Under Threat by B.J. Daniels (reading the story of the .TXT) 📕

Lucy wanted to laugh at that. She knew the cowboy better than Mary assumed. Maybe it was time to enlighten her. Look how easily Chase had cast her aside. How he’d gotten that irritated look whenever he saw her after that first night. He’d wanted her to go away. He’d gotten what he wanted from her and no longer needed her.

Instead, he thought he needed Mary. Sweet, precious Mary. She glared at the woman’s back as she rode toward her, reined in and dismounted. She told herself that she’d tried to save Mary. It was Mary’s own fault if she wouldn’t listen. Now the cowgirl would need to die. It would have to look like an accident. Earlier, she’d thought about pulling the pocketknife she’d brought and jamming it into the side of her horse.

But she’d realized that Mary had been raised on horses. She probably wouldn’t get bucked off when the horse reared or even when it galloped down the narrow trail in pain.

No, it had been a chance she couldn’t take. But one way or another Mary wasn’t getting off this mountain alive, she thought as she stepped over to stand beside her.

The view was just as Mary had said it was. They stood on a precipice overlooking a dozen mountains that stretched far into the horizon.

Below them was the canyon with its green-tone river snaking through the pines and canyon walls. It would have been so easy to push Mary off and watch her tumble down the mountain. But there was always the chance that the fall wouldn’t kill her.

Lucy reached into her pocket and fingered the gun as she said, “I slept with Chase in Arizona.”

Chapter 19

Chase roared up in his pickup and leaped out as Dana ran toward him.

“The wrangler had horses saddled for them. He said they headed up the road into the mountains,” she told him as he rushed toward her. He could see that she’d been saddling horses. “Hud wants you to wait for him. If this woman is as dangerous as you say she is—”

“I’m the one she wants. Not Mary. If I wait, it might be too late.” He swung up into the horse she’d finished saddling and spurred it forward. Dana grabbed the reins to stop him.

“I know I can’t talk you out of going. Here, take this.” She handed him the pistol he knew she kept in the barn. “It’s loaded and ready to fire. Be careful.” Her voice broke. “Help Mary.”

He rode off up the road headed for the mountaintop. He knew where Mary would take Lucy. It was her favorite spot—and the most dangerous.

As he rode at a full-out gallop, he thought of his misgivings about Lucy. Fiona must have loved the fact that she’d fooled him. That she’d fooled them all, especially trusting Mary. The woman had known exactly how to worm her way into Mary’s life, how to get her claws into her and make her believe that she was her friend.

What Fiona didn’t know how to do was let go.

He took the trail, riding fast and hard, staying low in the saddle to avoid the pine tree limbs. His heart was in his throat, his fear for Mary a thunderous beat in his chest and his abhorrence for Fiona a bitter taste in his mouth. He prayed as he rode that he would reach them in time. That the woman Fiona had become would spare Mary who’d done nothing to her.

But he had little hope. He knew Fiona. She had come all the way to Montana to extract her vengeance. She’d become another person, Lucy, taking her time, playing Mary. Did she know that they were on to her? That’s what frightened him the most. If she thought that Mary was turning against her or that the authorities knew...

Mary turned to the woman in surprise, telling herself she must have heard wrong. “What did you just say?”

“I slept with Chase before you sent the letter.”

She stared at the woman even as her heart began to pound. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m Fiona.”

Mary took a step back as the woman she’d known as Lucy pulled a gun and pointed it at her heart.

Lucy laughed. “Surprise! I read your pathetic letter, and I hated you for taking him from me. You’re the reason Chase broke up with me. Instead, the accident helped me become Lucy. You liked Lucy, didn’t you? We could have been such good friends. But then Chase showed up—just as I knew he would.”

Mary’s mind was reeling. This was Lucy. And yet as she stared at her, she knew this was the woman who Chase said had tried to kill him before he left Arizona. The woman he’d said was delusional.

“You think you know him so well.” Lucy shook her head. “I was in love with him. He and I were so good together. You don’t want to believe that, do you? Well, it’s true. There was something between us, something real and amazing, but then you wrote that letter.” Lucy’s face twisted in disgust. “You ruined my life. You ruined Chase’s.”

Mary was shaking her head, still having trouble believing this was happening. Chase had tried to warn her, but she’d thought she knew Lucy. She’d really thought she was a friend.

Until she’d taken a sip of the coffee this morning and tasted that horribly familiar chalky taste. “You drugged me.”

Lucy shrugged. “You shouldn’t have poured out your coffee this morning. That was really rude. I was nice enough to get it for you.”

“You wanted to make me sick again?”

“I was being kind,” Lucy said, looking confused. “This would have been so much easier if you’d been sick. Now, it’s going to get messy.” She jabbed the gun at her. “If you had just stayed mad at Chase, this wouldn’t be happening either.”

Mary didn’t know what to say or do. She’d never dealt with someone this unbalanced. “You want to make him suffer. Is that