She saw Nathan go down to the floor in a heap, and Jordan immediately went over to help her. He didn’t hesitate and planted a heavy right hook into Caden’s face, knocking him back.
The punch separated the brawl, and Caden struggled to maintain his composure. He fired another wild shot through the windshield of the boat.
Kayci felt her arm being yanked, and before she knew it, they were out the door and jumping into the river.
“Dive now!” Jordan said as they went under the water.
She kicked her feet hard, and they swam for their lives. She knew that unlike the movies, bullets did not zoom through the water with any force, so as long as they stayed submerged, no bullets would find them.
Finally, after she couldn’t hold her breath another second, she kicked to the surface. The boat was farther away thanexpected, but in that instant she heard the engines fire up.
“This way!” Jordan whisper-shouted from a few feet away, and they started swimming for the shore.
The lumbering beast of a boat heaved up and moved toward them just as they reached the shore. They scaled up out of the water onto a small concrete pier and pulled themselves over a short sagging chain barrier into a park with sculpted trees and red cobblestone footpaths. Right away, Kayci knew where she was. It was Hoboken Park, from her session with Anna.
The boat reached the dock as they tore off toward a bathroom facility. Just as their running steps echoed to a halt, she heard their pursuers leap off the boat.
They ran into the women’s bathroom.
“We have no gun,” Kayci huffed.
“We have nothing but the box.”
“How did you do that?”
“I don’t know. I just thought of a computer, like opening a private chat session for just us, and somehow it worked.” Jordan smiled at her.
“No one’s ever done that that I know of.”
“What can I say? I’m an innovator.”
Outside, they heard the footsteps slow.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Jordan wasn’t sure this plan was going to work, but divide and conquer usually did. Caden had planet the seed of inspiration in his head. And if Nathan accepted the bait, as his ego predicted, they would only have to deal with one.
There were muffled voices in conversation outside the building. It had seemingly worked. One set of footfalls shuffle off toward the other structure a few hundred feet away.
He waited in silence, sending a message to Kayci who sat in the next stall over. He watched the shadow move across the bathroom past his stall, right to Kayci at the precise time she kicked-open her stall as he did his, catching Nathan off guard.
He wrapped his arms around Nathan’s neck, yanked him to the floor, and the two began to fight over the gun. He tried to muscle it away, but Nathan proved strong. Jordan could not pull the gun free so he tried to turn the gun in toward Nathan and break it free when it suddenly went off.
“Jordan!” Kayci yelled.
He had slumped onto Nathan in exhaustion, but not because the bullet had hit him. Instead, dark blood began to seep from Nathan’s chest. Jordan slowly rose the gun now in his hand.
Kayci threw her arms around him briefly, then stepped back, knowing Caden was still out there.
“Here, you take this.” He held the pistol out to Kayci.
“Not so fast!” They both turned to see Caden had the drop on them. “Make one more move and I’ll kill her.”
He had the gun trained on Kayci from just feet away.
“You didn’t think your little mind trick would fool me for long, did you?” Caden smiled and laughed. “Wow, you did. I’ll give you two credit. That was some tricky shit. I’ve never seen that before. It almost worked. Now drop the gun.”
Jordan let the gun go slack and dropped it on the floor.
“Now kick it over to me with your left foot.”
He complied again, watching helplessly as Caden picked up the other gun and held it on them.
“Never bring a gun to a mind fight, Jordan. Now let’s all walk calmly back to the boat.” He pointed to Nathan’s body. “Pick up that dead body and toss it over your shoulder. Help him.” He motioned to Kayci.
Jordan took hold of the body and with great effort, managed to put it over his shoulder. It wasn’t easy, but Kayci lent a hand.
Here he was, carrying a dead body as they marched toward certain death. Caden was going to kill them and dump their bodies in the ocean.
“You two are impressive.” Caden walked behind them as they strolled along the cobblestone walkway back to the pier. “Unfortunately for you, I’d already planned on killing Nathan. You did me a favor. When I figured out your little divide and conquer plan, I let it play out. Morbid curiosity I guess. Frankly, I figured one of you would end up dead on that bathroom floor. I’m going to be honest though. I didn’t think it would be Nathan. I’m not terribly impressed though. He was slipping these last few days, all that money on his mind.”
They reached the pier.
“Now, Kayci, you climb up there and give him a hand with that body.” Caden kept both guns trained on them.
They dropped the body on the deck.
“Both of you, inside”
Once in the cabin, he told them both to sit. He then put one of the guns into his pocket. “Since I can’t trust either of you to drive the boat, I have to kill you both right now.” He pointed the gun at Jordan, then at Kayci. “Which one of you wants to die first?”
Kayci’s face was so sad it was breaking Jordan’s heart. She said, “You’re really going to kill your own flesh and blood?”
Caden turned his head slowly. “I gave you life. I feel it’s my right to take it away.”
“But I’m your daughter, your only daughter. You already killed Josh. Was that easier because you gave him up for adoption? You didn’t raise him, but you held me as a baby. I was your little girl. Didn’t you ever love me?”
Caden sighed and rolled his eyes to the heavens. “I told you, Kayci, this is not personal. Blood, family, these things don’t mean anything to me. They are a sociological fantasy perpetuated by a sick and twisted strand of our DNA. Family is a joke, and you know that. You had no family and turned out just fine. You didn’t even keep my name, so clearly the name Taylor meant nothing to you. We were never a real family, were we? You know the answer to that. Did you ever feel the love? Did you ever feel normal? Parents donate sperm and egg. What you do after that can’t be dictated by the constraints of a family dynamic. Until you learn those things, you’re never truly free.”
He raised the gun and put it to Jordan’s head.
Kayci looked to him and took his hand. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“Great, you both love each other. Now say goodbye.”
“Hey, asshole!” Someone shouted from outside the door, then a figure entered, followed by a thunderous blast that filled the cabin.
Caden’s body flew backward as the bullet ripped into him from just feet away. He went down in a heap.
Jordan’s mouth fell open. He could not believe what he was seeing. “Mom?”
Kayci looked to Jordan. “Mom?”
Teresa shook her head. “Do you believe that shit he was spouting?” She tilted the large caliber revolver back and blew on the tip like a gunfighter. Then she spit on Caden’s body and said something in Italian. “I could not stand one more second of that garbage.” She casually put the gun back into her purse.
“Mom, what the hell are you doing here?”
“Someone had to bail your ass out.”
“How did you find me?”
“I turned on the GPS feature on your phone last night. I got sick of you traipsing all around the country without knowing where you were. I knew you were lying to me when you said there was nothing to worry about. I always know when you’re lying. What am I, an idiot?”
Teresa adjusted her handbag. “I assume you two are going to clean all this up.” She flashed Jordan an adm
onishing look. “I’ll deal with you tomorrow.”
She turned and casually left.
Chapter Forty-Eight
After what seemed like a week of debriefing from the FBI and answers to the police, Jordan finally headed home. Everyone accepted their version of the story, and with the FBI backing them up, the local police had no choice but to believe every word. The cops would never know the FBI was actually the NSA, who was working for the CIA and screwing over the GAO all under the umbrella of the DOD. It was a dizzying array of alphabetical nonsense and insanity. He didn’t care to understand or recall.
According to their story, Jordan and Kayci were just out for a midnight stroll in the park when they came across a fight between two men who eventually killed each other. The police did not buy a single word of it, even with the money and drugs found on the boat. But if the FBI said it was their case, the locals had no choice. They never said a word about Teresa being there, and so far, no one brought it up.
Jordan looked over at Kayci as she slept soundly in the passenger seat. Her wavy blonde curls bobbed gently with the sway of the vehicle. It was the first time since he had known her that she actually looked peaceful.
He eased the Explorer into the driveway at his mother’s house and cut the engine.
Kayci woke. “I was thinking we need a vacation.”
He raised his brow and nodded. “My mother would be happy to cat-sit.”
“We could pay her a few bucks, you know, for food and expenses.” Kayci smiled.
He knew she had a bunch of cash, gold, and diamonds from her brother, but something in her voice was different. Jordan squinted, a knowing smiled curled on one side of his face. “You didn’t.”
Kayci flicked her eyebrows twice. “You bet your ass I did.” She smiled. “What am I, an idiot?” She opened the door and climbed out.
He joined her at the back of the SUV.
She popped the hatch and pulled up the carpet to reveal the spare tire compartment lined with cash enough to fill the entire hollow.
“Holy shit!” Jordan exclaimed. “How much is in there?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure exactly…a million five…maybe more. Plus…”
“There’s a plus?”
“I got Nathan’s Cayman Islands bank card.”
“Are you kidding me?” Jordan reached into the round hole and pulled out a few stacks. “Where’s the spare tire?”
“Dumped it on the side of the road.”
“What if we get a flat?” Jordan joked.
“We’ll buy a new car.”
“You sneaky, sneaky girl. I thought it was the right thing to give the money back.”
“It was…just not all of it.”
Jordan stuffed some into his pockets and went into the house. He gave the money to his mother and thanked her for not only saving their lives but also for watching Stormy. She didn’t even flinch at the wads of cash, just as she didn’t flinch about blowing a man away on a boat in the Hudson River. It made Jordan wonder if there was even more to the story of why she’d had to flee Brooklyn at sixteen.
“Please, Mom, quit that damn job and relax for a while. When you run out, let me know. We have plenty.”
“Jordan, you know I’m not extravagant. I don’t need fancy things, and the house is paid for. How much could that cat eat?”
He laughed. “There’s enough there for plenty of food. And feel free to buy yourself something nice.”
After a round of hugs, Jordan and Kayci packed up the Explorer and headed out onto the road.
***
As they crossed out of New Jersey into Pennsylvania, Jordan noticed another vehicle following them. “Are you kidding me?”
“What?” Kayci turned to look behind them.
“We’re being followed again.”
“Pull over, right here on the side of the road.”
Jordan pulled into a wide area on the side of the two-lane road. In a few seconds, two men got out and walked up to the passenger side of the black SUV.
“Gentlemen,” Kayci greeted the two men in black suits.
“Ms. Dewitt. We need your help,” the shorter man said.
“Oh, no!” Jordan interrupted. “We are going on vacation. You bastards are going to have to wait.”
“I’m sorry. This can’t wait,” the man apologized. “We need you to follow us.”
“And if we don’t?” Kayci asked.
“Please, we have a situation that requires your skills. We need you to help us save an important little girl who is currently at the mercy of a madman.”
Kayci looked to Jordan with concern.
“This is desperate, Ms. Dewitt. We’re out of leads, and if you don’t help us, she will die.”
Jordan snapped his head back into the seat. “You guys are killing us.”
Kayci nodded to the men.
“Thank you. We promise not to take up much of your time. If you can lead us to where he’s keeping her, that’s all we ask.”
The two men scurried back to their government-issue sedan and tore out of the gray gravel onto the darker gray asphalt.
Jordan followed.
“You know what this means?” Kayci asked.
“Yeah, it means we’re never going to get a vacation.”
TO BE CONTINUED
Savior Frequency (Frequency Series Book 1) Page 21