“Let’s get it all said, lady. Why did you drug me in the first place?”

“For one thing, I needed to search your place.” She lifted a slender shoulder. “I figured you had to have a clue around somewhere that’d tell me where to find my property. Yes, I knew you took her. You didn’t see me that night on the bridge. You never suspected that a woman could be involved, did you?”

He laughed. “I’ve known plenty of sick females. There’s nothing unique about you.”

“Think again.” She stepped up to him, the gun held tight in her hand. Jackson just stared down at her, insolent, unmoved, showing not one iota of fear. “Most people would have gone after their property and been satisfied. But not me. I tracked you that night, and you’ve been a project of mine ever since. I have detailed plans for you.”

“Works for me, ’cuz I hate unfinished business.”

Hearing Jackson taunt a madwoman, Alani had to shove a fist against her mouth to stay quiet.

“Me, too,” Arizona said. “And since the business is mostly between us, why don’t you leave him out of it?” Pale, cold, in some way deadly, Arizona started forward.

“Don’t you dare,” Alani told her. When Chandra and her men eyed her with varying degrees of surprise, Alani forced herself to stop cowering. The nearly hysterical laugh almost escaped, but she managed to quell it. Hoping to infuse some confidence into her tone, she said to Arizona, “He has it under control. Can’t you see that?”

Arizona waffled…and held back.

Jackson regained Chandra’s attention by asking, “How’d you get in, anyway? I hate to think I let every crazy broad past the door.”

Chandra trailed the knuckles of her gun hand down his body and over his fly. “Still don’t remember? My, those were good drugs.”

She caressed him—and Alani wanted to take her apart. She surprised herself with the ferocious inclination.

But it helped her to remember that she had Arizona’s gun in her purse.

Oh. Did she dare? Would she be able to withdraw it without anyone noticing?

Holding her breath, she slipped her hand into the purse and easily located the heavy gun. The men had all their attention on Jackson, almost as if they feared him.

But they didn’t see her as a threat.

Alani’s knees felt weak, her stomach sick.

Chandra continued talking. “I knocked, and when you answered, I turned on the tears. It was an award-winning act, if I say so myself.”

Arizona scoffed. “Men are so damn stupid about that stuff.”

Chandra ignored her. “I told you that I’d been in a wreck and I felt sick and I’d lost my phone. You were so sweet, so gallant.”

“I’m gagging here,” Arizona said.

Expression unchanged, Chandra said to her men, “If she speaks again, shoot her.”

Bravado in place, Arizona pretended to lock her lips and throw away the key.

Alani admired her so much, especially knowing how Arizona felt about Chandra. Was she the only one to note the pallor of Arizona’s skin?

Hugging the purse, Alani slipped her finger around the trigger. Keeping the gun concealed, she turned it on Chandra and swallowed hard. Aiming at a target was one thing.

Shooting at a human being, even a truly vile person, was something altogether different.

“You went to get me a drink,” Chandra said, “but you’d left a cola sitting there on a table in front of the television, so I dosed it.” She shrugged. “Easier than I’d ever expected, given the way you shredded my men that night on the bridge. I’d watched from a safe distance away, you know. Even as I detested you for interfering, I admired your ability.”

Again, she pawed his crotch. By the second, the idea of shooting her seemed less repulsive to Alani.

“After a couple of sips, you suspected something wasn’t right, but—” Chandra smiled “—it was already too late for you.”

“Not buying it.” Jackson shook his head. “Two sips wouldn’t have done me in.”

“No, but it dazed you enough that I could get you with a hypodermic.”

“Ah. Now, that I believe.” He tilted his head to study her. “So you have a big operation?”

“Big enough.” She did more stroking, then made a sound of pleasure. “Sort of like you.”

Arizona snapped. “Oh my God, that is so freaking pathetic, you lecherous bitch! Can you only get near a man by raping him at gunpoint?”

Everything seemed to happen at once.

Chandra screamed, “Shoot her!”

In an incredibly fast move, Jackson sent the switchblade through the air to embed in one guard’s shoulder, and almost at the same time he locked Chandra in front of him, her own gun now turned on the other guard, his finger covering the trigger.

Too late to pull back, Alani fired.

Multiple gun blasts sounded, so loud that they made her yelp and nearly stopped her heart. A window on the BMW shattered.

Her shot.

Chandra slumped in Jackson’s arms—not her shot.

Even with the knife in his shoulder, the panicked guard reached for his gun, but didn’t make it. He screamed as something hit his hand, sending blood spewing and making his gun drop. The other guard took one bullet to the shoulder, another to his thigh.

And just like that, the strained confrontation ended. The two goons and Chandra were no longer a threat to anyone.

Heart still hammering, Alani struggled to make sense of what transpired. Jackson stood as upright, as strong and confident as ever. Arizona, while dazed and panting, appeared uninjured.