The Perfect Couple (Last Stand #4)(94)
Author: Brenda Novak

"You’re okay, babe. You’ve had worse."

"Quit it, Colin. You’ve got to get out of here. Stivers will find this place eventually. It’s not as if it’s invisible."

"It’s so remote it might as well be invisible," he said.

"Why won’t you listen?" she shouted. "Are you on something again?

He’ll be here any minute, Colin!"

"No, he won’t. Come on, babe." He grabbed her ass and gave it a lascivious squeeze, letting his tongue dangle out as he did. "You’re not willing to duke it out for your man? I thought you hated Zoe. I thought you wanted me to kill her."

Tiffany staggered back a few steps. "Shut up! God, I hate you!"

He stiffened as if she’d slapped him. "What’d you say?"

She covered her mouth. Obviously, she regretted those words, but that didn’t seem to matter. Tiffany was right. Colin had to be on something. He was acting bizarre.

The Bells stared at each other for several seconds. Then Colin strode over and yanked Tiffany by the hair. "You want her?" he said to Zoe. "Here she is."

Zoe had to think of some way to prevail. Her daughter was alive.

Colin had spoken of her in the present tense. But where was she? Zoe hoped she was in the shed or the cabin. If she was anywhere else, she might never find her.

"Let’s go to Sam," she said.

"In a minute."

Tiffany winced but didn’t cry out as Colin forced her arms behind her back. "My wife deserves to be taught a lesson." He licked Tiffany’s cheek this time. "What do you say, babe? You hate me, huh? Is that it?"

"I didn’t mean it," she whined. "You know I love you, Colin. I’d do anything for you. I brought her here, didn’t I?"

"You brought her here so I could kill her. That’s hardly a sacrifice."

He returned his attention to Zoe. "If you’ll kick her ass, I’ll kill Sam quick."

Sam was indeed alive–but how was Zoe going to keep her that way?

"That’s really the best offer I can make you," he explained as glibly as if they were discussing an innocuous business transaction. "I can’t let either of you go. I won’t insult your intelligence by pretending otherwise. But I’ll do you the favor of getting rid of her in as painless a fashion as possible.

Then it’ll be just me and you, all week."

"Colin, you’re making me regret this!" Tiffany said. "Let go of me."

"No."

"Let go of me!"

Colin pushed Tiffany closer to Zoe. "Come on, hit her." He used his chin to indicate Tiffany’s face. "Right here."

"And what will you do?" Zoe asked.

"I’ll stay out of it. This is pure entertainment for me. I’ll give you three punches. Then you’re on your own and whoever wins, wins. If that happens to be you, I’ll show you some mercy."

"Colin, stop!" Tiffany squirmed, but he held her fast.

Colin waved at his wife again. "Here you go, Zoe. You wanted to fight her a minute ago."

Zoe hadn’t wanted to fight anybody. She only wanted to get away. His perception of everything was all screwed up.

"Hit her," he taunted. "Give her a black eye. Think of how she’s treated your little girl. Feeding her nothing but dog food. Making her wear a choke chain. Chaining her to the ground. She’s a cruel bitch."

Anger at the thought of Sam being treated in such a fashion made Zoe feel powerful enough to attack anyone.

"She’s the one who took her, you know," he went on. "She coaxed her over to the house and locked her up while you were at work. You sure have a gullible child, but I guess most kids would think they could trust a face as pretty as Tiffany’s."

"You did that?" Zoe spoke to Tiffany. Somehow, it was even more of a betrayal coming from another woman. "You’re just as bad as he is."

Tiffany couldn’t meet her eyes. "I did it for him!"

Colin jerked on his wife’s arms, still twisted behind her back, and caused a grunt of pain. "Oh, and now you turn on me again."

Evidently, Colin could say anything he wanted about Tiffany but couldn’t tolerate her slightest offense.

"Let me loose." Tiffany struggled some more, but he laughed and continued to restrain her.

"Maybe I should take you both to Chester, force you to torture each other. That would be interesting. Forget Sam. She’s useless, as good as dead."

Terror clutched at Zoe’s heart. What had he done to her?

"I’m not going to Chester," Tiffany said. "Not now."

"You’re a real downer, Tiff. You should be glad that adding Zoe to the mix makes you exciting again. Without her, you can’t even get me hard anymore."

Tears streamed down Tiffany’s cheeks. "You don’t love me. I should’ve seen it before."

"You asked for this," he said. "Now shut up and you’ll get what you want in the end. I’m just having a little fun."

"You’ve been snorting coke again! I hate what it does to you!"

"And you hate me. Yeah, we heard." He dragged her toward Zoe. "Hit her."

"As hard as I want?" Zoe asked.

"As hard as you want." He held his wife to the left of his body in anticipation of a right-handed punch. But Zoe wasn’t right-handed. And it wasn’t Tiffany she wanted.

Making a fist with both hands so she wouldn’t telegraph her intentions, she punched Colin as hard as she could.

"It’s about time someone realized that son of a bitch is crazy." Glen Hagen propped one massive, tattoo-covered arm on the car window and continued to chew on the toothpick he’d kept in his mouth ever since Jonathan had met him at the gas station in Nyack. Glen felt confident he could find the cabin, but he couldn’t give verbal directions beyond the general vicinity. "It’ll only get you lost if I try," he’d said when Jonathan had pushed him on it. "You think you’ll know where to go if I say to turn right at the granite outcropping and left at the crooked tree?"

It was a good point, so Jonathan had waited for him, but the hour he lost hadn’t been easy to give up. Every minute that ticked away heightened his anxiety. His terror at the thought of what Zoe might be going through told him he cared more about her than he’d wanted to, more than he’d ever intended. Which wasn’t a pleasant realization, considering what had happened with Maria.

It didn’t help that Detective Thomas had been so late getting into the game. He’d been out on another case most of the day, a grisly murder-suicide, but returned Jonathan’s many calls a few minutes ago. He’d said that Paddy Bell’s ex had contacted the Sacramento police to demand they investigate Colin in connection with his father’s disappearance.