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“Casey Dean’s girl,” Shane said.
She was bent over the desk, her ass in his crotch, just as it had been in Savannah.
“Fuck you,” she said, but she was grinding against him again.
“Didn’t work last time, won’t work this time,” Shane said. “I’ve finally?—”
He didn’t finish as she turned her body counterclockwise under him, locking his arm under her body, and smashed her free elbow into his face, the perfect reversal move to a half nelson.
Stunned, Shane let go for a moment, and she slithered out of his grip. She dived for the floor, searching for the gun. He leapt for her just as she decided to make a break for it and grabbed her ankle, and she kicked her foot into his face, breaking free. Shane scrambled to his feet, saw her silhouetted against the door to the room, and jumped, and his momentum shoved both of them through the door and onto the big round bed where she’d stripped, the girl squirming in his arms, trying in get away hum under him where he had her pinned facedown.
That’s when he heard Maria’s voice from the open sliding glass door: “Oh, Cod, Agnes, now Shane’s doing her, too!”
Oh, fuck, Shane thought as the girl elbowed him low.
Maria turned and tried to run and Agnes caught her and said, “Don’t be ridiculous,” and then looked past her to where Shane had a half-naked squirming woman under him on a bed. “Okay, that looks bad,” Agnes said, clamping down on her automatic urge to kill him, “but that’s not what it looks like.”
Maria looked at her, outraged. “How can you be so blind! Look at them!”
Agnes looked at them. Shane was pinning the woman to the bed, bearing down on her, and it was hard to tell, sex and violence being so closely related but... “No,” she said. “I’m pretty sure he’s trying to kill her.”
Maria looked at the bed and then at Agnes. “You’re insane,” she said, and then took off down the path.
“I didn’t mean it the way it sounded,” Agnes said, and went after her. “Maria!” She caught up with her halfway down the path. “I’m sorry, that wasn’t right, I didn’t mean kill kill. I mean, you know, subdue, arrest, Shane’s kind of a cop, and ...” Her voice trailed off as Maria shook her head. “Look, the bottom line is Shane wouldn’t do that to me, and Palmer wouldn’t do that to you. Things aren’t always what they look like; sometimes you just have to trust the guy you love.”
“All guys do that,” Maria said. “Brenda said?—”
“Brenda is a hag from hell who is trying to destroy your wedding so she can take my house,” Agnes snapped.
“And you’re trying to push me into this wedding so you can keep your house,” Maria said.
Agnes threw up her hands. “You really think that? You fell in love with Palmer, who is a great guy, and you came down here completely in love with him, positive you wanted to marry him, and then that peroxided bitch poured poison in your ear and now I’m the one with the ulterior motive. Thanks a lot.”
Off in the woods, they heard voices and then someone gag, and Maria made a disgusted sound. “Probably Palmer barfing.” She raised her voice toward the sounds. “Sex and booze don’t mix, you dummy, and neither does cheating and marriage.”
“Well, it’s clear to see you love him and care about his well-being,” Agnes said, fed up with her. “Don’t put yourself out any. I’ll go see if he’s all right.”
“Hey,” Maria said as a male voice up on the path said, “Maria? Is that you?”
“No, really, stay here,” Agnes said, turning her back on her. “You’ve never looked more like your grandmother than you do right now.”
She left the path and went into the woods, shining the flash on the ground so she didn’t trip on any tree roots, and she saw his shoe first. “Palmer,” she said, and played the light up his leg onto this shirt and then his face, seeing his eyes staring terrified at the same time she saw the meat fork sticking out of his throat, not Palmer but Taylor, and then she screamed as he reached for her, she screamed and screamed and screamed.
Shane cursed to himself as the stripper tried to worm free. Then she pulled a stiletto from some hidden sheath on the miniskirt and jabbed with it and he felt it pierce into his shoulder.
Fuck this, Shane thought. He pulled back his left fist and hit her in the base of her skull as hard as he could. Her head bounced off the bed, but she was still conscious, albeit stunned. She slashed at him, narrowly missing his eyes.
Shane punched again, this time aiming for her temple, but she moved just enough so the blow didn’t strike dead on, but rather bounced off his skull. He ducked as the knife came tor his eyes once more, and then forgot all but total combat, blocked the knife hand, grabbed her head, left hand on the back, right hand on her jaw, and twisted violently. The sound of her neck snapping echoed through the barn even as he felt the point of the knife pierce the skin in his shoulder.
Shane felt the body spasm beneath him, then become still.
He rolled over onto his back, breathing hard and staring up at the ceiling of the barn.
Agnes, he thought, but he couldn’t summon the energy to get up and go after her.
He checked his shoulder. Not deep. He’d killed her before she could do real damage. He reached over and pulled off the blonde wig, revealing the short red hair.
Finally, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his replacement satellite phone. He hit speed-dial.
