A Reason to Kill (Reason #2) (38 page)

Mia’s crying, Max realized. His beautiful, to the brink of distraction, too sexy for his own good woman, was crying, and he couldn’t stop the rumbling in his head to find out why.

Max’s head felt like the time he’d fallen from a tree, cracking it on the way down. When he tried to force his eyes open, they fluttered but wouldn’t fully open. Then Mia’s scared voice broke through the fog that invaded his headspace, clearing out the cobwebs, and they sprang open.

“Don’t touch me,” Mia shouted as Max tried to focus on the scene in front of him.

Stetson, who was shirtless, was straddling Mia on the bed as she tried to fight him off with one arm tied to the headboard. Max suppressed the urge to roar at the bastard. He needed time to get his arms and legs moving so he could kill that son of a bitch for laying his hands on her.

“That’s it, fight me, Mia. I love a good struggle before I ram myself in deep. I knew when I laid eyes on you you’d be a hellcat in the sack.”

Max jerked his hands, forming fists he intended to use on the bastard’s skull upon hearing his threat.

“Why are you doing this?” Mia cried out as Max focused on moving his arms.

“Revenge is a dish best served in blood,” Stetson hissed. “For a year I’ve had to put up with this hick town all because of that fuckin’ whore and her fuckin lies. I was a great cop,” he roared in her face, “and I got shipped off to fuckin’ purgatory while hiding behind my father’s reputation like a coward. Then Zimmer comes to town and threatens me with exposure? Fuck that,” he bellowed. “I’m done hiding, I’m done bein’ told to keep my head down or my fuckin’ father will write me off. He created this monster,” Stetson growled as his fists hit his chest. “He created me and I’m gonna show him once and for all that the son doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

“You killed Donald?” Mia gasped.

“Keep up, sunshine, I killed them all. Zimmer, Curly, Hunter over there, and now I’m gonna feast on your body as I choke the life out of you.”

“You’re insane,” Mia screamed as she balled her fist and stuck Stetson in the face, sending his head back from the blow.

Stetson recovered, his eyes flashing in anger as he raised his fist. Max tried to get up, wanted to stop him, but his limbs weren’t cooperating. Feeling impotent, he bit his lips until the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth. He couldn’t stop the blow and wanted to howl when Stetson’s fist connected with Mia’s gorgeous face.

“I’ll kill you for that,” Max whispered.

His eyes slammed shut, his jaw locked tight in rage when Mia cried out in pain. He felt less than a man as he fought for control of his body.
How the hell had this bastard gotten the jump on me?
Max’s tormented thoughts swirled.

He remembered climbing in his truck thinking about Mia, how she drove him nuts, how even though she drove him nuts he knew she was the other half of his soul. He’d been raised to believe by his crazy mother that each man and woman has a perfect match that God splits one soul into two bodies. That those souls
always
find one another again and like mercury, when they are close, the need to merge, to be whole, is elementary. She said you knew immediately when you met them that you were in the presence of your other half. He hadn’t understood that, not until he’d looked deep into Mia’s crystal pools and felt the earth move under his feet. He knew Mia was his other half and his need to merge with her, to be close was as fundamental as breathing.

All that had been running through his head when he’d come to her cabin instead of his own. Then he’d pulled the clothes from his body and showered while he waited for her to return. When he’d exited the bathroom with a towel in hand, drying water from his hair, he remembered hearing a click and then nothing.

Little by little, his arms and legs began to respond and his senses became sharper as he kept his eyes on the bed. Stetson was still ranting about the perceived wrongs inflicted upon him, so Max took that opportunity to move to his knees. Mia couldn’t see him because Stetson blocked her view and it was just as well, she’d react to seeing him alive. He needed the element of surprise if he was going to save them both in his weakened state.

Looking for a weapon, he saw his jeans on the floor and reached out, pulling his phone from the pocket. He dialed 911 and then lay the phone down.

Mia cried out when Stetson tore her shirt open, and Max knew he was out of time. He wasn’t about to let this fuck put his hands on her one more time. So, as her legs began to kick, Max stood, wobbled, and then he lunged at Stetson as Mia screamed his name.

“You headin’ home for the evening?” Ralph asked Chester Tallchief as he finished off the rest of his beer.

“Yep, been a long day and now that I’m the new chief I gotta get up early and be at the station by eight.”

“Heard they canned Stetson, about time I say. The guy was nothin’ but a drain on our tax dollars if you ask me. Been almost three weeks since Curly died and he’s done nothin’ to catch the killer.”

“Maxine caught up with me after we knew Mia was safe and told me she and my mother had been “workin’” the case,” Chester chuckled. “Seems they found a piece of black and red flannel in the woods and think it belongs to the killer. Get this; they’ve been pretending to sell their sex toys door-to-door so they could check out everyone who wore a red and black shirt on the day Zimmer died.”

Both men threw their heads back and laughed as Shane walked back into the bar. Having dropped off the lost hikers, Shane had headed back into town hoping to find some company for the night. Unfortunately, for him, the only warm bodies he’d find this evening were grizzled old men or his old friend. As he walked up and clapped Chester’s back, he grabbed the stool next to his friend and sat down, raising his finger to indicate he wanted a beer.

“What’s so funny?” Shane inquired.

“I was just lettin’ Ralph know that Stetson is out and that I’m in. Now I gotta run down leads that Maxine and Mom came up with or I’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Christ, what did those two come up with?” Shane chuckled.

“Get this . . . Mia found a piece of black and red flannel in the woods near Zimmer’s body. And for the past two weeks that band of misfits has been searchin’ the homes of all the men in Trails End.”

“They didn’t come to my door,” Shane replied.

“If you didn’t wear that shirt to the Founders Day celebration you were in the clear.”

“I was late comin’ down, missed all the fireworks,” Shane answered, “pity too. I would have loved to see Max take that bastard down a peg or two. I got to town just in time to see Zimmer makin’ . . . wait, did you say red and black flannel?”

“Yeah?”

“Fuck . . . I saw Zimmer and Stetson havin’ words, figured he was makin’ a complaint against Max.”

“So?”

“Stetson wasn’t in his uniform . . . he was in red and black flannel.”

“You’re sure?”

“You don’t suppose . . .”

“That my crazy mother and her crazy friend are right?”

“Would explain why he was hell bent on chargin’ Mia for the crime . . . It would ease everyone’s mind, get them off his back.”

“How’d he get the axe? Max thinks it’s one of his men since they had access,” Chester argued.

“Call Max, see if Stetson had access to them.”

Shrugging, Chester pulled out his cell and hit Max’s number. The call went to voice mail so he left a message. Turning back to Shane, he was about to call it an evening when his walkie-talkie crackled to life.

“Dispatch to Tallchief.”

Grabbing hold of the unit clipped to his belt, Chester answered.

“This is Tallchief, over.”

“Chief, we had a nine-one-one call come in from Max Hunter’s cell. No one is answering, but we can hear a disturbance and a woman screaming in the background.”

Shane, having just dropped Mia off, knew if Max was with a woman exactly where they were.

“Mia’s at her cabin.”

Chester’s eyes darted to Shane then both men jumped up and headed for the door as Chester instructed, “Send all available men to my mother’s house, the guest quarters in the back, and call Martha and tell her to stay inside.”

My scream fell on deaf ears as Max took Stetson to the floor. I jerked at my bound wrist to free myself, but the plastic cuff was too tight. As fucking scared as I was at that moment, I could have wept for joy when I saw Max rise from the floor like some avenging angel.

Naked for some reason and covered in blood, Max tangled arms with Stetson as each man threw blows at the other. Though Max outweighed Stetson, his obvious weakened state made it an even fight. Max landed a blow to Stetson’s jaw that no doubt loosened some teeth, and sent him flying into a rocking chair tripping over it. Max wobbled, then shook his head as if the clear it as Stetson righted himself from the floor.

I kept tugging at the cuff, trying to wiggle my hand out, cutting the flesh. Blood pooled on my wrist and I smeared it under the cuff hoping it would give me enough slickness I could free my hand.

Stetson stumbled to his feet, his face red with rage as he looked between Max and me. Max was calm in comparison, brows pinched in anger, saying nothing, just cold hard eyes that stayed on Stetson, calculating his next move. Stetson must have known the only way to me was through Max, so he lowered his shoulder and bellowed in anger as he ran at Max, trying to take him down. When they collided, both men went to the floor with Stetson on top. He raised his fist, threw a punch at Max’s temple, but it glanced off his blood soaked face. When he raised his fist again, Max’s hand shot up, caught the punch, and then he pitched his hips and rolled, disengaging Stetson from his body. When Stetson hit the ground, he kept rolling to keep from being pinned. Then he stood and rushed Max again while he was rising to his feet. As if he was expecting it, Max remained crouched and then dipped his shoulder and stood right as Stetson reached him. He picked Stetson up, and rammed him into the rock fireplace with the full force of his massive body. Stetson’s head cracked against the rock wall and his body went limp. Max let him go and watched as he slumped to the floor with a thud.

I gasped, my breath coming in rapid pants as I watched Max stumble, lean down and then grab hold of his hair as if to punch him. And he did, twice more, until his own strength depleted had Max dropping Stetson’s head. On his knees, his angry eyes on the man who had tried to kill us both, when he didn’t move I reached out to him.

“Max?”

He raised his head, looked at me and then I lost it.

I hated that I cried easily, it made me feel weak. However, when those green eyes bore into mine, the floodgates opened. Unfortunately, the more I tried to stop the worse they fell until I couldn’t breathe from holding back. My traitorous lips trembled and the hiccups began when Max pulled himself from the floor and made his way across the room. I reached out with my free hand as he collapsed on the bed, covering me with his body, his face pressed deep into my neck as his arms wound around my waist squeezing tight.

“I, I thought you were dead,” I hiccupped.

“Shh, I got you,” he mumbled.

“You, you were dead and I wanted to die too,” I choked out.

“I’m not goin’ anywhere, least not for another fifty years.”

“Is he dead?”

“No,” he growled as if he was disappointed. Then he leaned back, pulled his arms from my waist, and cupped my face while trying to dry my tears with his thumbs. I wanted to throw my arms around him, but the stupid cuff literally tied my hand.