* * *
BY THE TIME Griff met Jacob at the sheriff’s office, Liam had a trace on Ginny’s phone. Jacob peeled from the parking lot and sped through town, siren blaring.
Griff’s stomach knotted every time he imagined what Robert might do to Ginny.
She was tough and strong and a survivor. She deserved to be treated with love and respect. He had the desperate urge to be the one who showed her how a man should love a woman.
How could he have fallen for her in such a short time?
Especially when she’d lied to him.
Had she simply used him the night before to distract him so she could confront Robert on her own?
He didn’t want to believe she would do that. She’d been abused and stalked to the point he’d worried she wouldn’t want a physical relationship. Yet she’d come apart in his arms.
The connection he’d felt with her had to be real, didn’t it?
“How did she get away from you?” Jacob asked.
Humiliation shot through Griff. “She pulled a gun.”
“Dammit. Why didn’t she call me?” Jacob asked.
Griff remembered the fear haunting her eyes. And the guilt lacing her voice. “She’s afraid,” he said.
“All the more reason not to go off alone.”
“I know, but this bastard murdered her sister and she blames herself. She believes it’s her fault he killed Joy and kidnapped Mitzi.”
Jacob pressed his lips into a thin line. “Guilt is pretty powerful, isn’t it?”
Griff studied his brother’s deep scowl. They’d never really talked about their father’s death. “It wasn’t your fault that Dad didn’t survive the hospital fire,” Griff said. “I’m the firefighter. I should have insisted he stay outside.”
Jacob made a low sound in his throat. “Don’t do that, Griff. It wasn’t your fault either. Dad did what Dad did, his job. That scene was chaotic, and lives were at stake. We needed manpower. None of us could have just stood by and watched without helping.”
Griff’s throat felt thick with emotions. Jacob was right. He’d blamed himself, but the only way he could have stopped his father from running into the hospital to help save lives was to have knocked him unconscious.
The Maverick men were protectors. That instinct had been bred into their blood when they were born.
Jacob swerved onto a graveled road that appeared to lead nowhere, and he sped around the winding curves as he followed the GPS coordinates Liam had sent. The storm clouds disappeared beneath the thick overhanging trees, casting the road into such darkness that Jacob had to turn on his headlights.
Three miles down the winding road, they finally broke into a clearing. Griff’s heart stuttered at the sight of Ginny’s car.
“She’s here,” he said.
“Stay in the car and let me handle this,” Jacob said. “He might be armed.”
“No way.” Griff reached for the door handle.
Jacob held up a warning hand. “Then stay behind me and follow my lead. The last thing I want is for you to get shot by a stray bullet if Ginny fires at Bouldercrest.”
Griff nodded, then said a silent prayer that Ginny was all right as they eased their way toward the house.
* * *
THE SOUND OF crying roused Ginny from unconsciousness. Reality crashed back with the force of a tornado, infuriating her. Robert had gotten the best of her.
After all her training and armed with a weapon, he’d won.
She blinked and tried to focus on her vision. No...she refused to give up. She had to think.
She felt something along her arm, then her cheek and opened her eyes. Robert. He was stroking her face with his fingers.
Her skin crawled.
For a moment, she considered spitting in his face, but that would do nothing except incite his anger. She had to outsmart him.
Think, Ginny, think.
Mitzi’s muffled cry echoed nearby, and she glanced sideways. The young woman was tied and gagged, curled on a cot in the corner, her hands secured to the bedpost.
She’d left Griff the same way. Except she’d done it to protect him, not hold him hostage.
“Robert,” she murmured.
“I’m here, love. I told you we’d be together soon.”
Emotions threatened to make her ill, but she swallowed back the bile. Use what you know about him. Get inside his head. “I know why you were so upset when I left,” she said softly. “I understand now.”
His fingers stopped moving across her cheek. “What do you mean? You know?”
She feigned a smile. “Your father hit your mother, so she decided to leave him, didn’t she? But he wanted her to stay.”
Robert’s jaw tightened, eyes flickering with a myriad of emotions.
“You watched him beat her, didn’t you? He told you mothers and wives weren’t supposed to leave. Then he killed her.”
Razor-sharp anger blazed on his face. “They’re not supposed to leave. They’re supposed to be faithful and love you forever.”
“That’s the reason you tried so hard to hold on to me,” she said in a low whisper. “I realize that now. Now that I understand, I think we can make it work.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, his eyes shifting as if he was debating whether or not to believe her.
“We’ll talk things through,” she continued softly. “Everything will be different between us this time.”
“How different?” he asked, his voice rough with emotions.
“We’ll be together, and we’ll talk. And I won’t leave.” She smiled at him again, although her stomach was heaving in protest. “Please untie me and I’ll show you how much I’ve missed you.”
He trailed his fingers over her throat, then around her breast, and she choked back a cry of revulsion.
“Please,” she whispered. “I want to touch you and give you pleasure.”
Desire sparked in his ugly gray eyes, and he slipped his fingers up and began to untie her while he kissed her neck and throat. Ginny closed her eyes and willed herself to play along, but hatred, deep and dark, bloomed like a cancer inside her.
Finally, he freed the last knot around her hands, then he held them above her head and crawled on top of her. Panic threatened. She had to reverse the situation.
She gripped his hands with her own, then flipped him over to his back. He looked startled, but she lowered her head and kissed his cheek to assuage his alarm. “I told you, I want to show you how much I missed you. Let me pleasure you first, then you can have your way with me just like you did when we first met.”