bringing the barrel of the gun less than two feet from her face. “I’m not going to prison. And I’m not letting you go to prison, either.”
“Please,” she whispered, her finger curling around the trigger of her gun.
This was it; she was going to shoot him after all. She was going to have to shoot and hope she could get a bullet in Wayne faster than he could get a bullet in her.
Time slowed to a crawl, until Layla would swear she had a full minute to notice the sweat rolling down the hollow of her spine, an hour to watch Wayne’s jaw clench as he prepared to shoot her between the eyes, an eternity to wonder if she would live to see the sun rise another day. And then suddenly that eternity ended and her arm surged up, taking aim on Wayne’s chest.
She was a split second from pulling the trigger when Cole dove between two pipes, tackling Wayne to the ground.
The gun flew from his hand, skittering across the smooth concrete and under one of the stainless steel cutting tables. The men rolled over once, twice, coming to a stop with Cole straddling Wayne’s chest. Cole got in the first punch, but Wayne recovered quickly and got in his own blow, sending Cole falling to one side.
Cole was back up fast, but Layla didn’t wait to see who was going to come out on top. While the men grappled on the floor, she went after the weapon. The sirens were louder now and she knew the police would be inside soon. All she had to do was make sure Wayne remained unarmed and she and Cole would be safe.
She crawled into the darkness beneath the cutting tables, eyes straining for some sign of the revolver, so focused on retrieving it she was unprepared when a hand closed around her ankle, jerking her backward.
“No more!” Wayne shouted as he went for her gun. There was blood leaking from his nose and his lip was split, but he was here on top of her and Cole wasn’t.
“Cole!” Layla screamed. Her fingers tightened around the handle of the gun and her knee came up hard between Wayne’s legs.
He groaned, and his hold on her loosened, but before she could wiggle out from beneath him, his hand locked around her throat. Layla gasped for air, a pained gurgling sound emerging from her lips as Wayne’s hand tightened and her eyes began to feel too large for her skull.
She was already seeing black at the edges of her vision when he suddenly disappeared.
She sat up, hands flying to her throat as she turned to see Cole punching Wayne hard across the face. Cole had blood leaking from a wound on his forehead, the skin above his cheekbone was split, and his drooping eyelids made him look like he was about to pass out, but he was giving Wayne everything he had and then
some.
His muscles strained beneath his tee shirt and his fists connected with enough force to make Layla flinch as Wayne’s head snapped to one side and then the other, blood flying from his slack mouth as Cole’s punches connected. Finally, when Wayne’s eyes rolled back in his head and his body went slack, but Cole’s fists continued to fly, Layla knew she had to do something.
There was a thudding sound coming from the front of the building. Assuming it was the police, she didn’t want them to come into the room to find Cole in the middle of killing a man with his bare hands.
“Cole, stop.” She crawled toward him, reaching out to touch his shoulder, flinching when her touch didn’t slow him down. “Cole! Stop!” She gripped his arm, holding tight until he went still except for the heaving of his chest.
After a moment, he turned to her, falling off of Wayne and into her arms.
“You okay?” he asked, eyelids fluttering as he fought to keep them open. “Okay?”
“I’m okay,” she said, smoothing the blood from his cheek before it could reach his lips. “Just hold on a few more minutes. I think the police are at the front of the building.”
“Head.” His fingers wrapped around her upper arms, clearly needing her help to stay upright. “Blacked out. Might again.”
“It’s okay. You’ll be on your way to the hospital soon. They’ll take care of you.” She wrapped her arms around his chest, hugging him tight. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he mumbled in a thick voice. “It’s going to be okay. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
His words made her gaze shift to Wayne. She hoped Cole was right and that whatever happened next with the police wouldn’t end badly.
She was thinking about her chances of ending up in jail for poisoning or intent with a deadly weapon, she wasn’t thinking about the still present danger. She hadn’t even realized that Wayne had taken her gun until her husband’s bloodied face turned her way and his right arm swept across his body.
“Goodbye, baby,” Wayne said, pulling the trigger.
Layla didn’t have time to scream before the bullet connected and Cole jerked in her arms. White-hot pain knifed through her stomach and the air caught fire. All the oxygen seemed to rush from the room, followed by an ear-splitting boom that crashed through the space like thunder trapped in a bottle, sending a tremor rocking through the concrete floor.
The gas leaking from the pipe! Layla’s panicked thoughts raced. The gas and the spark from the gun!
Before she could try to find shelter, a blast of heat swept her hair from her face. A second later, she was knocked from Cole’s arms and sent hurtling backward, her head colliding with the leg of one of the cutting tables hard enough to make her vision blur. She heard the windows behind her explode with a series of bright pops, followed by the tinkling of glass as it rained down on the concrete below.
She had a moment to wonder if Cole was dead—one terrible, horror-filled moment that made her soul scream inside her skin—before the world went black.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Seven months later
Layla
If there was anything more adorable than a three-month-old baby in a lobster costume, being carried around by his daddy in a pot with a sign that read “Fresh Lobster, Twenty-Two Pounds” on the front, Layla didn’t know what it was.
“Oh my goodness, I’m going to die from the cute!” Layla shoved the bowl of candy in Cole’s direction and reached for the baby, making grabby fingers. “Can I hold the lobster, pretty, pretty please?”
“Only if you give me extra candy,” Mia said with a wink, holding out her plastic pumpkin, which Cole filled with a generous handful of mini chocolate bars.
Layla and Mia Sawyer—now Mia Kane—had been a few years apart in school and hadn’t been close growing up. But since Layla had taken over as manager of the Blue Saloon Hotel, just down the street from Mia’s lingerie shop, the two women had become friends. Layla had been there to help out at the store at the end of Mia’s pregnancy and had been one of the first to hold Lawson Nolan Kane when he came home from the hospital.
“I can’t believe you’re twenty-two pounds already,” Layla cooed to the baby, giggling as he squealed happily and bonked her on the nose with one of his claws. “You’re such a big, handsome boy!”
“He’s going to be a massive beastie like his father.” Mia snagged another chocolate bar from the bowl, laughing when Cole slapped her hand away a second too late.
“Back off, brat.” Cole hid the bowl of candy behind his back. “We might still have more trick-or-treaters. You know, actual children who will want candy.”
“Doubt it.” Sawyer, Mia’s husband, glanced over his shoulder through the open door leading down the steps from the hotel lobby. “I think we’re the last men standing. Most people have the sense to take their kids home to bed before nine o’clock on a school night.”
“Good thing your wife is way more fun than those losers.” Mia grinned as she stood on tiptoe to kiss her husband’s cheek. “Halloween only comes once a year, baby. I say we leave Lawson here with Layla and Cole and go put bras on all the pumpkins in town.”
“You could,” Layla said, perking up at the thought of getting more quality snuggle time with her favorite little drooly person. “We’re staying in the hospitality suite so we don’t have to drive home late and the hotel has a crib. Just give me the diaper bag and let me know what the feeding schedule is and you’re free to go pranking.”
Mia laughed. “Thanks, but I was kidding. As soon as my sugar rush fades, I’m going to pass out. The little monkey still isn’t sleeping through the night so pranking energy reserves are low. But come by tomorrow for breakfast if you want. I’ll make eggs and you can work your burping magic after the eight o’clock bottle.”
“Sounds great.” Layla reluctantly settled Lawson back in his lobster pot, laughing again when he looked up at her with a toothless grin. “Happy Halloween!”
“You too.” Mia waved and she and Sawyer started across the lobby, where Layla had spent hours hanging cobwebs and tissue paper ghosts in preparation for the kids of Lonesome Point to come trick-or-treating downtown tonight.
Now, the street outside was quiet, except for the rush of the cool fall breeze whipping through the trees lining Main and the far-off howl of coyotes baying at the full moon. She knew it was probably time to close up and put the candy bowl away, but the thought left her melancholy.
“Why the sad face, sweetness?” Cole set the candy bowl on the reception desk and turned to her, pulling her into his arms.
She hooked her wrists at the back of his neck, spirits lifting as soon as her body brushed against his, the way they always did. She didn’t know if it was the fact that she and Cole had come so close to losing each other that made them both so grateful for the love they’d found, or if they had simply been meant to be from the start, but she knew she would never take their perfect, effortless love for granted.
“I don’t want it to be over yet,” she said with a soft laugh. “I haven’t had this much fun on Halloween since I was a little kid.”
“It doesn’t have to be over. We could go pranking.” Cole grinned, his dimple popping in his handsome face.
He really was the best looking man on earth, but it was the love in his eyes that made Layla breathless every time they were together. Seven months in and the effect he had on her still grew more intense every day.
Which turned her mind to activities much more enjoyable than putting bras on pumpkins…
“I’m not much of prankster.” She leaned into him, her breasts flattening against his chest and her nerve endings beginning to sizzle. “That’s not the kind of trouble I like to get into if you know what I mean.”
He lifted a curious brow, heat flaring in his eyes. “Oh yeah? What kind of trouble do you like to get into, Miss Parker?”
“I think you know, Mr. Lawson.” She slipped a hand between them, smoothing her palm down the planes of his stomach to w
here he was already hard.
She scratched her nails lightly along his erection through his jeans, clucking her tongue in mock disapproval. “Look at you. So predictable.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, in a tone that made it clear he wasn’t sorry at all. “I’ve got a bad case of Hard-On-Itis where you’re concerned. And you know there’s only one cure.”
“Bed rest?” she teased as she tipped her head back, bringing her lips closer to his.
“Nope, but it has something to do with a bed.” His hands moved to cup her bottom, urging her hips closer to his, sending arousal curling through her belly.
“Let me log off and tell Yasmin I need her at the front desk,” she whispered. “Go get settled in the suite and I’ll meet you there.”
“Hurry,” he said, giving her ass a squeeze. “I’ve been dying to get you out of that dress all night.”
She kissed him, grinning against his lips before she shooed him out of the lobby. “Go. I’ll be there in five minutes.”
Layla moved behind the front desk, logging off of her computer as she dialed Yasmin’s pager. Less than a minute later, her friend popped her head in from the door that led between the lobby and the saloon. “You ready to call it a night, boss?”
“Yeah, I’m turning in,” Layla said, laughing again at the sight of the wobbly alien eyeball headband that topped off Yasmin’s sexy alien costume. “Cole and I are using the hospitality suite tonight, so I’ll be around if there’s an emergency.”
“Cool,” she said in a casual tone. “Well, have fun. And thanks for letting me go listen to the band. They were great.”
“No problem.” Layla shot her a narrow look. “You okay?”
Yasmin blinked innocently—too innocently. “Why wouldn’t I be okay?”
Layla propped a hand on her hip. “I’m going to bed and you’re not making any raunchy jokes about all the dirty things I’m going to do to Cole while I’m there.” Yasmin kept things professional when Layla had her boss hat on, but as soon as one of them was off duty, all bets were usually off. “What’s wrong?”
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