Too Close To The Fire/Too Hot To Handle (Montana Men 3) (25 page)

“I
know where she keeps them,” Duel replied. “I’ll get some from the hall closet.
I think we should call Danger.”

Rafe
hesitated. “Call him, but I don’t think he’ll join us.”

“Why
not?”

“Like
you said, he blames Lacey for Joseph’s death. He hates her, Duel. He won’t help
us rescue her or help search for her body, whichever the case may be.”

“I’m
calling him. He knows Lacey isn’t to blame for Joseph’s death. It’s crazy that
he’d even think it.”

“Come
on. You can call from the Jeep. Every minute counts. She’s the one I’m
concerned about, not Danger.”

Duel
gathered blankets and shoved them in Rafe’s arms. He yanked his cell phone from
the leather case hooked to the waistband of his jeans and hit speed dial as he
followed closely behind Rafe. “I’m concerned about both of them.”

“He
won’t come, Duel.”

“We’ll
see. Yes. Hey, Danger, I wanted to let you know Rafe and I figured out the
drawings. We know where Smitt put Lacey. What? Huh. I…uh…see. Okay. We’ll meet
you in Havre at the hospital.”

Duel
snapped the phone closed and shoved it back in its holder.

“Well?”
Rafe arched a brow in question.

“He’s
too busy to be bothered with Lacey right now.”

“What’s
he doing?”

“Having
breakfast with Karen, then he has some other things more important to do. He’ll
meet us at the hospital in Havre when he has time.”

Rafe
clenched his jaw. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Fourteen

Killing
someone is just like walking outdoors. If I wanted a victim, I’d just go get
one…I didn’t even consider a person a human being.

Henry Lee
Lucas

(Serial
Killer)

Davis Property

February 7, Saturday.

6:00 a.m.

“You
still alive down there, bitch?”

The
voice!
She knew that voice. Lacey’s
eyelids fluttered open. The voice from her nightmares. Was she dreaming? Maybe
her imagination was playing tricks on her. As she dragged her mind out of the
nightmare fog she found comforting, her heart raced with terror.

Oh,
God. Where was she? Where had he put her?

Gray
shadows twisted around her, silent and threatening. It wasn’t quite as dark as
it had been when she awoke before.

Imagination
was a crazy thing. She saw shadows, images that appeared threatening. She heard
his voice, that cold, uncaring voice, but sometimes the voice sounded like
Danger’s. She didn’t know what was real or her imagination. Lacey whimpered.
“Please don’t let him be real,” she whispered. “Let it all be a dream. A dream—”

“So
they haven’t found your rotting corpse yet? How do you like it down there in my
well?”

Lacey
stifled a moan.
Oh, God! No!
He
was
back! He was real. Real. She tried
to hold her breath, but it hurt too much.

“I
know you’re still alive down there, cunt. I know you’re breathin.’ I see those
pretty tits I sucked heaving like a smoke stack. Did you miss me? Are you
lonely? Maybe I should come down there and fuck you. Would you like that? Yeah,
I think you’d like it.”

Lacey
choked back a cry. What did he want?

“Or
maybe I’ll just climb down there and slit your pretty throat, should have done
that before I kicked your ass into this rotten hole anyway, should of made
certain you were dead.”

Lacey
mouthed a silent prayer. “Please God, make him go away. Please. Let me die in
peace. Let me die—”

“You
won’t be lonely much longer, Lacey, darling. That bitch, Kaycee, shot me, but I
ain’t done with her. No, sir. Got plenty of life left in me. Plenty. I’m gonna
get her good, toss her stinking bones down there with yours. Soon, Lacey,
darling, very soon. By the time I come back here again, there won’t be any life
left in you. You’ll be a pile of bones no one will ever find. Die, bitch. Die
slow. Die alone!”

Lacey
shivered and closed her eyes. Why was it taking so long for her to die? A faint
smile flickered across her lips. “Welcome, Death. I welcome you.”

Smitt
slid the boards in place over the well, shutting her in total darkness. Tears
slid down her face. She curled into a fetal ball and tried to ignore the chill
in her bones, but the memory of what Smitt had done to her came back in full
force…

* * * *

Blackstone Ranch

February 6, Friday

12:00 p.m.

Lacey
grabbed Danger’s empty coffee cup off the kitchen table and set it in the sink.
She stood there over the sink, her tears falling unheeded into the basin. She
swore her heart wobbled. No more tears for herself. She refused to feel sorry
for herself, but she cried for her son’s loss, because inevitably, Joseph was the
one who’d pay for his parents’ decisions and mistakes.

Sniffing,
she rubbed away the tears, but it didn’t relieve the desolate pain. So, it was
over. Divorce filed, granted, final, all nice and tidy, just the way Danger
wanted it. A shaft of pain cut her deep. He hated her. He’d made that very
clear. Yes, she was guilty of adultery. She’d slept with Rafe McCord, not only
slept with him, but conceived his baby, but she wasn’t guilty of sleeping with
Jared Davis, which was the beginning of her failed marriage. Or was it?

What
role had Karen Monroe played in breaking up her marriage? Why? Maybe it was all
mutual attraction between Danger and Karen. She could hardly fault Karen for
wanting Danger. The first time she saw him, she’d been bowled over by his good
looks, the pure sex in the way he walked, talked, and looked at her.

What
she didn’t understand was why Jared had told Danger such lies.

What
did he have to gain by breaking up her marriage?

Lacey
heaved a deep sigh. It didn’t matter now. Danger was in love with Karen, and
Karen was five months pregnant with his baby.

Oh,
God. Lacey’s hands shook. The sob lodged in her throat. She couldn’t breathe.
She’d bumped into Karen the day before in Rimrock’s General Store. The woman
smirked at her, rubbed her distended belly, and sauntered from the store as if
she’d won a major victory.

Lacey
winced. She stood there too numb to turn and walk away herself. Seeing the
realty of Karen’s pregnancy sucked what emotions she had left right out of her
body. She trembled like a leaf in the wind, and everything simply went dark in
her soul. She felt like an empty shell, and she didn’t think she’d ever feel
normal again.

In
a way, she guessed Karen
had
won a
major victory. She’d stolen her husband from right under her nose.

Bewildered,
Lacey looked around the kitchen. The present. Now. And the truth she faced—she
was now a single woman. A pregnant, single woman who might not be able to turn
to the baby’s father for help, a woman who was nearly thirty and should know
better than to get herself in such an idiotic mess. She brushed away another
tear.

Facing
the future was unbearable. How could she wreck things like this in three short
years?

Danger
had wanted their marriage dissolved. In her opinion, he’d dissolved it in
August, maybe sooner than that. She just hadn’t realized what he was doing or
how determined he was to cut her out of his life.

Even
after she knew, after she learned the extent of his deception, she’d stayed and
tried to make things work between them, but it had been too late, and she
couldn’t do it by herself.

Lacey
squared her shoulders. She had to accept it was over. Too much had happened, too
many hurtful words spoken, too many things that couldn’t be forgiven. Ever.

A
soft shuffling sound on the front porch snared her attention. She heard the
front door open and close and swiped at the last of the tears wetting her face.
Danger’s sister, Anna Leigh, had arrived to take Joseph home with her while
Lacey packed the last of the belongings she wanted to take with her when she
left.

“I’m
in the kitchen, Anna. Come on in.” Lord, she hoped Anna wouldn’t be able to
tell she’d been crying.

“Oh,
I’m in, honey. I’m so in.”

Lacey
spun around at the creepy intonation.

Oh,
God. Oh, God. She knew that voice. Even after three years, she’d never
forgotten the tone. How had she ever thought he sounded anything like Danger?

She
jerked open a drawer, closed her fingers around a butcher knife. “You come near
me, you sonofabitch, I’ll kill you!”

“I
don’t have to come near you, cunt. Not yet.”

Smitt
leveled a pistol at her. Lacey froze. The gun,
God,
he aimed it between her eyes. Her heart hammered. “What do you
want?”

Pow!

The
punch of the bullet knocked her back against the kitchen cabinets. Her breath
exploded in her lungs. The report of the gun wasn’t nearly as loud as the
explosive pain that ripped through muscle and bone in her right shoulder.

Pow!

Or
the second one that plowed through the upper portion of the right side of her
chest. The impact knocked her to the floor.

Lacey
lay where she fell. Baffled by the white-hot pain ripping her apart, she
groaned. Something was in her mouth, something warm and wet that tasted like
rust. Blood? Why did she have so much blood in her mouth? It filled the back of
her throat, gagging her. It gurgled inside her chest, hot as boiling water.
Drowning. God, she felt like she was drowning in her own blood.

She
tried to breathe, but couldn’t get past the pain. Why did she hurt?

Lacey
coughed and spewed crimson droplets across her face and the front of her shirt.
Oh, God, her lungs felt as if acid had been doused on them. Nausea bubbled like
green foam in her stomach. She swallowed back the urge to vomit and slid a
protective hand across her belly.

Her
baby. Dear God, please, don’t let anything happen to my baby.

A
shadow, dark and menacing and obscene, fell across her.

Lacey
stared at the man who’d invaded her home. Unable to form words, she coughed and
felt the warmth of her blood trickle down her chin. She caught the bright,
shiny glint of the knife she’d grabbed from the drawer in his hands.
Oh, God. Oh, God. Please!

“Aww,
you don’t have to say anything. I can see it in your eyes. You’re not having
fun.” His hand went to his zipper, and he tugged it down. Slowly. Slowly. All
the while, a smile played on his mouth. “Don’t you worry none, Lacey, darling,
don’t you worry ‘bout havin’ fun, cause me and my buddy here, well, we’re going
to have all kinds of fun.” He freed his cock and stroked his fingers up and
down the hard length of it. “Oh, yeah, me and my buddy, we’re gonna have a
party. And guess what, Lacey, darling? We got all afternoon.”

Smitt
leaned down with the knife in hand, grabbed the top of her blue T-shirt and cut
it down the middle from top to bottom—smiling, he sliced her bra in half and
folded back the sides. “Whoo-hoo, would you lookie there? Course, I already
knew you had a nice set of tits.”

He
squeezed her breasts with both hands, pulled hard on the nipples. Lacey pushed
at his hands, struggled to get up
.

“Stay
down.”

“What?”
Her voice sounded distant. She tried to get up again, but for some reason, she
didn’t have any strength in her right arm. Lacey held up her hand, puzzled as
to why her arm wouldn’t cooperate. Blood streamed off her fingertips and
dripped onto her neck.

“Stay
down or the next bullet goes between your eyes.”

She
fell back. Not because he ordered her to, but because she couldn’t do anything
else.

“That’s
my girl,” he said softly and laid the blade of the knife along her cheek. “Now,
we got us a few rules here, Lacey, darling. I like rules. I like obedience.”

The
entire time he talked, he finished cutting away her shirt and bra, until there
was nothing left.

“I
like to suck titties,” he said casually. “Sometimes, I even like to bite and
chew on the nipples. What I don’t like is screams. Screaming messes with my
concentration. Makes it harder for me to get my load off, you know what I mean?
I hear screams, I go a little crazy and do real bad things, like bite off your
nipples, or I might do a little carving on your belly. So, rule number one, no
screaming.”

He
leveled his gaze on her breasts. “You got a pair of beautiful tits there,
Lacey. I’m partial to pretty tits.” He squeezed her breasts. “Yeah, nice and
firm. Sweet.”

She
bit her lip, but couldn’t hold back the groan.

“Uh-uh.
No moaning. Remember rule number one.”

Lacey
flinched when he pulled on her nipples. They were already tender from her
pregnancy. What he did made them ache worse.

She
frowned. What was he doing now?

Oh,
Jesus. Oh, God. He was sucking her right nipple, but the way he did it, pulling
on it with his teeth, gnawing on it, hurt like hell. She chewed on the inside
of her cheek to keep from crying aloud. Sharp pain jolted through her nipple
and spread through her breast. Then he sucked harder, deeper. He wrapped his
tongue around the tender bud and moaned. Slowly, very slowly, he released it
and reared back.

“Aww.
What’s this shit? Woman, you making milk?”

“No...no.”

“You
got a baby in you?” He rubbed his hand across her belly, tightened his fingers
on her flesh. Enraged, Smitt snarled and slapped her across her face. “Don’t
lie to me! You gotta kid in you? Answer me!”

“No.
No baby.” She had to protect her unborn child.

Smitt
smashed a fist into the side of her face. “Tell me the truth or I’ll hurt you
so bad, you’ll wish you were dead. I’ll cut open your belly and look for
myself. Now, is there a kid in you?”

“Yes,
yes….baby.”

Smitt
punched her in the face again. She felt her cheek bone crack. Lacey blinked.
What happened? She couldn’t concentrate for all the pain. “Oh, God. Oh, God.”
He was unbuttoning her pants, fumbling with the zipper. He was going to rape
her on her kitchen floor?

“Don’t…don’t
touch…me!”

Smitt
snickered. “Honey, I already touched you in more ways than you can imagine. I
want a little feel of your sweet pussy. I might even stick my cock in you for a
bit of fun.” He laughed. “My afternoon delight.”

“Please…please.
Don’t hurt me. I’m pregnant.”

He
laughed. “I know you got a baby in you. I’ve fucked pregnant women before. How
far gone are you?”

“What?”
Lacey blinked. “What…tal…king ‘bout?” Shock spread through her. Cold. So cold.
Why couldn’t she pay attention to his words? Focus? Nothing he said made sense
to her. A strange buzzing filled her ears. Boiling black clouds swirled above
her, darkening the room. She struggled not to give in to the awful shadows attacking
her senses.

“Answer
me, bitch! How many months you knocked up?”

“I…uh,
two…months.” Her voiced sounded so far away, a distant echo in her mind. “Hell,
woman, you ain’t very far gone at all. It can’t be much bigger than a tadpole.
Too bad your ole’ man already put his kid in you, but it don’t matter none to
me you got a brat in you. I got plans for you. Big plans.”