His face flushed and he huffed out air. “You are not listening to me.” Shaking the gun, he stomped toward me, and he pointed the barrel between my eyes. “We have to do this. Now.”
I couldn’t breathe. Then he was in my space. Full on, the barrel just inches away. I let instinct take over.
My body dropped, hunched, and I ducked beneath the gun and smashed my head into his stomach. We crashed to the floor, and I swept out, knocking the weapon out of his hand. I punched him in the groin.
Then I slid toward the gun, kicking his hands as they clutched onto my jeans over my ankles, and grabbed it.
Crying, spitting, coughing, I scrambled back, pointing the gun at his head.
He sat up to kneel, tears flowing from his face, his hand over his balls.
I slowly stood, my hands shaking on the gun.
He looked up, his eyes vacant. “Do it. Just get it done.”
Chapter 39
Everything inside me stilled and then went rock solid cold. My hands stopped shaking. For most of my life, I’d imagined what would happen in this exact situation. In every scenario, I shot him in the head.
Every. Single. One.
Nobody would blame me. He’d kidnapped me and terrorized me, and he deserved to die.
He smiled, showing one longer canine. “You can’t do it. We both know you can’t.”
“I can,” I said softly, widening my stance. “Oh, I definitely can.” It was shocking I hadn’t pulled the trigger yet.
He wiped snot off his face with his sleeve. “We belong together.” His chin lowered. “How can you treat me like this? I wooed you. I left you gifts.”
I gagged. “The flowers and the heart on my garage?”
“Yes.” He sniffed loudly. “I was trying to ease you into this. Why can’t you see that?”
“What about Crackle?” I asked, my voice trembling.
Jareth’s eyes blazed. “He hurt you. I was following you and I saw what happened. He deserved to die. I even wrapped him for you.”
My stomach lurched. This guy was nuts. “You need help.”
He extended both hands to me. “No matter what, I’ll never give up. I have friends, more than you know, and they’ll help me.”
I doubted that. “Bull,” I muttered. “You don’t have friends. You’re not capable of it.”
“Maybe not, but I have money and will hire myself some friends like I did tonight.” He smiled. “You and I are meant to be. I’ll come for you. No matter how old we are, you’ll never be free of me.”
One little squeeze. That’s all it’d take on the trigger. One small squeeze and he’d be out of my life forever. I promised Aiden if I pointed a gun, I’d use it. I’d prepared for this my entire life.
Jareth lifted one knee and planted his foot on the wood. “You can’t do it.”
I swallowed, serene in the moment. “I can. You deserve to die. To be gone.” Yet I didn’t pull the trigger. “I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve to have your blood staining my soul.” If I didn’t have to live with that, I wouldn’t. “You don’t get to win. Not in this.” I kept the aim at his head and angled to the side, toward the door. “Give me the keys.”
“I’ll never stop,” he said.
“You’ll never win,” I promised. “Now. Keys.”
He reached in his back pocket. “Fine.” Then he drew out the keys and threw them at me.
I backed up, trying to catch them.
