Chapter 35 #2
Colin stepped out behind her, slow and deliberate, a pistol pointed at her head.
Shock flashed across his face, a momentary flicker of human weakness, before it smoothed into something ugly, smug, and deeply amused.
He leaned against the doorframe, the lantern light behind him casting his face in shadow.
“Well,” he said, his voice smooth as oil. “Look who finally managed to find the trail. I was starting to think you were losing your touch, cowboy.”
I didn’t look at him. I couldn't. If I looked at him, I’d kill him, and I needed to make sure Tessa was whole first. My eyes stayed on her, cataloging the damage. The bruise on her cheek. The way she was holding her arm.
“Are you hurt?” I asked.
She shook her head, once, a sharp, jagged motion. “No. I'm okay.”
“Did he touch you? Tell me the truth, Tessa.”
Her jaw tightened, her eyes darting to Colin and back. “No. Not the way you mean. He just, well…” Her chin quivered.
I growled.
Colin laughed softly, a sound that made the hair on my neck stand up. “Always the hero. Always riding in on a white horse. It’s a bit cliché, don't you think?”
I took another step forward, my boots heavy on the earth. Holt appeared at my shoulder, his silhouette massive and intimidating, silent as the grave. He had his hand wrapped around the stock of his shotgun.
“Step away from her, Colin,” I said. My voice was quiet now. That was the dangerous part.
“This has nothing to do with you. This is between me and my woman,” Colin replied, his eyes narrowing. “You’re the interloper here. You’re the one trespassing on a private conversation. You don’t belong in this story.”
“I hate to break the news to you, Colin, but she’s my woman.
” I lowered my rifle, knowing that Holt would put him down without question if needed.
Shoving my hands in my pockets, I rocked on my heels.
“I haven’t required anything of her, other than being who she is, and I’ve become attached to how she looks at me when I make her fall apart. ”
I knew I was egging him on, but I needed him to mess up. His weakness was Tessa, and the irony of that was that she was mine too. Tessa’s eyes were locked on me, and I felt like we were able to almost telepathically talk to one another.
“He’s way better than you ever were, Colin. So even if I left with you, it would be Wyatt I dream of. He’s who I’d be thinking of all the time.” She smirked, and god I wanted to hide away with her for a month after these last few days.
Colin’s jaw twitched; he was getting mad, and the gun in his hand was starting to shake. What I needed to figure out was if it was rage or if it was getting too heavy for him to keep holding.
“Tessa’s really bad at poker.” I laughed, then I caught Holt’s eye, and his look asked what the hell I thought I was doing. “Strip poker really isn’t her game.”
“Wy, you said you wouldn’t bring that up again.” She pouted.
“Want to play again with me, baby?”
“Oh, I want to play with you.” There was no question she meant the innuendo. Colin grimaced and shoved the gun to Tessa’s head. Well fuck that wasn’t what I’d planned. Her eyes grew round, and she stared at me again; all the lightness was gone.
“Colin, I’m fucking tired of this. You’ve got about three seconds,” I said, moving my hand toward my belt, “to make the smartest decision of your remaining life. Step off that porch with your hands where I can see them.”
He glanced at Holt, seeing the barrel of the shotgun Holt was now leveling, then back at me. A flicker of real, sharp fear finally pierced through his arrogance. “You gonna shoot me in cold blood? In front of her?”
“Yep,” I said, my voice as cold as the frost on the ground. “Then I’m going to take her home. I'm going to take her back to the people who actually love her.”
Tessa swallowed hard, her eyes darting between us. “Wyatt. Please.”
I gave her a small nod.
Colin saw the shift in the air. He saw the way the shadows were closing in. In a desperate, pathetic bid for control, he stepped closer to Tessa, his hand reaching out to brush her arm, a claim, a final act of possession.
She flinched as if he’d branded her with a hot iron.
That was the end of my patience.
I moved. I was across the clearing before he could draw a breath.
Holt grabbed him, a blur of motion, slamming him against the side of the cabin with enough force to make the old wood scream.
I reached Tessa, catching her as her knees finally gave out.
I pulled her against my chest, wrapping my arms around her until she was shielded from the sight of him.
She made a sound halfway between a sob and a gasp, a primal release of air, and clutched at my jacket with both hands. She held on so tight I could feel her knuckles grinding against my ribs. She was terrified that if she let go, the world would dissolve back into that orange-lit room.
“I’ve got you,” I murmured into her hair, the scent of her finally drowning out the rot of the cabin. “I’ve got you, Tess. You’re safe. I promise.”
Colin was shouting something incoherent as Holt wrestled him to the ground. Colin’s voice was high and reedy now, the mask of the sophisticated predator completely shattered, leaving behind nothing but a small, mean man.
Tessa’s breath came in sharp, uneven pulls, her whole body vibrating with a tremor that felt like it might shake her bones apart. All the fight, all the adrenaline that kept her upright for hours, was draining out of her, leaving her heavy in my arms.
“You came,” she whispered against my chest.
“Always. Every time. I told you I would.”
Sirens began to wail faintly in the distance, a low moan that grew into a scream as they tore through the woods, the blue and red lights beginning to strobe against the trees like a fever dream. The law was coming to clean up the mess, but the damage was already done.
Colin laughed, a wild, broken sound from the dirt where Holt had him pinned. “You think this is over, Wyatt? You think you can just take her and fix her? I’m in her head, I’m the thing she sees when she closes her eyes. She can't outrun me!”
I held Tessa tighter, resting my chin against the top of her head, shutting out his voice. I looked at the cabin—the sagging roof, the diseased light, the wound in the land—and I knew he was right about one thing. It wouldn't be easy. She was safe now, but the recovery would take a lifetime.