“Do you now?”
Unaccustomed to having his word questioned, Keenan struggled to hold his temper. “You hired me to do a job, and I did it.”
“A bit messy—”
“Leave the cleanup to me. By this time tomorrow, that ‘potential’ witness will have drawn her last breath.”
Chapter 13
Turner Field
Friday, 6:45 p.m.
Kennedy stared, stupefied, at the teenaged girl in the ticket booth. “Fifty-six dollars? That’s outrageous.”
The teenager returned her stare, then shrugged. “We accept all major credit cards, or debit cards.”
Kennedy looked down at her son and saw worry lines crease his face. He was too young for such an adult expression. She dug through her handbag.
As she searched for her elusive money, she heard a few people behind her grumble about her holding up the line.
Five minutes later, with tickets in hand, Kennedy and Tommy made their way into the stadium. Excitement lit the eyes of every child she passed, as well as a few grown fanatics.
“Mommy, can I get a Braves hat?”
She looked down at Tommy and saw that the crowd’s excitement had proven to be contagious. His eyes were wide and filled with wonder. It was his first visit to a professional ball game and Kennedy had never seen him so happy.
“Of course, sweetheart.” As she smiled at his enthusiastic response, she had to blink away tears that flowed with the realization that in a couple of hours they would be separated—for a while.
By the time they’d found their seats, Kennedy had gone through another forty dollars. Between the tickets and the souvenirs and the food, she was nearly wiped out. Fortunately, she didn’t have to worry about paying for Tommy’s trip to Tennessee.
Mayor Bill Campbell threw the first pitch of the evening and, in no time, the game was under way.
While Tommy lost himself in the thrill of the game, Kennedy strained her neck to search through the crowd for a glimpse of Reverend Warner. She soon concluded that there was no way she’d be able to find the man in this crowd.
She took a deep breath and tried to mend her shattered nerves. The plan was to take Tommy to the men’s restroom on the next level during the seventh inning stretch. The Reverend would be waiting there with a different set of clothes for Tommy. She didn’t like to keep the kind man in the dark about what was going on, but she was thankful that he’d agreed to take Tommy to her grandmother without asking a lot of questions.
This is going to work, she affirmed, but still took another worried look around the stadium. Was Keenan out there somewhere, watching her? An unsettled feeling in her gut told her he was.
As Keenan put down his binoculars he couldn’t shake the feeling that Ms. St. James was up to something. He, too, scanned the crowd wondering what or who she was looking for. Then he looked back at her. Maybe she was wondering if he was there.
He smiled confidently at that thought, but still he wondered.
Max lowered his binoculars and shook his head. “She’s up to something.” He took another look and noted Kennedy fidgeting and taking frequent glances at the crowd.
“What do you think it is?” Dossman asked, taking a bite of his hot dog.
“I wish I knew.” Max glanced around the exuberant crowd and shook his head again. “I wish I knew.”
Reverend Warner was nervous. He didn’t understand the need for this cloak-and-dagger plan of Kennedy’s, but she’d made it clear that she believed her son’s life was in danger. That was enough to motivate them into action. Besides, they were driving up to St. Louis for their daughter’s wedding anyway, so it would be simple enough to drop Tommy off at his grandmother’s.
“Do you see her?” Linda Warner asked her husband, clutching his arm.
“Not yet.”
She fumbled with the bag containing the spare clothes they’d borrowed for Tommy from the church’s charity donations. “I have a bad feeling about this.” She looked around. “Do you think anyone’s watching us?”
The reverend gazed lovingly down at his wife. “Why would anyone be watching us?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know.” She exhaled. “Like I said, I just have a bad feeling about this whole thing.”
“Would you have preferred that I’d told Kennedy no?”
Her eyes lowered. “Of course not.”
Rev. Warner draped a supportive arm around his wife, and placed a kiss against her worried brow. “Hang in there. It won’t be long before the seventh inning.”
At the bottom of the sixth, the Braves were at bat. The score was tied three-to-three. The first two batters struck out on their first three pitches. The third batter had started off in the same pattern, and the call was standing at 0 and 2 when the first two balls were called strikes.
The crowd hushed as the battle between the pitcher and the batter intensified. The next two pitches appeared to be in the strike zone, even from the cheap seats, but they were hit foul.
Kennedy wiped at her sweat-slick hands. One more out and it would be time to execute her plan. Several small beacons of doubt surfaced in her mind as she wondered if she had covered every possible scenario that could go wrong. She nibbled at her bottom lip as she realized everything that could go wrong would. What if Reverend Warner wasn’t here? Maybe he’d been called away on business and couldn’t make the game. It was possible. After all, he was a busy man.
The batter swung and connected as the pitch crossed the plate. It was a base hit up the middle.
Tommy jumped up and down and waved wildly, joining in with the crowd’s cheering.
She smiled as she watched him point excitedly to a giant foam hand with the raised index finger that proclaimed number one. She wished that she had thought to bring him to a ball game before now.
The crowd went wild when the next batter made a base hit on the first pitch.
Kennedy glanced at her watch and took another look around. Her anxiety grew.
The next batter hacked at his first pitch. Then, on the second one, the fans jumped to their feet as what had looked to be a potential home run drifted foul. The crowd moaned in disappointment.
Tommy slurped his drink, but never took his eyes off the game. When this was all over, Kennedy vowed she’d sign him up for T-ball for next spring. Who knew, she just might have a little athlete on her hands.
She smiled at the thought, and was surprised that she could manage it under the circumstances.
On the next pitch the suspense ended. The batter struck out, leaving two men stranded. The inning was over.
“Are you ready?” she asked Tommy with a nervous smile.
High in the stands, an organ played the introduction to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”
Tommy nodded and rose to his feet. “Will I still get to see the end of the game with Reverend Warner?”
Kennedy placed a silencing finger against her lips, but nodded.
He smiled, but she read his sadness at leaving her clearly in his eyes. She wanted to pull him into her arms and assure him again that their separation would only be temporary. Instead, struggling to keep everything looking normal, she took him by the hand, stepped out into the aisle, and led her young son toward the bathrooms.
Keenan bridged his hands beneath his chin as he watched the mother and son move through the crowd. Gone were his earlier apprehensions that his quarry was up to something. She was more likely just nervous about being out in the open.
C-note, one of Keenan’s most trusted gang members, leaned over in his chair and asked, “What do you want us to do, boss?”
Weighing his options, Keenan knew that, in a case like this, being surrounded by a crowd was more of a blessing than a curse for a gunman. People tend not to take much notice of their surroundings and the shooter had the luxury of blending in with the crowd. If he was going to make a move, now was the time.
Keenan nodded as he made his decision. “Kill them both.”
Chapter 14
> “Is that who I think it is?” Dossman said, peering through the binoculars and then handing them over to Max.
“Where?” Max asked.
“Over there.” Dossman pointed him in the right direction.
“I don’t recognize anyone. Who am I looking for?”
Dossman grabbed the binoculars back. “Let me see those.” He looked again but the man he’d spotted was gone. “I could have sworn—”
“Who did you see?” Max asked as he turned his gaze back to where Kennedy and Tommy had been sitting. They were gone.
“Lawrence,” Dossman finally answered. “I could have sworn I saw Keenan Lawrence.”
“What?” Max rose from his seat. The combination of Dossman’s sighting and Kennedy’s sudden disappearance frightened him. “Come on, we’ve got to go. Kennedy’s gone.”
“Go where? I thought you were watching her.”
“Will you just come on?” Max pushed into the throng marching toward the concession stands. He had been watching. He’d only looked away from her for a moment.
Once they reached the concession area, Max’s hopes for finding Kennedy dipped. There were hundreds of people milling about. It would be next to impossible to find one particular mother and child.
“Any ideas?” Dossman asked, craning his neck as he searched through the crowd.
“Let’s split up. If you find either Kennedy or Keenan, stick to them like white on rice. Something is definitely about to go down.”
Kennedy pushed through the crowd, stepping around everyone who got in her way and keeping Tommy’s hand in an unbreakable grip. Just when she thought she’d never reach her destination, she caught sight of it just in front of her.
She glanced down and smiled encouragingly at her son. She wanted to go into a big spiel about how good he should be at his grandmother’s, and how soon they’d be together again. The problem was that, if she did start such a speech, she would quickly burst into tears.
Tommy looked up at her then. In his gaze, she saw all the things she was feeling, love, uncertainty and fear.
She knelt before him and pretended to tie his shoelaces. “I’ll call you tomorrow at grandma’s,” she told him, then leaned forward and kissed his round cheek. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, Mommy,” he said, returning a tentative smile.
Kennedy blinked several times and willed her tears not to fall. She stood and glanced back toward the men’s room to see if she could see any sign of Reverend Warner.
“I can go in by myself,” Tommy assured her.
“No, wait right here with me. I’m sure the reverend will be here at any moment.”
He frowned, obviously hurt that he wasn’t being given the opportunity to prove that he was a big boy.
Kennedy pinched his cheek, but right now even that kind gesture seemed to embarrass him.
“Mom,” he whined. “Not in front of all these people.”
She laughed. “All right. How about we get a soda while we wait?”
He nodded and smiled again. All the while they stood in line at the concession stand, Kennedy kept the door to the men’s room in her view. Her mental list of “what-ifs” began replaying and anxiety churned in her stomach.
“Well, what do you know?”
Kennedy pivoted at the unexpected sound of a familiar baritone voice.
“Fancy meeting you here,” Det. Collier said with a wide smile.
Kennedy frowned. “Go away.”
He laughed and rested a hand on her shoulder.
Her entire body tensed. It was then that she noticed that his laugh rang differently in her ears. Instead of meeting her eyes, she noticed that his gaze skittered through the crowd around them.
“What’s wrong?” She turned and tried to figure out what he was seeking in the crowd.
“You’re being followed,” he whispered from behind her.
“You mean, by someone other than yourself?” She glanced again toward the bathrooms. With her suspicions confirmed, her worry escalated to full-blown fear.
Danger hung in the air, thick and heavy. Something was about to happen—she could feel it.
Before she could do anything, her arm suddenly erupted with an unexpected surge of pain. Her eyes widened with shock.
“Get down!” Collier looped his strong arm around her waist.
They stumbled together toward the ground, as she heard something whiz past her injured ear.
A woman screamed.
The initial impact with the cement floor knocked the wind out of both Kennedy and Collier.
Then all hell broke loose.
The crowd’s screams reached Dossman’s ears. He pivoted on his heel, his weapon drawn. He rounded a corner where he’d last seen his partner and was momentarily blocked by a stampede of people.
“Police,” he shouted as he tore through the crowd, but his shouts went unheard amid the rising cries of hysteria. Whatever progress he thought he’d made getting through the sea of people vanished when reality settled and he soon realized that he was being pushed backward with the flow of traffic.
A stream of curses rumbled from his chest. What he wouldn’t give to be able to fire a warning shot. Perhaps that would bring some order to the madness. Instead, he had to struggle to move sideways, to inch along the wall. He returned his gun to his holster, and managed to reach the wall only after receiving his fair amount of elbowing and shoves.
Amid the chaos, he was shocked to catch a glimpse of a familiar face. “Keenan.” Indecision spiraled up his spine briefly, then Dossman took off in the opposite direction, and thankfully, along with the herd of people.
“Are you all right?” Max shouted. His entire body covered Kennedy’s in an attempt to protect her from whoever was shooting, and also from being crushed by the rampaging crowd.
She squirmed and clawed as she tried to get up from beneath him.
“Hold still. I can’t protect you if you keep trying to get up.”
His reasoning fell on deaf ears, as her struggle grew more desperate. “Please, Kennedy, please. Just lie still.”
Her fist landed sharply against his chin and he was momentarily surprised by her strength. But she would need a lot more than that if she wanted to actually do damage.
She screamed a name and he heard her anguish and desperation as it tore from her throat.
“Tommy.”
Max’s eyes darted around. Where was the little boy? Had Tommy been with her when he approached her in line? He searched his memory. He wasn’t sure.
“Kennedy, where is he?”
“Don’t let them get my son.”
“Where is he?”
She didn’t answer, she just continued to flail her arms about, occasionally landing punches. She was ignoring whatever injury she’d sustained from the bullet, despite the growing stain of blood on her sleeve.
He tried to gain control of her hands. When he succeeded, he shook her to get her attention. “Dammit, Kennedy. Pull yourself together and tell me where he is.”
“The men’s room,” she finally said. “That’s where he was supposed to meet the person who was helping us. I’m sure that’s where he’d go when we were separated.”
Max darted a quick glance at the restroom across from the concession stand, then looked around the area. The crowd was thinning, but there was no way to know if their shooter had made his escape yet, or was still waiting to finish the job. There was no way he was leaving Kennedy’s side, so they’d need to work together to find Tommy and get to safety.
“Okay, Kennedy. I need you to do what I say.”
She hesitated, obviously not trusting him to share her priorities. She shifted her gaze to the men’s room.
“In just a moment, we’re going to get up together and make our way to the men’s room,” he said.
She nodded, but it didn’t stop him from worrying about the sheer terror radiating from her eyes.
“I’m going to try to shield you with my body as we get up.”
> She started to get up and he had to restrain her.
“We get up together, understand?” he shouted.
She flinched from the roar of his voice, and then nodded in agreement.
Max retrieved his weapon, kept his head ducked low, and simultaneously swept his gaze around the perimeter.
As they stood, they were pushed and shoved by the screaming crowd.
Kennedy blinked tears from her eyes. When Collier slid his arm securely around her waist, a certain calm fell over her. She felt protected.
Collier jerked her to his left side. She felt the rush of something whiz by and saw it puncture the plastic casing at the concession stand.
Someone was still shooting at them.
Kennedy trembled. It wasn’t that she was afraid of dying; she feared that she’d be responsible for Tommy’s death, as well. Had the gunman gotten to him? What about Reverend Warner—was he dead, as well?
It took what seemed like an eternity for Collier and Kennedy to reach the bathrooms, but at least there were no more shots. As they reached the door, she bolted from his grasp and entered the men’s room, leaving him to stand guard against whoever was shooting at them.
Empty.
Frantic, she searched the stalls. “Tommy? Tommy?”
Again, empty.
“Is he in here?”
Kennedy jumped at the sound of Collier’s voice, but she didn’t answer. She checked all of the stalls again, praying that she’d missed the one Tommy was hiding in. But he wasn’t there.
Collier rushed into the room—a look of panic monopolized his face.
The room seemed to tilt and Kennedy could actually hear the sound of blood rushing through her head. Tommy was gone and Kennedy had no clue as to who had him: Rev. Warner or Keenan Lawrence.
Chapter 15
Aaliyah Hunter pushed away from her desk in her home office after reading Keenan Lawrence’s file. The man had danced into and out of jail his entire life. Fame came the moment he’d risen through the ranks of one of Atlanta’s most notorious gangs: The Skulls.
All I've Ever Wanted Page 8
