Ginny quickly dressed, stowed her gun in her jacket pocket, then snatched her purse and keys. Just as she was tiptoeing toward the door, Griff stirred from sleep.
He would try to stop her if he woke up. Thinking on her feet, she dropped her bag then hurried over and grabbed the end of the sheet that they’d kicked from the bed. She lowered herself onto the mattress, eased his arms above his head and slipped the sheet around his wrists and tied it high on the bedpost. Just as she was finishing securing the knots, he opened his eyes.
He looked startled for a moment, then surprised as if he thought she was playing some sex game. “What are you doing, Ginny?”
She hated to disappoint him, but better that than have him dead.
She tightened the knot, then dropped a kiss on his cheek. “I’m sorry, Griff. But I have to go.”
His brows shot up in alarm. “What?”
She glanced at his naked body and wanted nothing more than to crawl back in his arms and make love to him again. Now that he’d awakened that part of her where she could feel again, it was hard to walk away from it.
But she couldn’t stay with Griff. Robert was waiting. And if she didn’t do as he said, he would kill Mitzi, then he’d come after Griff. She cared too much about him to let him endanger himself for her.
“I have to leave.”
He raked his free hand through his hair. “You’re not going anywhere. Robert could be waiting outside.”
She squared her shoulders and stepped away from the bed. “He is waiting for me. And if I don’t come to him, he’s going to kill Mitzi.”
Anger darkened his eyes. “Then we’ll call Jacob. He’ll track him—”
“No.” She pulled the gun from her pocket. “He said to come alone, or he’d kill her.”
“Ginny, please, listen to me. It’s a trap, don’t you see that?”
“Of course, I do. I’m not a fool. At least not anymore.” She lifted the gun. “I’m going to play along then get him out of my life forever.”
He jerked at the sheet and moved his legs to the side of the bed. “Untie me, Ginny. You can’t face him alone. It’s too dangerous.”
“It’s more dangerous if I don’t do as he says.” Her hand shook slightly as she trained the gun on his chest. “I’m not going to let Mitzi die because I’m afraid of Robert.”
“Please, Ginny,” Griff pleaded. “He’ll probably kill her anyway, then kill you or abduct you and do God knows what.”
Her anger rallied, swift and fast. “This ends tonight. I have to do it for my sister and Mitzi and Joy and all the other women he hurt or will hurt in the future.”
He jerked at the binding around his wrists, making the bed post rattle. “Please, let me go. I can hide in the car with you. He won’t even know I’m there.”
Tears pricked her eyes. He was so brave, and strong and caring. He risked his life every day for others.
Today was not the day he’d lose his life. At least not for her.
“Thank you for last night,” she said in a pained whisper. Then she turned and walked out the door and hurried out to her car.
She plugged the GPS coordinates into her phone, drove from the parking lot and headed out of town to meet the man who’d destroyed her life. She refused to allow him to destroy anyone else’s.
* * *
GRIFF BELLOWED GINNY’S name as the door closed behind her. He couldn’t believe she’d made love to him and now was leaving him here while she faced that monster alone.
And what did she mean—she was going to end it? What did she have planned?
He jerked at the sheet, but the knot was fast and tight. Furious and afraid for her life, he rolled sideways and struggled to reach the top of the bed post where she’d secured the knot. The little vixen had made certain it was secure and tied it in several places along the post.
Perspiration trickled down his neck as he stretched his body upward on the headboard and twisted his hands so he could reach the top. He wiggled and worked the fabric, slowly easing it loose and managed to release the first knot.
On to the second. With every moment he worked, Ginny was getting closer and closer to Bouldercrest. Why hadn’t she let him go with her?
She had a gun, but did she know how to use it? He’d seen her fight that day the man attacked her on the street, but Bouldercrest could take her by surprise and she might not be able to fend him off, or get a shot in.
And what if he took the gun from her and shot her with her own weapon?
His heart pounded so hard he could hear the blood roaring in his ears. The second knot finally slipped free.
It took him another fifteen minutes to release his wrists from the post. By then the images bombarding him made his blood pulse with fear. With sweaty palms, he snatched his phone, pressed Jacob’s number and reached for his clothes. When Jacob answered, he was dragging on his pants.
“Jacob, listen, Ginny heard from that bastard and she’s gone after him.”
Jacob heaved a breath. “Are you with her?”
Self-disgust ate at him. He’d let his emotions cloud his judgment and had slept with her. Had she seduced him so she could tie him up and get away?
“Griff?”
“No. Long story, but she’s gone, and she has a gun. He told her to come alone or he’d kill Mitzi.”
Jacob spewed a litany of curse words. “Did she say where she was supposed to meet him?”
Griff yanked on his shirt, fumbling with the buttons. “No. She just took off.”
“All right, I’ll call Liam and see if we can trace her phone.”
“I’ll meet you at the station.”
Jacob agreed, and Griff shoved his feet into his shoes, then snatched his jacket and ran for the door.
* * *
GINNY’S HEAD WAS spinning as she veered down the narrow, winding road leading to the area where Robert requested they meet. Giant trees and brush enveloped her into an eerie world where the tunnel through the forest felt endless and eerie.
Robert would choose a remote location, some place he thought no one would find him.
Or hear her if she screamed.
She bounced over a rut in the road, making her stomach lurch, and struggled to tamp down her fear. The sweet taste of revenge roused her courage, and she plunged on, weaving around twists and turns until she reached a clearing that ended on a ridge. A small cabin sat near the edge, rustic and weathered, and the yard was overgrown with weeds encroaching on the patchy grass.
Wind beat at the loose shutters, causing them to flap, and making the deserted place look cold and desolate. Aware Robert would be hiding out, watching her approach, she scanned the area in search of him as she braked to a stop. Her hand automatically flew to her gun, an image of her sister’s face flashing behind her eyes.
“Today is for you, Tess.”
Resignation and determination washed over her as she climbed from the car. She turned in a wide circle, hoping Robert would be a man and meet her face-to-face.
Instead, the sound of a woman screaming echoed in the wind.
Mitzi.
Her heart jumped to her throat, and she took off running toward the house. She’d come here to save Mitzi and she wouldn’t back down now.
She crossed the grass and climbed the steps to the porch, her eyes trained for Robert. But he was nowhere in sight. Probably skulking in the shadows like a coward.
She twisted the doorknob, and it creaked open. The interior was dark and dank, and wind whistled through the eaves of the old boards of the house. One step in and the wooden floor squeaked. She paused to listen for Mitzi again. A noise sounded from a back room to the right.
Scuffling? Mitzi crying?
Her heart wrenched.
She slowly eased toward the hallway, her hand over her gun in her jacket pocket, ready to pull it when Robert appeared. Another step and Mitzi’s cry grew louder. She passed a small room that appeared empty, then a bathroom that was dirty and hadn’t seen paint in a decade or more. Then a second bedroom. Just as she was about to enter it, the floor creaked behind her.
Her fingers wrapped around the handle of her gun. Before she could pull it from her pocket Robert wrapped his arms around her neck in a choke hold and dragged her into the room.
* * *
BY THE TIME Griff met Jacob at the sheriff’s office, Liam had a trace on Ginny’s phone. Jacob peeled from the parking lot and sped through town, siren blaring.
Griff’s stomach knotted every time he imagined what Robert might do to Ginny.
She was tough and strong and a survivor. She deserved to be treated with love and respect. He had the desperate urge to be the one who showed her how a man should love a woman.
How could he have fallen for her in such a short time?
Especially when she’d lied to him.
Had she simply used him the night before to distract him so she could confront Robert on her own?
He didn’t want to believe she would do that. She’d been abused and stalked to the point he’d worried she wouldn’t want a physical relationship. Yet she’d come apart in his arms.
The connection he’d felt with her had to be real, didn’t it?
“How did she get away from you?” Jacob asked.
Humiliation shot through Griff. “She pulled a gun.”
“Dammit. Why didn’t she call me?” Jacob asked.
Griff remembered the fear haunting her eyes. And the guilt lacing her voice. “She’s afraid,” he said.
“All the more reason not to go off alone.”
“I know, but this bastard murdered her sister and she blames herself. She believes it’s her fault he killed Joy and kidnapped Mitzi.”
Jacob pressed his lips into a thin line. “Guilt is pretty powerful, isn’t it?”
Griff studied his brother’s deep scowl. They’d never really talked about their father’s death. “It wasn’t your fault that Dad didn’t survive the hospital fire,” Griff said. “I’m the firefighter. I should have insisted he stay outside.”
Jacob made a low sound in his throat. “Don’t do that, Griff. It wasn’t your fault either. Dad did what Dad did, his job. That scene was chaotic, and lives were at stake. We needed manpower. None of us could have just stood by and watched without helping.”
Griff’s throat felt thick with emotions. Jacob was right. He’d blamed himself, but the only way he could have stopped his father from running into the hospital to help save lives was to have knocked him unconscious.
The Maverick men were protectors. That instinct had been bred into their blood when they were born.
Jacob swerved onto a graveled road that appeared to lead nowhere, and he sped around the winding curves as he followed the GPS coordinates Liam had sent. The storm clouds disappeared beneath the thick overhanging trees, casting the road into such darkness that Jacob had to turn on his headlights.
Three miles down the winding road, they finally broke into a clearing. Griff’s heart stuttered at the sight of Ginny’s car.
“She’s here,” he said.
“Stay in the car and let me handle this,” Jacob said. “He might be armed.”
“No way.” Griff reached for the door handle.
Jacob held up a warning hand. “Then stay behind me and follow my lead. The last thing I want is for you to get shot by a stray bullet if Ginny fires at Bouldercrest.”
Griff nodded, then said a silent prayer that Ginny was all right as they eased their way toward the house.
* * *
THE SOUND OF crying roused Ginny from unconsciousness. Reality crashed back with the force of a tornado, infuriating her. Robert had gotten the best of her.
After all her training and armed with a weapon, he’d won.
She blinked and tried to focus on her vision. No...she refused to give up. She had to think.
She felt something along her arm, then her cheek and opened her eyes. Robert. He was stroking her face with his fingers.
Her skin crawled.
For a moment, she considered spitting in his face, but that would do nothing except incite his anger. She had to outsmart him.
Think, Ginny, think.
Mitzi’s muffled cry echoed nearby, and she glanced sideways. The young woman was tied and gagged, curled on a cot in the corner, her hands secured to the bedpost.
She’d left Griff the same way. Except she’d done it to protect him, not hold him hostage.
“Robert,” she murmured.
“I’m here, love. I told you we’d be together soon.”
Emotions threatened to make her ill, but she swallowed back the bile. Use what you know about him. Get inside his head. “I know why you were so upset when I left,” she said softly. “I understand now.”
His fingers stopped moving across her cheek. “What do you mean? You know?”
She feigned a smile. “Your father hit your mother, so she decided to leave him, didn’t she? But he wanted her to stay.”
Robert’s jaw tightened, eyes flickering with a myriad of emotions.
“You watched him beat her, didn’t you? He told you mothers and wives weren’t supposed to leave. Then he killed her.”
Razor-sharp anger blazed on his face. “They’re not supposed to leave. They’re supposed to be faithful and love you forever.”
“That’s the reason you tried so hard to hold on to me,” she said in a low whisper. “I realize that now. Now that I understand, I think we can make it work.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, his eyes shifting as if he was debating whether or not to believe her.
“We’ll talk things through,” she continued softly. “Everything will be different between us this time.”
“How different?” he asked, his voice rough with emotions.
“We’ll be together, and we’ll talk. And I won’t leave.” She smiled at him again, although her stomach was heaving in protest. “Please untie me and I’ll show you how much I’ve missed you.”
He trailed his fingers over her throat, then around her breast, and she choked back a cry of revulsion.
“Please,” she whispered. “I want to touch you and give you pleasure.”
Desire sparked in his ugly gray eyes, and he slipped his fingers up and began to untie her while he kissed her neck and throat. Ginny closed her eyes and willed herself to play along, but hatred, deep and dark, bloomed like a cancer inside her.
Finally, he freed the last knot around her hands, then he held them above her head and crawled on top of her. Panic threatened. She had to reverse the situation.
She gripped his hands with her own, then flipped him over to his back. He looked startled, but she lowered her head and kissed his cheek to assuage his alarm. “I told you, I want to show you how much I missed you. Let me pleasure you first, then you can have your way with me just like you did when we first met.”
Excitement and lust. A chuckle rumbled from him and he rubbed himself against her. “I like the new Reese. Maybe I’ll start calling you Ginny, too.”
She smiled, clenched his hands and straddled him.
“You wanna play rough?” he asked.
“Just like you like it.” She held his hands tightly, pushed her knee between his legs then suddenly kicked upward with her knee and jabbed him in the groin. He bellowed in pain and grabbed at his sex.
“What the hell?”
Taking advantage of the moment, she spotted her gun on the table across the room then dove for it.
He recovered and grabbed at her leg, but she kicked at his face and scrambled away. He chased her, caught her arm and flung her against the wall. Her head snapped backward, and she tasted blood, but she called on the skills she’d learned in self-defense and swung her arm up to deflect his assault when he came at her.
A swift thrust into his belly, and he doubled over. She kicked him in the groin again, then raced for the gun.
Breath panting out, she closed her fingers around it, turned and aimed it at his chest as he bellowed his rage.