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

Lucy smiled her gap-toothed smile. “For starters.”

“You want him to fall in love with you again.” She saw at once that was exactly what Lucy wanted. “But if you hurt me, that won’t happen.”

“It won’t happen anyway and we both know it. Because of you.” The woman sounded close to tears. “I could have made him happy. Before the letter came from you, he needed me. I could tell. He would have fallen in love with me.”

Mary doubted that, but she kept the thought to herself. “If you hurt me, you will lose any chance you have for happiness.”

Lucy laughed, sounding more like the woman she’d thought she knew. “Women like me don’t find happiness. That’s what my mother used to say. But then she let my stepfather and brothers physically and sexually abuse me.”

Mary felt her heart go out to the woman despite the situation. “I’m so sorry. That’s horrible. You deserved so much better.”

Lucy laughed. “I took care of all of them, sending them to hell on earth, and for a while, I was happy, now that I think about it.”

“Lucy—”

“Call me Fiona. I know how much you hate hearing that name. Fiona. Fiona. Fiona.” She let out a high-pitched laugh that drowned out birdsong but not the thunder of hooves as a horse and rider came barreling across the mountaintop.

Chase reined in his horse as all his fears were realized. The women had been standing at the edge of the mountaintop, Fiona holding a gun pointed at Mary’s heart. But when they’d heard him coming, Fiona had grabbed Mary and pressed the muzzle of the weapon to her rival’s throat.

“Nice you could join us,” Fiona said as he slowly dismounted. “I wondered how long it would take before you realized who I was.”

“I sensed it the first time I saw you,” he said as he walked toward the pair, his gaze on Fiona and the gun. He couldn’t bear to look into Mary’s eyes. Fear and disgust. This was all his fault. He’d brought Fiona into their lives. Whatever happened, it was on him.

“I knew it was you,” he said, and she smiled.

“It’s the chemistry between us. When you pretended not to know me, well, that hurt, Chase. After everything we meant to each other...”

“Exactly,” he said. “That’s why you need to let Mary go. This is between you and me, Fiona.”

Her face clouded. “Please, you think I don’t know that you came riding up like that to save her?”

“Maybe I came to save you.”

Fiona laughed, a harsh bitter sound. “Save me from what?”

“Yourself. Have any of the men you’ve known tried to save you, Fiona?” The question seemed to catch her off guard. “Did any of them care what happened to you?”

She met his gaze. “Don’t pretend you care.”

“I’m not pretending. I never wanted to hurt you. When I heard they found your car in the river, I was devastated. I didn’t want things to end that way for you.” He saw her weaken a little and took a step toward her and Mary.

“But you don’t love me.”

That was true and he knew better than to lie. “No. I’d already given away my heart when I met you. It wasn’t fair, but it’s the truth.”

“But you picked me up at that party and brought me back to your place.”

He shook his head as he took another step closer. “Rick asked you to drive me home because I’d had too much to drink.”

She stared at him as if she’d told herself the story so many times, she didn’t remember the truth. “But we made love.”

“Did we? I remember you pulling off my boots and jeans right before I passed out.”

Fiona let out a nervous laugh. “We woke up in the same bed.”

“We did,” he agreed as he stepped even closer. “But I suspect that’s all that happened that night.”

She swallowed and shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. “I liked you. I thought you and I—”

“But you knew better once I told you that I was in love with someone else.”

“Still, if you had given us a chance.” Fiona made a pleading sound.

“Let Mary go. She had nothing to do with what happened between us.”

Fiona seemed to realize how close he was to the two of them. She started to take a step back, dragging Mary along with her. The earth crumbled under her feet and she began to fall.

Chase could see that she planned to take Mary with her. He dived for the gun, for Mary, praying Fiona didn’t pull the trigger as she fell. He caught Mary with one hand and reached for the gun barrel with the other. The report of the handgun filled the air as he yanked Mary forward, breaking Fiona’s hold on her. But Mary still teetered on the sheer edge of the cliff as he felt a searing pain in his shoulder. His momentum had carried him forward. He shoved Mary toward the safety of the mountain top as was propelled over the edge of the drop-off.

He felt a hand grab his sleeve. He looked up to see Mary, clinging to him, determined not to let him fall.

Below him, he saw Fiona tumbling down the mountainside over boulders. Her body crashed into a tree trunk, but kept falling until it finally landed in a pile of huge rocks at the bottom.

As Mary helped pull him back up to safety, he saw that Fiona wasn’t moving, her body a rag doll finally at rest. Behind them he heard horses. Pulling Mary to him, he buried his face in her neck, ignoring the pain in his shoulder as he breathed in the scent of her.

“He’s shot,” Chase heard Dana cry before everything went black.

Chapter 20

Chase opened his eyes to see Mary sitting next to his hospital bed as the horror of what had happened came racing back. “Are you—”

“I’m fine,” she said quickly, and rose to reach for his hand. “How are you?”

He glanced down at