by Jen Talty
“Hi, baby,” Kirk said, blowing her a kiss. “Were you about to come running back to Daddy?”
Her stomach tightened. “What are you doing here?” she asked, narrowing her gaze, inching forward. Her body scorched as if her skin had been replaced by fire.
Josh looked over his shoulder. He cocked his head. She caught his gaze. They’d only spent days together, but days in close quarters, flirting, fighting, loving. His eyes narrowed, as if to speak to her. The way his mouth twitched, and the way he wrinkled his forehead, she knew exactly what he was trying to convey to her.
Calm down.
She nodded as he spoke the words. She loved him, and every one of these assholes threatened the one good thing she had left. A fist of anger curled in her gut, making her want blood. She embraced it.
The gun pressed against the small of her back, taunted her. She wanted to point it right at Kirk’s heart.
“What, baby?” Kirk stepped forward, opening his arms. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”
“I’m not your baby,” she said, behind gritted teeth.
Kirk laughed. “Hey, Josh. She get wet for you?” Kirk cocked the gun in her direction. Josh took two steps forward.
“I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” Kirk said. “You know I’ll kill her.”
Delaney held her breath, staring at the wrong end of a weapon, remembering the painful blows to her face when Kirk had backhanded her.
“Hello, Josh,” Craypo said as he sauntered a few steps from the SUV. “How have you been since you killed my family?”
“You put a bomb in my car, and you neglected to tell Nic—”
“Don’t you dare speak her name.” Craypo slammed the SUV door. “You’ve never made things easy for yourself, and this situation isn’t any different.”
“What does that mean?”
“That one over there.” Craypo pointed to Delaney. “I didn’t think she’d be able to do it, but as it turns out, she has a great deal of loyalty to her brother. I like loyalty. You, on the other hand, have no clue what the word means.”
“Neither do you, or you wouldn’t have whored out your own wife.”
Craypo laughed, but it sounded more like a wolf howling at the moon. “Oh, Josh. The entire thing was her idea. You disgusted her. Every time she came home, she’d shower to get your touch off her body. She only slept with you out of loyalty to me.”
“If that’s how you need to spin it so you can sleep at night, feel free.”
“You must be wondering why I’m here.” Craypo’s voice cut through the dense fog.
“I suspect you’re here to kill me and you used Delaney to help that happen,” Josh said with a sense of eerie calmness.
“Killing you was plan B,” Craypo said. “I would have preferred to watch you suffer as they stripped away your medal and all your honor to your parents’ memory.”
“It’s not like you to murder someone without fucking with them first,” Josh said.
“Trust me. I’m going to have my fun with you.”
Josh shifted his stance. “Tell me something, then.”
“What’s that?” Craypo asked.
“I want you to admit to being an arms dealer. To selling machine guns that ended up killing twenty-five Marines, three years ago. I want to hear you admit to hiring a hitman to take out the competition.”
“You spent a year with me. Why do you need me to say it?”
“Because I have a feeling I’m going to be taking it to my grave today, and I want to go there hearing those words. That I had enough to put you away. That I did my job.”
Delaney swallowed her pulse
“Don’t do it,” Kirk said. “He’s buying time.”
“Josh just isn’t that bright.” Craypo grinned. “I sold illegal weapons. Even sold them from jail. I’ve conspired to commit murder. I know you had enough to put me away, which is why I wanted you dead. Can we get on with this?”
“Not until you tell me what this has to do with Delaney and her brother.”
“Baby, get one of those chairs,” Kirk said to Delaney.
Her heart tumbled to her gut. “Why?”
Grey Eyes tossed a roll of duct tape at her. “Tie him up.”
She froze, staring at Josh.
“It’s okay. Go ahead,” Josh said in a level tone. Any normal person in a situation like this would have freaked out, but not him. Not her Josh.
Josh sat in the chair, hands on the armrest. His green-gold eyes caught her gaze, and tears welled in her eyes. She stood there, mouth open, unable to say anything.
“Delaney, just do it.” He gave her that look again. That look that, in the chaos and danger assuaged her fear just enough to do as they told her.
“Wrap the tape around his arms and legs,” Kirk said.
She knelt in front of Josh, staring up at him as she fumbled, muscles twitching, with the corners of the tape. How could Josh sit with such composure while a man held a gun to him? She choked on her breath while she tried to wrap the tape around Josh’s ankles, then his hands, hoping she left enough wiggle room for him to escape. His forefinger stroked her wrist right before she bent to rip the tape with her teeth. The gun tucked in the back of her shorts shifted. She paused, hoping it hadn’t peeked out from under her sweatshirt.
“Step away,” Kirk commanded.
“What are you going to do now?” She stood next to Josh, not wanting to leave his side. Her fingers tingled. The desire to pull the gun out and shoot someone scared her.
“Josh is going to kill himself,” Craypo said with a twisted grin.
“Kind of hard to do that when I’m tied up,” Josh retorted. The cool timbre of his voice soothed her nerves, but didn’t settle the acid boiling in her stomach.
“We’ve got it all figured out,” Kirk said. “Your track record with the ladies and your inherent death wish threw you over the edge. You’ve been acting erratic lately.”
Josh actually cracked a smile, which sent Delaney’s pulse into overdrive. Never in her life would she have expected to be held at gunpoint. Arms dealers belonged in the news or the movies. Not in the mountains, chasing down a no-name girl and a cop. Her skin prickled as if thousands of spiders crawled up her body.
“You know I’m not going to do that,” Josh said.
“Oh, yes, you will.” Kirk continued to stare at her, taunting her with his ominous smile.
“People in town are talking about how you’ve been unraveling, and we got our hands on your medical records,” Grey Eyes said. “Your shrink mentions an inappropriate relationship with a suspect’s wife.”
“All documented.” Josh shrugged. “And my co-workers won’t accept that I up and shot myself. There will be an investigation, and in the end, my death will be ruled as a homicide, and you’ll be first on the suspect list.”
“I wouldn’t count on that,” Kirk said. “We spoke to a little blond spitfire who told us she couldn’t work with you because you’re so unstable.”
Delaney looked at Josh. He had that look again. The one where he spoke to her and she understood him. Understood the plan that he was forming in his head.
“Ever think my co-worker might have been giving you a line of crap?” Josh asked.
“Perhaps.” Kirk winked at Delaney, and she had half a mind to flip him off. “But, the clincher is, Delaney sent her brother a note saying she was concerned about her safety, and if anything happened to her, it was at your hand.”
“Who forged her handwriting?” Josh asked.
Craypo smiled like a cat who’d just caught a big, fat mouse. “No one, because she’s going to do it now.”
Kirk waggled his finger at her, smiling and winking. “Come to Daddy, baby.”
“If you don’t stop calling me that, I’m—”
“Going to do what?” Kirk aimed the gun at Josh.
She stepped between Josh and the gun.
“Get out of the way, Delaney,” Josh said in a deadly tone.
“Aww, that is so cute,�
�� Liam said. “But you can’t save him, so move.” Her brother held up a pad of paper and a pen.
“I’m not going to be a part of this,” she snapped.
“You don’t have a choice,” Liam said.
“Get over here, baby, and write the note.” Kirk blew her a kiss.
“Do it,” Josh said. “Now.”
She craned her head in his direction, scrunching her face.
He arched a brow. “Delaney.”
“Fine.”
“Come here, baby,” Kirk cooed.
“I’m not your baby.” She felt her nose flare as she took in shallow breaths, taking small steps toward a man she loathed. A man who’d nearly stripped her of all dignity. A man who now pointed a gun at her.
Once on the other side, she turned and faced Josh. A tear stung in the corner of her eye.
“Did you fuck her?” Kirk asked.
“I did,” Josh said.
Delaney’s heart beat in one continuous pulse. She knew Josh was trying to get under their skin, but she was tired of her sex life being the topic of conversation.
“Shocking.” Kirk laughed. “She’s a frigid bitch.”
“You are so wrong,” Josh said. His eyes burning with something that looked like pride, and maybe something more. “She’s the best I’ve ever had. Mind-blowing.”
She glared at Josh.
“It’s true,” he said. “That asshole doesn’t know what a real woman looks like and—”
A hard yank of her hair cut the words short. “What the hell!” The handgun in her shorts shifted slightly. Her brother slammed her head against the hood of the SUV. Stabbing pain ricocheted through her brain.
“Let her go,” Josh said in a dark tone. “She has nothing to do with this anymore.”
“You don’t know shit.” Liam released his death grip on her arms, then shoved a piece of paper in front of her. “Listen carefully, and write these words.”
Delaney took the pen, rage gliding across her skin from her toes to her head.
“‘Liam,’” her brother started, “‘I’m scared. I met a man named Josh Burdette. He’s a State Trooper, but something is very off with him, and I’m afraid he’s going to hurt me. I’ve been trying to get away, but he won’t let me. If something happens to me, he did it. Please help. I’m in Lake George. Sis.’”
“Why would I send a letter?” She signed her name, and then slammed the pen down. “I would email you or leave you a text or voicemail.” She tried not to look around for Josh’s friends, wondering why in hell they hadn’t swooped in to save the day.
“You did both,” Kirk said. “But we need your prints on something to make sure this scenario sticks.”
Her brother tapped on her phone and then played a message that sounded like her, pleading with him to come get her.
“That’s not me,” she said.
“Oh, but it is. Got to love technology,” Kirk said. “Let’s get on with this.”
“What’s going to happen to Delaney after you kill me?” Josh demanded.
“You really are a sucker,” Craypo said. “You’re going to kill her before you shoot yourself.”
She stared at Josh as her heart rate slowed to a crawl. A wave of nausea hit her stomach. “Liam, why the hell are you doing this?”
“This is beautiful,” Kirk said. “Sending you was Liam’s idea. He wanted you ruined just as much as we wanted to ruin Blondie, over there.”
“Why?” She looked at Liam, who stood two paces from her. Kirk still held a gun on Josh. “Tell me. I’m going to die anyway, so I think you owe it to me.”
“Dad always loved you more,” Liam said. “Daddy’s little princess. You had everything you ever wanted, and I had to work my ass off, and all he ever said to me was that I needed to learn to take care of myself and stop asking for handouts.”
“You always expected Mom and Dad to bail you out of trouble.”
“Why don’t you tell her what you know about their death.” Kirk stood next to her, looping his arm across her shoulders.
She shuddered in disgust as he licked her cheek. “Get the hell away from me.” She tried to shrug his bulky arm off her shoulders, but he held her tighter.
“I think you should tell her who really killed them,” Kirk said.
Either her adrenaline kicked in, or she’d lost her mind, but a crazy plan began to form in Delaney’s head. She eyed Kirk, who waltzed toward Josh, twenty-five paces away.
“Tell me, Liam,” she said.
“He had to prove his loyalty,” Craypo said with a menacing smile.
Delaney’s vision blurred as she processed Craypo’s words.
“It’s all Dad’s fault,” Liam said. “Had he not pushed me away, none of this would have happened.”
“Did you kill our parents?”
Liam’s lips turned up in an alarming smile. “After Craypo’s man hit them, I raced in and strangled them.”
Delaney sucked in a deep breath, letting it ease out, but nothing could stop the hatred swarming in her gut, or the twitching need to feel gunmetal in the palm of her hand.
Kirk stood next to Josh, twisting his arm, trying to put the gun into Josh’s clenched fist.
“This is not happening,” she said sternly. Taking a few steps backward, keeping Josh in her peripheral vision, she pulled her weapon then pointed it at Craypo’s head.
“Jesus Christ,” Craypo yelled. “Put that thing down.”
“No.” The tremors in her hands had disappeared. “Kirk, get away from Josh, or I will shoot.” At that moment, she thought she heard the whistle Jake had made earlier. She prayed he and his buddies were about to swoop in, but she wasn’t going to let herself feel any sense of relief until Josh was safe.
“Give me the gun,” her brother said, holding out his hand, inching forward.
“I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” Josh said. “Trust me, she’ll shoot. Even if she doesn’t, you touch her, and I’ll kill you.”
“Scared, little pathetic Delaney isn’t going to shoot anyone,” Kirk said.
“Guess you don’t know her very well.” Josh kept his hands clenched.
“She shoots, and bullets start flying,” Kirk taunted. “We have men surrounding this shithole.”
A quick burst of heat rippled to her brain, her finger hovering over the trigger as she focused on the front window of the SUV.
Another whistle in the distance.
“Go ahead, babe. Show them what you’re made of,” Josh said.
Keeping the gun on Craypo, she cocked her head. “You made Liam kill my parents and turned him into a criminal.”
“Not exactly how that happened, little lady,” Craypo said. “Now put that gun down, and we can negotiate.”
Liam took two steps closer to her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kirk staring at her with an amused grin as he pointed his gun at her.
Now or never. Adjusting her aim, she squeezed the trigger. A loud pop and the sound of shattering glass echoed through her ears.
“Fuck!” Craypo ducked, throwing his hands over his face. “You crazy fucking bitch.” He dropped to the ground, his face bleeding from tiny pieces of glass that had lodged in his face. A shard had wedged itself in his biceps, blood trickled steadily down his clothes.
She opened her mouth, but someone snagged her hair, whipping her around. “Let me go!” Struggling to break free, gripping the gun and stomped on her brother’s foot.
Liam pushed her to the ground.
“Fucking asshole.” She rolled, aiming the gun at her brother’s shoulder.
Bang!
“Bitch!” Her brother dropped to his knees. “You shot me!”
“That’s my girl,” Josh said. “Aim for Kirk. He’s coming for you.”
Turning, she pointed the weapon at Kirk’s chest, but he didn’t stop. She aimed for the ground next to his shoe and pulled the trigger.
Kirk jumped. “You’re fucking nuts. I’m going to enjoy squeezing the life out of you with my bare ha
nds.”
Behind Kirk, she saw Jake coming around the corner of the house with two men, their hands tied behind their backs.
“Drop the weapon,” Jake yelled. He shoved the two men to their knees before taking a knife from his pocket and freeing one of Josh’s hands.
“Pull the trigger if you have to,” Josh said as he shook out his hands.
Kirk raised his gun at Delaney, smiling.
She held hers steady on his chest, fear creeping deep into her gut.
“Don’t do it, Kirk,” Josh said as he cut the tape off his last leg, taking the gun his buddy offered. He raised the gun, two-handed. “You’re surrounded, and we have your men. Put the fucking gun down. Last chance.”
“I don’t care. I want her dead.”
“Not today,” she whispered, pulling the trigger.
Bang!
Her body jerked as she watched the bullet rip through Kirk’s thigh. He screamed and twisted as he dropped with a loud thud.
“Asshole,” she muttered as she got to her feet and walked to Kirk. “You’re a pathetic excuse for a man.” She spat in his face before pressing her heel over his hands, which clutched his bleeding wound.
“Fucking bitch, get off me.”
“That’s enough,” Josh said, tugging at her arm.
Her chest heaved as she stared into Josh’s loving eyes.
“Step away,” Josh whispered. “It’s over.”
She nodded, swallowing her breath.
“It’s far from over,” Craypo said. “None of this will stick, and then I’ll hunt you down. No games. No bullshit. Just a bullet between the eyes.”
Josh hoisted Kirk up against the SUV, securing his wrists, then turned his attention to Delaney. He held her by the shoulders. “You gonna be okay?”
“I’m not dead,” she said, letting the words fall out in a big whoosh.
“That’s my girl.” He cupped her face, fanning his thumbs under her eyes. “That’s going to be a nasty bruise.”
“I’m going to bleed to death,” Liam whined.
“I shot you in the shoulder,” she said as she stood over him, her skin hot with rage. “And just barely.” As she looked down at her brother, any positive emotion she’d ever had for him left in one beat of her heart. “You’re a heartless bastard. I hope you rot in prison.”
