by Jami Alden
She could even afford to wait and see if things worked out with Ethan.
At the thought of him, she pulled her phone out of her pocket to call him as she’d promised. But as soon as she dialed his number her phone beeped in distress, indicating the death of her battery.
Maybe this was better. This way, she could gather her thoughts, tell him of her decision in person. The thought made her heart pound and her head throb as she went through her apartment, packing up the essentials she needed for the next few days. Her hands shook as she threw a pair of running shoes into her bag.
Could she really do this? Really open herself up and risk her heart with Ethan? Move in with him after only five days, hoping it would turn into forever?
Warmth coursed through her at the thought of his smile, the touch of his hands, his low voice in her ear whispering that he loved her.
Would she ever forgive herself if she didn’t? Scary as it was to admit it, she needed him. And if she shoved her fear aside for a minute, she was pretty sure he needed her, too.
None of that stopped her from feeling a little sick as she walked down the stairs of her apartment building, imagining his face when she told him she decided to take him up on his offer. What if, in the time she’d been gone, he’d realized how crazy it all was? Maybe he was sweating bullets, praying she’d packed up and headed for Seattle.
She shoved the thoughts aside, holding an image of him telling her he loved her, asking her to give them a chance. He wouldn’t say something like that unless he meant it. She hadn’t known him long, but she already knew him well enough to be sure of that.
The tension in her neck began to ease as she loaded her suitcase into the trunk of the rental car. The evening sun drenched the parking lot in golden light, washing the stout brick building in butterscotch. Her blood hummed as she anticipated seeing Ethan.
And saying yes, to whatever he offered.
She heard a small noise behind her and turned slightly, freezing when she felt something hard press against the base of her skull.
“Make one move, and your brains will splatter across this car.”
CHAPTER 19
“G ET IN THE car,” Connors ordered, shoving Toni toward the front of the car, careful to keep his gun trained on her. He saw her eyes dart frantically around the deserted parking lot, could see her calculating the risk of making a run for it. “The safety is off. My finger is on the trigger. I’d advise you not to try.”
Anger and fear showed in her eyes as he directed her into the passenger seat and slid in after her. He shoved her over to the driver’s side, not releasing his hold on her for an instant. “Start the car.”
“Take the car. Take whatever you want,” she protested. “I won’t even tell anyone you were here.” Her voice was high with fear, her eyes wide.
He pressed the gun hard into her ribs. “Start the car,” he repeated. Her already porcelain complexion went completely white, and he smiled. He loved the look of fear on a beautiful woman’s face. He couldn’t wait to see her eyes widen with horror when he held a gun to her head and fucked her. But first things first. He needed her to undo the damage she had caused. If all went to plan, there would be plenty of time to use her before she died.
She backed the car out and drove to the street exit. Before she could make the turn onto the main road he grabbed her face and forced her to meet his gaze. “Do not try anything stupid. Do not try to attract attention in any way. I will not hesitate to kill you.”
The truth was, he needed her alive, at least for a short while. But better to make her think her life depended on her cooperation.
He would kill the bitch in a few hours, after she helped him regain access to his funds. She was already a loose end, supposed to be dead two days ago, but somehow she’d managed to survive. And somehow she’d managed to follow the money trail back to him, just as he’d feared when Jerry first warned him. Now the authorities were alerted to his offshore accounts. Holds had already been placed. There was no way he could get to the money without tipping them off. And if he didn’t have access to funds, he was, as they liked to say, completely fucked.
Twenty-five years. Over twenty-five years he’d been in business, dealing with the scum of the earth, the most ruthless figures in organized crime, and he’d never come close to being caught. Not by the authorities. Not by those who wanted him dead. He and Karl had always slipped away, pockets full, ready for a fresh start.
Now look at him. His entire operation brought down because of a deal gone wrong with an idiot like Kramer. He’d underestimated Taggart, dismissing him as hired muscle who would blindly follow Kramer’s direction. And Toni was to have been handled before she could cause any more trouble.
Yet it had all gone completely awry, and here he was, escaping by the skin of his teeth, alone. His gut twisted as he remembered his brother, loyal to the end, covering him so he could escape. Now Karl was dead, thanks to this bitch who had led Karl’s killers to their door.
He looked at Toni, her jaw set in tight lines, her knuckles white against the steering wheel. He would make her pay for her part in his brother’s death. He smiled at the thought of her crying, begging him for her life.
“Get onto highway 101 North,” he said.
“I still don’t see why you don’t just take the car,” she said easing up on the gas, hesitating before merging onto the freeway on ramp.
He leveled her with a cold, hard, stare. “The longer you cooperate, the longer you will live. Drive.”
“Where are we going?” Toni asked, shooting a nervous glance at the gun William Connors had pointed at her side. He hadn’t answered the first half dozen times she’d asked. She didn’t expect him to answer now, but was compelled to ask anyway.
They’d been driving north for nearly two hours. After they’d crossed the Golden Gate bridge, Connors had directed her to follow Highway 1 where it split off from the freeway, over to the coast. Her palms sweated as she navigated along the winding coastal road with its sharp curves and steep dropoff.
The sun was barely visible in the horizon, sinking into the Pacific. Soon it would be completely dark. She glanced at her watch. It was almost nine. Was Ethan worried? Had he tried to call her on her cell phone, which was still charging back at her apartment?
She looked at her watch again, trying to calm her racing heart, reminding herself of the tracking device still embedded inside. Connors had no clue that if Ethan wanted to, he could pinpoint her exact location.
But after the way she’d left things this morning, that was a big, fat “if.”
And even if he did check up on her location, that was no guarantee he’d come after her. For all he knew, she’d taken the coward’s way out and was on her way north to Seattle without a word of goodbye.
If a woman is that determined to get away from you, maybe you should stop chasing her.
His words rang in her ears, haunting her.
Please don’t let me go, Ethan.
“Turn up at this intersection,” Connors said. Toni did as he said, pulling off the coastal highway onto a side road. Connors directed her to a ramshackle hotel that stood next to a marina. He held her arm and walked her to the lobby. When they reached the door he paused. “Do not try anything,” he said, his whisper making the fine hairs stiffen on her neck, “or I will kill her,” he said, nodding to the middle-aged woman with long gray hair sitting behind the desk.
“You have high speed Internet access, yes?” Connors asked in his vaguely accented voice.
“Oh yes,” the woman, whose name tag read Vera, replied. “Wireless, the whole nine yards. Not that I understand any of that. I’m still marveling at the advent of post-it notes,” she said with a hearty laugh.
Toni responded with a weak chuckle, the best she could manage with Connors’s gun pressing against the small of her back.
“Good,” Connors said with a smile. “My wife has much work to do,” he said.
“Get your computer,” he said when they left th
e hotel lobby.
Toni shivered as she walked to the car. The evening was cool, a layer of fog settled over the coast. The streetlights washed the parking lot with milky yellow light. “What are we doing here?” Toni asked as she slung her backpack over her shoulder.
Connors steered her to the stairs leading to the second floor. “You are going to help me get the funds I require.” He motioned her to unlock the door and precede him into the room.
Toni shot him a confused look.
“I know you helped the authorities locate my accounts. Now you will help me appropriate them from other sources.”
“You want me to help you steal money? It’s not that easy, with anti-fraud measures—”
His eyes narrowed and he brought the gun up to her chest. “I know you are very good at what you do. I trust you will find a way.”
Her first instinct was to refuse. Connors was going to kill her anyway, so what did it matter. At least this way she would die knowing she hadn’t helped a sociopath like Connors.
Ethan could still come for you. It was a long shot. But she still had her watch, and as long as the tiny tracking device emitted a signal, there was a possibility that Ethan could come after her.
Holding onto that shred of hope, she turned on her computer and logged on. “I shouldn’t do this from my computer. They’ll know it was me.”
“By the time anyone realizes, I will be gone.” Connors said. “Speaking of which, I need to make a phone call.”
He flipped open his phone and dialed, but stayed close so he could watch every move she made. Still, she waited for a moment of distraction so she could send a quick e-mail or instant message—something to let Ethan know what was going on.
But Connors kept his flat green eyes locked on her screen as he spoke on the phone. “One a.m.? No sooner?” He bit out a curse. “That it was short notice is no excuse. The boat should have been ready to go.” He cursed again and flipped his phone closed.
That explained why they’d stopped near the marina. Connors was going to slip out in the dead of night, into the open sea. From there he could easily head south to Mexico or South America.
“What exactly do you want me to do here?” Toni asked, holding her fingers stiff over her keyboard.
Connors held his phone out to show her the display. “That is an account number for Kenneth Barnes, the man your friends shot yesterday morning.”
“The man who was going to buy Kara and the other girls,” Toni said.
Connors smiled was cold, reptilian. “In a manner of speaking. Barnes is exceedingly wealthy, and can afford to indulge his fetishes. Even if he survives, he won’t miss the seven million I want you to transfer.”
She turned back to her computer screen, trying to ignore the gun less than an inch from her cheek. “It could take me awhile, depending on the security protocols.” How long could she stall? Long enough for Ethan to realize something was up and come find her?
“You have until one a.m.”
Toni looked at her watch. She had three and a half hours to break into Barnes’s account and transfer the funds. More than enough time.
But if Ethan didn’t realize—or care—that she was gone in that time, she had no illusions about what was in store for her. As soon as he got his money, Connors would kill her without a second thought.
She was gone. Without a fucking word. Without even a phone call or even a fucking text message, Toni had taken off.
When she hadn’t called or showed up after several hours, he’d been annoyed. When her cell phone had dumped him straight to voice mail, he’d gotten worried. Connors was still out there, after all. Even though Ethan was sure Connors hadn’t wasted any time hanging around, he’d wanted Toni dead.
His stomach churning with worry and guilt that he’d let her go off on her own, he’d finally called up her tracking device on his hand held. The little red Toni dot was right there, plain as day. Hauling ass north.
His first impulse had been to jump in the car and drag her back down here, fight back her fears, convince her to stay.
Then he thought of his father, wasting his life chasing after a woman who didn’t want to be with him anymore. Who wanted to escape so badly she’d made herself disappear.
If a woman is that determined to get away from you, maybe you should stop chasing her.
He’d give Toni exactly what she wanted.
Anger burned like acid in his stomach as he tracked the dot to Tomales Bay, about eighty miles up the coast, where the dot had stopped about an hour and a half ago. She must be taking the scenic route, he thought bitterly.
Taking all that time she said she needed to get her head together.
He paced the length of his living room, wanting to punch something, to throw something. He called Derek to meet him for a workout, but Derek was busy with a client. Danny was still injured, and Ethan didn’t want to have to pull his punches.
He looked at his Blackberry. Toni had accused him of being a player and she was right. He had dozens of women’s numbers, and he could have one of them under him in less than an hour.
But the thought of being inside anyone but Toni made his throat tighten and his stomach twist.
How could she just leave without a word? How could he be so stupid to think he was in love with her?
He remembered something his dad had said about falling in love with his mother. “I saw her and it felt like I’d been hit upside the head with a two-by-four.”
Smashed in the face by love. Yeah, that about said it all.
He poured himself a tall vodka on the rocks. This bottle was three quarters full and there was a backup in the freezer. He hoped it was enough to take the edge off.
His phone rang as he took the first biting sip. He called himself an idiot at the burst of disappointment when he saw it wasn’t Toni, but Marcy Kramer.
Reluctantly he picked up.
“Um, hi,” said an uncertain voice. “This is Kara. I was wondering if Toni was there. Her cell’s off, so I know you might be having, uh, private time, but I really need to talk to her.”
“What makes you think she’s here?” he said, more harshly than Kara deserved.
“Because, when I saw her this afternoon she said she’d be at your place tonight.”
Ethan barked out a laugh. “Well, she never showed up.” He took another sip of the vodka.
Silence. Then, “But she told me she was going to your place right after she stopped by her apartment.”
Uneasiness curled in his stomach. “She must have changed her mind, because last time I checked, she was in her car, heading north.”
“She left? Without saying goodbye?” Kara’s voice cracked on the last word. Ethan pressed his thumb and forefinger against his own burning eyes. “No. Toni wouldn’t do that. She’s way too anal.”
“What do you mean?”
“The last time we met for coffee she texted me three times to confirm, and once while she was on her way to let me know she was running late. She doesn’t just turn off her phone and go offline.”
The uneasy feeling built and built until it roared in his ears. “I’m sure she’s fine.” He grabbed his keys and wallet off the counter. He was probably overreacting. Setting himself up to be dumped on his ass when he burst into Toni’s hotel room and demanded an explanation. But he’d rather have his heart crushed in person and be sure she was safe. “I’ll call you if I talk to her, and you do the same, okay?”
“Okay,” Kara said, worry evident in her voice. Then, her voice so soft he could barely hear her, “You don’t think that Connors guy has her do you?”
Ethan checked the clip in his gun and shoved it in his waistband. “I sure as hell hope not.”
He slammed his car into gear and took off up the highway and prayed Toni was running from him, because the alternative was even worse.
Toni rubbed her bleary eyes and clicked on the “confirm transfer” button. It had taken a clever approach, but she’d finally managed to get into Barnes’ a
ccount and transfer the funds to Connors’s account. All with about fifteen minutes to spare until the boat came.
“It’s done,” she said finally. Her eyes burned and she swallowed back the lump in her throat. The likelihood of Ethan riding to her rescue was fast dwindling to zero.
“Good,” Connors said. She shuddered as he laid his cool, dry palm settling on the bare skin between her neck and her shoulder. She held herself still as marble as his fingers dipped down to trace the neckline of her T-shirt. “Now, how to pass the time until my friends arrive?”
Toni swallowed back bile and tried to subtly shrug off his hand. His fingers bit into her tender skin and he rested his other hand, the one with the gun, on her opposite shoulder.
“You have been so cooperative up until now.”
Was this how it was going to end? Raped and murdered in a hotel room?
She bit the inside of her lip, keeping her gaze focused on her computer screen as she struggled to keep it together. His hand slid down her chest to cover her breast and Toni fought not to gag.
“I was thinking,” she said as though his hand wasn’t squeezing her breast hard enough to leave bruises, “you could use someone like me.”
“Exactly my thought,” he said, pinching her nipple hard enough to draw tears.
“That’s not what I meant,” she snapped. “It was easy enough for me to track you down. You need someone to help you cover your tracks better. Someone like me.”
His hand stilled.
“I know you’re not going to let me go when your boat gets here. I’m guessing you’re planning to kill me and dump my body off the side.”
“What are you proposing?”
“That you keep me around. I can make myself useful. I can hack into any bank, any corporate network you want. You won’t have to deal with people like Jerry to get what you want. I can get all the information you need.”
She turned to gauge Connor’s reaction, encouraged by the light of greed in his mud colored eyes.
