Chapter 25
Chapter
Twenty-Five
Wade stood from the kitchen table with his beer in hand. Reese sat on the couch where he’d left her. The fire had warmed the room, but her fingers were cold. The rope had rubbed the skin at her wrists raw, and every small movement made it bite.
Wade crossed into the living room and stood in front of her. Reese froze. She stayed exactly where she was, eyes fixed ahead. Her shoulders rounded, and her breathing became shallow as he stepped closer. He had a calm expression on his face when he crouched in front of her.
His eyes moved over her face, then down to her bound hands and the curve of her stomach. Reese held herself so still her back started to ache. Wade reached up and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. She forced herself not to flinch.
“I don’t want things to be like this,” he said.
He set the beer on the coffee table. Then he took her bound hands in both of his, turning her wrists carefully as if he’d just discovered she was tied up. Reese looked past his shoulder at the fire while Wade began working at the knot.
Wade loosened the knot slowly, as if patience could make the rope kinder.
When it finally came free, he unwound it from her wrists and let it fall to the floor between them.
The skin around her wrists was red and rubbed raw.
Wade took one hand before she could pull it back and ran his thumb over the mark.
“You see?” he said softly. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
Reese stared down at his hands on hers and held herself still until he let go.
Wade stood, picked up his beer from the coffee table, and went back into the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and took out another bottle.
“One day you’re going to understand,” he said, twisting the cap off. “Family matters more than fear. More than pride. More than whatever you thought you were proving by running away from your husband.”
Reese glanced at him once.
He stood at the counter with the beer in his hand, calm and certain, already turning what he had done into something she had caused.
Her eyes moved to the cast-iron pan on the stove. Then to the knives on the counter. Then to the fire iron beside the hearth. Then she looked back down at her hands.
“I have an insurance policy,” he said. “You remember?”
She didn’t know what he was talking about, but she didn’t tell him that. Wade took a drink from the fresh beer, left the kitchen, and disappeared down the short hallway.
Reese’s attention snapped to the fire iron. It stood beside the hearth, closer than the stove, closer than the knives. Wade was out of sight. Her hands were free. For one breath, her body leaned toward it before she could stop herself.
Then she heard him coming back. She settled against the couch and dropped her eyes to her hands. Wade came out of the hallway with the pistol hanging low beside his leg, half-hidden against his jeans. Reese saw it before he crossed the room, and her stomach turned cold.
He sat beside her on the couch and set the beer on the side table. The pistol rested low in his lap, angled between his thigh and the cushion.
Reese didn’t move.
Wade stretched his free arm along the back of the couch, behind her shoulders, close enough that she could feel the weight of him without him touching her.
“There,” he said, his voice quiet again. “This is better.”
Reese sat perfectly still.
The pistol was too close. Wade was too close. His arm was wrapped around her, and she felt even more trapped. She could feel the gun without touching it. She could feel the weight of his attention even when he looked away.
Her mind raced, her eyes tracking the fire iron, the stove, the knives, and the door. But she couldn’t do anything to protect herself. He’d catch her and hurt her and the baby. He took another drink of beer. “Who were you trying to call on the roadside?”
Reese’s throat tightened.
“What?”
He looked at her now. “You had your phone out when you ran.”
She remembered the grass under her hands, the dead weight of her legs, and Axel’s name on the screen while she waited for one bar of service. She didn’t know how much Wade had seen before he reached her. She shook her head.
Wade watched her face. “You had the call screen open.”
“I was trying to reach a tow truck.”
Reese kept her hands in her lap, fingers curled lightly over the raw marks at her wrists. Wade’s arm stayed behind her shoulders. The pistol sat low in his lap.
“Did you meet someone in Fate Mountain?”
The floor dropped from under her.
“No.”
“Don’t lie to me. You were there for months. Someone took you in. Someone fed you. Someone made you think you could keep my child from me.”
Reese stared at her hands.
Wade leaned a little closer. “Who did you meet there?”
Reese thought of Stella giving her a job with no references. Nell gushing about mate.com. Brie at Sweet Summit Bakery offering her pastries she’d never tried before. She thought of Blaze putting shoes on Stella’s tired, pregnant feet in the middle of the diner.
She thought of Steel Protection’s door opening when she needed someone to help her feel safe. And Axel. The man who’d told her he loved her and didn’t care that she couldn’t say it back yet. The man who loved a baby girl who wasn’t even his.
She let out a soft breath, and a small smile curved on her lips before she could stop it. Wade lowered his beer bottle slowly from his mouth.
He frowned, his body tensing. “There was someone.” He put down his beer and adjusted the pistol in his lap. “Was it a man?”
“No,” Reese said too quickly.
Wade’s mouth tightened. She knew the mistake as soon as she heard herself make it.
He leaned closer. “You had another man?”
“No.”
“Don’t lie to me. Did you sleep with him?”
Reese went still again.
Wade’s hand closed around the handle of the pistol.
“Answer me.”
Wade stared at her, breathing through his nose. His face changed, and the careful tone disappeared. His mouth tightened, and something ugly moved across his eyes.
“You lying slut,” he said.
Reese went cold.
“You let another man fuck you while you’re pregnant with my son.”
“No.”
“You think I don’t know what happens when women get loose?” His voice rose, sharp enough to make her flinch. “You think I don’t know what you were doing there? Whoring it up with any man who looked at you.”
“I didn’t.”
“You’re a worthless whore.”
The words hit her hard in the gut. Reese didn’t react. The pistol was still under his hand.
Wade leaned closer. “Is the bastard even mine?”
For one second, her mind went completely blank.
The baby moved low in her belly, small and real and innocent of all of this. Reese wished so hard that Elsie wasn’t his. She wished she belonged to Axel. She wished Wade had no claim to her baby girl at all.
But wishing did not change anything. Wade’s fingers tightened around the grip of the pistol, and Reese forced herself to meet his eyes.
“Of course it’s yours.”
Wade stared at her for a long moment. Then he sat back. The movement should have made the room easier to breathe in, but it didn’t. His anger hadn’t gone anywhere. It was still there, just quieter and harder to see.
“Good,” he finally said.
Wade took the pistol from his lap and held it between his knees; one hand wrapped around the grip. With the other, he lifted the beer and drank. His breathing was hard.
“You listen to me,” he said, cold as stone. “If you ever try to leave me again, I’ll end all of us before I let anyone take my child.”
There was no response to a statement like that.
Wade leaned forward with the beer loose in one hand and the pistol in his other. Reese could see his fingers on the grip and the small movement of his knuckles every time they tightened.
Her eyes scanned the room. Door. Skillet. Knives. Fire iron. But there was no clean way out.
Something heavy hit the front door, and the whole cabin jumped.
Wade lurched upright, beer spilling on the floor. He grabbed Reese and yanked her off the couch. Pain flashed through her shoulder. Her feet barely hit the floor before he dragged her backward, away from the door, the pistol in his other hand.
The second hit came before Reese had any idea what was happening. The wood cracked, and the door blew inward against the wall. Then the room was filled with motion.
“He’s armed!” someone shouted.
A shield came through the opening. Reese saw black tactical gear and boots. She saw Blaze behind the shield, dropping the ram, and drawing his rifle. Siren entered tight behind them, weapons raised.
Wade hauled Reese against him, backstepping into the kitchen. “Back up!” Wade barked.
The pistol lifted beside her face, and she felt the cold shape of it on her cheek.