Fatal Vendetta

by Sharon Dunn

  Images of his own captivity infected his thoughts. After a brutal beating, he was thrown in a small room that smelled like urine. The room had no windows. Though he lived in constant fear, it was only after he was free that he learned the terrorist group had filmed the beheading of two other reporters and that he had been next in line to die.

  If it hadn’t been for the dauntless work of his sister, his life could have ended, as well. The reality of how close he’d been to death brought him back to the God he’d loved as a teenager.

  The officer looked up at Elizabeth. “Miss Kramer, are you ready to answer the questions?”

  Zach watched as Elizabeth swayed backward. Fearing she might faint, he held out his hand to catch her. She righted herself and squared her shoulders.

  She touched her fingers to her lips. When she spoke, it was in her reporter’s voice. “Clearly, it was premeditated and personal. The guy acted like I should know who he was.”

  She needed to distance herself from the terror of the attack. He understood the coping mechanism.

  “Let’s get started with the interview so we can catch this guy.” The officer stared at Zach.

  “He has my permission to stay,” said Elizabeth. Warmth filled her eyes when she looked over at him.

  Maintaining her reporter persona, she answered the officer’s questions. Zach watched her, her gaze never wavering, her voice like sharpened steel. He didn’t know her whole life’s story, but he admired her inner strength. She wasn’t allowing herself to falter, even if it meant pretending the abduction had happened to someone else.

  When the interview was over, Zach turned to her. “I can take you home.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “I’d appreciate it. I’m sure Dale took the van back to the news station. I’ll call him and let him know I’m okay when I get home.”

  They walked down the long hallway that led to the outside, their shoes tapping on the concrete floor. He held the door open for her.

  A male news reporter scurried over to them.

  “Oh, great. Neil Thompson, my prime competition,” Elizabeth said under her breath.

  Neil shoved the microphone toward Elizabeth. “So, Miss Kramer, you had quite an ordeal tonight.”

  “Please, I don’t want to talk...” She looked like she would crumple to the pavement.

  Neil persisted. “Have they caught the man who abducted you?”

  His ire rising, Zach wrapped an arm around Elizabeth’s shoulders and guided her toward the parking lot.

  Neil’s words pelted their backs. “How does it feel to be the story instead of covering it, Elizabeth?”

  Zach felt an echo of his own life in the question. Maybe he could help Elizabeth get through this. “Don’t give him anything to feed off of. The story will die down in a couple of days if you don’t give them anything.”

  She pressed close to him, seeking his protection. Neil traipsed after them with his cameraman in tow.

  “I know the public has a short attention span. It’s just going to be a long couple of days.” Frustration colored her words.

  Zach turned to face Neil, holding his palm toward the other reporter. “She really doesn’t want to talk right now.” Zach kept his voice level.

  They were within a few feet of his car. He reached over to the passenger side door. Elizabeth slipped into the seat.

  He was about to close the door when Neil bent down and leaned close to Elizabeth. “Did the events of tonight bring back what happened to you in college?”

  Elizabeth’s face went completely white. “How...did you...find out about that?” Not giving him a chance to answer, she grabbed the door and slammed it.

  Zach resisted the urge to push Neil. His hands curled into fists. “You need to leave right now.” He had no idea what events Neil was referencing, but the comment clearly had upset Elizabeth.

  Neil put up his hand in a surrender gesture. “A story is a story.”

  Despite his warm onscreen persona, Neil Thompson always struck Zach as being a little slimy. Now he seemed downright repellent. “Is that what it’s really about or are you just trying to humiliate your competition?”

  Neil shook his head. “Just trying to do my job.”

  “I doubt that.” He brushed past Neil, close enough that Neil had to take a step back. “Get out of my way and stay out of hers.”

  Zach yanked open the driver’s-side door and got behind the wheel. Elizabeth still looked pale, and her mouth was drawn into a hard, flat line. She turned her face toward the window when he glanced over at her.

  As he pulled out of the parking lot, he got a view of Neil and his cameraman, both with angry expressions. He was glad to see them growing smaller and farther away in the rearview mirror.

  Elizabeth continued to stare out the window.

  Whatever Neil had made a reference to, it had cut Elizabeth to the core. His heart ached for her. He liked Neil Thompson even less. Getting the story was one thing. Deliberately hurting someone was another thing entirely. “You don’t have to tell me what he was talking about. Let’s just get you home.”

  * * *

  Still burning from what Neil Thompson had brought up, Elizabeth’s hand trembled when she flipped through her keys to find the one for her house. As they pulled up to the curb, her home was a welcome sight. They got out of the car and made their way up the walk.

  A familiar looking woman parked at the curb exited her car and bustled toward Elizabeth—Gwen Monroe from the Badger Chronicle. Elizabeth’s knees felt weak. The bombardment just kept coming. She really didn’t want to deal with this right now or at any time. She liked being the one doing the interview.

  Zachery stepped between Elizabeth and the woman. “Gwen, she doesn’t want to talk to anyone.”

  Gwen lifted her chin. “A well-known reporter gets kidnapped. That’s a story, Zach.”

  After shoving the key in the lock, Elizabeth breathed a prayer of thanks for Zach. The man was her nemesis in so many ways. But he’d come through for her when she needed him most. In the days to come, she knew she would need all the friends she could get, especially if other reporters kept circling around.

  She was still bothered that Neil Thompson had found out about her date rape. The case had never made it to trial, but the allegations had been covered by the college newspaper and her name had been leaked. Still, it wasn’t like it had been front page news. Neil didn’t strike her as the investigative reporter type either.

  Zach’s voice held authority as he faced Gwen. “Find a different story. She’s not ready to make any kind of a statement.”

  Gwen took several steps back.

  Elizabeth pushed open the door and closed her eyes. “Stay,” she said to Zach. Her words held a desperation she hadn’t expected.

  “What?”

  “Stay until we’re sure there are no more reporters going to bother me.” Normally, she wouldn’t even be comfortable asking a man into her house. But Zach seemed...safe.

  He met her gaze, and for the first time, she noticed that his eyes were more gray than blue.

  “I can do that.” He nodded before glancing over his shoulder. “Gwen doesn’t give up easily.”

  Elizabeth slipped inside her house, and he followed. She hit the light switch by the door. Nothing had changed in her living room, though it felt like an entirely different place. She was not the same person who had left here to cover the warehouse fire.

  The warm tones of the living room that normally looked so cozy only made her feel more alone.

  “How about I make you some tea?” Zach offered.

  “Let me. It’s my kitchen.” She moved toward the counter.

  He touched her arm just above the elbow. “No, you need to sit down. I’ll figure out where things are in the kitchen.”

  Though his
touch was gentle, his words held force. She didn’t have the energy to argue with him.

  “Thanks for everything. Now I double owe you,” she said.

  “It’s all part of my evil plan. Soon you will owe me the world.” He rubbed his hands together theatrically and laughed like a villain in a cartoon.

  In spite of everything, he made her shake her head and smile. When she laughed, her ribs hurt, just a reminder that the bruising would take weeks to heal.

  “There’s that beauty queen toothy grin we all adore, Betsy,” he teased.

  She rolled her eyes, amazed at how easily he could pull her from a dark place with his humor. “Stop—it was one pageant and winning paid for journalism school.” She’d been only eighteen then. Small town girl headed to the big city, so full of hope. She slumped down on the couch and watched as he put a teakettle on and opened cupboards to find cups and tea.

  She was grateful he hadn’t pressed for details about what happened in college. Craig Miller had never gone to jail. Her lawyer had believed her, but there hadn’t been enough evidence. The trauma of the attack had caused her to fall apart emotionally, which would have made her a bad witness. She understood why the case hadn’t gone to trial, but the fact that she’d never gotten closure made it hard to move on emotionally. Her trust toward men had been completely broken. She had decided not to date and put her energy into her work. “I do want to pay you back some way.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” he said.

  “You seem to be old hat at fending off the press. Like you’ve been through it before.”

  He opened a tea bag and placed it in a cup. “Do I?”

  She caught the hitch in his voice, the way he froze for a nanosecond before opening the tea bag. He wasn’t telling her the whole story. She’d done enough interviews to pick up on the subtle clues and body language that he was hiding something. Fear skittered across her nerves. Her back stiffened. She hoped she hadn’t been foolish to let him in.

  The kettle whistled, and he turned his back to her before she could read his expression. When he swung around again, it was as if he was wearing a mask. He poured the tea and brought the cup over to her, taking a seat in the chair across from her.

  So they both had secrets. She took the steaming mug and raised it. “To the giver of hot beverages.”

  She studied him over the top of her mug. She had a feeling that even if she probed a little more, Zach would not be forthcoming. His keen reporter instincts would clue him in that she was turning him into an interview subject. A Google search would probably be more productive.

  “You’re not going to have any tea?”

  “I’m the giver of hot beverages, not the drinker,” he said.

  She took a sip, allowing the warm liquid to flow down her throat while the minty flavor lingered on her tongue. “Nothing like tea to soothe the rankled soul.”

  He nodded. “I suppose.”

  The reporter in her really wanted to know what he was hiding. She studied him long enough that he started to fidget. He burst up from his seat opposite her, turning his back to her and shoving his hands in his pockets.

  “So have you ever had to fend off the press?” she finally asked.

  He offered her a nervous smile. “Don’t go all journalist on me, Betsy. I thought we had a pretty good start on being friends.”

  Friends? She hadn’t thought about that possibility.

  He stared out the window. “Looks like Gwen is gone.”

  His changing the subject told her she’d pushed a little too far. “I should be okay here alone.” The idea caused a new wave of fear to crash over her.

  “You’ll be safe from the reporters, but...”

  He seemed to understand her trauma in a way that others would not have been so sensitive to.

  “Tell you what, why don’t you try to sleep,” he offered. “I’ll grab my laptop and get some work done.”

  Zach seemed completely trustworthy, but trusting too easily was what had gotten her in trouble in college. “Really, you’ve done so much already.”

  “It’s not that big a deal. I was only going to go home and sit with my laptop there.”

  She did want him to stay. She wasn’t ready to face being in the house alone. “I don’t know if I could sleep, but maybe both of us could get some work done.”

  “All right, then.” He moved toward the door but stopped when something on the entryway table caught his eye. “You’re going to the Waltz by the River Ball?”

  She rose to her feet. “Yes, part of being a good reporter these days is keeping in touch with the movers and shakers.” Badger was a community of fifty thousand, so there weren’t that many muckety-mucks, as her father used to call them, to rub elbows with.

  “If you could swing me an invitation, I’d consider us even. Since you’re so convinced you owe me,” he said.

  “Sure. Actually, I need a date.” It was hardly a fair trade, considering he’d saved her life. “Why do you want to go?”

  “You get better stories when people recognize your face,” he said. “Since I’m new in town, I’ve got to start making connections with those people.”

  So he had an in with the first responders, but not the power brokers like she did. She chided herself for thinking in terms of them competing, though it came so naturally. She walked across the floor and placed her teacup on the counter. “You do realize this is a formal party.”

  “I can rent a tux.” He stroked his five-o’clock shadow and yanked open the door.

  “You’ll have to locate a razor, too.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” He stepped outside after offering her a playful backward glare.

  Shaking her head, she watched him stride toward his car. He came back a moment later holding his laptop. They sat on opposite sides of the living room, the tapping of the keys the only sound in the house. Though they were working on separate projects, the sense of companionship was kind of nice. After about twenty minutes, her eyelids felt heavy. She placed the laptop on the side table. “Maybe I’ll just rest my eyes.”

  “Sleep is the best thing for you now.” His voice was soft and far away.

  She heard him get up, and a moment later, the creamy softness of the couch throw enveloped her.

  As she drifted off, she wondered why a man who seemed so forthright like Zachery would have something to hide.

  She felt herself falling into a deeper sleep. Images of the abduction blasted through her dreams. She awoke with a start, jerking into a sitting position.

  Zach seemed alarmed. “Everything all right?” His voice filled with sympathy.

  She rose to her feet and turned away. “I’m fine.” What a lie. Her abductor’s threat to lure her to another news story so he could take her again made her throat go tight and her heart race. She wouldn’t be safe until he was caught.

  FOUR

  Despite the warm summer air, a chill crawled over Elizabeth’s skin as she got out of Zach’s car. Seeing the crowd moving through the parking lot toward the country club where Waltz by the River was being held only made her more anxious. This was the first public event she’d been to since her abduction. Her stomach knotted. All these people. Any one of them could be the man who’d kidnapped her.

  Zach came up beside her, pressing his shoulder against hers. “Lots of hoity-toity people.”

  The warmth of his voice calmed her. “Yes, I’m amazed they let the likes of us in.” She glanced over at him, clean-shaven and wearing a tux. Though his blond hair still looked a little out of control, he did clean up nicely.

  His hand lightly touched the middle of her back. “Let’s go mingle, shall we?”

  His touch made her afraid and excited at the same time. She’d given up on dating after what happened her senior year of college. But she found herself relaxing around Za
ch. “I’ll introduce you to the mayor.” She lifted the skirt of her gown as they both ascended the wide staircase.

  Music spilled from the open doors of the country club, which looked out on a river on one side and was surrounded by a golf course on the other three.

  Tension twisted around her chest as the noise of people in party mode grew louder. She studied each face. What was she looking for anyway? Some sign of guilt? Maybe there was nothing to find. The man might have already left town. Yet, his threat to lure her to a story to get another shot at her fed her paranoia.

  She wasn’t here to cover a story. Her boss at the station had given her a week off to recover from the trauma. Other than to get groceries, she hadn’t left the house at all. Her heart raced as a man she knew loomed toward her.

  Richard Drake, owner of several businesses, held out his hand. “Elizabeth, so good to see you.”

  An uncomfortable silence filled the air between them. She saw in his eyes that he knew what had happened to her. Even though she’d followed Zach’s advice and not done interviews, her story had been in print and on the local news. Only Zach had chosen not to write about it.

  Elizabeth took Richard’s hand. “So good to see you here.” She turned toward Zach. “This is Zachery Beck. I’m sure you have heard about his news blog.”

  Richard’s eyes brightened. “Ah yes, who would have thought one man could steal so much readership from the Badger Chronicle.” His voice held a note of animosity.

  “Richard is part owner in the Chronicle,” she explained to Zach.

  Richard shook Zach’s hand a moment too long. “You and I should talk about a partnership.”

  “I like my independence,” said Zach.

  Richard raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure you do.” Offense colored his words. He turned away and headed toward a huddle of men.

  She spoke under her breath and elbowed him. “I thought you wanted to network, Zach, not make enemies.”

  “I’ve never been very good at that,” he said. “And I have no interest in being bought out or controlled by some corporate entity.”

  “You should at least try not to burn bridges before they’re even built,” she said. “Both of you are in the same business. It wouldn’t kill you to be cordial.”