I slid my hand up his thigh. He yelled out, “Check please,” and everyone looked at him. I just laughed.
And then Cristina was announced. She hit the stage, thanked our table for supporting her, and then began to play her acoustic guitar and sing. By the time she reached the first chorus, she had the entire crowd in the palm of her hand. She looked and sounded like a natural.
“Frickin’ amazing,” Zahera said, as we all clapped after the first tune.
Cristina played two more songs, wrapping up her set with a ballad called, “Where Has My Mom Gone?” It literally brought a tear to my eye, for her and for me. We cheered and whistled when she finished.
I watched her soak up the crowd’s appreciation. It was obvious that, as much as I’d connected with her, bonded with her through our journey to make kids’ lives better, this was what she was meant to do. She had found her calling. And I wanted to help her pursue her passion.
She set her guitar in its stand, waved back to the adoring crowd. I stood up and clapped.
And then there was an explosion. For a split second, I wondered if it were some type of wild special effects from the band. But glass sprayed everywhere. People fell off the balcony.
Chaos erupted, and our space was engulfed in smoke and fire.
54
We’d been standing on the sidewalk across the street for at least twenty minutes. Fire, police, and ATF units were already on the scene. I heard people coughing behind me from smoke inhalation. A few had some scrapes that were being attended to by paramedics. I couldn’t have cared less. My eyes were peeled to the entrance of the Belmont.
“I’m sure Cristina is okay, Ivy.” Zahera put her arm around my shoulder.
Saul had ushered us to the sidewalk, then fought his way through the crowd back into the Belmont to find Cristina. Everyone else in our group had made it out safely. Stan had already spoken to an Austin police detective to try to locate Cristina. No luck. With his badge now attached to his belt buckle, he was prowling around the temporary support center. I saw a number of men and women wearing ATF jackets roaming around him.
I stepped off the curb, but was quickly told by a cop to stay on the sidewalk. Leo was pacing behind me; Brook was keeping Bev and Nikki company. A ripple of gasps turned my attention back to the Belmont. Two men carried a body bag to a nearby van. I grabbed Zahera’s arm.
“You don’t know it’s her,” she said.
My stomach twisted into a wicked knot. “You don’t know it’s not her.”
A moment later, further up the block I heard a man yelling. Zahera quickly asked Bev and Brook to stand by me. “That’s my friend, Ozzie. I need to go to him.”
Ozzie. I’d met him a few months earlier. He was a lawyer and had been prepared to defend Cristina when she’d been falsely accused of manslaughter. He’d seemed like a nice guy, about to get married at the time, if I recalled correctly.
She ran off just as Stan walked up. “Any word on Cristina?” I asked, barely choking the words out.
He shook his head. “Too much confusion right now. There are pockets of people all over the place. We’ll find her.”
“How do you know, Stan?” I could feel a lump in my throat.
He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Maybe he didn’t know what to say.
“Have you heard what happened?” Brook asked.
Stan didn’t respond. I looked right at him. “You can say it, Stan.”
He moved in closer. “There are a lot of people around, so keep it to yourself, but ATF thinks a bomb was detonated.”
“A—”
He raised his hand to Bev’s lips before she could say it.
Brook spoke softly. “So they’re suspecting this could be an act of terrorism?”
“Just an early theory right now. No need to alarm the public. The main thing is—”
Another scream from up the block. I leaned forward to see Zahera trying to console a man—Ozzie? He was tall, blond, and V-shaped. He was pointing a finger across the street and quite animated. I wondered if Zahera needed help.
A second later, more screams as another pair of men walked out with a second body bag. “I’m not sure I can take it,” I said.
Leo and Nikki had pulled up next to me, both with hands to their faces. I looked at Bev, who said, “I’m saying a prayer, Ivy. That’s all we can do right now.”
I couldn’t sit around and chant. Stan must have seen the look of desperation on my face.
“Let me go see if I can find out anything new,” he said.
As he flipped around, I heard my name. I looked up and saw Saul and Cristina jogging out of the club. I jumped off the curb and ran to them. Cristina jumped into my arms.
“Thank God you’re okay.”
“It was horrible, Ivy. One of the band members died. A bunch more are injured.” She started to sob. I rubbed the back of her head as Saul’s arms embraced both of us.
I walked her back to the curb, and she was hugged by everyone, including Zahera, who had reappeared.
“Everything okay with Ozzie?” I asked her as my pulse finally dropped out of the red zone. I followed her gaze to see Ozzie bear-hugging a woman. “Is that his wife?”
“Nicole. Yep. She’d gone to the bathroom just before the explosion. He was thinking the same thing you were about Cristina.”
I looked up again toward Ozzie. He was still holding his wife, but looking in our direction. We nodded at each other. Even though I barely knew him, the connection was there. Zero to sixty and back. And our loved ones were intact.
“Hey,” Saul said, slipping his arm around my waist, “I think I might have another idea about your parents.”
“Forget it, Saul. It’s over. After going through this, I know more than ever that this is the family I was meant to have all along. It’s my life. I will embrace it.”
And no one could convince me otherwise.
Dear Reader,
Are you relieved to see how IN The End all came together? Right now, you might want to take a deep breath. But just one.
You met Ozzie Novak during Ivy’s adventures, but his life is about to undergo a seismic shift. The loss is immeasurable. Rocked to the core, Ozzie can’t sleep until he finds the killer—if it was only that easy. A mystery client. A professional hit… Will Ozzie survive the onslaught?
The first chapter of Ozzie’s first adventure, ON Edge, will be unlike any other you’ve ever read. I hope you will relate to him and follow every harrowing step. Here’s the link.
Get ON Edge now.
Best,
John
P.S. I love getting reviews.
John W. Mefford Bibliography
Redemption Thriller Series
*Suggested to read the books in the following order:
The Alex Troutt Thrillers
Alex Troutt Thrillers: Books 1-3 (RTS #1-3)
Alex Troutt Thrillers: Books 4-6 (RTS #4-6)
OR
AT Bay (RTS #1)
AT Large (RTS #2)
AT Once (RTS #3)
AT Dawn (RTS #4)
AT Dusk (RTS #5)
AT Last (RTS #6)
The Ivy Nash Thrillers
Ivy Nash Thrillers: Books 1-3 (RTS #7-9)
Ivy Nash Thrillers: Books 4-6 (RTS #10-12)
OR
IN Defiance (RTS #7)
IN Pursuit (RTS #8)
IN Doubt (RTS #9)
Break IN (RTS #10)
IN Control (RTS #11)
IN The End (RTS #12)
The Ozzie Novak Thrillers
ON Edge (RTS #13)
Game ON (RTS #14)
ON The Rocks (RTS #15)
Shame ON You (RTS #16)
ON Fire (RTS #17)
ON The Run (RTS #18)
The Alex Troutt Thrillers
AT Stake (RTS #19)
AT Any Cost (RTS #20)
TBD (RTS #21)
TBD (RTS #22)
TBD (RTS #23)
TBD (RTS #24)
Other Thriller Series
The Booker Series
BOOKER – Streets of Mayhem (Volume 1)
BOOKER – Tap That (Volume 2)
BOILERMAKER – A Lt. Jack Daniels / Booker Mystery (Volume 2.5)
BOOKER – Hate City (Volume 3)
BOOKER – Blood Ring (Volume 4)
BOOKER – No Más (Volume 5)
BOOKER – Dead Heat (Volume 6)
The Greed Series
FATAL GREED (Greed Series #1)
LETHAL GREED (Greed Series #2)
WICKED GREED (Greed Series #3)
GREED MANIFESTO (Greed Series #4)
Ivy Nash, Book 4, 5, and 6
Copyright © 2018 by John W. Mefford
All rights reserved.
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book (not just the sample) and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Formatting by Bob Houston eBook Formatting
The Ivy Nash Thrillers: Books 4-6: Redemption Thriller Series 10-12 (Redemption Thriller Series Box Set) Page 75
