“What are you doing here?” Jericho asked.
Billy gave them an insincere smile. “Why, I’m here to take Cara off your hands since I dumped her on you. I finally managed to slip away from that small town hick sheriff.”
Jericho stiffened, pulling Cara close to his side and leaving his arm around her waist, staking his claim before the younger man. “You should have called first. You’ve wasted a trip out here. Cara will be staying with me.”
Billy shrugged. “I was afraid of that. She is beautiful and hard to resist, even for a hard-ass like you.”
Jericho didn’t smile. “I’m glad you understand.”
Billy’s laughter was as fake as the smile plastered on his lips. Cara could only hope Jericho could see something was off with him.
“Well, since I came all this way for nothing, how about offering me a cup of coffee before I head out on the long trip home.”
“Of course.” Jericho motioned for Billy to go to the kitchen.
“What in the fuck happened in here?” Billy looked at the disaster area with eggs and juice on the slippery floor.
“We had a little bit of an accident,” Cara murmured with a blush.
“I can see that. It looks like a tornado hit the room.”
“One did,” Jericho said wryly. “Cara, why don’t you make the coffee while I try to clean a place for us to sit down?”
“That won’t be necessary.”
Cara looked in dread as Billy pulled a handgun from his jacket pocket. Looking out of the corner of her eye, Cara could see that Jericho didn’t seem shocked at this turn of events.
Billy pointed the gun toward her, placing his finger on the trigger.
Again, out of the corner of her eye, Cara saw a doorway open and Grimm enter the room. His stern visage gave no clue as to whom he was there for. She knew he would be unable to help. He had been dispatched to collect a soul. Which one was unknown to everyone except Grimm.
Cara felt her throat tighten in fear. For the first time, she could truly experience the dread that those she had come to escort felt. Even knowing what awaited her, it was still terrifying.
Would there be pain? Would it be quick?
She also knew she didn’t want to leave Jericho. She had just found him.
Sudden terror filled her heart with the realization that he also meant to kill Jericho.
“Billy, why would you want to harm Cara when you went to so much trouble to keep her safe?” Jericho was hoping to distract the man until he had an opening to grab the gun. He had also seen Grimm’s sudden entrance into the room.
“I think I can answer that question. He’s had a spell placed on him. Whoever has done this is powerful enough to remove his mother’s protection,” Cara answered without taking her eyes away from the blank expression on his face.
“I don’t need any protection. My master has punished me for failing yesterday, but he will see I will not fail again. I will be rewarded for your death.”
Sadly, Cara shook her head. “No, Billy, you must understand that, once you have taken a life, there is no going back. You don’t want to do this. I know your soul is filled with a kindness and gentleness I have rarely seen. You can fight the spell placed on you. Try, Billy, please. I would not want to see your soul destroyed because of another’s malice.”
“Shut up! I was warned you would try to sweet talk me out of killing you.”
“Who warned you, Billy?” Cara desperately tried to gain any information she could, not only for her own safety, but her sisters’, as well. She couldn’t believe the sweet man who had saved her life was the same man who had deliberately hidden in the woods and tried to shoot her and Jericho in cold blood.
Billy shook his head. “I’m not telling you a damn thing.”
He saw Jericho make a sudden move toward him and pointed the gun at him.
“No!” Cara screamed as Jericho grabbed the gun, jerking it upward just as it let out an explosion of sound.
The two men began to struggle in the slimy mess on the floor. After they fell with a crash, knocking over the table, Billy was beneath Jericho, and his hand with the gun was pinned in a hard grasp by Jericho. Then Cara saw the muzzle of the gun turn toward Jericho and knew what she had to do.