Page 13 of Tempt Me
“I’m going.”
Deep down, I knew trying to tell her to stay here was pointless. She isn’t a wallflower who cowers from danger. She runs towards it. I’m just going to have to run with her and make sure that she remains safe, or my life won’t be worth living.
Pushing her behind me, I turn to the door and slide the bolt across. Opening it slowly, I peer out and see no signs of action. Regretting my decision almost instantly to take Rue outside, we step forward, her practically stepping on my heels. That tells me one thing. She doesn’t want to be out here alone.
“Stay behind me, or I will tan your hide until you weep,” I threaten under my breath.
“You aren’t making that sound horrible if that was your intention.”
“Fuck’s sake.” She’s incorrigible, and I’m sunk. A man only has so much willpower, and when someone like Rue Di’Castello decides they want you, you fall in line. There is nothing else for it.
As we creep silently towards the lobby, the darkening sky still crying with rain that is washing away the landscape around us, I feel Rue shiver. Not unsurprisingly. The temperature has dropped up here in the mountains, with no sun, plus the rain, it’s decidedly chilly. Only dressed in a black tee and combat pants, I don’t have anything to offer her. Who knew we’d end up here like this?
We reach the door, the creak of the wooden porch under our feet louder in the silence. Pausing, I hold my hand up to stop Rue from barging past me. Leaning down to pull Bessie out of my boot where I’d stashed her for the trek up the mountain, I straighten up again and, with a steady hand, turn the handle on the door, pushing it open a fraction. Moving forward at a slow pace, my senses alert for any sound, I approach the front desk and then stop dead. The woman who helped us earlier is slumped over, a gunshot wound to her head.
“Rue,” I say quietly, reaching to grab her arm to draw her closer, my hand closes over her arm and she lets a soft breath. Turning quickly, I curse under my breath as I see Eddie McFarlane pointing a gun at her.
He laughs loudly. “Thought that was you, Rue. Told you I’d be back for you, darlin’.”
My heart skips a beat, and I lock furious eyes with the Solitaire princess, who clearly has a penchant for keeping secrets.
What I see there terrifies me.
She is scared.
“How about we play a game of Russian Roulette,” McFarlane says, scratching his chin with his shoulder, tightening his grip on the gun “There’s only one bullet in the chamber now.” His gaze flicks to her thigh briefly. I know he knows her blade sits there. He knows her well, which makes me cautious. Trying to edge Rue behind, she won’t budge. McFarlane’s gaze flicks to mine. There is a crazy swirl to them which will make him unpredictable.
“Round and round, there she goes. Where will she stop? Nobody knows…”
McFarlane pulls the trigger, and I yank Rue forcibly behind me, causing her to stumble as Bessie leaves my hands, sailing through the air toward her target.
Chapter7
Rue
Click.
They say your life flashes before your eyes in these types of situations.
Mine doesn’t.
All I see is Isaac’s back as he shoves me behind him, his knife leaving his fingers.
Thwack.
“Rue!”
The world comes rushing back, a breath leaving my body in a pained whoosh as my lungs constrict tightly with fear. I’ve never considered myself to be afraid of death. But this was different and something that will stay with me forever.
Looking up, I see Isaac’s knife buried up to the hilt in my attacker’s chest, blood pouring from the wound as he falls down, the gun still in his hand.
“Rue! Fuck. What the hell just happened here?”
“I don’t know.” I shake my head slowly as if trying to understand it myself. I’m still in a daze, not knowing which way is left or right.
When Isaac lets me go, leans down to retrieve his knife, and the blood spurts out of the hole, reality hits me, and the rage descends.
With a wild roar, I snatch my own blade up from my holster and grab my attacker's shirt in my fist as I lean over him in my heels and a new white dress.
