Well, it was about time she made her presence known. The second she cocked the shotgun, all eyes were on her; then she took aim at the closest man and fired. From this distance, the buckshot probably wouldn’t kill, but it would sure as hell maim. The man closest to her went down like a bag of bricks and then all hell broke loose.
Adam lunged for the man closest to him while Forbes’s eyes locked on her. She cleared the shell out of the gun and fired again, but Forbes seemed to predict her movements and dodged the blow. Before she could fire again, he was on her. He grabbed the barrel of the gun, and even though she tried to tighten her grip, he ripped it out of her hands and slammed the butt into her head.
Melody stumbled back and waited for another blow to come. She brought up her arms to try to block it, but they felt like cinder blocks. But when the room stopped spinning, she realized why Forbes hadn’t hit her again.
He aimed the shotgun at her and smiled. “Oh, how I dreamed about this.”
“Keep dreaming,” said Melody right as Adam grabbed the barrel of the shotgun and angled it away from Melody.
Forbes put up a better fight than she did for the gun, but Adam’s eyes were bright with an almost inhuman anger. Every blow Forbes tried to land did nothing as Adam ripped the gun from his hands.
Then Adam rammed it into Forbes’s forehead. Melody knew she’d been hit hard, but she could hear the bone cracking under the force of the blow and sucked in a breath.
“That’s for Mel,” he said as Forbes fell.
Then Adam slammed his foot down on Forbes’s arm, causing the man to scream in pain. She hadn’t heard anything snap, but that had to break something.
Then Adam held the shotgun right up to Forbes’s forehead. “And this is for Isobel.”
“That’s not your revenge to take.”
Toni’s voice came as a shock to them both, but Adam didn’t even look away from the man below him.
Scott and Toni were both walking toward them, wearing the same jackets as the local police.
“Get out of here,” bit out Adam.
“Mel, call off your guard dog,” said Toni.
“Why? This was always the plan. He killed Mom. He’s a killer and we need to put him down.”
“You’re right,” said Scott as he reached Adam and Forbes. “He is a killer. But he’s killed a lot more people than just Isobel, and those people deserve justice too.” Scott pulled a plastic bag out of his pocket and held it up. “Look familiar?”
Adam squinted at it for a second. “That’s my shot glass.”
“The one Forbes used. The prints on this glass, the ones that aren’t yours, can link him to murders all around the country. Once he’s in a police station, he’s never going to get out.”
“No.” Melody stepped forward, but Toni blocked her path to reach Scott and Adam. “No. This is bullshit, Scott. If this were Sterling, you’d be the one putting the bullet in his head. If this were about your wife and not my mother, you wouldn’t hesitate.”
“And that’s my burden to bear,” he said, not even bothering to disagree.
“You can’t have it both ways,” said Adam. “You can’t be one of us and a cop at the same time.”
“Mel!” snapped Toni. “Come on.”
Melody tried to make sense of what she was hearing. Toni should want Forbes dead more than anyone. Why would she.... Then Melody saw the worried glance Toni shot in Scott’s direction. She was so stupid. This entire time, she’d thought she was the only one being distracted, but Adam had completely called it. Toni didn’t want them to kill Forbes because of Scott.
Melody took a step forward and set a hand on Adam’s arm. “They’ll take care of it,” she said softly.
“I know guys like this,” he said, not taking his eyes or the gun off Forbes. “He’s not going to go to prison.”
“You don’t know Toni, though. If he gets out of it, we’ll take care of him then.”
Finally Adam lowered the gun by a fraction of an inch and that was all Scott needed before he roughly turned Forbes onto his stomach and deftly handcuffed him. Then he pulled out a radio and called for backup to come in for the three injured perpetrators.
Adam was studying Forbes as though waiting for him to make another move, so Melody took his face in her hands and brought his forehead down to hers. “It’s okay,” she breathed.
They stood like that for a few long seconds before commotion outside started to draw attention. The police were going to be coming in.
Toni walked over to where Adam and Melody stood. “I hate to break this up, but it’s showtime.”
“Showtime?” asked Melody.
“Well, we can prove that you didn’t kill that cop, but we do need to bring you into the station without getting shot.” She then held up a pair of handcuffs.
“You’re serious?”
“Yep. And we have about twenty minutes to get it done before they realize that Scott and I don’t actually work for the Chicago PD. Think you have enough adrenaline left for one more con?”
Melody looked over to Adam, who gave a little nod. “There’s always room for one more con.”
“I still can’t believe all this,” said Whitney as she handed Melody the last box.
“Like I said, it was all a big misunderstanding.” Melody did a quick scan at her belongings before writing on the side in big Sharpie what it was.
“So what if you were accidentally accused of murder? That doesn’t mean you have to up and move out of state. I didn’t mind having you here, really.”
“I know. And I almost believe you. But I don’t know if this is the right town for me. When I first came here and married Ben, I wanted a certain life, and now that I’m a bit wiser, I don’t think the life I wanted was ever really meant for me.” Even as Melody was telling Whitney her deep personal realization, Whitney’s eyes had glazed over as she looked past Melody and out the window. Melody didn’t have to turn around to see what Whitney was ogling. She knew perfectly well how good Adam looked loading her boxes into the back of the oversized SUV they’d rented for the move.
“You’ll keep in touch though, won’t you?” said Whitney, a tad too late for casual conversation. “Pictures?”
“Pictures of me or pictures of someone I happen to be spending time with?”
Whitney let out a little giggle as she continued to look at Adam unabashedly. “Come on. Where did you even find him? They just don’t make guys like that anymore.”
Didn’t she know it. “I told you. I met him while I was at that wedding a few weeks ago.”
“Has Ben seen him? You need to introduce him to Ben.”
“Ben has met him. Ben hates him.” In fact, Ben hated her more than ever. Even better, Ben was terrified of her. Her bullying, stubborn, asshole of an ex was scared of her. Apparently she had a little sadistic streak, because when she’d stopped by the house a few hours ago to pick up some things before her move to Louisiana, Ben had immediately opened the door and then drove away so he wouldn’t have to deal with her.
Of course, it was hard to think of your ex-wife the same after you’d seen her shoot a man with a shotgun, she supposed.
She carried the last box out to the car and Whitney followed. “Are you sure I can’t make you all lunch? It’s going to be a long drive.”
Melody loaded the box in the back and shut the trunk door. “We’re already late.”
Adam looked at her with a raised brow but didn’t say anything. They weren’t on any time table, so they weren’t technically late for anything. But she knew the longer she was with Whitney, there’d be more questions she didn’t want to hear and more ogling of Adam. Not that Melody could blame Whitney. She pretty much spent every spare moment of the past week ogling Adam too. The joy of not having to run for her life was having time to appreciate the small things. Or not so small things....
Whitney gave her a quick hug and then took the chance to give Adam a tight squeeze. He gave Melody an annoyed glare over Whitney’s shoulder but st
ill allowed the hug. Then they were off and on the road out of town. All the packing had exhausted Melody and immediately she could feel her eyelids getting heavier. It was a long drive to the swamps of Louisiana. And once she got there, she and Adam were going to work on getting his house, a house on actual land, up to date. There was no huge rush. She wouldn’t mind passing the dark nights on that houseboat with him....
The car came to a stop and Melody opened her eyes, looking around. She knew she hadn’t fallen asleep yet. She glanced around to make sure there were no other cars around since they were stopped in the middle of the road. “What are we doing?”
“This is it. The end of Huntsville.”
Melody looked out and glanced just behind the SUV where the battered-looking “Huntsville” sign stood. It didn’t say “Welcome” or have any cute slogans. Just the basic bare sign.
“And why are we stopped at the end of Huntsville?” She still wasn’t following where he was going with this.
“Mel, you know how I feel about you. That’s never going to waver, flicker, or change in any way. I’m here for the long haul.”
She smiled. He said the words with so much conviction but looked right at the steering wheel, as though afraid to see how she’d react. Melody reached over and set her hand over his on the wheel. “I know. And considering all my possessions are sitting in the trunk of this car, I’m in this for the long haul too.”
He nodded without looking up. “Life with me isn’t going to be normal. I can’t give you the home on the cul-de-sac and PTA meetings and—”
Melody lifted her hand from his hand to cup his cheek, running along the rough stubble of his beard as she turned him to face her. “Adam. I love you. And yes, I did use to want to be normal. But the two of us are never going to be normal, okay? We’re going to be better. We’re going to be epic.”
~~~THE END~~~
THE DANGEROUS THIEF
Coming in May 23rd, 2017
James Weston hasn't given a damn about anything or anyone ever since the first time he took a life. Except now the hired killer is on a very different type of job: Babysitting.
Willa Belli has trouble following her. She is used to partying and trips to the most exotic parts of the world, but her glamorous lifestyle has taken a heavy blow. Now that she knows exactly where her father's money comes from, she's determined to finally do something right and put a stop to it. That is if she can stay alive long enough.
But the stakes are high as her father's men comb the country for her and she's forced to put her trust in a stranger who seems torn between ignoring her and staring with a lust from her deepest fantasies.
But she needs to be careful. Because James Weston is deadly, greedy and sexy as hell.
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Check out all of Mallory Crowe's Books!
Billionaires In The City Series
Teaching The Boss
Teasing The Boss
Tempting The Boss
Devereaux Billionaires Series
Touching Jace
Trusting Michael
Testing Luke
Taming Rourke
Fractured Farrells; A Damaged Billionaire Series
Ruthless
Reckless
Remorseless
Restless
Relentless
The Stolen Hearts Series
The Cocky Thief
The Beautiful Thief
The Dangerous Thief (Coming May 2017)
The Reluctant Thief (Coming 2017)
The Bewitching Hour (A Paranormal Series)
The Bewitching Hour
Burning Gold
Long and Lost
Bad Boys of the Underworld (A Paranormal series)
Finding Fire
Daring Fire
Binding Fire
Ruling Fire
Stealing Fire
The Beautiful Thief (The Stolen Hearts #2) Page 17