Page 65 of Seized by the Lawman

His blood boiled. He understood two things. She was a lunatic and didn’t plan to walk away. He wasn’t sure talking would work so he started moving, slowly and deliberately. “Then why am I here?” He came upon a stack of crushed cars. He took refuge against the heap.

“All my life I had done right, but every time I turned around I was getting stepped on. My ex-husband couldn’t take a trip with me and yet he had time to fuck the college intern. You know how hard it is to have someone you love treat you like yesterday’s trash? No, I’m sure you wouldn’t. You’ve never had anyone who saw right past you even when you were standing directly in front of them.”

“Claire, we’ve all been there.” He slipped around the metal, keeping his back positioned against the wall. Large storage containers were placed two rows deep around the property. This only made things more difficult. Would Claire keep Melly in one of the units?

“No, we haven’t. You have no idea what it’s like to lose someone, but it does seem like you comprehend the amazement of finding someone—someone who understands you even on your worst days. I had that with Spider. I really did. He was all I had, but you couldn’t just let things go.” Her voice was monochrome.

“What I understand is that you’re hurt, but you’re a smart woman. You knew I wouldn’t let Spider get by with his threats. So how about you do the right thing and let Melly go. She hasn’t done anything to you or Spider. She’s the true victim here.” Making his way silently between two containers, Nix paused. He heard a noise, it was so low that he almost thought he’d imagined it. Hunkering down, he moved like a hunter targeting its prey.

“I’m done talking.” The radio went eerily dead.

“Claire? Don’t leave me hanging. We can talk about this.”

He received silence in response. “Shit!” He shoved the device into his back pocket. He inched across the hot cement. A nearby trash can stunk so badly that it made his stomach rumble. The loose rock scraped his skin as he crawled, but he couldn’t feel anything because his adrenaline was so high. Once he reached the end of the container, he stood. He wasn’t sure what he expected to see around the corner, but it wasn’t the fat, black fur ball that jumped out of nowhere and sped across the lot. Nix’s heart thumped hard against his ribcage and it took him a good, long moment to focus again. Damn, he was a trained lawman who’d faced gunman in the military and in his career, and a scrawny cat almost took him out. He gave his head a jerk and positioned his gun.

Nix was starting to realize that things weren’t going to go easy. Claire was in a resistant state of mind. As much as he wanted things to go smoothly with no one hurt, his top priority was saving Melly and their baby.

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