Chapter 31
Mav’s booted foot crunched over the glass of the porch’s broken lightbulb, announcing his presence to whoever was in his house. But he didn’t let it stop him. This was his home. His land. The house where his family slept – and that was sacred.
Still, because he didn’t have his gun or a death wish, he crouched low as he approached the front door. Reaching up, he turned the knob and pushed the door open.
As it swung wide, he glanced inside.
Next to him, Shadow made that ethereal sound again. ‘Stay,’ Mav ordered, knowing the dog would obey.
He entered slowly, making sure to keep quiet as he crouched low.
The cloying smell of overripe cologne clung to the air, just as Nina had once described it to him.
To say that he was surprised would have been an understatement.
Alexander showing up at Hunt Ranch with the criminal trial pending wasn’t just plain stupid.
It was madness – and that’s why Mav knew that this was the point of no return.
Still crouched low, he moved along the interior of his house, making sure to be absolutely quiet as he clung to the walls.
His gun safe, a modern biometric one that only his fingerprint could open, was kept in his room – he just had to reach it. And soon. Because all he could think about was that Nina was a sitting duck outside.
Mav’s heart thumped with adrenaline. His hands, surprisingly, were steady. His eyes, adjusted to the dark, scanned the lounge and the hallway leading to the kitchen, and seeing nothing, hearing nothing, he crept to the stairs.
He took them slowly, quietly, and when he came to the hallway, he deepened his breathing and softened his footsteps.
He opened his bedroom door, stepped inside, and flipped on the switch. He took two hasty steps towards the closet where his gun safe was.
And then stopped.
Because there, lazing in the chair in the corner like a king on his throne, a black nine-millimetre in one hand, was Alexander Cane.
Mav had run into plenty of wild animals on the ranch.
He saw the shy bobcats every now and then and, once, had faced a black bear at thirty feet when he’d rounded a trail corner on Zeph’s back and almost run into the damn thing.
But none of those encounters had filled him with the same wariness facing Alexander Cane did.
It was unpredictability that made animals dangerous, but better an unpredictable animal than an unpredictable man.
Alexander grinned, and it was feral. Unhinged. He waved the gun nonchalantly. ‘No Nina?’
It said something about Alexander that he looked better than ever, almost unaffected.
As if the havoc he’d wreaked had had no impact on his mental or physical health.
Unlike Nina, Amanda Black, and the other women, whose lives had been turned inside out by the man sitting in front of him like a king on the precipice of full-blown insanity.
‘You’re breaking the terms of the restraining order,’ Maverick said calmly, trying to use reason. If Nina had called the cops, they’d be about ten minutes out by now. All he had to do was stall. ‘If you leave now, we’ll forget all about this.’
‘Hmmm, tempting.’ He laughed gleefully, like a sadistic child who’d just killed a puppy, Mav thought. As if to prove his train of thought, Alex cackled. ‘And you think I’m stupid enough to believe you’d just let me walk?
‘No.’ Alexander shook his head mock-mournfully. ‘Unfortunately for you and your family, you fell victim to a home invasion gone wrong.’
‘Use your brain,’ Mav said patiently. ‘Do you really think, after the scandal you’ve been involved in, that the cops won’t look to you first?’
‘Maybe. But they’ll have nothing to tie me to it. As we speak, I’m having a romantic dinner with a beautiful blonde who wants to be a movie star.’
In a desperate attempt to stall, Maverick said, ‘Your fake alibi won’t hold up. We have cameras at the front gate and on every building on the property. So, unless you walked here, we have you on video.’
‘You’re lying,’ Alexander spat. ‘Just like that whore!’
‘Nina never lied.’ The words were spoken quietly but firmly.
‘Yes, she did!’ he screeched. ‘She wanted me! She led me on!’ He pushed to his feet and started pacing. He tapped the gun grip to his own forehead. ‘I fell into her trap – just like you! Can’t you see what she is?’
‘I do see who she is. She’s brave and strong and kind and generous.’
Alexander cackled again. ‘See, the only difference between us, is that I can see the truth so clearly. I’m strong enough to end it.’
‘Alexander—’
‘No. Shut up!’ He paced constantly, that same wild animal. Caged.
Mav took a deep breath. As Alexander worked himself up, Mav worked to calm his own heart rate. He bought time. He waited for an opportunity to strike back.
‘They don’t believe me,’ Alexander said, his eyes glinting with panic and fury.
‘They don’t believe that she led me on, that …
that she paraded herself in front of me like a bitch in heat!
She used me. She wanted me, and it was only once we’d cast her that she changed her mind.
Manipulative bitch!’ He waved the gun about erratically.
‘Dumb, manipulative bitch. They’re all the same. ’
‘Why don’t we sit down?’ Mav suggested quietly. ‘Talk about it?’
Alexander’s eyes snapped to him. For one single breath it looked as if he might consider it.
But the moment passed.
The Joker-like grin spread. ‘Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you.’ Raising the gun, he pointed it at Mav. ‘We’re done talking. Where is she?’
‘She’s at a ranch barbecue, just down the road,’ Mav lied.
‘You really think I’m stupid.’ He laughed. ‘Why don’t we test that theory? I’ll put a bullet in you, and then while you lie on the floor bleeding out, we’ll wait and see if she hears it and comes running …’
Mav’s muscles shortened as he prepared to duck and then dive. His only chance was if the first shot missed, and he could tackle Alexander to the ground where he would have the size advantage.
As if he’d sensed his thoughts, Alex smiled maniacally.
He hitched the gun one inch higher.
Time slowed.
Mav could hear the blood rushing through his ears. His eyes never left Alexander’s. And because he was so focused on the predator in front of him, he didn’t register the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs or see Nina when she appeared in the doorway.
It was only when she said, ‘You don’t have to hurt him, Alex. I’m here,’ that Mav felt true fear.
He went from calm and ready to panicked and frantic the moment Nina entered the equation. Because if he died, he was just dead. But if she died, his body would keep living without a heart. ‘Nina—’
‘Oh, no. This is perfect.’ Alexander waved her into the room with the gun. ‘Tell him the truth,’ he spat. ‘Tell him how you led me on and then forgot about me the moment you got what you needed from me.’
Nina looked into Mav’s eyes, and even though she said, ‘I led him on,’ her eyes frantically said everything else. I love you. I’m sorry. I’m scared.
‘No, you didn’t,’ Mav argued, drawing Alexander’s attention back to him. ‘He’s insane. He’s a predator with a narcissistic bent. And he’s going to spend the rest of his life in prison.’ Turning to Alexander, he taunted him. ‘What happened to you? Huh? Do you struggle to get a hard-on, Alex?’
‘Shut up!’
‘Mav,’ Nina begged quietly.
‘Oh, I think I hit a nerve,’ Mav mocked, even as he braced to take Alexander down.
‘You know nothing!’
‘Is that why you have to hold a woman down to get her to have sex with you?’ Mav asked, deliberately pulling all that contained fury towards him.
A roar filled Mav’s ears, and he wasn’t sure if it was from Alex or the blood in his own head.
Alexander turned the gun on Nina.
Mav didn’t think.
He lunged.
He heard the shot as he took Alex to the ground. Alexander might have been toned, but he didn’t lift heavy shit on a ranch all day. Mav pinned him down easily.
There was one sickening moment where he turned around, his heart completely still, but the instant he confirmed that Nina was all right, standing in the corner, pale and in shock, he unleashed the full force of his rage on Alexander.
There was no mercy left in him. Mav let the fury come.
He alternated left and right hooks to Alexander’s face until the man’s eyes rolled back in his head and his skin was a canvas of bloody, swollen flesh.
And, still, he didn’t stop. With every thwack of his fist on bloody flesh, he reminded himself of what this man had done to his family, to other families, and he felt nothing but sick satisfaction.
After a full minute, his arms were numb from wrist to armpit.
‘Mav.’
He threw one last punch as Nina’s shell-shocked voice punched through the adrenaline.
‘Mav,’ she said again, and this time she fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around him. ‘Stop.’
He slumped against her.
As the adrenaline drained from his body, he felt the searing pain for the first time.
Nina released a warbled sob and clawed frantically at his shirt, pulling it from his jeans so that she could look.
He knew it was bad. He could feel the blood draining from him, leaving him light-headed.
‘Oh, my God. Mav!’
‘Don’t worry. I’m gonna be okay.’
‘What do I do?’
Her hands shook. He could see them trembling … Or maybe his vision was wavering.
‘Mav!’
Why did she sound so far away? he wondered.
He felt more than knew he’d fallen onto his side, his head at an awkward angle, and even though he couldn’t move, he kept his eyes open and on Nina’s face.
Because he didn’t want her to be scared.
And through the numbness and confusion he also knew that if he died, he wanted her to be the last thing he saw in this life.
She was so beautiful.
As his blood stained the floor beneath him, he started to lose touch. Shadow was barking furiously. Nina was crying, but he suddenly couldn’t remember why, and when he tried to raise one hand to touch her face, it simply fell back to the floor with a heavy thud.
He frowned as she hurriedly removed her jacket, groaned in pain when she put her entire bodyweight on the wound.
His vision went seconds before he heard her scream. ‘We’re here! Hurry!’
‘This is the county sheriff!’ a voice called through the house.
‘We’re here! Hurry!’ Nina screamed.
Blood soaked through Mav’s shirt and squelched between her fingers. ‘Mav!’ She tried to shout his name, but it only came out a croak. ‘Mav, wake up!’
He didn’t move. He didn’t so much as flutter his eyelids.
The sound of footsteps pounding up the stairs reached her ears seconds before a swarm of armed police officers burst into the room.
‘Help me!’ Nina rasped. ‘Please! Please help me!’
‘Jesus.’ An elderly man, with a badge pinned to his shirt, dropped onto his knees beside her. ‘Mav!’ He slapped Mav’s face gently. ‘You there, son?’
Mav’s lashes fluttered.
‘He’s breathing.’
Nina felt cold and numb. It was as if every drop of blood from him leached the life out of her too. ‘Help him. Please.’
‘Paramedics are right behind me.’ He placed his hands over hers, pressed down heavily. ‘I’ve got him. You can move your hands now.’
Nina’s arms didn’t budge, and despite her best efforts she couldn’t make sense of where her arms ended and her hands began. She started crying. ‘I can’t move.’
‘That’s okay, hon. You’re just in shock.’ His voice was quiet and soothing, his big hands pressing down on hers oddly comforting. ‘We’ll hold him down together.’
‘Mav,’ she rasped.
There was no response.
Her entire body started shaking violently, but still, she couldn’t let go.
‘He’s the toughest person I know,’ the sheriff said gently.
‘Yeah.’
Nina was so focused on Mav’s face, his jaw slack, his skin leached of colour, that she barely noticed the other cops checking Alexander over, and when the paramedics hurried into the room maybe a minute later, she couldn’t feel her body at all.
‘GSW takes precedence,’ the sheriff said, his tone leaving no room for argument.
The paramedics knelt, one on either side of him. ‘We’re going to have you both move in three, two, one.’
The sheriff moved, taking Nina’s hands with his.
The paramedics took over.
‘Come on. We’re going to let them work and then we’ll meet them at the hospital.’
‘I’m staying.’ Nina’s tone was resolute. The numbness spreading throughout her body momentarily retracted as the heat of her rage warded it off. ‘I’m staying with him,’ she repeated.
‘GSW to abdomen,’ the paramedic said calmly. ‘Haemorrhaging from truncal trauma. We need to get him to the ambulance, apply a haemostatic to try and reduce blood loss for transport.’
They rolled Mav onto their stretcher as if he were a child, not a grown six-four man.
‘Where are you taking him?’ Nina asked.
They didn’t reply, only moved past her, calmly carrying her heart on their stretcher as if he were just another day on the job.
‘Ms Keller.’ The sheriff tried to stop her from following, but when Nina only shook him off and hurried after Mav, he followed.
‘Ms Keller, we’ll follow them. But there’s nothing you can do for him.
’ When she didn’t stop – couldn’t stop – he caught her wrist in his hand, gently pulled her up short.
‘I know this is hard to hear, but you have to let them work. You’ll only get in the way and distract them. ’
‘What do I do?’ she asked as a sob tore from her throat. ‘What the hell do I do?’
And he didn’t lie to her. He said, ‘Pray.’