“All I want is her,” he said. “I want what she owes me. We had an agreement and she welched on me. I need her to do what she promised to do.”
“Fine! Fine, I’ll take you to where I stashed them. Just please, stop this!” I held up both hands. “Please! Get back in the car and I’ll lead you there!”
“No! You come with me!” Just like that, he pivoted in my direction. The gun went with him.
“Sir! Drop your weapon!” Christa fired into the air. The man with the gun turned to her and fired. She went down.
“No!” I jumped out of the car without thinking about it and ran to her. “No, no! Christa!” Blood poured from her shoulder.
“It’s…okay. Flesh wound, I think. Went through.” Still, it was obvious she was in agony. I prayed somebody had called the cops as I untied the cardigan around my waist and tied it around her shoulder as tight as I could. She winced, but nodded. “Good job.”
“You’re coming with me!” A strong hand closed over my wrist and wrenched me to my feet. “You’re taking me to the jewels, now!”
I screamed and tried to jerk out of his grip. “Let go of me, you bastard!” I raised my arm to my mouth and bit down on his hand. He howled and let go, and I darted over to where Christa’s gun had fallen.
“Stop there, bitch!” But it was too late. I picked up the gun and aimed at him. I had never fired a gun before. I only owned one just in case I needed it someday. But I was more than ready to blow some brains out if I had to.
It was like being in some surreal nightmare. I was standing there in the middle of the bridge, cars everywhere, headlights pointed at me as I faced off with a nutcase. And I had a gun in my hand. He could shoot me at any moment. I was in way over my head, and I knew it.
“Why are you doing this? Why did you do any of it?” I had to know before anything else happened. I wouldn’t die without knowing.
“I need that money, damn it! I need it now!” Sweat rolled down his forehead, his neck. The collar of his shirt was nearly soaked through. I had to keep him talking until somebody else came to help me—cops, anybody, it didn’t matter.
“So you were going to sell the jewels?” I asked.
“Yes, of course, you fucking idiot!” His eyes were wide and wild. His hands shook.
“You couldn’t have gotten away with it!”
“Bullshit. You’re only saying that.”
“The necklace!” I screamed. “It was stolen years ago from a museum! Anybody you tried to sell it to would’ve known right away that you were selling a hot item.”
He blinked. “You’re lying.” But he didn’t sound like he was so sure.
“I’m serious. I recognized it right away. Anybody who knows jewelry would recognize it, too.”
“But…my parents wouldn’t do that.”
Cold certainty swept over me. He was Florsheim’s son. Of course—it took a person close to the old man to know what was in the collection.
“I’m sorry, but they did. That was a stolen necklace. I did you a favor by not giving it to you. I didn’t know what else to do! I’m sorry. I really am.”
He stared at me, open-mouthed. “I need that money. Oh, shit, I need that money so bad.” I almost felt sorry for him when I saw how desperate he was. I wondered why he needed it so much—maybe he had gambled money away. Maybe he owed it to loan sharks. Embezzling. Anything. I didn’t know his life. But only a man looking at death or a life in prison was that desperate.
He advanced on me. “Damn you. You’re lying. You were going to keep it for yourself!”
“No, no! I’m not lying!” I wrapped both hands around the barrel of the gun and told myself it was okay if I shot him. It would be self-defense. “Stay away from me!”
He stopped, but movement over his shoulder caught my attention. I thought it was finally somebody in one of the other cars coming to my rescue, only whoever it was had a tall, broad, muscular frame. I realized who it was. Don’t look at him. I didn’t want the man with the gun to know Dylan was coming up behind him.
“My father? You want me to believe my father would have something stolen, or buy a famous stolen piece? My father who never did anything but tell me what a disappointment I was because I wasn’t the good guy he was? Mr. Wonderful? Mr. Generous?” He laughed crazily, and the gun swayed back and forth.
“I’m sorry, I really am. But it’s true. I know it’s not an easy thing to accept. Why didn’t you just take it yourself, instead of hiring somebody to do it?”
“I didn’t want to get caught, of course. The cops always look at the family first.” He rubbed his eyes on his sleeve—he was sweating into them. His hair was wet. He didn’t have much longer before he snapped. I could see from the corner of my vision that Dylan was closing in. He held up a hand to his lips.
“We can figure this out. Just put down the gun, and I’ll put down my gun. Okay? We don’t have to aim at each other like this.” I nodded my head in Christa’s direction. “And she needs help. We have to let the ambulance through.”
His eyes darted off in the direction of the water, off to his right. He was thinking about jumping. I almost wished he would. Anything to get that gun out of my face. I never found out whether or not he had it in him to end his life, since Dylan sprang on him from behind a second later. He wrapped one arm around the man’s neck and pressed the muzzle of his weapon against the side of his head.
“Drop it,” Dylan growled. “Now.”
He froze, eyes locked with mine. His body seemed to deflate when he knew it was over. The gun fell to the ground. Meanwhile, sirens got louder and louder, coming from behind me. They were finally able to get through.
I went to Christa, who was sitting up against the concrete barrier dividing one side of the bridge from the other. “How are you?”
“Alive,” she whispered. Her skin was ashen, but her smile was bright. “I’ll hang in there. You did great.”
“I did?” I laughed shakily as I pressed against her shoulder—I didn’t know much about first aid, but I knew pressure was a good thing. “I almost threw up a couple of times.”
Cops swarmed the area, and I looked over to see them cuffing my one-time client. Meanwhile, EMTs jumped over the barrier and asked me to give them room to treat Christa. I stood up and looked around for Dylan. It was chaos, everywhere. Police and ambulances and hundreds of cars.
There he was, walking toward me, backlit by a pair of headlights. I let out breath I didn’t realize I was holding, then fell into his arms.
Chapter Twenty – Vienna
We waited in the ER to hear about Christa. The bullet went through her shoulder, just like she said it did, but she lost a lot of blood out there on the bridge. I sat hunched over in the bed, hands clasped between my knees. Christa wasn’t the only person who’d needed help. I had been in a car accident, after all. It was easy to forget about that when adrenaline was flooding my system, but as soon as that wore off, every muscle in my body had started screaming.
“You did a good job out there,” Ricardo said for maybe the fifth time. He was across from me, leaning against the wall. “You helped slow down the bleeding.”
“I hope it was enough.” I kept thinking about how crazy the man was, with his wild eyes and the way the sweat poured down his face.
“She’ll be okay,” Dylan murmured, rubbing my back. He hadn’t stopped touching me since we were on the bridge, and I didn’t want him to. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Sore as hell, but okay.” I would never forget how terrifying it was out there. How it felt to wonder whether or not I was going to survive. My whole life had flashed before my eyes. It would’ve taken just one squeeze of the trigger for him to kill me. Just one squeeze.
I looked up at Ricardo. “What’s his story?”
“Our client?” He smirked. “Joseph Florsheim, Jr. Wall Street broker. He’s been babbling about needing money—it sounds like he stole some from his clients and got in with loan sharks after he lost it all. It might take a l
ittle time for him to calm down enough to give us an actual story—he’s too unstable right now to make much sense.”
I nodded. “Yeah, that was the impression I got, that he was desperate. He’d have to be to pull something like that. Trying to run us off the bridge. Maniac.”
“Well, you helped us get our perp in custody. You know what that means.” Ricardo smiled at me. “All I need to know is where you stored the jewels.”
I nodded and reached for my purse. On a slip of paper, I wrote down the address of my bank and the safe deposit box number, plus the name the box was under. I handed it to him along with the key I kept zipped up in a tiny compartment in the bag. “Here you go. I’m happy to be rid of them. They’ve been hanging over my head for too long.”
“Then we’re all straightened out.” He took the paper and key, and his hand closed over mine for a moment. “I’m glad you’re all right.”
“Thanks.” He left me alone with Dylan. I leaned back against the pillows with a groan.
“You’re really hurting, huh?” His eyes bored into me.
“Yeah. Pretty bad. But it’ll be okay in a couple of days, I’m sure.”
He nodded. “No breaks, no fractures. It could’ve been a lot worse.”
“Tell me about it.” I looked at him. “Thank you for coming for me.”
“It seems like you had things pretty well in hand by the time I got there.” He ran his thumb over the back of my knuckles. “I’m sorry it took me so long.”
“I’m just glad you put it together and came at all. And I didn’t have things under control. He would’ve shot me. I’m sure he would’ve. Either that or he would’ve jumped off the bridge. I don’t like the guy, but I didn’t want to see him dead. If anything, I want to see him get what he deserves for Erich and for shooting Christa.”
“He will. No question about it.” Then he smiled. “So you’re free. No more worries. No charges. You’re a free woman.”
“I am. I didn’t think the day would ever come. Between you and me, I didn’t think we would ever be able to track that guy down. I was afraid I would end up going to jail.”
“I wouldn’t have let that happen.” The sincerity in his voice was enough to break my heart a little. I wished he wouldn’t sound that way. No matter what he thought or what he tried to tell himself, I wasn’t a free woman. I would never really be free.
“You wouldn’t have had a choice if the judge wanted me in jail, and that’s all there is to it. But I appreciate the sentiment.” I reached out to touch his face. I wanted to get as much of him as I could.
Pax came in. “Sorry to interrupt, but Christa wanted me to tell you she’s awake and feeling okay.”
“I’m so glad.” Tears filled my eyes.
“Yeah, it was pretty close there for a little while. But she’ll be fine.” The relief was clear on his face. I had the feeling he cared a little more about her than a boss usually cared for his employee.
“Tell her I said thanks for going out there for me. She didn’t have to do it.”
“That’s our job,” he reminded me. “But I’ll tell her. As for you, what do you want to do tonight?”
“What do you mean?”
“We could pack you up, back at the house, and deliver your things to your apartment. Or you can spend the night there and go home tomorrow.”
“I’d rather spend the night and pack myself up, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course.” He glanced at Dylan, nodded, and left.
“What was with the look at you?” I whispered.
“He knows we’re…you know.” He shrugged. “So I guess he figures I’ll spend the night with you at the house.”
“You will, right?” One more night. That was all I wanted.
“If you want me to, sure.”
I took his hand. “I do want you to.”
***
He helped me into bed a few hours later. The doctor had discharged me with painkillers from the hospital pharmacy, so I was a little lightheaded. But it was worth it if I’d be able to escape my extreme full-body soreness.
His body was warm and familiar, sliding between the sheets next to me. The sweetness of having him there, so close, was almost unbearable. With him, I would never have to worry. He’d be loyal and faithful to the end. He would forgive my past and tell me it didn’t matter. And I would want to believe him, because he was what I wanted.
“I wish I wasn’t so damn sore,” I muttered against his shoulder. “The only thing I want to do right now is ride you until you beg me to stop.”
“You’d have to ride me pretty damn hard to get me to do that,” he murmured against my hair.
“Remember when I told you how I felt after my first job? All that adrenaline, all that crazy insane energy? Whenever I think about you creeping up on that guy and throwing your arm around his neck, it’s like… Damn. I want some of that.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I know. But there’s plenty of time for that.”
I winced, but he couldn’t see me in the dark. “Thank you again for tonight. For rescuing me the way you did.”
“Like I said, you barely needed me. But I would do it again. I would do anything to protect you.” His arm tightened around me ever so slightly. “You never have to worry about anything, ever again. Not if you don’t want to.”
“Thank you.” I ran my hand over his chest, his shoulder, his arm, down to his hand. His fingers locked with mine, and our hands rested on his stomach. We didn’t say much of anything else after that. It was enough to be there, together, in the dark quiet.
“I love you,” he breathed as he drifted off to sleep. I squeezed my eyes shut. A single tear rolled down my cheek. I wanted more than anything to say it back—my heart cried out with need to say it back. I loved him too much to do that to him. If he thought I loved him, it would make my leaving that much harder to deal with. And I had to leave. There was no question about that.
I fought the urge to slide into unconsciousness, even though I was exhausted and the painkiller I’d taken earlier was making everything sort of fuzzy. I wanted to close my eyes and give in to the urge to sleep, but that would mean not being able to look at him. He was so beautiful, sleeping peacefully. Trusting me. Loving me.
“I love you, too,” I whispered when I knew he couldn’t hear me. Then I slid out of bed and slowly pulled on some clothes. All I needed was my purse, laptop and the bag in the top drawer. Everything else was replaceable.
Except for him. I couldn’t replace him. It was for the best, and I had to keep reminding myself of that. He was too good a person to get mixed up with me, and I could tell that he wanted nothing more than to do just that. He wanted us to be together. He loved me. I had to do what was right for him, no matter how much it hurt.
He might have gotten used to my past, but there were people who never would. He had worked hard his entire life to do the right thing, to earn respect. What kind of person would I be if I let him ruin all of that just so we could be together? He might even come to resent me because of it, and I couldn’t let that happen. It would easier in the long run for him to get over me quickly, maybe even hate me for a while. But I’d fade away, the way people always did after enough time passed.
I opened the door as quietly as possible—it was something I was good at, of course, being quiet. He didn’t budge an inch or even snort in his sleep. Out cold. I looked at him one more time before closing the door without a sound.
I pulled out my phone to request a ride to my apartment. It would be a few minutes, so I pulled a little notebook from my purse and wrote him one more message. I couldn’t just leave without saying anything. My vision was a little blurry and I struggled to keep my eyes open, so I kept it short and sweet. What would he need to hear when he discovered I was gone?
Dear Dylan,
I’m sorry for this. You’ve done so much for me—please, believe I’m doing this for you. Thank you for my life. I’ll never forget you.
I left it on the couch as the ca
r pulled up in front of the house. I didn’t bother using the back door—nobody was after me anymore. I had Dylan to thank for that.
Chapter Twenty-One – Dylan
I hardly ever slept past five in the morning, but I usually went to bed before three in the morning, too. I was surprised to see sunlight filtering in through the closed blinds when I opened my eyes.
I was alone. My eyes opened wider and I sat up. The other side of the bed barely looked slept in—the pillow wasn’t even dented.
“Vienna?” I listened for the sound of her in the house. There was no coffee smell, either. That was weird, since coffee was always the first thing Vienna thought about in the morning. I got out of bed and put on a pair of shorts.
Why did I have such a bad feeling? After what we had been through, why didn’t I trust her?
The house was silent, empty except for me. There was something about the energy in the air when a person was around, especially a person like her. I felt her absence. The air felt stale without her there. “Vienna?” Even though I knew she wasn’t there, I said her name anyway. Just to fill the silence.
There was a note on the couch. I read it maybe ten, twenty times before the message sank in. She was gone. She had left and she didn’t plan on seeing me again. She would never forget me? That was cute. I hoped she felt better about herself after writing that. I hoped it helped her forgive herself.
“Damn her. Damn her.” I crumpled the envelope in one hand and sat there feeling like the world’s biggest asshole. How could I have kidded myself the way I did? Thinking she would want to settle down and be a normal person. Why? Because I was so fucking special? I threw the note across the room. It bounced off the far wall and landed on the floor.
For a second there, I didn’t know if I should let her go and count my blessings that I wouldn’t have to deal with her anymore, or if I should go after her. Both arguments were valid. I went back and forth between hating her and wanting her and wanting to make sure she didn’t think she could run away from me that easily.
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