Montana Sky

vibrating. But she was staring up at him, not with fear, not with pleading in her eyes. But with hate.
    “Is that what you want?” He dragged her up again, held the barrel to her temple. “You want me to kill you?”
    There had been a time she might, out of sheer weariness, have said yes. But she thought of her life here, with Adam, with her sisters. Her home and family.
    “No, I’ll go with you.” And wait, she promised herself, for the first chance to escape, or to fight.
    “Damn right you will.” He closed a hand over her throat, shook her as blood stung his eyes. “I haven’t got time to make you pay now, but you wait. You just wait.”
    He was trembling as he pulled her to the door. The shock of her hurting him, actually hurting him until the blood ran down his face, had rocked him badly. The time he’d wasted dealing with her when she could have come along docile as a cow left him jittery.
    He barely noticed that it wasn’t rain falling from that dark sky, but snow. While the thunder still raged. Thick, heavy flakes danced in front of his eyes so that he didn’t see Adamuntil they were nearly face-to-face and he was looking at a rifle.
    “Let go of her.” Adam’s voice was calm as a lake, without any of the fury or fear rippling the surface. “Lily, step away from him.”
    Jesse shifted his grip to her throat, his arm over her windpipe. The gun, still in his hand, was at her head. There was no calm in him. He was screaming, “She’s my goddamn fucking wife! Get the hell out of my way. I’ll kill her. I’ll put a bullet in her brain.”
    He heard a gun cock and saw Willa step forward, coatless, snow covering her hair. “Take your hands off my sister, you son of a bitch.”
    It was wrong, everything was wrong, and the panic made Jesse’s finger tremble. “I’ll do it. Her brains’ll be splattered on your shoes if you take one step. You tell them, Lily. Tell them I’ll kill you here and now.”
    She could feel the steel pressed into her temple. Imagine the flash of explosion. She could barely breathe through the grip on her throat. To stay alive, she kept her eyes on Adam. “Yes, he will. He’s been here, all the time, he’s been here.”
    Jesse’s eyes fired. He looked like a monster with the blood oozing down his face and his lips peeled back in a wide, challenging grin. “That’s right. I’ve been here, right along. You want me to do to her what was done to the others, you just stay in my way.” His lips curved in a dazzling smile. He was in charge again. He was in control. “Maybe I won’t gut her, I won’t lift her hair, but she’ll still be dead.”
    “So will you,” Adam said, and sighted.
    “I can snap her neck like a twig.” Jesse’s voice rolled and pitched. “Or put a bullet in her ear. And maybe I’ll get lucky.” He increased the pressure on Lily’s throat so that her hands came up in defense to drag at the obstruction. “Maybe I’ll get off one more shot, right into your sister’s gut.”
    “He’s bluffing, Adam.” Willa’s finger twitched on the trigger. She’d put a bullet in his brain, she thought grimly. If Lily would just move her head another inch, just shiftover an inch, she could risk it. But the damn snow was blowing like a curtain. “He doesn’t want to die.”
    “I’m a fucking Marine!” Jesse shouted. “I can take two of you out before I go down. And Lily’s first.”
    Yes, Lily was first. “You won’t get away.” But Adam lowered his rifle. Rage, pride, weren’t worth Lily’s life. “And you’ll pay for every minute she’s afraid.”
    “Back off, bitch,” he ordered Willa, and tightened his grip so Lily’s eyes rolled up white. “I can break her neck as easy as blinking.”
    Helpless, every instinct raging against it, Willa stepped back. But she didn’t lower the gun. One clear shot, she promised herself. If she had one clear shot, she’d take it.
    “You get in the rig.” He pulled Lily with him, moving backward, his eyes jumping from side to side. “Get in the fucking rig, behind the wheel.” He pushed her in, shoved her across the seat, keeping the gun high and in plain sight. “You come after us,” he shouted, “I kill her, slow as I can. Start the goddamn thing and drive.”
    Lily had one last look at Adam’s face as she turned the key. And she drove.
    With hands that trembled, Willa lowered the rifle. She hadn’t taken the shot. There’d been a moment, just an instant, and she’d been afraid to