She snapped the blinds shut and turned around.
Hudson abandoned his computer and came around the desk to gather her in his arms. She snuggled into them gratefully. “You make me feel safe.”
He kissed the top of her head. Then he tucked a finger under her chin, turning her face up to his. “You make me feel…something else,” he said suggestively.
“Ahh…” she said, her mood lightening. And when he kissed her again, more passionately, she kissed him back with all her pent-up love and desire.
Nothing could hurt her and her baby as long as she was with Hudson.
From my lighthouse, I stare at the shoreline, barely visible through the night. But she’s there. Becca. Close.
And rutting like a whore!
I feel my lip curl in disgust, though I shouldn’t be surprised.
Isn’t it what she does, what they all do?
Jezebel was the mistress of fornication.
Rebecca is no different.
Fingering the knife I stole from the cabin, I tamp down my frustration. I’d known she would come, of course, had felt her need as the sea pulled her. But I’d thought she would be alone.
Who is this man? This stud?
I push open the door and it’s nearly ripped from its hinges with the force of the gale, the door thudding hard. The old metal walk is rusted, but I step outside naked, feeling the slap of the wind, hearing it howl and whistle as it whips the breakers into froths of whitecaps and swirls of angry foam.
I had to pass her in the mountains, take a chance and speed by her in an effort to outrun the storm and get to the lighthouse. As it was, I barely made the crossing, the waves washing over the sides of my craft, threatening to plunge it to the bottom of the ocean.
I will have to kill them both.
Once again, I’ll need to attach the grill guard to my vehicle. Two bolts to secure the bars across the front of my truck and then I’ll force them off the road as well. My truck will go unscarred, the grill guard hidden securely.
I finger the edge of the knife and wish I could use it as my weapon. Feel the lifeblood ooze out of Rebecca’s body. Like it did with Jezebel. With a smile I remember her rounded eyes in the moonlight, her gasp of surprise. She, too, had been curious and, foolish girl, had thought she could better me, lure me to her and then stop me from my mission.
Talk me down?
Convince me of the sin of my ways?
Offer up sexual favors for me to ignore my duty?
Or did she really think she could kill me with her tiny little knife, the one I turned on her?
She’d been shocked to know that she’d lost.
Jezebel who had always won.
And now it is time for another.
Rebecca needs to die.
And die soon.
“So you wanna watch a movie? There’s a Star Wars marathon running all night,” Mac said to his son. Levi sat on the edge of a plaid couch, his bare feet propped on the edge of a metal and glass coffee table, his head bent over a handheld computer game. “We missed the first one, but the second comes on in twenty minutes.”
“Okay.” Levi’s lack of enthusiasm was palpable.
“I picked up some microwave popcorn and red licorice.”
Levi winced, but it was from missing something on his game system. He hadn’t heard a word Mac uttered. The kid was placating him. They were stuck together in a small cabin in a coastal town in the middle of nowhere, and Sam McNally realized for the first time how little he knew his son.
“I’ll put in a pizza.”
“Yeah.” Levi stopped and for once Mac thought he’d caught the kid’s attention until his boy picked up his cell phone, read the display, and began texting like crazy. Mac hadn’t even heard the damned thing ring.
“Someone callin’ ya?” Mac turned on the oven, preheating the ancient thing.
“No.”
“But you saw a message.”
“I texted Seth. No big deal.” The phone either vibrated or made some inaudible noise and Levi snapped his head into the direction of the tiny screen. Once again his fingers flew over the keypad.
“Seth must’ve had something pretty important to say.”
“It wasn’t Seth. Someone else.”
“You can do two at once?” he asked and smelled old crud burning off the inside of the oven. This fleabag was the first place he’d tried when he called for a place to stay, and now he was second-guessing himself. He’d known as soon as he’d driven up and seen the rates for daily, weekly, or monthly that the units wouldn’t be five-star. But he’d thought a fireplace and a cabin feel would be roomier and a little more relaxing than a sterile motel room with two matching beds, TV in an armoire, coffeepot, and maid service rapping on the door in the morning.
Now, looking at the sagging, scratched furniture and ancient paneling, he wasn’t so sure. Even the plumbing at the Coastal Cove Cabins seemed suspect.
“It’s easy to text a bunch of people,” Levi told him disparagingly.
“If you say so.” Mac slid the frozen meaty pizza out of the box. Hell, he could count the pieces of pepperoni and sausage on the thing on the fingers of one hand. He figured it didn’t much matter. The oven reached the temperature and he placed the pie inside.
Levi had abandoned his game completely and now was texting faster than the best typist in the department.
“How many people are you talking to?”
“I dunno. Why? Oh. Don’t worry, I’ve got unlimited texting. It’s not costing you…er, Mom or Tom anything.”
“Tom? Who’s Tom?” he asked before he realized what he was saying.
“Mom’s latest.” For the first time Levi met his gaze.
“You don’t like him.”
A shrug. “He’s okay.”
“And he’s paying your cell phone bill?” This was news to Mac, but then Connie only told him what she wanted to, when she wanted to.
“He added me to his plan. It doesn’t cost much.”
“But-”
“Mom’s on it, too. Tom’s moving in.”
“How do you feel about that?”
Levi’s phone zinged again and he looked away. “It’s all right.” He began texting again and Mac sensed the conversation was over. He’d known Connie was “involved” with someone, but he’d never heard his name and figured it would pass. In the years since they were separated and divorced, she’d dated a number of men. One guy, Laddie, had moved in with her twice, and twice she’d kicked the bum out. Now, it seemed, she was onto a new one.
Mac didn’t begrudge her the new men in her life. He just hated that Levi had to be dragged along for the ride.
“You could move in with me,” he suggested and Levi’s head bobbed up as if it had been pulled by an invisible string.
“You’re serious.”
“Thinking about retiring.”
Levi’s eyebrows drew together. “You sure?”
“Yeah, why not?”
“I don’t know…” He shook his head. “Mom wouldn’t like it.”
“We’d work something out.”
“I don’t think so. Mom, she says she and Tom are gonna move in together and get married. He’s got a couple of daughters. They’ll need a place to stay, so the den, that’ll be their room when they come.”
“How old are they?”
“Dunno.” He thought. Scratched at his chin and Mac saw the first evidence of a beard, a few stray hairs on his chin.
At twelve? The kid was growing up. Fast.
“I guess they’re five and eight maybe. Little kids.”
“How do you feel about that?”
Levi was about to equivocate, to lie, and say it was “all right” or “not too bad.” Instead, he scowled and yanked off his stocking cap. “It sucks. Big time.”
“Then we should talk about you moving in with me.” He hesitated, then said, “Mom and I already talked about it.”