His head was spinning with all of the newfound information he had on her as well. Get her back safely first, he’d told himself. Deal with the fallout later. He and Fields made obligatory small talk as they drove to the place the marshal’s service tech guy had told them she’d be. He told himself he should be ecstatic to be on his way to Sally but his gut was telling him something still wasn’t right. He pressed the gas pedal down even further, testing the limits of his engine.
“Whoa there cowboy,” Fields said, one hand on the glovebox and the other on her seatbelt. “Let’s try not to get us killed getting there.”
Evan ignored her and drove on, desperately needing to get to Sally. In just under forty minutes, they entered what was once the small town of Blackburn, Oklahoma. It had been abandoned for some time now, only decrepit old abandoned structures and a crumbling sidewalk remained. Evan drove down the main drag for a few minutes before spotting the old gas station and the car parked in its lot. True to Sally’s confession, Joey was lying in a heap on the ground.
Evan climbed out of his truck and ran to the car while Fields went to Joey’s body. He got to the driver’s side door and looked in but the car was empty. Where was she?
“Girl’s got some balls, I’ll give her that,” Fields was saying behind him. “Just made my job a whole lot easier.”
Something in her voice made Evan’s hackles rise and he turned toward her slowly, his hand on the butt of his gun.
“Uh, uh, uh, Sherriff, hands where I can see them,” Fields said, her own gun pointed straight at Evan’s chest. “Why don’t you toss that over here,” she said motioning to his sidearm. “And I’ll take the one at your ankle too.”
Evan briefly thought about trying to get a shot off but knew if he missed, Sally was as good as dead. If she wasn’t already. He tossed both guns at Fields’ feet and spit in the dirt.
“You were supposed to be the one protecting her,” he growled at her.
“Just doing the job I’m being paid to do Sherriff,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “Let’s get back in the truck, and don’t think about trying anything if you want to make it out of here alive.”
Sally
Sally sat in a dusty old chair in a house that hadn’t had visitors in what looked like decades. Martin Cruz stood by the front room window, occasionally checking the street through a nicotine-stained gauzy curtain. She hoped against hope that Evan had gotten her location before the phone went dead. She knew in all reality that her odds weren’t good but she tried to stay as positive as she could.
“I must thank you for taking care of Joey for us, Miss Andrews,” Cruz said. “Or is it Miss Bishop,” he teased.
“I’m Sally Andrews,” she said, with more defiance than she felt. “I left Casey Bishop behind almost a year ago.”
“It’s a sad thing when someone forgets who they are, don’t you think? When they forget where they come from?”
“Not when that someone is an ignorant kid in a shithole neighborhood. What’s so good about remembering,” she asked.
“Hey now sister, you strolled through that ‘shithole’ neighborhood in some pretty nice shoes if memory serves,” he tsk tskd.
“What do you want from me? Did you send Joey after me,” she asked him.
“Not directly. We made it easier for him to find you and the rest just kind of played itself out. We figured he’d take care of you then we’d take care of him. But I’ll take it any way I can get it,” he said nonchalantly.
“But why come after me? I never said anything about Teddy to the feds. I testified against Joey and only Joey,” she said, hating the desperation in her voice.
“It’s not personal sweetheart,” Cruz said, “Teddy just isn’t a fan of loose ends, which is what you are. How do we know you don’t have some more information for the feds that you’re just saving for a rainy day?”
“I don’t, I swear,” Sally said. “Joey never told me anything except that he answered to Teddy.”
“Well that right there is enough to be a loose end. Teddy likes things neat and clean. Like I said, it’s nothing personal.”
“How did you find me,” Sally wanted to know.
Cruz seemed to ponder something for a moment then shrugged and said, “well I suppose there isn’t any harm in telling you seeing as you’ll be dead soon. Haven’t you ever wondered how Teddy’s stayed under the radar for so long?”
“Actually, yeah now that I think about it,” she responded.
“He makes friends. Mostly in high places. See he met this DEA agent one time who liked to keep some of his busts for himself. Teddy files information like that away for later. Anyway, from time to time, Teddy makes it worth this guy’s while to let us know if something is coming down. The one time we need him most, this guy is nose deep in a coke pile and Teddy now needs to start cleaning up his affairs, you know? But it turns out this DEA guy is married to a Marshal. I mean what are the chances right? So Teddy convinces this guy that it would be in his best interest to see if his wife can be of any use.”
Sally was starting to get the feeling that she knew where this was going.
“Let me guess,” she said. “Teddy’s guy is married to Susan Fields.”
“Bingo!” Cruz yelled, almost gleefully. “I mean come on? How fucking lucky does one guy get right?”
Evan
Evan squared off with Fields, weighing his options though it seemed he didn’t have many. She seemed to read him and clicked the safety off on her gun.
“I’ll drop you right next to this dirtbag if you make one move,” she stated, motioning to Joey’s body.
“What’s your end game here Fields,” Evan asked her. “What happens when I get in that truck? You take me to Sally? Then what?”
“Look my assignment was to take out Casey Bishop, which I had planned to do and then go on my merry way to the bank. Unfortunately for you Sherriff, you happen to be screwing her which makes you a liability now."
“So you’re going to kill me too? How many bodies do you think you can leave behind without getting caught? My whole department saw us leave together, how do you go back to town without me,” Evan asked.
“Who said I was going back? Within a few hours of your demise, I’ll be on a beach sipping Mai Tai’s,” Fields said with a smile.
Evan clenched his fists at his sides, mentally promising himself to wipe that smile off of her face as soon as he had the chance. “So why not just kill me here,” he wondered.
“Call me a romantic, Sherriff, but I thought maybe you’d like to see your girl once more before you go,” she waved her gun at him. “Now let’s get back into the truck.”
Evan got behind the wheel and started the engine. He waited for Fields to direct him to where she had Sally. He wondered about the cell phone trace and who had been on the other end of that phone call. How much help had she had in this? And why wait so long to act against Sally, why not just take her out on the way here that first day so many months ago?
“I’m assuming the ‘techie’ that gave you Sally’s location is working for you,” he asked.
“That’s a fair assumption, yes. Though I’d say working with me is a better description. Make a left up here,” she motioned.
“Here’s what I don’t get,” Evan began, voicing one of his many questions,” if the final play was to kill Sally anyway, why not just do it before you got to town? I mean there are plenty of places between the airport and town you could’ve dumped her. Why let her settle in? Give her hope?”
“Actually this wasn’t the original plan,” Fields told him. She explained how she was originally just supposed to keep tabs on Sally, make sure she forgot all about her life in Chicago. It wasn’t until Joey Masso had given up his boss, Teddy Cruz, that it became necessary for any loose ends to be tied up.
“But I thought you said she testified against Joey, not anyone else,” Evan asked.
“True but Teddy wasn’t willing to take the chance that anyone else might come out aga
inst him after Joey did. He’s an extremely cautious man, doesn’t keep many people close to him.”
Evan had a thought. “So if Teddy hired you to take out Sally, how do you know he won’t have you killed when it’s done? I mean, you said he doesn’t like loose ends. What’s more dangerous than a Federal officer who knows where the bodies are buried?” He could see that she hadn’t thought of that possibility and it rattled her.
“Make a right up here,” she said by way of an answer. “Third house on the left.”
Evan pulled the truck to a stop in front of a dilapidated house with a front porch sagging heavily with age and a chipped white picket fence with several boards missing. His heart picked up a beat as he tried to work out a way to get Sally out without getting both of them killed. He was hoping she was still alive.
Fields motioned with her gun at his back to climb the bowed stairs of the unstable porch. He carefully avoided the broken boards but Fields was too busy making sure he didn’t do anything rash to notice and stepped right through a stair, losing her footing. Evan swung around at the sound and saw his opportunity. He reached out and grabbed the gun from Fields’ hand as she struggled to pull her foot from the splintered hole. With his free hand, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her up onto the porch, levelling the gun at her.
“Looks like those Mai Tai’s will have to wait,” he said.
Sally
“So if you were sent here to kill me, why am I still alive,” she asked Cruz. “Why not just do it when you found me and leave me in the dirt with Joey?”
Before Cruz could answer her, a truck pulled up in front of the house. Sally’s heart leapt when she saw Evan through the window. Her excitement was quickly dashed though when she noticed that Field’s was with him, and holding him at gunpoint. Her mouth went dry as she thought about the mistakes she’d made along the way that led to now. Not only had she screwed up her own life but now Evan would pay with his. She closed her eyes and said a quick prayer that he could get free from this when a commotion erupted out on the porch. Her eyes flew open in time to see Field’s lose her footing and Evan overpower her, taking her gun.
Cruz swore loudly and reached for the door, pulling it open as Evan was pushing Fields toward him with a gun to her back. Cruz immediately crossed the small room and grabbed Sally from the chair holding her in front of him with his gun to her temple. She started to struggle against him before Evan shook his head motioning for her to stop.
“Are you hurt,” he asked her, looking her up and down for any visible signs of injury.
“No, I’m fine,” she said, tears springing to her eyes. The relief of seeing Evan here warred with the terror she felt with the gun to her head.
“How do you think this is going to go down here Sherriff,” Cruz asked.
“Well I thought maybe we could make a trade. Sally for your partner, Deputy Fields here,” Evan said.
“And then what? You just let us walk out of here,” Cruz asked.
“No, then I arrest you both and haul your asses back to town,” Evan answered. “Or I could shoot your partner right now and just take you,” he offered.
Cruz seemed to contemplate this for a moment but instead of answering, he swung the gun away from Sally’s head and toward Fields, putting a bullet through the middle of her forehead. Sally screamed and tried to run but Cruz still had hold of her. He pulled her back against him and put the gun back to her temple. She flinched as the hot barrel touched her flesh. “Not well versed in the ways of bartering are you Sherriff? If you’re going to negotiate with someone you should really know how valuable your goods are first,” he said, motioning to Field’s body on the floor. “How about option number three? I drop you, then your girl and be on my merry way?”
Evan needed only a minute to recover from the shock of Cruz shooting his partner before his brain formulated another plan. He knew it was a gamble and that it would hurt Sally but for her safety he had to try. At that same moment, he spotted one of his deputies approaching through the kitchen from the back door. He lowered his gun and began talking.
“Go ahead,” he motioned to Sally. “You’d be doing me a favor anyway. By now the whole town will know her story. I can’t be with her anymore. She’d ruin my career and my business. I don’t know how Chicago is but here, people love to talk shit.”
Sally’s jaw dropped open and the wind went out of her as if he’d punched her right in the gut. Her fears were coming true. He had realized that she was more trouble than she was worth and was cutting her loose. How could a man like Evan be with a girl like her? But to turn her over to a killer? Condemn her to death? She couldn’t reconcile that with the man she knew and loved. Before she had a minute to contemplate it further, she noticed Evan glance briefly over Cruz’s shoulder. From where she stood, Sally could see the reflection of the deputy in the dirty window and relief flooded through her. Even met her eyes and nodded ever so slightly before yelling “Down!”
Sally let her body go completely limp, causing Cruz to lose his grip on her. As she hit the floor, gunshots erupted around her and she scrambled behind the old couch, covering her head. When the shooting stopped she was afraid to open her eyes and her ears were ringing something awful. She jumped as a hand touched her shoulder and looked up into Evan’s face as he crouched over her.
“Are you ok? Were you hit,” he wanted to know, searching over her.
“No, no I’m fine. What about Cruz,” she asked, sitting up.
“He’s dead, Walker got him when you dropped. You sure you’re ok,” he asked again. His voice sounded funny, almost strained and his face started to lose its color. He started to stand and stumbled back onto the couch.
“Evan!” Sally screamed as he fell back, seeing the bloom of bright red blood spreading through his shirt.
Evan
He had hated saying those things about Sally, hated the look of hurt on her beautiful face, but knew he needed to distract Cruz enough for Walker to get into position. Once he saw his deputy in place, he yelled for Sally to drop and managed to get a shot off into Cruz’s shoulder. Cruz returned fire and Walker dropped him from behind with six bullets in his back. Evan felt a slight sting in his right side but his adrenaline was pumping so high it barely registered. He’d seen Sally crawl behind the couch and needed to get to her to make sure she was ok.
He felt himself get woozy, his voice sounding strange in his own ears. Like he was hearing himself from far away. His side began to burn and he could feel his shirt grow sticky. Sally screamed his name just as he felt himself drop onto the couch and then everything went black. He could still hear voices from time to time but he couldn’t tell who’s they were. He felt himself being rolled from side to side and jostled around. He was fighting to open his eyes, to get back to everyone but then a calm fell over him and he slept.
He didn’t know how long he was out for but when he woke, he was in a hospital room with bright lights shining down on him. He had IV’s in his arm and tubes coming from his side. He realized he was on a ventilator and began to panic, trying to pull at the tube in his throat. Alarms started to sound and a flurry of activity erupted around him. He felt something run cold through the veins in his arm and fell back to sleep.
Several days later, Evan woke with only the IV remaining. The tubes down his throat and in his side were gone. Everything hurt like hell. A nurse came in just then to check his vitals.
“Good afternoon Sherriff,” she said pleasantly. “Are you having any pain?”
Evan tried to speak but his throat was dry and felt bruised from the ventilator tube. He nodded and pointed to his side.
“No problem, I’ll get you something for that. Here, why don’t you try some small sips of water,” the nurse brought the straw to his lips and Evan took tentative sips, careful not to overfill his sore belly.
“What? What happened,” he asked hoarsely. He was having difficulty deciphering between his dreams and reality.
“You were shot, Sherriff,” the nurse
told him. “The bullet went in through your side and lodged in the lower lobe of your lung. You gave us quite a scare for a while there,” she said.
Just then the doctor came in to examine him. The doctor told him that he’d endured a three hour surgery in which he’d coded twice and had to be resuscitated. How long had he been asleep, he’d asked. Almost two weeks, the doctor told him. Was anyone else brought in injured with him? No, just Evan. The doctor concluded his exam and gave some additional orders to the nurse. She told Evan that several of his deputies had been by every day to visit and that the sweet lady who owned the diner had brought apple pies for the whole staff. She was a favorite around here. Evan asked about Sally.
The nurse scratched her head and thought for a minute before answering. “Well there was a woman who was with you when you came in. Pretty, petite little thing with blond hair. Is that your Sally?”
“Yes,” Evan smiled, “that’s my Sally.” He noticed the nurses frown and his smiled faltered. “What,” he asked her.
“Well the night you were brought in she stayed until you were out of surgery but we haven’t seen her around here since.”
Sally
Once Evan had made it out of surgery, Sally agreed to speak with the police and the Marshal’s Service. She gave her account of the events starting with her kidnapping at least three separate times. She was assured that there were no more leaks in the Marshal’s service and that she would have no worries from here on. Teddy Cruz had been picked up once the DEA agent he had in his pocket had been informed of his wife’s death. There were more arrests of people Sally had never heard of nor cared about. She just wanted to get home and wash Evan’s blood off of her clothes.
BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE: The Unforgettable Southern Billionaires: The Complete Collection Boxed Set (Young Adult Rich Alpha Male Billionaire Romance) Page 139
