Page 126 of Big Bad Wolfe

But not without telling her how he felt first. His lungs pumping at the strain of holding their weight, he caught her gaze. “I. Love. You.”

Wide violet eyes reflected the stars back at him. “Zane,” she whispered.

“Should’ve. Told. You. Before.” He desperately battled against losing those final inches of solid ground … even though he couldn’t win.

Please, God! If you’re out there…

A welcome weight dropped on top of his legs, anchored him around the knees. His lethal slide stopped.

“Fuck!” Farley yelled. “Calvin, pull!”

“Yo!” Calvin’s voice responded. “Everybodypull!”

Farley and Calvin dragged Zane, and Zane dragged Jillian, and they all inched excruciatingly back from the abyss.

Finally, Jillian cleared the cliff’s edge, followed by a still wailing Brooke.

Panting, sweating, heartbeat banging in his ears louder than a war drum, Zane broke Farley’s hold and crawled to where Jillian lay on her side, her chest heaving. He wrapped trembling arms around her, holding her tight. “Jillian,” he whispered into her neck. “I love you.”

He breathed in her precious essence. “I love you,” he said louder.

“I love you!”he shouted.

Her fingers tangled in his hair and he lifted his head to look into her sweet face. Tears sparkled in her eyes, trailed damp tracks in the dirt on her cheeks as she both laughed and cried. “You sure picked a helluva moment to tell me, Champ.”

Chapter 20

Not quite two weeks later, Zane hung up his phone and loped downstairs to the kitchen in the sunny morning sunlight.

After trying to kill Jillian and Brooke at the gala, Lynn had been carted off to the loony bin. The doctors had discovered her brain tumor had slowly begun to regrow, causing her to slip off the rails. Wade disavowed all knowledge of her extracurricular activities, and the man’s haggard face and tortured eyes during his police interview convinced Zane he was telling the truth. At most, he was guilty of withholding Deb’s “suicide email,” which didn’t have serious legal ramifications for him.

Lynn had confessed all. She’d drugged her husband, then caught a taxi to Deb’s that fateful night. She claimed she’d only gone there to talk and the murder was an impulsive decision. Once Deb had died, Lynn called Carson Wentworth, knowing his ambitions for her husband equaled hers. He’d helped her clean up the crime scene and driven her home afterward, and surprise, surprise, he’d been the one to scrub all the computer and phone records. As a result, Weasel Boy was in jail facing charges of obstruction of justice and accessory to murder.

The press was salivating over every lascivious detail—sending Wade’s political career pretty much into the shitter.

Weird as hell, though, Lynn’s desperate act and the revelation of her illness had elicited an avalanche of sympathetic donations for the center. You just never knew about the public.

Zane smiled at his wife and poured himself a cup of coffee, then joined her at the table and helped himself to a stack of her spectacular Belgian waffles. “Where’s Casey?”

She returned his smile. “He finished already and went next door to strategize with Donnie and Robbie before the big game today.”

“Sorry I’m late for breakfast, but I was on the phone with Mia. Doctor Dick is pleading ignorance about his psycho wife’s maneuvers.”

“Of course he is. I’m not convinced of his innocence, though.”

“Me either, but so far, we can’t prove otherwise. Apparently Doc now plans to divorce Brooke, and he’s refusing to post her bail, so she’s still in the slammer.”

Jillian’s lips quirked. “I can’t seem to muster up much sympathy for either of them.”

He chuckled. “Which is another reason I love you.” He sobered. “But Dickwad is charging forward with the custody fight alone. Maybe he thinks having a kid around will gain him some sympathy and offset the damage Brooke caused his reputation.”

She snorted. “Yeah, good luck with that. Did Mia hear anything about the caseworker’s report?”

“Not yet. Only the judge still has access at this point.” Zane and Jillian had been called before the judge to answer a butt-ton of tough questions—mostly about their sudden marriage—and were still awaiting official word on the results. “Since Brooke’s incarcerated and Wade withdrew his blackmailed endorsement of Dick, Mia said she’s fairly confident the custody decision will flip in our favor.”

Jillian did a fist-pump. “Yes!”

“Let’s not celebrate yet. I’ve seen more than one scumbag game the court system for an undeserved win.”

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