Page 61 of Shane

“You guys want a piece of me? Then come and get it!” Everlee barked, the chair leg swung over one shoulder like a baseball bat. She would go down fighting, damn it.

Aim for their heads, then balls. Throats next. If Bud wants to play with fire, fine. But he’ll have to wait his bloody turn, because I’m killing Ringo first. It’ll get bloody before I burn to death. Damn you guys to Hell!

Planting her feet, she growled, determined to get the first swing in. Yeah, these guys were bigger and stronger, but she was a woman! Pissed and righteous and—

The damned barn door burst open with a thunderous clap. Into the sharp, white beam of sunlight stepped a monster of a man. Her one and only exit was blocked.

God, why me?Everlee thought, but then she thought better.Son of a bitch! If I can kill two, I can kill three!

Maybe.

Whoever this creep was, he had a chest that made Bud’s and Ringo’s look puny. He was so big and broad that he had to slant sideways to clear the doorway. She would’ve laughed at the shocked expressions on Ringo and Bud’s faces, the way they’d frozen in their tracks when they saw him. But there wasn’t time to waste and nothing about her desperate situation was funny.

So strike first and hit hard!

Everlee screamed like a banshee and ran straight at Ringo. Quick, while he was looking the other way. She lifted the chair leg high over her head, the battle for her life now begun. With hate in her heart for cretins like these two dirtbags, she screamed her one and only war cry. “Come get some, assholes!”

She was nearly within reach. She had him, by God. Righteous rage fueled her every footstep. She swung the chair leg high over her head. She would win this fight, damn it! At least one of these guys would die at her hand.

Until—a shot blasted from the doorway and something gooey splattered across her bare feet. Ringo dropped dead. Just keeled over, on his face, stiff as a board. A widening puddle of blood pooled under his chest. What the hell?

Before she could lift her chair leg for another attack, a solidTHUNKhit the center of Bud’s skull. Thin, red mist swooshed out the opposite side of his head, like his brain was in a hurry to get away from him.

Everlee froze, her best-laid plan shot to hell. She stood there in shock, waiting for her turn to die. Holding a short, stubby chair leg against the damned precise weapon that had just ended Ringo and Bud. Had the witch who’d given the order for her to die changed her plans? Had her executioner come back to silence Bud and Ringo instead?

Her poor heart pounded at the very clear knowledge that her time was up. There was no way to best the hulking shadow at her one and only exit. Her stomach lurched, threatening to upchuck. So much gore lay between her and her last opponent—the assassin whose face she still couldn’t make out against the sunlight blasting behind him. Almost seemed like a halo. Damn, he was good.

This was not what she’d expected, not how she thought she’d die. Not by another killer. Two she could’ve taken. But three? She lost her nerve. The last thug standing was quietly waiting for her to make her move. Then what? Did he honestly think she’d scurry beside him like a scared rabbit trying to get through that narrow door? He was the only way out. Those two big pistols were still smoking. He was too big. Too thick and too deadly. There was no other way.

Still, she licked her lips, determined to fight to her last breath. That shouldn’t take long. Everlee’s heart sank. The asshat was toying with her, that was what he was doing, like a cat with a stupid mouse. She was trapped, and he knew it. The light squeezing into the barn behind him made him look bigger and blacker, just plain evil and—

Damn him! She refused to back down. Hadn’t backed down to the two dead guys, wouldn’t to this bastard, asshole, whatever! What was he waiting for?

“Through you or over you, Mister,” she declared defiantly, her voice quavering just a little. “I don’t give a shit who you think you are, but I know who I am, and I’m leaving right damned now. Get out of my way. Move it or lose it!” she screamed.

“Everlee?” the last killer asked, his voice deep and quiet, as even as the sunlight behind him.

“Shane?” she croaked, not daring to drop her weapon, but willing to hope.

Her miracle came back to her with a raspy, “Yeah, babe, it’s me. But I can come back later if you’re busy.”

“I’m not busy!” she yelled. Tossing that stupid chair leg aside, she ran to Shane and crashed into his wide-open arms. Craving the safety she knew she’d find in his embrace, she burrowed her face into his magnificent chest, so damned thankful he was there. “It’s you! It’s really you!”

He was there! Lifting her head, she took possession of his handsome, sweaty face with both hands and climbed his body until her legs wrapped around his hips. Tightly. As tightly as she could. Tighter than before. Everlee wanted more than a hug. She wanted all of him. Somehow. Right damned now. He was there!

“You came for me,” she cried, hiccupping like a damned girly girl.

With a delectable, throaty grumble, Shane took a half-step backward to reinforce his balance, then cupped her ass with both gun-wielding hands. A shiver raced up her spine at the intimate contact. Talk about him taking possession. The barrels of the weapons he’d just fired were warm against her backside. But she was more attracted to the smoking hot barrel pressed against her core.

She was out of control, not her usual smug self. No longer aggressive or ready to fight. Just the opposite. She felt inexplicably wanton for the first time in her whole, messed up life. With stupid tears in her eyes, Everlee grabbed hold of Shane’s jaw and mashed her mouth over his.

He came for me. Somehow, he found me.Shane being there in the nick of time proved it.Miracles did happen.Shane saved me! He did! And he tastes so damned good.

Everlee pressed in closer, smacking her lips and ready to devour him. Man, this guy could kiss. He was making a meal of her mouth, and Everlee would’ve given him everything, right there and then. Instead, she offered her tongue and her air and every last bit of her wild, crazy heart—if he’d have it. If he’d take her and help her forget what a loser she was.

But as fast as she’d taken possession of his mouth, he took it back. Angling her away from the dead men and the gore, he carried her out of the barn and into sweet, clean sunlight. Might as well have been starlight. She was so much in lust and love with this sexy man.

Once outside, Shane took a sharp about-face and pressed her back against the barn, and held her in place with his hips. Growling like a beast, he plundered her mouth, the in-and-out actions of his tongue mimicking what his hips seemed to be doing with her core. She had no idea that dry humping was a real thing or that it could feel so good.