The Sniper

by Kimberly Van Meter

  “Watch your tone with me,” the woman warned coolly. “I could have every bone in your body broken in such a way that you remain conscious and alive but in the most wretched pain of your life. It’s quite amusing to watch, I assure you. Should I arrange for a demonstration? No? Good, I really don’t have time to play. Work calls and all that.”

  Jaci gulped and shook her head, making a mental note not to piss off the rich bitch in charge. “Where am I?” she asked.

  “I’ll ask the questions, if you don’t mind.” Her captor paused to regard her cuticle with a minute frown and for a moment, Jaci was deathly afraid for whoever had the misfortune of being her manicurist. “You’ve caused me a fair amount of aggravation,” she continued, regarding Jaci with that pale, steady stare. She was really attractive, if you didn’t mind the fact that her eyes reminded Jaci of a shark’s eyes, not in color but in flat, cold ruthlessness. “Well, not you specifically, but your lover. He couldn’t simply follow orders, now could he?”

  “Harrison Winslow was your husband. Why’d you have him killed?” Jaci asked, cutting to the point. Her head was splitting and she was pretty sure the woman was going to kill her anyway so why not ask the burning question?

  “Oh, so you know who I am?”

  “Yes. Penelope Granger a.k.a. Penny Winslow. So back to the question...why’d you do it? It seems you have plenty of money. Wasn’t Harry giving it to you enough in the bedroom?”

  “If you make another crude statement like that I’ll have your tongue ripped out and fed to you. Am I clear? I learned a lot during my time in the military. Some lessons never leave you no matter how you might change on the outside.” Penelope sighed dramatically as if she were the victim in all of this and said, “Do you know how much trouble I’ve had to deal with since your wretched boyfriend started poking around where he didn’t belong? A woman of my stature has certain obligations and they do not allow for putting out the fires created by one redneck sniper who has outlived his usefulness. But Tom had a fondness for him. Damn him for being a sentimental fool.”

  “So it was always about the money?” Jaci asked and Penelope laughed at her look of disgust.

  “Stupid girl, it’s always about the money and anyone who tells you differently is lying. Harrison was never interested in selling to Hashimoto. He was a doddering old fool who cared more for his beakers and chemicals than he ever did for another living soul, including his wife. I put the money up for Tessara to start and with the help of an employee loyal to me, I procured the proprietary formula for the drug, Lovaz, and our team of scientists did the rest. Harrison was too stupid to see what was happening right beneath his nose. It was dreadfully easy to convince Tom that Harrison was dealing in opium and that he would be doing the world a favor by removing him.”

  “Was Tom dealing in opium?”

  “Heavens, no. The man had no head for business— that was me.” The beatific smile Penelope graced Jaci with sent a chill down her spine. The woman was a sociopath—a rich one, at that. “But when I could no longer convince Tom to send his drones out to take down some other meddlesome targets, and when he started babbling about perverting his position of power, I knew he’d become a liability. Such a shame. He was an excellent lover.” She rose and straightened her impeccable satin blouse and said, “Speaking of lover...now we come to the point of this little tableau.” A manservant came forward and on the silver platter was the burner phone Jaci had been desperate to reach before she’d been nabbed by Miss Psycho Socialite. “Time for you to call your boyfriend to arrange a meeting.”

  “And if I don’t?”

  Penelope laughed as if Jaci had actually cracked a joke. “You amuse me.” Her smile faded and her gaze turned deadly. “Make the call.”

  “No.”

  Penelope drew a deep breath as if searching for patience. “No? All right then. Further motivation is required, I see.” She motioned and the manservant came forward with a different phone. The screen showed a surveillance camera trained on James as he climbed into his car. “You’ll never guess one of my favorite pastimes, something I picked up while serving abroad—explosives. I just love the way they go boom.” She accentuated the word and Jaci’s gaze widened in fear. Penelope’s gaze narrowed with purpose. “Make the call.”

  Jaci accepted the phone with shaking fingers. “Don’t hurt him,” she pleaded softly. “You’ve already taken my best friend from me. Don’t take James, too.”

  “Darling, don’t make me,” Penelope said as if Jaci were truly caught in a bad position, and Jaci wanted to beat her with one of the ugly chairs in the room.

  Tears glittered in Jaci’s eyes as she dialed. “Nathan? I’m in trouble.”

  * * *

  Nathan’s heart skipped a beat when he heard Jaci’s voice on the other end of the line. He gripped the phone tighter. “Where are you?” he asked.

  “I can’t tell you. But I can tell you I’m not in Mexico any longer.” She drew a deep breath and then continued, “I’m supposed to give you a message. Stop digging into business that doesn’t concern you. If you agree to let bygones be bygones, and take a medical discharge from ID then you and I can walk away from this. If you don’t agree to the terms, I’m dead and it’s only a matter of time before you are, too.”

  “Are you hurt?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “Tell your kidnapper I want to meet him face-to-face.”

  “Agree to her terms or this will be our last phone call.”

  Nathan swore under his breath even as his gaze narrowed at the valuable clue Jaci had dropped. He needed more time. He hadn’t heard back from Jake and he’d run out of leads to chase. He was basically a lame duck at this point just waiting to get picked off and that made him very angry. “Fine,” he agreed with a dark scowl. “I’ll agree to the terms but you tell your kidnapper this—I have something she might want.”

  “What is it?”

  “Tell her it’s something Tom gave me before he died, something very valuable to Tessara. In fact, if I were to let this little memory stick fall into the wrong hands, I suspect the deal with Hashimoto would go down in flames.”

  There was a moment of silence and then Jaci said, “What are your terms?”

  “A trade. You for the stick. And I name the meeting place.”

  “Those terms are acceptable. Where are we meeting?”

  “The food court at the Galleria, over on Madison Avenue. In front of Giovanni’s pizza place. Two o’clock.”

  She sighed as if irritated by something her captor said as she responded, “Unacceptable location. She’s countering with Fleur de Lis on Buchanan.”

  Fleur de Lis was a fancy French bistro for elite customers who enjoyed overpaying for a wilted salad. “Fine,” he agreed, his mind working at untangling the mystery of the location. Whoever was holding Jaci was accustomed to high-end service.

  “One last thing—don’t bring police.”

  “I won’t bring cops. But I don’t want flunkies showing up to do the exchange. I want to look the person in the eye who tried to ruin my life.”

  But before Jaci could answer, the line went dead. Nathan had no way of knowing whether the kidnapper had taken the bait but the fact that she was willing to meet him said she was worried that Tom might’ve had something of value hidden from them. God, Nathan hoped so. Because that’s all he had to work with.

  Nathan immediately placed a call to his brother, Jake. “We have a situation. Someone has kidnapped Jaci and they’re threatening to kill her if I don’t agree to their terms.”

  “What are their terms?”

  “They want me out of the picture. They said they’d let bygones be bygones if I agree to a medical discharge out of ID.”

  “You know that’s a lie, right?” Jake said.

  “Yeah.” Nathan remembered that Miko had also been offe
red a medical discharge. It was simply a way to get him out of the public eye and under the radar. “This is a one-way ticket. Chances are the minute my signature’s dry on the paper of my resignation, by the next morning I’d be pushing up daisies.”

  “I made some calls and dug a little deeper into Tessara and found some interesting information. There’s a common thread between Tom Wyatt and the wife of the late Harrison Winslow.”

  “Which is?”

  “Penny Winslow served with Wyatt in a special ops mission called Operation Sundial back when they were young privates twenty years ago. The details of the operation are still classified but suffice to say, that they definitely have history. Something tells me Harry Winslow was unaware of that history and it might’ve cost him his life.”

  “Not to mention a landmark deal with Hashimoto,” Nathan murmured, suddenly struck by a thought. “Penelope Granger was listed as one of the owners of Tessara.... Tom kept saying there was a woman calling the shots. This is starting to come together. I think the person we’re looking for is Penelope Granger, or as she’s known in more elite circles...society matron Penny Winslow.”

  “I’ll make some calls,” Jake said, his tone hard. “I have to tell you, Penny Winslow has some deep connections. If you’re wrong about her...it’s both our asses.”

  “I’m not wrong,” Nathan said. “I’m willing to bet my life on it.”

  “All right, if you’re sure. If you were anyone else, I’d tell you to come back with more evidence but you’ve never been one to exaggerate a threat. At least you didn’t used to be.”

  “I know it’s been a long time...but I haven’t changed that much since we last spoke,” he said quietly, remembering how proud he was when Jake had been accepted into the officer’s training program nine years ago. Even though Nathan had done his part to help ease Jake’s application through the proper channels, hard feelings had remained for Jake against Nathan for leaving him behind when Nathan split from home. Their father had taken out his rage on Jake and their mother had done nothing to protect him. Of course Nathan hadn’t known and by the time he’d found out, the damage had been done. “Thanks for your help, Jakey.”

  “Don’t call me that,” Jake said brusquely. “I’ll be in touch. Don’t try to do this on your own. If Penny Winslow is to blame for what’s been happening at ID, I need evidence, not bad feelings if I don’t want to end up on the unemployment line beside you.”

  “Yeah, I got it,” Nathan cut in, getting a little hot under the collar. “I’m no scrub and this ain’t my first rodeo. You handle your shit and I’ll handle mine.”

  “Good.”

  And then the line went dead. Nathan tossed his phone on the passenger seat and rubbed his forehead. Screw it. If his baby brother wanted to hold a grudge, that was his business, as long as he helped Nathan nail Penelope Winslow to the wall.

  Chapter 24

  Jaci tried not to fidget but she was woefully unschooled in the proper way to react to a hostage situation. If she weren’t nearly dazed that she was in this situation at all, she might’ve laughed. Except there was nothing to laugh about. Jaci was nearly certain Penelope planned to have Nathan killed as soon as she had whatever Nathan was using as leverage. Something told Jaci that integrity and sticking to her word weren’t truly ingrained in her. However, she probably took proper wine glass placement very seriously.

  Penelope, Jaci and one of Penelope’s men walked into the stuffy restaurant and were greeted by the host, an equally stiff and austere man who ducked his head in deference to Penelope as they crossed the threshold.

  “Ms. Winslow, your regular table?” he asked in a deferential tone.

  Penelope smiled yet her eyes were shrewd as she said, “Not today, Oscar. Today I would prefer a little privacy. I am feeling a mite puckish today.”

  “Of course. Perhaps the back patio would be more to your liking? I would, of course, see to it that you and your guests were not disturbed.”

  “Would you be a dear? That would be lovely,” she said with clipped approval. Oscar smiled and led her personally to the lush gardenlike oasis of the patio dining area.

  Penelope took her seat with a satisfied sigh and Jaci went to take the seat as far from Penelope as possible until the woman made a reproachful sound and looked pointedly at the seat beside her. “Don’t be rude, darling. I don’t bite,” she said with a faint smile, which frankly didn’t set Jaci’s nerves at ease. The woman probably did bite. And often.

  “I do love this place. It truly settles my nerves,” she said conversationally as if they were there under completely different circumstances. Jaci glanced around, hoping to find some clue that Nathan was there and perhaps ready to jump out of one those ridiculously large potted plants, guns blazing. Alas, they were quite alone as far as she could tell.

  Penelope’s gaze narrowed as she said, “I remember when I still relied on men to save the day. The truth of the matter is, darling, men are only good for what is between their legs and rarely for what is between their ears.”

  Jaci swallowed the hot retort that jumped to mind before she said something that would cause Penelope to rip her eyelashes out for sport and simply waited for Penelope to finish her thought.

  “I was once an idealistic girl, much like yourself. But I soon learned girls like that get used, forgotten or dead. Seeing as I didn’t like any of those options, I started paying attention to people. Unlike men, a woman’s greatest strength is her cunning. Men are such simpletons. Do you realize how easy it was for me to convince Tom to do my dirty work for me? Ah, almost embarrassingly easy. I’d really hoped for more of a challenge. But at the end of the day, it is what it is. Now I have enough money to buy all the men and firepower I need.”

  “You’re a little bit crazy, you know that, right?” Jaci said, unable to help herself. “You can’t go around killing people just because they don’t fall in line with your agenda.”

  Penelope stared blankly. “No? And why not?”

  Ugh. She couldn’t argue ethics with someone who had none. “Never mind. I just want to get this over with. No more story hour, okay?”

  Penelope’s eyes turned mean as she said, “Carl...please encourage our guest to be more polite. Break her pinky finger.” Before Jaci could react, the big man who had accompanied them snapped her pinky finger in one clean motion. The pain shot through her body and momentarily stole her breath. She gasped and cradled her injured hand. “See that you don’t make a scene,” Penelope advised her before taking a delicate sip of her Perrier. “I detest scenes.”

  “You’re a psycho bitch,” Jaci managed to grind out, blinking against the wash of tears stinging her eyes. “When Nathan finds out what you’ve done, there will be nowhere you can hide on this planet. He’ll find you and rip your face off.”

  “It’s amusing how you think that your boyfriend will save you. How do you know he’s not dead already?” Penelope smiled and Jaci froze. “Perhaps I’m enjoying the anticipation of watching the hope I see in your eyes die when you realize no one is coming to save you.”

  “He’s not dead,” Jaci whispered, suddenly knowing it in her heart. “You’re just crazy and spiteful.”

  “And what makes you so sure?” she countered, curious.

  “Because I feel it in my heart that he’s still with me.”

  Penelope’s sudden flush of annoyance scared Jaci and she looked fearfully at the thug who’d broken her finger. “Balderdash and poppycock,” Penelope finally muttered, angrily flicking a piece of lint from her tailored outfit before checking her diamond-encrusted watch. “Well, apparently your boyfriend is not the timely sort. Makes one wonder if he cares to show at all.”

  Jaci lifted her chin. “He’ll show.”

  “Hmm...charming. So loyal.” Penelope leaned forward, her eyes glittering with malicious light. “Did you know that your precious her
o is nothing but a hired killer? The blood on his hands will never come out. Trust me, it doesn’t matter how many good deeds you do, everyone will find a way to judge you for your minor slipups. I, too, used to save lives. It was the most boring aspect of my whole career.”

  “Don’t compare yourself to Nathan. You’re not in the same league.”

  “Of course not,” Penelope agreed with a chuckle as if Jaci had said something quite amusing. “I am far above someone like your hillbilly boyfriend. To even suggest we are the same is beyond ludicrous.”

  “Yeah, because he’s a true hero and you’re nothing but—”

  “Break her other finger, if you would,” Penelope ordered her thug but this time Jaci saw it coming and leapt from her chair, grabbing a butter knife as she went.

  “Come near me and I’ll carve out your belly button,” she hissed in warning, though in truth, she hoped he tried to rush her just so she could bury the knife in someplace soft.

  “I told you I detest scenes,” Penelope said, lifting her phone. “Need I remind you that a certain friend of yours is sitting dangerously close to an explosive device hidden beneath the undercarriage of his 1989 Ford Escort? The GPS tracking device says that his little blue dot is traveling down Magnolia Boulevard. One press of a button on my phone and suddenly, it’s bye-bye computer whiz. Such a shame don’t you think? I’ve heard he’s really quite brilliant. I have half a mind to offer him a job.”

  “I will not just sit here and let your thug break all my fingers,” she said, her broken finger throbbing mercilessly. She couldn’t stomach another. “And stay the hell away from my friends.”

  “Oh, fine. Stop being so melodramatic and sit down before you make a spectacle of yourself. I have a reputation to protect. The Red Hat Society, of which I’ve only just become a member due to the untimely death of my poor, sweet Harry, plays bridge here, you know. I’d hate to make a bad impression on my new friends,” Penelope sniffed as if offended by Jaci’s attitude and took another sip of her water. Suddenly her eyes registered someone entering the patio and Jaci’s heart leapt in her chest—Nathan was here!