Chapter 18
As Steel struggled to get his gun and stand up, Kristen was inside getting her hands tied tightly by the twine that Adam found in the kitchen.
Kristen didn’t know what Adam was after but she figured it wasn’t just because he was jealous and wanted her back. She tried to stay calm and think, but she had just seen Steel shot in cold blood. For all she knew, he was dead. As the tears ran down her face, she tried really hard to calm her breathing and just be rational. She knew she couldn’t let her emotions get out of hand…not if she wanted to make it out alive.
“You don’t have to do this, Adam,” she pled. “I’ll go with you.”
He laughed as he waved his gun at her. “I don’t need you anymore, and I’m not Adam. My name is Jason Middleton.”
Middleton. Where had Kristen heard that name? It was the adoption papers. Her birth parents’ last name was Middleton. “Who are you?” she asked, but Adam could see she had already figured part of it out.
“I’m your cousin,” Adam answered. He didn’t see any reason not to be honest. After all, he planned on killing her and making it look like an accident. Then, his grandparents’ inheritance would be all his.
Kristen was glad she had never slept with Adam, or Jason, after hearing that he was her cousin. Still she couldn’t understand why he would try to marry her. “If you’re my cousin, why did you want to get married after my father’s accident,” she asked. She was surprised he was answering her at all, but as long as he was, she knew she needed to keep him talking until she could figure out a plan to get free.
“Accident? Are you serious?!” Jason shouted and once again laughed loudly. “That wasn’t an accident. I had to get your father out of the way, so you’d never learn that you were adopted.”
Kristen felt another wave of tears, this time for her father. He died because of her. “Why did you care if I found out who my birth parents were?” she spat. Her hatred and anger had grown for the man she now knew was her cousin.
She watched through tear filled eyes as Jason ignored her question and moved the gas stove away from the wall. At first she didn’t know what he was doing, but then it all became clear. He was going to start a gas leak, and blow up the cabin. If she was going to get free, Kristen knew it had to be soon.
She listened as Jason explained to her about the inheritance and how he was happy at first to just marry her so he’d get to share the money. But, after she left him to be with Steel, he decided to kill her and just keep all the money for himself.
Fortunately, as Jason talked, he focused his attention on the gas line behind the stove. With his head buried and the noise he was making, Kristen was able to try to get her hands and legs freed.
As much as she struggled, though, she couldn’t seem to get lose. Before she knew it, Jason was finished doing whatever he was doing with the gas line, and announced that he would miss her.
“Don’t do this!” she screamed as she began sobbing. She couldn’t believe her life was going to end that way, but without her father or Steel, she wasn’t sure she had any reason to go on living anyway.
Before Jason left, he set a small device on the table near Kristen. It made a clicking noise that sounded like the ignition on her barbecue grill.
She watched in horror as he headed for the back door. She began thrashing back and forth in an attempt to free herself from the twine restraints. Her only hope was to get free before the house filled with gas. As she bucked back and forth, the twine cut into her wrists and ankles.
Just as Jason reached the back door, he opened it and turned to say something. Before he could get the words out, though, Kristen heard a loud bang. She froze and watched as Jason’s shirt turned red and he slumped to the ground. He had been shot.
The next second, she saw Steel step over the body and into the kitchen. He was hurt, but alive. The tears in her eyes changed from those of fear to those of happiness.
“Turn off the gas!” she told him, but he was only concerned with one thing, and that was getting her out of the house. He grabbed a knife from a wooden block on the kitchen counter and cut her free.
“Go outside and get far away from the cabin!” he ordered. “I’ll shut the gas off and join you.”
Kristen didn’t want to leave Steel in the cabin with the leaking gas, but knew that an argument would just waste time and endanger both of their lives. She did grab the clicking ignition device and throw it into the front yard on her way out though.
As she waited for Steel, she could barely breathe. She held her breath, hoping that nothing would go wrong. “What was taking so long?” she wondered after about five minutes. A part of her wondered if maybe he had passed out from either the blood loss or the fumes.
Just as she was about to head back inside to check on him, she saw him emerge from the doorway. She ran to meet him. “I’m so happy you’re alive!” she shouted as she hugged him tightly and kissed him on the lips.
“The things I do for love,” he teased and then kissed her back, this time more passionately.
An hour later, the area in front of the cabin was filled with police cruisers, ambulance and fire engines. Kristen and Steel gave an account on how Jason, who pretended to be her fiancé, Adam, had tracked them to the cabin and tried to kill them both so he could steal Kristen’s rightful inheritance.
Steel was still unsure how Jason even knew where they were, but one of the detectives said he must’ve had a bug on Kristen. The only thing she always had on her at all times was her cell phone, and sure enough, when they checked it they found a tracking device.
“I’m so sorry,” Kristen said. Everything that had happened was all because of her, and she couldn’t help feeling guilty.
“We’re fine. I just know that I never want to live another day without you in my life,” Steel replied as he got down on one knee. “Kristen, will you marry me?”
All of the EMTs and officers all broke out in applause as Steel proposed. He had to use a tied piece of grass as the engagement ring, but Kristen told him she would love to marry him.
A year later, they were married, but that’s a story for another time.
Be sure to read the second book in the Rocky Mountain Novella series.
Identity Crisis: A Rocky Mountain Novella
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