The Ex Who Wouldn't Die (2 page)

Huh?
Where the hell was she and why had she been sleeping outside
…in her riding gear
?

The accident
.
She'd lost control of her bike, skidded going around that last curve
, skidded as if she'd hit sand or oil
.

She lifted herself painfully on
one elbow. "What are you doing here? I
knew
you had something to do with it! You were following me, weren't you?
This is your fault! Somehow, this has to be your fault!
"

"I didn't.
I wasn
'
t.
I swear. I
think I
'm h
ere to
save your life. Y
ou've got to
make it
back to the highway
so you can
get help
."

Amanda blinked and looked around her, trying to focus through the fog
inside her brain that couldn't
be dispelled by anything as simple
as opening a
faceplate
.

"All right," she finally agre
ed, as she had learned to do when
Charley
was making some irrational demand. Agree to
anything just to
shut him up, then do as she pleased.
"Okay.
I need to get to the highway.
"

"Good." He rose and stepped backward.

"Go on," she urged. "I'll be there later."

"Damn it, Amanda, this is no time to be stubborn! You're hurt! You
'
ll
die if you don't get help!"

Amanda had to admit, she didn't feel so hot. She'd taken quite a tumble, and her desire to go back to sleep probably wasn't a good sign considering how hard her head had hit that rock. With a sigh, she tugged open the zipper of her jacket pocket and fumbled for the cell phone. "Call 911," she said, offering it to
Charley
.

"Great idea!" He reached eagerly
, then drew back with a strange
sad look. "I can't."

"Oh, for crying out loud!" She started to punch in the numbers…but of course there was no signal this far into the mountains. She sho
ved the phone back in
her pocket.

"Fine. You get your way again. I'll walk back to the highway."
She tried to rise, but pain shot through her left ankle
,
and she fell back with a groan.
"I'm
just
going to
lie down here for a minute and
take a short nap, and then I'll have the energy to walk."

"No!"
Charley
shouted. "You'll die!"

"And you can't stand for me to escape from you even in death! Well, I can't walk
. I think my ankle
might be
broken."

"You may have to crawl,"
Charley
conceded.

Familiar fury rose
in Amanda's throat. "You could give me a hand!" she snapped.
"You could carry me! You could at least let me lean on your shoulder!"

Charley
grinned, looking like a mischievous boy. Which he was. A 32-year old child.
"You always want to be independent. You're always saying you don't need any help. Guess you'll have to prove it now." He took another step backward, up the mountain.

"Why, you worthless…" Her words ended in a groan as she again tried to get to her fee
t. Every muscle and bone in her body protested, registering their complaints with sharp stabs of pain.

"Worthless what?"
Charley
taunted, moving farther away and still grinning…triumphantly, she thought. "Come on, Amanda, you can do better than that. Remember the time I hocked our wedding rings to pay off my gambling debt? You had some pretty colorful names for me then."

Amanda unleashed a few
heart-felt
invectives, but
Charley
continued to step backward.

"What? I can't hear you. Did you say you still love me?"

"
You are the most despicable creature on this earth! I only thought I hated you before this! What kind of
monster
forces an injured woman to crawl?
" But she was crawling, or something like it. Using her arms and her uninjured leg, she inched her way toward him, every movement an agony. E
ach
time she gripped something with her right hand, a pain knifed through her shoulde
r.
Fortunately,
her anger at
Charley
provided something of
an anesthetic.

"You're going to pay for this,
Charley
Randolph
." The rock she'd wedged her right foot against gave way,
and she clung to a small tree with only
her right hand, the pain
in her shoulder
excruciating. Blackness crept around the corners of her mind, but she shoved it away, replacing it with righteous fury.

"All deals are off," she panted when she'd stabilized
her position. She
reached upward, dragging herself along, as
Charley
continued to move backward
, away from her, up the hill
. "I'm
no longer offering to give you two-thirds of the property just to get away from you. I'm
taking h
alf of everything
and all
of
my business
. I earned ninety percent
of everything
anyway!
I'll fight you in court if it takes another ten years!
"

"I won't sign the
divorce
papers, Amanda. I won't give you half. I won't let you divorce me. If you
keep
try
ing
, you
'll end up with
nothing. Not even the cat." And still he smiled that infuriating smile.

"Damn you to hell! Damn you to living with my mother and
never going deaf
for all eternity!" The bush she grabbed hold of had stickers
so sharp
they pierced her glove and her palm
, but she ignored that
relatively
minor pain and continued to move. "
We don't even have a cat! That's just like you to take something we don't even have!
I hope the next woman you sleep with gives you leprosy!"

"What was it you threatened to do with that rusty serrated knife when you caught me with Becky? Cut some flowers
for a bouquet
?"

"Cut off your penis and put it down the garbage disposal! And it was Megan! I didn't know about Becky
until now
!" 

Charley
continued to taunt her, and Amanda continued to climb, determined to reach him and throw him back down the mountain.
So much for moving past her desire to kill him.

Then after an eternity, he stopped, and she realized the highway was inches
from
her face. With a gargantuan effort, she pushed hersel
f erect, careful not to put
much weight on her left ankle.

Charley
beamed. "You made it, babe!
I knew you could do it!
"

She lunged for him…and fell onto the surface of the highway.

"Amanda,
wake up. W
e
have
to talk
about something
," he said,
his tone suddenly serious,
but she was already drifting into the blackness, her last ounce of energy expended.
"Amanda!
You almost die
d!
He tried to kill you!
He'll try again!
You're in danger!
"

Chapter Two

Somebody was
moaning
, making an awful fuss
.
Being t
otally obnoxious.

Bloody hell. It was her.

Her head throbbed with excruciating pain
. She lay still, trying to remember what she'd done last night to deserve this.

Oh, yes.
The motorcycle wreck, skidding out of control, tumbling down the mountain, expecting to die.

Then…Charley. He'd made her crawl up that blasted mountain to the highway, hadn
'
t given her even a little bit of help. Damn! She could have died, but he wasn
'
t about to get dirt on his hands or grass stains on his Dockers. Same old Charley.

She opened her eyes. Even without moving her head…which she didn't dare attempt…she could tell this was a hospital room. Small, gloomy, an IV pole beside the hard, uncomfortable bed.

Apparently Charley had gone for help, then probably gone for a drink. Even as she cursed his lack of responsibility in leaving
her
, she was glad she didn't have to contend with him
and
a vile headache while trying to escape from a dreary hospital room.

"You're awake!" Her younger sister's always-excited voice came from the other side of the bed, and Amanda smelled the floral perfume before the small, perky face appeared above hers. Jenny was always perky even when she really wasn't. Petite with short, dark hair framing delicate features, she was Amanda's opposite in every way. Amanda, tall, red-haired and rebellious, had often wondered if she might be a changeling in
the family that fell short of
perfection only
by her presence in that family.