Page 125 of Big Bad Wolfe

Zane’s gut clenched as he saw the implications hit Jillian. Her expression gave it away … and Lynn couldn’t possibly miss seeing it either. He used Jillian’s gasp to break cover and begin to steal up behind Lynn.

Fortunately the combination of being both bombed and terrified kept Brooke from focusing on him, but Jillian’s gaze darted to him, widened … then quickly swung back to Lynn.

Good job, sweetheart, now keep her talking.

“You killed Deb?” Jillian asked loud enough to cover his advance. “Because Wade was going to leave politics and leave you?”

That’s my girl.

“They’d fought about his decision. When I went to her house that night to confront her, she told me she didn’t want him to abandon his family, his ambitions for her. But he was adamant. Then when the whore died and Wade found the email she’d sent saying she’d killed herself so she wouldn’t stand in the way of him being the next President of the United States, her precious martyrdom reignited his true purpose. He was motivated to return to his preordained path.”

“Deb never would’ve willingly written that email.”

Lynn shrugged. “With her sweet, innocent boy asleep in the next room, and her growing increasingly weak and incapacitated by the medication she’d ingested, I managed to convince her it was in Casey’s best interests.”

Jillian’s jaw tightened. “Wade alibied you. Swore you were sleeping next to him the entire night.”

A little bit longer. Just another few steps.

“He thought so, but then the sleeping pills I’d slipped into his evening wine had him dozing blissfully unaware.”

Jillian managed a shaky smile. “You’re quite adept at drugging people, aren’t you?”

“I’m clever at many things. I’m going to be a perfect First Lady. The world will adore me, and my girls.”

Right behind Lynn, Zane silently holstered his Beretta. Then he purposefully took a step just loud enough to snag her attention.

She swiveled as he’d anticipated, swinging her pistol away from the women, toward him. He clamped her wrist, shoved her arm upward, and she fired one harmless round skyward before he squeezed her wrist hard enough to force her to drop the gun.

But not so harmless after all. At the ear-ringing explosion, Brooke screamed and flinched backward.

And Zane watched in horror over Lynn’s shoulder as Brooke tumbled off the cliff … grabbing and pulling Jillian over with her.

No!

God no!

Heart in his throat, he knocked out Lynn with a rapid punch to the jaw, lunged to the cliff’s edge. Throwing himself down on his stomach he leaned over the dizzying drop-off. Jillian was clinging to a jutting rock a few feet below, with Brooke’s arms wrapped around her waist like a leech, Brooke’s churning legs dangling in thin air.

Zane stretched, thrust his hands down, grabbed Jillian’s wrist. “I’ve got you, sweetheart. Hang on.”

He strained to pull them up, but the women’s weight combined with Brooke’s frantic struggles slowly, inexorably tugged him down. He tried to dig in, gain a foothold, but only slid farther forward.

“We’re too heavy!” Jillian cried. “We’re pulling you over!”

“Not happening.”

But it was. And he couldn’t stop it.

Terror etched Jillian’s features. “Zane, let go!”

“No fucking way.” He yanked harder, lost more ground. Brooke’s shrieking as she flailed drowned out the roaring waves far below. “Brooke,stay still!”

“Zane.” Jillian’s voice went quiet and eerily calm, but her breathing was choppy. A storm of emotion raged in her eyes. “Casey can’t … lose both of us. Not after Deb. Let me … go.”

“Shut. Up.” Clenching his teeth, he twisted, tried to dig his toes into the dirt in a desperate attempt to gain some leverage, but was dragged another foot forward. “I. Promised. Him.”

He was hanging more than halfway over the edge now. Goddammit, if he couldn’t stop Jillian from plunging onto the rocks below, he was going with her.

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