“You have to admit, though, the guy has a nice view.” Jane stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. This high in the canyon, a person could look out over the grounds of the estate all the way to the ocean. The grounds were meticulously kept, with trees on either side offering an unobstructed view if one stood in the right place. “This house was designed to be as luxurious as possible. Nolan made sure he had excellent views, but there are other features. Did you know he has an eleven-car garage on the other side of the property?”
Maddie wasn’t sure if the woman was talking to her or the guard. “Yes. He brags about it often.”
“I’m sure you haven’t gotten the full tour I have. The man has a couple of secrets he likes to keep.” Jane looked back at the guard. “He’s got a Maserati in the garage. One that’s not for sale. We should try it sometime.”
The guard nodded. “Yes, that sounds like fun.”
Jane moved away from the window and looked down at MaeBe. “I feel sorry for you. He doesn’t love you, you know. I’m afraid he’s with you because you’re not me. You’re pretty much the opposite of me, and that’s what attracted him to you. You’re a reaction, not an actual relationship. Kyle needs a strong woman, one who can set him on his ass from time to time, and that’s just not you. I would bet you don’t even know the real Kyle Hawthorne.”
“I know him better than you,” MaeBe managed to reply, tears streaming down her face.
“Did he talk about me, then?” Jane asked.
“I know he thinks he killed you, Julia. I know you were the biggest mistake of his life,” MaeBe said between gritted teeth. She cradled her broken arm as she tried to sit up.
“The biggest mistake he made was thinking he really could kill me.” Jane, who turned out to be Julia, stepped back, watching MaeBe. “I don’t think he tried his hardest. Believe me, that man knows how to kill, and he’s excellent at it. If he truly wanted me dead, I would be. He’s had time to think about it, and I’ll give him a little more. I’ve been playing with him for a while now. His whole family, actually, but it’s time to stop playing. I’m ready to deal with our problems. A love like ours isn’t something you simply walk away from.”
The door slammed open and Nolan strode in, a wild look on his face and a pistol in his hand. “There’s a fire at the building where the satellite is being built.”
Jane/Julia turned his way. “A fire?”
“Yes.” Nolan ran a hand across his head. “Someone fucking firebombed my satellite five weeks from fucking launch. This is a disaster. You have to do something.”
Julia shrugged. “What do you want me to do? Go grab a firehose? Is it salvageable?”
“I have no fucking idea,” Nolan shot back. “But the fucking police want to talk to me. They want me to come down to the site.”
Julia’s eyes closed. “Fuck him.”
“You know who did this?” Nolan asked.
Julia ignored him, looking her guard’s way. “Where’s her cell?”
The guard pulled it out of his pocket, tossing it Julia’s way. Julia turned the front toward MaeBe’s face and unlocked it, quickly looking through the screens to find what she wanted.
Nolan had moved in behind Maddie, his hand gripping her neck and squeezing to the point of pain. “I want that integration done now, Madeline. You think you can stop this from happening, but I’ll just rebuild. You can’t stop me.”
“I wasn’t trying to,” she hissed, attempting to pull away.
“She can’t work if you strangle her,” Julia said, putting the phone to her ear. “Hello, lover. You’ve been busy. If you want to see this pathetic attempt to make me jealous again, you’ll back off. Tell me something, is little brother with you?”
Nolan’s hand had come off Maddie’s neck. He stared down at the computer screen. “Yes. That’s it. That’s exactly what I need.”
He put the gun to Maddie’s head, and she nearly stopped breathing.
She wanted Deke. In this moment, her thought was of him, of the life they could have had, of the one they could have if she just survived. The past didn’t matter in that moment when everything else was stripped away and she was left with the raw truth. She loved him. She loved him with every cell of her being.
It was all that mattered. Not her job. Not her work. If she lost all her progress, she could start again. She wouldn’t ever get another Deke. There was only one of him, and she was never giving him up.
Julia dropped the phone and pulled her own gun. “John, try to get the other guards on the line.”
Maddie noticed a red light. It pointed straight at Julia.