Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
That wasn’t going to happen, but MaeBe’s heart rate picked up because this was about to get real. Julia had lost the rifle, but she still had a semiautomatic in a holster on her hip.
She put the radio down and focused on MaeBe. “He’ll be here in a moment, and you’re going to take your place on that chair. I haven’t decided if I’m going to kill you or break you and let Kyle see what he tried to replace me with.”
MaeBe got ready to move. Any minute now. Any minute. But she was going to take these last few seconds to impart a simple truth to the woman who’d once given her advice while she tortured her. “He doesn’t love you. He never loved you. You talk about him picking me because he couldn’t handle losing you, but it was honestly the other way around. I was never the placeholder. I’m the woman Kyle Hawthorne was born to love, but he lost his way. He couldn’t handle losing his friend. He got stuck, and for a while you distracted him from that pain, but he was always going to find me. You were nothing but a bump in the road on his way to me.”
“I’m going to take you apart,” Julia snarled, not noticing the door behind her opening and the object of her affection beginning to come through.
Kyle was there, a Glock in his hand.
It was time.
MaeBe raised her hands above her head and brought them down as hard as she could, using the strength she’d gained from the long hours of training with Ian. The zip ties cracked, and her hands were free if still numb. She wasn’t sure she could properly punch, but she could kick out.
Which she did, knocking that cattle prod away as Julia started to reach for the gun at her side.
“Don’t do it,” Kyle warned.
She stopped cold, her head swiveling and eyes widening. “Kyle?”
He stared at Julia, not taking his eyes off her for a second. “You have her, Uncle?”
That was when she realized the Taggarts were in the house. Ian moved in behind Kyle, with Erin and Sean flanking him. Charlotte had likely gone to protect Kala, and it looked like Ten Smith had their backs.
She teared up because this was her family. Hers.
Julia was still, her eyes on Kyle, and MaeBe wondered if there was some music swelling in her head because somewhere in that brain of hers this was what love looked like. Somehow she’d decided this was her epic love story.
Kyle relaxed, bringing his gun down and walking right by Julia on his way to MaeBe. He wrapped her up in his arms, and wasn’t that the cruelest thing of all for Julia?
In the end, she didn’t matter.
Kyle wrapped his arms around her, focusing all of his attention on her. He looked down where the ties had bitten into her wrists. “Baby, are you okay? I was so fucking scared. Who did this?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Erin pointed out. “We killed them all. Hope there’s a freezer around here somewhere.”
“Kyle, this is about us. Don’t you pretend to ignore me,” Julia warned. “This is our fight.”
“Julia, he’s not fighting with you anymore.” It was odd how sad she felt for the woman. “There’s no more fight. From here there’s peace and life, and he’s not ever again giving you a second of his time. You don’t get mine either.”
Julia’s face had gone a florid red, and she drew the hand with the gun up. “If I can’t…”
Four shots went through her body.
“She can have a minute of my time,” Sean Taggart said, his tone deep and dark.
Ian frowned even as Julia’s body hit the ground. He pointed. “What the hell was that? That was not a kill shot, Sean. Even Theo had a kill shot.”
The Taggart brothers started arguing about who had the best shot, but Kyle was picking her up and hauling her close to him.
“I want to leave this place,” he said. “Will you go with me?”
She loved this man so much. He’d proven once and for all, he loved her. He hadn’t needed revenge on the woman who’d torn his life apart. He’d only needed to ensure the safety of the woman he loved.
“Theo, I think that cattle prod is on. Don’t touch it,” Erin was saying.
And she loved this family of theirs. “I’ll go anywhere with you.”
He walked them out of the room and never once looked back.
* * * *
Three days later MaeBe sat beside Kyle in the conference room at Sanctum as Drake went over the data they’d found at his father’s country club locker in South Carolina.
She’d been pretty spot on when it came to some of it.
And then some of it was a complete revelation. “I never knew how ruthless the organic produce business could be.”