him, then moved forward, forcing her to retreat. “I’m sure you’ve figured out it was me behind the attacks by now. You’re a lot of things, Tara Crumb, but stupid isn’t one of them. Too bad I can’t say the same for the men I hired to take you out. I guess if you want something done right, you really do need to do it yourself.”
Her mind whirled as she tried to think of a way to keep herself and Ashley safe until Clint returned. Why did she have to send him off to buy dirt? Oh yeah, because she didn’t know a psycho with a gun would show up on her doorstep, that’s why. She swallowed hard and inched back toward the kitchen, thinking maybe she could grab the garden shears she’d laid on the island earlier to protect herself. “You don’t have to do this, Jacob.”
He laughed without amusement, the gun in his hand shaking ominously. “Actually, I do. Because of you.”
“Me?” She inched back farther, grasping the edge of the island in a white-knuckled grip. Please hurry, Clint. If she could just keep this guy talking, maybe she’d have a chance to survive. That’s what they did in the movies, right? Then Tara made the mistake of glancing at the gun in his hand again and her throat dried. Oh God. She didn’t want to die. She’d just found the love of her life. And Ashley…
Tara’s heart tripped. The little girl was in the backyard. She didn’t know what was going on.
Fierce determination flared inside her.
Must protect Ashley.
When Jacob didn’t answer, she kept prodding him, desperate to keep his attention focused on her and not the backyard. “Is this about the bill?”
“Of course it’s about that damned bill.” Jacob’s face flushed and his eyes burned with anger. “Do you have any idea how much your stupid legislation is going to cost my family? It’ll destroy us.” He narrowed his gaze and moved closer to her even as she took another step back. “I tried to kill that legislation I don’t know how many times, tried to do this the easy way. I even went to Harrison and tried to have him get rid of you—without you rallying the public, there were some state representatives willing to play ball for the right price. But no, you had to go and get the whole town invested in that damn bill. My great-grandfather started Bartlet Energy. Passed it down from generation to generation to me. It was supposed to go on forever. Would have gone on forever, except for—”
“Me?” A giddy rush of terror swept through her. She was going to get herself shot and then who would protect Ashley, who would comfort Clint after he returned and found her brain splattered all over the kitchen floor? Her stomach lurched and she choked back the hot bile rising in the back of her throat. If looks could kill she’d already be dead. Switching tracks fast, she held up her hands in surrender. “Look, I’m so sorry if this bill has caused issues for your family and your business. Maybe if we take a look at things, we can figure out a way to transition your energy company to a greener footprint. Wind turbines and solar panels are—”
“Fuck your green footprint,” he snarled. “It’s gone way beyond transitioning the business now.” Jacob’s nostrils flared as he exhaled hard. “I did what I needed to do to keep things afloat. Even when it took a bit of creative documenting.”
She stared at him, her mind connecting the dots. “You doctored your EPA paperwork. You’ve been doctoring it all along—but with the new requirements, you won’t be able to hide it anymore.”
“Well, how else were we supposed to comply with all their stupid regulations? Every year there were more and more, until it just became ridiculous. We couldn’t flush a toilet without breaking some law or other.” He waved that gun around again, gesturing, and her heart banged against her ribcage like a trapped canary. “When this new legislation came along, I knew I needed to kill it. Steinman backed it, so I had him taken care of. I thought that would be it. But then you came along and championed it—even after I had that sniper take a shot at you. If you’d just backed off and gone away, none of this had to happen. None of it. This is your fault.”
Her eyes widened. “You had Howard Steinman killed?”
Jacob’s face twitched. “He gave