The Cost of Betrayal

by Dee Henderson

  Isaac pulled to a stop. “Why am I not surprised? Cole in there with you?”

  “Cole? That do-gooder? No way, man. Get in here.”

  To say he was surprised to hear Cole wasn’t involved was an understatement. “Why the voice distortion?”

  “It was fun to use it.”

  “Right.”

  “Where’s the other one?” Sullivan asked. “The doctor?”

  “She’s here,” Isaac said as they walked into the trailer.

  “She’s in the car with the flash drive,” Sally said. “Now where are my kids?”

  Isaac winced. She obviously wasn’t thinking clearly. He prayed Ruthie had listened to him and had gotten herself to a place to hide.

  “They’re fine. In the back room. Help yourself and stay there. Don’t come out until someone comes to get you.”

  Sally turned on her heel and disappeared down the hall. Isaac heard a squeal. “Mama!”

  At least the kids were safe. Now he just had to find a way to get them all out. “Where’s your partner?” he asked.

  “Busy. Where’s your backup?”

  “It’s likely they’re trying to find us but probably not having much luck. We did what you said. It’s time to let Sally and her kids go.”

  “You let me worry about Sally and the kids. Put your weapon on the floor and kick it over here.”

  Isaac didn’t bother to argue. He removed his weapon, placed it on the floor, and gave it a shove with his foot. It slid under the couch.

  Sullivan rolled his eyes. “You always did have lousy aim.” He held his weapon on Isaac and lifted his phone to his ear. “Check the car. The doc has the flash drive.” He looked at Isaac. “That was clever using the body bag and the gurney.”

  “Ruthie’s idea.” He paused, ears tuned, trying to figure out a way to get his gun and shoot his way out. The only problem was that he felt sure Sullivan wasn’t acting alone. Someone else was here. Somewhere. “How much did Howard want to keep quiet?”

  “A million.”

  “Wow. And you didn’t want to pay him off and avoid all this?”

  “Wouldn’t have had to if you hadn’t caught Lansing stuffing his shirt. Howard got scared it was all coming to an end and wanted a big payoff. He planned to disappear somewhere tropical with all that money. Unfortunately, we weren’t interested in funding the trip.”

  “Speaking of Lansing, I assume he’s here somewhere?”

  “Somewhere.”

  “Who else?”

  “Me, Lansing, Harrison, and Howard. Too many people means smaller pieces of the pie.”

  Why didn’t Isaac believe that?

  Sullivan’s phone buzzed, and he lifted it and checked the incoming text. His eyes hardened on Isaac, his jaw tightening. “Where is she?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She’s not in the car.”

  Ruthie made her way to the back of the trailer. She simply couldn’t sit in the car and do nothing. She had to at least make sure Isaac and Sally didn’t need her and the extra weapon she carried. Two of the windows were covered, but the third gave her a view into the back bedroom. She could see Sally sitting on the bed with her three children. The woman held the smallest one and the other two leaned against her.

  There was no way to get them out of the room through the window, so they would have to wait. It didn’t look like they had anyone guarding them at the moment—at least not inside the room.

  Footsteps sounded, leaves crunched, and she ducked, then darted back to the tree line to huddle behind one of the larger tree trunks. A man she didn’t recognize walked the perimeter of the trailer, his steps crunching the fallen leaves. Had he heard her own steps in her race from the trailer? Seemed like he couldn’t have missed them.

  He swept a weapon over the area and continued the trek. If he’d heard the crunching leaves, he didn’t seem concerned. Then again, maybe he wasn’t listening for her or expecting anyone to be back here.

  Once he was out of sight and looking like he was heading back toward her car, Ruthie ran a shaky hand over her hair. What should she do? Wait for the guy to leave the car and go find help? No, they were looking for her now. Eventually, they would do something to one of their hostages when they realized they couldn’t find her. Ruthie shuddered.

  She needed a plan. A distraction.

  She pulled the weapon from her waistband and fired a shot into a tree.

  Isaac dove headfirst into Sullivan’s abdomen when the man jerked at the gunshot. The loud crack had provided the opportunity Isaac needed to get the drop on him.

  Sullivan’s breath whooshed from his lungs, and he went to a knee. Isaac moved in with a hard punch to the man’s face. He kept swinging, staying on the offensive, because working with one arm, if he let Sullivan get the upper hand, Isaac would be toast.

  “Don’t move!” Ruthie’s voice came from behind him.

  Isaac landed one more punch on Sullivan’s jaw, and the man’s eyes rolled back in his head.

  With his good arm, Isaac pushed himself to his feet and turned to find Ruthie with her weapon still trained on the unconscious Sullivan. “There’s another one out there,” she said.

  Isaac nodded. “I need something to tie this guy up with. Then we can worry about the other one.”

  “Do you know who he is?”

  “Probably Lansing. I’m not sure that it was just the three of them. There may be more.”

  “I haven’t seen anyone else.”

  “We’ll figure that out in a minute. Grab his phone and call Brady.” Isaac grabbed a lamp cord and yanked it from the base of the light. He used his good arm and feet to roll Sullivan to his stomach, then held the cord out to Ruthie. “Actually, I’m going to need your help first. Help me get his hands behind his back.” She did, then bent the man’s knee and attached his ankle to his wrists. He would be miserably uncomfortable when he woke up, but Isaac really didn’t care. “Nice job.”

  “Thanks, but I don’t see the phone anywhere,” she said. “Where is it?”

  He looked around. No phone. “Check under the furniture.”

  “What’s going on? What’s happening?” Sally cried from the hallway. Her eyes landed on the man trussed up and unconscious and she gasped.

  “Get your kids and get out that back door,” Isaac told her. “Run into the woods and find a place to hide. Take a blanket just in case this takes a while.” He tossed her one from the sofa. “Ruthie, go with her while you can. I don’t know how long before the other guy gets back.”

  “But—”

  “Help her get her kids to safety. I can take care of this. I’m not leaving just yet. I’ll find the phone and call Brady. Just go. Hurry.”

  Ruthie pressed her lips together and looked at Sally. “What did they do with your phone?”

  “Um. I have it. In my purse.”

  “They didn’t take it?”

  “Yes, but I found it in the bathroom a minute ago.”

  “Okay.” She shot a look at Isaac. “Are you sure about this?”

  “My concern is the kids. And not letting these guys get away with this. You have the evidence. Make sure it gets into the right hands. And stay away from the vehicle. They probably have someone watching it.”

  Ruthie nodded. “All right, come on, Sally. We’ll call for help once we make sure your children are safe.”

  Sally started to say something, then bit her lip, spun on her heel, and disappeared back down the hallway. In seconds, she had all three children with her—baby on her hip, the other two trailing behind, eyes wide, scared.

  Ruthie held her arms out to the little girl, who looked to be about four years old. The child let her pick her up. Ruthie nodded to Sally. “I’m ready when you are.” The five of them slipped out the back door and headed to the woods.

  Just then, Isaac heard a footfall on the step outside the front door and raised his weapon.

  twelve

  RUTHIE FOLLOWED SALLY THROUGH THE TREES, trying not to trip on the u
ndergrowth. Heart pounding, she hugged the little girl close to her and pulled up short when Sally turned off onto a well-worn path.

  Then the woman stopped in front of a small shed and threw open the door. “Here, we can hide in here.”

  The inside held a twin bed, in addition to various work tools including a lawn mower, and what looked like a bathroom off the back. “How did you know this was here?”

  Sally blinked. “I didn’t. I just saw the path and took it, and it led here.”

  Made sense. Ruthie set the little girl down on the bed. The older child sat next to her and pulled her into her arms like she’d done it a hundred times before. “Okay, you guys stay here. Sally, I need your phone. I’m going to call Brady and make sure he knows where to come.”

  Sally pulled the phone from her purse and handed it to Ruthie. She swiped the screen. “What’s your password?”

  “Nine, five, one, zero, zero, zero.”

  When the phone opened, Ruthie dialed Brady’s number. And waited. Then realized it wasn’t ringing. She glanced at the screen. “Ugh. No signal.” She tried again. Ruthie glanced at Sally, back to the phone, and walked toward the door. “You guys stay here. I’m going to see if I can get a signal outside.”

  Back among the trees, she tried again. This time it rang. Once. Twice.

  Something hard pressed against the back of Ruthie’s skull. She froze.

  “Hang up. Now.”

  Ruthie did.

  “Don’t move. Don’t cry out. Don’t breathe if you know what’s good for you.”

  A hard ball formed in Ruthie’s gut. “You deserve an Academy Award.”

  “I was the lead in our high school play. Drop the phone.”

  Ruthie did so.

  “Now your weapon. Nice and easy with no funny moves. Give it a toss, too.”

  Ruthie followed the orders, then turned to face the mother of three. “Why, Sally?”

  “A lot of reasons.”

  “Such as?”

  She huffed a short laugh. “Such as a loser husband who only cares about making kids, not raising them. Such as never having enough money because he’s buying some trinket for his latest girlfriend. Such as watching my children go without because I can’t afford to get a job because I can’t afford the childcare I’d have to pay for. Such as—” She drew in a breath. “It doesn’t matter anymore. We’re taken care of now. That’s all that’s important. I’ve done what I had to do.”

  “You were unconscious.” Ruthie nodded to the woman’s wounded head. “That’s a real concussion you have there.”

  “Yes. And I plan to take that issue up with Heath when I see him. And then I’m going to hurt him as bad as I possibly can without killing him. Or maybe I’ll do that, too.”

  “Was Howard really your brother?”

  “Yes, he really was. But just like my husband, he’s been a loser all his life. Not to mention a weak and sniveling coward. And one who spends money like it’s an endless supply. Do you know how much credit card debt he managed to rack up? He was my big brother. He was supposed to help me.” She shook her head. “I go to him after years of not speaking and ask him to pay my mortgage for one month. One lousy month. And he says no. He’s broke.” Tears dripped down her cheeks and she sniffed. “Whatever. He got what he deserved. And I’ll finally get what I deserve.”

  “What’s that, Sally?”

  “My happily-ever-after.”

  This wasn’t adding up for Ruthie. “When you ran back to the house to get your phone, you got the gun, too?”

  “Sure did.”

  “And just how are you connected to all of this? Who’s going to give you this happily-ever-after?”

  “Paul Sullivan. The man I’m going to marry just as soon as this is all over. He’s going to take care of me and my kids from now on. No more scraping by on government assistance. No more begging my ex for child support payments. No more pressure to take care of three kids all by myself.” Her last words ended on a sob.

  Ruthie’s mind processed the woman’s words even as she was calculating possible escape scenarios. “How did you two even meet?”

  “The kids and I used to spend a lot of time at Howard’s place after my husband took off—and before Howard decided he was tired of having us around. Paul would come over a lot. One thing led to another, and I fell in love with him.” She wiped the tears from her cheeks, but the weapon never wavered. “But I couldn’t figure out the connection between Paul and Howard. They sure weren’t friends—they argued too much. So I started spying. And found out they were stealing drugs and money from the evidence room. Howard was real nervous about everything. Then he got paranoid and was scared they were going to get rid of him.”

  His paranoia hadn’t been too far off.

  “One night, I was in the back of the house with the kids, and Howard was ranting about fixing the video, saying that they needed to be more careful. I walked in and talked to him until he calmed down. Paul seemed really impressed and brought me up to speed on everything. Later, he pulled me aside and kissed me.” Her eyes darkened, and a small smile curved her lips before she blinked and her expression hardened once more. “Then that cop caught Heath stealing and reported it. Paul was livid. Howard said they had to back off, take things easy for a while, but Paul insisted that everything was fine. Howard was terrified they were going to set him up to take the fall for everything.”

  “So he made sure he had the evidence he needed to ensure that didn’t happen.”

  “Yes. I’m the one who told Howard to get it and hold on to it.”

  “For what?” It hit her. “Wait a minute. You’re not sure Sullivan isn’t just using you, right? It’s occurred to you that he was only interested in you because of what you could get Howard to do. The control you had over him.”

  The woman’s eyes flashed and her jaw tightened. “You’re very smart, aren’t you?”

  “I’m a woman. In your shoes, it’s how I would think.”

  “It occurred to me. Only Howard got more stupid than even I could deal with. Once he realized his cash flow was about to come to an end—thanks to your boyfriend in there—he decided it would be wise to blackmail everyone involved. I was all for having the evidence, but blackmailing the others? Stupid. And he paid for it with his life. But I’m not going to let that stop me from getting what I’ve worked so incredibly hard for.”

  “Is this really the legacy you want to leave for your children?”

  “My children are the reason I’m doing this. They’re going to have everything I’ve never had.”

  “Not sure how that’s going to work with you sitting in a prison cell.”

  Sally laughed. A harsh, guttural sound that scraped across Ruthie’s nerves. “Prison isn’t an option. Now, we’re going to walk back to the car and get the flash drive, because I’m assuming you don’t have it on you.”

  “You would assume correctly.”

  “Then you would have left it in the car. Or somewhere nearby. Walk.”

  The woman was smart. “What about your kids?”

  “They won’t leave the shed. They’ll be fine.”

  Ruthie took three steps toward what she thought was the right direction, then stopped.

  “What are you doing?” Sally asked.

  “I just want to know—did you kill your brother?”

  “No. Paul did. Finally.”

  The woman was cold. Dry-ice cold.

  “Now walk.”

  “Where am I going?” Ruthie asked.

  “Up that hill then down the other side. The car is at the bottom.”

  Because she had no choice, Ruthie obeyed. As they headed toward the car, she realized that the only thing keeping her alive at the moment was the fact no one else but her knew where the flash drive was. She wasn’t a cop. She had a basic understanding of self-defense, but she wasn’t sure she could go up against a woman with a gun and come out the winner. When she’d managed to get the attacker off her in the hospital, she’d been going stric
tly by instinct. She still wasn’t sure how she’d managed to get loose from him.

  This was different. She had too much time to think.

  And yet she may not have a choice. She went as slow as she dared up the hill. At the top, she could see the vehicle just as Sally said.

  Ruthie let her gaze skim the SUV and the empty street beyond the drive. No sign of help. Dread hardened into a knot in the center of her belly. But Sally didn’t know that just before she’d placed the weapon at the base of Ruthie’s head, she’d shot a text to Brady. What if he hadn’t gotten her message? What if help really wasn’t coming?

  With a cry, Ruthie spun and slammed her forearm against Sally’s outstretched arm. Sally cried out and dropped the gun. Ruthie scrambled for it, lost her balance, and went to the ground. Then found herself tumbling down the steep hill.

  The door opened. “Yo! Sullivan! Where are you? You here?”

  Isaac pulled back into the first bedroom off the hall and glanced at the man he’d managed to drag in there one-handed. His head swam and his shoulder throbbed, but he had no choice but to ignore the weakness and just do it. And fast. Unfortunately, he still hadn’t found the phone.

  “Sullivan!”

  Where was the cavalry? Surely Ruthie had had time to call Brady—or someone?

  Heavy steps headed toward the hall. He stepped out of the room, weapon held ready, waiting for the man to come around the corner.

  “Sull—”

  “Sullivan’s out of commission right now. Get your hands up.”

  Lansing scowled but lifted his hands. “Martinez? Now what?”

  “Now we wait for the good guys to get here so we can haul you and your buddies to prison.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “So, what are you going to do? Go for your weapon?”

  “You’d really shoot me?”

  “Three times. Center mass.” He shrugged with his good shoulder. “Don’t think I’ll miss from here.”

  Lansing paused, then gave a nervous chuckle. “Come on. We’re both cops. We can just forget this and be done with it.”

  “We’re both cops? Really? You still see yourself as a cop? Let’s get something straight here, Lansing. You’re not a cop. You’re a traitor. You’ve betrayed everything the badge means and made the rest of us look bad. You’re not a cop. Not by a long shot. Now, why don’t you head back into the kitchen and have a seat? Then we can discuss what being a real cop really looks like.”