by Jordan Dane
Rather than reporting her sexual assault, Olivia forced Bryce to know what being sexually violated felt like.
“But it didn’t end there, did it? She turned the tables on you. What you did to her, she arranged to have done to you? Is that what happened in Ethan’s studio? Did he ever know about it?”
Bryce paced the floor and waved his gun, but kept his eyes on her.
“She pretended like it would be a turn on for us to do it at Ethan’s, when he was out of town. She got me there, but drugged me to make it easy for the coward in the mask.” He stopped pacing and said, “That bitch recorded everything on her cell. She uploaded it somewhere, for safekeeping she said. McFarland recorded it, too. Didn’t he?”
“Purely by accident. The surveillance cameras he had installed in Ethan’s home recorded it. We’ll never know if he would’ve told anyone. To admit he’d seen it meant he’d have to come clean on what he’d been doing.”
“It wasn’t right what he did. Ethan didn’t deserve that, but that pervert never got a chance to blackmail him.”
“You made it look like a suicide.”
From the corner of her eye, Angel thought she saw movement outside the large windows. It had to be Gabe, but she couldn’t be sure. She’d only seen a shadow cut through the moonlight off the lake.
“You planted the burner phone on the neighbor so you could blame him for Olivia’s murder,” she said.
Angel inched closer to Bryce. He didn’t notice.
“You think you have all the pieces to the puzzle, don’t you?” He smiled. “It doesn’t matter now.”
Bryce looked as if he’d made a decision—one she wouldn’t like. She was missing something, and he wasn’t making it easy for her to regain control. She had to keep him distracted.
“You never found out who assaulted you?”
“No, or I would’ve killed him.”
“Why did Olivia record it? She had to know it was a criminal act. What did she hope to gain?”
“She said she did it to protect herself from me. She wanted to put everything behind her and not risk hurting Ethan because of something she’d done when she was drunk, like she was so innocent.”
“But you didn’t let it go, did you?” Angel narrowed her eyes. “You went to Rachel and concocted a story about Olivia, didn’t you? Even if it meant hurting your best friend, you had to cover your ass by making Olivia out to be a sexual predator.”
“You think you know how it was, but you don’t. Shut up.”
Angel felt the heat of adrenaline pumping through her veins as she inched closer to Bryce.
“Rachel wanted Ethan, but Olivia got in the way, didn’t she?” When Bryce didn’t answer, she went on. “You and Rachel made her out to be a bigger player than she was…and you planted that BDSM gear to make her look twisted. Didn’t you know that would hurt Ethan…and her family?”
“Rachel had been there for him, but he never saw her…that way. In time, he could change.”
Angel pictured Rachel positioning herself to pick up the pieces of Ethan’s shattered life. She had no idea what the publicist had actually done, but she felt sure the woman had conspired to stir things up, to set terrible things in motion. She took advantage of the hostility between Olivia and Bryce. Although Olivia had been pushed into doing what she’d done, she wasn’t innocent. She knowingly arranged for a man to assault Bryce in a vile and unimaginable way. Recording her crime had been desperate…and dangerous.
“Why would you risk killing Olivia in the park without knowing the recording she made was destroyed?” Angel thought about it. “Our crime techs didn’t find it on her cell. She must’ve stored it in a safe place…until McFarland’s surveillance made things worse.”
“You still don’t get it, but like I said. It’s too late. For you, it doesn’t matter.” He pointed the gun at her face. “Hand over those recordings. All of them. Now.”
Bryce was done talking. Once she handed over McFarland’s disks, he’d kill her. She saw it in his eyes.
Chapter 19
“What will happen to Ethan? If you shoot, he’ll hear it.” She reached for the plastic bag filled with recorded disks. “He’s here. Whatever goes down, all of it will be linked to him, if you make things worse.”
“Make things worse? Oh, you mean by killing you?”
“Yeah, that would make my day suck, but you didn’t answer my question. What about Ethan?”
Angel fought to stay calm and keep her head clear, but her heart pounded hard enough for her to feel it throb in her ears.
“You fell for him, too. Didn’t you? Women.” He shook his head. “Ethan’s got nothing to worry about. Rachel’s good at her job. She’ll spin it until he’s a golden boy again, a guy who got used by a conniving girlfriend who liked it kinky. He’ll become every woman’s fantasy. Hell, he already is. And McFarland will go down as a suicide.” He nudged the gun at her and gestured toward the TV. “Pull the disc from the DVD player…and put it in the bag, too.”
Angel knelt in front of the TV and fumbled with the electronic components to stall. She kept her back to him so he couldn’t see what she was doing. With one hand, she pressed buttons, but with the other, she reached for the Sig Sauer she had strapped to her ankle. She’d cleared the holster when Bryce lost his temper.
“Back off,” he yelled. “I’ll do it. Get out of my way.”
As he rushed toward the television, he backhanded her across the face. She toppled backward and saw stars as she watched her gun skitter under the coffee table. The room spun when she struck the floor, and she tasted blood.
Angel fought for consciousness. If she passed out, he’d kill her.
When Bryce hit the eject button to retrieve the disk, Angel raised her leg and kicked him in the back, hard. He cracked his head on a shelf and lost the grip on his weapon. As he fell, shelves collapsed and spilled books and picture frames to the floor. Angel didn’t wait to see if he got up. She jumped to her feet and rushed him.
She locked her elbow around his neck and grappled him into a chokehold. As she hung off his back, she tightened her grip using both hands. Bryce gagged for air and stumbled to his feet, carrying her with him. He pulled at her arms, but she held firm as he grew weaker. In desperation, he shoved backward and jammed her into a wall. Pain shot down her spine, but she didn’t let go, not even when he yanked her hair. With him wheezing for every breath, she squeezed tighter until he collapsed to his knees. When he tumbled to the floor, she didn’t ease up. She had to make sure he was down.
When she finally released him, sweat poured off her body and stung her eyes. He rolled onto his back and grasped at his throat, sucking air like a drowning man. With her chest heaving, Angel rolled to her knees and stood on wobbly legs. Every muscle in her body ached. After she spotted the gun that Bryce had dropped, she picked it up and held it steady in a two-fisted grip, aimed at Bryce’s head. He panted hard and scowled at her. With his lip bleeding, he struggled to get up.
“Stay down. Roll over on your belly. Now!” She gasped for air. “Hands where I can see ‘em.”
After he rolled over and showed his hands, she said, “Lace your fingers behind your head. Do it!”
Angel kept her weapon on him while she reached for her cuffs. In seconds, she had him restrained with hands behind his back. After she helped him stand, she ran her hands over him, to check his pockets and retrieve the Glock 19 he’d taken from her in Ethan’s bedroom. She shoved it into the waistband of her jeans, under her shirt.
“Angelica. Are you okay?”
When she heard Ethan call out from behind the closed door of the master bedroom, she shoved Bryce onto the sofa and yelled back.
“I’m good, Ethan. Hang tight. I’ll be up there soon.”
“Ethan’s the reason you’re not dead. If he hadn’t been upstairs…”
“Were you born this stupid, or did you have to work at it?”
The guy was down and in cuffs. Threatening to kill a cop, after he’d earned an a
ssault charge, was beyond brainless. Angel shook her head in disgust, but when she heard someone pounding on the door, the sound made her jump.
Gabe? It had to be him.
“Stay put. Don’t move.”
Angel kept her eyes on him as she made her way to the front entry. When she looked through the peephole, she saw her partner.
“Oh, God.”
Gabe had a gash over his right eye and blood streamed down his face. Leaning against the door, he looked like he could barely stand. Without hesitating, Angel unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door. Gabe took a couple of steps into the room before his legs buckled. He would’ve hit the floor hard if she hadn’t grabbed him to break his fall.
Angel held Gabe in her arms. As he rested his head against her shoulder, she cupped a hand to his cheek to hold him steady.
“Real touching.”
When she heard a laugh and felt the presence of someone towering over her, Angel looked up to see a shadowy face. It took time for her eyes to focus. The skin along her cheekbone, where Bryce had struck her, felt swollen and hot. As the face became clear, Angel winced.
“You?”
***
Cronan felt sick. The right side of his face pounded with a radiating pain that made it hard to move. With a mounting pressure inside his skull, his head felt like it would explode. He wanted to lie down and sleep, but he fought that feeling…for Angel.
Her face. Her eyes. She came to him when he wanted to shut his eyes. In the shadows of his mind, he felt her near him. The scent of her hair and the softness of her skin wrapped around him, but her face spiraled in shattered pieces, drifting from his reach.
Angel. He tried to say her name, but couldn’t hear his voice.
Going from the dark to the light had blinded him. He shielded his eyes with his hand, but it didn’t help. The steady ringing in his ears had shrouded him in a thick and stunning haze that he couldn’t shake. Whenever he tried to remember what happened, he went blank. He only recalled opening his eyes when someone slapped his face. After he was forced to stand, Cronan doubled over and heaved, but nothing came out.
In a stupor, he felt hands on him, but he didn’t have the strength to resist. Someone stripped the Kevlar vest off him, and he got shoved through the dark. He stumbled on, barely able to hold his head up.
Angel.
Cronan felt her presence, but couldn’t see her face now. Through squinted eyes he saw a man’s legs in front of him and heard the buzz of voices as if they were muffled by cotton.
He had to stay awake—for Angel.
***
“Gabe. Stay with me,” Angel touched her partner’s fevered cheek as his eyes fluttered closed, and he slumped into her arms. “He needs a doctor.”
“He needs an undertaker. The guy’s as good as dead,” he said. “The only reason he’s still breathing is that I didn’t want to drag his body from where I cold cocked him. You won’t be so lucky.”
Angel fixed her gaze on the smug face of Joaquin Salazar, Evelyn Carmichael’s paid escort. The bastard curled his lip into heartless sneer. His dark eyes chilled her. Joaquin had taken Gabe’s Kevlar vest and wore it now. When he saw that she noticed, he patted his chest and grinned.
Angel remembered what Bryce had said, that she didn’t have all the pieces to the puzzle. He’d been right.
“Put the gun down and shove it over to me,” Joaquin demanded.
When she did, he kicked it aside, far enough away that she couldn’t reach it. She felt the weight of the gun she still had hidden under her shirt.
“Where’s mommy dearest? Is she part of this?” she asked.
“Evelyn understands my many appetites. We share a common hunger, but alas, this is not one of them. I’m afraid she might not approve of my extracurricular activities.” Before she said anything more, Joaquin held out a hand. He’d worn gloves so he wouldn’t leave fingerprints. “Toss me the keys to his cuffs.”
Angel reached into her back pocket. When she threw the keys to him, Joaquin smiled and headed for Bryce. He kept his gun pointed at her as he edged toward the sofa.
“I’m glad you’re here, man, but how did you know about this place?” Bryce asked Joaquin as he stood and turned around, holding out his wrists. “Only one other person knew that I’d…”
Bryce didn’t finish. With a grimace, he quit talking, but not before Angel had done the math, too. She and Gabe had only told Ethan, Rachel, and Bryce about McFarland’s lake house. Gabe had always figured that Ethan’s inner circle had a connection to the murders. If Joaquin heard about the digital surveillance of Ethan’s obsessed neighbor, the information had to come from one of them.
Sure money was on Rachel.
Joaquin leaned close to Bryce’s ear and whispered, “Seeing you in these handcuffs turns me on. Olivia paid me to fuck you up, but I would’ve done it for free.”
Bryce’s head jerked, and he turned. With a brutal look in his eyes, he lunged for Joaquin with his hands still cuffed behind his back. Joaquin raised his weapon and shot him in the heart. Twice. When Bryce staggered back, he dropped his chin to his chest and watched in disbelief as blood soaked his shirt.
Joaquin laughed as if he were high.
Bryce slumped back onto the sofa and died with his eyes open. A red bubble clung to his lips and captured his last gasp.
“Oh, God.” Angel couldn’t breathe.
Joaquin had killed Bryce Peterson and the suddenness of the attack—and his crazed, adrenaline fueled laugh—had shocked her. The gunfire left her ears ringing. When Gabe jerked his head and tried to get up, she clutched at him and kept him with her, using his move to slip him the gun she had under her shirt. Gabe looked into her eyes, questioning her logic in giving him the weapon, but she wouldn’t let him refuse.
She laid him down and touched a finger to his lips as she fought the sting of tears.
Angel didn’t have the stomach to let Joaquin shoot Gabe, unarmed. At least now he had a way to defend himself. She raised her hands and stood to face Joaquin. With a sudden clarity, she had the final piece to the puzzle of Olivia’s murder—and a plan.
“You’re the one who killed Olivia.” She winced as she stepped toward the sofa and Bryce’s dead body. “Why you?”
“Don’t come any closer,” he said.
After she stopped moving, Joaquin stared at Bryce’s body and grinned, admiring his marksmanship. When he shifted his eyes to her, Angel felt a chill race over her skin.
“She said she liked what she saw of me at Chez Moreau. The way I was with other men turned her on.” Joaquin smiled. “It never was about the money. Bryce…in Ethan’s recording studio? How could I say no?”
“But something went wrong. She recorded the assault and didn’t tell you. You couldn’t let that happen.”
“I wouldn’t have found out she’d done it, if she hadn’t flaunted it in front of Bryce…and me. I got angry. Took it out on Bryce. Guess she got a better bang for her buck.” He shook his head. “I gave her the performance she required, but I couldn’t leave her with a recording of my finest hour.”
“About Rachel. You had to find out about McFarland’s lake house from her. What’s your connection…besides Ethan?”
“She thinks we have the same agenda…to protect her precious man child. If Bryce swore he didn’t kill Olivia, she must not have believed him. Her doubts left room for me to step in and offer my help. I can be very discreet, you know.” He shrugged. “She got tired of covering for this leach.” He nudged his head to the dead body. “Guess she figured everything would get blamed on him, no matter who did it. She only wanted Ethan out of the limelight. That was a win-win for me.”
Joaquin tossed her the handcuff keys and said, “Make yourself useful. Unlock his cuffs.”
Angel caught the keys, not taking her eyes off the man with the gun. The only reason Joaquin had for taking off handcuffs from a corpse was that he planned on staging the scene to pin everything on Bryce. Precious seconds were ticking away until s
he would run out of time. Through the corner of her eye, she noticed her partner had closed his eyes and hadn’t moved.
She inched closer to Bryce as Joaquin backed far enough away that Angel could sit on the sofa next to the body. After she unlocked the cuffs, the dead man’s arms fell limp.
As she looked down, she found what she’d come for. A dark shape jutted out from under the coffee table. Her Sig Sauer, the one she had lost in her scuffle with Bryce. When she stared up at Joaquin, she wedged her foot closer to the gun, inching her toe nearer to the weapon.
“So you didn’t trust her to keep your secret, even though she’d been guilty, too.”
“She thought she’d been clever, but she was a stupid girl. When she told me that she uploaded it somewhere safe, how could I believe her? It was the only evidence that linked me to her and what she’d paid me to do. She simply wasn’t a woman who could be trusted, so I made her more trustworthy.”
“By killing her.”
He only shrugged his answer.
In that moment as Angel stared into the dark eyes of a killer, she suddenly thought of Ethan. He was handcuffed to the bed upstairs and would be helpless. The only reason she had agreed to bring him with her to the lake house was that a fraction of her had believed he would tip the scale to draw out Bryce or piss off Rachel enough that she’d do something stupid.
Angel didn’t want to think that Ethan had any part in what happened to Olivia or Tim McFarland—not even to protect his reputation and privacy—but she hadn’t been sure of him. Despite her suspicions about Rachel and Bryce, she had faith they wouldn’t have hurt Ethan physically.
But Joaquin was a coldblooded animal with a taste for the perverse who had no tolerance for witnesses, even blind ones. She felt sick when she realized Ethan could die, too.
“Come to me.” Joaquin waved her over as if he were commanding a submissive lover. “Now.”
