Excitement and lust. A chuckle rumbled from him and he rubbed himself against her. “I like the new Reese. Maybe I’ll start calling you Ginny, too.”
She smiled, clenched his hands and straddled him.
“You wanna play rough?” he asked.
“Just like you like it.” She held his hands tightly, pushed her knee between his legs then suddenly kicked upward with her knee and jabbed him in the groin. He bellowed in pain and grabbed at his sex.
“What the hell?”
Taking advantage of the moment, she spotted her gun on the table across the room then dove for it.
He recovered and grabbed at her leg, but she kicked at his face and scrambled away. He chased her, caught her arm and flung her against the wall. Her head snapped backward, and she tasted blood, but she called on the skills she’d learned in self-defense and swung her arm up to deflect his assault when he came at her.
A swift thrust into his belly, and he doubled over. She kicked him in the groin again, then raced for the gun.
Breath panting out, she closed her fingers around it, turned and aimed it at his chest as he bellowed his rage.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Griff heard noises from the rear of the house the minute he entered the front door. Jacob had circled around the side of the house to the back to scope out the situation.
But Griff forged on. If Bouldercrest was armed, he’d deal with it.
The floor creaked as he eased down the hallway toward the source of the noise. He’d heard sounds that indicated a fight. A woman’s muffled sobbing. Then Bouldercrest bellowing in rage.
He couldn’t afford to waste a minute.
He crept to the door and peered inside to assess the situation. Mitzi lay on a cot in the corner, tied and gagged. He visually swept the room and found Bouldercrest against the far wall, his hands up in surrender as Ginny pointed a gun at him.
Instead of looking afraid though, Bouldercrest looked excited. The crazed look in his eyes indicated he was planning his next move. Twice Ginny’s size, he could take her down in a minute.
“You deserve to die, Robert,” Ginny said. “You killed Tess, the only person in the world I loved.”
“That was your fault,” Bouldercrest barked. “I told you you’d be sorry if you left me.”
“I was not your possession.” Ginny’s hand trembled, the gun bobbing up and down. “And I never will be.”
“You’re such a liar,” Bouldercrest said. “A few minutes ago, you said you missed me and that you’d do whatever I said.”
“I said I’d show you how much I missed you and I’m going to.” She took a step closer to Bouldercrest and aimed the gun at the man’s chest.
“You won’t shoot me,” the bastard said calmly. “You don’t have what it takes to pull that trigger.”
The damn fool was taunting her, practically challenging her. “You’re wrong,” Ginny said, her voice calm but filled with a deep-seated hatred. “You changed me, Robert. I’m not that sweet, meek person you first met.”
Her finger moved to the trigger, and Griff’s breath stalled in his chest. He stepped to the doorway. “Don’t do it, Ginny,” he murmured.
Footsteps echoed on the wood floor, and Griff knew Jacob was behind him. “Let me handle it,” Jacob said in a low voice.
Griff threw up a warning hand. “I’ve got it, Jacob.”
“Go away,” Ginny told Griff and Jacob. “He deserves to die.”
“That may be true,” Griff said. “And maybe he changed you in some ways. He made you tougher and more wary of people. But don’t let him turn you into a killer.”
Ginny made a strangled sound. “He has to pay for what he did. I need justice for my sister and all the other lives he destroyed.”
“He’ll get justice,” Griff said. “I promise. He’ll go to prison for the rest of his life.”
“But my sister is gone forever,” Ginny cried.
Griff barely breathed out. “I know, and I’m sorry. I understand what it’s like to lose someone you loved. You know I do.”
A tear trickled down her cheek. “What about Joy? And the deputy? They died because of me.”
“No, Ginny,” Griff said. “They died because this man is a sadistic cold-blooded killer. But you’re not. You have love and goodness in you.”
Bouldercrest released a sarcastic laugh. “You don’t know anything about me. Only a man who can’t get his own woman tries to steal another man’s.”
“I’m not your woman,” Ginny shouted. “Griff is ten times the man you are. Real men don’t have to bully women into being with them.”
Bouldercrest stepped toward her, his hands clenched as if he wanted to choke her, and Ginny pulled the trigger. Bouldercrest froze as the bullet pinged the floor beside his feet.
“Move again and you’re dead,” Ginny snapped.
Jacob cleared his throat. “Ginny, let me have the gun. I’ll arrest him and haul him to jail myself.”
Her eyes darted toward Griff and Jacob, but she shook her head. “I came here to get justice for Tess. And I won’t leave without it.”
“Then think about your sister,” Griff murmured. “What kind of person was she? What would she want you to do? Would she want you to commit murder in her name?”
* * *
EMOTIONS CHOKED GINNY as Griff’s words hacked at her thirst for revenge. Her sister loved people, animals, children. She was an artist and saw the world through hopeful eyes, through her love of nature and its wonders.
Would Tess want her to destroy her life for revenge? To live with anger and hatred?
Her hand wavered. She couldn’t breathe. Her sister was gone, and all the beautiful colors died with her.
“I understand what it feels like to want revenge,” Griff said. “For a while after my father died, I wanted the same thing. I thought if I found the person who’d set that fire, I’d beat the hell out of him. But then one day when I looked at his picture, I heard his voice talking to me. Telling me to respect women and children and to protect others. That day I realized if I sought revenge, it would eat away at my soul. And I would be desecrating his memory.”
Ginny clamped her teeth over her bottom lip, her hand shaking.
“So, I decided to honor his memory by being the kind of man he’d want me to be.” He inched closer to her. “I never met your sister, but I can’t imagine she’d want you to throw away your life by going to prison for murder. Would she?”