Hanna knew she was getting too weak to argue with any of them. Laying her head back on the table, she knew she’d never get it back up again. Time and her blood were running out much too quickly.
Duncan came into the room with them. However, he didn’t sit. He did ask them if they wanted anything to eat or drink. Food and drinks appeared on the table before he kissed Jude on the mouth and left. Hanna didn’t bother trying to touch any of it. The thought of moving her hand to reach for something was too taxing.
“You don’t have long now, Hanna. I’m not sure what else we can tell you that you’d take to the grave with you, but you’re running out of time.” Hanna closed her eyes. “If that’s all, I’m calling the cops to come and get you.”
“Why don’t you bury me out back?” She thought one of them said it would spoil the earth to have her in it. “What a terrible thing to say to a dying woman. My brother, Harland, is dead. He was annoying me, so I shot him. He’s in the barn out by the road. I don’t remember which barn or what road. But if you sniff him out, you’ll find him. George is around, I guess.”
“He’s in a nursing home that deals with his type of illness.” Hanna wanted to ask her what the hell she thought was wrong with him other than being stupid. But she must have understood. “He’s mentally challenged. Obsessive compulsion disorder too. Did you know he’s terrified of you? Or did you encourage him to be afraid of you?”
Unable to answer, she did smile. Or she thought she did. There wasn’t anything left in her to open her eyes. While she could hear what was going on, there wasn’t any way for her to work up the strength to answer. Hanna supposed she should have stayed in the hospital at least a couple more days. She’d have been able to do something if she had.
When she could no longer feel her legs or anything below her neck, Hanna figured she was only going to have a few seconds left to make any kind of statement. The strength it took for her to open her eye was almost too much. She looked at Jude.
“I don’t…regret.” Jude told her she didn’t think she would. “I did…family. For us. I don’t regret.”
“No. Not that it matters now, but you’ll pay for your deeds. I think you have a place all reserved for you in hell.” Hanna thought about her being a good Christian. “I don’t believe you were, Hanna. You’re nothing but a nasty woman that told herself what she was doing was all in the name of family. No. You enjoyed it entirely too much for anyone to believe you now.”
Hanna didn’t know why she believed Jude and what she was saying, but if it were true, she thought she might well have felt differently about it while she was doing it. Surely she had some points in her favor about her chosen way of doing things.
She had a thought. If this were a movie and someone was dying like she was, Hanna would have fast forwarded it to the end. It was boring to watch. However, she did like that she wasn’t alone right now. For some reason, it gave her a little comfort knowing she wasn’t lying here dying all by herself.
“Hanna, just let go. You’ve done enough. Just let go.”
But she didn’t want to. Didn’t want to die all of a sudden. But the little bit of anxiety she had thinking of not wanting to do just as Jude had told her took her over the edge.
Chapter 9
Jude had so much to do today, she didn’t want to get out of bed. It had been a long day yesterday, and she was ready to just throw in the towel and be lazy for about a month. Rolling to her side, she saw Duncan reading something on his phone. Taking it away from him and tossing it to the floor, she got up over his lap. His very naked lap. Jude could feel his cock stretching beneath her.
“This is a nice way to start out the day.” She grinned at him. “I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, or for that matter even care about it, but I’ve been thinking about flying you to the top of the mountains and taking you hard there.”
“You can do me both here and there, can’t you?” Duncan said he would die trying. “Thank you, but dying isn’t going to be all right with me. But I think I needed this more than I needed anything today.”
“You keep riding me like this, and I’m going to be finished well before you will.” Before she could make a comment about his lack of trying to bring her with him, he rolled her to her back and slid deep inside of her at the same time. “This is more like it. I love watching your face when you enjoy yourself.”
“I enjoy myself whenever I’m near you.” It was the truth. She only had to see him, and she felt better about everything. “Make me come, Duncan. I need to feel something today.”
“Gladly.”
He touched her everywhere as he kissed her throat and neck, and nibbled on her ear lobes. His fingers burned paths from her neck to her breast, then her hard nipples. The heat he was generating along her skin was making her shiver in anticipation. Never had a man made her feel this good about sex, nor about herself.
They didn’t need words when making love. It was like their bodies spoke to each other—they told where to
