Warren seemed impressed when he saw Jonah’s handgun. “That’s a beauty.” And then he asked, “You have everything you came with?”
“That, plus a whole lot of adrenaline I didn’t even realize I had coursing through my veins,” Maggie replied, speaking up.
“Yeah,” the guard said as if he was accepting partial blame for that. “I’m really sorry you had to go through all that.”
She appreciated the apology. “All that matters is that it ended well.”
The guard stood and waved them on their way, which surprised them.
“That was pretty gracious of you,” Jonah remarked as they left the man behind them, “considering that if someone at the prison hadn’t dropped the ball, you would have never had a knife pressed against your throat.” He took her hand as they left the building. Then, glancing at her face and seeing her expression, he had to ask, “What are you smiling about?”
“That guard, he called me your girl,” Maggie answered.
“All right,” Jonah responded, still waiting to hear why she was smiling like that.
Her eyes met his. “And you didn’t correct him.”
“No,” he agreed. “I didn’t. Because he was right—unless of course, you don’t want to be,” he interjected. Maybe she’d been offended by that, he thought. “I guess that is rather an adolescent term,” Jonah admitted, watching her expression.
“And just what’s wrong with using a term that adolescents use?” she asked. “All my best friends were adolescents once upon a time.”
He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him, laughing. “Funny you should say that. Mine were, too.”
Chapter 18
By the time Jonah had pulled his truck up in front of the cabin, he had put everything else out of his mind except for one all-consuming thing. He desperately wanted to make love with Maggie. After almost losing her in the prison riot, he had realized just how very precious she was to him.
If there was anything else even remotely on his mind, it was trying to come up with a way to rearrange his life so that he could come back to Whisperwood on a permanent basis and live here. But he intended to tackle those logistics after Donovan and Bellamy’s wedding had taken place.
Right now, all he wanted was to lose himself in Maggie. Everything else was a distant, distant second.
Looking back, Jonah was certain that if he hadn’t been so terribly preoccupied, he would have noticed that something was off even before he approached the front door.
Which he discovered was slightly ajar.
He turned toward Maggie, puzzled. “Did you leave the front door unlocked?” He didn’t think it was like her, but he had to ask.
“No, and besides that, you were the last one who left the cabin,” she reminded him. Maggie stared at the door. This didn’t feel right. “And you always lock the door after you.” She bit her lower lip. After the prison riot, they were both admittedly a little paranoid. “Maybe there’s something wrong with the lock. It is old,” she pointed out.
“Get behind me,” Jonah ordered. “Maybe it’s nothing, but there might be an animal in there. If there is, it’s most likely foraging for food.” If it was an animal, Jonah wanted to make sure that it didn’t attack Maggie.
Maggie just thought that Jonah was focusing on an animal getting into the cabin to put her at ease. Had there been someone here?
She didn’t hear any sounds of movement coming from inside. This wasn’t an animal.
“You know any wild animals that ‘almost’ close the door behind them?” Maggie asked. She nodded at the door that they had found ajar.
Jonah shrugged. “First time for everything.” His hand on the doorknob, he carefully turned it and then slowly pushed the door open.
The moment he looked inside, adrenaline blasted through him like an exploding grenade. Why hadn’t he seen this coming?
His grandmother’s rocking chair had been moved and positioned so that it was just a foot away from the door. Sitting in the rocking chair was James Corgan, Maggie’s ex-husband.
He was holding a large handgun, which was now aimed right at Maggie. “Sure took you a long time to get back from the state prison, Mags,” James commented.
“What the hell are you doing in my cabin?” Jonah demanded.
“Waiting for you, obviously,” James replied curtly. “Or rather, for my winsome ex-wife here.” His eyes slowly traveled down the length of Maggie’s body with the air of a man who felt that he still owned her. “I see you managed to make it out of the prison riot in one piece.” He shook his head bemoaning the fact. “What a pity.”
Maggie was instantly alert. “How do you know about the prison riot?” she demanded. Had her ex-husband orchestrated it?
James appeared to be bored by the question. “I’m a Corgan. My family practically owns this area. Nothing happens around here without me knowing it.”
“The riot wasn’t ‘around here,’” Jonah informed the other man coldly. “It took place in Randolph State Prison. That’s in Austin.”
James’s eyes darkened. “I know that. But since dear old crazy uncle Elliott has been in that prison for what amounts to decades now, I consider Randolph to be part of the family’s sphere of interest, as well,” James answered with the air of someone who felt he was entitled to everything and anything he wanted.
On his feet now, he continued to study his ex-wife like someone trying to find the answer to a riddle. “If you don’t mind my asking, how did you manage to get away from that hulking drug addict? He was at least twice your size if not bigger.”
Incensed, Jonah suddenly demanded, “Did you have anything to do with that?”
James’s expression mocked him. “Do I look like the type to kiss and tell?” he smirked.
“You worthless piece of garbage,” Jonah spit. He didn’t know how yet, but he would bet anything that James was somehow behind that riot and behind that addict getting a knife so he could attack Maggie. “That addict held a knife to Maggie’s throat,” Jonah shouted angrily, taking a step closer to James.
The latter cocked his gun. “Too bad he didn’t plunge it in up to the hilt. That was what he was supposed to do, not grandstand and draw the process out,” James informed them, lamenting the inmate’s failure. “Don’t take another step, Boy Scout,” he warned Jonah. “You might be good when it comes to digging through dirt, but you’re not fast enough to outrun a bullet.” His smile was positively chilling. “Although you’re welcome to try,” he taunted, aiming his gun at Jonah.
“Jonah, don’t,” Maggie warned, putting her hand on Jonah’s arm to keep him back. “He’s a trained shot. He likes to show off for his friends at the local firing range.”
“I’d listen to her if I were you, Joe-naw,” James said, deliberately drawing out Jonah’s name and ridiculing him.
“What is it you want from us, James?” Maggie asked her ex-husband angrily. “Why are you in Jonah’s cabin, playing these games?”
“No games, Mag-pie,” James denied, taking a step closer to Maggie. “You were the one who liked to play games, remember?”
She looked at him as if he was crazy. “What are you talking about?” Maggie demanded. “What games?”
The cold-blooded smile vanished, replaced by a look of sheer hostility. “Then what would you call marrying me for my money?” he demanded.
“I didn’t marry you for your money, James,” Maggie denied passionately. There was hatred mingled with pity in her eyes. “I married you because I loved you. Until I didn’t.”
“You loved me,” James mocked, his hand tightening on the handgun. “Is that why you took me for half my money?” he demanded.
Jonah watched the other man’s every move, bracing himself to jump in and defend Maggie if the need arose.
Maggie’s eyes were blazing. “Call it a consolation prize for putting up with all your womaniz
ing,” she retaliated. “And it wasn’t half your money. I just took what I felt was due me,” she told the man she had come to loathe. “I wanted to give the money to my parents to help get them out of debt, but they died before the terms of our divorce were even drawn up.”
“So I was right. You were just a greedy whore,” James accused.
Maggie held on to Jonah’s arm again, restraining him. She had no doubt that he wouldn’t think twice about beating the living daylights out of James, but she didn’t want Jonah hurt and James was still holding on to his handgun, aiming it at them.
“I gave the money to Bell to buy our old house,” she told her ex.
James’s complexion turned a bright shade of red. “You used my money to buy your sister a house?” he shouted, livid.
“No,” Maggie calmly corrected, her voice the complete opposite of her ex-husband’s, “I used my money to buy my sister our old house.”
Instead of screaming curses at her, James surprised them by laughing. It was the laughter of a man who was coming unhinged.
Regaining control over himself, he wiped away the tears that had rolled down his cheeks.
“Who would have ever thought that someone with such a gorgeous face and killer body could actually be able to think things through like that? Such a surprise,” he told her, nodding to himself. And then he sobered. This time the hatred was back in his eyes. “Why did you have to leave me?” he asked, fury mingled with self-pity vibrating in his voice.
“Why did you have to cheat?” Maggie countered, refusing to be intimidated.
“Because I’m a man,” James shouted into her face. “It’s the way of the world. All men cheat.”
Instead of Maggie, it was Jonah who spoke up. “No, they don’t,” he told James, looking at the man as if doing so turned his stomach and made him sick. “Not unless they’re insecure.”
Rage entered James’s face. “What the hell do you know?” he challenged.
“I know a good thing when I see one,” Jonah answered, still exceedingly calm as he glanced toward Maggie. “And I know how not to do something stupid to screw things up and lose her.”
“So is that it?” James demanded, all but spitting out the question as he asked it. He turned toward Maggie. “He’s your new boy toy?”
Maggie raised her chin proudly, a woman who wasn’t about to be cowed. “He’s not anybody’s toy, James. Jonah just opened my eyes and made me realize that not every man is a pig like you.”
James seemed to go blind with rage, clutching his handgun. “I’d watch my mouth if I were you, Mag-pie. You won’t be able to kiss your cowboy hero if I shoot it off,” he warned.
Jonah curled his fingers into his hands, fighting the very strong urge to strangle Maggie’s ex. “Don’t threaten her,” he warned.
“You’re right,” James agreed, underscoring his words with almost a maniacal laugh. “Besides, this dumb blonde can’t be scared off with just threats anyway.”
Maggie’s eyes widened as everything fell into place. “That was you,” she cried. “You’re the one who’s been sending me those awful anonymous email threats, aren’t you?”
“And you’re the one who’s too dumb to pay attention to them,” James screamed at her in sheer frustration.
Jonah moved in closer, intent on shielding Maggie with his own body. “Why did you send her those texts?” he asked.
“Why?” James echoed, stunned that the other man had to even ask. “Because if she wasn’t going to stay married to me, I didn’t want her digging into my family, not even into my loony old uncle Elliott for any reason. She doesn’t get to do that.”
“So you threatened her instead?” Jonah asked, stunned that anyone would think of that as a reasonable course of action.
“Hey, if she’s not willing to be on my arm and act like my eye candy, then I’ve got nothing to lose,” James responded. “Too bad that idiot addict botched the job. Just shows, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself,” he sighed, raising his gun and taking aim.
But Jonah moved farther in front of Maggie. He had to stall for time. “But why did you have your uncle killed?” Jonah asked.
James looked at him as if he was insane. “I didn’t, not that it’s any business of yours. As far as I know, that crazy old loon did away with himself. Well, good riddance. But I had nothing to do with that.”
Jonah didn’t believe him. “And I suppose you’re also going to deny knowing anything about the person who killed Emmeline Thompson.”
Fury washed over James’s face again. Being accused of doing things that he had had no part in didn’t sit well with him.
“How would I know anything about a woman who was killed almost before I was born?” James demanded. His eyes washed over the two people in the room with him. There was nothing but pure hatred in his eyes. “You two are really made for each other, you know that?” he declared maliciously.
James’s eyes narrowed as he pointed his gun at first one, then the other, wanting to make them sweat. It infuriated him that neither flinched. “And that’s why it seems like some kind of poetic karma that you’re going to die together.”
“You don’t want him, you want me,” Maggie cried, shifting quickly so that her body was blocking Jonah’s instead of the other way around. “You don’t have any reason to hurt Jonah.”
“Sure I do,” James said mockingly. “I don’t like his face. And neither will you,” he predicted. “When I’m finished.”
Maggie stared at the man who had once been her husband, horrified. How could she have ever been in love with this man, even for a moment? He was a disgusting, depraved, poor excuse of a man. Even his good looks were beginning to wane, a casualty of James’s unbridled love for all manner of alcohol, it didn’t matter what kind.
But even if he was still as good-looking as the day she had met him, it was his black soul that had pushed her away and made her not want to have anything to do with him.
“Leave him alone,” she cried when she saw James begin to take careful aim at Jonah. “You want me? You have me,” she told her ex. “But on the condition that you leave Jonah alone.”
“Oh, how very touching,” James hooted, turning his attention toward Maggie. “Maybe I don’t want you anymore,” he told her, the look on his face growing downright menacing and ugly as he shifted his gun to point straight at Maggie. “You’re tainted goods now.”
It was now or never, Jonah thought. And since he couldn’t think of anything to distract James and get him to leave Maggie alone, he knew he had to do something drastic, something James wasn’t expecting before the other man could follow through on his overwhelming, all-consuming hatred.
“Get out of the way, Maggie!” Jonah yelled. Ducking his head down, he dived straight for James, throwing the other man off and knocking him to the floor.
The handgun discharged, sending two shots into the ceiling.
“You son of a bitch!” James cried, scrambling to recover both his balance and his weapon.
But Jonah was faster and he managed to pull out the gun he had kept tucked in the back of his belt since before he had left his truck. A gut feeling had been responsible for his taking his gun along, and now he was really glad that he had followed that instinct. He had just been waiting for the right opportunity to catch the other man unaware.
“Don’t move!” he warned James, pointing the handgun at him.
The expression in the other man’s eyes was wild. “What the hell do I have to lose?” James cried, trying to reach for his own gun.
Jonah discharged his weapon, but it was only to shoot the butt of the other gun out of James’s reach.
“Don’t do it,” Jonah warned again. “Leave the weapon where it is.”
“Sorry, can’t do that,” James responded, once again trying to go for his gun only to have Jonah shoot it away, out of his reac
h for a second time.
James looked at Maggie. The look on her face was one of pity. That only incensed her ex-husband further. He was about to lunge for his handgun one last time when the sound of approaching sirens pierced the otherwise-still air.
A look of frustrated panic came over James’s face.
Even Maggie was surprised.
“How would they know to come here?” she asked Jonah. It seemed like a highly unlikely coincidence and she had stopped believing in coincidences a long time ago.
With his free hand, his eyes never leaving James, Jonah reached into his pocket. “Maybe because I dialed Thompson when I saw that the cabin door was opened. He’s been listening to you rave the entire time,” he told James.
With a guttural shriek, James was about to launch himself at Jonah. But before that could happen, the chief and two of his men burst into the cabin thanks to the unlocked door. Their guns were drawn and all three guns were pointed at James.
James swung around toward his handgun, his intentions obvious.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, son,” Thompson warned James. “You don’t want people knowing that the last thing you ever did on this earth was something incredibly stupid.”
James was breathing hard like the whipped animal he had become. “I’ve got nothing to lose,” he growled.
“You’ve your life and where I come from, that’s still plenty big. Step away from the gun. Your daddy wouldn’t want you to die this way.”
At the mention of his late father, James looked subdued. Still angry, he reluctantly stepped back from his weapon on the floor.
“You win this time,” he said grudgingly to Maggie.
But Jonah was the one who answered him. “You’re wrong. She’s won for all time,” he informed Maggie’s former husband. Then, looking at Thompson, he said, “Sorry, Chief.” Before the chief could ask him what he was sorry for, Jonah hauled off and punched James square in the face, sending the other man flat on his back. “That’s for pointing a gun at Maggie,” he told the crumpled heap on the floor. And then he turned toward Thompson. “You can arrest me now, Chief.”
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