She glared at the ceiling, refusing to look at either of them. “If you call Kilo, it may be the end of you. And one way or the other, your interference will be the death of me.”
Chapter Four
“Why didn’t Grant want me to overhear him talking to Kilo?” Morgan asked.
“He probably threatened him,” Blake replied. Probably, hell. The threat was a given. “For some reason, he’s under the misguided impression that you would never think of him as a hard-ass.”
She laughed at that.
A few minutes later, Grant walked in her bedroom and tossed her cell phone on a nearby bedside table. “We understand one another.”
“What did you tell him?”
Grant frowned. “In a nutshell? I said I’d kill him if he ever came looking for you, and I told him how to find me if he wants to discuss this further. He has turn-by-turn directions from Memphis to Blountville. He won’t even need GPS.”
“What?” she screeched. “Are you out of your mind?”
“No,” he replied. “I just wanted to be sure we understand one another.”
“He’ll come here.”
“I doubt it. Drug thugs like Kilo won’t face off with real men who don’t abuse their women, Morgan. He might wish all sorts of things. Perhaps he’ll throw around a few threats, but when it comes right down to it, Kilo is a bully. He damn sure doesn’t have the balls to face off with me or Blake. And Kit and Kemper would slaughter the sorry son of a bitch.”
“Kilo isn’t a bully, Grant. I’ve seen what he’s done to other people who’ve crossed him.”
“Do I look scared, Morgan?” Grant asked. He pointed at Blake and said, “Neither one of us are afraid of much when it comes to protecting you.”
“You’re crazy if you believe he’ll stay away because of a cowboy’s threat. Several months ago I tried to detox on my own. It was awful. I had hallucinations and endless nightmares. When I woke up, Kilo asked me who Grant and Blake were and what they meant to me. When I told him you were ex-boyfriends, a series of beatings began. He rewarded me in the end after I told him where you lived.” She gasped as she covered her mouth with her small hand. “I’m so sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” Grant asked. “I just told you, I gave him directions myself.”
“Yes, but that was your choice. I made a decision to swap information that might have cost you your lives.”
“We’re still here,” Grant assured her. “No harm done. Like I said, I want him to come and find me. I look forward to the meeting.”
Blake immediately sat beside her, stroking her cheek. “Morgan, what else did you tell him?”
She shook her head, the tears flooding her face. “Please let me go. I need to get out of here. Maybe if I run, he won’t come here. I’ll call him and see if I can go home. He might give me a second chance.”
Grant’s nostrils flared. “A second chance? Are you serious, Morgan?”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Blake told her, shaking his head quickly at Grant, hoping he’d let him handle Morgan for the time being. “Honey, this is your home. Right here with me, Grant, Kit, and Kemper. Don’t you see, Morgan? You’ve been running all this time, but you haven’t been returning home, you’ve been sprinting right back into the deadly clutches of a drug you can’t seem to leave behind.”
“You don’t understand. He’ll come here for sure. He’ll find me. He’ll kill you because you have me!”
“He’ll go through an army first,” Blake told her. “If he comes here, Morgan, we will shoot to kill.”
“He will, too! Don’t you understand? I don’t want this! I couldn’t bear it if Kilo killed you because of me.”
“Can you live with yourself if you know you’re the reason Kilo dies or goes to prison?” Grant asked.
She swallowed hard. After a seemingly long consideration, she finally said, “I honestly don’t know.”
Grant shrugged. “Then I guess you need to take a moment and figure that out. If you believe he’ll come here, and you must, you need to prepare for the worst. If Kilo arrives in East Tennessee, whether he’s here tomorrow or the next day, he will leave one of three ways—in a body bag, on a stretcher, or in handcuffs.”
* * * *
“She’s finally asleep,” Blake said, meeting Grant on the front porch.
“Did she talk you into loosening the cuffs?” Grant asked.
“Not a chance,” Blake told him. “There was enough slack. A half-inch more and she would’ve wiggled her way to freedom.”