25
Jillian fought the waves of pain and the desire to sink to the concrete beneath her feet. If she did, she’d be trampled by the sudden rush of the panicked crowd. She thought she heard Colton call her name.
A hand grabbed her good arm. “Are you all right?” Colton pulled her against him as another shot rang out.
“Yes,” she gasped as screams seemed to come from every direction.
Blake caught her eye, saw Colton had her, and grabbed a terrified, frozen teenage girl from in front of the hotel doors and shoved her back through them. Jillian lost sight of Blake as Colton pulled her by the hand. People continued to scatter like ants. More terrified cries echoed around her as she ignored the fire in her arm and tried to keep up with Colton as he pushed his way through the crush of people.
An elbow knocked into her ribs and she gasped and turned, her hand slipping from Colton’s grasp. She bounced off the side of the building, then tripped over someone’s foot. Just as she went to her knees, another crack echoed and a bullet slammed into the concrete millimeters above her head. Particles stung her cheeks. The woman on her left screamed and ducked as she scurried to get to the parking lot to hide behind a car.
“Stay down!” Jillian glanced around. People still scrambled for cover. Okay, she got it. She was the target. She had to get away from the crowd before someone took a bullet meant for her. Where was Colton? Or Blake?
“Jillian!”
She heard her name but couldn’t see through the crush of the bodies desperate to get out of the line of fire.
And she had no time to try to find them. She had to move, to get away from the people she’d put in danger.
Keeping low, forcing her terror aside and hoping she was hidden for the moment, she continued to ignore the increased throbbing in her left arm. Jillian stumbled, pushed, and shoved her way through the crowd that was finally thinning as people poured into any open door that would get them away from the front of the hotel and parking lot where the shots had come from.
Jillian made it to the side of the building and around the corner, dragging in deep breaths as she forced her brain to work, to come up with a plan. Stoneridge Drive lay in front of her, intersecting with Greystone Boulevard to her left. Across the street were sheltering trees. Hide behind a car? Or get to the trees?
Even though she’d made it around to the side of the building, she knew she couldn’t stop now. Her mind clicked as she pictured where the bullets had hit against the building. The shooter had been in the parking lot.
A drive-by?
No way to tell until all this was over. People pressed past her. Some made it to their cars and sped away from the scene. Guilt ate at her as she scanned the area for a place to hide—and watch. She’d thought that by acting on impulse, no one would know where she was. No one would be able to follow her. No one would be able to make another attempt on her life this soon.
And now she’d brought danger to everyone within bullet range.
No time to think about it now.
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Where had Colton gone? She hadn’t deliberately separated herself from him or Blake, but maybe it would be better if she wasn’t anywhere near them right now.
She’d been stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. After being careful for so long, she’d really pulled a humdinger of stupid coming out to confront the senator like this.
But she’d had to warn Colton. Tell him he might be a target. And now someone was shooting at them. Had her coming here inspired the shots? Or had the person been here waiting on Colton?
But Colton hadn’t planned on being here and neither had she.
So how had someone known?
Harsh breaths pulled at her as she pushed fear aside to focus on staying alive. She ducked behind the nearest vehicle and grimaced as pain shot up her wounded arm. She rested against the back tire as she used her good arm to dig into her shorts pocket for the cell phone Colton had given her. She punched in his number and held the device to her ear.
Now what? Think, Jillian. Think.
The side mirror shattered behind her.
“Get down! Everybody stay down!” Colton swallowed hard as he tightened his grip on his weapon. The shooter had changed locations. The shot had sounded from around the side of the building. At least he thought so. Some of the screams were as loud as the shots.
Or were there two shooters? Two locations, two shooters?
Or had he moved?
His phone vibrated again and he snatched it.
Jillian’s number. It had rung once, then shut off. He swept the scene one more time.
He’d seen Blake get the girl to safety, but Colton had lost his grip on Jillian when someone had slammed into her. Just as he’d reached out to help her, he’d been knocked from behind. By the time he’d gotten his balance, she was gone.
And now, from his crouched perch behind the white column, he still couldn’t see her. She’d been hurt. That first bullet had hit her. He felt sure it was just a graze, but wished he could have kept her near him.
Colton saw Blake slink around the side of the hotel and slam up against the column opposite his own. “Where’s Jillian?”
“I don’t know. I lost my grip on her.” It galled him to admit it.
Blake shot him a dark look, then asked, “You spot the shooter?”
The shooter. “No. But the bullets are coming from the parking lot. At least they were. I think I heard another one come from the side of the building.” He nodded his head toward the left. Thankfully, the parking lot now resembled a ghost town. “That way. It’s been quiet for the last few seconds.”
“One or two shooters?”
“I can’t tell, which is why I’m still right here.” He watched and waited, praying Jillian was hunkered down hiding. “Where is he? Or is it ‘they’?” he muttered, not expecting an answer. Blake held his weapon ready and Colton said, “You’re deputized right now.”
“Thanks.” Blake nodded like he expected that.
“Don’t make me regret it,” Colton said. He would be responsible for the man.
Blake kept his attention on the parking lot as he said, “Security’s good, they know what they’re doing. They’ve got the hotel locked down. I told them to let me out first, then lock every entrance and exit. They were two steps ahead of me.”
That meant the shooter couldn’t get in. But if Jillian was still outside, that meant she couldn’t either. His gut wound itself tighter, if that was even possible. “How far away is backup?”
“Should be here any minute.”
“That’s about a minute too long,” Colton grunted.
Blake motioned he was going around, trying to see if the shooter was still in the same place he was when he first started shooting.
Another gunshot sounded from the side of the building to Colton’s left. They exchanged a look. Colton asked, “You willing to risk it?” Risk there being a second shooter and as soon as they showed themselves, he’d pick one of them off. Blake nodded and together they popped from the protection of the columns and headed toward the sound of the latest gunshot.
26
When the bullet shattered the mirror, Jillian jerked and lost her grip on the phone. It skittered under the van. She dropped to her knees and gave a frantic look for the device, but she couldn’t spot it. Footsteps sounded. She jumped up, and with terror pounding a hard beat through her veins, she raced across the parking lot, waiting for a bullet to find its mark this time.
Where was the shooter now? Behind her? She looked back. Nothing. Had he circled around to get in front of her? Was she racing straight toward him? Her heart pounded and she could almost taste her fear as it flooded every pore. She raced to the next vehicle, then the next, expecting to feel the bite of a bullet pierce her back as she made her way around the side of the hotel.
Oh God, please.
“Jillian!”
Colton’s yell stopped her, freezing her blood in her veins as she dropped beh
ind the nearest car. She almost answered, then bit her tongue as she slipped behind the nearest tree. She couldn’t answer and give away her spot. The shooter was still there. Even with the sirens growing closer, she knew he was still there.
She pulled her weapon from the back of her shorts.
Movement from the parking lot grabbed her attention. A man in a black suit moved like he knew where he was going. Should she follow him? She took note of the baseball cap pulled low and hesitated.
“Jillian!”
The black suit paused and spun and she caught sight of the weapon in his right hand.
The shooter.
While he was looking away from her, distracted by Colton’s voice, Jillian darted from car to car until she came full circle in front of the hotel. She shivered even as sweat ran down her face. What was Colton doing yelling her name like that?
Trying to divert the killer’s attention back to him, Jillian figured. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she knew it with a certainty that made her want to live to hug the man—and smack him. Once again he was trying to protect her. Colton had no idea where she was, but by pretending he did, he was hoping to scare off the shooter.
The sirens were nearly on top of her, but that didn’t seem to faze the man who was determined to kill her.
Colton’s tennis shoes slapped against the parking lot asphalt. “Where’d they go?”
“I have no idea.” Blake hunkered behind a car and pointed. “Gunshots came from over there.”
“Come on.” Colton shook his head. “Lots of hiding places. Good for Jillian. Bad for us as far as finding this guy.” They headed in the direction the shots had come from, keeping low and trying to use the trees for cover. No sense in standing out in the open and inviting a bullet in the brain if they didn’t have to.
“Guy?” Blake asked as they ran. “So you’re back to thinking it’s just one shooter?”
“For now. Until I’m proven to be wrong.”
The Ranger rubbed a hand over his eyes. “How many shots is that?”
“Six or seven. I lost count. You go that way, I’ll take the—” His phone rang and he snatched it as he stepped behind a tree on Wildlife Boulevard, praying to see Jillian’s new number on the screen.
Hope plummeted when he didn’t recognize the number. But he pressed the answer button and held the phone to his ear. “Brady here.”
“Colton, it’s Jillian.”
Her breathless, scared voice sent his pulse skittering. But relief filled him. She was alive. “Where are you?”
“With an officer. I’m safe for now.”
27
Blue lights pulled into the parking area. Jillian stuffed her gun into the back of her waistband and pulled her shirt down over it. No sense in adding anything more to the chaos.
And then Colton was there with Blake right behind him. Colton kept his badge in plain sight as he made his way over to her. Officers swarmed the area and she watched them methodically and professionally begin to do what they were trained to do.
Colton hollered, “Clear the area.” He pointed out eight officers. “Clear the perimeter as best you can but don’t put yourselves in danger. This perp doesn’t care who’s in his line of fire.”
And then his focus was on her.
Jillian didn’t protest when Colton closed the distance to pull her into his arms. She could lean on his strength for a few moments. But only a few. And she couldn’t get used to it. Not until she told him about Meg. But for now . . .
He asked, “How’s your arm?”
“It hurts.”
“Let me take a look at it.” He started to push her back and she protested by wrapping both arms around his waist. “If I was hurt that bad, I wouldn’t be able to do this.”
He relaxed and let her stay there.
When she decided she wouldn’t fall apart, she released her hold on him and looked around. “I’m an idiot,” she whispered. “I’m sorry.”
His hand cupped her chin. “We’ll talk about it later. Fortunately no one was hit. Bumps and bruises from the panicked rush to get away, but that’s it.”
Jillian bit her lip and raised her good hand to rake it through her curls. “How did he know?”
“What do you mean?”
“The shooter. How did he know? My coming here was completely impulse. No planning, no agenda, not even a phone call to say I’m on my way. I simply walked out of our hotel and over to the Embassy Suites. How was he here waiting for me?”
Colton frowned. “He couldn’t have been.”
Blake nodded. “And I made sure no one followed us.” His eyes hardened. “Trust me. I would have known if we had a tail. We were clean all the way from our hotel to this one.”
She had no doubt Blake was right. If someone had been following them, Blake would have taken care of it right then. Jillian felt a clenching in her gut. “Then that means he was already at the hotel.”
“Exactly,” Colton said. “And that means we need to know who was at the hotel when you got here.”
“We don’t need to know about every person,” Jillian said. She let her gaze linger on his. “We only need to know about those who have any connection to your uncle.”
Colton’s eyes narrowed, then he closed them and dropped his head. “You’re right.” He snapped his head back up and snagged his phone. “I’m going to make some calls.”
Jillian wondered if the night would ever end. Exhaustion swamped her. Colton had Hunter and Katie and every other available detective working through the night checking with witnesses, comparing stories, and doing their best to help the crime scene unit gather every last shred of evidence that the shooter may have left behind.
She tried to get to Blake, to ask him if he’d heard from his mother, but she’d been corralled by a paramedic who’d patched up her arm and recommended she see her doctor about an antibiotic. Jillian made a mental note to ask Serena about that.
Colton paced in front of the ambulance, his phone pressed to his ear. When he finally stopped and turned to her, she’d just about fallen asleep on the gurney in the midst of prayers for Meg’s safety.
She blinked up at him. “What is it?”
He nodded at the Embassy Suites. “I’m going inside to watch video of the parking lot and the hotel. See if we can pick up anything.”
“I’m coming.”
“Blake can take you back to our hotel. You look like you’re about done in.”
“I am. But that’s never stopped me before.”
Colton simply shook his head. “Right.” He took her hand. “Come on and sit here a few minutes. I need to finish talking to these guys and I can’t have you falling over.”
Jillian followed him to a cruiser and climbed in the back. She leaned her head against the headrest and closed her eyes. Her thoughts swirled, but at the front was the fact that she could have been killed—again—tonight.
What would Meg do without her?
Blake slid into the seat beside her and she jerked. His hand patted hers, and before he could speak, she asked, “Anything from your mother?”
“Yeah. She texted me. They’d been at the movies when we called. They’re at a friend’s house and everything is fine.”
Jillian gave a relieved cry and wilted. “Oh thank you, God.”
Blake asked, “You all right?”
“I’ve been better.”
“How’s the arm?”
“Stinging.”
“Not in the mood to talk?”
“Not so much.”
He went quiet for about two seconds, then said, “I didn’t know things were this crazy, Jillian, or I’d never have come out here. I didn’t know I was putting Meg in danger.”
Jillian’s eyes flew open and her gaze whipped over to Colton who had the phone to his ear once again. “I know.”
“You have to tell him. About the text tonight too.”
“When?” she cried, swinging back around to shoot him a dark look. “In between being shot
at, run off the road, or being blown to smithereens? Just when should I sit down and tell him?”
Blake didn’t even flinch, just held her gaze with a steady look. She blinked back her surge of anger and frustration. It wasn’t Blake’s fault. Not completely anyway.
“They know about her. How do we keep her safe now?” Longing to talk to her daughter and hold her swept over her, nearly splitting her in two with the pain of the forced separation.
“I’ll call my mother and tell her what’s going on. I’ll tell her to take Meg to Tony’s and keep her there until I call her back. I’ve also got a former unit buddy watching them. If he sees anything that sets off his alarms, he’ll have her on a plane out of there.”
Jillian sighed and nodded. Her baby, her sweet innocent child who’d been protected and sheltered her entire life, was now the target of killers who wanted her mother.
It wasn’t fair.
But God hadn’t promised life would be fair, just that he would walk with her. It was a hard thing to accept sometimes, but . . .
“Everything all right?” Colton leaned in the open window.
Now that the immediate danger had passed, the media had descended with all of its ruthless commotion.
“Yes.” She rubbed a hand over her eyes. “As all right as possible.”
He nodded and started to slide into the front seat when Blake said, “You mind riding back here? I get carsick.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Colton said. “Just moving up to the front door.”
Blake smiled. “I know, but it might take a few minutes to get through that mess.”
The officer slipped behind the wheel as Blake got out and walked around to the front passenger side. Blake and Colton exchanged some male look that Jillian couldn’t interpret, but she had a feeling it was what made Colton’s tension ease slightly.
Colton clapped Blake on the shoulder. “Thanks.” He walked around the cruiser and slid into the backseat.
Law enforcement held the media back, but barely, it seemed. Jillian was grateful for the protection of the squad car. And Colton’s presence beside her.
When a Secret Kills Page 17
