The Shadow: Someone is Watching (Rahab's Rope Series Book 1)

by Kimberly Rae

  “I stuffed it into my suitcase.” She looked to the right. Several security guards were in sight. One glanced their way. His eyes went wide and he immediately put his radio to his mouth. “It’s back at the terminal.”

  “Well, we can’t go back for it.” Lucias grabbed her by the arm, his touch suddenly rough. He must have noticed how the quartet of visible security guards had their eyes trained on them and all four were on their radios now. “We have to go.”

  __________________________

  Thursday, January 8

  9:23 a.m.

  Cole’s watch beeped, ending the longest five minutes of his life. He took off at a dead run, not caring if the security guards were with him or not. The first airport boarding desk he saw, he ran to it, flashed his pass, and asked to use their phone. After a quick call to Steve, not even giving him time to respond, he tossed the phone back at the stewardess and sprinted for the stairs that led to the shuttle. Lucias could take any of the hundreds of route possibilities, but Cole could not waste time theorizing. He endured the torture of standing still on the shuttle from the terminal to the baggage claim area, then yelled for people to move aside as he tore up the stairs. Hundreds of people milled in the main area. He saw a security guard near the bathroom several yards away. Unwilling to wait the seconds it would take to run the distance, he shouted, “Did you see a man in a red wig?”

  The security guard shook his head but a woman sitting on a bench beside the restroom nodded. He rushed to her side and dropped to his knees in front of her. “Was he with a tall woman carrying a red bag?”

  “Yes. I noticed him because he threw his wig on the floor. I’ve been waiting for my granddaughter to arrive, you see. He looked ridiculous in that dress. I think you should arrest him.”

  “I agree.” Cole got to his feet. “Which way did he go?”

  She pointed toward the South Baggage Claim area and he called back his thanks as he ran, dodging people, scanning the area for Lucias or Meagan. He saw neither, but he did see Steve, pacing outside the middle exit doors. Cole was breathing heavily by the time he got through the doors to Steve’s side. Quinn was with him, and multiple security guards. “Have you seen them?”

  “Would I be standing here if I had?” Steve asked. “Tell me what you know.”

  Cole had no interest in talking. “Where would he take her? Where would he have parked?”

  A call came over a security guard’s radio. Cole’s hope flamed to life as all five security guards received calls and reached for their radios, too. The first one listened and told Cole, “We’ve got a sighting. They’re outside the airport.” He looked around Cole’s shoulders and pointed. “There.”

  Cole turned and would have run but Steve grabbed him and held him back. “We have to be smart about this. Stop thinking like a man in love and think like a soldier.”

  He didn’t want to think like a soldier. He didn’t want to think at all. Or talk. Or make a plan. All those things took time, time Meagan might not have. “They’re across the street,” Cole said, his jaw tight. In a few more steps, they’d be in the parking garage. “Talk fast.”

  67

  Thursday, January 8

  9:31 a.m.

  Lucias and Meagan crossed the lanes for arriving cars and took the stairs down to the underground section of the hourly parking deck. Meagan felt the tears threaten again when Cole’s mint-green car came into view, parked across an aisle and five spaces diagonal to Steve’s. Lucias led them right to Cole’s vehicle. “If he hadn’t been so distracted by you, he would have seen me following him this morning.”

  It had not even occurred to her. She turned and looked for his black sedan. “Where is your car?”

  He pointed two aisles over. “Right there. But before we go, I want to show you something.” He got on all fours next to the car, his dress pulling up to reveal very white legs. “Come down and see,” he said. She knelt and bent over and her heart beat hard. He had not been lying, not about this bomb at least.

  “Pretty, isn’t it? People say that money can’t buy happiness.” He stood and looked down on her. “But it can buy the things that will make you happy.” He held out both hands and she forced herself not to cringe as she took them and rose. “And today,” he said, looking deeply into her eyes, “it’s going to make me very happy to watch Cole Fleming die.”

  She covered her mouth with both hands to stifle her cry. “But I came with you! I did what you said.”

  Anger hardened his gaze. “I told you not to care about him. He just makes problems for us. He needs to go.”

  God, help me. Help me think of something, please!

  “Wait!” she said. “I—I had a present for him. Can I—can I leave it in his car?”

  “Why would you do that? He’s going to blow to pieces. Why give him a present?”

  “Well...” She tried to make her mouth move into a smile. Fake as it was, it seemed to please him. “If he dies and I didn’t get to say goodbye, I might miss him. But if you let me leave a present and a note saying goodbye, then it will be better. You want me to say goodbye to him forever, right?”

  He adjusted his dress and thought for a moment. “Okay. But I get to read your note before you put it in the car.”

  Her hands shook as she opened her carry-on. She fumbled and dropped several items before finding the CD. The Hayes family smiled from the photo and Meagan begged God to use them to save Cole’s life. Tearing out a paper from her small notebook, she wrote with quick, sloppy handwriting. She had to get this done fast. Cole’s five minutes were up and he would be coming. If he caught up with them, God only knew what terrible things would happen.

  When she had packed the night before, she had taken most of the items off the small desk in her room and thrown them in to fill her bag. Now thankful for what last night was a random choice, she retrieved a roll of tape and used some to secure the note to the CD. “It’s ready.”

  “Let me read it.” He took the CD from her and read out loud. “Dear Cole, I have to Go Right Now. Lucias wants me to Run Away with him. Goodbye forever. Meagan.” He grinned at her, then read the bottom. “P.S. I like your Green car, but I think Yellow would be better.”

  Her heart pounded wildly. Would he notice the capital letters? Would Cole remember? Would Cole understand that the green and yellow were both the colors they’d talked about in their new code about being in danger right where he was?

  God, please...

  “This isn’t a romantic note at all,” Lucias said. He handed the CD back to her and she gripped it tight. “I like it for him, but I hope you write better ones to me. I can teach you wonderful things to say, like how my heart is yours for all time and eternity, and how—” His eyebrows narrowed and he frowned. “Agatha reminded me we need to go. Throw the present in the car and let’s leave.”

  She pulled on the door handle and wanted to sob. “It’s locked.”

  “Oh well, you can leave it on the ground, or on the roof of the car, or just throw it in the trash. It won’t matter anyway.”

  He tugged on her arm, but she stopped him. “I have an idea.” She pulled the tape back out of her bag, and taped the CD to the driver’s side window with the note visible. She was sectioning off a second piece of tape when she heard a shout. Lucias dragged her away.

  God, please let it stay and not fall to the ground!

  The shout came from above, and as they ran toward Lucias’ car, she looked up to see security guards swarming the area. Cole came into view, his eyes trained on her as he raced down the stairs. Steve and Quinn followed.

  Lucias jerked her arm and pain shot through her shoulder. They reached his car and he unlocked the doors. “Get in,” he ordered. “Now!”

  He opened the passenger door and pushed her to get inside, but she turned to look one more time. Cole reached the bottom of the stairs. Run to Steve’s car, she wanted to scream. Don’t go to yours!

  He made a beeline for the green car and she did scream then. Cole gave her one loo
k, glared a challenge to Lucias next to her, and pushed the button on his remote to unlock the doors. He opened the door and started to get in.

  Lucias had stopped pushing her. “Just turn the key, Cole,” he whispered beside her. “That’s all it will take.”

  Meagan screamed Cole’s name.

  Cole paused and noticed the CD taped to the window. He reached around the door to pull it off. Steve and Quinn had caught up and stood near the trunk of the car. Security guards spread into a wide circle around their section of the lot.

  “I should go, I know,” Lucias said. Meagan looked over and could see he was not speaking to her. “But I just can’t resist. It’s my first bomb killing. I have to watch it.”

  She was sobbing out loud, clinging to the edge of the door to stay standing. Cole read the note, looked at her, then yelled at Steve and Quinn, “Run!”

  “No!” Lucias shouted. His skin instantly mottled red and the veins of his neck stood out. He grabbed Meagan by the face and smashed her head against the car. “You tricked me!” he shrieked.

  Needles of agony shot through the back of her skull. Meagan fought to stay conscious. She opened her eyes and watched in horror, unable to get her arms to move to stop him, as Lucias lifted his remote device and pushed a button. No one heard her scream then. Cole’s car exploded in a deafening blast. The windows shattered and fire belched out. Where was Cole? Meagan strained to see but her vision blurred. Where was he? Was he alive?

  “Get in!” She felt Lucias’ hands on her, shoving her into the passenger seat. “You’re just like the rest!” he shouted. “I’m finished with you!”

  68

  Thursday, January 8

  9:31 a.m.

  Cole’s ears rang so loudly he barely heard Lucias shouting. A car door slammed and he groaned. Another slammed and he rolled onto his stomach and told his limbs to work, to push him up. He had to stop at a kneeling position until the wave of dizziness passed. He looked at his car, now a burning shell. Meagan had saved his life.

  He stood and staggered two steps to where Steve lay sprawled on the pavement, injured but conscious. Quinn rose to his feet half a parking space beyond Steve, the least damaged of the three. Steve pulled keys and his phone from his pocket and threw them both to Cole. “My car. Go.”

  Cole did not wait for clarification. He dashed, limping, for Steve’s car. He heard the squeal of tires and Quinn’s shout of warning behind him. He dove to the side and rolled, dropping Steve’s phone. The black sedan swerved toward him, clipping the bumper of the car at his left shoulder. He slid to the right as bits of metal scattered on the asphalt. Lucias sped away and Cole jumped to his feet. He grabbed the phone from the middle of the road and ran across the two spaces left to Steve’s car. He used Steve’s key remote to unlock the car as he ran. He wrenched open the door, threw himself inside, and jammed the key in the ignition. With a quick check behind, he backed out, then burned rubber after the sedan, his hand on the horn to ward off the car coming toward the lane from the side aisles. The side car stopped and Cole put his foot to the floor.

  The black sedan shot toward the ticket booths. If Lucias got through them and down the access road to I-85, Cole knew he would never be able to stay on them. Not in twelve-lane traffic. He would lose her, and Cole had no hope that Lucias’ anger would cool on the drive.

  No one had ever found Claudia’s body. Wherever Lucias took Claudia, that was Cole’s guess where he would take Meagan. To kill her.

  He found his own phone number on Steve’s speed dial and called it, causing a slight waver in Lucias’ driving. Meagan had his phone. Lucias was probably searching for it, or yelling at her to get it out.

  The parking ticket booths stood like sentinels in a line to their left, raising and lowering their striped metal arms to detain or allow cars through to the access road. The three closest had a line of cars two deep. The farthest one had one car moving up to the window to pay. The second farthest had just emptied.

  Cole felt heat surge through him at Lucias’ voice when he answered and yelled, “You’ll never get her from me! She’s mine! Forever!” Lucias drove at full speed toward the empty booth. He swerved sharp to the left to face the opening. Cole saw the man inside the booth open his mouth wide. He pulled the door to the booth open and raced away, his hands out to stop approaching cars from running over him.

  “Meagan!” Cole shouted into the phone. He aimed for Lucias’ driver’s door and hit the gas. “Duck and cover!”

  The front hood of Lucias’ car was inside the booth area when Cole rammed him. Cole’s car hit the backseat on the driver’s side and the black sedan lurched, crashing into the next booth. Metal screeched and tore. Cole’s air bag inflated and caught his head, sparing him a concussion. He fought it with his hands and tried to open his door. He had to get to Meagan.

  As he kicked at the door from the inside, he heard sirens and thanked God for the help. The door finally opened and he fell out, forcing the nausea and dizziness away, faltering to his knees only once before he reached Lucias’ totaled car. Steam escaped from the engine and the right back tire had cocked to an unusable angle. He looked in only long enough to see that Lucias had his own face in an air bag. His fists beat the air and Cole could hear him shouting obscenities.

  Only Meagan’s earlier words about there being other people in danger kept Cole from leaving Lucias right where he sat and rushing to her side. Cole opened the driver’s side door and hauled Lucias out by the collar of his dress. He checked to be sure no devices were in his hands and dropped him onto the pavement. “It’s a good thing those sirens are getting close,” Cole ground out. “You’ll be safer in their hands than in mine.”

  A security car braked next to Steve’s mangled vehicle. As soon as guards exited and had their weapons aimed at Lucias, Cole left him and ran around the sedan to the passenger door. He had not heard a sound from her side of the car, and hadn’t been able to see past the bag when he dragged Lucias out. “Meagan?” The door was tight and he had to pry it open. “Meagan, can you hear me?”

  He looked in and for a moment his heart stopped. Her air bag had released, but she was under it, curled into a ball mostly on the floor underneath the dashboard, her hands over her head. He reached out, terrified he’d touch cold skin and discover he had killed her. “Meagan?” he whispered. She muttered something and his heart started again. He knelt and pulled her from the car, moving to a sitting position on a concrete slab between the booths and holding her in his lap. She had her head in her hands. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I couldn’t think of what else to do. If he got you away, I knew he’d kill you. I had to stop him, but I’m so sorry I hurt you.”

  She shook her head and when she lifted it to look at him, he sucked in a breath. “Oh, Meagan.”

  “You got me away from him,” she said, looking at him through her right eye. Her left was red and swelling shut. “Thank you.”

  Her head lolled to the side and his fear came back. “We’ve got to get you to a hospital right away.”

  She curled up against him and he felt her head shaking no against his neck. “Have to go home first. Have to change.”

  He pulled back to look at her face. “Meagan, you’re hurt. Maybe badly. We need to get you to an emergency room.”

  “Yes,” she said, her words starting to slur. “But have to change first.”

  “Change what?”

  She snuggled against his chest and he thought she’d lost consciousness, but then her soft voice said, “I’m wearing underwear covered in baby chickens that says ‘chicks rule.’ I can’t go to the hospital with...”

  Her voice trailed off and through his fear and pain he felt himself smile. He pulled her close and whispered into her hair, “Meagan Winston, I think I’m going to fall in love with you very soon.”

  69

  Thursday, January 8

  5:00 p.m.

  “He’s gone again?” Steve shook his head. “For a guy who said he wouldn’t leave your side, he sure disa
ppears a lot.”

  Meagan pressed both hands to her bruised ribs. “Don’t make me laugh. It hurts.”

  Stephanie followed Steve into the hospital room. “Meagan, I am so, so sorry.” She set a bouquet of pink carnations onto the oversized windowsill. “If I hadn’t said Steve was overreacting, he would have taken the hot chocolate and none of this would have happened.”

  Brianna and Kelsey giggled as they fought to fit through the door next, each carrying balloons and individual-sized cartons of ice cream. Kelsey dropped her package of plastic spoons and she and Brianna jostled like bowling pins as she bent to pick them up. Once inside, Brianna sobered. “No, it’s my fault,” she said, emptying her gifts on the bed over Meagan’s feet so she could give her a gentle hug. “I never should have put that fake note in the trash where he could get it. I didn’t even think—”

  “I was standing right there,” Kelsey said after her own hug. She gave a carton of double chocolate to Meagan and handed her a spoon. “I should have picked up on him knocking the trash over. I should have seen—”

  Steve backed into a corner, arms crossed and looking disconcerted about being stuffed in a small area with so many teary-eyed women. “Well, I’m not going to say it was my fault, if that’s what you’re all waiting for.”

  Meagan smiled. “Stop, all of you, please. I spent the last two hours thinking through all the things I should have done to keep this from happening, but I’ve decided to just thank God that I’m alive, the bombs at Shady Grove and Kelsey’s house got disabled without anyone getting hurt, and Lucias is in jail.”

  “And will be for twenty to life, if I had my guess,” Steve said. He nudged Stephanie to hand him one of the small cartons of ice cream. She murmured something and he added, “She can’t possibly eat them all before they melt.”