It was a tube of women’s lip balm. He couldn’t be sure, but he could swear he’d seen Abigail holding something that looked like it on a couple of occasions. Maybe she’d dropped it when she came in to get coffee earlier. But why would she leave her cup behind?
“Ryan!” Julia exclaimed, panic filling her voice as she burst into the room.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, that dreadful feeling he’d had in the parking lot hitting him like one gigantic wave.
“I wasn’t even going to come in today. I sent Abigail a text message—sixteen of them, actually. She hasn’t replied to one.”
“Maybe she has her phone off,” Ryan said, cross-examining the jittery redhead with his eyes.
“Abs? I seriously doubt it. She didn’t even turn off her phone when we went backstage to meet Metallica. Look, I went out on a date with Shane last night and he went totally psycho on me. He grabbed my arm and”—she shut her eyes—“then he got this phone call.”
“What kind of call?” Ryan asked.
“I don’t know exactly. But I’m sure it was about something important because he wasn’t about to let me go for just any reason. When he was holding me, I saw this mark on his arm. Solid black, a mountain lion or a cheetah or something?”
The symbol from the ledgers. “What makes you think that’s anything to be concerned about?”
“It’s not your run-of-the-mill tattoo,” Julia explained. “It’s distinct. Like maybe he’s part of a cult or something? Look, have you ever noticed that Shane’s phone never stops ringing? And do you remember how calm he was when I found the dead body? I know this sounds crazy, but I can’t shake this horrible feeling that our assistant manager is somehow tied to the murders.”
“I don’t think that’s too far off.” Ryan looked out the window, seeing that Shane’s parking space was empty. He swallowed back the bile that threatened to rise in his throat. “We need to find Abigail. Do you have any idea where she might be?”
“I was hoping she was in here,” Julia said. “Her car is in the parking lot, so she must be somewhere on the premises.”
“She may have come in to work this morning, but I don’t think she got very far.” Ryan held up the lip balm he’d found.
“This is Abigail’s,” Julia said in a shaky voice. “But the fact that it’s on the floor doesn’t mean anything. Abs may have dropped it yesterday or this morning, before anyone had a chance to vacuum.”
Ryan shook his head. “It’s dead quiet in this building. Becker isn’t here either, and no one’s manning the desk. And there’s this.” He pointed to the cup of coffee. Fighting an intense wave of nausea, he said, “I think it’s possible that Abigail was taken from this room by force.”
“Oh my God!” Julia slapped her cheeks. Moving in circles about the room, she said, “I never should have sent Abigail those text messages. We have to find her, before that psychopath does.”
“Julia, don’t panic. Try and remember everything you can about last night, anything that Shane might have said that could help us find him. We’ll find Abigail, we just need to think.”
“Think? How can I think when my best friend is probably being carted off to Mexico to be forced to become a topless dancer!”
Ryan zoned out on what Julia was saying as Kimberly darted into the room. There were tears in her eyes and streaks of moisture running down her cheek.
“Oh my God, you guys!” she exclaimed.
“What’s wrong?” Ryan demanded.
“I was coming through the parking and I saw Mark Becker throw Abigail into the back of his truck!”
“Oh my God! Abigail!” Julia collapsed onto the couch.
“I tried to catch up to them, but before I made it back to my car Mark was long out of the parking lot.”
“That twisted son of a bitch.” Julia got to her feet.
Ryan grabbed her shoulders.
“I won’t let him hurt, Abby,” she exclaimed, trying to break free.
“Neither will I, but panicking isn’t going to help.” Ryan looked at Kimberly. “Which way did they go?”
“North, I think. Toward Jackson.”
“Call the police.” He turned to leave.
“I don’t think so, Newberry. At least, not without me you’re not. I’m coming with you.” Julia tailed him to the door.
“Fine, but were taking my car.” Ryan looked back briefly at Kimberly, who was dialing the phone. Shooting her a brief smile, he said, “Thank you.”
She offered a half smile in reply. “What are friends for?”
Ryan walked through the door. Praying he wasn’t too late, he raced to his car with Julia and sped off down the road.
Chapter 30
“She’s coming to,” a rough voice said.
The world was dark and cold. There was nothing discernable in the short distance ahead, but soon a light shined, and then a swirl of colors formed. She wasn’t dead, but she must have been in a very deep sleep.
Abigail fought to open her eyes. Her head was heavy and it felt as if it had been smacked with a baseball bat. There was something rough behind her. Lifting her head, she blinked her eyes as she attempted to decipher the blurry picture that made up her surroundings.
Water was rushing nearby. Birds chirped in the surrounding trees and there was grass beneath her legs. The air was cool, and it smelled of dirt and pinesap. She was in the woods, near the Jackson River. She’d been tied to the trunk of a tree.`
As she opened her eyes all the way, she realized that Mark was standing over her. He wore a smile that shook her insides. Everything that had happened earlier came back to her. Julia’s text message, Mark knocking her out. She glared into her captor’s psychotic-looking eyes.
“You bastard!” She attempted to stand, but found she couldn’t move. “So, what, you think you’re going to silence me by keeping me out here in the woods?”
She regretted the words as soon as they left her lips, because no sooner had she spoken them then she realized they weren’t alone. Shane was there, too. He was standing beside Mark, holding a gun. It was pointed at her.
“I don’t see why this is necessary,” Shane said. “She doesn’t have a clue what we’re doing, or a shred of proof. Killing her is only going to draw even more attention than we already have.”
Panic seizing her, Abigail shouted as loudly as she could, “Help me! If anybody can hear me, please—” She was silenced as Mark lifted a gun of his own, aiming it at the center of her chest.
“Really want to keep yelling, sweetheart?” He cocked the trigger loudly.
Abigail shook her head.
Mark snapped his fingers at Shane. “Let’s go! What the hell are you waiting for?”
Shane’s fingers trembled against the trigger. “I don’t think I can do it.”
“You’d damn well better do it! This is your mess! Everything she knows is because you couldn’t keep that damn mouth of yours shut!”
“That isn’t true,” Shane argued. “Julia Dyson drew her own conclusions. She only got suspicious after Ramo—after I got that phone call. If that bastard hadn’t been hassling me when I was out with her she never would have suspected a thing.”
“And whose fault is that!”
“I won’t do it,” Shane muttered under his breath.
“What did you say?”
“I said I won’t do it!” Shane lowered his pistol. “I don’t care what she knows, or how she knows it. I’m not shooting Abigail MacKenzie.”
Abigail hesitated to breathe. Fresh fear swept through her as Mark lifted his gun, bringing it to her eye level. She wriggled frantically, fighting to free her arms.
Looking at Shane with a fierceness that shook her to the core, Mark said, “Do you really think you won’t go down for this? I may have covered for you with Barrows and his bitch of a wife, but that won’t be happening again. Your hands have been clean for way too long.”
“My hands are anything but clean!” Shane shouted. “I helped you cover Barrows’
s murder. I didn’t even realize you’d killed his wife until Julia stumbled over her body in the hotel. If you go down, both of us are going to prison.”
“You murdered Christopher Barrows?” Abigail exclaimed.
Mark’s eyes were as cold as ice.
“That man saw my father get shot! There’s a connection, and you know what it is, don’t you? My father was closing up his restaurant and Christopher Barrows saw a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt put three bullets in his chest. Is that why you murdered him? Did you kill my father, too, you—”
“I didn’t kill anyone!” Mark looked at Shane. “Do it now—shoot her!”
“Shane, please don’t do this,” Abigail said, tears streaming down her face.
Shane eyed her with clear hesitation.
“What are you waiting for?” Mark demanded. “She knows the truth!”
“The truth about what?” Abigail exclaimed.
“Shut up!” Mark cocked the trigger of his gun.
“I won’t shut up! If you’re going to kill me anyway, then tell me. I know you’re involved with something felonious. My father died because of it!”
“Barrows died because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Mark said succinctly. “Just like you, Abigail.”
Desperate to buy herself time, Abigail said, “I know you must know more. Tell me why my father died! What is this all about? Drug dealing? Hookers?”
“Up here in the boondocks? Get real, sweetheart!”
“All right, then what else could it be?” Abigail said, frantically tugging at the ropes the bound her wrists. “You must be working in the mountains because it’s a good location to hide your crimes, isn’t that right? Are you a thief? Do you sell goods on the black market?”
When Mark’s brow furrowed, she said, “You’re smuggling something, aren’t you? What is it? Wildlife? Cigarettes? Weaponry? Diamonds—”
“Enough!” Mark pointed his gun at Shane.
“I…” Shane looked from Mark, to Abigail, to the gun in his hands. “You really want me to kill her like this? We could just keep her somewhere, or take her out of the country. There has to be another way.”
Mark released a visible breath. “You know, I’m really starting to lose my patience with you, Dempsey. You have one instruction. Shoot the gun or walk away, what’s it going to be?”
Shane’s hands trembled. Lowering the pistol slowly, he turned and walked in the opposite direction.
“Wrong decision,” Mark said. He fired a bullet, piercing Shane’s back.
Shane cried out, emitting a scream that could probably be heard six counties away. He collapsed onto the ground and continued to writhe for several minutes, until Abigail was sure he could no longer do it.
“Oh my God!” she shrieked. “You murdered him! You murdered your friend, you unimaginable monster!”
“Shane Dempsey was no friend to me.” Mark wore a sadistic smile. Turning his gun toward her, he said, “This one’s going to hurt a little more.”
Abigail cowered against the tree. Unable to put her father’s tragic death in the past, she’d wound up in the same situation as he’d been in. She pulled frantically at the bindings, only succeeding in roughing up her back. Hot tears streamed down her cheeks. She pleaded for her life and cried in terror as Mark’s fingers locked around the trigger of the gun.
Pines branches rustled somewhere close-by. Abigail realized they were right behind Mark just before a figure jumped from behind them. The figure knocked him to the ground, simultaneously knocking the gun out of his hand with one hard punch. Her heart slammed in her chest when she realized who it was.
“Ryan, be careful!” Abigail cried as Mark got to his feet.
Ryan, whose shirt was covered in dirt, sprang up beside him. The two men positioned themselves opposite one another, arms spread apart as though waiting for the other to attack. But Ryan hesitated only a second. He lunged forward, knocking Mark off his feet. Mark kicked at Ryan’s legs, taking him down into the dirt.
Mark snatched his gun from where it had landed at the base of a tree. Ryan was on top of him before he could get it in the air. He punched Mark’s face, causing his nose to bleed. Mark struggled to get his fingers around the trigger, but the gun slipped from his hand and went skidding across the dirt.
Ryan attempted to stand as Mark threw a punch, knocking Ryan back. Mark got on top of Ryan, punching him hard in the face. His hand reached for the gun, but Ryan kicked it, sending it into a mess of rocks and weeds.
Abigail watched in horror as Mark hurled himself on top of Ryan, striking a hard blow to his jaw. Ryan’s mouth bled and he barely moved at all as Mark kicked his gut not one but three times. Falling face-first into the dirt, Ryan collapsed as Mark scrambled to his feet.
“Abigail!” Julia weaved her way between the trees.
“Get the gun!” Abigail exclaimed when Julia had reached her.
Mark dove for the spot where the gun had landed. He looked around, pulling up weeds and tossing rocks out of his way. Abigail saw the gun’s glint just as a shadow cast itself over Mark’s head. Ryan was holding a large tree branch. He gave the back of Mark’s head a hard whack, sending him sprawling across the wooded ground.
Ryan bent down and snatched up the gun. Wearing an expression unlike anything Abigail had ever seen, he aimed it at Mark’s head. “You demented son of a bitch. You were going to kill her!”
Terror pulsed in his Mark’s eyes. “I wasn’t going to kill her. I swear, we were only going to take her out of the country.”
Ryan hovered over him. “Why?”
Mark’s eyes drifted to where Julia was untying Abigail’s hands.
Ryan raised his voice. “I said why!”
“Because she knows too much!”
“Too much about what?”
When Mark didn’t answer him, Ryan brought the pistol’s head closer to his. Lowering his voice, he said, “I know you don’t want to die out here, Becker. Why did you silence me all these months? How does it connect with Abigail’s father’s murder? You might not care about the young woman whose life you almost just took, but I swear to God if you don’t open your mouth and start talking—”
“I swear I don’t know!”
“Liar.”
Mark tossed his hands over his head. “MacKenzie was in the wrong place. The bullets were never meant for him. I only know that because the cops were pumping me for information after Barrows’s murder and I overheard them talking. MacKenzie’s killer was obviously working for someone who didn’t want him to talk.”
“Who the hell was he working for, dammit!”
Mark smiled a twisted smile. “You aren’t going to kill me, Newberry. Even if you did have the stones to shoot me, I’d never tell you a damn thing.”
Leaning suddenly forward, Mark lunged at Ryan. Ryan fought to keep his balance, and in one swift movement he lifted his arm and stuck the side of Mark’s head with the gun, knocking him unconscious.
Abigail released a big breath. Gradually, she began to breathe at a normal rate, but it took several minutes before her heart didn’t feel as if it was going to burst through her chest. She wasn’t entirely sure it was over, and she kept looking back at where Mark was lying on the ground as she rubbed her sore arms. Turning around, she was surprised to see that Julia was no longer beside her. She surveyed the surrounding trees.
Ryan was looking at Mark the way she just had, as though he was making sure he was still unconscious and wasn’t going to get back up and try to attack them again. Past him, down a rolling hill, Shane lay on the ground. Julia was crouched beside him, and she was pressing her shirt against the wound where he’d been shot.
Abigail hadn’t even realized that Ryan had come beside her. Turning toward him, she saw that his face was covered in scratches. He was so brave, to have put his life on the line the way he had. The whole thing seemed almost surreal. But the nightmare was over—and Ryan had rescued her. She wanted to throw herself into his arms. But, she couldn’t se
em to move.
Sirens sounded in the distance. An onslaught of police officers and EMTs charged through the maze of trees. The officers surrounded Mark, and a group of EMTs raced toward Shane and Julia.
Abigail watched as the uniformed men urged Julia from their way and then applied more pressure to Shane’s bullet wound before going to work on him. Abigail prayed he was all right, but couldn’t help thinking that it could just as easily have been her, Julia, or Ryan who’d been shot. Looking up at Ryan, she swallowed. Gently, he drew her against him.
As he stroked her back and kissed her forehead, Abigail listened to the beating of his heart. Just as hard and as fast as it had been in the hotel room that night, the sound of it comforted her. It meant they had both just survived this terrible ordeal. She and Ryan were alive and they were wrapped in each other’s arms.
If only that could be enough.
It was no secret that she and Ryan had no hope for a future. He’d made that abundantly clear when he’d let her know that he had no intention of tearing down the wall he had built around his heart. Still, it felt good to be in his arms. So good, and so right. She loved him. God in heaven, she had almost lost him. She knew it was only going to hurt her that much more later, but she squeezed him tightly and buried her face against his shirt. Right now, this was all that mattered.
“Thank God you’re all right,” Ryan said as he ran his fingertips through her hair. Voice barely about a whisper, he said, “I thought I’d lost you forever.”
“Guess you’re not going to get rid of me that easily,” Abigail said, barely realizing she’d spoken out loud.
Ryan smiled, but his stance was guarded, giving her the distinct impression he hadn’t intended for her to hear what he’d said. Maybe he was only trying to hide how afraid he had been, fighting the man who’d tried to shoot them. But more than likely, he hadn’t meant the words the way they’d sounded.
“You should have a paramedic check you out.” Ryan waved to one of the men nearby.
Dangerous Secret [The Pinnacles of Power Prequel] (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Page 24