Jade returned his smile. “Hey, Rudy.”
He opened the gate and waved her through. “Enjoy the rest of your night.”
“You too.” Slowly, Jade pulled the car inside. There was a part of her that dreaded having to open up about her past, and a part that couldn’t wait to get the past behind them. It only took a few minutes to drive up to Cole’s gate, but it felt like forever. Rolling down her window again, Jade reached out to enter the security code. His gate opened, and she drove her car through. The closer she came to the house, the more the hairs on her body began to stand up. It was silly. She knew Cole would never hurt her on purpose. Finally, she pressed the garage door opener and waited for it to rise. Moments later, Jade pulled the car into the garage.
Just as she was about to shut off the ignition, Jade looked up into her rearview mirror only to see Kevin’s eyes staring back at her. Her heart plummeted to her feet. Before she could scream, he covered her mouth with his hands and yanked her head back into the headrest pressing a knife against her throat.
“I swear if you make one sound I’ll gut you right here and now.”
Her heart was about to beat out of her chest, and her eyes were big and round as saucers. There was no question, he would do it. Her worst fears had been realized. Kevin was here, and she’d brought him right to Cole’s door.
He hissed into her ear. “Do you hear me?”
Jade closed her eyes and nodded.
“I told you, there was only one way to escape from me.” He pressed his lips against the side of her face. Jade wanted to throw up.
“Get out of the damn car and do it quietly. Otherwise, I promise I’ll kill him as soon as he walks out of the door.”
Jade swallowed the bile back down in her throat. Her body shook all over. Somehow she managed to get out of the car on very shaky legs. Kevin continued to hold her body close to his as he kept the knife close to her throat. Her hands shook so violently that she could barely put the key in the door. She opened it and walked into the kitchen.
Cole was sitting at the island working on his laptop waiting for Jade to come home. He saw her but couldn’t see Kevin. He was hidden behind the door until he stepped from behind it. That’s when he saw Kevin and the knife he had at the base of Jade’s neck.
In a sing-song voice, Kevin spoke. “Surprise. Your bitch is home.”
His heart stopped. How the hell did he get to Jade and get on his property? Kevin was still supposed to be in prison. On the outside, Cole was calm but seeing the sheer terror in Jade’s eyes forced him to try to think and not panic. There was no way he would let Kevin hurt her.
His words came out much calmer than he felt. “It’s been a long time, Kevin.”
“Not long enough. But when I found out you were screwing my wife, I figured I needed to pay you a visit.”
“She’s not your wife anymore.”
Kevin poked the knife a little deeper into Jade’s neck breaking the skin. “She’s my wife until death do us part. Unfortunately for her and you, that will probably be tonight. I’m going to take great pleasure in making you watch us make love one last time first before I kill her, giving you a bird’s eye view of all of it.”
Cole’s voice was low…menacing. “You were always a weak son of a bitch. Aren’t you tired of using Jade to get back at me?”
“As long as it works, no.”
Jade found her voice. “You sent the text?”
“What text? No way would I have contacted you and risked you disappearing. I’ve dreamed about this night and this moment for far too long to let you get away.”
She whispered. “Kevin, please. Don’t do this.”
He screamed at her. “You, shut-up! Haven’t you done enough? After everything I did for you, keeping you off the streets. Feeding you, clothing you, and how did you repay me?”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “Kevin we never would have been together if you hadn’t lied. Cole came for me.”
He pressed the knife farther into her skin causing blood to trickling down from that spot. “He didn’t deserve you. And, you didn’t deserve me. Constantly running away and calling the police. I spent three years in prison because of you.”
Cole clenched his jaw and fists. It was taking everything within him not rush Kevin. But he couldn’t risk anything happening to Jade. Kevin’s eyes were wild. He’d lost and it, and was more than capable of following through on his threats if Cole wasn’t smart. Instead, he’d try to redirect his anger towards him. Maybe he could piss him off enough to loosen his grip on her. “No, you spent three years in prison because you’re weak. No real man would ever put hands on a woman. Just like now.”
“Maybe if you put hands on Elise, I wouldn’t be here right now.”
That threw Cole off guard for a moment. “What?”
“Yeah. She came to see me apparently after catching you two in bed together. She paid me fifty grand to get rid of Jade. What she didn’t know is I would have done it for free to see you suffer!”
Jade could see the rage in Cole’s eyes. She had to do something or he was going to get hurt. “Kevin! I promise. I’ll leave with
