Ethan holstered his Sig and flashed the okay sign to Lumi when she stuck her head out of the room she was in with a client.
“Just teens playing around,” he told her, not that he believed that for a moment. What were the odds that two dipshits would stop in front of this house to open fire? Maybe they thought it was funny to target a house that had already been the scene of two deaths, but he didn’t think that was the case.
He walked into Esme’s store. “It’s clear, babe. You can come out.” No response. “Esme? Joelle?”
They’d been inside when the shooting started. He’d told them to get down and they both obeyed immediately.
“Son of a bitch!” A wave of dread crashed over him. It’d been a diversion. Someone wanted him and Kayla occupied so they could snatch Esme.
He checked the storage room but there was no sign of her. She wasn’t in the kitchen or anywhere downstairs.
“What is it,” Kayla asked, picking up on his frantic search.
“A diversion. Esme’s gone.”
Ethan yanked out his phone. It’d buzzed a couple of times during the shooting, but he’d ignored it to focus on the situation. His jaw clenched at the flashing red alert. “Someone tampered with the cameras.”
With guns in hand, they raced out the back. Sure enough, glass littered the ground beneath both cameras. A body on the ground had his heart skipping a beat until he realized it was a man, not Esme. He rushed over, recognizing the bloody, battered face. Trevor.
Kayla called for an ambulance. “Is he alive?”
Ethan performed a cursory check, making sure not to jostle him. He could tell Trevor had suffered several breaks, especially in his legs. One was twisted at an unnatural angle. “He’s broken, but I’ve got a pulse.”
Trevor’s eyes fluttered open, but they were glazed with pain. “Tried to stop her,” he ground out.
“Her? You mean Esme? Trevor?” Trevor didn’t answer. He’d passed out.
A car screeched to a stop. Ethan glanced up expecting to see the police. Instead, it was a silver Porsche. He stood. “Tyler?”
The man jumped out of his car. “Lyra’s missing. I can’t find her anywhere.” He rubbed his arm. “I think someone drugged me last night.”
“Esme and Joelle are missing, too.”
“All the security cameras at Lyra’s condo went out. She received a phone call, but it was from a burner phone that had been smashed to bits outside her door.”
Ethan pointed to the two cameras mounted outside Lumi’s house. “Someone shot them out. Teens started firing BB guns in front of the house and when Kayla and I were distracted, Esme and Joelle disappeared.”
Tyler punched buttons on his phone and then dashed away, only to return five seconds later with Esme’s cell phone and watch. “Someone knew she wore a tracker.”
Worry bubbled in his throat and he had trouble breathing. The tracker had been a fail-safe in case the worst happened, and he couldn’t find her. Now they had no way to know where she was right now.
An ambulance roared down the alley and stopped close to where Trevor sprawled lifelessly on the pavement. They stepped back to give the medics room to work. Ethan might not like the guy, but he hoped he made it, especially for Ethel and Esme’s sake. He’d have a long road of recovery ahead with months and months of rehab. He might even need to relearn how to walk. Trauma to his head was also a concern. His entire face was a bloody pulp.
“We need to get to the compound and pull footage from the traffic cams in the area, but the cops are going to descend soon.” Probably that bastard Brinks. He’d be looking at ways to blame Esme for her own disappearance.
“You two go.” Kayla gestured them forward. “I’ll stay with Lumi and deal with the police.”
Lumi. She didn’t know her niece was missing. Ethan was torn between telling her himself or heading back to start the search.
“Go.” Kayla’s voice was gentle, having obviously picked up on his inner turmoil. “I’ll let her know what happened and reassure her we will find Esme alive.”
That last part was for his benefit, he was sure. He nodded, grateful. “Thanks.”
“Keep me updated.”
Tyler jumped into his car and was gone like a bullet shot from a gun, leaving dual rubber tracks in his wake. Ethan hopped in his SUV and tried to keep up. Using voice commands, he called Noah and told him what happened. His brother would be waiting for him when he arrived at the offices, which he did ten minutes later. Both of his bosses were also there, as were their brothers, Dan Bradley and Grant Colton, Ethan’s sister Maggie and brother-in-law Carter, along with several other agents. Tyler was already at the wall of computers in the Crisis Room, as they’d dubbed the space where they met to plot plans of attack. Peter Dennis was there, too, and they were accessing traffic cameras in the area around Lumi’s house.
“There,” Logan pointed at one of the monitors. “Zoom in.”
Peter manipulated the image until a small yellow car filled the screen. The windshield was fractured. It looked like something heavy crashed into it, causing massive spider webs. Trevor.
“That’s Joelle’s car. She’s a college student who works for Esme.”
“It looks like only one occupant,” Luke said.
“I’ve got a side view,” Tyler announced, bringing up another image. Joelle was stopped at a red light.
“That’s her,” Ethan confirmed. If Esme was with her, she was lying in the backseat.
With fingers flying over the keys, Peter brought up a map. “The car stopped. It’s parked in a lot next to the hospital.”
And Esme’s friend Sophie was a nurse. Dear God, were they in on it together?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Esme woke with a jolt when something smacked her cheek.
“Time to wake up, Esme. Come on, open those eyes. I’ve got things to do.”
“Ow, I’m awake,” she mumbled, trying to blink heavy eyelids. She had no idea where she was, but her head pounded, and her entire body felt weighted down. She was lying on a soft surface that felt like leather. She finally managed to open her eyes. “Joelle? What happened?”
“We’re going to find Lyra, remember?”
A vague memory of Joelle telling her that she knew where Lyra was bounced around in her brain. There was gunfire, too.
“Get up,” Joelle insisted, tugging on Esme’s arm.
She thought she remembered something crashing into the car. Was it a deer? She peered at the windshield, but it was crack-free. When she attempted to brush the hair from her face, her limbs didn’t cooperate. “Why are my hands tied?”
“So you won’t get away. Let’s go. Time’s wasting.”
She stumbled when Joelle heaved her out of the vehicle. They were parked in front of an unfamiliar two-story house. It was well-kept and looked to be only a few years old. There were no other houses around.
“Where are we?”
“God, you ask too many questions. What happened? Why are my hands tied? Where are we?” Joelle mocked. “How about shutting up now? Does that work for you? Because it certainly does for me. Now walk.”
None of this was making sense. Esme didn’t know this woman. She looked like Joelle, dressed like her, but this wasn’t the sweet, sincere college student Esme befriended. This woman was cruel, and judging from the wicked smirk, psychotic. She opened her mouth to demand answers but closed it again, knowing Joelle wouldn’t answer.
Esme tripped on the steps leading up to the porch and banged her knee, crying out at the stab of pain. Joelle ignored her, yanking her arms so that she had no choice but to scramble after her. The interior of the house was as tidy as the outside, with overstuffed furniture situated around a fireplace and a large-screen television mounted on a wall. It even smelled clean, reminding her of the antiseptic aroma of a sterile hospital.
Joelle led her to a door off a hallway. She opened it and reached over to flip a switch, illuminating a staircase. She urged Esme in front of her. “Don’t t
rip. I wouldn’t want you to get all banged up before the big finale.”
Esme didn’t like the sound of that. With all the enthusiasm of a prisoner walking the green mile, she descended the wooden steps, afraid of what she’d find when she reached the bottom. Noting her surroundings, she searched for a way to escape. The basement was unfinished with cement walls painted an industrial gray. Shelves held an assortment of tools and cleaning supplies. Beside an expensive washer and dryer was a long table that looked like it was used for folding clothes. When she reached the final step, Joelle turned her to the left and shoved her forward. Unable to brace her fall, she went first to her knees and then pitched forward. Her head smacked into the concrete floor and stars exploded in her eyes. They didn’t even have time to fade before she was being jerked up and shoved again. This time, she landed on a mattress.
“Esme, are you okay?”
She blinked through the pain. “Lyra? Thank God. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, but you’re bleeding.”
Esme reached up with her bound hands to touch her forehead. They came away with a stain of red. Absently she wondered if she’d have a bump like the one Ethan sported when he returned from Chicago.
“It’s nothing,” she assured Lyra. “Are you sure you’re okay? Tyler’s been worried.”
Lyra’s eyes teared up. “He’s alive?”
“Yes, but frantic when he couldn’t reach you.”
“I thought Joelle killed him. She poisoned him.”
“Aw, what a sweet reunion,” Joelle mocked as she slapped a metal cuff around Esme’s wrist and removed the plastic zip tie. She was now secured to a bolt anchored in the wall by one arm, as was Lyra. Her head smarted from her nosedive onto the floor, but she didn’t think she had a concussion. Still, nothing was making sense. “Why are you doing this, Joelle? I thought we were friends.”
“We totally are,” Joelle assured her. “I’ve nothing against either of you.”
Esme jerked at the chain prohibiting her from escaping. “Friends don’t do this to each other, Joelle. Why are you doing this to us?”
“Luminitsa Cosmescu.” Her lips pursed as if she’d said something foul.
“Aunt Lumi? Why would you want to hurt her?”
“She ruined my life!” Joelle’s eyes were wild, her face contorting into a stranger. “I want her to know real fear and be afraid. I lived in fear my entire childhood.”
“How did she ruin your life, Joelle?”
“My mother was one of her devout clients,” Joelle explained. “She believed every word that came out of your aunt’s mouth. She visited her at least once a week. One day, your aunt told my mother that my father was having an affair. Instead of giving my dad the benefit of the doubt, she went home and confronted him—with a shotgun. When he denied the affair, she shot him point blank. We were seven.”
Esme’s heart went out to the woman, but it was her mother’s mental problems that caused the tragedy, not Lumi’s vision.
“Mother was horrified at what she’d done, and she turned the gun on herself. I lost both of my parents that night. And I witnessed it. If I close my eyes, I can recall the entire scene as if it just happened. I spent years in the foster care system. No one wanted to adopt me. I was shipped from one house to another. I’ve had to work for every single thing in my life. It’s all your aunt’s fault. I’ve waited a long time for vengeance. They say the best revenge is served cold, and you know what? Whoever came up with that was totally right.”
“You don’t need to do this, Joelle. You’re getting your college degree and you’re talented. You have a bright future ahead of yourself.”
Joelle snorted. “I’m not going to college, Esme. I couldn’t afford it. I’m self-taught on the computer and winged it with the photos. Snapping pictures isn’t rocket science. I faked my credentials. You ate it up like a snake scarfing down a rat.”
“Why would you lie?”
“So you’d hire me, and I’d have access to you and your aunt to bait my trap.”
“If you wanted to get back at my aunt, why kill Merle, Femi and Solange?”
“Hey, I did you a favor with Merle! That man was a piranha. I figured you’d thank me for that one. Besides, he was a pompous ass and I wanted to test the poison to make sure I had the right dosage. Femi because she was part of the plan. Collateral damage. Solange, wow, that woman was a freak of nature. She saw right through me. Confronted me. I had no choice.”
“How did you do it? We thought she died of natural causes?”
Joelle smiled. “A little drug cocktail in her tea and zing, instant heart attack.”
The woman was psychotic. Truly and certifiably. “I assume it was you who bugged my house and played the messages to make me think I was psychic?”
She smiled boastfully. “Genius, huh? I was pretty damn proud of myself when I came up with that twist.”
“Why did you have to burn down my home, and Sophie’s too?”
“After that hunk of yours discovered my secret room, I couldn’t chance them finding any evidence, even though I’m always extremely careful. There’s not a hair or fingerprint anywhere in your house.” She chuckled wickedly. “I mean former house.”
Joelle was truly a psychopath and there was no reasoning with her, but Esme needed her to step closer. Her only plan of attack was to catch her off guard. “I don’t understand why you have to do this. I treasured your friendship.”
“That’s your problem, Esme, you’re too caring. Life’s a bitch. It ain’t fair and most of the time, it ain’t fun. But making your aunt’s life miserable before I do her in, well, that’s just priceless.” Joelle held up what looked like a small black box. “I even learned how to build bombs. You wouldn’t believe all the information out there on the world wide web. If you try to escape, the whole room will blow. Now, I’d rather you be alive since a living hostage is a much better negotiation tool than a dead one, but I’ll take my chances. Even if you did get loose, or by some miracle, someone tracks you down, I’ve planted trip wires and lasers and traps to guarantee you won’t make it out of here alive.”
Esme shuddered. There might not be a way for them to escape. “If it’s my family you’re after, why is Lyra here? Why don’t you just let her go?”
Joelle tsked. “Yeah, sorry about that. I have nothing against you, Lyra. Truly. Your jewelry designs are superb. But with that sexy hunk never leaving Esme’s side, I needed a way to lure her out. I’m afraid, like Femi, your very existence has been reduced to collateral damage.”
“What happens after you get your revenge on my aunt?” Esme prayed Ethan wouldn’t let that happen if she died. He’d protect Lumi. She knew it in her bones. “Will you let us go?”
Joelle snorted like a hyena. “Yeah, sure.” She rolled her eyes. “I have other scores to settle. Your aunt is the first since I blame her for all the problems. I wanted to play with her first. Take all that matters from her. But the list of those who’ve wronged me is long, and I have much to accomplish. I can’t tell you how many times I was abused in foster care, both mentally and physically. Payback’s a bitch and I’m looking forward to exacting my revenge. I’ve not had an easy life and I intend to make those responsible pay.
“Oh, by the way, I call myself Oracle. Catchy, right? I figure an Oracle is highly intelligent and intuitive. Describes me perfectly. You know what else? I didn’t start out to torment you. You were just the tool I was using to get to your aunt. But somewhere along the line, it did become about you, Esme. I wanted to make you suffer.”
That caused a lump the size of a boulder to lodge in Esme’s throat. She’d considered Joelle a good friend and had always treated her with respect. “Why?”
Joelle scratched her head. “I don’t really know. You were nice to me and all, but damn, you had everything. You’re stunning, you own a successful business, a home, you have family and friends who love you. Then the most amazing man in the world just falls at your feet. It wasn’t fair. I wanted to make you suf
fer like I have.”
“I’ve suffered, Joelle, and we have something in common. I lost my parents when I was young, too.”
“But your aunt didn’t kill them…did she?”
“No, of course not.”
“Then we have nothing in common. Hey, maybe I’ll make a play for Ethan now that you’re out of the picture.”
It took every ounce of restraint she possessed to let the comment slide. Ethan would never go for her. “If you want him, why did you shoot him?”
Joelle laughed. “Actually, doll, I was aiming for you. I never was any good with a rifle.”
“I thought we were friends, Joelle.” To learn otherwise was gut wrenching. “Can you at least switch the manacle to my other wrist?” Esme asked. “I won’t be able to reach the toilet.” She’d need it soon when she threw up all the contents in her stomach. Joelle’s betrayal made her sick.
Joelle tilted her head to the side and studied her. “You might be right. Okay, let me get another set of chains. I’m nothing if not accommodating.” She lifted the links off a work bench and proceeded to secure one end to the ring anchored into the wall.
Keep her talking, keep her talking. The words played through Esme’s head. She knew it was the key to getting out of this alive and since Joelle seemed to love to brag, it wasn’t difficult. “What was with the gunfire outside of Lumi’s house?”
“Some kids I paid off for a distraction. I needed everyone occupied so I could spirit you out the back.”
“Why did you burn down the Gorman’s house? What part did they play in this?”
Joelle glanced up with an amused smirk. “Sadly, I had nothing to do with that one. I mean, what are the odds their house just erupts into flames?” She tapped her head. “Think about it, Esme. It would’ve benefited your aunt for Bernice to be out of the picture, so I certainly didn’t want her dead.”
Fatal Dreams (COBRA Securities Book 17) Page 24
