by Debra Webb
She opened the door and dropped into the seat. The door slammed, bumping her shoulders. Fury blasted in her chest. With every fiber of her being she wanted to kill Wayne Burton…to tear him apart with her own hands. For what he had obviously done to Yoni…to Aleesha Ferguson.
Rocky settled into the seat next to her. As soon as his door was shoved closed, he searched her face. “You okay?”
“No, I’m not okay.” She shifted her attention to the bastards gathered in the street in front of the car.
Wayne said something to one of the men. The man strode over to Roper’s open car door, pulled something from his jacket pocket and tossed whatever it was, one at a time, into the car. Photos, Kendra decided. The photos of Castille and Ferguson flashed in Kendra’s head. Was this an elaborate setup to bring down Castille?
The driver’s side door of the car Kendra and Rocky were in opened and the vehicle shifted as one of the men slid behind the steering wheel. Wayne called out an order to the other two, then settled into the passenger seat. “Let’s go,” he said to the driver, then he turned his attention to the backseat. “Well, the gang’s all here now.”
“What’re you doing, Wayne?” Kendra demanded, disgust and rage blasting against her brain.
“Taking care of business, Kendra.” He flashed her a tolerant smile. “I warned you. Gave you the opportunity to go back to Chicago. But you didn’t listen.” He shook his head. “You should have run away this time like you did last time.”
“Do you really think you can get away with this?” She laughed at the ridiculous idea. “When did you get so stupid?”
His gaze turned lethal. “I’ve already gotten away with it. Or hadn’t you noticed.”
That confirmed her conclusions. “You killed Yoni.”
Wayne didn’t have to say the words, she saw the truth glittering triumphantly in his eyes.
“What about Aleesha Ferguson?” How could Kendra have not seen Wayne Burton for what he was? How had she been so blind?
“I can’t take credit for that one.” He laughed. “Mrs. Castille got all fired up about her husband’s involvement with the woman and started harassing her. When Ferguson wouldn’t back off, the old bag threatened her. Sharon Castille enlisted the help of Roper to attempt scaring off the gold digger. Things got out of control and Ferguson ended up dead. The two called me for help.” Wayne’s smile broadened into a grin. “It’s always useful to have a senator’s wife in your pocket.”
“What did any of that have to do with Yoni?” Kendra demanded.
“Nothing at the time.” Wayne looked beyond Kendra to the street. Likely checking to ensure his other two minions were following.
“But an opportunity presented itself,” Wayne continued, shifting his attention back to her. “If the senator wants to keep his wife out of trouble, he’ll do as he’s been told. Sayar was only a warning. I think the senator will pay a little more attention now.”
“You didn’t have to kill Yoni,” Kendra said, her voice shaking with anger.
“But Yoni was trouble,” Wayne countered. “He wasn’t going to just shut up and move on. And Roper was getting nervous, running off his mouth about Ferguson and the senator. His suicide ties up all the loose ends. You see,” Wayne shook his head, “Roper had a thing for Sayar. But Sayar wasn’t interested. Roper was scorned, killed the object of his desires and then couldn’t live with it so he killed himself. Pictures of his dead idol and notes he’d written to him are scattered inside his car. Too bad.”
“You’re insane,” Kendra said.
Wayne laughed. “I’m a genius, that’s what I am. Neither of the two can cause any trouble. I’ll be assigned the case and all the evidence will fall into place just the way I want it to.”
“The bill,” Kendra muttered. Yoni was dead because of the bill. Roper, too. Yoni’s integrity wouldn’t be bought. Not when threatened with lies, not for anything. Wayne had known that. She stared at her former lover in abject disgust. “Who hired you to do this? How much did you decide your integrity was worth?”
“Better to walk away a rich man,” Wayne offered, “than to run with nothing.”
“I ran,” Kendra tossed back at him, “with my integrity intact.”
Wayne stared at her for too long, making Kendra shudder in disgust. “I guess now you’re going to die with your integrity untarnished.” He nodded toward Rocky. “So’s your friend.”
Rocky chuckled. “Make the first shot count, friend. Because, trust me, you won’t get the opportunity to take another one.”
The air evacuated Kendra’s chest as the two men stared off, the weapon in Wayne’s hand aimed directly at Rocky’s face.
“Trust me,” Wayne said, “even if you weren’t going to die very shortly, she would never be yours. She doesn’t trust herself enough to trust anyone else on that level.” He glanced at Kendra. “She likes being alone.”
Kendra wanted to slap his arrogant face but his words hit too close to home. Maybe he was right. Maybe she hadn’t given herself fully to anyone. Maybe she couldn’t. She stared at the gun in his hand. If Wayne had his way, it wouldn’t matter anyway.
THEY DIDN’T GO FAR before the driver came to a stop. Burton got out, opened Kendra’s door and ordered her out. The driver did the same, shoving his weapon in Rocky’s face to ensure his cooperation.
Parked behind them at an angle just past the guardrail, half on and half off the pavement, was the rental car Rocky and Kendra had been driving, the front tires scarcely clinging to the edge of the road’s shoulder. The other two thugs climbed out. The vehicle shifted precariously. Two of the men, one on either side of Rocky, pushed him toward the rental. Rocky got a good view of what lay beyond the shoulder of the road. Air…with a steep drop that ended in the trees below.
Burton ushered Kendra to the driver’s side of the rental. “You must have been pretty upset when you found Roper dead,” he explained. “You missed the curve and crashed into the trees below.”
Rocky’s escorts ushered him to the passenger side of the car, allowing an unobstructed view of the ravine below. Considering the distance, surviving the plunge wasn’t impossible, but highly unlikely.
It was four against two. Sorry odds any way you looked at it. Not to mention he and Kendra were no longer armed.
“Open the door and get behind the wheel,” Burton ordered Kendra.
She hesitated, stared across the car’s roof at Rocky.
Rocky needed a plan, damn it!
“Maybe if you’d been able to call for help,” Burton taunted, “you might have survived. But no one’s going to find you until tomorrow morning. Neither of you will survive.” He looked across the top of the car at Rocky. “By the way, we’ll need your cell phone.”
The man who had stood at Rocky’s right but now stood behind him considering their proximity to the shoulder’s edge jammed his weapon into Rocky’s spleen. “Give me the cell phone, then open the door and get in,” he growled.
Rocky glanced over his shoulder at the shorter man. “Make me.”
“Putting a bullet into your head,” Burton warned, “isn’t part of the plan, but I’m flexible.” Burton sent a lethal stare in Rocky’s direction. “Now, give up the cell phone.”
There was only one thing to do.
Rocky’s gaze locked with Kendra’s. He silently mouthed a single word.
Jump.
Chapter Fourteen
Nothing but air…falling…falling…
Bullets whizzed past her.
Something hot pierced her left shoulder.
Leaves crushed into her face.
Something hard hit her in the stomach, stopped her forward momentum, sending her into a cartwheel-like spin.
Then she was falling again.
Limbs lashed at her, slapped her face.
Reach out, she told herself, grab on!
The voice in her brain prompted her hands to reach…her fingers to clutch.
The too small branch slowed her fall for a split sec
ond then slipped through her fingers.
Her hip jarred against a larger branch. Pain shattered in her pelvis.
Adrenaline detonated in her brain.
Grab something!
She clutched with her hands, her arms.
Bark scraped at her forearms.
She blinked. Shook her head to clear the spinning.
Her arms tightened around the tree branch.
She wasn’t falling anymore.
Voices on the road above…she couldn’t see through all the branches and leaves.
Where was Rocky?
She twisted her neck, looked to the right and then the left. All she could see in any direction was leaves and branches and more leaves.
Her heart pounded. Her shoulder burned. Her body ached.
A sudden shift in the air pressure made her heart stutter.
A crash sent her flying loose from the limb she’d been hugging.
Glass exploded…metal whined.
She slammed into something hard. Flung her arms and legs frantically…scrambling for some kind of purchase.
Her face rubbed against something rough as she slid down…down…down.
She bounced on something softer.
The air whooshed out of her lungs.
The ground.
She was on the ground. Alive. And conscious.
She blinked. Where was Rocky?
She wanted to shout his name but a sound stopped her.
Voice…male.
“Get down there and find them! Make sure they’re dead.”
They were coming. She had to move.
Something above her snagged her attention.
Black…or dark. Metal.
Kendra tried to focus.
Tires.
The car.
The car was lodged in the trees directly above her.
She had to move.
To run!
A hand latched onto her arm.
Her head came up. A scream lodged in her throat.
“We gotta get out of here.”
Rocky!
He helped her to her feet.
Pain radiated through her shoulders…her back. Her entire body.
He dragged her forward.
Her right ankle burned like fire.
Ignore the pain.
Run!
The sound of wood groaning and splitting rent the air.
A crash echoed through the trees as the car impacted the ground behind them.
Rocky darted around trees, dragging her behind him.
She tried to focus on putting one foot in front of the other. On keeping up with him.
The pain subsided, allowing her brain to concentrate on escape.
Rocky suddenly stopped. She butted into his back.
A new sound reached her ears.
Water. They’d run into the river.
What did they do now?
He ripped open the buttons of his shirt and tore it off his shoulders.
“What…” she moistened her dry lips “…what’re you doing?”
He flung the shirt on the bank near the edge of the water and grabbed her hand once more. “Now we double back, going wide and keeping very, very quiet.”
His left eye was swollen. His nose had been bleeding and, like her, his face and neck were scratched.
She nodded. “Okay.”
He moved through the woods, going wide to the right and slowly forward.
Her heart pounded hard enough to burst out of her chest. She ducked, following his movements, beneath low lying limbs. He avoided the thickest underbrush to prevent unnecessary noise.
Voices and the sound of slogging through the brush reverberated from their left. The enemy was a ways off but not far enough to suit Kendra.
Rocky pulled her to the far right and into a tall thicket of undergrowth. He parted the foliage and weaved his way inside, towing her along behind him.
Once they were deep into the thicket, he settled on the ground and pulled her into his lap. “Don’t make a sound,” he whispered in her ear.
She nodded her understanding.
His arms went around her and he opened his cell in front of her. She stared at the screen where a text message from Patsy read: help is en route.
Relief shook Kendra. He hadn’t given up his cell and somehow during all this he’d summoned help. She leaned into his chest, fighting the tears.
She was stronger than this…she knew she was. But he was far stronger than her. If they survived…it would be because of him.
KENDRA COULDN’T GUESS HOW much time had passed. Rocky held her in his arms like a child. The pain radiated along every muscle in her body. She also couldn’t assess her injuries. Her shoulder was still leaking blood. Rocky had checked it out. Bullet wound, but it had only cut through the skin and muscle. Nothing she wouldn’t survive. Her ankle was swollen…her face burned like fire. But she wasn’t having any trouble breathing.
Rocky appeared to be in better shape. No gunshot wounds. Nothing broken, he’d assured her.
The crunch of underbrush snapped her from the worries.
Someone was close.
She felt the tension in Rocky’s muscles.
The whisper of leaves against fabric came nearer still. Heavy footfalls. Whoever was coming wasn’t afraid of being overheard.
More voices in the distance…maybe in the direction of the river.
Didn’t stop the approaching threat.
Someone was right on top of their position.
A familiar whop-whop-whop grew louder and louder.
Helicopter.
Hope swelled inside Kendra.
Had to be the help Patsy said was en route.
Thank God!
The bushes suddenly parted.
The business end of a handgun rammed into the opening.
“Too bad someone had to leave a swipe of blood on these leaves.”
Wayne. He shook the bush.
Kendra’s hopes withered.
“Get up!” Wayne roared.
Rocky pushed Kendra off his lap and scrambled up. “Hear that helicopter, Burton,” he warned. “That’s one of the last sounds you’ll hear before spending the rest of your life in prison.”
Kendra had to do something.
She couldn’t see through the bushes. Tried to part the limbs so she could assess the situation.
“Come out, Kendra,” Wayne snarled. “I want you to watch your partner die before I kill you.”
She parted the foliage and scrambled out but didn’t stand. She stared up at the man she’d once cared enough about to share her body with him. His weapon was leveled at Rocky’s bare chest.
Wayne laughed as he stared down at her. “You don’t look so self-righteous now.”
Rocky moved. Pushed the weapon upward. A shot exploded from the muzzle.
Wayne struggled to pull the weapon down low enough to get a bullet into Rocky’s face.
Kendra stopped looking…stopped thinking.
She lunged at Wayne’s legs. Clamped down on his shin with her teeth. Bit him as hard as she could.
He let out a howl. Tried to kick her off.
Her teeth tore into the fabric of his trousers.
He stumbled back.
She reached up, grabbed his crotch, squeezed then twisted.
He went down.
Wayne’s shoe heel connected with her jaw.
Kendra let go. Rolled away from him.
Wayne was suddenly on his feet, swaying with pain. Rocky had the weapon pressed to his temple. “Maybe you won’t make it to prison,” Rocky snarled.
Kendra scrambled to her feet.
“Get behind me,” Rocky ordered.
She didn’t question his command. Obeyed without hesitation.
“Stop right there,” Rocky roared.
Kendra didn’t dare peek around him, but his warning told her Wayne’s friends had joined the party.
“Release him and we’ll all just go our separate ways,” one of the goons
suggested.
The helicopter was right on top of them now. Not visible through the trees but there.
Sirens wailed in the distance.
“Put your weapons down,” Rocky countered. “I want you facedown on the ground, arms and legs spread.”
Rocky held Wayne in front of him like a shield. His quick thinking might very well be the sole reason they survived.
“Now!” he commanded.
“Shoot him!” Wayne screamed.
Fear burst in Kendra’s chest.
If she made a run for it, the other men would be distracted.
The sound of rustling foliage caused her to hesitate.
“Good friends are hard to find, Burton,” Rocky taunted. “Looks like yours fall into a different category.”
Kendra dared to look beyond Rocky. The three men were barreling through the woods.
The sirens were on the road just above them now.
And she and Rocky were alive.
By the grace of God, his quick thinking and all those lovely trees.
Chapter Fifteen
9:15 p.m.
Kendra leaned her head against the wall of the small office she’d been sequestered to after she’d given her statement. She hadn’t been allowed to see Rocky since they’d been treated at the ER.
Statements had been taken at the scene, but then after the doctor had released them from the ER, they had been brought to police headquarters in separate vehicles.
She had been questioned for nearly an hour.
Since then, she’d been sitting in this damned office for half an hour.
Ian Michaels from the Colby Agency had arrived. Kendra had barely gotten to speak to him when she’d been ushered away.
Ian had assured her that Rocky was fine and being questioned in another interview room.
Kendra just wanted this over.
She hadn’t been allowed to contact Yoni’s parents. She wanted them to know that he had been completely innocent of this entire travesty.
The door opened and she sat up straighter.
Senator Castille entered the room and closed the door behind him.
Anger and disappointment roiled inside her. He was the last person she wanted to see right now.
“Kendra.” He sat down in the only other available chair besides the one behind the desk.
