Their Ex's Redrock Twilight (Texas Alpha) (Texas Alpha Series Book 4) (22 page)

So while she had no good escape strategies, she did start scheming ways to ensure Luna Fucking-Crazy-Whiterose got what was coming to her delusional ass.

Luna came stomping up to the open bathroom door, and Tess noticed again that she looked as if she were a drug user trying to hide it. Too skinny, pale looking, and with insanity in her eyes. Tess watched the gun Luna had in her hand swing by her hip.

“You’re just too much of a boring little housewife for him. Men like Vincent need sexy, powerful women, not mothers with apron strings, like you. I bet you are a frigid fuck,” Luna spat.

Tess realized she was trying to convince herself that Vincent was really coming to her because he wanted to, and was bored or whatever with his wife.

“I could never compete with you,” Tess muttered disgustedly.

Luna flipped back her dull, stringy hair back with the hand not holding the pistol.

“He’s too much man for you,” Luna said.

Tess kept her eyes on the floor, then eventually, as if reluctantly, she nodded slowly. Inwardly, she was like,
No way, bitch
.

Luna made a satisfied sound. “I knew it!” she exclaimed. “There’s no way he’d want you over me.”

“He’s not been home ... overnight sometimes,” Tess muttered, putting as tragic a look as she could manage on her face as she lied.

“
Who’s
he with?” Luna demanded sharply, sounding manic again.

Inwardly, Tess cursed. It wasn’t the direction she’d been aiming for, and so she was stuck. The only thing she could think to say was: “I’m not sure he’s with anybody, just getting away from me.”

Luna whirled around and left the bathroom, while Tess shuddered and wondered if she’d just made everything worse. Luna might not be looking at Tess as such a rival now, but now Luna was thinking Vincent could be cheating with another woman.

Tess lifted her hand with the small motel soap she had hidden in her palm and returned to rubbing it all over the handcuff and her hand, with the hope she could slip the cuff off, while she fought tears. There was no way this was going to end well.

Just then, she heard a sound. It wasn’t Luna in the other room and it wasn’t the cuffs ticking, because she was very careful not to make a sound while she worked. She looked around the small room. It had sounded as if it was in the bathroom. Another sound clicked, and it made her eyes lift.

Then she saw the small bathroom window moving outward.

Vincent!

In the other room, she heard a crash, and she scooted to see if she could see what was happening by extending her arm. It looked as if Luna had broken a bottle of liquor against the wall. Maybe she’d thrown it across the motel room or something. Then Luna continued to pace the room and mutter to herself.

When Tess looked back, the window was fully opened outward, and a face she knew too well was looking down on her.

“N
nn
—” she started to exclaim, just keeping from crying Navi’s name out. No, no, no. She lifted her hand and she started frantically waving it for him to go away, while she mouthed, “No! Go!”

There was a pounding on the motel room door, and Tess didn’t even look that way as she said under the loud noise from the other room, “It’s too dangerous, Navi. Go back.”

He didn’t listen. Instead, he climbed through the window, while the noise out in the motel room covered him.

It was Vincent arriving, with Luna yelling, “Put your hands up and come in slowly!”

Tess stared in horror at Navi landing in the bathroom by the toilet. She knew without a doubt Vincent had no idea Navi was doing what he was doing. Navi scrambled to the shower tub, where a curtain was pulled across it.

“Hush, Miss,” he whispered, and he slipped behind it until she couldn’t see him.

Tess’ heartbeat thundered. She wanted to scream at him to go back out the window.

Just then, Vincent’s voice turned her head. “You fucking let her go, and you and I will—”

“No!” Luna screeched. “Who are you fucking, Vincent! Tell me who you’re fucking or I will shoot your bitch wife in the leg.”

Tess gasped, trying not to look where Navi was hiding, as Luna flung a step past the doorway into the bathroom. Vincent was behind her as Luna stood sideways in the small space pointing the pistol at Tess. Vincent’s face was hard as a rock and his eyes were blazing.

“I had to tell her you weren’t coming home most nights,” Tess cried. “Navi told me! He is so close to me right
now
.”

Vincent’s gaze cut to the open window Luna hadn’t noticed, then it went around the small room, landing on the shower tub. Tess nodded, trying not to look frantic.

“Damn it,” Vincent uttered.

“Navi!” Luna screeched, waving the pistol. “
Is
that her name, Vincent?”

“Hell no,” Vincent growled. “I’ve been looking for
you
those nights I was gone. Hard trail to follow with your fucking band and everything.”

Oh my God, it was such a horrible lie. Tess held her breath, thinking there was no way Luna would believe that. However, Luna turned toward Vincent with a hopeful look. Then she looked him up and down, trying to decide.

“Cabe would know,” she exclaimed suddenly. “Get him on the phone!”

Right before Luna swung out of the room, while pointing the gun at Vincent, he moved around so he was in the bathroom doorway.

“I don’t want to look at her face,” Vincent growled, and he grabbed the door and slammed it shut.

Oh.

My.

God.

“Navi, you leave
now
.
This
instant,” Tess said. “She will kill you if she sees you in here. You have to go!”

“I’m not leaving you, Miss,” Navi said when he pulled the curtain back. “We got each other’s back, right.”

Tess wanted to swear. It was something Vincent said a lot.

“Navi, honey, this is not the same. This is so very dangerous. I can’t stand that you could get hurt,” she pleaded.

His dark eyes looked at her, with his face a mask of stubbornness. Oh my God, he was like a little Vincent.

Completely ignoring her plea, he asked, “Can you twist it off, Missy?”

Tess jerked her wrist against the cuffs, probably bruising herself more. Her hand slipped out of them further with the soap, but it still got caught on her knuckles. Maybe she could break her knuckles, she thought desperately.

“No,” she said. “You have to go, baby.
Please.
”

Vincent thought he might have had a damn chance, until Luna decided to call Cabe. The situation was deadly, and besides Tess, he thought Navi might be in that bathroom too. It looked like he was going to have to jump Luna and hope she didn’t shoot him any place vital.

But Luna was over-the-top manic, and before she got Cabe dialed, she swung the barrel of her .357 Magnum back at him.

“
You
put these cuffs on and cuff yourself to the bathroom sink pipe, like your bitch! You’re not getting away this time, Vin,” Luna snarled, throwing a set of handcuffs at his head.

Shit.

“In the bathroom!” Vincent bellowed, praying Tess could hear. “You want me on the fucking floor in the bathroom!”

Then shit got worse as Luna leveled a shot right in the wall to the left of his shoulder. The boom was followed by a wail from Tess in the bathroom.

“Now!” Luna screeched. “Move!”

Vincent had his hands raised, still thinking he’d have to rush her, but Luna pointed the barrel right at the bathroom door, and he knew that she knew the bullet could penetrate the flimsy wood of the door, right in the direction of Tess.

“Fuck. Your fucking pussy better be slick and wet for me when you get what I am telling you is the truth,” Vincent snarled, hoping to throw her off. He bent to snag the cuffs off the floor and he turned toward the door, praying Tess had heard him.

When he popped the bathroom door open, he was relieved at not seeing Navi there trying to free Tess, but he saw the window was closed. His gaze cut to Tess, but she shook her head, which meant the boy still had to be behind the shower curtain.

He wanted to swing the cuffs back and catch Luna in the head, but the big barrel of the .357 she was holding kept him from doing it. A shot in the small bathroom had too much chance of hitting his wife.

“Put the cuffs on!” Luna shrieked.

And Vincent knew he’d probably signed his families, Tess and Navi’s death sentence, when he lowered to his knees and snapped one cuff on his wrist and the other to the pipe that Tess was hooked to. But he couldn’t see his way out of not doing it, even if by doing it it meant the end for all of them.

At least he was close enough to Tess he could throw himself in front of her if Luna tried to shoot her. Luna’s gun was big enough it would go through him and still hit Tess, but his body would stop most of the forward velocity.

When he went down on his knees to cuff himself, he got a good look at Tess’ face, and he saw the branding marks on it. Her lip was cut, one eye was turning black, and her cheek held a red and purple bruise. Fiercely, he wanted to reach out and cup her cheek.

Because of him,
this
had happened to her.

His eyes cut away from the bright illumination of her gaze, as he turned to sit with his back against the wall beside the bathroom sink.

“Don’t you dare, Vincent!” Tess cried. “Being with you was worth any danger, any risk, and I would have lain down and given my life for just
one
moment with you.”

Luna started to screech—

As Tess yelled over her, “Now you give it all to her!
Her!
”

Luna’s screech dwindled like a cat’s yowl, while Vincent’s jaw turned to granite. His wife was the strongest, smartest warrior he knew, and she’d just found a way to set him straight in the middle of disaster. He couldn’t look her way, but he knew she understood that he’d heard her deeply when he moved his wedding band around on his finger, below the edge of the sink. Luna, who was standing over them, wouldn’t be able to see that gesture.

How Tess knew what he was thinking was just something she’d always been able to do with him since they’d first met. Where other people found a set wall looking at him, his wife saw the things he was feeling.

She wasn’t going to allow him to be guilty over what was happening, and maybe she was right. It was a wasted effort, when he needed to be thinking of any little thing he could to get them out of the deadly situation.

He’d lay down his life for Tess, and she would lay her life down for him, because what they had was worth it.

He gritted his teeth, grinding them hard, before he said, “If Luna hadn’t been fucking ignoring me, Tess, you and I wouldn’t have been anything more than a one-night stand. But I need a fucking woman in my bed at all times.” Now Vincent glared up at Luna, as he not even looked at Tess before. “I’m not the kind of man to go without.”

He’d said it harshly, like the edge of a razor.

It cut through Luna’s manic twitching for just a moment.

“I know it’s hard to be with a star,” she hissed. In her world, every damn thing in the universe revolved around her. “It’s the price of fame,” she said, stupidly.

He wanted to roll his eyes, and he would have, if the barrel of a .357 weren’t waving toward him ... then away. Then back again.

“I’m not sitting on this fucking floor, Luna,” he dared her.

Her face and eyes seemed to clear, and then she turned away.

“I need to call Cabe,” she muttered, as she stumbled into the motel room.

“Someone will call the police over that shot,” Tess whispered.

Vincent grabbed the coupler on the pipe to try and loosen it. He shook his head as he muttered, “Maybe, babe. Gunshot sound carries. I know they heard, but they might think someone is hunting or shooting on reservation land, which is all around this place.”

He hadn’t looked at her; instead, he glared at the shower curtain.

“I couldn’t call, Boss.” Navi’s voice filtered out from beyond the curtain. “No one was in the office. It was locked.”

“It’s solid, son,” Vincent said. “Now quiet, like a warrior.” He felt the pipe giving, but he had to stop each time Luna paced into view. “Could go either way with Cabe,” he muttered, looking at Tess.

She bit her bottom lip and nodded. “Worth
every
minute,” she said fiercely, but it was under her breath, while her irises blazed into his.

He nodded, and knew his features looked as fierce. “I get this open ... you get a chance, you get out the fucking window.”

Then their time was up, as Luna screeched and came barreling into the bathroom. Vincent braced, because he couldn’t tell if it was good or bad.

Tess watched Luna fall down onto Vincent to embrace him with the gun held limply in her outstretched arm. It was right under Tess’ nose.

“He answered and heard it was me. Then he said before I said anything that you had him looking for me everywhere!”

Luna was strangling Vincent, trying to hug him and kiss him, while Tess thought,
Ohmygod that was close
. She wondered why Cabe had known to say that, but then again, he’d been dealing with Luna’s kind of crazy for years. Tess wondered if it meant the police were on their way? Maybe the reservation police were closer.

“Damn well told you,” Vincent growled.

Tess looked away as he kissed Luna. But when she looked back, she saw his hand was still working on the pipe, and it was turning! Then just as hope started to fill her, things got worse. Luna was trying to open Vincent’s shirt and kiss down his neck and chest. The gun was practically in Tess’ lap, but Luna still had her finger on the trigger.

“Get me up outta here,” Vincent demanded.

“I wanna do it here, Vinny. Right in front of her.”

“Fuck no!” Vincent bellowed.

Luna’s head flipped up, her black hair flying backward in an arc. “
Why
not.” She looked at Tess and then at Vincent, suspicious. “Prove it to me,” she snarled.

Vincent grabbed the back of Luna’s hair and yanked her down, until his mouth savagely kissed Luna’s. Tess clenched her eyes.
He is worth anything
, she thought as savagely.