The Gentlewoman

by Lisa Durkin

  Reaching the now-empty fourth floor, she walked back toward the media room. She grabbed the tablet and started back for the stairs.

  She was almost to the exit door when she heard a familiar voice that froze her in place. She turned toward the other end of the hall, toward Garrison’s office suite, and stared. She cocked her head and listened, hearing the raised voice again. Then, to her absolute horror she heard another familiar sound. Landon’s voice was raised in argument with the other.

  She stared at the door to the office suite thinking she couldn’t have heard who she thought she did. As if entranced, she slowly moved toward the door and pulled it open, listening for anything further. She could hear muffled voices now. She moved through the door. Her throat was dry as she tried to swallow.

  She took three steps forward before she stopped again. It wasn’t every day that you heard a voice from beyond the grave, a brogue you never thought you’d hear again. Fear pierced her as she listened to the accent. Then she recoiled in terror. She realized that in her shock she thought she was hearing her dead husband when in reality she was hearing the identical brogue of Roan Sullivan.

  She backpedaled and as she turned to run back through the door, she faced Lon Doward. He pointed a gun at her from two feet away.

  “Well hello, Congresswoman,” he sneered. “Come. We’re going to have a family reunion.”

  Lon grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into Bruce’s office. She was thrown to the side of the room and turned to stare into Roan Sullivan’s surprised face.

  She looked to Landon and tried to make sense of it. He slowly rose from the desk, a look of terror on his face as he stared back at her. She looked down and saw stacks of cash covering the desk. Her eyes jerked back to Landon’s.

  “Well, well, well. If it isn’t my sister-in-law, the great politician,” Roan sneered from beside Landon.

  Every hair on her body stood to attention as her skin ran hot and cold. Waves of panic washed through her chest.

  “Roan, you really are here.” Maybe she had never really believed Roan was the one who was after her.

  “Indeed. I came to collect on a yet unpaid debt. Your great city was so lucrative the first time my brother and I happened along.” He took his pistol from his belt. Rory watched as he screwed a silencer on the end.

  “This is unfortunate, running into you, sweet Rory. I hadn’t intended to meet up with you again. I don’t mind telling you it doesn’t leave me with choices I desire.”

  As he raised his gun to her, she looked to Landon. This didn’t make sense. “Uncle Landon? What’s going on here?” She eyed the stacks of money, so many large stacks.

  “I’m sorry, Rory,” Landon said. “This was never supposed to happen. None of it was ever supposed to happen.” He looked at Roan with an appalled expression. “Sullivan, take this much and leave. This has to end now.”

  “This will end when I’m satisfied that I have been duly repaid,” Roan yelled at him.

  “Uncle Landon, what’s going on here?” Rory demanded. She was incensed, her world turning on its head. It was almost secondary that a gun was pointed at her. She was too busy hoping that what she was seeing didn’t mean what she feared.

  “I can explain, Rory. It’s time I explained.” He turned to Roan and shook his head. “I have to explain everything to her. This can’t go on any longer. I can’t live like this any longer, Sullivan!”

  His shouting was abruptly interrupted by the round that Roan pumped into him. Rory screamed and reeled backward, hitting her back against the wall. She stared at the lifeless form of her mentor and uncle as blood trickled from his mouth and temple. His eyes stared at her as if pleading.

  She looked open-mouthed across the room as Roan gazed at her. A satisfied smirk was on his face. “You never knew what you were dealing with, did you?”

  His words trailed off as more gunfire exploded. Rory fell to the floor and held her arms over her head, trying to shield herself from flying bullets. When everything went silent and still, she looked up.

  Shane Sutton stood in the doorway. She looked at Lon as he lay motionless in front of her. Roan was spread across the floor, moaning and bleeding, his gun flung out of reach.

  Shane stepped forward and held his hand out to her. She took it and he yanked her up, pulling her behind him as he raced down the hall and the back stairs.

  He dragged her with all his might, through the back door and down into the parking deck. When they reached the second level, he pulled her over to a car and pushed her inside.

  He jumped in and started the engine. She looked at him in confusion and alarm.

  “Wait, where are we going? Let’s go to the front! Everybody’s out front!”

  He turned and smacked her across the face so hard she sailed back against the side window.

  “You fucking bitch! Look what I’ve done for you!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. “I’ve put up with your disrespect and now I’ve taken care of this for you. You will obey me!” Rory held her cheek and stared at him.

  Shane pulled out and squealed tires around the turns until they emerged on the other side of City Hall. There weren’t many people to be seen.

  Rory held her cheek and looked back at him in confusion, her other hand braced on the dashboard. “Shane, what the fuck are you doing?” she gasped.

  “I’m taking what’s mine. I will teach you to never leave me again.”

  “Can you go faster? It’s a matter of life or death.” Jackson prayed that wasn’t the case, but he felt it in his bones. Something bad was about to happen.

  He called Rory’s phone again and got voicemail for the tenth time. “Damn it,” he spat. He hit speed dial again. “How much farther ’til we’re downtown?”

  “About ten minutes,” the cab driver assured him. He could tell he was making the guy nervous but he didn’t care. He was out of his fucking mind with worry. His sixth sense was screaming.

  Spurred on by his crazy passenger, the driver made it downtown in record time. Jackson hopped from the car, throwing a hundred dollars at the guy. He looked around at the chaos.

  What he guessed were all the inhabitants of City Hall were standing on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. Picketers were mixed among them. Everybody was loud. Police were taping off the area in front of the building.

  “Jackson! Jackson!” He turned to find Nicole running toward him.

  “Nicole, where’s Rory? What the hell is going on?”

  She grabbed his forearms. “I don’t know, nobody knows. She hasn’t come out of the building, and there were gunshots.”

  Adrenaline shot through him. “Where did you last see her?”

  “She was going back to the fourth floor,” Nicole cried.

  He looked at her for a split second before taking off. He ran across the street, ignoring the police and their tape, and into the building.

  Inside, he found the stairwell and ran up the steps as quietly as he could. He stopped on every landing, silently opening the door and looking up and down the hall. When he got to the fourth floor, he closed and locked the stairwell door behind him, to cut off the possible escape route.

  He looked into the empty media room. He turned left and prowled into the office suite.

  He heard moaning and raced for the source. He skidded to a stop outside the large office.

  Landon McCollum was unmoving and probably dead. Cash was scattered all over the office. Another man lay unmoving.

  He approached the man who was writhing in pain and kicked his gun farther away. He turned him and knew right away from the pictures he had studied that it was Roan Sullivan.

  “Where is she?” he growled at the bastard.

  Roan struggled for breath. He gripped his gut. Jackson looked him over and knew he would be dead in minutes. His intestines were falling out of him. Jackson squeezed his throat.

  “Where’s Rory?” he yelled in his face. The man’s eyes opened slightly.

  “He took her,” Ro
an coughed.

  “Who?” Jackson yelled and shook him again. “Who?”

  Roan coughed up blood and writhed onto his side. “Sutton,” he breathed as he gagged against the gurgling in his throat.

  Jackson stood and looked around. He grabbed the gun from the floor. He went back into the hall and ran in the opposite direction from which he came.

  He followed the hall to a staircase. He followed the staircase, which led straight to the parking garage below. He ran through the levels of the parking garage, looking for any sign of her. He cursed as he emerged without a clue.

  He dialed Reynolds as he walked back to the crowd.

  “Three men are down at City Hall. We have Sullivan. He’s probably dead by now in there. Landon McCollum is dead. I’m trying to find Rory. Sutton took her.”

  Reynolds replied in expletives. Jackson ran back to Nicole.

  “Sutton took her,” he yelled as he ran up to her.

  “What?”

  “Where would he take her?” he asked frantically.

  “I don’t know! Why would he take her away?”

  “I think he’s crazy. I know he’s dangerous.” He didn’t want to tell her what he’d seen in there. He thought back for a moment, trying to think of what he knew of Sutton. He needed an insight into his thought patterns.

  He remembered what Reynolds had said. Sutton had quit right before the baby doll box was delivered. The baby doll her father had given her.

  “I’m going to her house,” Jackson said, looking around for a car. “I think he’s taking her home.”

  He saw a cab. The driver was leaning against the door, watching the commotion. Jackson raced up to him.

  “I need your cab. I’ll pay you.”

  “What?” the guy said, surprised.

  Jackson couldn’t waste time. He grabbed the guy by the shirt and tossed him into the car. He got behind the wheel.

  “I’ll pay you. I promise,” he yelled as he squealed tires down the street.

  He really didn’t know his way around, which was why he had shoved the driver into the car. “Tell me how to get to Bay Village. Now!”

  The guy didn’t hesitate. “Go to the right up here and get on the Shoreway. That’s going to be quickest. Mind telling me what the hell is going on?”

  Jackson’s eyes cut to the guy and quickly back to the road. “I’m Congressman Jackson Dorn. You heard of Rory Morgan? Have you heard of us?”

  The driver, a white-haired stocky gentleman, answered him immediately. “I know who you both are. Been all over the news. She in trouble?”

  “Yeah,” he said as they raced over the Shoreway, taking the sharp curves along the lake way too quickly.

  “Follow this,” the cabby said as the lanes narrowed and the street became residential. Jackson didn’t slow down. He sped up and sounded the horn through the few lights they went through. It was a cold day and the snow had been blowing earlier. That was lucky. Nobody was on the street.

  “How long is this going to take?” he asked, desperate to reach her. He hoped he had it right and he’d find them at her house.

  “Shane, don’t do this.” He was pulling Rory from the car in her driveway. He had hit her more times along the way. He was unhappy with her denials at belonging to him or that they were supposed to be together. He said he knew she had been confused, but he was done with her being rebellious. It was now or never, he explained. He was tired of waiting for her to come back to him. The way he spoke sent shivers up and down her spine. He certainly seemed to be a person at the end of his rope.

  The whole thing was too fucking close to three years ago.

  “Get in the motherfucking house, Rory.” He grabbed the back of her neck and led her around the back to the sliding door. She looked at Mr. Lucas’s house, wondering where the hell that busybody was. Shane opened the door and pushed her hard.

  Rory couldn’t believe this was happening. She couldn’t believe what had happened in Garrison’s office. She despaired to think of Landon.

  “Shane, we need to call the police. That was Roan back there! He shot Landon!”

  “I don’t care! Roan’s nothing. Nobody’s looking for him. They only think they are.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” she asked, afraid of the answer.

  “I was shocked to see him. I had no idea he was in the country.”

  She looked at him, confused and entranced.

  He laughed. “Did you really think he gave a shit about you, sweetheart? He didn’t even give a shit about his brother after you killed him. As long as his business is good and his millions are coming in, he doesn’t care about anybody. He wouldn’t waste his time on you.”

  She stared at him, open-mouthed. “It was you,” she gasped.

  “You knew it was me, you bitch! You ignored my warnings!” he screamed at her. His youthful features twisted with hate and sickness.

  “What warnings, Shane?” she asked quietly, slowly backing up to the kitchen bar.

  “I watched.” He closed the door behind him. “I saw how Dorn looked at you. I saw he piqued your interest. I never thought you’d be so stupid as to fuck him. I mean really, Rory, he fucks everybody.”

  “How long have you been watching me?”

  “I’ve always watched you. Since the last time I left your bed. Since you wouldn’t let me back in. But you let Dorn in, didn’t you? Did he feel good? Did he feel better than I did?” He lunged forward and caught her neck with both hands.

  “I warned you.” He squeezed her throat and she pushed at him. She gulped for air. Her face turned red and tears oozed from her eyes as she fought to breathe. Finally, before she blacked out, he threw her across the room. She landed on the floor by the wet bar.

  She panted and gulped for air, quickly dragging herself up. She wasn’t going to let this happen. She wasn’t going to be beaten again by some crazy motherfucker.

  He came toward her. “Don’t you come near me,” she warned in a choked voice. “Don’t come near me again!”

  He stopped and stared at her. “I warned you. I left messages and you ignored them. I waited for you to get it out of your system and come back to me, to where you belong. But you ignored me. I warned you what would happen when I sent you that baby. After you agreed to marry him! What were you thinking?”

  He lunged at her again and she ran. She ran down the hall and couldn’t believe it when she made it into the bathroom and locked the door.

  “I don’t belong to you, Shane! Leave! Get out of my house!” There was no escape from the windowless room, so she quickly searched for a weapon. It was a guest bath. There was nothing.

  “No way, Rory! I see what mistakes you make without me. I’m going to make you remember that! You’ll never run again. I’ll punish you for what you’ve done with Dorn!”

  Shane stepped back and with one kick, sent the door flying open. He grabbed her by the hair and yanked her out of the bathroom. She fell to the floor and he dragged her. It felt too much like when Aidan attacked her.

  He dragged her into the living room and dropped her in front of the fireplace. Rory was determined that no man was going to rape her or beat the shit out of her again. She had taken self-defense classes after Aidan’s attack.

  She jumped up and pushed Shane before he could turn to her. He fell forward a couple steps, just enough time for her to grab the fireplace poker. When he turned back to her, she swung at his head as hard as she could.

  The poker made contact with Shane’s head with a loud thud. Rory ran toward the stairs. He caught up with her and grabbed her leg, turning it until she heard a pop and cried out in pain. She grabbed her leg and stared into his face. There was blood pouring from a gash in his head, but it didn’t stop him.

  He punched her in the stomach. All the air shot from her body and she doubled over. He came up with a hook to her cheek. She fell backward and landed against the steps. Breathing hard, he grabbed her feet and dragged her back into the living room.

  Rory hel
d her abdomen and her face, breathing hard. Oh god. Just like Aidan. Just like before.

  He dropped her in the middle of the floor. “Stop fighting me,” he said between breaths. “Stop fighting me!” He pinned her arms with his knees and put his hand to his head wound.

  “Why would you do this to me, Rory? I love you. I’ve always loved you. Even when you wouldn’t let me.” His voice was bewildered and crazy.

  She lay there, pain coursing through her leg, her stomach, her face and throat. “Let me go, Shane. I don’t love you. I love Jackson.”

  He stared down at her with deadly hatred. “We’ll see about that.” In a rage, he hauled her up and over his shoulder. He swayed but got his balance and hefted them both up the steps to her bedroom. He threw her on the bed.

  She tried to back away but he pulled her back. He held her against him, talking into her ear. He was still breathing hard.

  “You don’t love that fucking gigolo. It’s just the confusion you’ve had since your dad died. You don’t love Dorn. I’m the one who was here with you after your husband attacked you. I’m the one who stayed with you and took care of you. I knew you needed time. That’s why you made me leave. But now we’re going to try it again. Right here. The last place we were together. We’re going to be together again and you’ll remember how it felt.”

  She struggled against him but he held tight. “Now I tell you what.” He slammed her down on the mattress, sitting on her chest and holding her arms down with his knees again. He breathed hard and wiped his face. The blood dripped onto Rory. She struggled to breath with his weight on her chest.

  “I’m going to remind you what you denied me, what you denied us. But first, we’re going to remove that ring from your finger. My woman will not wear another man’s ring!”

  He moved to grab Rory’s left hand. New adrenaline shot through her. Nobody was taking that ring from her finger. That was her connection to Jackson, her lifeline. Shane went for her hand. She formed a fist with her other hand and punched him across the face with all her might. He went sailing backward, off balance but not down. He quickly scrambled forward again and lay on top of her to suppress her movement.