Love Slave for Two Read online

  “Hey, Tommy?”

  He somehow managed to stifle his cry of victory. That was the bitch herself!

  “Yeah, Nev?”

  “Can you do me a favor and bring me some ginger ale while you’re at it, please?”

  “Sure thing.”

  Light flooded the shed’s interior as the crip fag stepped through the door. Alex heard the sounds of the man’s uneven steps crossing the wooden floor when the wind blew the door shut behind him. He heard a refrigerator door open for a moment, followed by the sounds of cans rattling against each other, and then the door being shut again.

  Alex stood, but he was a hair too slow. The guy got the shed door open again and was about to step out it. Alex rushed up behind him, punching him in the back of the head as he hooked an arm around him and dragged him back inside.

  * * * *

  Nevvie did a double-take. She could have sworn she saw Tommy start to come out of the shed.

  Maybe he fell?

  She was starting to worry about him when a few minutes passed and he didn’t reappear. She went through the front door, taking the porch steps two at a time and hurrying across the yard when she heard the sounds of a scuffle.

  As she broke into a sprint, the shed door swung open again.

  * * * *

  Tom didn’t know what or who the fuck hit him. He blindly swung his cane around, scoring a solid thud against the guy. He let the cans of soda fall from his arms and ducked a swing. It allowed him to bring the tip of his cane up into the man’s midsection.

  He lurched for the door, but the man latched onto the ankle of his bad leg, making him see stars when he wrenched him around and started dragging him back.

  Tom flipped over, adrenaline surging through his veins, and swung at the man’s head.

  “Goddamn fag bastard!” his attacker yelled.

  Tom’s blood ran cold. He’d know that goddamn voice anywhere.

  He kicked with his good leg, screaming in rage. “Let me go, you son of a bitch!” With sudden, painful clarity, he knew who’d killed Emily.

  He managed to twist free and tried to push himself up to sprint for the door, but Alex fell on him again. All he could do was shove the shed door open. Horrified, he spotted Nevvie crossing the yard, coming toward the shed.

  “Nevvie, run!”

  * * * *

  When they reached Peggy’s driveway, Tyler knew he had no desire to continue the walk with them. Besides it being so blasted hot, he wanted to get back to the house and put his mind at ease that Nevvie and Tom were all right. It didn’t matter how many times he told himself he was just being silly, when he had one of these feelings, until he saw for himself that everything was fine, he wouldn’t believe it.

  “You know,” he said, “I just had the idea I needed for my book. Would you mind terribly if I went back to work?”

  Adam frowned. “You said we’d go to the new house, Daddy.” He’d quickly grown fond of Ben Jones, who liked to spoil Mikey and Adam with little treats when they stopped by.

  “We can still go, sugar,” Peggy assured him. “I’m sure he’d like to see you. It’s all right, Ty. We understand. Go on.” She offered him a smile.

  He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “Aces, Mom. Thank you.” He knelt down, his gut screaming with absolute certainty that they should continue the walk and not return to the house yet. “I’ll see you all when you get back.”

  He watched them walk off before turning and heading down the driveway. A few hundred yards long, it wound through beautiful pine woods. There were still a few felled trees he needed to help Tom and John cut up, but they had been pulled off to the side of the driveway and weren’t in the way.

  * * * *

  Nevvie froze in place, jaw agape as the breeze blew the shed door shut again. She had maybe two heartbeats to think about what she’d just seen before instinct took over.

  Whirling around, she sprinted back to the house, no idea if Alex was running after her or not and nearly tripping as she scrambled up the stairs and through the front door. Slamming it behind her, she flipped the deadbolt. It wouldn’t stop him for long because the other two doors were unlocked and she didn’t have time to go lock them.

  Instead, she ran for Peggy’s room. She yanked the closet door open and cursed as she threw clothes out of her way, exposing the gun safe.

  Her trembling fingers didn’t help matters any as she tried three times to open it. Finally, as she burst into tears, she got it on the fourth try.

  She pulled the door open and took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She started to grab John’s gun case, but remembered he kept a trigger lock on his. She yanked one of the other cases out of the safe and managed to rip the zipper open. She pulled out Adam’s old Browning with a cry of relief.

  She fumbled the box of shells, spilling them all over the safe and the closet floor.

  “Fuck!” She grabbed a handful of the shells, jammed them in her pocket, then grabbed several more loose shells before whirling around and running for the hallway.

  * * * *

  Alex roared when he spotted Nevvie in the yard, but the fag boy got in a lucky kick, nailing him in the chin and throwing him back. That gave the guy time to get to his feet and start throwing punches.

  How long before the cops arrived and blew his chances?

  His hand came to rest on one of the soda cans at the same time the fag stepped on another one. The can rolled out from under him, throwing him to the floor.

  Alex fell on top of him, punching him with the can. It exploded, startling him and showering them both with soda.

  Before he could get his hands on the guy again, he rolled on top of Alex, pinning him to the floor with the cane across his throat. Alex grabbed it before the guy crushed his windpipe. A deadly game of reverse tug-of-war started, both of them pushing with all their strength.

  Alex hooked a leg around one of the guy’s legs and started wrenching. The guy let out a cry and wavered for just long enough Alex could shove him off.

  “Fuckin’ gimp fag bastard!” Alex screamed, charging him.

  * * * *

  Tom knew he wasn’t just fighting for his life, but for Nevvie’s and Tyler’s and everyone else’s, too. If they returned, Alex wouldn’t hesitate to kill everyone he could get his hands on.

  He thought he finally had the upper hand when he pinned Alex by the throat with his cane, but then the bastard hooked a leg around his bad leg and wrenched just enough that the pain took his breath away.

  It was the opening Alex needed to shove him off.

  “Fuckin’ gimp fag bastard!” he screamed as he charged at him. Tom tried to prep for the blow, to not let the wind get knocked out of him.

  They fell against a pile of Elle and Danny’s boxes that cushioned some of the blow. And the confusion as the pile came down on both of them gave Tom just the advantage he needed to launch a few blind punches in the direction of Alex’s head. His fist made satisfying contact with an ear, rewarding him a howl of pain in return.

  Tom pushed off for the door again. Hopefully Nevvie was on the phone to the cops already. He didn’t know if he could outrun Alex, but he also knew he didn’t stand a fair chance against him in the crowded shed. He’d almost made the door again when Alex made a grab for Tom’s shirt and hauled him back.

  “Gonna kill you like I killed your fuckin’ sister, you pansy gimp fag boy. Just like I’m gonna kill that goddamn worthless cunt what put me in jail!”

  “Fucking bastard!” Tom raged. He forgot about getting away and focused on killing the asshole with his bare hands.

  * * * *

  Nevvie ran for the side door that opened on the side of the house away from the shed. She broke the gun open as she hit the stairs, swearing when she realized the snap caps were still in place. It took precious seconds for her trembling hands to pull them out and drop them to the ground. She stuck all but two of the shells in her other front pocket, and slammed the other two shells into the barrels.

  Clos
ing the gun, she ran around the front side of the house and stared at the shed. Inside, she heard the sounds of vicious fighting, Tom, and Alex’s unmistakable voice.

  I was right. Oh my God, I was right. She knew with certainty now who killed Emily. Vindication warred with grief that this animal had murdered Emily. She didn’t know how he’d found out where Emily lived, but it was the only explanation that made sense.

  She rushed for the shed door when it burst open again. Both men spilled out, punching and grabbing at each other. She froze, mounting the gun to her shoulder. She couldn’t shoot. She worried about hitting Tom.

  Instead she fired one high, over their heads and peppering the side of the shed over the door with steel shot.

  Both men froze as she brought the gun back down and pointed it at them. “Get the fuck off him, Alex. The next one blows your goddamn brains out.”

  “Fucking bitch!” He launched himself at her.

  Tom threw himself at Alex. Nevvie, taking an involuntary step back, tripped. Her finger squeezed the trigger, sending another load of shot high into the shed and shattering the small window by the door.

  “Nevvie, run!” Tom screamed again.

  She let out a scream and took off. Behind her, she heard the men fighting again. She didn’t dare look. She bolted down the backyard, toward the pond, trying to fish two more shells out of her pocket.

  How could I be so fucking stupid! She’d had him right there, but she’d been too afraid of hitting Tom to fire at Alex.

  Behind her, she heard a sickening thud and Alex’s triumphant cry. She turned and broke the gun open, dropping one of the new shells as she tried to pull the two spent ones from the barrels.

  Alex was running toward her. She jammed the shell home, closed the gun, and fired from the hip, missing him.

  He was too close. He’d catch her. She spun the barrel of the gun around and swung it at him like a club. He grabbed onto it and shoved it toward her, throwing her off-balance. As she tried to step back, he pulled the gun from her grasp and fired.

  Click.

  He grinned. “Come here, you fucking cunt.”

  Her foot hit a chuckhole, twisting her ankle. As she fell backward, she screamed.

  * * * *

  Tyler broke into a run. Fuck! Nevvie wouldn’t be shooting skeet in their backyard, so either she was killing a rattlesnake, or firing in self-defense.

  He drew the gun and ran the length of the driveway, cursing that he couldn’t see until he rounded the final bend. Nothing looked out of place until he passed the cars and spotted Tom’s still form on the ground outside the shed…

  And Alex standing over Nevvie in the backyard.

  He flipped the safety off the gun, bringing it up as he ran. The world faded around him. Every hour he’d spent imagining Alex LaRogue’s face on one of his targets came to mind.

  Aim for the little red circle.

  Twenty-five yards behind Alex, he stopped and took aim.

  This ends here, and this ends now.

  * * * *

  Tom couldn’t see which way Nevvie went. All he knew was he had to keep Alex from getting her. The men tumbled again, Tom getting a few more good slugs in before his foot slipped on some gravel in the driveway. Alex grabbed him by the back of the head and slammed him, face-first, into the side of the shed.

  He crumbled to the ground, barely hanging on to consciousness, the wind knocked out of him and pain blossoming from his broken nose.

  He tried to catch his breath and roll over, but could barely manage to turn his head.

  Fuck, I’m hurt bad. He was hallucinating. He couldn’t be seeing Tyler, a gun in his hand, charging up behind Alex.

  That’s when he coughed from the blood in his throat. The pain in his battered ribs dragged him down into darkness.

  * * * *

  Nevvie tried to scramble backward across the grass away from Alex, but he started toward her. “No more runnin’, you goddamned fuckin’ cunt! I spent all them years in jail because of you.”

  “It was your own fault!” she screamed back. “You fucking stabbed me! You tried to kill me!”

  “Gave you a good fucking life!” he raged back.

  “You gave me shit! I worked my ass off and you were a fucking lazy goddamned asshole!”

  He roared and raised the gun over his head to club her with it.

  Nevvie didn’t understand what happened. One second, she was staring at Alex’s enraged and crazed face. The next, six loud explosions shattered the afternoon. Alex’s body jumped. She was suddenly covered in a warm, red shower of spray and what felt like raw liver. And Alex’s face was no longer recognizable.

  As she stared, the scream building in her throat, he fell first to his knees, then collapsed on top of her. The shotgun fell from his limp hands.

  Panic set in as she thrashed, trying to get him off her, trying to get the stuff off her, the sticky, warm, copper-penny-smelling nasty crap off her, wordless screams exploding from her lungs as she tried to free herself.

  And Tyler ran up, seemingly from out of nowhere, yelling at her. She couldn’t understand him over her own screams. He grabbed her arm and hauled her out from under Alex’s body and fell to the ground with her in his arms.

  “Are you okay?” he yelled.

  She couldn’t stop screaming, crying, trying to get away. Alex was going to get up any minute now and—

  “Love!” Tyler yelled at her. She realized in addition to her screaming, her ears were still ringing from the three shotgun blasts and the six loud reports she was beginning to think were gunshots.

  That’s when she felt a stinging slap on her cheek, shocking enough to silence her cries. Tyler immediately cradled her cheeks again. “Nevvie! Answer me, are you hurt?”

  Eyes wide, she shook her head. “Just my ankle. But Tommy!”

  Tyler looked over his shoulder. “Thomas!” he screamed.

  Nevvie let out a sob of relief when Tom raised one hand at them from where he lay on the ground by the shed.

  Tyler grabbed her under her armpits and dragged her a few more feet away from Alex’s body. Then he picked up a handgun, removed the clip, and cycled a round out of the chamber before returning to kneel beside her.

  “Gun?” She stared at him.

  His expression still looked dark and deadly as he studied Alex’s body. “Yes, love. I’m sorry. I owe you and Thomas an apolo—”

  She grabbed him and kissed him, sobbing. “Thank you! Thank you for not listening to me! Thank you!” She dissolved into tears.

  He gathered her into his arms again, her gore-splattered head tucked under his chin. “It’s all right, love. The nightmare is truly over.”

  * * * *

  Tyler could barely hear anything. The odd, random thought flitted into his mind that now he completely understood why ear protection was mandatory at the gun range.

  He stood and scooped Nevvie into his arms. With his pulse barely starting to slow, he carried her across the backyard to where Tom had rolled himself over. He set her down next to him. Then he leaned against the shed wall, his gaze on Alex’s body, and slid down the wall.

  He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed 911.

  “911, what is your emergency?”

  Nevvie, still sobbing, was trying to check Tom. Content Tom wasn’t in immediate danger of dying, he focused on the operator’s voice.

  He knew someone who made a living as a wordsmith should have words for this. He didn’t know where to start. He opted for the address. “1519 Pine Hill Lane. A man tried to kill my wife and husband. I…” He swallowed. “I shot him.”

  “1519 Pine Hill Lane. I’m dispatching police and EMS. Is he alive, sir?”

  Tyler stared at the still form. “I bloody well hope not.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  They were still sitting there when the first deputy rolled up the driveway, lights and sirens blaring. They’d managed to get Tom into a sitting position, braced against the shed wall. Nevvie’s ankle had alre
ady swollen to the size of a grapefruit. If it wasn’t broken, it was at the very least badly sprained.

  Tyler raised his hand and waved at the deputy. He didn’t even know if he could stand at this point, the adrenaline crash hitting him full force.

  Odd, I’ve written about it. Now I get to feel it.

  The deputy rushed over, gun drawn.

  “Let me see your hands.”

  Tyler raised his, but pointed at Alex’s body with one of them. “I shot him. I left the gun on the grass over there. I believe it’s completely unloaded, but double-check before you pick it up, please.”

  The deputy holstered his gun and spoke into his radio as he ran over to where Alex lay. Three more deputies joined him before the ambulance arrived.

  “Is he really dead?” Nevvie asked. “Are you really fucking sure he’s totally dead? Maybe we should cut off his head or jam a stake through his fucking heart.”

  Tyler suspected Nevvie wasn’t far from a hysterical breakdown.

  Tom let out a barking laugh. “He was a psychopathic asshole, not a zombie.”

  “I don’t fucking care! I want to know for sure he’s dead!”

  The deputy walked back over to them. “Ma’am, he’s definitely dead.”

  “Are you sure? How can you be sure?”

  “Most of his brain’s gone. And his face. And he has several holes in him. I’m no doctor, but that makes me pretty sure he’s not getting up and running a marathon.”

  Nevvie and Tom both refused to be loaded into the ambulance before they had given their statements and been assured Tyler wasn’t in trouble. Deputies had intercepted Andrew and Peggy and the kids at the driveway and escorted them to Ben’s house, at Tyler’s request, to wait. They also diverted Laurie, and John and Kelly, when they returned.