He lolled in my arms like a rag doll. No longer the big tough guy exerting his power over a defenseless woman.
While he was still struggling to catch his breath, I got both his wrists secured behind him, tightening the zip-ties more than necessary.
Then I pulled out my phone and sent the team a two-word text.
Target down.
Lucy was on her feet, her hand pressed to her chest, staring at Jimmy on the floor.
Her face was white.
“Why?” she asked, her voice breaking. “You’re richer than god. You don’t need my money.”
Jimmy looked up at her from the floor, and something ugly moved across his face.
“Because you were supposed to be grateful,” he spat. “I found you in a dive bar singing to twelve people and I turned you into alegend.”
She stared at him, trying to comprehend what he was saying.
“You think I wanted to be a producer?” There was a bitter edge in his voice. This resentment had been festering for a long time.
“Iwanted to be the one on stage.Ihad the songs.Ihad the talent. But nobody was coming to find me. So I built the next best thing. I builtyou. But when you walked out on me and started talking about cutting me out…” He shook his head. “I wasn’t going to let you take that from me.”
The silence in the room was complete.
I watched Lucy absorb it.
Jimmy was jealous of her. Of her talent. The thing she’d been born with that he could never manufacture for himself.
And when she’d threatened to take it somewhere he couldn’t follow, he’d decided to bury her instead.
Jimmy was coming back to his senses now, and he leveled a hard stare at me as recognition dawned on his face.
“You’re Ben. The new boyfriend.”
He must have seen one of the thousand articles that had come out between yesterday afternoon and today. The paparazzi had been busy.
“She’ll do the same thing to you, man.” He sneered at me. “You’ll find out. She’s a frigid ice queen.”
That’s when I lost it. I pulled back and hit him with one solid punch, watching with satisfaction as his head snapped back before lolling forward.
I pulled his face toward me and growled dangerously, “If you ever talk that way about my woman again, I’ll put you in the ground myself.”
Jimmy seemed to understand that, because he got quiet and didn’t say another word until Cal arrived with two officers a few minutes later. My arm around his throat might have helped to shut him up.
The house filled with voices and movement, and someone removed my arm from around Jimmy’s neck.
That’s when I realized how close I’d come to killing him.
He was bright red and coughing hard.
Cal took over, along with the police, and I stood back and let it happen, watching Lucy from across the room as she answered questions with her arms wrapped around herself, her eyes darting to mine every few seconds for reassurance.
I nodded at her to let her know I was still here for her.
But I knew they wanted to question her without my influence, so I stayed where I was, even though it took a toll on me to do so.
And then it was over.
