Legacy Rejected

by Robin Patchen

  And this early in the morning? It wasn’t even ten o’clock.

  The black car turned toward him, then angled into the mud in front of the clubhouse. Weird. Were they vandals? There was no piping in the building yet, so they couldn’t steal any copper. And why would they have been at the trailer?

  That made no sense. Too nice a car. It had to be people who were interested in building on the property. He should catch up with them, talk to them about it.

  But when he’d neared, he’d seen a bright light shining through one of the clubhouse windows. Whoever it was, they were inside.

  His heartbeat thudded in his chest, and adrenaline flooded his veins.

  Something was wrong.

  He reversed his truck and parked near the entrance to the development. Then, he called the police.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  At Pavlo’s words, Ginny opened her eyes and saw the business end of Pavlo’s handgun aimed at her face.

  She squeezed her eyes shut.

  A gunshot split the silence.

  Ginny waited for the pain, prayed she’d die quickly.

  She heard a thud.

  “Idiot.” Pavlo’s voice.

  She dared to peek. Pavlo was still standing over her. She turned and found herself staring into Sokolov’s lifeless eyes. His body lay just a few feet from her. Blood dripped from a hole in his forehead.

  She sucked in a breath, then another, then another.

  “Oh, my God. Oh, God, you shot him.” She squeezed her eyes closed. God, please, please… She didn’t want to die like that. She didn’t want to die here. Oh, Lord, please…

  Pavlo searched the body, came out with the pendant, and stuck it in his pocket. Then he turned to her, and that evil grin stretched across his face. “I warned you, Ginny. I told you if you didn’t give us what we wanted, mine would be the last face you ever saw.”

  “You have it now.” Her voice was high and panicked. “I didn’t know. I didn’t…”

  Her words trailed as he walked toward her. She tried to scoot away, but he reached her in a second and kicked her in the side again.

  She gasped for breath, curled into the pain.

  He worked his foot between her shoulder and her head until it rested on her neck. “I recommend you don’t give me any reason to shoot you. I will eventually kill you, of course, but maybe the cavalry will come.” He threw the words out there with the undertone of hope. “Maybe you’ll be rescued. So if you want any chance to survive, you better hold real still. Understand?”

  She said nothing until he pressed his shoe harder. Her face pressed into the concrete. The tread of his heel dug into her windpipe “I won’t move.” She rasped out the words.

  “Good start.” He released the pressure and stood beside her.

  She closed her eyes and prayed. Are You the God who sees me? Do You see this, Lord? Please, please save me.

  She heard the clicking of a cell phone, then the faint sound of ringing.

  “It’s me,” Pavlo said. “I got it. It’s like a little fake rock thingy. I’ll show you how it works.”

  She could just make out the sound of the voice through the phone.

  “He’s dead, like you ordered,” Pavlo said.

  A pause, and then, “Just the girl. I’ll take care of her and meet—”

  The voice on the other end rose. Pavlo paced as he listened.

  “It’s fine, man. There’s nobody anywhere near here. The place is deserted.”

  More yelling from the other person. Finally, Pavlo said, “Whatever you say.” She heard the faint beep-beep-beep telling her the other person had disconnected.

  Pavlo fell to his knees beside her. “It’s your lucky day. I gotta meet the old man post haste, so we’re gonna have to do this fast.” He straddled her.

  She tried to hit him with her bound hands, but he grabbed them and held them in one of his. With the other, he worked the button on her jeans.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Steer clear, sir. Help is on the way.”

  “I’m getting closer.” Kade silenced the phone and slid it into his back pocket. No way was he sitting in his car, not after that gunshot. They’d spared a few trees in the development, but not nearly enough. As he crossed empty lots toward the clubhouse, he wished desperately for something, anything to hide behind. Because that gunshot hadn’t come from a rifle or a shotgun. He’d done enough hunting to recognize those sounds.

  He thought of Ginny. Surely she wasn’t here. Surely she was home safe. But now, the missing boxes from her garage seemed very odd. The closed blinds on her house seemed sinister. He should have kept pounding until she opened the door.

  He should have called the police hours earlier.

  If Ginny was here, if this had anything to do with her, he’d never forgive himself.

  He made it to the edge of the building and peeked inside.

  There was a body on the floor, blood beneath the head. God, no…

  He forced himself to focus.

  He saw a business suit. It was a man. A huge man. He studied the face, tried not to look at the bullet hole.

  Oh, no. It was Mike Sokolov.

  The sound of a scuffle had him shifting to see the other side of the space.

  Another man was on the floor, very much alive. Beneath him, a woman was squirming, trying to get away. Kade couldn’t see her face.

  But he caught sight of the long dark brown hair.

  Ginny.

  He swallowed his fear and nausea and the overwhelming desire to burst in and stop this now. The man was armed. For all Kade knew, a gun was pointed at her right then. Kade could make things worse if he wasn’t careful.

  He crept to the opening to what would someday be the rear floor-to-ceiling windows and stepped inside.

  “Please don’t,” Ginny said. “Please, you don’t have to—”

  “Ah, but I want to.”

  There was the gun, lying a few feet from them.

  Kade crept toward the gun.

  Ginny caught sight of him, and her eyes widened.

  A cell phone rang.

  The man reached behind him to grab it from his back pocket. When he did, he saw Kade.

  Kade lowered his shoulder and barreled toward him. He wrapped his arms around the attacker. They rolled off Ginny. “Run!”

  She scrambled away.

  He punched the man in the side of the head, twice, three times.

  From the corner of his eye, he saw Ginny scoot toward the gun. But Kade couldn’t focus on that. This man was strong.

  He didn’t know if he could best him.

  “Run!” he shouted again. “Please!”

  She stood, seemed unsure.

  The man kneed him in the stomach. Kade ignored the pain and aimed punches at his back, his ribs.

  He couldn’t see Ginny now. She’d left, thank God.

  But then, he saw movement.

  Ginny kicked the man in the head.

  The man reached toward her feet, but she danced away.

  Kade landed a hard blow against his nose.

  The man faltered, weakened.

  Ginny kicked him in the back. Kade punched him again in the face. And again.

  The man lifted his arm for another hit, but it went wide.

  Kade punched him in the face again, then scrambled away. “Where’s the gun.”

  “I have it.”

  He grabbed it from her and aimed at the man.

  His eyes were closed, and he didn’t move.

  A new voice said, “Drop it or she dies first.”

  No. Whoever it was, Kade wanted to turn and fire, but he couldn’t take a chance with Ginny’s life. He stole a quick glance behind him and saw a weapon pointed at them.

  He dropped the gun.

  He and Ginny swiveled toward the voice.

  “Now, kick it toward me.” The stranger had an accent like Sokolov’s.

  Kade did as he was told while he studied the face.

  It was the old ma
n who lived across the street from Ginny. The one who always waved. The one who always wore the hat. He bent down, grabbed the firearm, and slid it into the pocket of his jacket.

  He had no hat on now. The birthmark on his head meant something, but Kade was too rattled to put it together.

  Ginny said, “Yuri Petrovich. It’s nice to see you again.”

  While Petrovich chuckled at Ginny’s remark, Kade tried to figure a way out of this.

  Where were the police? They should be here by now.

  “I called to warn Pavlo you were here”—he nodded toward Kade—“but it seems he was busy.” Petrovich pointed a look at Ginny’s jeans.

  Kade followed the gaze and saw her pants were unbuttoned and unzipped. He turned to face her, expecting a bullet any second. But he hated that invasion of her privacy. With her hands bound as tightly as hers were, she probably couldn’t lift the zipper. “May I?” he asked.

  She nodded, and he zipped and buttoned the jeans. This was as intimate as they’d ever been, as intimate as they would ever be. He met her eyes. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Of course she did. The breakup had all been a ruse to send him away.

  “Where’s the information?” Petrovich said.

  Ginny glanced at her attacker, who lay a few feet away. His eyes were closed, but Kade didn’t think for a moment he was unconscious. “He has it. It’s in his pocket.”

  Petrovich barely spared the man a glance, then focused on Ginny again. “Get it.”

  “I’ll do it,” Kade said. “There’s no need for anybody to get hurt.”

  “You will stay still,” Petrovich said, “and she will get it. She knows where it is and what it looks like.”

  Ginny met Kade’s eyes as she turned. She seemed to be trying to communicate something to him. What, though?

  She walked across the space slowly. “Are you going to kill us?”

  Petrovich sighed. “I don’t wish to hurt anybody, but I need to know how to access my money, and I need to know now.”

  Ginny stood above the stranger. “Did you order my mother killed?”

  Her mother was dead?

  “Your mother betrayed you,” Petrovich said. “Why do you care?”

  Ginny shrugged. “She was a lousy mother, but she was the only one I had.”

  “Get the information,” Petrovich said.

  “I don’t think so,” she said.

  “Fine.” He shifted his gun to aim at her and moved his finger to the trigger.

  “No!” Kade didn’t think of anything except saving Ginny. He rushed the man, ducking low to avoid the bullet that was sure to come.

  Petrovich turned toward him, but he was too slow.

  Kade reached for the weapon. The man lifted it high, backed away, tried to fight Kade off. Kade pushed him until they hit the framed wall.

  Kade kept his left hand on the man’s arm to keep the gun from coming down. He used his right arm to land a blow against Petrovich’s ribs.

  Another blast from a weapon.

  Petrovich’s gun clattered to the floor.

  Blood spewed from the old man’s hand.

  Behind him, Ginny screamed.

  And there was another gunshot.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Ginny didn’t know what had happened.

  A man climbed into the room from the window, and she lifted her gun toward him. But he wore a uniform. He was a cop.

  Another rushed through the front door’s opening.

  “Lay the weapon down real slow,” the first officer said. His gun was aimed at Kade.

  A few feet away, Kade rested the gun he’d just snatched on the concrete.

  The officer focused on her. “You, too, ma’am.”

  But she couldn’t seem to do it.

  She couldn’t process what had happened.

  She’d shot Petrovich’s hand. Petrovich was on his butt, holding his bloody palm in his other hand. He was white as a sheet.

  Somebody should help him.

  But everybody in the room was looking at her.

  More officers had stepped inside. A few guns were aimed her way.

  “Ma’am, put the gun down.”

  She looked at the man at her feet. How had he gotten so close? She’d stepped away from him, hadn’t she? She remembered… She’d run to get the gun from Sokolov’s body. Sokolov was there, too. Pavlo was on top of him.

  She was confused. She hadn’t planned to shoot Pavlo. Had she shot him? He was staring at her, unseeing. Blood poured from his head.

  She’d shot him? She’d killed him?

  “Ginny.”

  She looked up at the name. Kade was walking toward her. His eyes were fixed on her.

  “Can I have the gun please?” he asked.

  The gun. She was still holding the gun?

  She looked at her hands. And there it was.

  She lowered the weapon, and Kade approached. He took it from her, set it on the concrete, and pulled her into his arms.

  “It’s over,” he said. “It’s all over.”

  She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around Kade and held him and shivered. She had no idea what had happened, but Kade was here. Kade was safe.

  Police officers and EMTs poured into the space. They ushered Ginny and Kade outside to a waiting ambulance. How had all these people gotten here?

  One paramedic made her sit on a gurney while another wrapped a blanket around her shoulders. Kade was by her side, also wrapped in a blanket as if it were January and not June.

  The rain had stopped, and the sun was trying to peek through the clouds. She and Kade watched as three gurneys were carried over the mud to the ambulances. Two were completely covered, the men beneath them dead. Petrovich was alive. His bloody hand was lying on his chest. His other hand was handcuffed to the gurney.

  Brady spoke to a uniformed officer in the building before approaching them. “Quite a mess you made here.” He smiled to soften the words, then focused on Ginny. “What happened?”

  She couldn’t get it all straight in her head. She babbled about how they’d been at her house, at the trailer. How they’d been looking for her necklace.

  Brady pattered her shoulder. “It’s okay. Just relax right now. You can tell me the story later.” He focused on Kade.

  His mouth was pressed in a tight line. “The young one… He had her pinned to the floor when I got here. He was working on getting her pants off.”

  Brady’s grim expression turned grimmer still as he turned back to her. He said nothing, just waited.

  She swallowed. “Kade got here in time. Another few minutes… He planned to kill me afterward. He told me that.”

  Brady nodded slowly. “Glad we shot him.”

  “What?”

  “We were nearly here when we heard the gunshot—I assume that’s when you shot Petrovich. My officer got there first. He saw that guy barreling toward you. He fired just in time, took him out before he could hurt you.”

  “Oh.” That explained it. Tears filled her eyes.

  Kade pulled her close. “What is it?”

  “I thought I did it. I thought I shot him.”

  “It would have been good if you had,” Kade said. “He had it coming.”

  “They killed my mother.”

  Brady’s eyes narrowed. “You know about that?”

  What? “You know? How do you know?”

  “After our conversation Tuesday, I’ve been looking into things.”

  “Wait,” Kade said. “What conversation?”

  She shook her head. There was so much information to share, so much to learn. There was plenty of time for that, though.

  It was really and truly over.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Kade needed to know what happened.

  There were two dead bodies—one of them a man he’d thought a friend. Ginny had almost been raped, almost been killed.

  He glanced at her as they sat together on the bed in the ER. Her eyes
were glazed over, and she stared at the curtain separating them from the rest of the space. He hadn’t been there for her exam, so he didn’t know enough about how she’d been hurt. He did know she winced when he hugged her too tight. She’d rubbed her shoulder a few times. There were angry red marks on her wrists where she’d been bound.

  It looked like she hadn’t processed any of that.

  He rested his hand, palm up, on his leg, and she slid hers into it.

  “You okay?”

  She nodded, looked away again. “Sorry. I’m so tired. I just want to go home and sleep.”

  “I’ll stay at the house with you while you rest.”

  “I can’t… I can’t go back there. My house is in shambles. They tore it apart.”

  He processed that, tamped down the quick flash of anger at everything those men had done to her. “You can come to my house. I’ll stay with you. You’ll be safe there.”

  After she refused a prescription for pain medication, they were released. They walked out of the hospital hand in hand to find a uniformed police officer leaning against his cruiser waiting for them. “Chief wants me to take you to the station.”

  Brady had told them to expect this. Kade didn’t know if Ginny could handle it, but when he’d argued his point with Brady, the man had only shaken his head. “The sooner we get the details, the more she’ll remember. It’ll be hard, and then it’ll be over.”

  So they slid into the backseat of the cruiser and rode to downtown Nutfield in silence, Ginny’s head against his shoulder.

  He’d do anything to make this easier for her.

  They were taken to a conference room with a long table surrounded by cushy chairs. On one side sat a table with a coffee maker, cups, napkins, and a few plastic utensils. Beside it rested a small refrigerator.

  They rounded the table and sat facing the door. Neither one of them could handle any more surprises today.

  A moment after they arrived, Brady joined them and sat at the end of the table. He rested a file and a notepad on the table. He added a recorder beside it. “I know you guys are wrung out,” Brady said, “but we need to know exactly what happened. And we’re recording this. Okay?”