by Mary Stone
Linc kept his eyes on her, and each time she was forced to look away from him, he dropped his hands an inch or so, all while moving to the side to allow the hatchback to open a little bit more. He wasn’t worried about the interior light going on because he’d already noticed that the battery had probably been knocked lose. Not even the little clock on the dash had enough juice to be visible.
He wished it was Storm by his side, but he’d been working with Vader, trying to teach him how to protect Kylie. And now, he could only hope the big dog would cooperate. To his astonishment, Vader obeyed his hand commands.
Down.
Sit.
Wait.
The big dog whined only once, limped a little on his left front leg. But he stayed in the shadows. Stayed quiet. Stayed alert.
Good boy.
Linc closed the hatchback as softly as he could, not wanting it to spring open, giving away his plan. He gritted his teeth when the latch clicked, sounding like a gunshot to his ears.
But the woman apparently hadn’t heard it. She was picking her way over to Dustin Weiss, her focus intent on not sliding down the rocky slope. Eyes still on the woman, Linc waited to make his move. He needed to do it before she cut Weiss loose, but the barrel of the gun hadn’t moved from his direction. Although she was distracted, a bullet moved faster than his feet.
“Cut me loose, dammit,” Dustin barked when the woman was just a few yards from him. “Hurry up!”
When the woman turned to face the bound man, Linc let the backpack slip from his shoulders, catching it on his elbows. He needed to get to the gun.
“Don’t tell me what to do!” Denise shouted, turning the shotgun on the other man. “I’m tired of men telling me what to do! You both were stupid! Stupid! And look at us now!”
This was an interesting development.
Drama. It could sometimes be useful.
Linc hurried up his movements, keeping his eyes on the woman as he pulled the gun from the pocket of the pack he’d slipped it in only moments earlier.
The car beside him shifted, causing Vader to startle and back up a good foot.
At first, Linc thought the trees holding it up were giving, but then he realized that Kylie was moving. He wanted to scream at her to stay still, but he knew that wouldn’t do any good.
The car’s movement caught Denise’s attention, but she only glanced in Kylie’s direction. The gun was still pointed at her…what? Accomplice? Boyfriend?
Letting the backpack fall to the ground, Linc inched forward, needing a better angle. Vader crept forward beside him, staying at his feet.
“Did you kill Nate Jennings?” Kylie yelled from the car, and Linc wanted to kick her down the side of this mountain himself. This was not the place or time for an interrogation. How did she not see that?
Denise, apparently emboldened from her power position, just smiled. “No. My lapdog did that for me.”
Dustin’s eyes grew wide. “You bitch!”
Bam!
The unexpected blast of the shotgun made Linc jump, and Vader whined, cowering beneath the car.
But either the shot had missed badly or had only been meant as a threat.
If it was the latter, it seemed to have worked.
Dustin Weiss was thoroughly shaken, huddling into a ball at her feet.
The woman seemed to enjoy frightening the man because she made a show of ejecting the round and racking the next shell into the chamber. Linc tried to get a closer look at the gun, but the woman was apparently left-handed, and the bulk of the gun was hidden from his view. He had no idea if it held three shells, or five, or eight.
“I know you!”
It was Kylie again, and he wanted to slap a hand over his face.
“You bumped into me at Coulter and Associates,” she went on. “Knocked all the records out of my hands.”
The woman smiled. “You have a good memory. That part was tricky. If Jonathan Coulter’s meddling assistant hadn’t raced out with the incriminating files, all of this could have been avoided.”
“What do you mean?”
The woman sighed, loudly. “I needed you to drop the papers so they would all jumble together. Otherwise, the pattern of false payments would have been clear.”
“It was clear enough,” Kylie said, egging the woman on. “I figured it out, didn’t I?”
“Yes.” The woman lifted her chin. “You did. Even after my warning.”
What warning? So help him god, if Kylie had known that she was in danger and didn’t tell him about it, Linc was going to wring her pretty neck.
Something bumped into Linc’s side. It was Vader, come out from hiding. In the distance, he thought he heard the first wail of sirens. It didn’t matter. They weren’t close enough.
Linc gave the dog the signal. Stay. He could have sworn the big dog nodded.
Thunder rumbled, getting closer even as the bottom fell out of the sky and it began to rain harder. The ground beneath Linc’s feet would soon become more treacherous than it already was.
If he was going to move, he needed to move now, or he’d lose his chance.
“Why did you kill Nate?” Kylie asked, but this time, he was glad for the distraction.
He put his hand on Vader’s head, glad he was in the shadows. “Get ready, boy,” he murmured, his heart pounding harder in his chest.
What if he timed it wrong?
What if he wasn’t fast enough?
What if…
He shut that negative shit off. He didn’t have time for his crazy thinking to get in the way.
He had to think.
How many bullets did he have? He checked the magazine of the gun in his hand. It would suck if he made a move and the damn thing wasn’t loaded.
Six in the clip, one in the chamber.
That was good. That was more than enough.
“He was your lover,” Kylie shouted, and Linc took another step closer. “He loved you. How could you kill him like that?”
His stomach sank as the woman turned the shotgun toward where Kylie sat trapped in the mangled vehicle.
He was out of time.
“Go!” he shouted, and Vader took off like a shot.
Linc only had a second to say a prayer for the dog’s safety before sighting his gun and pulling the trigger.
The pistol didn’t have the same impressive roar, but the aim was true. Blood bloomed center mass.
As the woman stumbled back, her shotgun went off just as the Newfoundland jumped at her chest, pushing her backward.
The roar of the gun, the screams, the thunder almost took Linc Coulter to his knees.
Within seconds, Denise Summers had disappeared, tumbling down the ravine. He could no longer see her, but he could hear her bone-breaking descent.
Where was Vader?
Heart in his throat, Linc made his way to the other side of the car. And saw the big dog about ten yards down, all four legs splayed as he braced himself with all his might.
“Good boy.”
Tucking the gun in the back of his pants, he scrambled down the incline and helped the dog back up to some measure of safety. Vader’s entire body was shaking, and he whimpered each time he put his left foot down, but he was a hero.
“Good job, boy.”
By the time he had Vader secured, red and blue lights became visible at the top of the hill. Finding his phone, Linc called the emergency line again, giving them an update.
“We need a jaws of life, but send down a steel cable so I can secure the car first.”
Making sure the car didn’t slide was quickly becoming his most primary concern.
The next hour was a flurry of movement as Kylie was extricated from the little car and was being strapped to the safety basket. It was the first time she’d gotten a good look at the little Mazda.
“My car!” She glared at Dustin, who was now sporting a proper set of handcuffs. “You bastard!”
Leave it to Kylie to be more pissed by the loss of her car than the near l
oss of her life.
“Let’s go,” one of the EMTs said.
Kylie grasped at Linc’s hand before they could carry her away. “Thank you for saving me.”
He kissed her. “No bullet holes this time. It’s an improvement.”
Vader licked Kylie’s cheek in a what about me gesture, and Linc pushed his wet fur back from his eyes.
“You, good boy, are the real hero of the night.”
Kylie winked. “Told ya he was special.” She laughed, then held her head at the sound. Definitely a concussion. He’d put money on it. She’d also need some stitches in her leg. She’d done some damage trying to get out and save him.
“Did my questions help?” she asked, her wet hair framing her pale face.
He smiled. “Leave it to you to provide the perfect distraction.” Then he nodded to the paramedics. “Time to go.”
They could talk later. Right now, they needed off this mountain.
Vader whined as he was strapped to a basket of his own. They’d determined it was the best way to get him out, considering the conditions.
“Don’t worry, boy,” Linc told him as the wench that would help pull him to safety was engaged, and the big dog began to panic. “I’ll see you at the top.”
When both Vader and Kylie were both safely off the mountain, Linc sank onto a rock and put his head in his hands.
“You okay?” Jacob asked, sitting down next to him.
Linc lifted his head. “Yeah. Just needed a minute.”
“Dustin Weiss is already singing like a canary,” Jacob told him. “And search and rescue has already been called in to find Denise Summers. Want to help?”
Linc snorted. “I think I’ll sit that one out.” He pulled the gun from the back of his pants. “I’m figuring you’ll be needing this.” Since his fingerprints were already all over the weapon, he did the honors of ejecting the magazine and the round still seated in the chamber. “One round shot, center mass.”
Jacob pulled a plastic evidence bag from his pocket, holding it open for Linc to place the weapon inside. “We’ll need to swab your hands and get your statement.”
Linc nodded. He’d already expected all that. “Can the statement wait until tomorrow?”
Jacob yawned. “Hell yeah, it can. Let’s get the hell off the side of this mountain so you can go see your girl.”
Linc was ready, and he happily secured the steel cable to the safety harness he’d slipped into once the emergency personnel had hit the scene.
“Need a basket?” one of the EMTs asked.
Linc pulled his gloves back on and shook his head. He surprised himself when he smiled at the man. “Nah. I’m good.”
Kylie was safe. Vader was safe.
He’d done his job, and he’d done it well.
37
“Get it, boy!” Kylie said to a still limping Vader.
He wanted to play fetch, but his sprained leg still needed to rest. So, they were compromising.
She rolled the ball a few yards away, and Vader bounded after it as quickly as he could…which was getting better every day. He came trotting back to her, all proud of himself, then deposited the ball, coated in a heavy layer of drool, into her palm.
She grinned at his droopy face and ruffled his floppy ears. “Okay, this one won’t be so easy,” she challenged, holding the ball in front of her, ready to give it another roll.
Vader heard it before she did, and he went limping over to the driveway just as Linc’s truck appeared from around the curve.
Her heart squeezed in her chest when he smiled at her through the windshield.
Vader rushed over to greet him and Storm, so Kylie dropped the ball and followed. She tried to control her own limp, not wanting Linc to worry, but the slash on her thigh still hurt, and the stitches pulled like a mother.
It was her head that caused the most trouble. A concussion was no joke, and her mother had regaled her with all the bad things that could have happened to her, which were many.
Kylie knew that.
With crystal clarity, she knew how close her call had been. And Vader’s. She was still a little mad at Linc for putting the good boy in so much danger, but the big dog had come through like a champ.
Like a hero.
Just like Linc.
She also knew that she’d do it all over again. Just seeing the relief on Emma’s face when she visited her earlier was reward enough.
As sad as the elderly woman still was, she’d been soothed when Kylie told her that Nate had planned to come clean in the end. It wasn’t a lie, either. Dustin Weiss was pointing fingers in all directions and had confessed that Denise had killed Nate when she became convinced he was going to turn them all in.
It was a tangled web, it turned out. Nate loved both Denise and Dustin, and they both used the troubled man to secure his grandparents’ riches.
Denise had even stolen the painting on Nate’s wall, replacing it with the forged one she’d painted herself.
“That’s how she worked,” Dustin had said. “One cautious step at a time. It was maddening.”
Apparently, the men had wanted their riches much sooner.
Emma cried when Kylie told her that Denise Summers had caused Arnold Jennings to fall.
She cried harder when Kylie told her about how Nate had been the cause of the fire that had killed her daughters.
“The minute Nate told Denise what he’d done, she had him by the short hairs, emotionally and figuratively,” Dustin had confessed. “He became her lapdog after that.”
Dustin was brought into the picture when Denise convinced Nate that a threesome would be fun. “She sucked me into the plans,” Dustin accused. “I diverted the charity donations and got a cut. I had student loans coming out my ass, and it became clear that it would take years to march up Coulter and Associate’s corporate ladder, so I needed the money.”
He’d also accused Denise of being the one to shoot out Kylie’s tire.
“I was only going to scare her, not kill her,” the man had wailed.
But he had no defense for being caught with the gas can, only to say that he was only trying to scare her with that as well.
Kylie hoped he rotted in jail.
Emma had seemed relieved to know that Denise Summers was dead. The rescue team had found her at the bottom of the ravine, the shotgun still clutched in her hands. The medical examiner had put cause of death from a broken neck from the fall rather than the gunshot to the chest, although that, in itself, would have been fatal soon enough.
She knew that haunted Linc.
Once again, she’d put him in the situation where he’d been forced to save her during very difficult circumstances.
In the three days since, he had refused to let her sleep with him, giving up his own bed and taking the guest room for himself.
Twice, she heard him crying out in the night. It’d broken her heart to see him clutching at his sheets, his face a twisted mask of agony when she went running down the hallway to check on him.
She’d learned, though, not to wake him, so she’d sit and cry as the nightmare came to whatever conclusion only his subconscious would ever know. When he woke, she’d bring him a fresh t-shirt, so he could change from the soaked one invariably clinging to his skin.
Other than that small bit of comfort, Linc refused to talk about what was going on in his mind.
They’d make love instead. Gently. Urgently. Their bodies communicating what their mouths wouldn’t say.
“Hey,” Linc said as he closed the truck door, pulling her back into the present.
She pressed her hands to his face, pulling his head down until she could kiss him. “Hey.”
She had so many questions, but she only asked one. “You okay?”
He pulled her close, laying his head on her hair. “I guess. Dr. Watts was hell. She wanted me to talk about my feelings and shit.”
But Kylie could hear the tinge of humor behind the words, and it made her laugh. She was so relieved that h
e’d kept his appointment with the therapist that her knees felt weak. “The horror.”
“It is for me.”
She guessed that was true. “So…you don’t think it’s going to be helpful?”
One side of his mouth quirked up in a half-smile. “I didn’t say that.” He smacked her ass.
She laughed and moved away from him. This was good. The best thing she could hope for. Getting him to realize he had a problem and go to the first session was the major hurdle, and he’d jumped that.
Her man. Her strong, sexy, amazing man…being all badass and taking control of his mental health. She just wanted to squeeze him. And…other things too.
He walked around the truck and pulled out a couple of bags from the back. He’d gone to the store with the plans of making her dinner. She ventured a peek, and he nudged her hand away. “What are you making?”
“Food. And you’ll like it,” he said mysteriously, giving her a peck on the cheek and heading for the front door.
She followed him inside and watched as he started to pull ingredients out of the bags. Pasta…tomato sauce…garlic…
“Something Italian?” she asked, trying to peer in the other bag. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast, since she’d been busy all day, meeting with Emma first, then handling a couple of surveillance reports for Greg at the office. Her mouth was already watering.
He slapped her hand away. “Hey. Nosy. Cut it out.” He turned on the little TV he’d just installed on the counter.
The news came on, but she looked away. She’d had enough of the news. Kylie shrugged. “Well, you know me. I’m intrinsically curious.”
“I sure as hell know that, but I also know that you’re not a little kid, and can wait an hour until it’s ready,” he said, then raised an eyebrow at her suspiciously. “Actually, I don’t know that you can wait. But you’re going to have to.”
“I can’t! I hate surprises,” she pouted.
He lifted a bottle of red wine from the last bag. She licked her lips and grabbed it, tearing off the foil.
Linc grabbed it back, knowing to not trust her with the cork since she usually destroyed them, leaving little bits of cork bobbing in the bottle.
He popped it open with an ease that made her jealous. He seemed to do everything that way. But all jealousy was gone by the time she took the first sip.