Chapter 56
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
This was fear. Acrid and suffocating. Landon wasn’t a trained killer who knew how to handle a gun, but he was still dangerous. Jordan wasn’t going to take any chances until Vanessa was safely removed from this madman’s vicinity.
He hadn’t looked at her directly yet, but she was trembling in his periphery. From the fear? The subzero temperature? Probably both.
Icy gusts tore through them, so frigid it was hard to breathe. All he wanted was to get her out of there. But Landon, unhinged as he was, had the upper hand.
Jordan wasn’t worried about this asswipe pulling the trigger, but Vanessa was far too close to the gun for his liking and he didn’t know what other weapons Landon might be concealing. His best bet was to get Vanessa away from the situation and then disarm Landon.
“You’re right. I am a monster. Don’t forget it.” He’d seen fear before, in prison, on the street, during a knife fight, even as his mother was dying. He could recognize it anywhere.
But what flickered in Landon’s expression was closer to a joyful regret than fear. “I haven’t forgotten. Which is why I need to save her from you.” In a blur of reflex, desperation, and what must have been pure adrenaline, Landon lunged, grabbing Vanessa, dragging her to the edge.
Her scream cut through the night like a gunshot, her limbs thrashing as Landon hauled her to the parapet.
Jordan moved faster than he’d ever moved. Of all the things he’d anticipated, it wasn’t Landon’s speed and strength. Luckily, he was faster and stronger.
He tore the man off her, slamming his back against the very ledge he’d nearly thrown her from. Landon’s gun fell and skittered across the roof.
This time it was Landon’s scream that pierced the air, high-pitched and agonizing, but Jordan didn’t hold back. He bent him over the parapet with a force that could have broken the man’s back.
“This is the part where you die, motherfucker.”
Desperate eyes locked onto his. There was the fear, and Jordan almost smiled at it.
“Please,” Landon wheezed against Jordan’s chokehold, his hands grasping Jordan’s wrists. “Please don’t.”
Icy fingers closed over Jordan’s hand. Landon’s gaze snapped to Vanessa a heartbeat before Jordan’s did. She was pale, makeup smudged, the wind tearing through her hair. Her thin dress hung torn from one shoulder. Shivers wracked her body.
“Don’t,” she whispered, her voice barely making it past trembling, blue-tinged lips. “Don’t do it, Jordan. He’s not worth it.”
“He hurt you.” I almost watched you be thrown off a roof, he wanted to scream. “He dies for that.” His heart beat frantically in his chest, the need for vengeance eating at him. For months, this man had terrorized the woman he loved.
“You’re not that man anymore,” she told him.
“He doesn’t deserve to live,” Jordan bit out through his clenched jaw.
“I don’t want you to do this.” Her hand stayed on his. “He’s nothing. Irrelevant. I’ll press charges, and he’ll go to jail where he belongs.” She shot Landon a look of pure disgust. “He’s the real monster.”
When he glanced back at Landon, he saw she was right. The man was weak, pathetic. Killing him would only prove this fuckwit right.
Vanessa saw the best sides of him. The man beneath the monster he’d once been. He wanted to be the man she deserved.
With a jerk, he yanked Landon up, bringing them nose to nose.
“Go.” The growl that rumbled from deep in his chest made Landon’s eyes blow wider.
“Go and never come back. Don’t touch her, don’t contact her, don’t think about her.
” He tightened his grip, making Landon squeak.
“If you do, you will die. Next time there will be no mercy.” He spun Landon toward the exit and released him so forcefully that he stumbled back. “Go!” Jordan roared.
He wouldn’t get farther than a few feet. An army of police, led by Dex, was waiting in that stairwell. Landon would never be free again.
He watched as Landon crab-walked backward so panic-stricken, he hoped the man would piss himself before the police grabbed him on the other side of the door.
When the metal door shut behind Landon, he spun to Vanessa, but she was already there, throwing herself in his arms with a sob. She was freezing, so cold her skin was like ice.
He tore his jacket off and wrapped it around her shoulders. “You did so good baby. It’s over now, let’s get you back inside and warm you up.”
She collapsed against him, sobbing. “Jordan, I, I—”
“It’s okay, honey. I’ve got you.” He shifted to scoop her up, but pain ripped through his lower back, a deafening shot cracked through the air, and he lost his balance.
Vanessa’s scream shattered the night, triggering his instinct. He drew his weapon, turned, caught a split-second sight of his target. Fired.
Then everything went black.