Page 75 of Taking Denver

Is this the man I married? Or has he changed over time? Is this a nightmare?

How much time has passed since I came down here? Two minutes? Three? Had it been hours? Days?

A gun cocks, the familiar click of a familiar weapon.

“Say the word, Denver,” Ranger says softly.

The edge of my vision softens; my voice sounds too distant to be mine. “What?”

“Say the word, and it’s done.”

“You want to kill him?” I ask.

“He disrespects you,” Ranger says. “He was going to kill you. He was going to fly back here, a widower, with your body. Yes, Denver. I want to kill him.”

I can’t feel my body. “Don’t we disrespect him, too?”

Ranger tenses. “That’s different.”

Is it? Whenever Wyatt is gone, I’m with Ranger. We don’t sleep together, but I lie to my husband about it. Am I really any better?

“Maybe I should be on my knees,” I whisper, my gaze drifting to Wyatt. His eyes dart between Ranger and me, his panic ebbing in favor of curiosity.

Ranger takes my chin in his hand, forcing me to look at him. “You turn to me because he fucking abandons you. And when you needed him most, when your son was dead?—”

“Stop it,” I beg.

“No.” Ranger searches my eyes. “I love you, but even I would have stepped away to allow Wyatt to be a husband that night. I would have walked away because it was your son, and he should have been there. But he wasn’t. He left you. He fucked someone else, and he laughed about you being a shitty mother.”

“Shut up!” I scream. The lights feel too bright, my voice too loud. And I grasp at anything, anything to get me out of this room, to end this horror. “The insurance, maybe he was just being careful?—”

“He asked me, Denver,” Cal says, drawing my attention to him. “He was drunk one night and asked me if I’d kill you. Asked me to make it look like an accident.”

I shake my head rapidly. “No.”

Cal nods. “I’m sorry, kid. But even if it wasn’t for those women, we’d still have to do this.”

That doesn’t mean he should die, though, does it? That doesn’t mean I should give the word to take his life, does it?

“We should call the police.”

Ranger laughs. “Are you serious?”

“He’ll go to prison! There’s evidence of the life insurance being changed. He’ll go to prison and pay,” I cry.

“For trying to kill a Luxe?” Ranger asks, his smile wide with disbelief. “He’ll turn, he’ll get a deal, he’ll tell them everything to save his own ass, and you know he will.”

Ranger positions himself behind me and places his hands on my shoulders, making me face Wyatt. “Look at him, Denver. This is the man you married. He has lied to you since day one. He’s humiliated you.” He points to the television. “He fucked countless women, and on top of that, he was going to spend your money, your father’s money, probably fucking his way through the West Coast once he’d killed you. And you want the police todeal with it?” He releases my shoulders. “No, you deal with it now.”

Tears blur my vision. “I don’t want to deal with it.”

“Tough,” he says. “All you need to do is say the word, and it’ll be over with.”

Wyatt shakes his head desperately, eyes locked on mine, glassy with tears and fear.

“You want to speak?” Ranger asks. “Fine. Speak.”

He lunges forward and tears the tape from Wyatt’s mouth.

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