Broken Illusions (His Agenda Volume 3) (8 page)

Around eight, I went to my bedroom to shower and change. Dustin would be here at nine. Forget cooking. I would order in instead. I slipped into a red and black mesh babydoll lingerie dress with a matching G-string, and went downstairs in search of one of the takeaway restaurant brochures I kept in the kitchen drawers. I opted for a fancy new Italian restaurant.

I reached for the house phone that hung on the wall. I hadn’t seen my cell phone since the morning. God knew where I had left it.

As I dialed the number of the restaurant, I heard the faint sound of a key turning in the lock. My heart leapt. I had missed Dustin so much. He must have found his key.

But damn, he was early. I had planned to be spread out on the couch, looking all sexy, with candles everywhere, when he arrived. My gaze flitted across the kitchen, searching for a nice spot to lean against or even lie on. No problem. I had to make it work where I was. I’d just hop up onto the kitchen island and rest my feet on the stools, one on each. He would get a perfect view of the goods.

I heard his approaching footsteps.

I snapped up the kitchen towel that stood on the island, attempting to get it out of the way.

When I turned, my whole body froze. My mouth fell open at the same time the towel fluttered to the floor. My hand flew to my throat as I gasped for air.

“Honey, I’m home.” A smile split his face.

He looked different, almost unrecognizable. Half his face was smooth and looked the way I remembered, but the other half was bumpy and smudged and the eye on that side looked to be bulging out of the socket. No eyelashes in sight. His face looked as if it belonged to two different people.

My own eyes felt like they were about to pop out of my face and my heart hurt with each heartbeat.

He grinned. “Sorry I didn’t call. I thought it would be better to surprise you.” His gaze traveled down the length of my body. “Looks like you’re all ready for me.”

He walked further into the room and I skirted around the island, my legs shaking, knees almost knocking against each other. “No.” I shook my head first slowly and then vigorously, my hair sticking to the sweat on my forehead. “No, you can’t…”

“Be alive?” He looked down at his body, opened the top button of his black shirt. “This is all me, darling. I’m back. Did you miss me?”

I reached for the nearest thing I could get my hands on—a pan—but before I could hurl it at him, he lunged for it and tossed it across the floor where it clanked to a halt.

In the silence following the clatter of the pan, I heard the sound of the other shoe dropping.

Chapter Nineteen

Blood rushed to my head in a whoosh. I was so dizzy, I couldn’t hold myself upright. I collapsed to the floor, keeping my eyes on his. How could Jude be alive? How could he have survived the stabbing, the fire, the explosion? How could he possibly be standing in front of me?

“You’re not real.” The words were separated by ragged breaths.

He laughed, the sound raw and angry. “You thought I wouldn’t survive, didn’t you? You thought it was all over and you could start a new life with that home wrecker, Brannon.”

I swallowed hard, wanting to respond, but my lips were trembling too hard.

“You can’t get rid of me, sweetheart. Didn’t you get my letter?” He was nearing me now and my body screamed for escape, but I couldn’t move. I was glued to the floor by fear. “The letter I sent you two years ago, with a key to my childhood home? Remember that?”

Oh my God.
The note we all thought he had written before he died had been sent by a living, breathing Jude. He had been alive all along.

“How did you…?” It didn’t matter at this point, but I had to ask, and I had to keep the conversation going to stop him from communicating with me in other ways.

He stopped approaching me and pulled out one of the kitchen stools. He sat and laid the knife I hadn’t seen he was holding on his thigh. His damaged face looked disfigured as he smiled again. “I have a better question you can ask me. Whose remains did they find in the fire? Aren’t you more interested in knowing who died in my place? The cops
did
find a body in the barn.”

“No…no it can’t be.” He didn’t need to tell me the answer because it hit me like a brick. “Nolan?” No wonder the cops couldn’t locate him. They were searching for a dead man.

“He was a great brother. Useful till the end. I do miss him sometimes. But sacrifices had to be made for love.” He laughed for a long time, so hard his shoulders shook. Then he stopped as if a button had been pressed. His face hardened.

“You know what kept me alive, Haley? I knew you didn’t really want me gone. You love me; you’re just denying yourself the truth. Your love kept me alive.”

“Never,” I spat, the words shaking my whole body. “I wanted you dead.” Tears heated up my eyes. “You’re worse than a monster. And you’re delusional. You deserve to burn in hell.”

He rose and charged toward me, his eyes blazing, then dropped to his knees in front of me and wrapped his hands around my throat, squeezing hard. I strained for breath as he dug his thumbs into the hollow of my neck. I clutched at his hands and raised my pleading eyes to his. His gaze bore right into mine, but I found no mercy there, only anger and disappointment. And hate. How was it possible for him to love me and hate me at the same time?

I tried to talk, but only choking sounds came out. I lost my strength and my hands fell from his and dropped to my sides. My vision blurred. The only part of me left fighting was my mind as I felt the life slipping out of me. When I thought my end had come and my eyes drifted shut, he let go, shoving me back against the wall behind me.

I opened my mouth wide and air whooshed into my lungs. I clutched my raw neck, which pulsated beneath my fingers, and gasped for more air, unable to get enough.

He watched with lowered eyes.

“I didn’t stay alive for this shit. Don’t mess with me.” He moved closer again and I shrank back with fear. “I know it’s too late for a life together, but I want what you denied me last time. I’m fully functional, baby.” He grinned. “You sucked at stabbing, by the way. You got the thigh instead of the masterpiece.” Even as he smiled, I detected the twitch in his jaw. He was furious. “I’m here to show you I can still fuck your brains out. I want your pussy for the last time, and then I’ll kill you and kill myself. Maybe we’re not meant to be together in this life. We’ll spend eternity together instead.”

While I was still trying to digest his words, he lunged for me again and started tearing at my clothes, grabbing my nightdress on both sides and ripping it open so my breasts spilled out.

His words had rendered me weak. I was unable to do anything but cry as he freed my whole upper body and then pulled my legs to him, my back sliding onto the floor. But when he wrapped his hands around my hips and drew me closer, I got enough strength to resist him pulling down my G-string.

“Don’t,” I croaked. “Please don’t.” I reached down and hooked my index fingers into the elastic of my panties. As he tried to yank them down, I did my best to yank them up. The material was surprisingly strong for such a flimsy thing.

“Stop being a bitch.” He slapped me so hard across the face that my head snapped to the side. I reeled for a heartbeat and then a scream burst out of my lungs. It gave me the energy shot I needed to start to writhe and thrash around, trying as hard as I could to stop him from getting what he wanted.

He stopped but kept his hands tight on my thighs. “I guess you like it the hard way. Let’s have it your way, pussy cat.”

He fell over me, the weight of his body crushing me, his breath hot against my neck, as he reached down to open his jeans.

He won’t
, I repeated inside my head.
Someone will hear my screams. Dustin.
Dustin was on his way. He would arrive any moment. He didn’t have a key, but he would hear my screams and break the door down or call for help. I screamed louder, fought harder.

He stopped fumbling with his pants and clapped a hand over my mouth, pressed his mouth to my ear. “This is going to happen, whether you want it or not. You might as well enjoy it.”

It was almost impossible for me to move. He grabbed the kitchen towel I’d dropped earlier and stuffed it into my mouth so deep I gagged as it scratched my throat. He shifted and removed something from his pocket. Something that let out a metallic sound. The handcuffs flashed before my eyes for a moment before he pulled my arms above my head, and then I felt the metal cool against my skin. My heart almost burst when I heard them click shut.

“That’s better.” He kissed my cheek. “I brought those in case you chose to disobey me.”

He reached for his crotch again and I trembled as tears slid down my cheeks and pooled into my ears. I jerked my head from side to side, unable to believe I had come full circle. That he was going to do this to me again, when I’d thought it was all over.

He shoved my legs apart and pressed his lips hard against mine—too hard, his teeth hurting me. Then he pushed into me.

Just like that, the new world and life I had created for myself, the future I had hoped for, collapsed.

PART II

Chapter Twenty

Jude

It was all worth it. Everything he'd endured the last two years boiled down to this one moment of watching the fear swirling like a hurricane in her green eyes.

She’d fucked with him; now he was fucking her. She had to know, had to know that no one messed with Jude Macknight and got away with it. Not even love stood in the way of revenge.

It had brought him both pleasure and pain to watch her for the past months. He’d been studying her every move. He knew when she ate, when she slept, when she took a shit. He'd punched walls when he'd seen her inside Dustin Brannon's arms. The fury of betrayal had almost caused him to reveal himself sooner. But he was a patient man. He planned everything to the last detail. He had planned to walk into her life, not rush in like a moron. He was Jude Macknight, a powerful man. He took what he wanted when he wanted it.

He drove deeper into her, traveling the familiar tunnel of her pussy, the pussy he had made love to even from a distance. He had fucked a lot of women in the last few months, women who looked a lot like Haley. Fucking and killing had become an art he had mastered.

But the bitches had never touched him the way Haley had; they never reached into his soul. They had been mere pawns in his game, stepping stones to his ultimate destination.

Now he was here with his wife once again. She should have known she would never outrun him and his love for her. He was a man of his word. He had meant it when he’d promised her forever. Now the time had come. They had a few hours together in this life, and then it would all be over.

Till death do us part.

He didn’t really agree with that phrase, not anymore. He no longer believed death would part him and Haley. There was another world waiting for them on the other side. They would be together for eternity. Death would only be the beginning.
 

Chapter Twenty-One

Haley

As he tore me apart, every inch of my body screamed.

I tried to kick, but he was too strong for me. He always had been. I tried to bite his lip, but his mouth was too firmly pressed against mine. I screamed inside my throat, jerked my hands above my head. As usual, my pain only turned him on.

Exhausted and out of breath, I stopped moving and lay helpless, praying he would stop soon. That I would still be alive when he did.

As he pushed harder into me, I felt as if I was fading away, merging with the air around me, transforming into nothing but particles, and then into nothing at all.

I thought I had reclaimed my life. But Jude was showing me now that my life had never, ever belonged to me. It was his to take whenever he wanted.

I closed my eyes and cried so hard I almost couldn’t breathe. The kitchen towel inside my mouth didn’t help.

He shuddered and collapsed on top of me, breathing hard and sweating all over me. Bile rose in my throat but I swallowed it down again. When he rolled off me, I lay there lifeless, like a doll.

“Damn,” he said under his breath, “that was better than I imagined it would be after all this time. You still have it.” He pulled the rag out of my mouth and laid the palm of his hand on my cheek. “I wanted it to end here, tonight, to just kill us both and move on to another world, but I liked this. I think we should spend a little more time on Earth.”

“You won’t get away with this.” I wet my dry lips. I figured I might as well say what was on my mind. What did I have to lose? In this moment, some part of me wanted him to finish me off. At this point death would be better than what I had endured, what I might have to endure for the rest of my life. “Dustin.” I swallowed my tears. “Dustin is on his way. You will pay for this.”

“No one will come for you, sweetheart. I run your life, remember? As far as everyone is concerned, you’re out of town. You’ll be shooting a wedding in Texas tomorrow, one you had forgotten about. You won’t be back until Sunday evening. I sent all the necessary messages with your phone.”

I gasped and fresh tears filled my eyes. “You have my phone.” It was not a question.

“That’s right, my love. I needed to have you all to myself. I will be the last man you’ll ever be with—your husband, as it should be. Now let’s pretend we’re on our second honeymoon.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Haley

Jude raised himself onto his elbow and kissed my neck. I didn’t budge, simply stared up at the ceiling. He drew back and looked down at me.

“I don’t like you like this.” His voice was low and tortured. “I can smell him on you.” He meant Dustin.

I said nothing.

“Don’t you hear me?” His voice hardened.

I swallowed the sob inside my throat. “What do you want me to do?”

He got to his feet, towering over me as he zipped up his pants. “Get up.”