Breaking Bad (22 page)

Despite Stevie’s bravado, Jack heard the hitch of tension in her voice. She was running out of time, and options.

Spoltori laughed. “You have the first part right, I killed them imagining it was my aunt. But I haven’t killed her not because I don’t have the balls, I haven’t killed her because it’s more painful for her to live knowing what I did to her precious daughter and to live with the fear that one day I’ll show up and do the same thing to her.”

Jack heard something heavy being dragged across the hardwood. The recliner??

“But that is only part of the reason those particular women were killed. You see, Detective Cavanaugh, you missed a very significant clue. You didn’t look at their husbands. Had you dug a little you would know that their wives were beards. That it wasn’t their wives they were unfaithful to, it was
me
they were unfaithful to! By taking out their stupid little bitch wives, I taught them the value of keeping their dicks in their pants.”

Jack moved in as close to the edge of the doorway as possible without being seen from within.

“They were mine, Detective.
Mine
. They promised to be faithful and love only me. But when I had a little soiree in my dungeon and introduced them to each other, they met behind my back.” He laughed caustically. “But I found out. I
always
find out.”

“So like you did to your aunt, you killed their loved ones and terrorized them?”

“It’s great sport, Detective!” He laughed again. “Now, tell me, oh wise one, who do you think was my next unfaithful hussy?”

“Regina Welsh.”

“Oh no, no, the senator is as straight as you are, though I’d love to break him in. I have a penchant for elder statesmen types. With that in mind, think a little bit closer to home.”

“Mayor Dyer,” Stevie said, sounding distraught. The disappointment clear.

“Ding, ding, ding, you win the boobie prize! He was the worst offender of all!”

“You would have killed his wife because he was screwing other women?”

“He belonged to me! We were a team. I was going to make him so much money he could just walk in and buy the governorship, then we were on to the White House. He fucked it up. He fucked all of it up because he liked chasing pussy.”

The scuff of Spoltori’s feet edged closer to the bed. Chances were the killer’s back was to the door. Jack needed a peek.

“Now, Detective, I want you to take that robe off, and show me those spectacular tits of yours.”

“Fuck you.”

“I’m going to do that, too.”

Jack took a step forward and a loose plank beneath his boot creaked.

Spoltori whirled around, and just as Jack caught Stevie’s relieved stare, Spoltori fired. In a split-second decision, Jack didn’t return fire because Stevie was directly behind the killer and he would not risk the bullet going through Spoltori into her.

Heat seared Jack’s chest. His eyes caught Stevie’s stunned ones, as the pain in his shoulder expanded.

“Jack!” Stevie screamed. She charged Spoltori. As the killer turned to fire on her, Stevie sank the knife in her hand deep into his chest.

Spoltori stopped in mid-action, his eyes widened in shock, and his gun clattered to the floor as his hands reached up to the wooden handle protruding from him. He dropped to his knees.

Jack moved into the room, his guns aimed at Spoltori’s head. Stevie rushed to Jack’s side. He slid one gun in his waistband then grabbed her, pulling her into the fold of his body. Taking instant inventory of her physical well-being, Jack ascertained she was unharmed. He looked down at Spoltori, who stared up at him with shock.

“The bitch,” he said, blood gurgling from the lips. “Stabbed me.”

Jack grimaced as he kicked the gun away from him. “Consider it a gift, because I would have torn you to pieces one inch at a time.”

Spoltori coughed, blood spattering on Jack’s jeans, then fell forward onto his face, driving the blade deeper into his chest.

Stevie knelt down and felt for a pulse. She looked up at Jack and shook her head just as the two uniforms swarmed in, followed by several others.

“Call the ME,” Jack said, “and start Fire.”

Ignoring the chaos behind them, Jack stiffly set the gun in his hand down on the desk near the door, then reached down with his good arm and hauled Stevie against him. “Fucker deserved to suffer more.”

“Jack, you’re bleeding,” Stevie said urgently, steering him to her bed, where she forced him to sit.

“It’s nothing,” he assured her, though it burned like a bitch.

“It’s something to me,” she said worriedly as she tore his shirt down the middle of his chest. The wound was bleeding steadily enough not to look like it was ‘nothing’ but in the grand scheme of things; it wasn’t much more than a glorified flesh wound. He’d suffered a lot worse in Iraq.

Yanking a pillow case off the nearest pillow, Stevie quickly ripped it into strips then expertly bound his wound stemming the blood flow. As she deftly worked she said, “My God, when Spoltori told me he cut your brake lines, Jack, I about died. I was so worried and then you come in here and get yourself shot!”

Jack looked up at her watery eyes. Damn he loved this woman.

“Two more inches, Jack, and you’d be on the floor next to Spoltori.”

He slid his right arm around her waist and pulled her down to sit beside him. “Yeah, but I’m not.” His lips collided with hers in a deep, desperate kiss, as if he needed to know that she was really alive.

He pulled slightly away and searched her face. “You scared the shit out of me, the way you were talking to him. Did he touch you?”

“No,” she said breathlessly.

Jack exhaled loudly. “You handled that beautifully, Stevie. My apologies for ever doubting your skill.” He smiled. “You can have my back any time.”

Her stormy eyes narrowed. He braced himself. “Why did you leave?”

He shrugged, then winced, thinking better of it. “I was hungry. I thought I’d fix us some breakfast, but all you have in the kitchen is old pizza and beer, so I headed down the road to pick up a few things. Bastard cut my brake lines. I crashed, messed up my leg some. It took me an hour to climb that damn hill.”

“Why didn’t you call?”

“I was pissed last night after you left my place and threw my phone across the cabin. Wasn’t much use after that.”

Stevie laughed. “Oh, Jack, you’re really going to have to learn to control that temper of yours, it’s going to get you into trouble.”

Ignoring the escalation of activity in the room, Jack smiled and kissed her. When he pulled back, he saw the love he felt for this incredible woman reflected in her eyes.

“Where do you want to go?” he asked.

“Right now?”

“After we officially close this case.”

“I don’t know.”

“How about Alaska? I hear the summers are beautiful, especially when you’re being flown around by the hottest pilot on the planet.”

Gingery looping her arms around his neck, Stevie smiled. “I think I’d like that very much, Special Agent Thornton. And thank you for asking.”

“Thank you for giving me a third chance, Detective Cavanaugh.”

“How could I not? I live to be bad and you’re the baddest man in the whole damn town.”

He grinned and lowered his lips to hers. “And don’t you ever forget it.”

Three months later, one thousand feet over Twin Lakes, Alaska

Stevie hadn’t stopped grinning since they’d taken off from a small airfield in Anchorage a few hours back. She had never felt as free as when she flew. In the weeks before the trip, she’d taken as many lessons as she could cram in, to get her solo license and acquire the extra skills she was going to need. She’d taken to water takeoffs and landings like a duck to water, impressing her instructor.

But what impressed Stevie was Jack going up and coming down with her each time. His confidence in her piloting skills infused her with the need to succeed. Not for her father, not even for Jack, but for herself. Having finally put the Spoltori case to bed at the end of the previous month, they’d arrived in Alaska two weeks ago and from the moment they touched down in the nation’s last frontier
, Stevie felt as if she were home. Now, as they glided above the scenic lake, the feeling intensified, and as she sat thigh to thigh with Jack in the little seaplane, she realized that she had never felt so complete.

“It’s magnificent,” Jack said in his mic.

“I’ve never seen anything so breathtaking,” Stevie replied, awed. Deep blue water surrounded by thick colorful shoreline spread out invitingly below them.

Jack’s warm breath caressed her cheek. “I have,” he said, and moving the mouthpiece to his mic aside, he kissed her neck.

Her smile widened as warmth flushed through her. “Look,” she said, pointing dead ahead. A long wooden dock inserted itself fifty yards into the calm blue water, jutting out from a rocky shore. At the end of a slight rise, nestled into the verdant forest, was a two-story log cabin. Home for the next month.

As Stevie brought the small plane in for a perfect water landing, and the props slowed, Jack’s cell phone chirped. “It’s Flynn,” he said, and answered.

“How’re my two favorite deserters?” Flynn joked.

“If you saw the view, Flynn, you’d do the same thing,” Jack said, winking at Stevie.

“If you’re talking about your partner, then I agree.”

Stevie laughed when Jack frowned. “What’s up, Flynn?” she asked. He wasn’t calling to say hello.

“I wanted to let you know, Rose Chambers was arrested this morning on more than fifty counts of statutory rape, assault, child endangerment and a whole slew of other charges. She’s going away for a long time.”

“She deserves a hell of a lot more than a cell and three squares a day,” Stevie sneered.

“Agreed. Jerome Sills was released last week. It’s a damn shame he spent one day in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.”

“At least that wrong was righted,” Jack said, shaking his head.

“Mayor Dyer withdrew from the gubernatorial race,” Flynn added.

Jack clasped her hand as pain fisted in Stevie’s belly. Her godfather wasn’t the man she had thought he was, and it saddened her. In some ways, she felt like she had lost her father all over again. “It’s for the best,” she said quietly.

“Hey, I heard some interesting news from Simon the other day.”

Stevie could have sworn she heard him grinning and her heart lifted. She and Doc had become good friends since Spoltori’s demise. Stevie discovered she enjoyed having a girlfriend almost as much as she liked having a boyfriend.

“Out with it!” Stevie demanded.

“You’re going to be an aunt and we’re going to be uncles!”

Stevie’s jaw dropped as she looked at a stunned Jack. He shook his head. “Holy fuck, Simon’s going to be a dad.”

“I hope it’s a girl!” Flynn chortled. “Talk about payback.”

Jack grinned. “No shit.”

Stevie grinned. This was wonderful news. “Please send them our love and congratulations.”

“Will do.”

Several moments later they docked, and as Stevie cut the engine, Jack leaned over to her and said, “I can’t wait to get you naked on the bearskin rug.”

As it often did in his presence, heat washed through her. “I can’t either.”

Two hours later, once they had unloaded their provisions from the plane, they lay naked on the thick rug before a roaring fire in the great room. Jack kissed a tight nipple, tugging the ring with his teeth. Stevie moaned, arching against him. Rising above her, Jack’s deep green eyes searched hers.

Emotion swelled tightly in her chest. She loved this man with all her heart. She would die for him. Dark hair fell over his forehead, softening the rugged handsomeness of his face. He bit her bottom lip and swept her parted lips with slow, hot regard before locking gazes with her. “I want you to go off your pills.”

Her heart slammed against her rib cage. “Why?”

“Because I want to make a baby with you.”

“Why?” she asked hoarsely.

“Because I love you. Because you’re the only woman I want to have my baby.”

Hot tears stung her eyes.

“But only if you want to have a baby with me,” he added softly, as he lowered his lips to hers.

“I do, Jack, but—”

In a long slow slide, reverently, he filled her. “Oh, God, that feels so good,” she sighed. There was nothing so decadent as Jack’s thick heat filling her to capacity.

“But what?” he asked, rocking deeply into her.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” she gasped.

His lips traced along hers. “You mean the traditional ‘would you marry me’ part?”

“Uh, hmm.”

“That’s a given.”

She smiled against his lips. “I’m not a foregone conclusion, Jack Thornton.”

“Yes, you are, but so am I.”

He thrust into her again, then slowly withdrew. “Say you will.’”

Wrapping her arms around his neck, Stevie pulled him tightly against her body and whispered against his lips, “I will.”