“Actually, Dash has a big meeting tonight with a studio. I’m meeting him right after this to find out how that went.”
“Right. You’re seeing him. I remember that now.”
He’s playing coy. I know he’s seen the press. “I’m living with him.”
“Never settle for a diamond when you can have the stars and the sky.” I have no idea what he’s trying to say. Dash is a diamond and Jack is the stars and the sky? Whatever the point, he motions me toward the door. “Let’s go knock ‘em dead, tiger.”
Anything to get me inside, with other people, and not just him.
I follow his lead and enter the bar, only to have the record producer waiting on us, with an entourage of three more. We’re quickly ushered to a table and thankfully, I end up sitting far from Jack. I’m drawn into conversation and it’s all I can do to focus. Nelson is tall, dresses like a cowboy, and talks with a southern charm I can relate to easily. He’s one of my people, as us southerners say, and we connect. The family heirloom is just that to a music guy, I guess. His dad worked for the Beatles when they toured and he has a treasure trove of Beatles collectibles. Mark will be pleased, as will Queen Compton when she’s back to work.
When everyone orders another round, Jack begins searching for his phone. When he excuses himself to go to his car, I know I need to leave. I’ve already thought this through. I order an Uber, which is only three minutes away. I glance at Nelson. “I have another meeting. I need to leave. Jack knows about it. I’m going to run.” I glance at my phone. “I have a car on its way.”
“Well, it’s been mighty nice to meet you, pretty lady. I hope we can make this work.”
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” I promise and stand up, saying a quick goodbye to everyone.
I hurry to the bathroom and exit the side door. My car is about to pull to the front door. I call the driver. “I’m at the back door.”
“You got it,” the woman says.
Jack exits the restaurant. He’s found me. “Allie? What’s going on?”
Come on, Uber. “I tried to call you,” I say, just hoping he doesn’t look at the time stamp. “Dash is done with his meeting. There’s something big going on. I have to find out what.”
“So you’re leaving a client meeting early?”
“They’re sold, Jack.”
The car pulls up and I flag the driver. When she pulls right next to me, I open the door. “I’ll come see you in the morning.”
“How’d you get my number, Allie?”
“I grabbed it from Allison’s work logs,” I say, desperately trying to lie myself out of this, when lies rarely save anyone. “I hope that doesn’t bother you? I guess I should have asked if I could use it. I really have to go.”
“All right. Yes. Come see me, Allie.”
I nod and climb into the car, shutting the door, and breathing out. My hands are clammy. I was scared, I realize. I was scared of Jack.
Once the car is moving, I text Neil, Allison had a phone number in the journal. It belongs to Jack Hawk. Anything connecting them?”
He calls me. “Yes,” he says, as I answer. “They had quite a lot of communication. I haven’t heard back from my guy on the plane manifest, but since her journals reflect an affair with an older man, I’m guessing it was him.”
“Me, too.”
“And how did you figure this out?”
“I stupidly called the number she wrote down and it was his phone. I was with him for a drink meeting with clients. It’s a long story, but I’m in an Uber headed home.”
“Good. I don’t feel right about this Jack thing. Oh. There is what looks like a combination to a lock in the notes she had scribbled on a back page.”
My mind goes to Tyler’s grandmother’s house. “There was a safe downstairs in the house I was staying in, the one where Allison stayed, too.
“Can you meet me at the house?”
“Yes, I can.”
“Good. I have a feeling about this. I’ll meet you there. I’m about twenty minutes out.”
“I’m five. Hold on.” I lean forward and give the Uber driver the address with the promise of a big tip. “Okay, I’m headed there. I can’t be sure I can get in and I can’t call Tyler. Jack is his father, and while they aren’t close, I just—I don’t feel good about it. And he’s in a meeting anyway.”
“Where is Dash?”
“The same meeting Tyler is at. A big Hollywood meeting. We can’t disturb him.”
“All right. If you can’t get into the house, I can. Stay in the Uber until I get there.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
The house is dark, empty, and kind of creepy looking tonight.
“This is it,” the woman announces.
“Can I pay you to wait until my friend arrives?”
“Honey, I’m sorry. My son has a choir program in twenty minutes. I can’t miss it. You were my last pickup. As it is, I’m pushing it.”
Great. Dash is going to kill me for going in there alone, but what can I do at this point?
“I understand.” I hand her cash for the extra ride and the tip, and exit the car. Hurrying forward, the exterior of the house is dark, and I pray that the code still works, but I’m not optimistic.
Using the flashlight on my phone, eager to seek shelter, I shine the light on my path and then the door panel. To my relief, the door opens. I hurry inside, turn on the lights and then text Neil: My driver had to go but I’m inside.
Damn it, he replies. I told you to wait. I’m still fifteen minutes out.
Give me the code, I answer. Let me get in the safe so we can get out of here. And hurry, please. It feels creepy in here.
He sends me a combination with another “damn it” attached. I lock the door. He can knock. I need to be safe. After that, I hurry to the cellar door and draw a breath. I’ll be fine. I’m safe. Neil is on his way. I flip on the light, rush down the stairs and go down on my knees in front of the safe. I use the code and it opens. There are two sealed envelopes. One is addressed to the police and one is addressed to Mary Hawk, Jack’s wife. My stomach knots with the certainty that this is going no place good. With a trembling hand, I quickly open the letter to the police and start reading:
It reads “copy” on the front.
Dear Mary,
It is my greatest heartache to do this to you. I know you’ve been married a very long time. I know you must love your husband. The problem is that he’s not the man you think he is. I was dating your son. I love your son, but he broke up with me, and Jack, well he offered me comfort. He looks like Tyler and he has some of the same traits. I was drawn to him, but not romantically. Fatherly. I was holding onto a connection to Tyler. And then—then he tried—I can barely write it. He cornered me. He ripped my shirt. He touched me inappropriately. It was at the office and a cleaning crew interrupted. They saved me. I know the crew saw what happened. They knew I was crying. I resigned the next day. I didn’t tell Tyler. I was ashamed. I love him too much to take his father from him, but Jack was—violent. I don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t want someone else to get hurt. Please protect yourself. My deepest apologies.
“You really do look like her.”
At the sound of Jack’s voice, I quake inside. Somehow, I think to shove the letters in the safe, and shut it before I stand to face him. His tie is loose, his jacket disheveled. “What are you doing here, Jack? And how did you even get in here?”
“I’m Tyler’s father. You think I don’t have the passcode for his grandmother’s house, my mother’s house?”
“Okay. Then why are you here?” I repeat, my nerves on edge, everything about me trapped in a cellar with this man is spelling trouble.
“You know why I’m here, Allie. We both know why I’m here.”
For no good reason, I think, trying to buy time for Neil to get here. “You left your clients to follow me?”
“I take the safety of those in my care seriously.” He closes the space between us and I back up, but there
is nowhere to go. I hit the safe. And the next thing I know, he’s grabbing me, his hand wrapped around my hair. "Stop. Let me go.” I shove against his unmoving body.
He jerks my hair harder, pain ripping through my scalp, forcing me to still. “This isn’t your game, Allie. It was hers and neither of you should have tested me. Now someone is going to come here and take you away, just like they did her. And it didn’t have to be that way.”
Adrenaline courses through me and I no longer care about the pain. Someone is coming to get me and no one will ever see me again. I shove at him, but he catches my hands, his leg capturing my leg. And then his mouth is on my mouth. Oh no. No. No. I bite him. Hard. “Bitch. What the fuck are you doing? Ask to be saved. Give me a reason to save you.”
“Let me go. You’re the one who needs to be saved.”
He laughs and turns me, shoving me to my knees, and not gently. “Open the safe.”
“No.”
“Open the fucking safe. I want those letters.”
Now I know it was him in the house that night, looking for what she must have told him existed.
“Open it and I’ll let you go. Refuse and I won’t just end you tonight. I’ll end your mother.”
Kill. He means kill my mother. Fear quakes inside me for her, not me. Because I believe him. He killed Allison. He will kill me and my mother. I open the damn safe. He reaches around me and grabs the letters. Then to my horror, he bends me over the safe, and yanks up my skirt. I scream, I scream with all that I have in me, and suddenly he’s gone. I yank at my skirt, pull it down as I turn to find Jack on the floor, bleeding out, and an unfamiliar man holding a gun, which must have a silencer, standing on the opposite side of the body, facing me.
He’s tall, muscular, with hard features, and dark hair slashes with gray at his temples. He’s in jeans, a T-shirt, and a leather jacket. He looks like anyone you might see on the street except that he’s not.
“Ghost,” I say and it’s not a question. I know who he is from Dash’s description of the brutal assassin.
“Yes, sweetheart.” He shoves the gun in a holster under his jacket. “At your service. I couldn’t let that dick fuck you or kill you. Dash would never write another damn word.”
“You,” I swallow hard, and try again, “you kill people, but you saved my life.” It’s a statement of fact, and a question. I’m in a twilight zone and have no idea what is going on. Not really. This cannot be my life.
He shrugs. “I kill people I want to kill. I don’t want to kill you.”
I hug myself, dampness clinging to my cheeks. “How did you know to come here?”
“I saw that interview he did where he proclaimed you his goddess and all that shit.”
“He didn’t—”
“Close enough. I came to meet you. I figured you’d fuck everything up for me and Dash and maybe you needed to die.”
"Oh,” I whisper. “You’re here to kill me?”
“Hell no. He’s so fucking into you. If you die, that’ll fuck him up even worse. I decided you need to live.”
“So, you’re not—Jack said he called someone to—”
“Kill you. He did. I’m above his paygrade. He’s rich, but not rich enough to pay me what I’m worth. He called another guy, I’ll handle him. You have nothing to worry about.”
“My God.” I press my hand to my forehead. “He really was going to have me killed.”
“Yeah, but I saved you.” He flexes. “Your hero.”
“Did he have Allison killed?” The question trembles from my mouth, and I hold my breath, afraid of the answer I already know he’ll give me. I just need confirmation.
“Yeah.” He says matter-of-factly. “She’s gone. Same guy who was coming for you. He’s nowhere near as good a killer as me, but he’s good. They’ll never find her.”
“Can you find out where she is?”
“I can’t get him to talk, but I can kill him. You want me to kill him? It’ll be a favor. On the house and all that.”
“No. I mean—will he kill me?”
“Not and get a payday, and he likes money. But you know what, he was going to kill you. I’m going to kill him. I want to.” He glances at what I believe to be a Rolex and then eyes me. “I better fly this joint. Tell the police the truth, but leave me out of it. He was attacking you. Someone shot him from behind. He died. You didn’t see who did it. I killed the cameras, and the forensics will match up.” He starts to turn and shifts back to me. “You’re not going to keep him from writing, are you?”
“No,” I say quickly. “I was an editor. I love his books. I love how he writes you.”
“Has he written the new book?”
“He just finished.”
“Have you read it?”
“Part of it. You’re gonna love it.”
“Hmm. We’ll see. You know, I’ve decided I like the idea of you. Tell him to write me a woman, someone like you, all soft and sweet, but somehow tough enough to handle my shit. He’ll figure it out.” He points at me. “Stay out of trouble, Allie. I might not be here to save you next time and then we’re all fucked.” He turns and runs up the stairs.
I watch him leave and then my gaze goes to the hole in the back of Jack’s head, the blood pouring out onto the floor and I start to tremble all over. I can’t stop trembling and tears are streaming down my face. Suddenly, Dash is there, cupping my face, kissing me, and then scooping me up and carrying me up the stairs.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
I snuggle into Dash’s chest and shut my eyes, blocking out everything but him rescuing me, him walking with me in his arms. I don’t know what happens, though. I’m suddenly on my feet and Dash’s voice is breaking through the white noise.
“Allie. Allie, are you okay?”
“How are you here?” I ask, trying to get a grip on reality.
“Ghost called me.”
“He saved my life.” I grab his wrist, where his hand still touches my face, trying to stabilize myself as memories crash into me—Jack, Ghost, the letters Allison wrote to the police, and to Mary. “Dash, he saved my life.”
“What scares the shit out of me is how damn easily he could have taken it.”
“Jack called someone to kill me. Ghost killed Jack and he’s killing that someone because he took the job. For you. He saved me for you.”
All of a sudden, police and EMS swarm us and my head is spinning. I’m aware of the medical staff checking my vitals and I’m just present enough to be pretty sure I’m in shock. As if reading my mind, the EMS tech, a man with dark hair, says, “You’re experiencing shock. I’m going to give you a sedative.”
I grab his hand. “No. I have to be able to tell people what happened. I need to tell people—” I look around in desperation. “Dash?”
“I’m here, baby,” he says, and only then do I even realize that I’m on a chair and he’s on his knees in front of me.
“I need to talk to you,” I say. “I need to talk to you now.”
He glances at the EMS tech. “Give us a minute.”
“I need to ensure she’s stable,” the tech says. “And then the police want to talk to her.”
“Give us a minute,” Dash says, his tone sharp.
The man gives a quick nod and backs away. The minute I’m alone with Dash again, if you can call being surrounded by emergency crews alone, I say, “Jack was going to have me killed,” I say and oddly as I say the words, I start to come back to me again, to what happened. “He called for someone, someone like Ghost to kill me. But Ghost said he’s handling it. And there are letters in the safe from Allison. He tried to rape her and she was going to expose him. He was on top of me trying to rape me when—when Ghost shot him.”
“If he hadn’t killed him, I would have, but you can’t mention him to the police. He can find us, but no one can ever find him. He’s a better friend than enemy.”
“Yes. Yes, but even as a friend he scares me.”
“One day he’ll let down his guard and it will b
e the end of him, but today isn’t that day. Okay?”
“Yes. Yes, okay. We have to call Tyler. She’s dead. Allison is dead and so is his father.”
“And we will. Can you talk to the police and get this over with so I can take you home?”
“Yes.” A thought hits me. “Neil. Is he okay?”
“Pissed at you for coming inside without him, but yes, he’s fine. He got here after me. He’s locked out of the crime scene. Let’s get the police over with.”
I nod. “Yes. Please.”
Dash stands and motions to a man in plain clothes. He joins us, asks me a few questions, and the minute he hears exactly what happened, he motions to a female detective. Karen is petite, brunette, and pretty with a delicate way about her, which includes taking me to a police car where we both sit in the back seat and talk. It’s a long time later when that talk ends and I’m free to go.
I exit the car and Dash is immediately there pulling me close. “How did it go?”
“I told her I didn’t see the shooter. She said Jack had a lot of enemies. It almost sounded like he was already on their radar. I can go home, but they’re going to come by to talk to me again tomorrow, and pick up the necklace. I have to call my mother.”
“I already did. She’s going to come over tomorrow.”
Bella joins us, wrapping me in a bear hug. “My God, woman, you scared me to death. Don’t do that ever again.”
“How’d you even get behind the tape?” I ask.
“I came with Dash. I was already here. I’m so sorry this happened to you. Are you okay?”
We chat for a minute or two when my gaze lands on Tyler, just outside the yellow tape, and in conversation with a police officer. Dash and Bella follow my gaze and Bella says, “This is going to be hell for him.”
When I Say Yes Page 17
