Confer, Lorelei - Deadly Deception (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Deadly Deception (lit)

  “What happened?” Wyatt asked, gently.

  “He-he-he was shot,” she whispered as she hung her head.

  “By whom? Start at the beginning and tell me everything. Maybe there’s a connection to what’s happened to you,” Wyatt offered in a soft, calm voice.

  “First, he was stalked by someone no one ever was able to identify. Then he was assaulted and mugged. And when he tried to force an investigation with the local police department to be able to press charges, other things started happening.”

  “What kind of things?”

  “Ohh, things like bricks with notes attached saying, ‘Give up, old man’ thrown into our front window. Somebody threw something at his car breaking the windshield with him inside almost killing him. He ended up with a fractured skull from that little ‘incident.’ But Dad persisted, wouldn’t give up. Finally, the police suggested Dad enter Witness Protection or at least accept additional police protection so they could ‘protect him’ and ‘keep him safe.’ Well, it didn’t work. He was shot on our front porch, standing right beside me while being ‘protected.’ Within two days he died.”

  Dave and Wyatt looked at each other, disgust written on their faces. “Listen to me”—he gave her a gentle shake—“it’s not going to happen like that, not here. I will personally guarantee it with my life.”

  Dave offered support as well. “That’s right. It’s not going to happen here. We have great officers with specific training for just such cases. They know what to look for, who to look for, and all the ins and outs of your particular circumstances. They’ll ensure your safety with their lives if necessary. No harm will come to you. Wyatt and I can’t force you to do anything you don’t want to but if you come with me now I’ll do everything I can to make sure you have the best protection available.”

  Isabella glanced at Wyatt and then at Dave. They both looked ready to fight, to battle anyone in their way to keep her safe. Confusion, fear, and dread raced in her veins. She did feel safe with Wyatt. He made her feel safe, safer than she’d ever felt with anyone. He had kept her safe so far, had believed her, and had gotten her help. He followed all of Dave’s suggestions. Also, his training as a police officer would be an asset, not to mention his street smarts. He should know what to do to protect her.

  Timid, not able to look him directly in the eye, she stared at her clenched hands in her lap. “Wyatt, can I stay here with you?”

  Dave and Wyatt looked at each other, incredulous. Wyatt nodded.

  “Wyatt, you can’t keep her here alone. I’ll see if Olivia Winters is available. Besides, with all these doors and windows all over the place you’d be target practice. And you’re only one person. Especially since the killer already thinks she might be here. He’s going to start searching for her again. Probably why he was at the park today and why he came here earlier today.”

  Wyatt paced, back and forth, back and forth, one hand on his hip, the other playing drums on his lips, his head down, deep in thought.

  “You’re right, Dave. I can’t keep her safe here. But you know where I can, don’t you?”

  Dave nodded and stood. “Yes, but Wyatt, think about i...” Wyatt interrupted.

  “I have, Dave, and that’s where you come in. You of all people know how to keep anyone from coming after either one of us.”

  Wyatt looked sternly at Dave’s face. He knew from working with Dave for years that Dave knew arguing with Wyatt would be futile once he had made up his mind. Maybe removing Isabella from the immediate search area would actually make their job easier. “Okay, when?”

  “How about three a.m.? I take the Jeep, go out the side, and take the scenic route.”

  “To where?” Isabella asked with fear pasted on her face.

  “A safer place,” Wyatt and Dave said simultaneously.

  “Okay, three a.m., no patrols.”

  “Don’t worry. You have my back, remember?”

  They shook hands and headed toward the stairs and the front door. Dave looked back at Isabella, who had not moved from the couch but sat staring at both of them as if in shock, full of questions.

  “Be careful now, okay?” Dave said as he waved to her, continued up the stairs with Wyatt following close behind.

  She heard the deep rumbling of male voices at the top of the stairs but couldn’t make out any of their words. Scared and confused though she was, there was no way she’d ever trust a cop again. A chill chased over her, raising goose bumps on her arms. She didn’t want to depend on anyone. But Wyatt wasn’t a cop. He had been a cop. He was a very smart, non-judgmental, compassionate, caring businessman. And he would be able to keep her safe, right?

  She needed to get control of her life again. She needed to take care of herself. She needed a plan.

  Chapter 28

  A small-time mobster like Spike dealt mainly in prostitution, money laundering, and car theft. Every now and then, for a large purse, he would buy and sell some people. He usually didn’t mess with people anymore, not since his last stint in prison and not in the United States either, but he had a buyer for a blonde girl who would pay a large sum. And right now, he needed all the money he could get his hands on.

  He wanted the other girl for himself for a while. He liked petite girls with big tits, and he wanted this girl particularly. He had wanted her ever since he saw her for the first time. She was walking out of a little coffee shop near an elementary school somewhere on the outskirts of Denver.

  Unfortunately, he had to leave Denver but left a few men in there to clean up, finish collecting some debts, and they should be arriving any day now. Then they would move the entire operation somewhere new. He didn’t quite know where to go yet but had some great ideas and was leaning toward Peru and Central America. There was so much more opportunity there. He wanted to talk to Dan, before he made a decision. He considered Dan his right-hand man and had left him in charge in Denver.

  Sam, though, could quickly replace Dan. Sam always seemed to be on the lookout for his best interests while Dan had gotten a little lazy and selfish. He wouldn’t tolerate a mutiny in an organization with only one boss, him.

  He explained to Sam how the cops had started snooping around in his business and made it necessary for him to move his operation from Denver to the current location in Norfolk. Sam just looked at him without expression. Spike rolled his eyes, thinking Sam didn’t understand a word he said let alone how he worked. And he could see similarities with Sam and Joe already. Spike walked around his desk while rolling his special gold-tipped pen up and down in his short fat hand. He looked at Sam again and sighed loudly.

  “I got a job for you, and I need you to make sure you get it done right the first time, you hear me?” Spike waited for a response from Sam before continuing.

  Sam nodded. “Yeah, boss, I understand.”

  “There’s no room for mistakes with this job. I need you to make a little trip to meet up with Joe. He’s in Stoney Creek, just outside of Suffolk. He’s already screwed up this job and let one of the girls escape. How that happens when you’re guarding someone, I don’t know. Anyway, we need some damage control. You need to find the girl. I don’t care, don’t even want to know of the how's or what-for's, just find the girl and get her back to me by midnight tomorrow night. Then you have to make absolute certain Joe isn’t around to tell anybody about it. I’ll pay you the same amount I planned to pay Joe for the girl plus a little extra for making sure Joe don’t talk anymore. But—and this is a big but—no screwups. And I mean no, nada, zero, zilch.” His voice rose until he was shouting and a vein in his forehead throbbed violently. “Do you understand what I’m saying, Sam?”

  Sam nodded his head and muttered, “Yeah, Boss.”

  He continued, quieter. “Let’s go over this one more time so there won’t be any misunderstandings. Joe is in Stoney Creek looking for the girl right now. You need to find Joe. Here’s his cell phone number.” He handed Sam a piece a paper with a handwritten number on it. “And make sure you find the girl
. Then get rid of Joe. I don’t care how. I don’t even want to know how. Bring the girl back to me by midnight Tuesday night. You can’t be late either. We have to leave by then. Understand? You know what happens if you slip up, don’t you? I’ll send Dan after both you and Joe, and neither of you’ll be talkin’ to anybody. There’s no place you can run fast enough to keep Dan from finding you both. Understand?”

  With his eyes, Sam followed Boss as he paced around the room, primarily in front of his oversized desk. He shrugged and looked at Boss. “You can count on me, Boss.”

  Spike scrutinized Sam and then yelled, “What the fuck are you waiting for then? Get your ass outta here and bring back that girl.”

  Sam scrambled for the door. Spike sat in his chair thinking about how he got the name boss. Why not ‘godfather’ or even Spike but most of his employees often referred to him as Boss, short for Boss Hogg, the character from The Dukes of Hazzard, due to their similar builds. He knew they had to get out of Norfolk soon because the cops had already started snooping around and asking questions. He didn’t want to give them enough time to set up another sting. Attorney’s fees were drying up his reserves rather quickly.

  “Mel,” he bellowed, “get the supplies loaded on board the boat and fueled up. We’ll be moving out at midnight tomorrow.”

  Chapter 29

  Joe drove by the park, barely able to get through the traffic jam. He knew he would have to hide the cruiser until he found the girl. He’d been in the back seat of a cruiser so many times he knew where and how to use all the extra controls. He brazenly turned on the flashing blue and red lights to get quickly through the traffic at the park. He waved to another cop he passed going the other way.

  He turned off the flashing lights and continued driving toward the outskirts of town to find a vacant or deserted house. He stayed within the speed limit so he wouldn’t draw any unwanted attention. He hoped he could hide the car and spend the night too. He had gotten tired of all the city noises anyway.

  A short distance out of town Joe found an unused dirt road on the right leading off the main road. He decided to take it and see where it would lead him. He drove about a mile, up down, and around on the curvy, grass-covered road. It would be getting dark soon.

  He could hear the overgrown bushes and brambles scrapping the sides and the bottom of the car, but he didn’t care. It didn’t belong to him anyway. In fact, he had never owned a car. Since he was about nine years old, he’d taken advantage of his God-given ability to help himself to any kind of transportation available to him.

  Car theft was the least of the crimes Joe committed, and now he had murder to add to his rap sheet, and not just murder of anybody but of a cop! He took a deep breath. He was proud of himself and felt himself better than his ol’ man any day.

  His old man was in the joint somewhere for stealing cars, but only because he got caught. Joe had a two-part plan. Don’t be stupid, and don’t get caught. He would show his old man that he had turned out better than he ever said he would.

  His biggest problem plaguing him now was finding somewhere to lie low for the night.

  The road he’d turned onto hadn’t been traveled in some time. It had deep ruts and holes that the car had bottomed out in a couple of times already. Looking ahead, he saw it a rougher terrain with deeper ruts and holes and would only be getting worse. He looked around on both sides of the road—if it could be called a road—at the scenery and kept driving.

  After rounding a turn, he slowed and came to a stop. His eyes widened in surprise and his mouth opened in wonderment. Perfect! On his left, he saw what once was probably someone’s nice little house but now was a barely standing, ramshackle shack with a sagging roof, its windows broken out, and overgrown trees leaning toward the faded wooden building. Perfect for cover, he could put the car on the far side out of sight and get a good night’s rest. He could also think without anybody yapping or squealing around him. Then he would come up with a plan and somehow, find the girl first thing in the morning, get her to Boss by midnight Tuesday, get paid, and get outta town.

  He would change his name. He never did like Sneed for a last name anyway. He would alter his appearance, so much that his mother, if she were alive, wouldn’t recognize him. Maybe he would even shave his head.

  Then he would disappear somewhere Spike would never find him. He would build his own organization soon, and then he would take care of Spike.

  He drove to the back of the house and couldn’t believe his luck. It was perfect. The overgrown trees provided complete coverage to hide a stolen car. He parked the car and took out a flashlight to get a closer look for tracks of the four-footed, four-wheeled, and two-legged kinds. He didn’t see evidence anyone had been around there for a long time.

  He walked through the open door hanging by one screw on the inside onto a wobbly, weak, wooden floor and shone the flashlight around. The inside walls were still intact, no furniture except a few remaining table or chair legs for kindling. He didn’t need any furniture. He usually slept on the floor anyway, had for most of his life.

  He walked around the other rooms. One appeared to have been a kitchen at one time with an old pump handle sitting on a piece of wood beside what probably had been a sink but now was only a dark hole. He reached to open a cupboard door and the door fell off from its hinges into his hand. He looked inside for any food or crumbs left behind by the former human occupants but found nothing.

  Another room, a bedroom with a window opening toward the back of the property, no closet, no furniture, just some pieces of newspaper or trash that probably had blown through the window opening during the last storm.

  He heard some scurrying behind him and quickly turned. Shining the flashlight in the general area of the sound, he saw an ugly, long-tailed rat scavenging for food. It scampered away into the receding darkness outside.

  Joe decided to make his bed under the front opening beside the open doorway because it faced the road. If he was being followed, he wanted to be able to see them coming before they saw him.

  Joe lay down on his back and folded his arms behind his head. He had to think.

  Chapter 30

  After Dave left, Wyatt and Isabella sat in silence, both in deep thought. Isabella had a ton of questions she wanted to ask but feared the answers. She tried to come up with reasons why she should trust Wyatt. He hadn’t lied to her about being a cop. He just hadn’t told her. And she hadn’t asked about his past. He didn’t know everything about her past. Neither knew each other well.

  She lowered her head, studying her hands while she thought. She chanced a peek at him. He had moved to the desk, and she heard the clicking of keys on his laptop. He stopped to look back at her. Neither said anything for a moment or two.

  Finally, Isabella got up the needed courage. “Wyatt, I need some answers.”

  He looked at the laptop, then back at her. “I’m sure you do, and I’ll be glad to give them to you but first I need to finish what I’m working on. Then we’ll talk. I’ll just be a few minutes.”

  She waited patiently, pacing in front of the couch, similar to Wyatt’s actions.

  He finished within minutes, closed his computer, and turned to her. “Okay, Isabella, you have my undivided attention. What can I answer for you?”

  Isabella looked him directly in the eye. “I want to know when you planned to tell me you were a cop. And what’s happening at three in the morning? I’m not used to someone else making decisions for or about me or my life. I need to know where I’m going and what I’m doing. I barely know you and to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure I can trust you.”

  Wyatt slowly got up from his chair, walked toward her and grasped her hands as she stood in front of the couch.

  “I have no reason to hide anything from you. I’m not sure I have all the answers you’re looking for either. Sometimes it’s safer not knowing.”

  She nodded. “Okay, I can agree with you on that point.”

  “I didn’t think you needed t
o know I was a cop because it was in the past and I knew you had an aversion or some kind of fear of them for some reason from the first time I met you. I wanted—no, I needed to find out why first. I thought it might be more due to embarrassment from something you did in your past, in your high school or college years. I had already told you Dave and I worked together as partners years ago. I worked on growing my dad’s company. That’s when you found me.”

  She looked deep into his eyes and not only didn’t see any deceit, as if she could recognize it, but only saw sincerity and sympathy. “But you and Dave know each other so well. Usually when you leave a job, you leave the people you work with behind as well.”

  Wyatt turned around, picked up his water bottle, and took a long drink while contemplating his answer.

  “Dave and I grew up together, we’ve been friends since kindergarten, and we’ve been through a lot. When you’re partners you rely on each other with your life if necessary, and cover each other’s back, so to speak. You create a bond, a special bond, and many times, that special bond is never, ever broken. And sometimes you do keep good friends.”

  She nodded her head a little hesitantly.

  “Then what’s all this about a safer place and going somewhere at three? You can’t just leave me here, Wyatt.”

  He looked around the room at the large windows and doors as if someone could be watching. “We, you and I, are going to leave here and go to a safer place. I think you’ll like it there. It’s remote and very secure and we can both relax. You don’t need to know any more about it right now. In the meantime, it’s getting late and we need to think about something for dinner. How does lasagna sound to you?”

  “It’s one of my favorites, but what do you mean by a safer place?”

  “Here, we’re too close to the park and your kidnappers. We’ll be safer when we’re away from the immediate area.”

  When she continued with questions about where, he finally said, “You’ll need some clothes for a couple of days, so why don’t you take this time to go upstairs to the quest room, the room my sister uses, and see what clothes she left behind in the closet you can wear. You’ll need at least two or three days’ worth of clothes and some nightwear, of course. I’ll get dinner started, and we can talk more while we eat.”