The verbal attack struck a raw nerve in Josie, mainly because it held a note of truth. She hadn’t done much after her career, and now that she might very well be at the end of her life, she couldn’t help but wish she had the wasted time back.
Michelle snickered as she eased farther into the room. This time her attention was centered on William. “I have to hand it to you, Josie. You certainly have a good eye when it comes to men.” She reached out and ran her fingers through his hair. “Too bad we never hooked up. You look like you know how to show a girl a real good time. Of course, it’s not too late.”
William jerked his head away from her touch, but watched her through wary eyes.
“I take that as a no.” Michelle sighed and lowered her hand back to her side. “You know…” She hiked her skirt up to mid-thigh and straddled him in the chair. “I’ve never liked the word ‘no’. That’s why I always take what I want.”
She struggled to turn his head back toward her, and when she failed, she instead gave him a long, wet lick against the side of his face. Michelle turned her head and winked at her sister. “He tastes pretty good.”
“Get the hell off me,” he hissed, and tried to buck her off his lap.
Michelle’s head rocked back with a hearty laugh. “This is the most fun I’ve had in months.” She delivered another lick and a high cackle.
“You’re crazy.” Josie strained against her ropes.
Michelle tsked under her breath. “What’s the matter? You don’t like sharing your toys?” She climbed off William’s lap and moved toward her sister.
Before Josie thought about what she was going to do, she pitched her body forward, stood in a crunched position, and hit Michelle in the stomach, head-on, like a wrecking ball.
“Josie,” William shouted.
Michelle screamed as she hit the floor with a thud.
Pain exploded in Josie’s body.
Michelle’s bodyguards rushed inside the room.
William assumed the same tactical position and bowled sideways into them. They toppled over as William’s chair shattered with a crunch beneath him and his ropes slackened.
Michelle gathered her senses, regained her footing, and batted her arms against Josie’s head and body.
Josie couldn’t defend herself, and it wasn’t long before she tasted blood. Yet she wouldn’t give her sister the satisfaction of knowing how hurt she was by crying out or begging for mercy, so she took each blow gladly.
Though William was free from his binding, he was quickly restrained by one of the muscled bullies and turned into a punching bag by the other. Once, he reared back and kicked his feet upward and clocked his assailant hard across the jaw.
However, it was his only good move. His assailant shook off the blow as though a mere mosquito had stung him. The next punch William received broke a rib.
Less than a minute after their brave attempt to fight back, both William and Josie were reduced to battered heaps on the floor and the two bodyguards helped their boss back onto her feet.
“Get her up,” Michelle commanded, while her body shook with uncontrollable rage.
The men lifted and righted Josie’s chair just as Michelle wedged her way in between them and grabbed a fistful of Josie’s hair.
Josie winced, but she didn’t make a sound.
You need the money before you kill her.
“I’m only going to ask you one time,” Michelle hissed. “What did you do with the money?”
Josie wasn’t foolish enough to answer. It was her last playing card and an ace at that.
“Either you tell me, or lover boy gets it,” Michelle warned.
“You’re going to kill us anyway, and I’d rather die than see you with my father’s money.”
Michelle laughed. “Don’t kid yourself. Your so-called father didn’t want you around any more than mine. Mine shoved me into one hospital after another while yours shipped you to some foreign boarding school. So you can just stop looking down on me because you’re no better than I am.”
Josie’s eyes and heart hardened.
Michelle’s thugs finished redoing William’s ropes, but left him planted on the floor since his chair had been demolished.
“Why did you kill Dr. Bancroft?” William asked, interrupting the women’s conversation.
She glanced at him with disdain. “Other than the fact that I never liked her? I figured since my darling Ambrose wouldn’t kill Josie through a drug overdose as he promised, I knew it would only be a matter of time before my old doctor realized that Josie wasn’t me. I couldn’t have that now, could I?”
“And Ambrose?”
“Because he didn’t keep his promise. Plus, after Bancroft’s untimely death, he was a little too jumpy, and he knew too much.”
“What about your boyfriend?” he asked. “Why in the hell did you kill him?”
“Daniel?” Michelle smiled. “Why don’t you ask my sister about Daniel?”
“Shut up,” Josie barked.
Michelle shrugged. “She did me a favor. I didn’t want to split you inheritance down the middle, especially since I had to do all the work. And it all ends tonight.”
Josie shook her head. ‘It’s not quite the speech to give when you want me to hand over a fortune.”
“Actually, I don’t care if you tell me where it is. Keystone Institute will eventually cut me a nice multi-million dollar check; well, cutting you a check.” She smirked. “It’ll be enough to last until I find out what you did with the money. I’ll apply for new credit cards, sell the house, whatever.”
Swallowing, Josie’s last ace was slowly turning into a deuce.
A lopsided smile sloped Michelle’s lips. “For what it’s worth, I’m going to sure miss you.” She leaned down and kissed Josie solidly on the mouth. “Keep a warm seat for me in hell.” She winked, and then turned to her hired hands. “Get rid of them.”
Chapter 36
Detective Simmons ignored his stomach’s grumbling, but remained bored watching the distant house. He prayed that his partner and their small team would arrive soon. Sudden movement at the front door of the estate caught his attention and he reached over to the passenger seat and grabbed his binoculars.
D’Angelo’s goons were loading something big and heavy into the trunk of a car. It was hard to make out, but it looked like their load resembled a body. He adjusted the focus on his lens but by that time, the men had closed the trunk.
“What the hell are you guys up to?” he whispered, trying to figure things out.
Michelle and the men piled into the car.
“Okay, something is going on.” He reached for his cell phone and dialed Ming. “Where are you?”
“About three minutes out. Why? What’s going on?”
“It looks like the gang is clearing out.” He watched the car head off down the driveway, but it cut across the manicured lawn to head toward the back of the house. “Something is definitely up.” He opened his car door.
“Any way that you can sneak on the property to see what’s going on?”
“I’ll probably have to go on foot, but consider it done.”
“Okay, but stay on the phone with me.”
“You got it.”
#
Scared, bound, and crunched in a spoon position in the trunk of a car, Josie and William were faced with the realization that this could be the end. However, Josie was grateful for small mercies. Michelle and her men didn’t gag them. In this moment where there was so much to say, she didn’t know where to begin, and as a result, she didn’t say anything.
“I love you, Josie,” William whispered. “I know it’s probably not what you want to hear, but if this is the end, I want you to know that I’ve never stopped loving you.” He inched closer until their bodies touched, and then pressed a kiss against the back of her head.
Fresh tears seeped from Josie’s eyes. “I love you, too, William. I’ve always have.”
“Shh.” He kissed her again. “You don’t h
ave to say that.”
“It’s the truth.” She sniffed. “I never married Etienne. I couldn’t.”
“What?”
“When Etienne returned that summer, I couldn’t go through with it. I broke our engagement and came to Georgia to find you.”
Silence greeted her confession, but she continued. “I hired someone to find you and when I learned about your apartment near the Emory campus, I cam to surprise you.”
“Oh, Josie,” he groaned.
“Sammy answered the door. She was literally glowing with happiness.”
“I had no idea.”
“Of course you didn’t. How could you? I heard you ask who was at the door, and I made some excuse of having the wrong apartment. I didn’t stick around for her to ask any questions. I just had to get out of there.”
Josie waited for his response, but when he didn’t say anything, she continued, “The first time when I woke up with you by my side, I thought God was playing a cruel joke. I would’ve never believed in a million years our paths would cross again, but there you were again the next morning. It was like you were like a bright angel sent to save me from darkness and evil. It all seemed to good to be true.”
After another brief moment of silence, she felt another kiss, and a flood of tears streamed down her face.
“But now look what I’ve done. Instead of just harming myself, I’m responsible for dragging you into this,” she sobbed.
“Don’t say that,” he commanded. “I was involved the moment I took you from Keystone.”
“I killed Daniel,” she went on. “That’s the real reason I didn’t want to go to the police.”
“Shh. It’s okay. I’m sure Michelle had more to with that you think.”
Josie shook her head. “And I dropped a picture of you in the house today. Michelle put two and two together and that’s how she found you.”
“Josie, we can go back and forth, and it’s not going to change anything. We need to figure a way out of this mess.”
That was impossible until Josie remembered. “I have a .22 in a ankle strap.”
“What?”
“Tammy said a girl should always carry back up.”
“Who?” He shook his head. “Never mind. There’s hope. If I could just try and reposition myself, I can try to undo your hands with my mouth, and then we can work our way from there.”
Hope flourished throughout her body. “Do you think you can do it?”
“I’m going to give it a try.”
#
Michelle was on top of the world as she drove down the hilly landscape toward the lake at the bottom of the property. In a few minutes, she would be rid of Josie forever and her transformation would be complete.
“Who’s a lost cause now?”
It’s not over until the fat lady sings.
She chuckled. “You just can’t give me credit for pulling this off, can you?” Her laughter deepened. “It doesn’t matter. Once I get to Rio or something and find a new quack doctor to prescribe my lithium pills, I’ll be rid of you, too.”
“Are you talking to us?” gorilla number one asked.
Michelle’s eyes narrowed. “Did I call your name?” Not that she knew it.
The high cackle reverberated throughout the walls of her brain. Is that what you think? You can get rid of me? Please, I’ll always be here, watching you screw up everything. And trust me. You’ll screw this up as well. You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t.
“A lot you know.” Michelle gritted her teeth and swerved to miss a bush.
The men in the car stared at her again.
Look at you. You’re going to kill us before we even get there.
Michelle slowed, not that she agreed with her inner voice, but because they had reached the lake. “This is it,” she whispered, and an anxious smile ballooned on her face.
Stopping a few feet from the lake, she and her men climbed out of the car.
“Are you sure this is such a hot idea?” the gorilla challenge. “What if the lake isn’t deep enough?”
“It’s deep enough,” she assured him.
“What if the car doesn’t sink?”
She stared at the clueless man. “And why wouldn’t it sink?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Luther?”
Luther hunched his shoulders. “All I know is that D’Angelo didn’t say anything about killing nobody.”
“I’ll pay him later for the favor.”
Luther shook his head. “Those type of things need to be negotiated up front.”
“Fine,” she hissed. “I’ll do it myself.” She stormed back to the driver’s side door and pulled out the Glock they’d confiscated from Josie. She shifted the car into drive, and then moved out of the way when it started to roll into the lake. When it passed her, she aimed the gun at the trunk. “Watch and learn,” she said, slow like freshly sapped maple, and fired two shots.
#
“Gunshots fired! Gunshots fired!” Tyrese shouted as he still huffed toward the mansion. He dropped the phone and reached for the gun at his waist. He was still too far away from the house let alone from whatever was going on in the back.
Behind him, two pair of headlights appeared. He turned and instantly recognized the police vehicles rushing toward him. The first one slowed long enough for him to open the back door and jump inside.
“Something is going on in the back,” he shouted.
The car sped off and within seconds crest the hill in back and then accelerated even more toward the three figures by the lake. Each stared up at them like deer caught in headlights.
#
“What the hell!” Michelle lifted the gun at the first car and fired straight at the driver.
The car swerved off course and her next shot missed the person sitting in the passenger seat.
Suddenly, the night was alive with gunfire.
D’Angelo’s men found themselves caught in the crossfire. Luther was the first to go down.
Michelle didn’t see what happen, nor did she care. She was too busy scrambling behind the bushes. She heard a splash and peeked around to see the car she’d shot at hit the water, but she also caught sight of a tall Asian woman rolling away from the lake.
I don’t think it’s wise to be shooting at the police, Michelle.
“Shut up!” She glanced around, spotted another bush, and made a mad dash for it. After another glance, she saw the man she’d referred to as gorilla was holding his own in the mist of the chaos.
Here’s to another screw up.
Michelle rubbed the gun against her head. “Shut up!” Her gaze found the house off in the distance. “I just need to make it up the hill.”
#
An unfathomable terror swarmed through Josie as she kept her head above the water that poured in around her. “William, where are you?”
She struggled against her ropes and tried to flip over. Was he hit? Was he dead?
“Dear God, help us,” she said through short, asthmatic like pants. She wiggled some more, hoping to at least feel William body somewhere near her, but she was caught off guard when her hands unraveled from the rope.
William’s head splashed above the surface, though it was clear that he’d swallowed a good dose of water. “Hurry up and undo me.”
“Are you okay?”
“Hurry.” His head slipped back under the water.
Seconds later, both were submerged in the dirty, silty water as the car plunged to the bottom of the lake.
Chapter 37
The moment Ming had hit the ground and rolled away, she realized only she and Tyrese escaped the car. “Jorge didn’t make it out,” she shouted to her partner.
“I’ll get him. You go after Andrews!”
She climbed to her feet and sprinted for cover.
Tyrese dived into the muddy lake water like an Olympic diver.
A bullet zinged past Ming’s left ear. Stunned, she cupped her ear with one hand and shot at her attacker with the other. Her
first bullet took one of the muscle-bound men down; the second one missed his partner.
The other two officers sprayed the perimeter with bullets, though just like a bad movie, somehow they all missed.
The initial numbness in Ming’s ear morphed into an excruciating pain. Determined it wouldn’t slow her down, she sprinted into the long line of short-cropped bushes and struggled to make out Andrews. It was hard to see anything while trying not to lose a chunk of her backside.
Michelle had to be headed toward the house, Ming deduced, and ran that direction.
#
Josie was never good at holding her breath for a long time, but tonight all that changed. It seemed like forever undoing the tight knots around William’s wrists. Afterward, she immediately reached for the .22 at her ankle. She had less than a second to worry about ricocheting bullets before she placed the nozzle against the trunk’s keyhole and pulled the trigger.
The water pressure prevented the trunk from springing open; Josie rolled onto her back and pushed her legs up with all of her might. Her head started to spin from lack of oxygen, and her body begged for her to breathe. She couldn’t tell if the trunk had open, she was too worried whether her lungs would explode.
An arm wrapped around her waist and suddenly she was rising. However, they weren’t reaching the surface fast enough, she needed oxygen now.
Deadly Double Page 22
