Deserves to Die Part 19

"Essentially." She was nodding. "Yeah, that's about it."

"Let's just tell it like it is. You're a liar, Anne-Marie. You lied to your family, you lied to me, h.e.l.l, you probably lied to your d.a.m.n husband. Christ, I know you did. So now you're on the run and you wind up here and you expect me . . . me . . . to believe you and do what? Take you in? Hide you out from some imagined threat? Start something up again."

"No!"

Obviously, he wasn't buying it. "Jesus H. Christ. You're unbelievable. And you can take that literally."

"I'm telling you the truth."

"That's the trouble with compulsive liars; they start believing their own s.h.i.t."

"Cade. Trust me, I'm not-"

"Trust you?" he threw back at her. "That's a laugh. You expect me to trust you." He was angry, his jaw hard, but it wasn't the raw, pa.s.sionate fury she'd witnessed in him before. No, this was cold and deep, the kind of wrath that has had time to burrow and fester. It was obvious he wasn't buying her desperate pleas and she knew that he had good reason.

"I made a mistake coming here."

"You got that right," he said, his glare cutting through her. "I don't know what you're involved in and I don't care. If you seriously believe someone is out to kill you, whether it's your husband or someone else, then you need to go to the police. Immediately. No matter how wild a tale you spin, they'll look into it."

"I'd planned to, but then-"

"I know. Dan died. Jesus, don't you know I'm painfully aware of that fact," he said.

She shrank back. "I didn't mean-"

He waved off her apology. "Whatever it is you think you're involved in, it has nothing to do with me." A muscle worked in his jaw as if he were trying and failing to rein in his anger. "Just go down to the station and tell your tale. They'll ask you some questions and that'll be it. Maybe they can sort out what's real and what's all in your head."

"I'm not making this up." She was on her feet. "You think I drove all the way from New Orleans to seek you out because of some convoluted, sick fantasy? Have you noticed women are being killed?"

"I don't really see how they're connected to you. Did you know them? The first girl's been IDed, some woman from Utah, I think, and the second one"-he shrugged-"I haven't heard."

"You're the only person I knew in Grizzly Falls before I came here. But I think he followed me somehow."

"As I said, tell it to the police. I don't know the new sheriff or much about him, but someone thought he was fit for the job, so go and tell him your tale."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Anne-Marie said.

"Why not?"

She remembered the acting sheriff, how when she'd spilled coffee on him, he'd turned his attention on her like a laser.

"If you're serious about this. If you really think that you being here in Montana has cost two women their lives, you have to go to the police. It's your moral obligation."

She felt her back go up. "Moral obligation? You're a fine one to lecture me on morals."

"I wasn't the one who was married," he said.

She saw in his eyes that he was daring her to tread farther, into dangerous emotional territory which, she knew, would be unwise. "Okay. I get it," she said, deciding it was time to leave just as she heard the muted rumble of an engine. Shad was on his three feet in an instant, howling and barking and running into the kitchen.

She glanced through the window and saw a ma.s.sive pickup had pulled into the empty bay of the garage. Zed's truck. Her heart sank as she watched the Grayson brother climb out of his king cab.

"I should leave," she said, reaching up to twist and pin her hair onto her head. Quickly she donned her wig again, uncaring that it wasn't on perfectly. Then, she slid her sungla.s.ses onto the bridge of her nose. She started for the front door but looked over her shoulder. "I know it's a lot to ask. And G.o.d knows you don't owe me any favors, but please . . . don't give me away until I talk to the police."

"You're going there?"

"I will . . . just not right now." She drew in a long breath.

"When?" he asked as she noticed Big Zed squinting at her car as he walked toward the back of the house.

"This week."

"And if you don't?"

"You won't have to worry about me. I'll be gone and . . . and he'll follow."

"To kill again," he said, lifting an eyebrow. "That's what you're trying to get me to believe."

She let out a nearly inaudible sigh and opened the door. "Believe whatever you want, Cade." She heard another door open and didn't wait any longer. She didn't want to explain herself to Zed or anyone else, yet.

She followed her earlier tracks across the front yard to her car and wondered if Cade were watching her or if Zed was asking questions. Well, so be it.

She should never have shown her hand, never have driven there and tried to drag Cade into it.

Her hopes for help from anyone named Grayson had died with the sheriff.

It was time to come up with Plan B.

"Who was that?" Zed asked as he walked into the house and found Cade staring out the living room window.

"No one."

"Like h.e.l.l."

"Okay. Someone I knew a long time ago." He watched Anne-Marie drive off and thought, Good riddance. It surprised him that she'd tracked him down, but it didn't surprise him that she'd shown up with some wild-a.s.s story. She'd always been slightly off, one wheel not quite on the track. Yes, she'd been his lover and he still remembered how pa.s.sionate she was in the bedroom, but he also recalled what a crazy and bona fide liar she was. The kind of woman best left alone. He didn't know why she was in Grizzly Falls, but if it was to start something up again, he'd shut her down. Fast. It was over, and for the first time in his life, he wasn't interested. He was with Hattie and had her daughters to consider. He'd be a fool to risk losing his family, and he wasn't about to do it with Anne-Marie Calderone.

"A woman." There was a sneer in Zed's voice.

Cade turned and faced his older brother. "Yep."

"Women are always getting you into trouble."

That much was true. s.e.x had always been Cade's downfall. He liked women. All women. Lots of women. And he'd never been one to shy away from danger, especially if it involved a slightly over the top woman, the operative word being slightly. At least that's how he'd reacted until recently, but Anne-Marie had been trouble from the get-go. He'd wondered then, as he wondered now, if she was missing a few vital screws. She'd always been attractive and s.e.xy, but mentally a little unbalanced. And there was the lying thing; he hadn't been kidding when he'd called her compulsive. It was as if she just couldn't stop.

"She's just a friend."

"No such thing. Not with you."

"Believe me," Cade said.

"So how do you know that waitress from the diner?" Zed asked. To Cade's look, he said, "That's who it was. I saw her there."

For a reason Cade couldn't name, he felt suddenly protective of a woman he'd sworn to abhor. "Long story. Long time ago. Long over."

Zed's eyes thinned and he took a look out the window, but Anne-Marie's car had disappeared. "Okay," he said as if he didn't quite believe Cade, but was willing to move on. "I was just at the funeral home. Everything's a go for the service."

Cade grunted. He didn't want to think about Anne-Marie, true enough, but he also didn't want to dwell on the fact that the brother he'd looked up to was gone. "Can you handle the night's feeding?" he asked Zed.

"S'pose. Where you goin'?"

"Into town to have dinner with Hattie and the girls." The darkness in his soul dissolved a little when he thought of Mallory and McKenzie, the twins he'd recently found out were not sired by his brother Bart, but by Cade himself. Had it changed how he felt about them? Not much. Since Bart's death he'd thought of the girls as his, anyway. The new biological information had been a shock, but not an unpleasant one. Truth be known, it was a possibility he'd considered a couple times but had tossed aside while his brother had been alive.

"Hattie." Zed snorted again. "She's no good, y'know. I don't know what your deal is, or was, with the waitress from the diner, but it sure as h.e.l.l has to be a lot less complicated than the thing you've got going with Bart's wife."

"Ex-wife."

"Or maybe even an excuse. The reason she was his ex might well be because of you."

Every muscle in Cade's body clenched. He was super-sensitive in that area. h.e.l.l, maybe they both were. "Let's not go there, Zed. We've already lost two brothers. Now it's just you and me."

"And Hattie."

And your wh.o.r.es, the one-night stands that don't enc.u.mber you. "And Hattie," Cade said, thinking of the woman he loved. Theirs was a complicated relationship and always had been.

"So why the f.u.c.k don't you just up and marry her? That's where this is all heading, isn't it? To make it legal? That little thing you had going with your brother's wife."

Cade grabbed a piece of Zed's work shirt in his fist and yanked. "I never touched Hattie while she was married and you know it."

"I don't know a d.a.m.n thing," Zed said, his eyes blazing, his lips barely moving.

"That's the first thing you said that's right."

Zed punched him. Hard. In the ribs.

"Jesus!" Cade's fingers released and he fell backward, barely catching himself.

Zed, his face red, warned, "Don't you ever put your hands on me again."

"Then stop all this s.h.i.t-talking about Hattie, you got that? She's the mother of my kids."

"That's the G.o.dd.a.m.n problem," Zed growled. His hands balled into fists and he looked as if he were about to launch at Cade as they had when they were young bucks, always fighting. Kicking, punching, knocking holes in the walls, the four boys had all possessed hot tempers and become the h.e.l.lions of town, much to their mother's dismay. Though they'd grown out of their testosterone-charged teen years, that sibling rivalry always simmered just beneath the surface. They'd fight like h.e.l.l for each other in public, then turn brother against brother when they were home, either fueled by alcohol or spurred by jealousy over a woman.

"You don't want to take me on, Zed," Cade warned.

"Don't I?"

"You're bigger, but I'm smarter."

"f.u.c.k you!" Zed lunged and Cade rolled deftly away as the big man landed face-first into their mother's couch in the very spot Anne-Marie had so recently vacated. The sofa skidded into the wall with the window, panes rattling, a lamp teetering on an end table, to fall and crash, its bulb shattering, the shade ripping. Shad, who had been on a nearby chair, let out a startled yip, then began barking and hopping around on his three legs.

"Told ya."

"You got lucky."

"Luck had nothing to do with it," Cade said but felt little satisfaction in the statement. Zed was a pain, yeah, but he was the only d.a.m.n brother he had left. "Just be sure to feed the d.a.m.n cattle and horses, would ya? And Shad, too."

As Zed struggled to his feet, Cade walked into the kitchen to the anteroom near the back door where his boots sat under a bench and his jacket hung on a peg. There was no use arguing with Zed when he was in one of his dark moods, which seemed to be all the time. Not that Cade could blame him much. Ever since a sniper had taken shots at Dan, Cade too had been tough to live with.

Gingerly, he shrugged into his jacket, his ribs aching. Jesus, were they cracked? That would be a h.e.l.luva thing. The fights with Zed had been increasing lately though it was the first time they'd gotten physical.

Not a good sign.

Maybe it would be best for everyone concerned if he moved out, found a place, tried living with Hattie and the girls. It wouldn't be so bad. Hattie had admitted her mother, who'd been diagnosed with cancer, was losing that hard-fought battle. Hattie could use a little help with the girls. Yeah, that part would be more than all right. But, he wasn't ready for marriage yet. They had too many things to iron out, but there was a chance, someday in the not too distant future, he might be ready to finally settle down.

Then again, maybe not.

The darkness was complete.

Whichever way she looked, she saw no one, heard nothing. But he was here. She sensed his presence.

Creeaak!

A door opened and she whipped around, her gaze scouring the blackness. No shaft of light appeared. There was no indication from which direction the sound had come.

Think, Jessica, think. You know this place. You know him! You can escape.

She started moving, inching backward, afraid that at any second she might stumble and fall, and he would pounce on her.

Her throat was dry as dust in fear. The night, so black and cold, seemed to wrap around her, its talons piercing her skin, an icy fear infusing her blood.

There was no way out. No walls, no windows, no doorway that she could sense. Backward, step by step, bracing herself for the inevitable- Bam!

The gun went off though no flash of light burst from its muzzle. Anne-Marie stumbled backward, farther into the darkness.

Bang! Another hit! She felt no pain, but when she clutched her stomach, then lifted her hand, she saw the blood. Dark red stains running down her palm.

Why? she mouthed, staring at her attacker. Why?

"Because you deserve it," he sneered, his voice deep and accusing. "Because of what you did."

"I'm sorry!" she cried, staring into the void.

"I loved you, Stacey. That's what you go by now, isn't it? Stacey Donahue."

"Y-yes, I'm Stacey," she admitted, though that didn't sound right. No, wait! "You've got the wrong person," she said desperately. "I'm Jessica. Jessica Williams. Yes, Jessica Williams!"

"Are you?" he said, toying with her. "Last I heard you were Stacey Donahue."

"No! You're wrong."