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Cade must have sensed her intentions. He released his gun, spun, and reached for her. His arms were around her and she felt that beautiful sense of safety and home. She couldn’t let him dissuade her.
“I’m coming, Mother,” she yelled before he could clamp his hand over her mouth.
“I knew you would,” was the reply.
Her mother eased back and only a crack of light showed as they used the door as shelter.
Jacey’s insides curdled.
Cade wrapped his arms tightly around her and pinned her down. “I’m not letting you go,” he whispered harshly against her cheek.
“You have to. She’ll kill us both,” she whispered back.
“She won’t kill you. She’s your mother.”
“She will!” How could she convince him? “She’s insane, and me being out of her grasp has probably thrown her over the edge. Let me distract her. Clint will get here.”
Cade wasn’t listening. She knew it.
“10 …” her mother called from the doorway.
“You cared about my choice,” she said, pulling out all the stops to convince him to release her and save his life.
“9 …” At least she was counting slowly.
“I do,” Cade said cautiously.
“Now that I have my memory back, I am choosing to leave you. I don’t need or want you.”
“6 … ”
Cade’s arms softened around her.
“I would never choose you,” she insisted, knowing it would hurt him and hating it, but at least he would live. “To think I would ever choose a simple cowboy in a backwoods valley. Let me go.” She made her voice as imperious and snotty as her mother had taught her to do.
“2 …”
Cade released her.
She didn’t let herself look at him, see the pain she’d inflicted.
“I’m coming!” Jacey screamed, scrambling to her feet. She hurried to the ladder.
“Come,” her mother hollered. She couldn’t see her.
“I’ll come down the ladder. If you promise not to hurt him.” She didn’t want her mother to have Cade’s name. Though she probably already knew it.
“I have already given that concession,” her mother yelled back through the small crack in the door. “Come … now!”
Trusting her mother was trusting the devil herself, but what choice did Jacey have? She glanced back at Cade. The sun would rise soon; it was growing lighter outside the small barn windows, but it was still hard to see his face in the shadows.
“Don’t move. You can pick them off,” she whispered, then she turned and hurried down the ladder.
He didn’t respond. She prayed he would stay there. Her mother would kill him if he exposed himself.
She hit the concrete floor with the soles of her shoes and whipped around. Her hands trembled and her gut churned. She had to face the monster.
“Come in the barn,” she called to her mother. “I want to make my terms before I leave with you.”
