“They’ll pay for this, I promise you that,” he murmured to himself as he pulled his Beretta Cheetah from his waist and screwed on the silencer. Retracing his steps, he made his way back around to the front of the house.
Trevor had already decided to kick in the door when he noticed the brothers were no longer sitting on the couch. The TV screen black, the room now dark, Trevor realized they were in another part of the house, hopefully going to bed.
Okay, he decided, he could do more damage if they were asleep. But just when that idea started to have merit, he heard voices coming from the garage.
He ducked behind a row of hedges just in time to see the garage door rumble its way up.
Trevor watched as a blue Chevy Tahoe with Cade and Collin inside sped out of the garage and down the driveway.
Fearing the worst, Trevor raced to the front door and kicked it in, sprinted inside the house. On his way to the kitchen, his shoes skidded on the floor in a sizeable pool of blood.
“Fuck no, not again!”
Expecting to see Gloria dead, his eyes focused on her little dog. Someone had cut the animal’s throat. A bloody kitchen knife lay on the floor.
He made a quick search of the rest of the house but found no one there.
They’d obviously taken Gloria with them. That had to mean they’d kept her alive.
Trevor rushed out the back door, heading to his car on a dead run.
Tossing his gun on the front seat, he put the car in gear and roared off. Remembering to turn on the tracking App on his phone, he raced down the street after the Tahoe.
Minutes later he caught sight of the SUV and fell back as far as he could without losing them. He went over all the ways he intended to make the assholes pay if they put any more bruises on the woman. He hadn’t picked up a few tricks from his journeys for nothing. He could make their deaths slow and very painful. He would make them pay for this, and pay dearly.
Inside the Tahoe, Cade looked at Collin and smiled. “I gave your suggestion some thought. It just so happens I have a key to Grant’s cabin in the canyons. It isn’t big, but it’s out of the way. And it’ll be vacant this time of year.”
Collin grinned. “Told you it would be a great place to lay low until we can trade this crazy bitch in for our money.”
“Who says we’re going to trade her in?”
Cade took the Las Virgenes Road south until it dumped into County Road N1 weaving farther back into a stretch of winding canyons off the main road.
They were so busy patting themselves on the back at a job well done they never noticed the car that had been following them for the last thirty miles.
When they got to an unmarked turnoff, Cade took a right onto a gravel road.
Several hundred yards behind them, Trevor cut his lights. He slowed his vehicle to let them continue on before waiting a few minutes, then shooting a U on the narrow road. Circling back, he moved at a snail’s pace along the unlit roadway until he spotted the Tahoe parked in front of a small A-frame.
Leaving his car a good hundred yards down the road off the shoulder, he got out and made his way up to the house. In the shadows, one of the brothers, it looked like Collin, struggled to get Gloria out of the backseat and up onto his shoulders.
“Come on, dumb ass! Get the fucking door open, this bitch is heavy.”
Cade jiggled the key in the lock and Trevor watched as both brothers stepped inside a dark cabin.
Once they got into the small interior, Collin dumped Gloria onto the nearest piece of furniture, which happened to be a futon without much padding. Like a sack of potatoes, she landed hard, her head hitting the wooden arm with a crack.
“How long do you think she’ll be out?” Cade asked.
“Another hour or so. Why?”
“’Cause it’s time to call Reese Brennan and demand our money back. We go out, make the phone call from a public phone booth, that way they won’t be able to trace the call.”
“Good, because I could use some food. What about that convenience store we passed near the State Park?”
“That’ll work. You stay here.”
“No way, you’ll pick out all the junk food. I want to get my own stuff. I’m sick of the crap you choose.”
“Bitch, bitch, bitch. Fine, ditch her in the closet in the bedroom and lock the door.”
Collin picked up Gloria and headed to the only bedroom the cabin had.
Outside, Trevor studied the house for the best way in. Suddenly, the front door flew open. He leaned back into the shadows sticking to the side of the house until he watched Cade and Collin climb back into the Tahoe without the woman.
At Crandall House, Reese and Quinn were snuggled in bed.
Still doing his best to find a way to work tomorrow’s meeting with Nick Tyler into the conversation, Reese toyed with a couple of strands of her hair. “You feel better about things now, right? We’re okay?”
“We’re better than okay.”
His stomach flip-flopped with nerves. “I have to go into the office tomorrow for a meeting.”
“That thing you were setting up this morning? Okay.”
He swallowed hard. The deceit wanted to lodge in his throat. “I want you to come with me.”
Her brow furrowed, she narrowed her eyes. “Why?”
“Because Kit goes into the Book & Bean around six-thirty and Jake goes with her. Dylan’s taking Baylee to the hospital to visit her father. Afterward, they plan to make a stop at the house on Bel Green Drive, see if they can come up with Sarah’s diary. That leaves you here alone unless, of course, you want to go with Baylee, put in an unofficial appearance at the hospital, and get a good look at your co-workers hard at work while you’re still on suspension.”
No one could accuse him of not knowing the right buttons to push.
She wrinkled her nose. “That isn’t an option. I want to go back and see Mendenhall on his knees begging for my return, telling me how he made the worst mistake of his career by letting me go and how he’s removing the entire incident from my personnel file like it never even happened.” She grinned. “I know. I know. But it’s my fantasy and I’m sticking to it.”
“Nothing wrong with a good fantasy as long as Mendenhall suffers, right?”
“Absolutely.”
Plugged into its charger on the nightstand, his cell phone rang.
“That can’t be good news at this hour,” Quinn moaned.
He picked it up. “Brennan.”
“Now you listen to me, asshole, I’ve got Gloria and I want our fucking money back in our accounts by tomorrow morning. You don’t make it happen, Gloria’s dead. You got that?”
“Calm down. I want to talk to Gloria. How do I know you haven’t already done something to her?”
“I guess you’ll just have to take my word for it. I want to talk to Quinn.”
“I’m afraid that isn’t possible.”
“You put Quinn on now or so help me God I’ll put a bullet in Gloria’s head right now.”
Reese decided to play hardball. “Call back in an hour and she should be back home by then.”
“You better not be lying to me. You assholes give us our goddamned money back.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I’m sure we can work something out, okay? There’s no reason to hurt Gloria.”
“You just have our money back by tomorrow morning or she’s a dead woman. And I’m calling back in another hour. Have Quinn waiting by the phone.”
Cade disconnected the call.
Reese crawled out of bed and started pulling on his jeans.
“Ohmygod, that was Cade,” Quinn breathed. “They have Gloria.”
Reese nodded. “We need to let Kit know.”
As soon as Trevor was certain they were gone, he went around to the back of the house and to the door leading into what looked like a tiny kitchen. The cabin was rather small, a simple A-frame design with only two ways inside. But it did have a back door with panes of glass runni
ng down to the halfway mark.
In the dark, he took out his penlight, ran his hands around the rim of the doorframe to check for contact strips indicating an alarm system.
Confident there wasn’t one; he punched in one of the square panes of glass on the door with his elbow.
Reaching past the knob, he turned the deadbolt lock. Stepping into the kitchen, not knowing if there was anyone else in the house, he drew his Beretta. His eyes scanned the room, quickly deciding Gloria wasn’t in this one.
The little bungalow had no more than nine-hundred square feet of total space, so he moved on to the living room, where he found it empty. He headed into the bedroom; no one there either. He quickly checked the bathroom and came up with nothing.
He was on the verge of looking around for a cellar door when he snapped his fingers, remembering he hadn’t looked in the bedroom closet.
He shook his head. He must be getting sloppy in his old age. Finding the closet door locked, he put his shoulder into the cheap wood and cracked it open.
A bound Gloria tumbled out at his feet in a heap.
Trevor holstered his weapon and bent down to feel for a pulse. Her eyes were closed, but she was alive.
He removed her blindfold, took the knife out of his boot to cut the cord binding her wrists together, as well as the one at her feet.
He tapped her gently on the face, trying to get her to come around. “Gloria, can you hear me? Come on, sweetheart.”
As soon as she showed signs of life, she groaned. “My head hurts.”
“Don’t be afraid, I’m here to help you. Can you stand?”
“They tied my feet.”
“I know, but I untied them. Come on; try to stand up for me.”
“Who are you?”
“We need to get out of here. They’ll be back—soon. Can you walk?”
“I’ll do anything to get out of here. Collin killed Morty right in front of me. He…he...”
“Don’t think about it.” He started prodding her toward the kitchen and the back door, going out the way he’d come in. But once they got to the side of the house, without shoes, barefoot, Gloria started to falter.
Realizing they would never make it to the car unless he carried her, he scooped her up and threw her over his shoulder.
But at the midway point, Gloria started to squirm. Since he felt winded, and a little more than out of shape carrying her, he stopped to catch his breath.
He dropped her feet back on the ground.
“I can walk now. You don’t have to lug me all the way to the car.”
“Are you sure?”
“No, but do you have another one of those?” She pointed to the gun in his holster.
“What? You want a gun?”
“Yes, I’d feel better having one in case they come back.”
Trevor eyed her curiously and reached around his back, pulled out what he called his suicide gun, a .22 caliber Smith and Wesson, from his waist. “Do you know how to fire a weapon?”
“You point it and pull the trigger?”
He chuckled, but flicked off the safety, pulled back the slide and released it, handed it off. “It’s ready to point and shoot. Make sure you aim for the bad guys, okay?”
That got her moving again and she tentatively started walking to the car.
“I’m so grateful you came along when you did. Cade had already decided to kill me. They talked about it all the way out here. They thought I was out of it. I’ve just now gotten to know Kit as my daughter. I’m getting ready to meet my son—from Ireland. He probably talks the way you do. They were about to take all that away from me until you saved me! Thank you!”
Nothing like a chatty blonde to make the blood pump, Trevor thought. And this one looked ready to burst with babble. With his fingers, he scooted a few strands of stray hair behind her ear. “I always did have a weakness for blondes.”
That got a laugh out of her.
And it was a great thing to be able to laugh, Gloria decided. Because he stood so close to her, she leaned over and planted a kiss squarely on his mouth. “That’s for saving me. Will you take me home?” She laughed again. And it felt glorious to be able to kiss and laugh and act silly.
Pushing her toward the car, he explained, “We’ll call Kit to pick you up, how’s that?”
“No, I want you to take me back to Crandall House, okay? They’ll want to see you, meet you. They have so much to tell you. Don’t you know that?”
He shook his head. “I wish I could but…”
“You think they’ll call the police? Don’t be absurd. They won’t do that. We all have to work at getting rid of these scummy bastards once and for all or they’ll just keep trying to hurt us.”
Trevor grinned. “That’s why I’m calling someone to pick you up. The less you know the better. I’ll take care of Cade and Collin.”
“That’s what I’m telling you. You don’t have to do it on your own.”
“I work alone,” he pointed out and watched her blush before she spontaneously hugged him again. They stood there like that in a brief embrace until he had to nudge her along again.
They’d almost made it to the car when Trevor noticed headlights approaching fast from the other end of the gravel road. Quickly he opened the door, pushed Gloria down into the passenger seat of the Chevy.
Reaching in the glove box, he grabbed his backup pistol, a Glock 17 and crawled over Gloria into the driver’s seat. He started the engine, shoved the car in gear, and took off down the dark lane, never bothering to turn on the headlights.
With any luck maybe they could fake out the two stooges.
Behind the wheel of the SUV, though, Cade yelled, “Did you see that? It looked like movement, someone running down the side of the road from the house.”
Cramming his mouth with a protein bar, Collin said, “I don’t see a thing.”
“Son of a bitch, I bet Gloria’s escaped. I thought you said she’d be out for another hour.”
“Just get her, run her down if you have to.”
“Wait, there’s a car heading right for us with its lights off.”
“I see it!” Collin pulled out his Luger and hit the button to roll down the glass. He opened fire from the passenger window.
Trevor returned fire as he floored the gas. “Stay down!” he yelled as the Chevy tore off down the road, skidding on the gravel.
As they drove past the Tahoe, though, Gloria hit the button to roll down the glass. She steadied the barrel of the gun on the rim as best she could and took aim. She fired off several quick shots in rapid succession. She heard bullets hitting metal but couldn’t see much else as gunfire continued to erupt around them.
All of a sudden, Trevor felt a burn in his shoulder blade. He winced but took the time to cast a quick glance in the rearview mirror. “I don’t know how you managed, but it looks like you punctured their tires. Nice shooting for an amateur.”
“The tires? Damn it, I was aiming for Collin’s head.” Gloria turned back around in her seat to stare at the man who had saved her. “Oh, my God, you’ve been shot. There’s blood on your shirt.”
“It isn’t the first time.”
“Pull over, let me help you.”
“Are you crazy? We’re not stopping.”
She laughed. “Some say I am, crazy that is. I like to think I march to my own drum.”
In spite of the pain in his shoulder, he threw her a wicked grin.
They drove in anxious silence until they got back to the 101. Gunning the car up the ramp, Trevor merged onto the heavily trafficked highway with the other stream of vehicles. They hadn’t gone very far though when the car abruptly began to weave.
Gloria looked over, heard him began to wheeze as if having difficulty breathing. “Your shirt is already soaked. You’ve lost a lot of blood. Pull over. I can take the wheel.”
He did feel lightheaded, but he shook it off. “I’m fine. It’s probably just a scratch anyway.”
“You aren’t fine. Wher
e are you taking me?”
“Someplace safe,” he muttered between clenched teeth. His right shoulder felt like someone had taken a fire poker and jabbed him a couple of times with it.
“Where, though? I deserve to know.”
The car veered to the right again, this time almost clipping a call box. She glanced over and saw his head drop back onto the headrest.
“For God’s sakes, brake!” Gloria shouted. “Pull over! Now!”
The car drifted completely off the roadway. When it finally slowed to a stop, Gloria went around to the driver’s side. It took some time to coax Trevor, one leg at a time, to climb over the console into the passenger seat.
Blood spurted out onto his shirt now more than it had before.
And once she crawled behind the wheel, she realized just how badly Trevor had been hurt. Sticky blood residue clung to the steering wheel, as well as the upholstery. Knowing he needed a doctor, she had a decision to make. If she took him to the nearest ER there would be countless questions. Even she knew this man would not want to answer any of them.
She wasn’t about to put him in harm’s way after he’d saved her life.
There was only one place to go.
She reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out his cell phone, and punched in a number. She angled her head in the side mirror to check traffic before accelerating back into the steady line of cars.
Cade filled the night air with a string of blue obscenities as he realized the SUV wasn’t going anywhere. “Now we’re stuck out in this godforsaken area with two fucking flat tires.”
“I’m telling you we need to head south to Mexico. This whole thing is falling apart. It’s more than we bargained for. We need to get out of here.”
“Shut the fuck up and let me think! I want my goddamn money and I’m not going anywhere until those bastards give it back. They aren’t going to outsmart me. I’m going to kill every single one of those bastards just like I killed those goddamn cunts.”
“Wh…what did you say? What’re you talking about, Cade?”
“Forget it.” Scott was dead and buried now and no other living soul needed to know what they’d done together. Cade took out his cell phone. “I’ll call Adam and tell him we need some help out here.”
Evil Secrets Trilogy Boxed Set Page 93
