part0040

Chantelle’s gun dropped to the floor. So did Mitch’s, since it was a greater risk in her moving hand now that Chantelle was unarmed. I know I can take her in hand-to-hand combat. No doubt that Chantelle had some training. She wouldn’t make a good bodyguard, otherwise. Was she as good as Mitch, though? I would be shocked, but I shouldn’t underestimate her. Not when Vanessa’s life was on the line.

Not when Vanessa screamed like that.

Mitch didn’t have the chance to baby the numbed spot on her scalp. It had hit Chantelle so hard in the diaphragm that she was instantly winded, crashing like a lead sack to the floor. She didn’t have half the grace of Vanessa, who held herself to the wall but no longer cowered. Whatever strength she absorbed now must have come from Mitch. Or Chantelle. Perhaps it came from her own borrowed reserves. Those little drops that she had on standby for this moment.

Wasn’t she the strongest woman Mitch knew?

No time to think about that. Subdue Chantelle. That was the most important thing. Only then could Mitch afford to think about anything else.

She took the opportunity to plant her legs around Chantelle’s chest and sit on her ribs. Although Chantelle struggled, spat, and attempted to grab one of the guns on the floor, Mitch was too stubborn to move. Yet the greatest threat came from those waving arms that attempted to knock Mitch onto the floor. Chantelle had lost all finesse now that she was taken by surprise, but she was still strong enough to knock Mitch off if she wasn’t careful.

Her will to survive this encounter must have been great, for Chantelle managed to topple Mitch on the third heave upward. While Mitch didn’t quite loosen her grip, she was still taken by surprise. Five seconds later, her leg was twisted at an awkward angle that left her snarling like a cat with its tail caught beneath a rocking chair.

“Vanessa!” Mitch shouted. “The guns!” She was soon met with a knee to the stomach.

Although she never expected Vanessa to actually do it, she leaped forward and snatched Chantelle’s gun into her hand.

Then she grabbed Mitch’s for good measure. The two women barely had their bearings back before they realized the lady of the house had a bullet for each of them.

They only had to beg for it.

How could everything have come to this so quickly? One happy moment, Vanessa was reveling in the love she felt in Mitch’s presence. She dreamed of open seas, fresh air, and the endless expanse of a tropical sky inviting them to feel free for the rest of their imprisoned lives.

Now she stood in her panic room, a gun in each hand. Two women, each claiming to be on her side and that the other was a traitorous assassin, stood before her, worse for wear.

“Give me my gun back, Vanessa,” Chantelle calmly said, although her raspy breaths reminded Vanessa that she had been scuffling only a moment before. “You don’t know how to use that thing. It’s not a toy, okay? Don’t point it at people you don’t intend to shoot.”

“Like you were pointing it at Mitch a moment ago?” The gun, already warm from another woman’s hand, shook in Vanessa’s inexperienced grip. “Like you pointed it at your own husband?” She had held guns before. Long before she ever met Chantelle. Her safety was top priority, wasn’t it? That’s why she had taken lessons. She kept her own pistol in her chambers, not that she could access it now. I know how to fire a gun. I know how to take aim. I know what I’m doing. Except she had never been punished with so much adrenaline out on a firing range. She was allowed her wits out there. Here? Where she had to choose between her former lover and her own bodyguard? She didn’t know what she was doing.

“Tensions are really high right now,” Mitch said, as if Vanessa didn’t know that! “This is when mistakes get made.”

Was she scared of Vanessa, too? Neither of them showed it, or at least… Vanessa couldn’t read fear in their faces half as easily as she sensed it in herself. I’m beyond fear now. I’m so beyond it that nothing can scare me. She held the power. A gun for each hand. Granted, everything was imbalanced since Chantelle’s gun was heavier and a little bulkier than Mitch’s. Vanessa would never be able to tell a soul what they were called. This gun. This other gun. Those were their names. They took on more meaning as her palms sweat all over them. Slippery enough that she might accidentally fire one.

She didn’t know what was worse. Accidentally killing someone, or having to.

“Vanessa.” How could Mitch remain so calm with a gun in her face? Was there something Vanessa didn’t know? Was this a fake full of blanks? Were they both in on it? Was this all a show? It wasn’t a show when my father died. That assassin had used a silencer, but Vanessa still heard it from her hiding spot. This isn’t a game. Somebody could get hurt… She never thought guns were toys. The kind of adult toys she liked were about joy and pleasure. These? These were death in her hands. “Everything’s going to be okay. Just put down the guns. In fact, shove them beneath the bed. Just put them down.”

She doesn’t trust me… does that mean she’s against me? Vanessa was incapable of crying now. She had to be strong. She had to defend herself. She only had herself to trust now. Mitch may have grappled Chantelle before Vanessa’s eyes, but it wasn’t enough to sway her.

Chantelle was the one with the knowledge. She had so much evidence about Mitch. She shot her own husband, convinced he was against them. Yet Mitch was…

Look at her! Standing there like absolutely nothing could faze her. A dour demeanor that only softened when she glanced in Vanessa’s direction. The cool and collected way she asked Vanessa to go along with her was a step above Chantelle’s near-shrieking. Almost as if Chantelle had more to lose.

“Whatever happens, Vanessa,” Mitch continued, “please know that I love you.”

Chantelle gnashed her teeth with a mighty roll of her eyes. “You’re not seriously going to believe her, are you? This is classic manipulation. You’ve got to leave your feelings at the door, Vanessa. There’s barely enough room for reason right now.”

Reason? What good was that to her? Vanessa was purely in survival mode.

“Who are you going to believe, huh?” Chantelle said. “The woman who has been working by your side for years? What the fuck do I have to gain from your death? You’re worth more to me alive! How are you going to pay me if you’re dead? I’m not in your will. For fuck’s sake, I shot Luke for you!”

Mitch released a calculated breath. “She really is the best at what she does. That’s why she’s been able to fool you for so long. Never underestimate a person’s thirst for revenge. Never underestimate what growing up in an environment centered on revenge does to a person’s psyche. I saw it every day in my job.”

“Yes, that job that trained her to be a killer. Trust me, Vanessa, I’ve met a ton of these military types through Luke. Half of your security is former military. We hire them because they’ve got the training, and because they’re not afraid to use it. If paid enough, that is.”

“Do I really seem like the kind of person who turns into a merciless killer after everything I’ve been through?” Mitch was borderline offended. “You have got to be kidding me. Are you going to stand there and tell me that everything we had didn’t mean a thing?” That was directed at Vanessa, whose hands continued to tremble around the guns. “Everything you saw in me was the real thing. I responded to your ad because I needed you, Mistress. Not because I wanted to kill you.”

Mistress. It sent a pang of doubt and desire right into Vanessa’s heart. You were the first person who made me believe it when you said it. Was that Vanessa losing her edge after so many years of paranoia? How could she really trust Mitch? She barely trusted herself now. Maybe Mitch hadn’t come to kill her, but surely she sensed that weakness festering inside of Vanessa’s soul. Even if she means it when she calls me her Mistress, I don’t deserve her love and loyalty. I’m not strong enough to earn it.

So thought the woman currently holding two guns, as if she had the wherewithal to fire either one.

“Go ahead and shoot, Vanessa,” Mitch softly said. “Let’s end this…”

She was cut off before she could say another word. One second, both Mitch and Chantelle stood there with their hands up. One second later, Chantelle was on the ground again, this time because of the least likely reason.

Luke had managed to pull his half-dead ass up and tackle her.

“What the fuck!” Chantelle slammed her hands against the carpet as her bleeding husband passed out on top of her. He was so big and heavy that she didn’t have a chance in hell at getting him off her within the next minute. Especially since he wasn’t quite dead weight yet. He still had a little strength to stick his thumb up, as if he told the room he had done a good job.

Mitch shuffled to the side, staying well within Vanessa’s sight as she approached. “Would you let me explain?”

Vanessa would have loved an explanation, but she was so shocked and overwhelmed that she promptly fell to her knees, the guns clattering on either side of her. Her consciousness soon followed.