“I know that,” Kylie assured her, forcing her tone to remain calm. “We’re going to go find Dani. You go take care of your mother and sisters and be calm for them. Okay?”
“Okay, Kylie,” Diane said, and said goodbye reluctantly before hanging up.
Perry had stormed off in one direction and Kylie opted to take the other, wishing she was more properly equipped but patting her purse and feeling the small handgun inside. She stared into the darkness, her heart pounding so hard it was damn near deafening.
There weren’t many cars in the lot at this hour, most of the stores closed except the bowling alley and the donut shop on the other side of the lot in the adjacent strip mall. She could see into the shop through its glass windows, and a few people sat at tables inside while one employee stood behind the counter. The best she could tell, everyone inside eating pastries were men. She didn’t see any women or teenage girls. Nonetheless, she sprinted across the lot to the wide sidewalk and then strolled down it, past the donut shop, and confirmed Dani wasn’t inside.
Petrie hadn’t picked her up and taken her for a bite to eat so she could unload the woes of her home life on him. But then the sickening feeling inside Kylie’s gut told her Petrie wasn’t who Dani believed him to be.
“Please let me be wrong,” Kylie muttered under her breath, combing her hair away from her face with her fingers while staring across the parking lot.
She didn’t see Perry. Her cell phone rang, though, and she jumped, then damn near attacked it as she dragged it out of her purse and stared at the unknown number.
“Hello,” she said, answering on the fourth ring and praying whoever it was wouldn’t hang up, and would be someone she wanted to talk to right now.
“Kylie?” a small voice said, sounding broken and terrified.
For a moment Kylie couldn’t breathe. “Dani?” she asked, praying she was right.
“Yes.”
“God, tell me you’re all right.”
“I’m not all right.”
Kylie was hightailing it back to Perry’s Jeep before thinking about it. Perry must have spotted her, because he appeared out of the shadows at the far end of the bowling alley, and she gestured to him frantically as she raced around the truck to the passenger side.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart? Where are you?” She forced herself to remain calm, take deep, soothing breaths. If the son of a bitch had Dani and was using her to lure Kylie in, she was more than game to take the motherfucker on.
“I’m at a pay phone. I need you. Please come get me and don’t tell anyone. Please? Promise? I’ve done a very, very bad thing and my uncle will kill me for sure.”
Kylie slid into the passenger side at the same time Perry slid into the driver’s side. His wild look was frantic as he stared at her and then her phone.
“What?” he demanded.
“Oh my God, Uncle Perry is with you. Kylie, you’ve got to lose him. Please.” Dani was crying now and harder to understand.
“Where are you?” Kylie asked, remaining calm as she stared into Perry’s dark, fierce eyes.
“I don’t know,” Dani wailed into Kylie’s ear.
“Are you hurt?”
“I don’t think so. I’m scared. And I’m the biggest fucking idiot.”
Perry started the car, continuing to look over Kylie’s way. “It’s Dani, right. Where is she?” he asked with a baritone so cool sounding it gave Kylie chills.
“She’s scared and isn’t sure,” Kylie told him, hearing Dani hiccup in her ear as she continued crying hard. “But she sounds as if she’s okay.” Then putting the phone close to her ear, Kylie covered it with her hand, needing only to hear Dani. “You know your town, Dani. Look around you. Tell us where you are.”
“You’re bringing Uncle Perry. He’s going to kill me.”
“We were both out looking for you, so we’re together, and yes, he is bringing me to you. You have my word he won’t kill you.”
Perry grunted and she ignored him.
“You don’t know my uncle that well then.”
“Dani, where are you?”
The sobs continued before Dani finally answered. “On the south side of the bowling alley parking lot. I ran back here. But I think there might be a problem. God, Kylie, please come by yourself. I’ve done something really, really bad and I might be in some serious trouble.”
“The south side?” Kylie looked outside, getting her bearings. “I’ll be there in a second.”
“Okay. Where are you?”
“Don’t hang up, Dani. Stay right there and do not hang up the phone.” Kylie pulled the phone from her ear just far enough to focus on Perry. “She’s on the south side of the parking lot here at a pay phone,” Kylie whispered. “She keeps repeating she’s done something terrible and doesn’t want you to come get her, just me.”
“Damn the luck,” Perry growled, making a sharp turn back into the parking lot instead of turning onto the street.
“Kylie, I think he’s coming back. He’s going to see me. I’ve got to go,” Dani hissed into the phone.
“We’re right here. Don’t hang up,” Kylie said frantically, and then heard the hum in her ear. “Damn it,” she snapped, tossing her phone into her purse but then quickly reaching for her door handle. “She was on a pay phone on the south side of the bowling alley but just panicked and said she is afraid he’s coming back and that he’ll see her. She hung up on me.”
Perry didn’t answer but accelerated hard enough that the tires squealed. He raced across the parking lot but then hit the brakes so hard Kylie slammed her palms against the dash. Making a sharp turn, he drove only a bit slower through the dark side of the back of the building toward the other side.
“She kept saying she’s done something really terrible.”
“She agreed to meet that bastard she’s been talking to online,” Perry hissed, sounding mad as hell.
“I think so. But something happened and it caused her to call me from a pay phone crying her eyes out and begging me to come get her. Yet then she hangs up in a state of panic. I think she got away from him and he’s coming back for her.”
Kylie didn’t have to voice her thoughts. Obviously Perry was thinking the same thing. He turned the corner sharp enough that Kylie swore he did it on two wheels instead of four.
“There!” Kylie pointed at a small figure racing down the length of the building.
At the same time another car turned around in the back lot—a black Suburban.
“Drive!” Perry ordered, slowing the truck and undoing Kylie’s seat belt at the same time.
“What?” She looked at him, confused.
“Drive!” he yelled. “Go get her now!”
He barely brought the truck to a stop and at the same time dragged Kylie across the seat toward him. She didn’t have time to question the madness of his actions before he jumped out of the truck and ran around the back side. The Jeep kept rolling forward and she quickly adjusted herself in the driver’s seat, which was set back way too far for her to sit comfortably.
There wasn’t time to adjust it. “What the hell are you doing?” she howled, shifting it back into drive and pressing her toes against the accelerator pedal while gripping the large steering wheel.
Perry raced faster than a man his size looked like he could run. And another time she might have admired the view, and easily gotten hot as hell doing so. Even in the dark she could tell how muscular he was, and in shape, as he sprinted toward the Suburban. When she noticed his gun in his hand and that he pointed it at the Suburban, she cursed out loud and gunned the engine similarly to how Perry had a minute ago. It took no time at all to catch up with Dani.
The teenager looked terrified and makeup streaked down her face when she looked at the Jeep and took a minute to register that Kylie was driving her uncle’s vehicle.
“Get in,” Kylie ordered, easily finding the right button to roll down the driver’s-side door window. “Dani, hurry. In, now!”
Dani
didn’t argue and raced around the front, then climbed in. Kylie grabbed her before Dani could react and used one hand on the side of her head to force her down into the seat.
“Stay low and don’t move,” Kylie demanded, turning the large steering wheel and making the tires squeal just as a gun went off.
Chapter 22
Perry aimed for the back tire. He pulled the trigger.
“Fucking son of a bitch,” he growled when the Suburban made a sharp turn and started coming toward Perry.
Mess with his goddamn family. He didn’t give a fucking rat’s ass about rules or regulations. He would take the asshole out right here and now.
“Sick bastard,” Perry yelled, aiming when the black SUV started at him. “Take me on. You’ll die slow and tortuously. I’ll fucking see to it.”
There was a rumbling behind him as well. Kylie had Dani and was heading toward him and the black Suburban. He didn’t budge, though. All he wanted was that fucking SUV to get close enough so he could dive to the side. He needed to see the driver, confirm for himself his suspicions. Then he would nail the fucking bastard to the wall.
Kylie stood on the damn horn behind him and the SUV swerved, squealing its tires and burning rubber when it took off around the side of the building. He noted the license plate numbers as being the same ones they’d taken down before. It was Peter!
“Scoot over,” Perry yelled, grabbing the driver’s-side door and yanking it open when Kylie slowed.
He was impressed that she had Dani lying on the seat, and didn’t bother waiting for either of them to adjust themselves next to him when he gunned the motor and took off after the Suburban.
“It’s the same truck,” Kylie told him.
“Yup. This time we’re going to find out where he’s going.”
“Watch out,” Kylie yelled, her hand going protectively in front of Dani when a car came at them from the front of the building.
“Son of a bitch.” He was going too fast and slammed on his brakes, barely missing the other car. “Fucking idiot,” he hissed.
Kylie and Dani didn’t say a word, which was in their best interest. Neither one of them dared cross him right now. He needed blood, needed to see the asshole suffer who had tried stealing Perry’s niece from her family.
“Where did he go?” Kylie asked. She’d taken his gun from his lap when he’d gotten in the car and had secured the safety on it, and now had it pressed in her lap.
Perry’s heart beat furiously in his chest when he blew out an exasperated breath, searching the dark lot and the exits. “He couldn’t be that far ahead of us.”
Kylie leaned against him, but when he glanced in her direction focusing on the exit at that end of the parking lot he noticed she shifted her body to put her arm around Dani. Kylie could cuddle his niece all she wanted. When they got home, the kid would be in more trouble than she’d ever known in her life. He shook from the terror of how close they came to losing her tonight. And he’d be damn sure she understood that before he left her with her mother.
“Over there!” Kylie almost yelled, her entire body stiffening when she pointed in front of them.
Dani yelped but didn’t make any further noise when Kylie quickly sunk into the seat and wrapped her arms around the teenager.
“Do you see?” she added, more quietly.
“Where?” He frantically searched the dark, way-too-still parking lot.
“At the edge of the strip mall. There is a car not moving, as if it’s hiding.”
“Not anymore,” Perry growled, cutting across the lot although this time he watched for inattentive drivers. He didn’t have lights in this truck that he could slap on the hood to keep civilians out of his way. They were on a silent run, which meant he needed to be as alert for their perp as he was for everyone else around them. “I’ve got you now, motherfucker.”
Perry drove the truck straight across the parking lot, ignoring the arrows indicating the flow of traffic and cutting across empty stalls until he reached the end of the building. His heart sunk when they pulled up alongside a parked black Ford van.
“I don’t understand how he can keep disappearing so easily when he’s in such a large vehicle.” Kylie voiced Perry’s frustration, her own voice tight with emotions he was sure matched his own. “Let’s take Dani home. I need to make some phone calls.”
“Can I stay at your house?” Dani asked, whispering.
Perry was pretty sure she wasn’t presenting that question to him and opened his mouth to give her a piece of what he had to dish out to her but didn’t get the chance to speak.
“You’re going home.” Kylie sounded stricter than he’d ever heard her sound before. Her soft, sultry tone was gone. “Your mother is worried sick.”
“None of this would have happened if—”
“Don’t even go there.” Now Kylie was pissed. She shifted more in the seat, completely facing Dani, with her ass brushing against Perry’s thigh. “None of this would have happened if you’d thought like an adult, which you obviously aren’t. And until you are, don’t you ever storm out on your mother again like that. Do you understand at all?”
“I can’t believe you’re yelling at me,” Dani said, breaking down into a serious sob session.
Perry knew his niece well enough to know when she started crying that hard there wasn’t any point in continuing the lecture. Dani wouldn’t hear a word of it. Obviously Kylie didn’t know this about her.
“I can’t believe you left every ounce of your intelligence at home when you ran away.”
Dani sniffed and then sucked in a hard, staggered breath. It was quiet for a moment and Perry chanced glancing over at the women after turning out of the parking lot. Let the two of them battle it out. He was getting some new insight into Kylie, one being that she had no problem speaking her mind when she was pissed. The other being that she obviously cared about his niece.
Kylie straightened, facing forward as Perry picked up speed, keeping his eye open for the black Suburban. He relaxed his arm on the back side of the bench seat, which he often did when he drove in the car, especially when he had more than one passenger. Dani looked at him for the first time; her black eyeliner streamed down her face, staining her cheeks clear to her cheekbones. He met her gaze, daring her without saying a word to even try to comment about his arm being around Kylie. Dani looked away first, pressing her hands together in her lap, and stared at them.
“I thought you would understand,” Dani said, stubborn and stupid enough to press the subject.
“When I was fourteen my seventeen-year-old sister stormed out of the house after fighting with my parents. She was running to her boyfriend’s house and I knew it,” Kylie began, relaxing her head against his arm. Her soft hair tortured his already-overstimulated nervous system. She didn’t seem to notice how close they were. “Karen never made it to her boyfriend’s house. She was raped and murdered. We didn’t find her until three days later. There wasn’t Internet back then, or cell phones, or media that is all over everyone’s business like they are today. We didn’t know there was a rapist in the community who’d already attacked twice. He killed one other girl after my sister and was never caught, at least not that we know. My sister’s death destroyed my parents. They never recovered from it. For three years afterward, they forgot my birthday every year. It took me years past that to forgive them for ignoring me after they lost Karen.”
“I understand, I think,” Dani said, still sniffling.
Perry slowed when they reached Megan’s house and realized as he parked that he hadn’t called his sister. “First thing out of your mouth better be an apology,” he told Dani, opening his door as he spoke.
Dani didn’t answer but opened her passenger door and slid out of the truck. Kylie hurried after her, but Perry grabbed her arm and pulled her back against him. “Tell me what she told you on the phone,” he said, wrapping his arm around Kylie’s waist.
Something soothed the tortured frenzy he’d experienced burning him
alive since they left Megan’s when Kylie didn’t fight him to be free. She leaned against him, tilting her head against his shoulder so that her soft blonde hair tickled his flesh.
“She went and met Petrie. She didn’t say what happened.” Kylie looked up at him, her blue eyes clouded with her concern and her tone serious, and once again soft and sultry sounding. “I’m going to find out, and I’ll do better if you don’t go in there fully cocked and ready to tear into her. But my guess is that she had a run-in with Peter and for whatever reasons got away. If she hadn’t called me from that pay phone it sounds as though he would have snagged her.”
“And then the motherfucker got away.” He got away with a bullet nick on the side of his Suburban, something that would make it easier to identify. “I’m going to have to call this in.”
“Same here,” Kylie added, and then adjusted herself just enough to look him squarely in the eyes. “Sounds as if you and I are going to be in as much trouble as Dani.”
He doubted anyone inside was looking out the front window right about now, but he didn’t give a damn if they were. Cupping Kylie’s chin, he forced her head back just a bit more and tasted her.
Kylie was warm, moist, and breathless as she greeted him with soft, full lips. For the first time since they’d left to search for Dani he smelled his sex on Kylie. They hadn’t taken time to shower but had raced out of his house and over here without putting themselves back in order. Under different circumstances, at least one of the attentive women in that house would have noticed.
“If we hadn’t been together tonight, we wouldn’t be as close to nailing our perp,” he told Kylie, moving his mouth over hers.
“Good story, but the truth is if your niece weren’t such a willful teenager we wouldn’t be closer to knowing who our guy is.”
“Speaking of which.” Perry let go of her long enough to lock his truck. “Let’s go hear what she has to say. We can call in after we leave.”
She didn’t try getting away when he draped his arm over her shoulder and led her to the front door. Kylie put her hand on the door handle before he could, though, and turned, looking up at him. “Promise me now you won’t go off on her.”
Strong, Sleek and Sinful Page 31
