Time appeared to have frozen.
Terror and hope warred inside me as my gaze briefly met Reece’s. For the tiniest moment, I saw what he was feeling when he saw me. It was in those beautiful, sea-colored eyes of his. Panic. Fear. A rage I knew could be deadly, that promised retribution. I couldn’t imagine what he was thinking when he came through that door and saw this. I had no idea how I started off the day waking up with resolve and determination to really start the process of moving on with my life and then this, God, this was happening.
But I should know by now that none of life could truly be planned. My life—our lives—were about to be thrown off course yet again.
Kip slipped his hand off my mouth and wrapped his arm around my waist as he kept the knife against my throat.
In a split second, Reece’s jaw locked down and his lips thinned. Everything about his face went emotionless.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my words coming out a little mushed-sounding.
Reece’s eyes were like chips of blue diamonds. “Babe, none of this is your fault.”
I knew that, but I didn’t want Reece to see any of this, and I didn’t want him to get hurt. Those were the last two things I wanted.
“You’re right,” Kip spat back. “If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s yours. She was fine before you came along. You made her into a whore.”
The man was legit crazy.
“You really are making me want to put a bullet between your eyes,” Reece countered, his voice threaded with barely controlled anger.
“And you really want me to finish this?”
The muscle flexed along Reece’s jaw. “Bud, all I want you to do is really think about—”
“Don’t come any closer.” Kip pushed the knife into my skin, causing me to yelp. A thin trickle of wet warmth ran down my throat as he stepped to the side, bringing me with him. “I swear to God, I will end her!”
“I’m not coming any closer.” Reece kept the gun level. “But I want to know what you’re thinking. How you’re planning for this to go down.”
“Does that really fucking matter?” Kip stepped again, and Reece didn’t move toward him, but he mirrored his movements until we’d switched positions. Our backs were to the closet now. “There’s no way out of this. I’m not fucking stupid. I know what needs to be done.”
My pulse skyrocketed as Kip’s fingers flexed around the handle of the knife. My mind raced into scary places, one where my throat ended up slit and Kip got away with everything he’d done by doing one thing. Committing suicide via police officer. Kip knew he was done. I doubted he would just put the knife down and surrender.
I saw Reece’s gaze slide to the left, behind us for just a fraction of a second, but I could’ve been imagining it or seeing things, because my vision wasn’t the greatest without my glasses and one open eye.
“We can talk this out,” Reece said, lowering his gun. “You and me. We talk this through. Let Roxy go, and it will be just you and me.”
I could feel Kip shaking his head behind me, and I drew in a shallow breath. Any move I made would most likely result in the knife cutting into my skin, but I couldn’t just sit here and do nothing. My head spun. What could I do that wasn’t virtual suicide?
If this was going to be my last couple of minutes on Earth, I wished I could kiss him just one more time, feel his hands on me.
My voice was shaky when I spoke. “Reece, I . . . I love you.”
“Babe, you’re going to tell me that again for a long time coming, you understand?” Reece didn’t look at me since he was trained on Kip. “But Kip and me are going to talk this out. He’s going to let you go, and we’re going to chat about this.”
“You think I’m going to let her go? That there’s something to say?” Kip replied, his voice cracking. “This is—”
There was a sickening thudding sound that jolted Kip and then me. The knife slipped, glancing over my skin and then Kip let go. Dazed, I stumbled forward as he dropped to the floor behind me.
A second later, I was in Reece’s arms and he was saying something to me, pushing my hair back and gently pressing his hand against my neck, but I wiggled around to see what happened, because I hadn’t heard a gun fire. I hadn’t seen Reece pull the trigger. I didn’t understand.
But then I did.
Henry . . . Henry Williams stood behind the crumpled body.