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“Mr. Montrose? What does he have to do with anything?”
“He has everything to do with everything,” Randy hedged, the light in his eyes turning dark and stormy. “While you were busy seeking a speedy divorce, he was busy keeping it from happening.”
Terri spluttered, her mind went on the fritz, and she began shaking violently. How could he do this? How could Randy convince a person of the law to do his bidding? How could someone be so cruel, so dishonest? “I don’t believe you,” she croaked. “He took an oath. He told me…he told me…”
“He told you what?” Randy snapped. “That the judge wasn’t listening. That things were more complicated than expected?” Terri raised horrified eyes to look at him. “News flash: he lied. He’s been working for me the entire time, telling me everything. Everywhere you went, everyone you talked to. I always knew, Terri. Always.”
“You had me spied on?” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It was like some crazy movie that had somehow turned into reality.
“You left me with no choice,” Randy roared, leaping at her.
Terri screamed and jumped back, narrowly avoiding his quick hands, and bolted for the front door.
It was further away than she remembered it, too many pieces of furniture in the way. She careened around the corner, slammed her hips into a side table and tripped on the edge of the runner. The air whooshed from her lungs and she slammed her chin on the hard wood floor beneath her, but she didn’t let it faze her. The sound of Randy’s boots pounding the floor as he gave chase had her up and running again. The front door was close, but it had too many locks that she would have to stop for. Plus, the stairs were closer.
Scrapping her original plan, which wasn’t all that great anyway, Terri took the stairs one at a time with quick, sure feet, using the railing to pull herself along. Randy was close on her heels, taking the stairs two and three at a time, and when Terri hit the top floor and dashed down the hall toward Luke’s room, Randy howled his outrage.
Luke’s door had a lock on it, which is why she chose it. That, and while she had been cleaning his bathroom, she may have taken a moment or two to snoop around. Normally, she would hate herself for violating someone’s privacy, but now that she was running for her life, she was thankful she had.
Throwing herself to her knees on one side of the bed, she ran her hands between the mattress and box spring until she found the hard metallic object she was looking for. The gun felt terrifying in her hands, but it was the only thing Terri had to defend herself.
She tried to remain calm as Randy pounded on the other side of the door, yelling at her to let him in. Of course she wouldn’t. That would be crazy. She’d set off all kinds of primal instincts in him when she took off, and now Randy was the predator, relentless in the pursuit of his prey. When he realized his fists and angry demands weren’t working, his booted feet took up the fight, kicking at the door furiously. Terri recoiled when it finally burst in, and she felt her arms lift the gun in response.
Randy stopped mid-stomp, staring at her with a dubious smile. “What are you doing, Terri? What, are you going to shoot me?”
Tremors in her hands made it nearly impossible to hold the gun steady, but Terri tried to call up some of the old television shows and movies as an example of how it was done. She worked to calm her breathing and steady her hands, and eventually was able to hold him in her sights. “You’ve left me with no choice,” she threw his words back at him viciously, and then she pulled the trigger.
Randy was stunned, momentarily stupefied by her willingness to shoot him. He looked down at himself, then back at her, and broke into a fit of mocking laughter. “You bitch,” he said taking long, purposeful strides across the room. “I can’t believe you actually had it in you to even try it.” Wrenching the gun from her hands, he backhanded her so hard she flew backward, slamming into the wall with such force the air exploded from her lungs.
Terri watched dazedly as Randy inspected the weapon, flicking his finger over something she couldn’t see. Extending his arm, he looked down the barrel at her. “My father used to take me hunting when I was a boy. Do you know what he taught me, Terri?” She shook her head. “The first rule of hunting, bring your weapon. The second rule, locate your prey. The third rule, and you’ll want to listen closely to this one because it applies to you, is to always, always check to make sure the safety is off before you shoot.”
Terri’s eyes widened in horror and her whole body shook violently. Randy approached her, standing in front of her for a moment that seemed to stretch into forever. Then, in a series of fast movements, he stashed the gun in the waistband at the small of his back and grabbed her chin, wrenching her face up, forcing her to meet his eyes. “I know you would never try to kill me, Terri. You don’t want to hurt me. Not really. That was a warning, wasn’t it? You wanted to get my attention.”
Terri was confused for a moment, before finally catching on that he didn’t believe she meant him any true harm, or he didn’t want to. She jumped on the opportunity he presented. “I’m sorry,” she said hesitantly, trying the words out. She hadn’t had to say them to anyone in so long; they felt almost foreign on her tongue.
“You should be,” he growled, transferring his hand to her hair and yanking her head back with a sharp snap of his wrist. “You’ve pushed me pretty far lately. Nearly driven me crazy in the process.”
With a shaking hand, Terri reached out and stroked his clean shaven jaw with her fingertips. “I couldn’t help it,” she said coyly. “After what happened, I was scared.” She wove the truth of her fear into a seductive lie, luring him in, trying to keep him calm, though it could still turn into chaos at any moment.
Randy’s eyes closed slowly at her tender touch, and he leaned closer, burying his face in her hair. “You never came to visit me. Not once.”
“I wanted to,” she lied, “but I wasn’t sure if you wanted to see me. Not after everything that happened. Not after what I did to you.” She almost choked on that lie.
His hands stroked down her back, his arms coiling around her waist and constricting her in a punishing embrace that arched her back almost painfully. “You test me,” he rasped. “I wasn’t sure if I was coming here tonight to hold you or kill you.”
“I’m glad you chose the former,” she said, adrenaline pumping through her veins and making her heart thunder in her chest.
“I don’t know how to handle you anymore,” Randy confessed, pulling back to look at her. He pushed a strand of hair that had slipped from her ponytail behind her ear in a move so affectionate that Terri almost had to remind herself that he was dangerous. Almost. “You run from me, hide from me, play house with another man to get at me, and when I finally corner you, you say terrible lies, all to hurt me. Why?”
Terri wasn’t sure how to respond. “I don’t know why I said and did all those things,” she said, looking at where her hands played against his shirt rather than meeting his eyes where he would no doubt see the lies being spun there. “My only defense is that I haven’t been feeling like myself lately, and that you were right. We have a lot to talk about and work on.”
Crushing her to his chest, Randy breathed deeply, as if she was his lifeline. “You don’t know how happy I am to hear you say that.” He paused. “I’m sorry I hit you,” he said regretfully. “I wouldn’t hurt you for the world. You know that, right?” Terri nodded, her cheek rasping against the rough fabric of his shirt. “You mean everything to me, Terri. I’m nothing without you.”
“You’re nothing, period,” Luke’s rumbling voice said from the doorway.
Randy released her, shoving her behind him and baring his teeth like a ferocious animal guarding its territory. “You,” he snarled. “You’re dead.”
“Actually,” Luke said with a cocky lift of his chin, “I’m not.” Tilting his head, he looked around Randy’s big body and smiled warmly at Terri. “How you doing, sweetheart?”
