Kelsey came back to the present, the flashback so fast, so sharp, it felt surreal. This man, Con, had been nowhere in that flashback. She’d been lost in her thoughts and her anger, her gaze on her husband when those gun shots had exploded. Philip had died, and in the aftermath, she’d forgotten that the last words between them had been angry words. Her subconscious had buried that, until now.
“I’ve straightened out my life since then. I’ve done everything right. I even got married. ” Con continued on his rant, his voice rising, sounding more manic with each word. “I’m going to get into politics. And then there was that picture of you in the paper. Seriously, I’d thought they’d sent you to the nut house. You fucking lost it. I thought you were tucked away in crazy land. Then I see you aren’t. If you hadn’t let them do that article on you, this wouldn’t be happening. I’m entitled to live my life. It’s all your fault that I have to do this.”
Kelsey thought of Matthew and Steven and the life they could have together, the life they would have together. She thought of Ginny, who gave up her son rather than risk him near a man who’d been turning more and more violent.
And she thought about this jerk waving his gun, another loser telling her it wasn’t his fault, that somehow she was responsible for his mistakes. This jerk belonged to the past, and she was, by God, done with the past.
Up ahead the road curved, a long sweeping S-bend to the left. Beyond that, she knew, lay a slight rise, a small hill before a long, straight stretch. It was just there where he’d forced her off the road last Sunday.
Kelsey didn’t let herself think as her anger rose up, white hot, blinding. The gun swept the air in front of her face back, then forth as Con tried to focus on driving and keeping the weapon pointed at her.
As soon as they crested the hill, Kelsey screamed and grabbed the hand with the gun in both of hers, slamming it hard against the dash over and over again.
“You crazy fucking bitch! Let go!”
He tried to fight her and the car. Kelsey didn’t let up, just kept banging his wrist against the dash.
The gun exploded, loud, sudden. The force of the recoil threw Kelsey against her seat and the gun into the back seat. The windshield shattered. Kelsey had turned her head but felt but felt sharp prickles on the side of her face.
Con screamed. “My eyes! My eyes!” Both hands covered his face.
Kelsey grabbed the steering wheel at the same time she shoved her foot down between Con’s legs and stomped down on the brake.
The car had nearly stopped when she turned the key off, grabbed it from the ignition, and threw it out through the hole where the windshield had been. It skittered off the hood.
Her fingers shook as she unfastened her seatbelt and got out of the car and ran. Her ears were still ringing from the gunshot when Steven’s Jeep roared up over the hill.
* * * *
She’d been crying and her face was dotted with blood, and he’d never seen anyone more beautiful in all his life.
He stood close to her while Uncle James assessed Kelsey’s injuries.
“I’m getting a little tired of seeing you in my clinic, young lady,” Dr. James said.
“I’m a little tired of seeing you, too,” Kelsey replied.
They both grinned.
Steven stood to the left of Kelsey, her hand folded into his, as Dr. James continued to apply ointment to the tiny cuts on the right side of her face.
Because he couldn’t resist, Steven leaned over and kissed the side of her face gently.
The door to the exam room burst open, and Matthew barreled through the door. His eyes swept her, head to toe.
“I’m okay, sweetheart,” Kelsey said.
“You’re a crazy woman,” Matthew asserted. He all but pushed Dr. James out of the way so that he could give her a hard, fast kiss. “And when we get home I’m seriously considering putting you across my knee and walloping your ass until it’s even redder than it was the other night. We told you to stay at the restaurant until one of us came to get you!” Then he stepped back and turned to Steven. “Did she tell you what she did to escape?”
Steven felt his blood run cold as Matthew relayed how Kelsey had escaped from an armed gunman.
“My God,” Steven said. “You are a crazy woman, and a walloping definitely sounds right.”
It didn’t appear their assessments or threats fazed her in the slightest. “But you guys still love me anyway, right?”
“Hell, yes.” Steven’s fervent declaration was echoed by his brother.
“I didn’t remember him,” Kelsey said as the doctor continued to work on her. “I finally remembered the rest of that day, which I’ve never done. Philip and I had fought. I was so angry my mind was full of our argument. I…I was considering divorce. I truly never even noticed that man.”