Junior’s face was a nightmare. The melding of handsome features into the too-harsh lines of evil.
Lathan settled his hand on her shoulder, and reassurance flooded through her body, chasing away the panic. But then his hand slid off, banishing the comfort. She turned. Lathan went to his knees. Blood geysered from his chest. Splattered to the floor. Shock paralyzed her.
Fear, anger, hurt were all absent from his eyes. What she saw was the gentle acceptance of someone who loved her. She wasn’t sure she deserved that kind of love—especially after how she’d treated him.
He collapsed.
“Lathan! No. You can’t die. Not now. Not now!” Something immense cracked inside her. If it broke open, she’d die. She went down next to him.
As long as the light shines in one of you, the other will live. The story of Fearless and Bear. An absurd calm settled over her. She only had to heal him. As long as the light shines in one of you, the other will live. And her light was a fucking beacon.
She reached for him.
Junior grabbed her by the hair and yanked her back, nearly ripping the hair off her head and her head off her shoulders. She scrabbled to get leverage, footing, something to ease the sensation of being scalped, but her feet and legs were slick with Lathan’s blood.
“Don’t fight me. Don’t you fight me.” Junior yelled the words.
She forced herself to stillness. The pressure on her head eased, then he let go of her. She rolled to her knees and launched herself at his legs, taking him down. The moment he hit the floor she was on top of him, wrestling him for the gun. He swung his gun hand up over his head, out of her reach, and smacked her with the other. The crack of his palm against her cheek startled her to a stop.
“You hit me.” He’d molested her, raped her, restrained her, defended himself from her, but had never hit her. She stared at him and didn’t recognize what she saw. The monster inside him was more vast, more evil than she’d ever imagined.
His gun arm swung. A second too late, she realized his intention. The gun in his fist smacked her in the temple.
Pain exploded in her head. Everything blinked to black. It felt like just a moment, but when color returned, she realized too many things all at once.
She was naked. Junior was on top of her. Her breast ached with a deep, throbbing burn that pulsed in time with her heartbeat.
“I’ve been too lenient. Dad kept telling me, but Mom said you’d come around, that you needed time.”
Something wasn’t right with her body. Her limbs felt too thick and too heavy and too slow.
“No more. Today you’re getting the punishment you deserve. Look what you did.” He grabbed her face, forced her head to the side to look at Lathan’s body. He was so still. He wasn’t breathing. His eyes open, but no light in them. And blood. Blood everywhere.
“You killed him. You did. With your actions.” Junior’s hands squeezed her face.
Pressure built inside her head. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction, but she couldn’t control the whimper of pain that escaped her lips.
“You’re selfish. You always have been. You act all self-righteously angry with me, but have you ever once thought about how badly you’ve hurt me?”
“What are you talking about?” Her voice was slurred and tired sounding.
“I had to live with knowing you were fucking Matt Stone. I had to live with knowing you were fucking this guy. Do you know what that does to a man? To know his woman is fucking everyone but him? It eats him up inside. It devours his heart.”
“I was never your woman.”
“Yes, you are.” Junior slammed her head against the floor, the force of it so powerful she couldn’t even tell what part of her hit. Her entire head was a writhing mass of pain. Her mouth tasted like hot garbage. Her body stopped working. Her eyes rolled, unable to lock on any one thing.
Something hot and wet misted over her face, but she couldn’t see anything in her swinging vision. Couldn’t find the strength to reach up and wipe whatever it was off her face.
Gurgling sounds. Choking.
Junior moved off her.
Muffled thumping.
Silence and darkness slid over her.
Chapter 14
Night brought harmony to the barren woods. A breeze wrestled with the dead leaves, filling the air with soft sighs. Naked branches clacked together, the sound hollow and melodic like wind chimes made of human bone.
Even though James had been watching Lathaniel’s home for seventeen hours, inquisitiveness vibrated in his bones, keeping him wide-eyed awake. Curiosity had fought a brief but violent battle with his prudence. Curiosity won. Now he was going in. Going to find out what happened after the last gunshot.
He covered every bit of his body with the clean-room suit, palmed his Ruger—just in case—and moved through the forest toward Lathaniel’s house.
The massive dog was still alive. It lay on the ground, heaving great bellowing breaths as its body fought against the bullet lodged in its chest. The animal’s black eyes watched James walk up the porch steps, but it could do nothing else to defend the homestead.
The back door stood wide open—a portal to the great unknown. Kitchen lights shone down, displaying the scene before him as if it were on a stage.
James’s first impression was of Death’s invisible presence.
Death’s immensity filled the room. It changed the air, made it empty and hard to fulfill his body’s need for oxygen, and transformed sound into muted shadows.
James never feared Death.
Death was his creation, but here in this home, Death became his friend and ally, and blood was the only color that existed.
The crimson stain was everywhere, on everything and everyone. It was inspiring. Beautiful. Would’ve been an enchanting image to record on film.
Three bodies. Two male—one of which was Lathaniel Montgomery. One female. Lathaniel’s woman.