"You don't understand." Kevin sounds frustrated. Less controlled. "She's my wife. This is a domestic matter. You have no right to interfere."
Someone laughs. It sounds like Mace.
"Your ex-wife?" A new voice. Deck, maybe. "The one with the restraining order against you? The ex-wife you put in the hospital twice? That ex-wife?"
"Whatever she told you, she's lying. She's mentally unstable. I'm trying to help her."
"Funny." Cade's voice now, clear enough to hear through the walls. "She seems pretty stable to me. Smart, too. Smart enough to get away from you."
"You don't know what you're dealing with." Kevin's mask is slipping. I can hear the rage bleeding through. "I have lawyers. Connections. I could bury this whole town in litigation."
"Go ahead." A voice I don't recognize. Wolfe, maybe? "We'll still be standing when the dust settles. Will you?"
A long silence.
Then Kevin says, very quietly, "Give me my wife, or I'll burn this cabin to the ground with all of you in it."
My blood runs cold.
"Try it." Cade's voice is ice. "See what happens."
The next few seconds are chaos.
I hear scuffling. A shout. Something crashes. The dogs are barking furiously. Someone yells "Down, down, get down!" and there's a sound that might be a body hitting the ground.
Then silence.
I sit in the dark, clutching the handgun with sweaty palms, counting my heartbeats.
Ten. Twenty. Thirty.
A knock on the safe room door.
"Natalie? It's Cade. It's over. You can come out."
I fumble with the lock, my hands shaking too badly to work properly. When the door finally opens, Cade is standing there with blood on his knuckles and a grim smile on his face.
"Is he..."
"Alive. Unfortunately." He pulls me out of the closet and into his arms. "Tom's got him in cuffs. Assault, criminal threats, violation of a restraining order across state lines. He's not getting out anytime soon."
I sag against him, all the adrenaline draining out of me at once.
"It's over?"
"It's over." He strokes my hair. "You're safe, sweetheart. He can't hurt you anymore."
I want to believe him. Want to accept that this nightmare is finally finished.
But I need to see it for myself.
"Take me to him."
Cade pulls back, searching my face. "You sure?"
"I'm sure."
He leads me through the cabin, past overturned furniture and broken glass, out onto the porch where the afternoon sun is blazing down like nothing happened.
