There was a tactic I’d read about in kidnapping scenarios, where women befriended their attackers in order to maintain their safety. Something to do with creating a link at the human level and therefore making the villain less likely to hurt them.
I should flirt with Jude and go along with his make-believe world.
But I’d never been any good at pretending.
Instead, I slunk a look of hatred over my shoulder, my body frozen from our long walk through the snow. At my side, Max moved stiffly, his jaw set. Without the ability to zip up his coat, he must be bitterly cold.
At least the storm had eased. Though an icy breeze ghosted over us on the exposed slope, the snow had stopped, and the clouds lightened to the point sun broke through here and there.
The brightness on the crisp, white hill stung my eyes.
Behind, Jude chattered merrily, sounding the same as when he’d come to dinner, telling jaunty stories of university and of things he wondered about.
He was insane.
Dangerously so.
We left the ridge and rounded a foothill, staying in full sight of the glen below, the aircraft hangar visible in the distance. With my jacket being dark blue and Max’s black, we’d be nothing but dots on the hillside. Jude, however, stood out in the stolen coat.
A memory jolted then sickened me. His uncle said they’d kicked him out after finding him masturbating while lying on a woman’s coat.
Mine, no doubt.
This man was seriously fucked up. Dangerous and unpredictable.
The very last thing I wanted was a confrontation with Lochie on the hill. Jude had a gun. There could only be one outcome.
Fear fizzled.
“We have to stop soon,” I whispered to Max.
“I was about to say the same thing,” he mouthed back.
“What?” Jude called. “I can’t hear you from here. Speak up, darling.”
My brother glanced at me and gave an infinitesimal nod. He widened his eyes then gestured subtly ahead. Beyond, smooth white hid the rough, rocky ground.
What was there? I hadn’t noticed anything, though at a pinch, I could work out that we weren’t far from the cliffs over the unicorn pool. That was a long way down. Maybe a rally point for the rescue team?
It was enough to interest Max, but I didn’t want the crew to find us. If they did, Lochie would be at risk.
“Nothing to say? Never mind,” Jude continued. “I have so much to share with you. Not you, ugly brother. Shut your ears. Cait, do you remember the first time we made love?”
Queasiness clamped hold of my stomach.
“I haven’t forgotten a minute of it. I wrote down every single thing you did so it couldn’t get lost in the time that’s passed. You and I were meant to be, right from that moment. Your soft hair, so pretty on my sheets. Your lovely, pliable body receiving mine.”
Ugh. I stifled a retch.
“Fuck’s sake,” Max muttered.
“I heard that. I told you not to listen.” Jude’s tone dropped from jovial to disturbed. “Now stop. Stop right there.”
We halted and turned. Deliberately, I stepped in front of my brother again, my boots catching on the dead heather under the snow.
“Don’t,” Max whispered.
There was no chance I’d listen. Jude wanted me. Ergo, he probably wouldn’t shoot me. He’d hurt my brother, though.
Jude peered at us, unhinged, his cheeks burned red by the cold, and his eyes too bright.
I wanted to scream at him. Despite the cold, my blood boiled. The problem was, I didn’t know his plan. Was it to get Lochie into sight so he could shoot him? Or was he leading me somewhere so he could trap me? If so, why had he brought Max?
Fuck.
Jude hadn’t expected us to walk right into his lair. He’d caused the explosion then sat in wait. He’d intended to snipe Lochie from a hidden position.
He blathered on, and I stared at the weapon pointing at Max. I knew little about guns, but I’d seen them with the stalker who managed the deer herd on the estate. Cameron refused to shoot animals, so another person was brought in whenever a deer was hurt or a cull needed.
Jude held a shotgun, not a rifle. At a distance, it was ineffective, blasting the pellets into whatever was in range.
Did Jude know this? Was this intentional? He’d hurt more people as they came at him, but his risk of killing was low.
Unless he intended to be up close.
I backed up to my brother so my body covered more of his. On the long walk here, I’d tried to keep directly behind him, lessening the chance of Jude getting a clear shot.
“Here’s good enough.” Jude brushed his floppy blond hair back then pointed at Max. “You, walk up the hill.”
“No,” I snapped.
Jude rolled his eyes. “Yes.”
“He’s not leaving me.”
Jude’s lips turned down in the corners. “I’m not leaving you. He’s fucking off now. Go on, red. Off you pop. Take a long walk off a short cliff.”
At Jude’s back, over the crest of the hill, movement caught my eye.
Max’s hand subtly pressed my shoulder blade. He’d seen it, too.
Jude hadn’t.
I opened my mouth, needing to distract him. “It’s cold, I’m freezing, and I don’t want to be out here anymore. I’m terrified because ye have a gun on my brother. Why are we here? What do ye want from me?”
The gun in Jude’s hand shook. “I’m here because you want me to be. You chose me.”
“What are ye talking about?”
I wanted to get him arguing and focused on me alone.
“You want me, Cait. You asked me to sleep with you and led me on. And since then—”
“I had sex with ye as an experiment, and an unsuccessful one at that.”
The two figures crept ever closer.
Jude wiped his gun arm over his nose, swinging the weapon. “No. It wasn’t like that. You loved me and seduced me. Then you waited for me to realise everything we had. I know it now. I worked it all out.”
“You’re fucking nuts,” I hissed.
I slid my hand behind my back and pointed at the ground, indicating to Max that he should drop to lying. If he did, I could move in on Jude, pissing him off until I reached him and grabbed the gun.
Then he couldn’t shoot anyone.
Especially not Max or the people moving slowly in.
No one I loved would die.
“What about your emails? You put messages in there for me. You want a baby. I thought at first it was because you were on your own, and you were punishing me, but then it finally made sense. You were still waiting for me, over all these years. You didn’t want anyone else and you just needed me to see it. I’m going to father your babies. I’m sorry I made you wait.”
Max gripped my jacket right as I took a step. He held me back, and I wrestled his hand.
“What are you doing to her? Leave her alone,” Jude yelled, his voice going shrill. “Don’t touch her.”
“Get down,” I said to my brother.
“Dinna move,” Max gritted out under his breath.
I couldn’t take my eyes off Jude. Even so, I flicked a tiny glance at men creeping in.
Lochie.
Cameron.
My heart ached, and I held back my reaction, my bloom of fear and love and everything in between.
In their mountain rescue red jumpsuits, and at fifty feet away, they manoeuvred over the hill to be directly behind Jude, Cameron slightly closer. Lochie made some sort of gesture. I couldn’t make it out.
Max held me to his side and bent his head to my ear. “We have this, Cait. Dinna argue. When I say go, we’re going to run.”
Run? I couldn’t run away. Yet if Max had understood Lochie, they had a plan.
I trusted Lochie. I trusted Max and Cameron.
I couldn’t allow any of them to be hurt on my behalf.
Jude raised the gun and peered down the barrel pointing at us. “No talking between you or I’ll shoot. I mean it. I’ve been patient, but our time is up. Cait, tell that man to go away.”
“How were ye going to find me after all of this was done?” I asked.
Our rescuers reached forty feet.
“I mean, you’ve been hiding out here, watching me—”
“Waiting for you,” Jude corrected.
“Ye blew up that house then…what?”
Jude frowned, still gazing down the shotgun. “Are you asking for a protestation of love? Fine. I was going to come to collect you from your home. You don’t need to live there anymore. I have somewhere for us to stay together.”
“Where?”
“Uncle Rupert’s place. Well, we should call it our place now. There’s kids’ rooms already set up, so living there will be so easy. Just you and me.”
Ice slid down my spine. I could only imagine what he intended to do with Rupert and his wife. Their lovely children.
Max’s hand twisted my jacket in warning.
He wanted us to just flee. But where? I resisted the urge to glance behind at the jagged white slopes. Running would risk tripping, but then at least Max wouldn’t be upright and as big a target.
It would leave Lochie and Cameron to tackle Jude.
I swallowed, hating both options.
But choice was a luxury right now, and trust beat will.
“Now,” Max bit out.
In unison, we turned and bolted.
After trudging slowly uphill through the snow, my legs had stiffened to the point of pain. Running hurt. Underfoot, rocks mixed with stubby dead plants, hidden under the snow. Every footfall risked injury.
Max hauled me by the arm, but I kept up, pacing with him farther up the slope, my heart pounding and breath leaving me in clouds of steam.
“Hey!” Jude called. “Wait—”
His words cut off in a shout of anguish.
I spun around, still moving. Cameron wrestled with Jude, knocking him over, both men fighting for the gun. A few feet away, Lochie moved in.
God, they had him.
I stopped altogether.
“Go, Cait,” Max demanded and grabbed my hand.
A shot exploded. The sound ricocheted through the mountains, barely deadened by the snow.
“Fuck!” Max dropped to the frozen ground, taking me with him.
Half blinded, I rolled up to my knees and gaped.
Red painted the snow behind the men.
“Cameron!” Lochie bellowed.
My cousin sprawled on the ground at a horrible angle, his face twisted away. He gave a howl of utter pain.
Oh no. No!
Even from where we stood, I could make out Cameron’s shredded jumpsuit, the blood leaking from his shoulder.
Jude staggered to his feet, his mouth open in shock. “You idiot,” he yelped then raised the gun again.
Lochie bore down on him then snatched the barrel and yanked it from Jude’s hands. With a roar, he drew it back and smacked the hilt into Jude’s head.
Jude moaned and clutched his injury. He fell back, glowering at Lochie who stood over Cameron’s body, protecting him.
Then without pause, Jude spun around and sprinted.
Right towards us.
Max stepped in front of me and lowered into a fighter’s pose. But Jude got nowhere near. In long strides, Lochie caught him up. He snatched his collar and slammed him to the ground. Smacked a fist into his face.
It was only then I noticed the cliff edge.
I knew we were close to the unicorn pool, and therefore to the hole in the slopes above where the water fell out of sight. I vaguely remembered Lochie talking about training his crew there for when hikers inevitably didn’t notice the jagged, concealed ravine and tumbled down.
This was why Max had dragged me uphill—to get away from the edge you couldn’t see until ye were on top of it.
Jude cried out and spat. He kicked at Lochie who punched him again, connecting with a crack of bone.
“We need to help Cam,” Max uttered.
We did, but I couldn’t leave Lochie.
Except Cameron was bleeding. Maybe dying.
With a wrench, I moved towards my cousin.
“I knew you’d come,” Jude shrilled. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Lochie growled.
“You tried to take Cait from me. She’s mine. I love her and she loves me. I own her heart. Me. Not you.”
“You’re fucking nuts. Our hearts are each other’s.”
It was true. I only wanted Lochie and his beautiful, big heart, warm with love for me.
Jude slid a knife from under the purple jacket. A scream lodged in my throat, but I stifled it, clasping my hands to my mouth as I stalled my feet. Max dashed to Cameron, but I froze.
Lochie danced back right and Jude took a swing. Then he ducked and grabbed Jude’s arm. Jude dropped his weight, pulling Lochie down.
The ground shifted under their feet. Snow slid. Rocks crumbled.
Falling, Jude raised the knife and brought it down in a shining arc. Straight into Lochie’s chest.
Then both men disappeared over the edge of the waterfall.
