The Gamble

Chapter Fourteen Manning Up

“Tell me,” Max growled against my lips as his hands at my hips ground me down on his cock.

“Darling,” I whispered, not knowing what he wanted me to tell him but willing to tell him whatever he wanted to hear because I was so very, very close.

“Tell me, baby,” he ordered, still growling, letting me move up then using his hands to slam me back down.

It was morning, Max woke with his hands then his mouth and now I was riding him but he was sitting up, my hands were in his hair, my head tipped down, my lips on his and nothing was in my head but the beauty of the sensations gathering between my legs.

“What, Max,” I breathed. “What do you want?”

“Tell me you love me.”

My closed eyes flew open and my fingers clenched in his hair. His eyes were open too and they were heated, hungry and intense.

“Max,” I whispered.

“Tell me, baby, before you come.”

“Max –” I moved faster, riding him harder, I was urged by the sensations at the same time he demanded it with his strong hands.

“You love me,” he stated.

Oh God, it was happening, all of it, everything.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Say it,” he ordered.

He held my eyes and I said it. “I love you, Max.”

His arms swept around me, holding me tight and I watched his eyes get more heated, hungrier and so intense it felt like they were burning into mine.

“Come for me, baby,” he demanded.

“Anything, darling,” I breathed and then it hit me, my head flew back and I gladly did as I was told.

***

I wandered out of the bathroom, my eyes on Max, his eyes on me. When I got close to his side of the bed, he whisked the covers back, exposing the fullness of all things Wonder Max and my soul sighed. Then I put a knee to the bed and straddled him in preparation for moving over him but he caught my hips and stayed my movement, pulling me down to him.

I didn’t mind therefore I settled in, forehead to his neck, torso pressed to his, knees to his sides and his fingers started to move randomly on the skin of my back and behind.

I lay there surrounded by everything Max, his body, his arms, his bed, his home thinking that I’d told him I loved him. I’d known him two weeks and I told him I loved him.

He’d demanded I say it, of course. And it was true, of course. And he should know, obviously. And I wanted him to know.

That still didn’t mean I wasn’t freaking out because he should know and I wanted him to know but I wasn’t sure I should have told him now.

“You know, I do too,” I heard his gravelly voice rumble quietly.

“What?” I asked his throat.

He didn’t answer and when his silence lasted a long time, I lifted my head and looked down at his face to see he looked sated and serious.

“What do I know?” I queried.

His fingers stopped their roaming, one arm locked around my waist, the other hand slid up my spine and into my hair.

His amazing gray eyes didn’t leave mine when he answered gently, “I do too. I said it the other day and I meant it.” His fingers tensed against my scalp. “I’m in love with you, Duchess.”

I stared at him feeling the tears welling in my eyes because the feelings surging through my system were too much for them not to leak out somehow.

“Really?” I whispered as one tear escaped and slid down the skin of my cheek as Max’s eyes watched it mark its path.

Then his hand moved out of my hair to cup my jaw, his thumb sweeping my cheek to dry my tear. Then his warm, sweet gaze came back to mine.

“Really,” he whispered back.

I felt another tear escape and then I bent my head and touched my mouth to his. When our lips connected, Max’s head slanted, his fingers sifted back into my hair to tilt my head the other way and he rolled so he was on top. Through this, his lips didn’t touch mine, they fused with mine, kissing me hard, long, deep, wet and lastly, but most importantly, beautiful.

His kiss was a promise and it was a gift, both the best I’d ever received.

When he lifted his head he cupped my face with his hand and his thumb traced circles at my temple.

“Are we crazy?” I asked him.

“What?” he asked back, lips twitching.

“Are we crazy? Is this crazy? We barely know each other.”

All amusement left his face when his eyes locked on mine and he said, “Love isn’t sane, darlin’.”

“I wouldn’t know,” I admitted softly. “You’re my first.”

I watched with no small amount of fascination as his eyes grew dark and again intense and heated, before he growled, “Thank fuck.”

Then he was kissing me again, his mouth and tongue working wonders, his hands roaming, my legs circled his hips, my fingers moved on the skin and muscle of his back and I liked it all so much, I barely heard the phone ring.

But Max’s head came up when we both heard Harry’s voice fill the loft.

“Max, buddy, it’s Harry. I heard what happened to Nina and… uh… I called to –”

I heard him say no more because Max unfortunately stopped what he was doing, reached out a long arm, yanked the phone out of its charger, beeped it on and put it to his ear.

“Harry,” I watched him say into the phone then I watched him listen and then I watched him go on. “No, you can’t talk to Nina but you can listen to me. Nina and I hadn’t had the chance to talk about Anna and what you said was fucked up and it upset her. It upset her enough that shit went down that led to her gettin’ worked over by Damon. He caught her alone, freaked her right the fuck out and damn near broke her nose and her fuckin’ ribs. That’s on you, buddy. All that shit’s on you.”

“Max,” I tried to cut in but Max’s gaze was directed at the pillowcase beside my head and his focus was directed on whatever Harry was saying.

“I don’t care if you were drunk,” Max went on. “She told me the shit you said and she also told me while you were fuckin’ with her head, you told her you’d do her and you gotta know, I do not like that. That is not cool. You know she’s in my house, you know she’s in my bed and you know better than to say that kind of shit to my woman.”

“Max,” I tried again when he paused to listen but he kept right on talking to Harry.

“Yeah, we got problems. Fair warning, you need to avoid me for awhile and you get anywhere near Nina or I hear you tried to speak with her, our problems will get bigger. Are we clear?”

I lifted a hand and curled it around his neck, his eyes cut to mine, his were very angry and I braved the look on his face, opened my mouth to say something but before I could, he continued.

“I don’t give a fuck about that. What I give a fuck about is you tellin’ me we’re clear. Now, are we clear?”

“Please, Max, I think –” I started, Max’s mouth got tight, his eyes narrowed and his look was so scary, I clamped my mouth shut.

“Advice, Harry, grow a fuckin’ pair. You got somethin’ to say to me, you say it to me. You got issues, you deal with them like a man. What you don’t do is, when my woman or any woman slides her ass on the stool next to you to show you some compassion and kindness, you do not use that opportunity to let go of your shit by breakin’ someone else’s heart. You got a problem with the way your life’s gone down, deal with it without draggin’ someone down with you. Should have told you this a long time ago, Harry, but you need to man up, for fuck’s sake. You need to man… the fuck… up.”

With that, he took the phone from his ear and bleeped it off. Then he tossed it aside on the bed. Then his eyes came back to me.

“Max –” I began again.

“Don’t, Duchess,” he cut me off. “Seriously, don’t. It’s a guy thing. I know you got an opinion about everything but the bottom line is what he did was not cool, he upset you and that led to a string of events where you got hurt. I know it was our shit that led to you gettin’ hurt but what he did didn’t help the situation. It’s my job to protect you. What he did interfered with my ability to do that and I need to make certain that shit doesn’t happen again. I’m doin’ that. It’s a guy thing and you need to know right now, you do not stick your nose into a guy thing.”

“Okay,” I replied, Max stared at me a second then blinked.

Then he asked, “What?”

My hands moved on his back and I repeated, “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yes, okay.”

He stared at me again. Then he asked, “Easy as that?”

My hands slid around his sides, up his chest to curl around his neck and I asked back, “Is this important to you?”

“Yeah,” Max answered.

“Then yes,” I lifted my head and touched my mouth to his before dropping my head to the pillow again, “easy as that.”

That’s when, bizarrely, he said one word firmly and that word was, “No.”

My head tilted on the pillow. “No what?”

“No to your earlier question. We’re definitely not crazy.”

I smiled at my man’s amazing, handsome face. My man. And God, I didn’t care if it was crazy, but I loved my man.

The fingers of one of my hands ran along his jaw and I asked quietly, “Can I tell you something?”

The fingers of both of his hands ran along my body as he answered quietly, “You can tell me anything, baby.”

I planted a foot in the bed and rolled him to his back, rolling over him, I looked down at his face as my thumb explored the contours of his cheekbone.

Then I whispered, “There was a time in my life where I used to roll the dice. I did it a lot and I always lost. Every time, I lost and when I lost, I lost everything. So I got scared of rolling the dice.”

My hair was hanging down, curtaining our faces and one of Max’s hands moved to pull one side up and hold it at the back of my head. I watched his face get soft and I knew that he knew what was coming.

So I gave it to him.

“Thank you for showing me it was worth taking a gamble again, darling.” I dropped my head until my lips were against his and finished, “It feels good finally to win and win huge.”

I saw the flash in his eyes and heard the rumble of his growl before his hand at the back of my head brought mine down the fraction of an inch it needed to go before his mouth took mine in another kiss.

Then he rolled me to my back and showed me yet again why taking a gamble on Max, on us, on Colorado and on life was absolutely worth it.

***

“I don’t know, Neenee Bean,” Mom said at the grocery store checkout, her face thoughtful, her eyes watching the clerk scan my purchases, “this feels like a celebration and a celebration doesn’t say ‘red wine, beer and pasta bake’. A celebration says ‘champagne and salmon en croute’.”

Mom and I were shopping for dinner that night. Max and Steve were giving us Nellie and Nina time. They were leaving the next day and Mom had announced upon their arrival to the A-frame that she wanted a testosterone free zone for at least two hours.

Prior to Mom and Steve’s arrival, Max and my love fest was interrupted by a variety of calls that were, as Max decreed, only slightly less annoying than Harry’s. They included Mom and Steve saying they were heading up the mountain; Linda saying Kami was coming with her for pasta bake; Brody calling to remind us this was also his last day in town and therefore getting an invitation for him, Mindy, Barb and Darren to come too; and finally, since Gnaw Bone was Gnaw Bone, Arlene heard about the party and called to alert us to the fact that she and Cotton would be there. She didn’t ask for an invite and she hung up before I could politely demur.

So our party of five turned into a party of twelve.

This did not make Max happy. Mom’s decree of a testosterone free zone made Max less happy. And what made him even less happy was when Mom pointed out his dining room table seated six and it needed to seat twelve. Thus she ordered Max and Steve off on the errand of buying more dining room chairs, this, her attempt to establish her testosterone free zone.

Mountain Man Max, not exactly the kind of man to be sent on an errand, did this only after his eyes cut to me and he asked, “This gonna happen often?”

“Is what going to happen often?” I asked back.

“Half the town sittin’ at our dining room table?”

I scrunched my nose and tilted my head because, at the look on his face, I didn’t want to say yes but the answer was yes. I liked to cook. I liked to entertain. I liked my friends around me. So it was definitely going to happen often.

Max read my face, sighed, hooked me at the back of my head to pull me in so he could kiss my forehead and then he took off with Steve to buy chairs.

“Individual,” Mom, at the checkout, finished.

“Individual what?” I asked, handing my credit card over to the clerk.

“Individual salmon en croutes,” Mom answered and I looked at her.

“Mom, I’m not making individual salmon en croutes for twelve people. That would take all day.”

“It’s a celebration, Neenee Bean! It doesn’t matter how long it takes just as long as it’s special.”

I signed the credit card slip and handed it back to the clerk. “Firstly, I just signed the credit card receipt. I’m not going back through the store to buy ten more bags of food. Secondly, Max gave you two hours and I know you like Max because he’s a great guy and there’s a lot to like. He also likes you. But take my advice, you shouldn’t test him. He’s a great guy but he’s also a mountain man. Mountain men aren’t fond of being tested. And lastly, I think mountain people will be happy with red wine, beer and pasta bake as a celebration. I think mountain people don’t care what they eat during a celebration, they just care who’s there to eat it with them.”

“Damn tootin’,” the clerk muttered under her breath and I turned my surprised gaze to her then smiled at her welcome solidarity. Maybe I was finding my mountain woman within.

Mom glared at the clerk. “Have you had salmon en croute?” she asked.

The clerk’s eyes came to me. “I saw five bags of grated mozzarella. Is that for your pasta bake?”

“Yes,” I answered and her eyes went back to Mom.

“Anything with mozzarella wins, especially five bags of it,” she declared, I laughed, thanked her then I tugged Mom through the checkout, commandeered our cart and headed to the car.

Mom fell in step beside me and she did this while pouting. I grinned at the cart full of food because I decided Mom was cute when she pouted. I had to admit I may have decided this because I had an amazing looking mountain man who was in love with me so pretty much anything would be cute.

Still, I said softly, “Stop pouting, Mom, we have today and then you’re off home. Don’t waste it pouting.”

She bleeped the locks on the car and pulled up the boot. “Okay but only if you promise me you won’t argue with what I tell you next.”

I didn’t have a good feeling about this. If there was anything that could put a dent in my euphoria, Mom’s craziness could.

I pulled the cart to a halt and rounded it, yanking out bags to put in the boot. “That depends on what you say next.”

“You can’t argue, Nina, because it’s important.”

I stopped loading bags because the tone of my mother’s voice made it sound important. I straightened and looked at her to see her face communicated what she was going to say was important too.

“What?” I whispered.

“You know what you told me on the way here about Max’s inheritance from that murdered man?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“Well, I’m going to talk to Steve about us giving you some money to help with the taxes so Max doesn’t lose that land.”

I felt my face go soft and I moved closer to my Mom.

“You can’t do that, Mom. It’s sweet but Max would never let you,” I informed her.

“He won’t have a choice. I’ve been thinking about it and as far as I’m concerned, the way he is with you, the way you are with him, I see good things and so I’m thinking it would be me investing in my grandchildren’s future,” she replied, I pulled in a sharp breath at a thought I’d never had, having Max’s children, giving Max a family and I felt my body grow tight even as my heart wound up to sing. “He wants that mountain clean, you want that mountain clean and I want to do my bit to help you keep it clean for you, for Max, for your children, their children and so on.”

“Mom –”

“Don’t argue, sweetie, and don’t tell Max until I have a chance to talk to Steve.”

“You don’t have to talk to Steve, I’m selling Charlie’s house and using that money for the taxes,” I blurted before I even thought about it and then my body got tighter.

“You’re what?” Mom breathed, her eyes scanning my face, her face a mask of shock. She knew how I felt about Charlie’s house.

Oh my God. What was I saying?

Do it, Neenee Bean, Charlie said in my head, it’s time. Let the past go. Just let it go. I’ll always be right here.

Charlie – I started to say back.

Let it go, sweetheart, I want you to give this to Max, to your future. You don’t need that house to have me with you. I’ll always be with you.

Oh Charlie.

Always, Nina.

“Nina!” Mom called sharply, her hand squeezing my arm and I focused on her face and stopped talking to my dead brother in my head. “Are you really going to sell Charlie’s house?”

“He’d want me to,” I told her the truth. “I…” I looked at the grocery bags in the boot then back to my Mom. “I think I was holding onto him through that house because I didn’t have anything else. Not when I was with Niles. I was holding onto that house because I was trying to hold onto something Charlie. But Max told me that having the memory of Charlie is precious. And he’s right. And I have Charlie with me all the time. I don’t need his house to keep him with me. And I think, if Charlie was here and he could give it, he’d want to do what he could, just like you, to keep Max’s mountain clean for Max, for me and for…” I smiled but I felt my lips tremble as tears filled my eyes and I concluded, “Our kids.”

Mom’s eyes never left my face as she lifted her hand to cup my cheek.

“Love you, Nina,” she whispered.

“Love you too, Mom,” I whispered back, my hand coming up to curl around hers at my face.

“And I’m happy for you, sweetie,” she kept whispering.

“Me too,” I kept whispering back.

“I think you’re right about this. It would be what Charlie wanted. He’d want you to have everything you want and he’d want you to be happy.” Her fingers curled around mine and brought our hands down where she tightened her grip and shook them between us. “He’d like Max,” she finished.

“Yes,” I agreed.

Yes, Charlie said in my head and I laughed at Charlie.

Then I said to Mom, “Let’s get back to the house.”

We filled the trunk and Mom got in the passenger side as I hoofed the cart to the bay. I was turning around, my mind on pasta bake, family, friends and getting back to Max so I wasn’t looking where I was going and I ran smack into something solid.

I took a step back, lifting my chin, muttering, “Sorry,” when I saw Damon standing in front of me and my body locked.

“Pressed charges, English,” he hissed, “stupid. Seems you never learn but I’m gonna teach you.”

My body prepared to take flight as my mouth opened to scream but he landed a roundhouse punch to my temple and everything went black.

***

I came to in a truck bouncing along the main street in town. I blinked away the unconsciousness and could see I hadn’t been out for long. We’d barely left the grocery store.

My head turned left slowly and I pushed away from the door I was leaning on. Damon was behind the wheel.

I lifted my hand to my pounding temple and kept blinking against the fog in my eyes.

“Damon, pull over,” I said quietly.

“Shut your fuckin’ mouth, English,” Damon clipped back.

“Please, pull over.”

“Shut your fuckin’ mouth!” he snarled.

“Don’t do this,” I urged. “This isn’t smart.”

“Fuck you,” he bit out.

“You’re already in trouble. Don’t –” I started to explain but his beefy arm shot out, his knuckles impacting on my lips, pushing them into my teeth and I instantly tasted blood. My hand at my temple dropped to my lips as his arm disappeared.

“Like I said, bitch, shut your fuckin’ mouth.”

I shut my mouth. I didn’t want to rile my mountain man stalker any further. He was already riled enough.

My mind was whirling but through the haze still over me from his first punch all I could think of was that if I opened the door and threw myself out, I’d likely give myself broken bones and I didn’t want broken bones because it would be difficult to cook pasta bake after Max rescued me if I had broken bones.

I was still thinking this when I heard Damon mutter, “What the fuck?” and then I saw another truck speeding alongside us.

We were out of town and on the open road. I leaned forward, looked passed Damon and saw the driver was Harry.

Harry.

Thank God! Harry! He must have seen us and come to rescue me.

Harry sped several car lengths beyond us and then I watched in shock as Harry cut the wheel and then Harry’s truck turned sideways into our lane, cutting us off. Damon stood on the brakes and I flew forward, throwing up a hand and it slammed into the dash as my body not in a seatbelt flew forward too and kept going. My head cracked against the windshield then immediately I was thrown left as Damon cut the wheel to avoid colliding with Harry’s truck and then I was thrown forward again when we rocked to a bone-jarring halt in a ditch.

I was blinking away stars as I pushed myself back in the seat. It was pure instinct that lifted my hand and guided it to the door handle. I pushed my door open and nearly fell to my knees as I shoved myself out of the cab. My body was making its escape before my mind caught up with it but I lost my footing as I climbed the ditch, scrambling up the last of it on my hands and knees. I pulled myself to my feet at the top and rounded the back of the truck where I saw Harry standing, his eyes on the driver’s side of Damon’s truck.

“You fuckin’ asswipe! Are you fuckin’ nuts?” Damon bellowed and I looked to him to see he was out of the truck and charging up the ditch toward Harry.

Then my whole body jolted as I heard the sharp crack of a gunshot and I stood stock-still when I saw the blurred, hideous spurt of blood spray from Damon’s chest before he fell down to both knees.

Stunned to immobility, I stared as Damon’s body dropped face first to the grass, gravel and mud beside the road then slowly my head turned and I saw Harry moving toward me, a peculiar look on his face, a gun smoking in his right hand and he was shifting it to his left.

“Harry,” I whispered, my voice trembling, my tone a mixture of horror and shock, “he hurt me but you didn’t have to –”

I stopped talking when the look on Harry’s face penetrated and his right hand lifted.

He no longer had the gun in that hand. He now held a syringe.

Too late I took a step back but he caught me at the waist, yanked me to him and I felt the needle plunge in my neck.

Then his face was all I saw.

“Just like Max told me to do, I’m mannin’ up, Nina. This is me mannin’ the fuck up.”

My lids lowered against my will, I forced them open as I felt my body lifted in Harry’s arms and we started moving toward his truck.

Then they lowered again and I was gone.

***

My eyes opened and I was confused because I was certain my eyes were opened but all I could see was dark.

I started to move and it was then I realized both my arms were over my head. I thought this was strange until I tried to move them and it was then I realized they weren’t only over my head, there was something cold biting into my wrists and it hit me my arms were secured over my head to something.

I went still and my mind raced. Then I remembered Damon. Then thinking Harry was there to save the day. Then watching Harry shoot Damon. Then Harry taking me.

Oh my God. Oh my God!

I sucked in breath and that was when I felt the gag. There was something in my mouth and something tied around my head to hold it in place. I fought back the panic that surged through me and tried to take stock.

I was on something soft, a mattress. It was cold, not bitter but not comfortable. My limbs were stiff from inactivity and lying in the chill. My arms were not only secured to something over my head but my ankles were also tied together. My head hurt like hell and I was still fuzzy from whatever Harry injected me with.

And I was in the dark. Lying gagged and tied up in a foreign location in the dark. Just like the heroine in a horror movie but real.

I kept fighting back the panic by turning my mind to trying to figure out where I might be. I was either someplace dark, like a room with no windows or I was someplace secluded and it was dark outside, someplace the moon couldn’t light.

Either way, I was in trouble.

Cautiously, I tested my wrists against whatever they were secured to and it made a clinking noise so I stopped.

“Nina?” I heard a woman call and stilled.

Bitsy. Oh no, that was Bitsy’s voice.

The mattress under me moved and I felt a hand light on me. “Nina, it’s me. Bitsy.”

I rolled to my back, turned my head in her direction and tried to see through the dark.

“Oh honey,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “Oh God, Nina. Oh God. God. God. God. What have I done?”

I tried to say something from under the gag, she heard it, her hand left me and I felt the gag being pulled from my mouth. When it was free, I spit out the material and then swallowed against the dryness coating the inside of my mouth.

“Are you okay?” Bitsy asked.

No. No, I very much wasn’t okay.

“Harry’s turned,” I whispered back, my voice slurred. “I think, Bitsy, I think I watched him murder Damon.”

The mattress moved again, I heard her dragging her body closer to me and I knew she was lying on it with me but apparently she wasn’t shackled to the bed. Then again, Bitsy didn’t need to be tied down. Bitsy couldn’t go anywhere.

Her hand curled on my neck and I felt her face close.

“It’s my fault,” she whispered.

“Bitsy –” I started to tell her she had to find a way to get me lose so I could get out of wherever we were, get away from this true, real life horror movie and get us some help but she interrupted me.

“It is, it’s all my fault.”

“Don’t, sweetheart, we have to –”

I stopped this time because I heard the noise of a door opening and then light flooded the room, blinding me. Bitsy’s body jerked away from mine and we both twisted as best we could. I blinked against the light and saw Harry walking in, the lower half of a woman over his shoulder.

Oh God, what now?

Then I saw him dump the woman on the floor, her long, straight ebony hair flying as he did it and he did it unceremoniously, not like she was a human being but like she was a sack of sawdust. Her head cracked against the planks just as her body thudded against them. I watched in horror as her body settled, her hair slightly obscuring her beautiful face.

Shauna.

By the looks of her, clothes dirty and in disarray, hair greasy, she hadn’t seen the inside of a shower for awhile and I knew instinctively this was because Shauna Fontaine didn’t take off with her mantoy. Shauna Fontaine, like me, had been kidnapped by a mountain man gone bad.

The mattress moved again and I tore my eyes from Shauna, unconscious, or worse, dead on the floor to see Bitsy pushing up on her arms.

“Harry –”

“It’s okay, Bits, it’s all gonna be all right,” Harry cut her off. “I got it all figured out.”

“No you don’t, Harry. You don’t,” Bitsy told him urgently. “Listen to me…”

She trailed off when Harry moved to her side of the bed and sat on it. He twisted his torso to her, his hand coming up to cradle her face, he leaned in close.

“I did, honey, I listened to you. I listened,” he whispered.

“You didn’t. This is out of hand. This is wrong. Shauna? Nina? Why –?”

“He took away your legs,” Harry explained.

“Yes, he did. Curt did. But Nina’s Max’s and –” Bitsy started.

“He took away your legs,” Harry repeated. “He killed Anna. Your best friend. He fucked Shauna in your bed.” His thumb lovingly swept her cheek. “I listened, Bits, I listened to every word you said from that day I saw you in the hospital after he crippled you. I listened and I was with you all the way. He had to pay. You said it. You said it again and again and again as he fucked you and fucked you and fucked you. You didn’t want him to do that to our town, you didn’t want that big house up on the hill, you didn’t want to be queen of Gnaw Bone to his king but he didn’t care what you wanted. He never cared what you wanted. He only cared about one thing. Curt. Curt was all Curt cared about. Wakin’ up next to you and tellin’ you he loved you and then goin’ off and bangin’ Shauna, givin’ her money, makin’ you the fool as you wheeled your way through life. I listened, honey, I listened to every word you said. You were right, he had to pay.”

“He had to pay. Curt did!” Bitsy hissed, yanking her face from his hand which stayed suspended in air for a second before he tried to touch her again but she dragged herself back so his hand dropped.

“Bitsy, baby –”

“No!” Bitsy snapped. “We had a plan. You take care of Curt and we play it cool. The money was untraceable. We’d been putting it aside for years, Harry, years. No one would ever know. No one.”

Shock made every centimeter of my body lock. There it was but I couldn’t believe my ears as I lay there and stared at the hideous scene playing out in front of me.

Harry and Bitsy had had Curt killed.

Bitsy.

Bitsy!

“He hired an investigator,” Harry returned.

“So?” Bitsy shot back. “I knew that, Harry, and I told you. The guy didn’t know anything. The game was to play it cool, you know that. No matter what, play it cool. That investigator didn’t know anything. I know because I got in Curt’s desk and read his reports. He didn’t even know we were sending the death threats! He didn’t know anything. He didn’t know shit! Then you off and kill him the same night that guy you found killed Curt. Why? Why would you do that? And this,” she threw out an arm, “Shauna? Nina? It was only supposed to be Curt. Only Curt. Why would you drag Nina into this? What’s the matter with you?”

“Shauna was fuckin’ Curt and Max and me,” Harry retorted.

“I know that, Harry, it was part of the fucking plan for you to look like you’d moved on from me,” Bitsy returned.

“Jesus, Bits, I just told you she was fuckin’ me,” Harry bit out.

“Yes, Harry, I know that. That was the plan,” Bitsy bit back.

“God,” Harry leaned back, “you don’t even care, you don’t even care she sucked me off, that I had to fuck that cold, emotionless piece of ass to keep up this shit so no one would guess.”

“I cared but that was the plan, Harry, we both had to sacrifice so we could have what we wanted. So we could be where we wanted to be,” Bitsy reminded him.

“But she was tryin’ to take Curt’s money, your money,” he clipped. “She got pregnant to do it.”

“She’s not pregnant, you idiot!” Bitsy, finally losing it, snapped. “She’s as pregnant as me. She said it because Curt always wanted a kid and obviously I couldn’t give him one so she thought she could play that but she wasn’t going to get dick. Not from Curt, he may have thought with his dick half the time but the other half wasn’t stupid, Harry and you know it. And you had to let her play you so you’d be with her when Curt was done and then no one would think a thing of it when you dumped her after I was available and you came back to me. That was the plan, Harry. We’ve been talking about it for years. That was the plan. Simple, smart, patient and cool. But no. No, you go off and murder Curt’s investigator and try to pin it on Shauna and… and… and I don’t even know what Nina’s doin’ here!”

“Shauna wants Max,” Harry stated.

“So?” Bitsy yelled.

“So,” Harry leaned forward, “outside, her other asshole is lyin’ in the snow, four bullets in his chest and her finger pulled the trigger, the residue will be on her hand. She was out when I did it. She won’t remember a thing. And it’s the same gun that killed that Fitzgibbon guy.”

I shifted my head to look down at the prone Shauna before I looked back at Harry in time for him to finish.

“The same gun that’ll kill Nina.”

My lungs seized and I felt the blood drain out of my face.

“Nina?” Bitsy whispered.

“Yeah,” Harry’s crazed eyes flicked to me then back to Bitsy, “Nina.”

“Why?” Bitsy asked then repeated on a shout, “For God’s sake why?”

Harry surged from the bed and I tensed as he bent at the waist, his face having gone red, his arms straight down at his sides, hands in fists and he roared, “He can’t have it all!”

Bitsy’s upper body leaned away from him before she breathed, “What?”

“Max!” Harry spat. “Max! Fuckin’ Max. Holden fuckin’ Maxwell with his varsity letter his freshman year and his scholarship and his mountain that everyone thinks it’s so great he kept clean when all that buildin’ was goin’ on all over the county. Max didn’t let anything touch his land. Oh no. Not Super Wonderful Holden fuckin’ Maxwell. Not him. He could have made it rich workin’ alongside Curt but he didn’t do that. Not Holden Maxwell, man of integrity. Man of strength. He had Anna and they were always holdin’ hands, always laughin’, always tight, lookin’ at each other like the rest of the world didn’t exist. Then he lost her but he didn’t lose everything, not Max. No. After he lost her everyone thought he was even more wonderful how he stayed cool with Curt and stayed tight with you. How he manned up,” spittle flew out of Harry’s mouth on the last two words, “how he built that house for his Dad, how he kept goin’ even though everyone knew losin’ Anna rocked his world. He didn’t fall. He didn’t even falter. Not Max. Everyone thinkin’ how strong he was. How fuckin’ perfect. Then the finest piece of ass in two countries waltzes into town and before you could blink, she’s cuddlin’ up to him at The Mark, she’s in his bed, she’s makin’ out with him on the street and at The Dog and two weeks later she’s movin’ from fuckin’ England just to keep him warm at night.”

He bent at the waist to put his face in Bitsy’s.

“No,” he sneered, “he can’t have everything and I’m gonna make it so he doesn’t. I’m tired of havin’ nothin’ and waitin’ fuckin’ years to make your play against Curt and all the while I’m watchin’ Max have everything he wants. Every woman opens their legs for him and everyone in town thinks he shits roses. The same time, everyone in town thinks poor Harry, gettin’ played by Shauna. Poor Harry, losin’ Bitsy and pinin’ after her all these years. Poor fuckin’ Harry. Well, Bits, fuck… that. Max told me himself just this mornin’ to man up and I’ve decided I’m takin’ his advice.”

“But Harry, Max doesn’t have everything,” Bitsy whispered.

“Yes he does, Bits. He even has you. Even you think he shits roses,” Harry retorted.

“You can’t –” Bitsy began.

“I can and I can now especially because she knows everything and I’m not waitin’ ten years finally to have the only thing I ever wanted, except half of it,” his eyes dropped to her legs before slicing back to hers as I heard Bitsy gasp, “to have Max’s latest bit of pussy take it away.”

“Harry,” Bitsy whispered, “this isn’t what we planned.”

“No, Bitsy, it isn’t but I’m the man and I’m sick of bein’ led around my dick so I’m changin’ the fuckin’ plan.”

“You can’t do that,” she told him and he leaned back, throwing his arms out.

“No?” he asked then planted his fists on his hips. “Watch me.”

“Harry!” she shouted when he started to move around the bed. “If you hurt Nina, you won’t have me,” she threatened, Harry’s body rocked to a halt and he turned on her.

“Yeah? You gonna run away?” he asked snidely and I watched Bitsy close her eyes tight then my eyes went back to Harry when he kept speaking as he untied my ankles. “This is what people know. Shauna wanted Max. She always wanted Max. And she used that Robert guy like she used everyone else. When he became expendable, he was gone. When Nina got in the way, she was gone. Shauna’ll wake up and she won’t know shit. And all they’ll know is that she’s here with the gun that made three bodies dead and she has the residue on her hand. She fucked herself with her play on Curt, makin’ her a suspect in his murder so they’ll probably pin that on her too. But don’t worry about Shauna, Bits. She’ll make a good bitch in prison. She’ll have her shit sorted exactly as she wants it before she finishes buttoning up her orange jumpsuit.”

Then he was finished with my ankles and started walking toward me again and I started moving on the bed, ineffectually shifting my body to get away from him, running into Bitsy as he pulled a set of keys out of his jeans pocket.

“Don’t do this, Harry,” Bitsy whispered from behind me as he leaned toward my hands and I kept trying and failing to move away.

“Please,” I begged, using Bitsy’s words, “don’t do this.”

“Shut up,” he muttered.

“Please,” I whispered, “please. You may think Max had everything his whole life but you don’t know me. I didn’t. I didn’t have everything my whole life. My Dad left me when I was a baby –”

“Shut up,” he repeated, still working at my hands.

I didn’t shut up. “My boyfriends cheated on me, stole from me, beat me –”

“Shut up,” Harry said again.

“The brother I loved, I adored him, Harry, loved him beyond anything, he had his legs blown off and couldn’t hack it so he committed suicide.”

Harry turned to me and clipped, “Shut up!”

I ignored him and kept going. “Today, I was happy, Harry. It was the first day in a long, long time I woke up happy.”

My wrists were freed but before I could make a move I was being dragged from the bed.

“Harry! Don’t!” Bitsy screamed.

I struggled but Harry was big, he was a mountain man and he dragged and shoved me toward the door even as I twisted and pulled and tried to flee.

“Harry! Please! Don’t do this!” Bitsy screeched from behind us.

Calm, Nina, calm and think, sweetheart, Charlie said in my head as Harry kept control of my struggling frame and shoved me through the door into a dark hall. Keep talking, talk to him.

Instantly, I took my brother’s advice.

“I understand what it means. I understand how it hurts to have everyone think poor Harry because they always thought poor Nina. But now I’m happy. And I’m sorry if this hurts you but Max is what makes me happy. Please don’t take that away. Not from Max, from me.”

He caught my wrist and yanked it behind my pack, pulling it high until it hurt so much I cried out. He positioned himself at my back and marched me forward, his lips to my ear.

“Keep your mouth shut, Nina, or I’ll gag you again.”

I clamped my mouth shut and clenched my teeth together to stop myself from crying out at the pain in my arm. Harry yanked me to a halt, reached beyond me, opened a door and the cold swept in as he pushed me outside.

Okay, Nina, he’s just pulled out his gun. You need to get his gun, sweetheart, he’s holding it in his hand. You need to get it, turn it on him and shoot like Max taught you to do. You with me, Neenee Bean? Charlie said.

I’m with you, I replied though I didn’t think I was.

It was night, dark, we were in the mountains surrounded by pine so thick it shrouded the space and kept out the moonlight.

You’ve only got one hand, Nina, so you’re going to have to be creative. You’re going to have to turn, very fast, very, very fast, sweetheart, and use your head. Aim at his chin and reach for the gun at the same time you have to lift up your knee, hard, honey, as hard as you can, and aim for his crotch. You got that?

I got it, Charlie.

Harry marched me forward and I saw the dark outline of a body in the snow and I knew it was Robert Winston, dead, in the dark, his body in the snow just like I was going to be if I didn’t get away from Harry.

I had to get away from Harry.

Wait for it, sweetheart. Wait for me to say the word. You get a hole in him, you go. You run as fast as you can. I’ll guide you.

Okay.

“Harry! Don’t do this!” I heard Bitsy shout from far away.

Harry kept marching me, his hand at my wrist twisting my arm so high and tight, the pain shot from my shoulder all the way to my fingertips.

“You’re hurting me, Harry,” I said quietly.

“I told you, Nina, shut up,” Harry returned.

“You’re going to kill me, I’m asking you to stop hurting me before you take everything from me.”

His hand at my wrist squeezed tight but then it loosened and he moved my hand a couple of inches down my back so the pain weakened and, although it didn’t go away, it was something.

Well done, now wait for it, Neenee Bean, Charlie whispered.

I pulled in breath.

We’re close, sweetheart, Charlie told me.

I let out my breath and pulled in another.

Now! Charlie shouted.

I whirled at the same time pulling my head back. When I was facing Harry, I slammed it forward, my forehead connecting with Harry’s chin and pain exploded in my forehead but I ignored it, lifted my knee, fast and vicious, connecting with his crotch. Harry let out a startled, pained grunt, he let my wrist go and I reached for the gun, twisting it out of his hand and taking two running steps back.

Shoot him, Nina! Charlie yelled.

I lifted the gun and aimed it at Harry, shouting out loud to Charlie, “I can’t!”

Do it! Charlie urged.

Harry, one hand at his crotch, his upper body bent almost double but his head back and eyes on me started stumbling toward me.

“Charlie,” I whispered, my hand holding the gun and trembling, “I can’t.”

Then don’t shoot… run!

“Bitsy,” I breathed.

Now! Now, Nina! Run!

I turned and ran.

My high-heeled booted feet crunched through the snow and I heard Harry crunching after me. Pine needles whipped my face, snow flying off their limbs stinging me with pinpoints of freeze as I kept going.

Left here, veer left. Max is coming, Charlie told me.

Relief swept through me.

Oh thank God.

Keep running. Faster, sweetheart.

I veered left and tried to run faster but slipped and slid when my high-heeled boots hit rocks, finding purchase when they hit snow-covered turf, sliding and wavering again when they hit stone. Every step I took I heard Harry’s pained grunting and his feet pounding behind me.

I looked back, just like all the stupid heroines in the horror movies do.

Keep going, don’t look, Charlie instructed me, just keep running.

I looked forward just when the toe of my boot caught on something solid and then I was flying. Yes, like all the stupid heroines in horror movies do, I fell, landing with a body-rocking jolt on my hands and knees at the same time stupid, stupid, stupidly losing the gun.

“Dammit!” I screamed.

Keep shouting! Max will hear you! He’s close! Charlie yelled.

But I didn’t get to shout. Instead I let out an “oof” as I tried to push to my feet and was tackled from behind by Harry. We rolled through the snow down the mountain, a tangle of arms and legs.

Fight, scratch, kick, bite, scream, sweetheart, scream! Charlie ordered.

I screamed, loud and shrill and I kept doing it as I fought, punching, shifting, flailing, scratching and kicking. We’d come to rest on an outcrop of rock that felt hard, cold and abrasive even through my clothes as we wrestled on top of it and I kept screaming as I kept fighting. I gave it all I had but Harry got me to my back and straddled me. I continued to pound on his chest, scratch at his neck and kick out with my legs, bucking my hips and shrieking in terror as both his big mountain man hands cupped either side of my head, yanking it up so my chin was in my throat and I knew he was going to pound it into the rock. My fingers wrapped around his wrists and I pulled out hard but didn’t succeed in moving his hands.

SCREAM! Charlie shouted.

I screamed.

Then Harry was gone because Max was there, tackling him from the side, they both went flying. I sucked in breath, relief so extreme it felt like it ripped through me, shredding my insides. I scrambled back on all fours and ran into something then hands were in my armpits and I was being dragged back.

I screamed again but over my scream I heard Jeff shout, “Maxwell!”

My body stilled and my eyes searched through the darkness to see Max and Harry at the edge of the outcrop, Harry on his knees, Max on his feet, one of his fists holding Harry up at the collar, both of Harry’s hands scratching at Max’s forearm as his legs scrambled desperately in an attempt to get his feet underneath him and Max’s other fist repeatedly, with sickening thud after sickening thud, connected with Harry’s face.

“Max!” Another shout, this one from Mick as he ran and skidded through the snow toward Max but Max didn’t stop.

“You okay?” Jeff asked, I nodded my lie, my eyes never leaving Max as I watched Harry’s legs quit scrambling and his hands weakening in their struggles against Max’s forearm.

Jeff took off just as Mick made it to Max, wrapping both arms around him he yanked him back but Max wasn’t to be stopped. Jeff made it to the trio and then I saw Cotton materialize out of nowhere, then Brody was there and Steve, Darren, George, some guys I’d never seen before and finally Pete and it took all of them to pull Harry one way and Max the other.

Once they disconnected, Max jerked his body away and shrugged off the hands on him, standing still as a statue, only his chest moving, his breaths coming heavy, the cold tufts of them gusting fast and hard from his mouth, lighting in the moonlight and his head was tipped down, his eyes glued to Harry. Harry had collapsed to his front but up on an elbow with his head bent as if he couldn’t hold it up.

I pushed up to my feet, completely oblivious to the snow that covered me, matted wet and cold in my hair, embedded in my clothes and I stumbled to Max. I was two feet away before he turned to me. I felt his eyes hit me through the darkness and my knees gave way before I made it those last two feet.

But I didn’t fall because Max caught me in his arms and hauled me deep into his large, tall, strong body, holding me close, holding me tight, holding me safe.

Told you he was close, Charlie said in my head, his voice teasing but relieved.

It was funny and I would have laughed if I wasn’t busy bursting into tears.

“I got you, Duchess,” Max’s gravelly voice rumbled in my ear.

I lifted my arms to wrap him as tight as I could with the little energy I had left and I shoved my face in his neck. One of Max’s arms stayed locked around me and his other hand slid up, palm warm on my neck, fingers in my wet, snow tangled hair and he held my face to his warmth as I sobbed.

“I got you, baby,” he whispered. “You’re safe. I got you.”

I nodded into his neck and when I had it together enough, I whispered, “Bitsy’s up there somewhere. Shauna too.”

“All right, darlin’,” Max muttered, I felt his lips leave my ear and he asked someone else quietly, “You hear that?”

“We’re on it,” I heard Mick say then I felt Max’s breath warm again on my neck.

“Hold tight, Duchess,” he urged and I did the best I could do and held even tighter. “That’s it,” he whispered, his arm returning the favor.

Things were happening around us, people talking, moving, Steve’s murmur from behind me, his hand touching my hair before it fell away but nothing penetrated the fortress Max had built around me with his arms, his body, his strength. All that was my world was being held in his arms.

When I got myself together, I whispered, “Max?”

“Right here, Nina,” he whispered back immediately, “I’m always right here, honey.”

I hiccoughed another sob and pressed deeper into him.

Then I asked, “Will you take me home?”

Again, Max answered immediately, “Absolutely.”

Then he bent, lifting me in his arms, he carried me through the snow and pine trees of a Colorado mountain, straight to his Cherokee where he set me gently in the passenger seat, buckled me in safely, folded into the driver’s side and then he took me home.