Page 120 of Tempt Her

On cue, one of them enters the kitchen. Grabbing a beer, he slaps Gentry’s back, thankfully grabbing his attention too.

“Where are they gathered in the house?”

“In the living room in the back, yelling at a rectangle on the wall like it can hear them.”

“Can you let us in the front door so we can surprise him?”

“Like the best party ever,” I answer her.

It’s surreal when you’ve waited for something. When it’s one of your life’s biggest moments, you watch it like you’re in the audience.

And I wished for this.

I just don’t have popcorn and Diet Coke for the big show.

I open the front door for Cade, standing there with a dozen agents wearing navy FBI vests. They let her lead the way because it was her best friend she’s been searching for all this time. Gentry kidnapped her and some other woman, too, and locked them in his hell.

Silently, we stand behind him while he and his obnoxious friends shout at the flatscreen, watching grown men sink little balls into little holes.

Fuck yes,we’re about to sink Gentry’s entire wicked world.

“Senator Gentry Evans,” Cade thunders, “you are under arrest.”

His narrow shoulders freeze. He turns, terror holding his face hostage, only to find ours smiling with revenge.

Cade lists his charges in front of his distinguished friends: human trafficking, kidnapping, rape, false imprisonment, crimes against nature, and more.

Gentry’s in shock, stunned, and humiliated while I shiver at the glacial fury in Cade’s eyes as she slaps cuffs on him.

Cade is not a woman you want to piss off.

I know it—she had something to do with TJ’s disappearance, too, Gentry’s best friend who’s been missing. I hope she dumped his evil ass in the ocean. And Gentry’s cousin, Derek, who was stalking Redix Dean and tried to kidnap his family? I knew about Cade arresting Derek a month ago. Gentry will be joining him in jail soon.

Gentry’s the last one to bring down.

I do nothing but smile in his face while she shoves him across the room toward the foyer.

I let Cade have her moment, escorting him out of his house in handcuffs in front of a news crew that magically appeared in our driveway.

Someone else had to have called this story in. Someone who hated Gentry too. His destruction will be headline news for weeks.

Drawing in my first breath of freedom, “Gentlemen,” I say to the dickheads gathered, their jaws scraping the floor, “get the fuck out of my house right now.”

The agents escort them out, preparing to ask questions, but I’m sure they’ll all defend Gentry because they’re guilty of similar crimes.

It doesn’t matter. That poor woman he held hostage for so long? She’ll get her justice, locking him up for multiple life sentences. And with a best friend like Cade, she’ll also get the care she needs.

I follow them all outside and stand in the driveway, watching Cade toss Gentry in a patrol car like a wad of used toilet paper.

I don’t know what she says to him in the car, but she silently signals me over once she’s done.

It’s my turn.

Now I know what a predator feels like seconds before the kill. I get tunnel vision; my senses are heightened, my logic too.

Don’t fuck this up.

I’m still legally married to a criminal. It’ll take months for lawyers to end it.

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