Page 30 of Hunted by the Headless Horseman (Roars and Romances #5)

“I will leave tonight and never return.”

JACK

Ifeel her before she shouts from behind me, “Jack!”

I should return to the manor, find Revenant, and ride far from Belladonna Holloway until she forgets the name Jack ever existed. She deserves more.

But I cannot and will not leave without saying goodbye. She also deserves this.

With a flurry of breaths escaping her mouth, Belle reaches the crest of the small forest path winding up the hill from her bookshop. The next thing I know, she is crashing against me, throwing her arms around me, shaking and crying. Tears fall down her cheeks in streams, hot and emotional. I stiffen but do not refuse her touch.

A few moments pass before she pulls away, her tear-stained eyes narrowing in confusion. Thankfully, it’s still far too dark for her to see my face.

“What’s wrong? Why aren’t you?—?”

“I saw you.”

Her brows scrunch and she parts her lips, stepping back.

“You saw me? What? What are you talking about?”

I hear the hurt in her voice, the defensiveness.

Heaving a sigh, I run my fingers through my hair before dropping my hand to my side, clenching the leather.

“I saw you with him. My curse coming back to haunt me. My salvation, the woman I believed was my future wife?—”

“I still am,”

she insists sharply.

“How can I believe…? My curse…what am I supposed to believe, Belladonna—after what I saw?

She huffs. She dares to huff and throw her hands up in the air.

“You’re such a fucking jackass.”

The name slams against me, stunning me.

“What did you call me?”

My frustration mounts, blood growing hotter.

“Jack—ass. Look it up. It’s an ass that begins with “Jack”

with a capital J.”

Closing in, Belle grips my hand holding the cane while lifting her other to my face.

“So, you saw me kissing him back so I could distract him long enough to plunge the goddamn scissors into his shoulder.”

Blood soaks her hand. His blood. Now, coating my face.

“You didn’t see when I tried to grab my taser. You didn’t hear me call him a monster. You didn’t feel how revolted I was. You didn’t feel how scared I was—because I had to shut it all down because I knew it was the only way I could escape. If I tried to fight him, Jack, he would have knocked me unconscious and taken me by force. It wouldn’t be the first time.”

Emotion chokes her voice.

“You couldn’t feel how much I hoped and prayed you would burst into the bookshop and save me. But how much more terrified I was at the thought of him hurting you.”

Something carves my insides, a blade forged of my own guilt and idiocy. How could I have doubted her? Her words steal the very breath in my lungs until all my muscles bulge in fury—fury at myself.

I chuck the cane. Close the distance between us. Let my hot breath drift across her face. And say, “I am a jackass.”

When I lift her into my arms, Belle gasps, and I crush my mouth to hers, hauling her so close, she’s melting into me. She wraps her legs tighter around my waist, kissing me back, kissing me harder and needier than ever. She fills my mouth with her moans and grips my hair, tearing it from its leather tie.

A guttural sound leaves my throat, evidence of my own hunger for her. But the thoughts come creeping in again even as I push her against the nearest tree, hiking up her dress and clutching her luscious thigh.

My chest swells with the love I hold for her. A jealous, all-consuming love that commands me to touch every part of her, body, heart, mind, and beautiful soul. Then, she’s clutching her chest, touching her pounding heart, gasping for breath.

“I won’t let her die of a broken heart, Mr. Moore.”

Mrs. Kravitson’s words slam into me, breaking me from the kiss, hovering above my Belle’s lips. The ring in my pocket feels like an anchor, a millstone tied around my neck, dragging me under.

“Belle.”

Concern fills my voice.

“It’s okay. I’m okay…”

No, her breaths are still sharp and rushed.

A deep ache invades my chest with the knowledge of what I must do to protect her. Lowering her to the ground, I thread my fingers through her curls, imagining this will be the last time to feel them.

“I will escort you to the town hall. There, you will meet with Mrs. Kravitson. She has made arrangements with the county, and reinforcements are coming to handle the Covenant and protect you.”

“Okay, but we have to keep searching. We can’t stop. Take me tomorrow morning.”

“Fuck, Belle!”

I turn and swing my fist, driving it into the tree, taking a layer of bark off and tearing my gloves. Her breath hitches. Turning and moving toward her, I take both sides of her neck, thumbs rubbing her jaw.

“I cannot protect you, Belle. When dawn comes…thunderation!—no head. No speech. I’ll be as good as a goddamn ghost.”

“We’ll figure it out together.”

She lifts her hand to touch the back of mine.

“I’m not letting you go, my headless horseman. Remember: your heart is my heart.”

“My heart is gone, Belle. Fucking lost. And yours is…”

“What?”

A clear edge in her tone.

“Do not deny it. We both know the state of your heart. And I will not jeopardize it by binding you to this curse for a full year.”

I sweep my knuckles across her cheek, smoothing away locks of hair.

“You require a calm and fulfilling life as you have had for the last nine years before I came into your life.”

“You didn’t come into my life. I summoned you. And remember what you said? October 1st is not a coincidence.”

She slides her hand into mine and lifts my palm to her lips.

“You are my life, Jack. And I am your wife. I am Belladonna Moore.”

“No.”

I cup her cheeks, maintaining a firm hold because this is the last time I will touch her like this, hold her like this.

“You are Belladonna Holloway. It was a dream. In time, you will heal. It has been one mere month since you summoned me. I will be like a chapter in a tragic, gothic romance you love, a dream that lasted but a month in the magic of autumn and the witchcraft of Samhain. I will leave tonight and never return. And you will lead a long and beautiful life in the bookshop you love with the people who love you. That is the life you deserve.”

“No.”

One word. Simple and absolute in its finality. Unbending. Unmoving.

“God, Belle! I am trying to save your heart!”

“You’re breaking my heart!”

The words hover between us—their gravity is a force stronger than a tempest sucking us into its eye, ready to rip us apart. Or crash us together.

“And I’m trying to save yours,”

she cries and reaches for my shirt, knotting her fingers into the fabric.

“Don’t you dare push me away. Don’t break my heart, Jack. It’s yours. If you leave, you will take it with you. I could escape Thaddeus…because of you.”

“I cannot give you the life you need, Belle. If we walk this road, you will have nothing but heartbreak and hardship.”

Her hands slide around my neck, and she urges me lower, standing on her tiptoes to press her brow to mine.

“I would rather share a life of heartbreak and hardship with you than have a hundred lives of safety and happiness. You are my world. I love you, jackass.”

I lift my head, making out the dimmest view of her watery blue eyes.

“What did you say?”

She tightens her grip on me.

“You think I’ll be like one of those stupid, scared girls when the stakes are highest and he’s about to leave, and she doesn’t say it? Well, I’m saying it. I. Love. You. I love you, I love you, I love you, Jackson Elias Moore. I will never stop loving you, even when you’re acting like a jackass. So, don’t stop loving me. Don’t stop hunting me.”

Unconditional love, the likes of which I’ve never felt or possessed, engulfs me. It grows tethers, unbreakable ones. They bind me to Belladonna Moore. In this world or the next, I will never stop hunting her.

“Very well, Mrs. Moore. I am here.”

She softens against me and presses her head to my chest.

“Always here.”

I’m ready to carry her away to the manor and make love to her for half the night while we spend the other half searching for my heart when she stiffens, her head shooting up, her nostrils flaring. I smell it a second later.

She turns her head, but I see it. The faint glow from down the hill. We are upwind, and the scent of smoke is undeniable, sending terror and rage to rip through me.

“Ohmygod, Jack! No!”

she cries and bolts with me outpacing her.

“Nohnohno!”

She screams her horror, hands flying to her mouth.

Because Belladonna’s Bookshop is burning.

The front of the shop is burning.

I catch Belle by the waist just as she lunges for the back door. “No!”

I command, shifting her away.

“Jack!—oh, God, Mortimer! OhGodohGod, the book!”

Her horror-stricken eyes widen all the more.

The sound of fire engines and police sirens pierces the air. Crowds are gathering, rushing toward the burning bookshop.

“Get in the crowd,”

I order her.

“Stay hidden there. I will come for you.”

Trusting her to obey for the first time, I crash open the back door. The first thing I notice is Mortimer hiding in one of the cupboards, curled up, his fur pricking up with fear. It takes me seconds to grab the cat and send him scuttling outside.

The book.

I throw open the kitchen doors and charge inside, holding my breath from all the smoke drifting through the air. By now, the fire engines have arrived. I only hope they may save it. From what I can tell through the gaps in the smoke, it’s localized to the front windows.

Using my coat as a barrier, I head for the shelf behind the counter, break the glass case, and rescue Belle’s first edition of Wuthering Heights before beating a hasty retreat.

The moment I charge for the back door and escape into the night, throbbing pain explodes in my skull.

The blow sends me crumbling to the ground as blackness invades my consciousness. I try to fight it. Nothing but Belle’s face fills my thoughts until the familiar silhouetted figure stands over me.

He grins down at me, tilting his head like a predator. I struggle to stay awake, but the blow was too great, and I surrender to the painful, cold grip of unconsciousness.

When I wake, my head is still throbbing. Soft padding surrounds me, the sense of claustrophobia pressing in on me.

The paralysis is worse. Full body, incapacitating paralysis. My limbs betray me, as still and solid as stone. Apart from my head, I can’t move a muscle, but I know exactly where I am…what holds me.

Panic storms through my chest, blood hammering in my eardrums. I am lying inside a goddamn coffin.

A soft, mocking chuckle echoes in the confined darkness.

“Don’t waste your energy, Jackson Moore,”

Thaddeus’s voice slithers through the air.

A growl rumbles in my chest at the sight of the blackguard standing at the edge of the open grave above me. Shovel in hand. Sleeves rolled up to their elbows to show his staunch muscles, flexing with his anticipation to entomb me here forever.

His lips curl into a smug smile.

“That is your name. Why should I be surprised that my little Belle would find herself attached to the monster responsible for the curse of my bloodline? She has no idea what she’s done. Or how our fates have all been connected. Something quite immaculately recorded in the lovely Summoning book you left on the table.”

When I thrash and snarl, he leans forward, crooning, “It’s quite futile to struggle. I’ve injected you with something special, a chemical concoction that will keep you paralyzed until dawn. You’ll stay right here, buried in the cold earth where no one will hear you.”

Venom spews from my tongue, “Spineless, as ever, Thorne. Can’t face me in a fair fight. No better than your ancestor—a coward who murdered a woman and two children in cold blood.”

“Fair fight? How quaint, Jack.”

Thaddeus’s voice holds no warmth, only detached calculation.

“Fairness is a luxury for fools, not for conquerors. I’m not interested in some ridiculous display of valor or equality. Nor do I care about proving I’m stronger than my enemy. I care about winning. This is about power, pure and simple. Survival of the fittest.”

He pauses, and I can almost feel his twisted sneer. The sight of the damp blood on his shirt from where Belle stabbed him does not escape me.

“Do you believe I would allow any man, alive or dead or in between, such as yourself, to steal what is mine? Shortly before I set the fire, I saw you both from the bookshop. Moreover…I am still Belle’s husband despite what she feels. And I know all her secret hiding places.”

He laughs heartily, holding up a familiar book. Rage boils my blood. During the rare times Belle would not be knitting a new pumpkin, she wrote in her diary. A diary she filled with stories of her Headless Horseman. And…I swallow a hard knot at the danger of the book, one I should have prepared for.

Thaddeus curls his upper lip in clear revulsion over the black and white stills of my Belle in naught but her glorious skin—all taken with the antique camera she discovered in the manor library. Ones with me on my knees pleasuring her.

The real jackass waves the book like it’s a flag of honor.

“Men like you disgust me—bowing to women as if they’re worthy of respect instead of submission. You undermine everything men like me stand for. You make us weak.”

Despite the fury coursing through my veins, I release a guttural laugh of scorn.

“You think bowing to a woman makes a man weak? It takes more strength than you’ll ever know, Thaddeus. To truly master her, not through fear, but through love and respect—by possessing her very soul. Something you could never achieve. Not if you had a thousand lifetimes.”

Fierce pride swells in my words.

“And Belle is so far beyond you. You could climb a staircase to heaven for eternity, and you’d never even reach the gates of hell.”

Silence hangs for a moment, the tension thickening between us. I cannot deny the terror quaking my paralyzed insides at the thought of my wife falling into his hands. My one shred of hope, my one sliver of faith, is that the townspeople gathered around her, and Mrs. Kravitson must have done the rest. The Council would keep her safe. Even if I’m trapped in this miserable coffin and bound to the earth for eternity, she will never belong to Thaddeus again.

His eyes gleam, smile twisting into something sinister, macabre.

“Love? Respect? Those are the fantasies of a man who’s forgotten what it means to rule. First and foremost, I am her husband, her king. I will make her mine again. She may not kneel willingly, but when I’m through with her, she’ll kneel. She’ll bear my children, and every time she looks at them, she’ll remember who truly mastered her. Not love. Not tenderness. But power. As a real man does.”

He paces around the grave, his tone growing darker.

“I’m thirty-nine now, and you know what that means. How does it feel to know you are ultimately responsible for Belle’s fate? Once I fill her womb, given how she was the Summoner, and once you eventually expire, I know my bloodline’s curse will end.”

A howl pierces my mind, my blood congealing. Every bone in my body feels like ice that will never thaw. Because he is right…according to the laws of the curse. He will have her…forever.

“You are powerless, Moore,”

he laughs like the devil he is, thrusting the shovel hard into the earth before returning Belle’s diary to his pocket.

“You will be forgotten, left to rot in this hollow with any outlandish hopes and vows you intended.”

Thaddeus chuckles darkly, retrieving something from his coat and revealing the glinting twinkle. I jerk and flail my head, snapping my teeth at the ring, the ring I planned for Belle to wear forever.

“You have nothing to offer her now. Nothing but a dead man’s hope. You’ll never see your heart again, and your precious Belle—she won’t be saving you. But I’ll give her your regards.”

Thaddeus stops at the head of the grave, looking down at me one final time, the shovel poised to begin the burial.

“Enjoy your eternal rest, Horseman. Belle will be in my bed while you lie in the dirt, heartless and headless.”

He chucks the ring at me.

With a sound like final judgment, the coffin lid creaks closed.

The darkness envelopes me like a black hole.

A deeper fear than ever strikes me, surging crippling waves of helplessness through me. Wherever he’s buried me, I know I’ll never be found.

He seals me into an abyss of darkness and cold, and I cannot even look into my heart to find my beloved Belladonna.