Caught by Red Garnier Page B

much rather fuck her.”
    When Megan kicked his shin and broke free, it took Cody only seconds to reach for her, but by then Ivan had grabbed her by the throat. “You’re not going anywhere, Maggie.”
    Cody whipped out his gun and aimed. “Let her go, Ivan.”
    Ivan’s cold, hard laugh made the hair rise in her nape. “Ahh, Cody, always wanting to boss me around ’cause you’re a minute older. You’re not boss here, I am. I have the girl now.”
    â€œShe walks, Ivan. She walks now and we’ll settle this.”
    â€œOh yes? But you see … maybe she doesn’t want to walk—” he licked his tongue into her ear and her stomach roiled in disgust. “Do you know why I killed them, Maggie? Because of you. Did you know what your boyfriend did, Meg? Huh? Did you know what he did? He said he was taking you from me. My parents thought I was not good enough for you. Because I was not my brother.” He shot a look of venom at Cody. “But for a moment I was able to make you believe I was him, didn’t I? Last night?” he cooed into her ear. “When I touched you, you believed I was that guy, the perfect guy.”
    Bile rose up to her throat at the memory, and she wanted to scrape her mouth clean of him once more.
    What a fool she’d been.
    So desperate to be touched, loved, by Cody, that she had not seen the difference of the touch, of his taste, until she’d seen him—the man she loved—with a gun pointed to his head.
    They were nothing alike.
    Ivan had tried to look like him, but his essence, his goodness, his decency, had a scent, a feel, a vibe. Oh God, she wanted that strength around her, that scent, that man.
    Ivan curved his hand around her nape and wound his fingers into the blond curls of her hair. “You think I haven’t thought of this, too, Maggie Meg?” He massaged her scalp. “That I didn’t fantasize about this even when I was just a boy?”
    â€œLET. HER. GO.” Cody’s trigger finger was trembling, and Meg wondered if she ducked … would he shoot?
    Cody was so damned decent inside, she wondered if he’d kill his own brother. Despite the fact that he was a murderer, Cody had not killed him before.
    Ivan yanked her head back so hard the pain burned across her scalp, tearing a gasp and a whimper out of her. “Toss me the gun. And the other gun. And the knife.”
    â€œYou won’t kill her, Ivan,” Cody hissed in a low, threatening voice, “but I have no qualms about killing you.”
    â€œI’ll scar her for life! I’ll make her suffer, you son of a bitch!”
    â€œWe have the same mother, you moron.”
    â€œDrop your weapons and she goes!”
    The silence was deafening in the nature. And then, one by one, Cody tossed everything to the ground, and Megan’s hopes of coming out of this alive plummeted.
    â€œOkay.” Ivan pushed her aside with a smile. “Forty steps, Maggie Meg. Make them quick before I change my mind and shoot.”
    Megan began walking, uncertain as she sought out a pair of blue, blue eyes that seemed to urge her to do as Ivan said. As she passed him, the man she loved, Cody ground out under his breath, “Keep going.”
    But it was difficult to take another step. “I don’t want to leave you,” she said anxiously, fearing Ivan would do another stupid thing, another crazy thing.
    â€œKeep going, Banks.”
    She still couldn’t. “I don’t want to!”
    â€œGo, goddammit!” Cody exploded, framing her face between his hands. “My life is over if anything happens to you.” He kissed her hard and long, pushing his tongue into her mouth in a long, hot wet thrust that sent her senses spinning. “I love you. Now go.”
    I love you.
    Now go.
    Megan didn’t know why she obeyed, why she headed out off the clearing, dazed with those parting words, taking those