Page 85 of Montana Heat

“Paying her back,” he bit out in a growl. His evil gaze remained locked on me as he fumed. His nostrils flared. The skin below his right eye twitched.

Jada grabbed his arm. “Sweetheart, wait. I know you’re angry, but it doesn’t need to be like this. I have a plan to get her out of your life—out ofourlives—for good.”

“Yeah, you told me. You convinced her to go to Florida.”

“But it’s more than that. You know that memory-altering drug my brother talks about? I’ve got some. Once she’s in Florida, I’ll inject her with a crazy-high dose, and she won’t remember who she is or who you are or anything.”

He lowered the knife and looked over at her. “You have some of the drug?”

Jada’s smile widened now that he was paying attention to her.

“Yep.” She pulled both the stun gun and two syringes out of her small handbag. “Stun gun helped me get her here. And this compound will help me get rid of her for good.”

He picked up one of the syringes and studied it. “So she won’t have any memory of anything once she’s injected?”

“Nope.” She reached up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. “She’ll be out of our lives for good. You can rebuild your real estate career, just like we planned.”

He took the stun gun from her other hand. “And you used this to subdue her?”

Jada beamed, watching as he flipped it on and off multiple times. “Yep. I remember how you told me weapons are our friends.”

I braced myself to get stunned again. I knew by the light in Alan’s eyes that he was looking forward to causing me pain. I couldn’t stop my breath from catching as he looked over at me and smiled.

But he turned the stun gun on Jada instead. I winced, watching her shake and jerk while he held the device on her much longer than she had on me.She fell to the floor, moaning even after he stopped.

“She’ll never understand that she means fucking nothing to me.” He pushed at her with his foot, rolling her over to the side. I had no idea if she was conscious or not, as still as she was. “She was always sighing, always dramatic. Clingy and wanting to fix things. She was a helpful means to an end.”

He smiled at me once more, stepping closer while I fought with the zip tie at my wrists. “But she bought this nice, secluded cabin just because we talked about it. Lots of space here, don’t youthink? Nobody around for miles. Plenty of places to hide a body where it will never be found.”

I tried to keep my features blank and think of anything to stall while I quietly worked on the bindings.

I knew Alan was going to kill me. In his eyes, it would be perfectly justifiable revenge for ruining his life.

He set down the stun gun and syringes on the table but still wielded the knife in his hand, slicing it in the air and jabbing it toward me like he couldn’t decide where to start. I knew whatever action he took toward me was going to hurt. His eyes were lit with excitement at the thought.

“Nothing to say?” He smirked. “Not going to beg me to let you go, let you live? Apologize for ruining my life the way you did so many times?”

He’d never been able to take responsibility for his own actions. Even before the night he’d attacked me, he’d always tried to make every setback or failure my fault. He’d accused me of making him lose his job, making him get mad, and so much more.

“Always my fault, wasn’t it?” I managed to get out, my voice stronger than I’d thought it would be.

“You never thought about me? Never thought about how you ruined my damn life? Just because we had a little argument.”

“You assaulted me,” I argued. The dark look in his eyes scared me. I needed to try to talk him down, not antagonize him more. “You were done with me, Alan. Even before that night you attacked me, we were done. You’re out of jail. This can all be behind you. There’s no need for us to be here at all.”

“Except payback.” He lifted the knife again, and I took a cowardly step back before I could think about it. I didn’t want to be boxed into a corner, but it looked like that’s where Alan was directing me. I’d have no chance to try to run if he maneuvered me there.

“Just let me go.”

He sucked in a deep breath, obviously savoring what was about to happen.

My time was up.

The knife was coming at me in a slicing motion, when out of the blue, Jada wobbled into him. I hadn’t even realized she’d gotten off the floor.

“No!” Her voice was filled with pain as she jumped on his back and tried to pull him away from me. She ripped at his hair and face.

“Don’t, Alan. You don’t need to hurt her! That wasn’t the plan. Nobody needs to get hurt!”

---