Courting Death

by Carol Stephenson

Since he had a nasty looking automatic clutched in his hand, it was probably not the best time to remind him he ended up in jail due to his own actions. Culpability would not be a word in his vocabulary.

  “Drop your purse.”

  I let it hit the tile with a soft thud. A faint sound came from the living room. My heart pounding, I turned and rushed from the foyer, heedless of Jordan. With duct tape over her mouth and arms tied behind her, Melissa sat in one of the chairs.

  Relief and fear twisted inside me. I had to get her out of here. I rounded on Jordan, who stood there with a satisfied smirk on his ugly face. “Let her go. She’s only a neighbor. She has nothing to do with whatever gripe you have against me.”

  He lifted a hand and slapped me, the force of the blow sending me staggering back several steps. My head rang and tears stung my eyes, but I managed to remain standing. “You lying bitch. All you lawyers can do is lie. She’s your sister, which makes her the same filth as you are.”

  He made a slight gesture with the automatic. “We’ve got your whore mother in the kitchen.”

  Fear wound tighter. “We?”

  “Yeah, my brother. He’s the one who has been keeping you entertained until I could get out.”

  “The pig’s heart. Charming.”

  “Don’t worry about your loony mother and sister. They won’t suffer the way I’m going to make you suffer for taking my son away. They’ll both get a quick bullet to the head after you’re dead.”

  Melissa squirmed and Jordan glared at her. “Don’t move, bitch.”

  I needed to distract him. But how could I overpower him and his brother?

  A small cry of pain came from the kitchen. A muscle flexed along Jordan’s jaw. “George, are you all right?”

  Silence. Jordan’s pig eyes darted back and forth. “George, answer me.”

  Mom appeared in the doorway and dramatically draped herself against the jamb. She lifted her hand and pressed the back of it against her head. “We must flee to the hills, my darlings. The Nazis are coming. The Nazis are coming to take us away.”

  “What the hell?” Jordan’s thick brows drew together. “What did you do to my brother, you crazy old bitch?”

  I reached out and wrapped my fingers around the nearest object in the hutch. Mom suddenly stood tall, threw out her arms and sang, “‘The hills are alive with the sound of music.’”

  “That’s it.” Jordan pointed the automatic.

  I lifted the heavy metal object and swung. The trophy struck the man on the side of the head. His eyes rolled back as he fell. The gun clattered to the floor and I grabbed it. I turned and saw the man from the restaurant staggering behind my mother. He pointed a gun at her.

  “Mom, play dead.”

  She gracefully dropped to the ground. I aimed, prayed to God and squeezed the trigger. Jordan’s brother screamed and dropped to his knees before keeling over. He shuddered and then lay still.

  I scrambled to my feet and kicked the brother’s gun into the far corner of the kitchen. I knelt by my mother’s side. “Mom, are you all right?”

  She popped up with a wide smile on her face. “I’m fine, dear. Did I take your direction well?”

  “You played dead magnificently.” I hugged and kissed her. “I’ll help you up but first let me call the police.” As I dashed across the living room, I heard my sister mumbling. “Hang on, Melissa.”

  While keeping the automatic aimed toward Jordan in case he came to, I used my free hand to grope around the contents of my bag until I found the phone. After pulling it out, I dialed 9-1-1. The second number I called was Sam’s but got his voice mail. I left him a terse message and disconnected. When I looked over, Mom was using a pair of scissors to cut the binding on Melissa’s wrists. My sister brought her arms forward and massaged her hands.

  “Did they hurt you?”

  She raised a hand to take off the tape covering her mouth and hesitated.

  “Best to give it a quick rip, dear.” Mom reached out and did just that.

  “Ow.” My sister covered her mouth. “That hurt.”

  “Sorry.” She leaned down and kissed the top of Melissa’s head, then walked toward Jordan’s body.

  “Mom, stay away from him. He may come to.”

  She studied the body and shook her head. “I don’t think so. He took quite a whack from Tony.”

  Melissa still rubbing her wrists frowned. “Tony?”

  Mom knelt and picked up the statuette. “My Tony for that avant-garde musical I starred in. The play only lasted long enough for me to get nominated.”

  She replaced the award in its place of honor in the hutch. “You know, Nicole. As much as I’d loved that role, I think today I gave my greatest performance…as an old, senile woman.”

  Tears filled my eyes. “You were the best.”

  She turned and gave Jordan a mean kick. “And that’s for threatening to harm my girls.”

  Melissa and I stared at each other with our mouths open. Mom drifted over to her chair. “I shall make coffee as soon as the trash is removed from the kitchen.”

  “I can’t believe you nailed that guy with a single shot.” Sam shook his head as he massaged my neck. We sat together on the sofa in the living room. The police and paramedics had come and gone, and as directed by Mom, the riffraff had been removed.

  “A few inches lower and he would have been a goner.”

  For that I was relieved. I didn’t want the shadow of another’s death to hang over me. Not even that of George Jordan. Kate, Gabe, Carling and Jared had also descended to help out until I firmly shooed them home, but not before I’d extracted a promise from Jared that this time Jordan would stay in prison for a good long time.

  “Nicole.” Tapping a cell phone against the palm of her hand, Melissa hovered near the foyer. “Dad called and I had a long conversation with him.”

  I got a funny knot in my throat. “He’s ordered you to come home, hasn’t he?”

  “Yeah but—”

  I stood up and spread my hands. “I don’t blame you for leaving. You never signed up for all that’s happened. I never would have forgiven myself if you’d been hurt today.”

  “Stop it.” Melissa tilted her chin up. “Nothing today was your fault. There are bad people in the world, and you can’t stop them all.” She crossed the distance between us and gave me a hug hard enough to crack a rib.

  “I’m so proud that you’re my sister.”

  I wrapped my arms around her. “Ditto.”

  “I told Dad if you would have me, I’d like to continue interning for you all.”

  I stepped back so I could look into her eyes. “Funny you should mention that. Kate, Carling and I had a little discussion before they left. When you graduate from law school, we would be honored if you become an associate of Dent, Rochelle and Sterling.”

  Her face beamed with joy. “Oh man. Do you mean it? Of course, I’ll join the firm.”

  I gave her a quick hug. “Don’t be so happy about it. The hours are long and forget about having holidays.”

  “Yeah, right. I’m going to call Dad and tell him.” Melissa practically skipped down the hall.

  I returned to the sofa and dropped beside Sam. “As for you…” I placed my hand on his thigh.

  “What about me?”

  “I’m thinking two workaholics deserve a vacation. What about going away together for a long weekend?”

  Sam caught my hand and nibbled on my fingertips. “I like how you think, Red. Where would you like to go?”

  I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter. I’m not planning to let you out of bed the entire time.”

  Desire flared in his eyes. “Some place with excellent room service, then.”

  I heard my mother clearing her throat and looked over. She posed in the doorway, wearing bell-bottom denims, a red-and-white striped midriff top and a white sailor cap. I grinned. “Mom must really like you, Sam. She only performs South Pacific for special gentlemen callers.”

  Melissa reappeared,
slipped around her and curled up in the chair.

  I leaned back into Sam’s embrace and pressed my head against his shoulder. “Hit it, Mom.”

  She bowed and then raised her hands to her head. “‘I’m going to wash that man right out my hair…’”

  Sam reached for my hand. We linked fingers and I experienced a sense of completeness.

  I didn’t have to be perfect and I definitely wasn’t alone. Wash him out of my hair? Nope, he was a keeper. I titled my head up and kissed him.

  About the Author

  Award-winning author and attorney Carol Stephenson keeps the light burning well into the night. Originally a Midwesterner, she learned to love books at an early age because of her parents’ nightly reading ritual.

  Best known for her emotionally drawn, hard-driving romances, Carol’s first book, Nora’s Pride, won the 2002 National Readers’ Choice Award for both Best First Book and Long Contemporary. Her legal thriller Courting Danger won the 2006 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence in the Long Contemporary category. Shadow Lines, an international thriller, is the fourth book in the Madonna Key series about seven women, unthinkable danger and a lost history waiting for those who dared. Chasing the Truth revved as a thrill-a-minute Harlequin NASCAR story.

  Carol lives in southeast Florida with her beloved Shih Tzu. As her five basic soul food groups are romances, movies, photography, travel and a good cup of tea, into her nonexistent spare time Carol crams travel with her trusty 35 mm camera in one hand and tea bags in the other. Points of interest include Alaska, Canada, the Grand Canyon, Great Britain, Italy, Napa Valley and Nova Scotia. She’s also on a trivia team that competes weekly all in good fun.

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  ISBN: 978-1-4268-9155-7

  Copyright © 2011 by Carol Stephenson

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  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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