Page 81 of The Desperate Warrior

“This is all your fault,” Steve raged, the vein in the center of his head throbbing. When Jules saw him before in the surgical center, his hair was short. Now, it was shaggy and oily. He looked like he hadn’t bathed in days. Rage and hatred burned in his eyes.

He began pacing back and forth in erratic movements, his gun flying all over the place.

Jules glanced toward the window, wondering if Steve was close enough. Surely, he was. From her vantage point, it certainly appeared that way.

“You told us the surgery would be routine—that Lisa would be home watching TV by the end of the day.” His voice rose to a frenzy. “I wanted to reschedule the surgery, but you downplayed my fears.” He let out a muffled sob that morphed into a cry so feral it hardly sounded human. “She was my everything, and you took her from me. Why should you live when she died? You don’t deserve to live,” he sneered.

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Jules said, and she meant it to the depth of her soul. “Lisa was a good person. She wouldn’t want you to do this.”

“Don’t you dare speak her name,” he shrieked.

This snuffed Jules into silence. Why weren’t Brock and Luke moving into action? This was reaching a critical point.

Steve wheeled around and eyed Jules with such malice that she knew there was no hope of talking him down. He was past reason. Past mercy. He pointed his gun at her. “Now you’ll pay.”

A shot was fired. At the same time, Nikki screamed.

Shock blitzed across Steve’s face before he fell to the ground, his gun tumbling out of his hand. There was a red circle of blood on Steve’s temple. His body was still, eyes vacant.

The shot had killed him instantly.

“What just happened?” Nikki gasped

A second later, Brock and Luke stormed into the room. Luke had a gun in his hand. Brock had assured her that Luke was an expert marksman and rarely to never missed his target.“All you have to do is keep Steve talking for a few seconds,” Brock had said. “Get him in view of a window, and we’ll take care of the rest.”

She glanced at the window, noting the hole in the glass with crack lines branching out from it in all directions like a spider web.

Brock went to Jules and pulled her into his arms. Luke shelved his gun in the waistband of his jeans and did the same to Nikki.

Tears pooled in Jules’s eyes as she looked up at Brock. “I’m so glad it’s over.”

He stroked her back. “Me too.”

She nestled her face against the comfort of his chest, drawing strength from his steady heartbeat.

Silently, she whispered the only words she could summon.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you.

Chapter 20

Dusk was settling in, and the lightning bugs were making their appearance.

As Jules stepped off her porch and crossed the street to the house where Brock and Luke had been staying, her heart felt strangely split—light and heavy all at once. How could she feel such conflicting emotions at the same time?

The past week had been amazing. She and Brock were inseparable. Of course, Nikki and Luke were part of the package deal, and the four of them had made the most of it. Nikki had dragged them all to Fossil Rim, where they went on a safari. Then they gorged themselves on barbecue at the restaurant Nikki had been raving about. Next, they went to a rodeo in the Stockyards and went out for Mexican food afterward. Of course, they had to order pizza a couple of nights, and Jules insisted on getting one with ham and pineapple while Brock got a supreme. They joked about being happy with their compromise.

In between their excursions, Jules and Brock enjoyed relaxing on the couch, watching movies, and sharing plenty of long, shivery kisses. Just thinking about them caused her blood to pump faster.

Last night, Mom and Dad had invited everyone to have dinner at the ranch. Their longtime housekeeper and cook, Hilda, had pulled out all the stops: brisket, baked beans, Mexican cornbread, coleslaw, peach cobbler, and vanilla ice cream. It was heaven.

At one point during the dinner, Dad had casually turned to Brock and said, “Should you feel inclined to stick around Fort Worth, the house across the street from Jules is yours.”

Jules had nearly choked on her coleslaw. “Seriously, Dad?” she’d sputtered. “First, you bribe Tippin with the guitar, and now you’re trying to bribe Brock with a house.” She rolled her eyes. “Good grief, are Zoe and I that hard to marry off?” She glanced at Brock. The corners of his mouth were twitching with barely contained laughter.

Dad shrugged, completely unbothered by her outburst. “What can I say? I know a good deal when I see one.” He gave Brock a meaningful look. “And I know what it takes to make my daughter happy.”

Well, Jules certainly couldn’t argue with that. There was only one man who’d ever been able to rock her world, and now he was leaving.

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