by Lisa Harris
“None of it was real, was it?”
Frankie huffed a breath out his nose and shook his head.
“Well excuse me for being fooled along with the rest of the town. You pulled one over on all of us, not just me. All this time, I’ve been doing your work. Feeling sorry for you because of your limited mobility. Now I just feel bad for people whose suffering you diminished by being nothing but a lying, cheating conman.”
Will squeezed her arm again. “Hol.”
Whether that was him saying her name, or not, she wasn’t sure. All she could think about was the blinding, hot fury raging through her. She wanted to throw something. Or punch a smug, deceitful, barely-limping man in the face. Except that he’d probably shoot her.
“Just do what you’re gonna do. Get on with it!”
Will shifted in front of her, and only then did she realize she’d been screaming. Hollis lowered her chin and leaned her forehead to rest on the back of his shoulder. She wanted to collapse on the floor, sinking fast like her energy level. But then how would she fight back?
She should let go of Will. Allow him the space to fight if he decided he needed to. Had he brought a gun? She ran her hand from his waist and around to the back of his jacket, bracing herself back onto her heels in order to regain her balance without leaning all her weight on him.
She encountered the bulge at the back of his waistband.
Hollis stilled. Will’s other hand came back and wrapped around her, tugging her against him. A clear signal to stay where she was and not do anything.
Hollis fought his hold for a second. Until she realized he was a federal agent and she was a glorified waitress. Not that waitresses couldn’t protect themselves, but she probably wasn’t one of them and would probably wind up getting Will killed. The same way she’d gotten that trucker shot.
“Tie them both up,” Frankie said. “And search him for weapons.”
She whimpered. Then realized the instruction given. She slipped her hand under the back of Will’s jacket, pulled the gun out as carefully and discreetly as she could, and reached back to tuck it in the same spot on the waistband. Except, this time on her.
The other guy, who’d been here with Will when Frankie shoved her in the kitchen, pulled plastic ties from a drawer and came over.
“Hands.”
“I don’t think I want to know why you have those here.” She glanced at Frankie. There was no justification for the things he’d done, and she probably didn’t know the half of it.
“Arrangements I’ve made with business associates are none of your business.”
Hollis pressed her lips together. The guy tied up Will, and then shoved his face up against the wall as he patted Will down.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” The guy pulled up Will’s pant leg to reveal a gun. He pulled it out and pocketed it.
The confiscated phone buzzed across the counter.
Frankie stared at it until it vibrated enough to teeter and fall over the edge and onto the floor. It shattered. “Oops.” A second later he said, “Get them both out here in the hall.”
“Closet?”
“Yep.”
The two men seemed to understand the significance of that. Hollis had her hands tied together. She tried to face her wrists to each other, but the man snorted, and then stacked her hands.
“Unless you’d rather be shot?”
She held them still, and he circled them with the plastic. It bit into her skin as he tightened it further. “Ow.”
He laughed.
“Hallway.” Frankie motioned with the gun and backed out of the room.
Will rushed the man who’d tied him up. He slammed him against the counter, whipped around, and snatched up the second gun.
Frankie fired from the hallway. Will spun around, just in time, and stumbled away as the other man’s breath caught in surprise. He slid to the floor, leaving a wet, red stain on the wall behind where he’d been standing.
“Hallway. Now.”
Will went first, taking her hand so she stayed close. Their bound hands together. Shoved down the hall as one, where Frankie had a door open. “Both of you, inside.”
Will stepped in first. Meeting the threat. Hollis followed. Just as she moved into the dark room, Frankie kicked the back of her knee.
She went down, landing with what sounded like a pop and she cried out. Frankie kicked her again—in the middle of her back this time—and pulled the gun from the back of her waistband. She spun on the floor, and he slammed the door in her face.
A second later, the lock was thrown. They were trapped in here.
Hollis didn’t get up.
“Hey.” Will crowded her.
She didn’t care, just let the tears flow. Will grunted and sat down. His knees were almost in her face. How small was this “closet”? He tugged her onto his lap. She didn’t want to squish him, but he didn’t react to her weight on him, either.
Will lowered his arms over her head and rubbed up and down her back.
Hollis whimpered. “I wanted to do something.”
Will just grunted again.
“I was trying to help.” Now her knee felt like it was on fire, and she had one broken arm. She’d look like a freak with only one arm and one leg that worked. At least she was honest. Unlike Frankie.
“I know.” Will just kept holding her, even though her hands were bound. “I’ll figure out a way to get us out of this.”
Upstairs, a woman screamed. Then another.
Hollis shuddered. “I was only trying to do the right thing.” Instead she got strung along, she’d seen people murdered, and now she and Will were locked in a tiny, pitch-black closet.
A gun went off, and she flinched. One of the women screamed.
Crack.
The scream cut off.
Tears rolled down her face. Will said, “I can kick the door open. But I want Frankie and his gun out of here first.”
“Those women…”
“Apparently, Athens is one of Frankie’s business partners, because the girls were his.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, even though it was just as dark as with them open. “My uncle.” She could hardly believe any of this. “The diner.” She moaned. So much death and destruction, it was hard to bear it all.
God. She didn’t know what to say. Wasn’t He supposed to take pain and give peace instead? Joy, and life. She needed all of those things right now when things were at their worst.
Frankie’s unsteady gait pattered down the stairs above them. Will stiffened. She could hear her stepfather moving around.
“I can’t believe I actually cared about him.” She didn’t really expect a response from Will. Not when there was nothing he could say that would make her feel better. “That I believed he cared about me. I just thought he was bad at showing it. I did everything I could to help him.”
“I know.” He shifted his face so his cheek was beside hers. “You didn’t know, and no one will blame you. Not when he lied to everyone.”
Hollis had tried her whole life to earn love. It hadn’t exactly panned out, but Will cared, even though she’d really done nothing for him. Evidently—she knew this because he’d told her a few weeks before—there was something in her that appealed to him, inside and out. Just like there was a whole lot of him that appealed to her. And she had to believe she was both lovable and worthy, whether she did the right thing all the time or not. Whether she was actually “worthy,” or not. This had to be true in every area of her life.
Or it wasn’t true at all.
She was either “enough” or she wasn’t. And if she wasn’t ready to accept that, then she wasn’t ready to accept his love.
Sharleen hadn’t seen the way she had strived to earn love. Frankie had ignored it. Neither cared. Only her friends seemed to be concerned about her.
Then there was Will. He’d lied, but the job he did was so important. After all, without him, she’d never have discovered the truth. Frankie would stil
l be terrorizing people, and no one would be the wiser.
Above the rancid odor of the closet, a musty tang hit her nostrils. Thick air and a rough smell.
Will said, “Fire.”
“What?” Hollis tried to move back. Will’s arms were around her, so he had to lift them up and over her head to give her the space to lean away as far as she wanted to.
“Let me help you up.”
She leaned on the wall while he turned, close enough she felt the brush of his clothing. “Will.”
“If he’s burning down the house, we can’t wait. I’ll kick the door down and either go for the gun, or if he’s gone, we’ll head for the closest door.”
Fear raced through her. Despite being trapped, there was safety being in the closet, away from the immediate threat. Unless, of course, the house burned down around them.
“Ready?”
She grasped for him and found his arm. Hollis turned him to her and moved her bound hands up, feeling for his chin. She grasped it in her fingers and leaned in to press her lips against his. It didn’t last long. It couldn’t. They had to get out of here. “Will.”
He followed her as she leaned away from him. His kiss lasting longer than hers, as though he never wanted to be anywhere else. Desperation. Apology. Passion. All of it was there as they said what they needed to say, without any words, what hadn’t yet been spoken between them.
And then he pulled away. “Get as far back as you can.”
He turned and kicked the closet door open.
A wall of flames roared on the other side.
Chapter Twenty-Six
A breeze ruffled his hair and collar. Will realized the front door had opened. He sucked in the biggest breath he could without coughing and yelled into the fire, “We need help!”
“Will?”
“Tate!” The private investigator. Of course, he’d known they were in the house. And, he now knew it was on fire. Will prayed he’d called for emergency services. Thank You. They’d survived so far. A fire wasn’t going to be the thing that brought them down just yet.
Hollis grasped the back of his jacket, probably feeling the same relief he did. “We need to—” She coughed. “—out of here.”
“I know.” He looked back and saw a collection of coats hung on a rail. So, in addition to a heavily padlocked prison, this was also an actual closet they’d been shoved into.
Will wanted to yell for Tate to make sure Frankie didn’t get away, but the priority here was getting him and Hollis out of here. And they were both injured. He pulled down two coats and used one to smother the flames that licked the other side of the closet door.
“Come on.” He motioned for her to move with him, holding her up with an arm around her waist. She was so strong, even while in obvious and serious pain from her arm and knee. The woman should probably be in a hospital. And that was exactly where they were going.
He had her lean against the wall, the glow of the flames reflected upon her face. But right now, that beautiful sight wouldn’t be fully appreciated. With a campfire, he might be able to relax and watch the play of orange light her features. Not right now, though.
Will got more coats, and they did their best to smother the flames that roared across the floor and licked at the walls. It wasn’t foolproof. His hands felt singed, his face far too hot. Like a really bad sunburn. Still, they got far enough that Will could logistically and safely hand Hollis over to Tate.
But he didn’t.
Will had absolutely no intention of letting go of her. Ever.
“Come on.” Tate held Hollis’s other arm, and they all moved outside, off the front step and down the walk to the curb.
Will turned to Hollis. “Do you need to sit?”
When she nodded, lines of pain formed around her mouth, and so he had her lean against the hood of his car so she could take the weight off her knee.
Tate cut them both loose, and then his gaze shifted to the house. “Fire, police, and an ambulance are all on their way. But if Dean shows up first, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
Will touched Hollis’s shoulders, aware his hands were shaking. He’d gotten her back, and while he’d wanted to get her back in one piece, she was more like a piece that was seriously battered. “You good?”
She grasped his elbow with her good hand and looked up at him, chewing on her lip while her eyes filled with tears. Will stepped close and pulled her into his arms. “I probably smell like smoke.”
She chuckled. “Me too.”
“I didn’t notice.”
That turned her chuckle into audible laughter. “You’re such a liar.” She shifted and he moved back, giving her a moment to say, “Thanks for being in that closet with me, and for coming to get me.”
Will touched her forehead with his.
“Hate to break this up, but you both need to be looked at.”
He turned to Tate.
The private investigator laughed at the expression on Will’s face. “Dean is here.”
Will sat on the hood beside Hollis, while the former SEAL checked her over. “How’s construction going?”
“Got planning approval yesterday. Green lights all the way.”
“Let me know if you need any help.”
The SEAL flipped open a pocket knife and glanced at Will. “Yeah?”
“I did a lot of construction in high school and college.”
“Sweet.”
“What are you doing with that knife?”
Dean said, “Looking at your knee.” Despite Will asking the question, Dean answered as though Hollis had. “But I have to cut your pants to see. Okay?”
She nodded. Will put his arm around her and tried inconspicuously to cough the scratch out of his throat. It didn’t work.
“You both need to be admitted to the hospital.”
Maybe. Will said, “When I know Frankie is in custody.”
Tate said, “That’s who had gone in with Hollis?”
Will nodded. “Did you see him come out?”
“I figured he was still in there.” Tate waved at the house. “That the fire department would be pulling him out anytime now.”
Sure enough, the truck was here, and they were headed into the house already.
Hollis said, “Frankie is West. He’s the one behind all of this.” Her voice was almost desperate as she tried to talk through the pain and smoke inhalation.
When she said no more, Will gave her a squeeze. He asked Tate, “Did you see anyone come out?”
“One guy, moving fast and carrying a duffel. But it wasn’t you, so I came in to see if there was a way to get everyone out.” Tate shook his head. “I couldn’t get past the front door. If you guys hadn’t gotten yourselves out, you’d still be in there.”
Hollis said, “That had to have been Frankie leaving.”
Tate frowned. “Moving that fast? He’s not that able bodied.”
As he spoke, Eric pulled up in his rental car followed by a line of police vehicles. The crowd of cops took barely a minute to circle them.
Will was the first to speak. “Frankie was behind it all. He’s in the wind with, presumably, the resources to disappear.”
Conroy said, “We’ll find him.”
Hollis said, “He’s the one you’ve been looking for all this time, and he’s been under your noses, fooling all of you. Fooling me.” Her body was stiff, her voice angrier than he’d ever heard it. “He was the man running from the house,” she told Tate, “you should have caught him.”
“I shouldn’t have tried to save you?”
“He killed four people today.” Will let that sink in. “Three are in that house. A man, and also two women who were being held upstairs, apparently ‘belonging’ to Athens.”
Conroy’s lips thinned. He walked off toward the fire chief.
Will told Eric, “Frankie needs to be found and brought to justice.”
He had been protecting Hollis, making sure they got out of that situation alive. The idea it had cost him h
is arrest wasn’t an entirely comfortable notion, even though he knew he’d done the right thing. Just as Tate had done, trying to help them. Even if Hollis might not agree.
But that didn’t mean Frankie could be left alone to make a run for it and disappear, never to be found again. The man needed to be in cuffs. It was past time. Someone needed to answer for the years of crime that had been rampant in this community.
Eric studied him.
Will said, “I watched him kill a man. Then he locked me and Hollis in a closet. The two women who were upstairs? We heard them scream, and then there were gunshots. He left us to die in that fire.”
Eric nodded. “Copy that.”
Will didn’t have to tell him that he’d write up a full report. That he would more than happily testify in court as part of the case. When it went to trial. This was Will’s investigation, and he would see it through to the end.
While he also took care of Hollis.
There was a lot to discuss, and even more to figure out. Will wasn’t entirely sure what his future held. What he did know was that in three weeks, he would not be taking another undercover assignment in a new town. No contacting Hollis for the duration?
No way. That wasn’t happening.
Eric read it all on his face. Will knew that when his colleague nodded. “I’ll make some calls.”
Dean pressed his fingers on Hollis’s knee, and she hissed out a breath.
Will shot the man a scathing look.
“It’s sprained, badly. They’ll probably x-ray it anyway, but I don’t think anything is broken.” Dean straightened to his full height. “Probably doesn’t feel too good, right?” He pulled off his protective gloves. “Ambulance is here.”
Will helped Hollis stand, and they made their way slowly to the back of the ambulance.
“You wanna take your own car, or ride with me?”
Will handed her over to the EMTs and turned to Eric. “What?”
“To go after Frankie.”
“I’m not going after Frankie. You are.”
Eric’s eyebrows lifted.
“I’m going to the hospital with Hollis.”
“Are you injured?”
