“It must have taken you a very long time to do al this. I’m flattered.” Bile rose as she spouted lies. “Of course, it’s going to be difficult to put the dress on if I’m tied to this bed.” She smiled and wiggled her fingers for emphasis. “Maybe you could let me up? So I can try it on, I mean. It’s so lovely.”
“Not yet. We have a few things to discuss first.”
“Oh?”
“I’m not pleased with you, Gracie Lynn. You let another man spend the night with you. You betrayed me.”
Gracie watched as George took a gun out of the pocket in his hoodie and placed it on the nightstand. “I-I didn’t mean to upset you, George.”
“It’s his fault.” George shook his head, his voice shifting to a higher pitch. Almost feminine. “You were so perfect before. He’s tainted you.
He’s tainted my Gracie Lynn. I can’t let that go unpunished.” He pul ed a knife out of his pocket and flipped it open. “You understand, don’t you?
This is for your own good, my love.”
As he sat down on the bed beside her, Gracie started to shake uncontrol ably. “No, please.”
The point slid over her blouse, beneath the top button. He sliced, and the button fel away. “It’s for your own good. Soon, you’l be perfect again. Soon, Gracie Lynn.”
Gracie started to struggle, but the ropes had no give. Another button popped free. When she felt cold metal against her chest, she screamed.
“Jonas, go around the back. We’l go in the front,” Wade instructed.
“You’re a civilian, damn it. You’l hang back until backup arrives.”
Wade and Jonas exchanged a silent look. Jonas nodded and took off around the side of the house. Henderson glared at Wade. It was ignored. “His bedroom is down the hal , the first room on the left.”
The detective tested the doorknob, but it didn’t give. “We need to do this right. We can’t just storm in there.”
Wade’s patience snapped. “She’s in there, and he could be—” A bloodcurdling scream rent the air, cutting him off midsentence. Gracie.
Fear mobilized Wade into action. He body slammed the old, beat-up door. It gave way easily under the brutal assault. Wade took off through the living room and down the hal , barely aware that the detective was right behind him. Wade stopped at the sight inside the barely lit bedroom.
Gracie, sprawled out on the bed, blood covering her chest. It dripped down her side to the pristine bedspread. Her gaze landed on him, and tears fil ed her eyes.
Wade crossed the room in two strides. “Oh, God, baby.”
“Wade, watch out!”
Wade turned his head in time to see George Lusk standing in the adjoining bathroom, gun raised, tears spil ing down his cheeks. Reacting purely on instinct, Wade lunged across the bed, protecting Gracie with his larger body. He felt a sharp sting in his left bicep seconds before the room erupted into chaos. Wade looked up to see Jonas holding George by the throat, knife poised directly over his heart.
“You got him secured?” Wade snarled.
“He moves, he dies,” Jonas promised, his voice low, menacing.
Henderson cursed and came over to the side of the bed. “You’ve been shot, Wade.”
“No!” Gracie cried, struggling under his weight.
Wade lifted off her and went to work on the ropes securing her wrists to the headboard. Once free, she flung herself against him. “You can’t die, Wade. Please, don’t die.”
Wade wrapped his arms around her. Damn, he was shaking like a friggin’ baby. “Shh, sweetheart. I’m fine. It’s just a graze. I’ve had worse during my army days.” He pul ed back and looked down at her. Blood coated the front of her blouse. “Oh, baby. What did he do to you?”
Gracie shook her head and wrapped her arms around his neck, squeezing him tight. Wade could feel the wetness of her tears soaking the front of his shirt. They mingled with the blood, tearing another layer off his self-control. “Baby, I need to see it. I need to know how bad it is. We need to stop the bleeding.”
She tightened her hold on him and shook her head harder. “He only managed to cut me once,” she said, her words muffled by the front of his shirt. “It’s not deep, Wade.”
Not deep hel . He would see that blood on her chest in his nightmares for years to come. Wade glanced over to see Henderson untying Gracie’s ankles. She was completely free now. Wade slipped his arms beneath her knees and behind her back, then stood, lifting her. Wade spared Jonas a grateful look, knowing that if not for him, Gracie could be dead. Hel , rushing into the room the way he had could’ve gotten them al a bul et. Jonas only grinned and tightened his hold on Lusk, who continued to wail like a toddler whose toy has been snatched away. Wade had a powerful urge to cross the room and hit the son of a bitch who had made Gracie’s life a living hel for the last two months, but the man was just too damn pathetic.