by Unknown
“Oh, she thought Jace wanted you here. I lied to her.” Jillian’s lips twisted into the caricature of a smirk.
Kaycee wondered how Jillian would react if she told her it looked as though rigor mortis had settled on her face.
“I’ve just spent the last hour with Jace. We usually shower together. Did you know that?”
Kaycee eyed Jillian’s wet hair. Obviously, the woman had just left the shower. It didn’t mean Jace took one with her. She frowned. He’d said he was going to take a shower.
“Jace wants to keep it a secret, but I think it’s time you know we’re lovers. We have been for years.”
“It’s in the past, Jillian. Past tense. Jace told me everything about you today.”
She laughed softly. “I doubt he told you everything.” She clamped her fingers on Kaycee’s shoulders. “I want you to leave the Star. Get out of Jace’s life. He’s mine!”
“Let go!” Kaycee tried to jerk free, but Jillian clamped her fingers tighter into her flesh. “I’m not going anywhere. Jace is my husband. Let go of me!” She twisted away. “Keep your hands off me. I mean it. And stay away from Jace!”
“I don’t think so, little girl. You see, Jace and I are going to have a baby. I’m pregnant with his child. So you need to get out of his life. He wants our baby real bad.”
“You’re lying!” Nausea boiled in Kaycee’s stomach. Dear God, she was going to be sick. “You’re lying,” she repeated, faintly.
“Why would I lie about something that can be so easily proven?”
“Jace wouldn’t touch you. He can’t stand you.”
“Is that what he told you?” She laughed. “Oh, honey, has he got you fooled. The very first day of your arrival here, we showered together. We made love beneath the warm spray. Believe me, he had a raging hard-on. I took great pleasure in taking care of the problem for him, in more ways than one, if you get my meaning.” She smiled and rubbed her stomach. “That’s the day he gave me his baby. He fucked me twice in the shower…ooh, I’d say maybe two hours of yummy lovemaking before you arrived.”
She licked her lips reminding Kaycee of a reptilian.
“Jace is quite the stud,” she continued. “Don’t you agree? Let’s see, how long had you been married then? Maybe a week and already, he’s fucking another woman. I dare say he comes just as quickly for you though. Do you give him blowjobs? There’s nothing he likes more than a hot, wet blowjob. Right? Or maybe you aren’t woman enough to suck a man’s cock.”
Kaycee stared at Jillian, her body shaking, eyes bleak. “You’re lying,” she whispered. “It’s all a lie.”
“Ask him.” Jillian shrugged. “One thing Jace isn’t is a liar. He’ll tell you we showered together. Ask him. He can’t deny it.”
Kaycee didn’t know how it happened. Couldn’t remember afterward, but suddenly she had Jillian by the hair and the long lethal knife she kept tucked in her boot pressed against Jillian’s throat. “You’re a lying bitch,” she yelled.
A terrified scream ripped from Jillian’s throat. It exploded through the night sounding much like a wildcat with its tail caught under a rocker. Kaycee pressed the knife closer, nicking her throat.
“I’m telling you right now, pack your bags and haul your ass back to whatever rock you crawled out from under. Keep away from my husband or I’ll slice you wide open. There won’t be enough of you left to piece together. You got me?”
She pressed the blade closer.
Jillian screamed louder. The horses nickered and stomped the stall floors. Some kicked the stall doors. Several stable hands ran inside, but froze in their tracks when they saw the two women.
“You’re cutting me,” Jillian cried. “Jesus, I’m bleeding! You crazy cunt! Jace! Thank God! This crazy bitch is trying to kill me!”
* * * *
Jace stopped in his tracks. After hearing two screams come from the stables, he’d been afraid Kaycee was in trouble. He ran across the yard and into the barn only to find his gentle, little wife holding a knife against his stepmother’s throat. He arched his brows at the thin ribbon of blood trailing down Jillian’s pale throat.
Dianna skidded to a halt behind him. “What’s going on? I heard screams. Oh,” she said after spotting Kaycee holding a knife against Jillian’s jugular.
Jace folded his arms across his chest and rocked back on his boot heels. “You might wanna turn her loose now, darlin.’”
Kaycee flashed him a pissed-off look, her eyes shooting bullets at him.
“Or not,” he said, grinning.
The knife cut a little deeper into Jillian’s throat. Jillian squealed like a stuck pig.
Kaycee sent Jace an accusatory glare. “She told me you and she showered together the day I arrived. Is that true?”
“Oh shit!” The strangled words escaped Dianna, who was staring at Kaycee as if she’d never seen her before. She clamped a hand over her mouth.
“Not exactly,” Jace replied.
“What exactly?” Kaycee snapped. “Were you in the shower together or not? It’s a simple question, Jace. Only two answers. Yes or no? Which is it?”
“Yes.”
He didn’t elaborate. It was a simple question with a simple answer.
“I see.” Kaycee swallowed hard. A tiny hitch slipped past her lips. It said a lot to the man standing there wishing he was anywhere but where he was now.
Jace cursed. He’d hurt his sweet wife and that was the last thing he’d ever wanted to do. Swearing, he could kick his own ass for not taking the opportunity to tell his wife about that morning.
He watched now, uncertain what to say, what to do when Kaycee kept the knife pressed against Jillian’s throat. Fresh blood beaded his stepmother’s throat. He should have done the deed himself a long time ago.
Jillian whimpered. “Do something, Jace.”
“Well, Jillian, if I rush her, it might make her nervous, and someone nervous with a knife is downright scary. She might get excited and let the knife slip a little too deep. It’d all be over but the crying and somehow, I just don’t think there’d be very many tears shed for you.”
“She also said you—” Kaycee swallowed, then continued, “that you made love to her. Twice. Is that true?”
Dianna snorted. “You’re an utter idiot, Jace.”
Jillian moaned.
Jace shifted and swore beneath his breath. “Not exactly,” he replied.
“Jesus,” Dianna whispered her eyes bugging out at her brother. “Are you insane or just plain stupid?”
“Kaycee.” Jace felt as if he’d been punched in the chest at the wounded look he saw in her eyes. “It’s not what you think, darlin’.”
“Answer the question, Jace. Again, it’s a simple question with a simple yes or no answer. Did you or did you not have sex with her?”
“It’s not a simple yes or no answer, Kaycee.”
“Answer the damn question!”
“I’m not sure.”
Kaycee drew in a deep breath. “You’re not sure? How can you not be sure?”
“Because I was drunk.”
“Did you enjoy it?”
“Kaycee…don’t. Don’t do this.”
“Did you enjoy it? Answer me.”
Jace clenched his jaw. “No, I didn’t enjoy it! Damn it, Kaycee, it wasn’t like that. Jesus.” He thrust his fingers through his hair. “Goddamn it! I swear to you I have not touched her in any way. Not in years.”
Tears spilled over Kaycee’s eyes and slid down her pale cheeks. “You were in the shower together, naked. I’d say there was some touching going on.”
“No, there wasn’t.”
“Did you touch her breasts?”
Jace hesitated, trying to recall what had happened in the shower that day. He definitely remembered Jillian’s nipples pressed against his chest. He remembered his cock throbbing urgently and damn, he remembered her hot mouth all over him. “I—”
Kaycee shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. You allowed her to shower
with you.”
“I didn’t allow it,” he said quietly.
“Did you know she’s pregnant with your child?”
“No.”
Kaycee lowered the knife and stepped back from Jillian. “Leave. If I see you again, if you go near Jace again, I’ll slice you to ribbons,” she warned quietly.
Jillian stepped around Kaycee, pressed a hand to her throat, looked at the blood staining her fingers and whimpered. She pushed past Jace and Dianna and raced from the stables as if she thought Kaycee was the devil on her heels.
Kaycee turned and started past Jace, her face dark with rage.
He hesitated, then clasped her by the arm. “Kaycee, you have to listen to me. I don’t know what happened that morning, but it isn’t like it sounds.”
She flung back her head. “It sounds like the two of you got down and dirty, Jace. That’s how it sounds to me. Don’t touch me!” She jerked her arm free and moved back out of his reach. “You were in the shower together. From what I heard, you enjoyed it enough the first time to go back for seconds. I said, don’t touch me.”
Jace sucked in a sharp breath, held up his hands, and took a hasty step in retreat from his wife. Too late. As she stormed away from the stables, he stroked his hand across his stinging belly.
What the hell?
He stared after his wife’s straight-as-a-board spine, his mouth open with disbelief. Then a slow grin settled on his lips. His timid, little wife had just sliced him across the midriff. A neat, light slash of the blade to be sure, but effective. It got his attention.
Dianna moved to one side as Kaycee sped past her. “Shit, Jace. You really managed to make a muck of things. Couldn’t you have just said you didn’t screw Jillian?”
“No.”
“Why not?” Dianna glared at him.
“Because I’m pretty sure I did. I can’t remember, and I don’t want to lie to my wife.”
Not if he could help it.
“Maybe you don’t remember because it didn’t happen. Oh, my God, Jace, you’re bleeding.”
He glanced at the beads of blood forming on his immaculate white T-shirt and the neat slash where the cotton material gaped open. “So I am,” he said lightly.
“She cut you,” Dianna declared with disbelief.
He grinned. “She sure did.”
“Does this mean she loves you?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“She really scared the shit outta Jillian.”
“Yeah, I think she did.”
“She really scared the shit outta me, too.”
“Yup.” He rubbed his stinging belly. Damn, it throbbed like a mother.
“Is that all you have to say?”
“Yeah, I think so. Except, who the hell put the damn spider bite on your neck?”
“None of your business, J.D., and if you try to find out, I’ll borrow Kaycee’s knife!” Dianna whirled and sailed out of the stables right on her sister-in-law’s heels.
Jace stood there watching his sister disappear in the darkness. “She-eet.”
Then he laughed softly. He stroked the burning cut across his midriff. Thank God it was shallow. He had a feeling his sweet, docile wife was going to keep him on his toes for the rest of his life. The timid kitten had turned into a hellcat.
“Yeah, I think so,” he muttered, and headed to the house, a silly grin lingering on his lips.
Chapter Nineteen
When you’re throwin’ your weight around, be ready to have it thrown around by somebody else.
~Cowboy Quotes
Rimrock
Pine Cone Inn
Monday 11:55 p.m.
Jillian turned the snazzy T-Bird into the parking lot of the Pine Cone Inn. She switched off the key in the ignition, clenched her teeth in frustration and pounded the steering wheel. She detested that miserable woman! Hated-hated-hated!
If she knew how to use a knife the way Kaycee apparently did, she’d show her a thing or two. Sure, when she was younger, she’d cut her stepfather, but that had been pure dumb luck. She hadn’t done anything like it since.
She wouldn’t underestimate Kaycee Bitch Remington again.
The little cunt walked around as if butter didn’t melt in her mewly mouth, making calf eyes at Jace, giving him a sweet blowjob in the stables, then priss around like she had no idea men liked their dicks sucked.
And all the time she packed a fuckin’ frog sticker! Who’d have thought it? A friggin’ knife!
She massaged her throat, wincing at the raw sting. She was having a hell of a time getting the bleeding stopped. It still oozed down her neck even with a bandage on it. The bloodstain had ruined the white silk blouse she’d changed into for her date with Rodney. Something else the bitch was going to pay for.
She swung a glance at her luggage tossed haphazardly in the back seat. She’d have to hunt for a clean blouse and change before Rodney showed up. She didn’t want him to see the blood on her clothes and have a good laugh at her expense.
For now, the little slut had won. She’d left the Star, but she didn’t plan on going far. She had Jace’s baby in her and by God he was going to marry her and give his son his name and fortune.
She’d packed all her shit and piled the suitcases in the back seat and left Dancing Star as fast as she could. And she wasn’t going back to the Star until the bitch Jace married was outta there.
And the bitch was so outta there.
Kaycee was leaving if she had to wait in ambush, shoot her and bury her body somewhere so it was never found. The bitch might pack a knife, but she packed a gun. It was in one of her suitcases even now.
But she thought Jace would tire of Kaycee’s boring innocence, and it wouldn’t take him long. He was a sexual creature. A man’s man. Rugged. Tough. And she’d taught him well. She knew him better than that bitch of a wife could ever dream of knowing him.
Yes, she knew Jace.
He liked sex. Kaycee had been refusing him.
That suited her just fine. She knew what it took to get Jace hot, hard, and off.
If he couldn’t get enough sex from his wife, then she was more than willing to take her place. He’d come to her, sooner or later. She intended it to be sooner. Jace was the kind of man who needed a tough woman in his life. He wouldn’t be able to stand a whiny, helpless female for long.
She ripped the key out of the switch. “Shit!”
Jillian stared at the ragged end of the fingernail she’d just broken.
“Shit!”
This was the bitch’s fault, too. She wouldn’t have yanked on the key so hard and caught her nail if she wasn’t pissed at the woman.
Jillian slammed the car door behind her and looked around. Standing there in the dark, she glared at the offending nail and huffed, she’d just had a frickin’ manicure yesterday.
Where the hell was Rodney?
She glanced around, a bit wary of the darkness. He wasn’t one to keep a woman waiting. Why didn’t the lazy, no-good manager of this flea bitten, rat hole have better lighting on the backside of this shitty motel?
Jillian didn’t like waiting. She especially didn’t like waiting in the dark. It gave her goose bumps. Dark shadows danced about. The wind howled a mournful tune. In the distance, she heard the mournful cries of a pack of wolves. The moon didn’t exist, not tonight. It was creepy on this side of the building. She shivered.
Ah, there was his truck, wedged at the end of the building next to a big pine. She started toward it and wobbled off balance. Glancing down, she swore viciously. The heel of her shoe was caught in the gravel and when she tried to tug it free, it snapped off.
“Shit!” She stopped, leaned down, and slipped off the broken shoe. Her favorite pair of Pradas. “Sonofabitch.”
She loved this particular pair of shoes, mainly because they’d cost Jace a mint. She’d purchased them last summer and sent him the bill. Yeah, she loved this particular pair of heels.
Hearing a slight noise, Jillian rose up as a shadow crosse
d her path, blocking what light there was from the distant street light.
“Evenin,’ Miz R.”
She narrowed her eyes and tried to get a clear view of the man. His face remained in the shadows. She could barely see the outline of his tall body. His voice was vaguely familiar. Where did she know him from?
“Where’s Rodney?” she snapped.
“I guess you could say Rodney’s a little cut up ‘cause he can’t be here for you as he promised, Miz R. You could say I’m here to take Rod’s place.”
“Do I know you?”
The man took a step closer. “It all depends on your definition of the word know. You might say you don’t know me at all. But I might say you’re going to get to know me real good. Know me in the Biblical sense of the word. Yeah, real good.”
He was on her in one-step. The sudden, single blow to her head knocked her to her knees. Crushing pain, then total darkness slammed into her skull. The high-heel shoe she loved so much slipped from hand. Jillian toppled forward with a soft sigh.
He lifted her into his arms and brushed back a stray curl from her beautiful face. He watched the ribbon of crimson trail down the side of her face with fascination, then took her mouth in a deep, carnal kiss.
“Oh, yeah, Miz R.,” he breathed into her mouth, “you’re going to get to know me real good. We’re gonna get acquainted, you, me, and my little buddy. And ol’ Rodney, well let’s hope he gave you what you wanted earlier, cause for sure, he won’t be givin’ it to you or anyone else ever again.”
* * * *
Dancing Star Ranch
December 2, Tuesday 3:00 a.m.
Kaycee bolted awake from the nightmare haunting her dreams to the sound of her labored breathing. Sweat drenched her clothes. Her body felt hot. Stimulated. Her nipples stood in rigid peaks against the thin nightgown hiked up past her thighs. Dampness lay between her thighs, as if she’d been touched there, aroused and left needy.
The bite at her shoulder, long healed, throbbed as though a hand had pressed firmly against it to start it aching.
She sat up, looked around the dark room. The nightlight she left burning in the hall was out. Darkness surrounded her, except for the sliver of moonlight intruding through the narrow opening of the curtains. The air was heavy, malevolent, filled with foreboding. She shivered, searching the darkness.