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“So you definitely intend to kill me. ” She prayed Dawg was close. Surely if he was here by now, he would have done something.
“I really don’t have a choice, sweetheart. ” He sighed, shaking his head in mock compassion.
“That wasn’t the plan, Johnny. ” Bedsford stared at him in shock. “We can’t stay around here now. There’s no way the Mackays won’t know we were involved. ”
“They won’t know anything, Jim,” he promised, reaching out to touch the scowl on the other man’
s face. “Settle down, lover. Everything will work out perfectly. You’ll see. ”
Crista saw it coming, and she was certain Jim s
hould have, most likely did. The hand holding the gun twitched as his scowl deepened, but Johnny’s other hand came up too fast. The gun he held exploded. The bullet tore into Bedsford’s chest, straight through his heart, and left him staring back at Johnny in shock.
He fell to his knees, his hands reaching out to Johnny as Johnny stepped back; then Bedsford toppled over to the ground.
Crista stared in shock, her eyes locked with Jim Bedsford’s surprised, agonized gaze as it slowly dimmed and grew cold.
“That was unfortunate. ” Johnny sighed.
Crista lifted her head, only then noticing that Johnny wore clear latex gloves over his hands.
“He loved you,” she said, knowing it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered to Johnny but destroying Dawg.
“Of course he loved me. ” Johnny rolled his eyes at the declaration. “He adored me. I worked hard to make certain he did. But I no longer need him. This way, I don’t have to split the million dollars, and I don’t have to leave Somerset for fear of him growing a conscience over his cousin’s death. Jim was a bit of a whiner. He didn’t like killing the boy. ”
“Dawg knows you’re involved in this, Johnny. If you kill me, he won’t need the law on his side.
He’ll take you apart. You know he will. ”
“A million dollars can buy a lot of protection. And Dawg and Natches aren’t the only ones who know how to hide and fire a rifle, Crista,” he told her with amused unconcern.
Johnny couldn’t know the evidence the agents had on him; if he did, he wouldn’t be so certain. All she had to do was be patient; Dawg would be there. Johnny wouldn’t expect that. As far as he knew, no one would even consider suspecting him of impersonating her.
“And Alex? Do you think he won’t take up where Dawg might fail? This isn’t going to go over as easy as you think it will, Johnny. ”
He was silent for long moments. Moments that seemed to drag out, to stand still as the forest around them held its breath. Silence descended in the clearing as the smell of blood and death began to fill Crista’s head.
She could feel herself shaking, shuddering.
Where was Dawg? Rowdy had promised he would be here, that they were watching her, following her. A chill of fear raced through her body, causing her to clench her teeth to keep them from chattering.
“I’ve had this planned for a long time, Crista. ” He sighed. “Though I hadn’t intended to kill you.
Only make certain you were arrested for my crimes. ” His smile was maniacal. “That would have destroyed Dawg. He’s really in love with you, you know that? He nearly drank himself to death after you left eight years ago. Of course, he didn’t remember the night you spent with him. And”—his smile became demonic—“he didn’t know about your miscarriage either, did he? Does he know now?”
“He knows. ” Her throat was so tight she felt as though she were strangling. “What you don’t understand, Johnny, is that he knows you were involved. The Homeland Security agents know its you; Alex will know. You are not going to get away with this. ”
“No one has enough proof for anything. ” He waved her warning away. “No one can touch me, Crista. I made sure of it. When your bodies are found, it’s going to look like you had a disagreement and killed each other. And of course, I’ll give a statement that Jim confided his affair with you to me. Too many people are aware that we were at least friends. I have it all worked out, sweetheart. ” He moved then, sliding to the side as he waved the gun toward Alex’s car. “Move on over here now. ”
Crista moved slowly, praying. Dawg had to be close by. She could feel him, feel eyes watching her, just as she was certain Jim had until she distracted him. Before Johnny killed him.
“There you go. ” Johnny smiled back at her as he bent and lifted Jim’s gun from the ground. “Now, all I have to do is put a bullet in your heart, place the weapons appropriately, and drive out of here. It’s all over now. ”
“Like hell!” Crista snarled. She wasn’t going to make this easy for him.
Everything seemed to happen simultaneously then. Crista threw herself in front of Alex’s car, hitting the ground as she heard a bullet ricochet off the metal. Then the forest seemed to come alive with gunfire.
She rolled to her back, watching as Johnny took the first bullet to his head, the second, third, and fourth to his chest. His body jerked violently as blood sprayed around him.
