Her mind went to Greg, reaching out to him, her heart aching for him. If something happened to him, she didn’t know what she would do. He was her world, and as she thought about the last few days and how she’d begun falling in love with him so quickly, she wasn’t surprised. He was so good to her. When she considered the idea that he’d thought she’d cheated on him, her heart ached all the more. She would never do that to him. Never. But she had been foolish. She should have confided in him about this situation with Eddie from the start. If she had, she would have been able to come up with the money on time and Eddie wouldn’t have run her off the road, which meant she wouldn’t have broken her ankle, wouldn’t have gotten a concussion that led to amnesia. None of the ugliness that was happening now would have happened at all.
Vowing to never keep a secret from Greg again, Olivia closed her eyes and reveled in all the memories she had of Greg—their recent trip to Lake Tahoe, building their house together, hanging out in the kitchen while Greg cooked and she kept him company. Soaking up the love they had for each other, she convinced herself that they still had their whole lives in front of them. They would come out of this okay. They had to.
A short time later, Eddie arrived.
All Greg could think about was Olivia. How were they treating her? Was she all right?
He glanced at Tom, who looked like he was having a great time driving Greg’s Ferrari. Greg had been wrong in thinking he could do much of anything while a passenger. Eddie had seen to that, zip-tying Greg’s hands together. Tugging on the zip ties with his wrists, Greg tried to break them apart, but they held tight.
He’d already told Tom the name of the banks they would need to visit. Though Greg had never withdrawn half a million dollars at once before, he knew it was unlikely that any one bank would have that much cash on hand. Most of his money was tied up in investments, but the money he kept liquid he’d spread around to several banks. That way all of it was insured by the FDIC. Now, he was glad he’d done that. Otherwise there was no way he’d be able to get half a mil cash in one day.
It took a while, but eventually Greg filled Eddie’s backpack with the cash he’d demanded. At each bank Tom had cut the zip tie from Greg’s hands, but after they’d gotten back in the car he’d put on a new one.
Now, with all the money collected, Greg and Tom got back in the Ferrari.
“Hands,” Tom said.
Greg kept his hands in his lap. “You have the money. Now take me to Olivia.”
Tom’s eyebrows rose as he held the zip tie. “If you want to see your wife, you’ll do as you’re told.”
Clenching his jaw and with nostrils flaring, Greg held up his hands and watched Tom zip tie them together. Then he listened as Tom called Eddie to let him know that all the money had been collected. They disconnected, then Tom started the car and they began driving.
When they were outside the city limits, Tom pulled over, unzipped a small pocket on the backpack and pulled out a black hood. He held it up to Greg. “Put this on.”
His head feeling like it was going to explode with all his pent-up fury, Greg just stared at Tom.
Tom frowned. “Do you wanna see your wife or not?”
Grinding his teeth together, Greg snatched the hood from Tom’s hands, but with his wrists bound he wasn’t able to get the hood over his head.
“Need some help?” Tom asked, his lips twisted into a smirk.
“Naw. I’ll opt for leaving it off.”
Laughing, Tom shook his head. “That’s not an option.”
Holding back a smile, Greg said. “Fine. You do it.”
“Happy to help the great Greg Sinclair.” Tom’s words dripped with sarcasm.
Keeping his gaze locked on Tom’s smarmy face, Greg kept his head upright, even leaning away slightly which forced Tom to lean toward Greg. In the close quarters of the sports car there wasn’t much space between them, but just as Tom reached up with the hood, ready to slide it over Greg’s head, Greg tucked his chin downward as if he was trying to help. Then, using all the fury and adrenaline pumping through his veins, he slammed the top of his head into Tom’s face. When Tom only appeared stunned, Greg’s hands shot out and he managed to grip Tom’s neck before jerking Tom hard and fast into a head butt, again and again, until Tom slumped in the driver’s seat.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Panting, Greg hardly noticed the discomfort in his head from where it had slammed into Tom’s face. Instead, thoughts stampeded through his mind—what should he do now? How could he find Olivia? Should he call the police, or would that endanger Olivia?
First thing first, he had to get the zip tie off his wrists. He opened the passenger door and climbed out, then hurried to the driver’s side and opened the door. It didn’t take long to fish the knife out of Tom’s pocket, the one he’d been using to cut the zip ties off at each bank. What was harder was opening the blade, but he eventually did, and after several tries, he sawed the zip tie off of his wrists.
Making sure no cars were coming, Greg took Tom’s .45 out of his waistband and set it on the floor, then he dragged Tom out of the car and deep into the bushes on the side of the road before digging several zip ties out of the man’s pocket. With Tom face down in the dirt, Greg zip tied his hands behind his back, then zip tied his ankles together, then he made a chain to hog-tie him.
“That oughta keep you out of the way for a while,” Greg said with a satisfied smile. He took Tom’s cell phone, jogged back to his Ferrari, tucked the pistol into his own waistband, then climbed behind the wheel. With a look toward the bushes, Greg grinned. Tom was well concealed. No one would see him, and once he regained consciousness, it would take him a while to break free of his bonds.
That would give Greg the time he needed to save Olivia. But first, he needed to find her.
The office door opened, then clicked shut. Olivia’s head jerked in that direction, and when she saw Eddie striding towards her, a triumphant smile on his face, she didn’t know if she should be happy or terrified.
“He came through,” Eddie said as he sat on a chair near the couch where she reclined, her ankle elevated. “Greg came through.”
This was the first time since Eddie had arrived that he’d said more than two words to her. Olivia assumed he’d been focused on what was happening with Greg. She’d been perfectly happy to have him ignore her, but now that he was there, and his mood was so good, she had a question for him.
“Why’d you run me off the road?”
His smile melted away and his eyes went hard. “Because you failed.”
Her gaze went to her booted ankle, then she thought about her amnesia. What if she’d never regained her memory? What if she’d left Greg because of that? This man, this evil, evil man, had nearly destroyed her life. Her fury made her bold. “You could have killed me.”
He laughed, then he flicked his fingers like he was shooing away a pesky insect. “If I’d wanted to kill you, you’d be dead.”
The casual way he spoke of her dying made her angry. Her eyes narrowed and her breath became shaky. “You’re a monster.”
He shrugged. “A rich and powerful monster.”
Stunned that he knew how vile he was yet he didn’t care, Olivia had a terrible thought. What if this wasn’t the end? What if he wanted more money? What if he came after them again and again? What if he was always there on the edges of their lives, ready to torment them, ready to destroy them? Or worse, what if, after Greg delivered the cash, Eddie killed them?
Both options were horrible. Olivia couldn’t allow either one to happen. But what could she possibly do to stop him?
Scrolling through Tom’s cell phone, when Greg found what he was looking for, he grinned. He’d driven a few miles farther up the road in the same direction they’d been headed, then he’d pulled over.
Now, he stared at the text Eddie had sent Tom after his last phone call. A text with an address. That had to be where Olivia was. He put his Ferrari in gear and drove toward the address, arriving within ten
minutes. It was some sort of warehouse. And it looked abandoned. Parking a distance away, he studied the building. Dirty windows spanned the front of the building, overgrown weeds grew on either side, and no cars occupied the parking lot.
Could this be where Eddie had taken Olivia? It didn’t look like anyone was there. Then again, wouldn’t that be the best way to disguise activity? Make it appear deserted?
He had to get a closer look.
He approached from the side, using the overgrown weeds as cover. Once he reached the building, he pressed himself against the wall and crept along until he reached a bank of windows. Though they were dirty, when he cupped his eyes to the glass, he was able to see in. Enough to see a grouping of furniture. Enough to see Eddie sitting in a chair, looking at someone across from him like they were having a conversation.
Greg moved lower so that if anyone looked his way they would have a hard time seeing him through the dirty glass.
Who was Eddie talking to? Was it one of his goons? Or could it be Olivia?
Peering hard through the glass, Greg made out the tip of a boot, the kind someone with a broken ankle would wear. It was poking up above the back of the couch as if whoever was wearing it was lying down with her foot elevated.
It had to be Olivia.
Greg’s heart slammed against his chest like a caged bird frantic to get out. He had to go to her, had to protect her. Had to save her. He pictured himself swooping in to rescue her, impressing her, capturing her heart, sealing a future with her.
Then the reality whomped him over the head. He wasn’t an action hero. He was a wide receiver in the NFL. Sure, sometimes he felt like a superstar, and a lot of people treated him like one, but in reality he was a mere mortal. A man in love with his wife. A man who would do anything to protect her. But he didn’t have the skill set to save her single-handedly. Not from someone like Eddie and the men he most certainly had with him. Sure, he had Tom’s .45. And sure, he went target shooting with his own firearm from time to time. But that wasn’t the same as shooting at someone who would shoot back. Someone who might shoot Olivia.
As much as he wanted to burst inside and save his wife, Greg knew it was time to get help, time to call the police.
Squatting on the ground below the window, he made the call, explaining that his wife had been kidnapped for ransom. There was more to the story, of course, but that was the simplest explanation, and at the moment it was technically true. Eddie would not release Olivia until he’d been paid. Greg gave the dispatcher the address, described what he saw, then he disconnected the call and pressed his face to the glass once again.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Olivia didn’t want to look at Eddie, didn’t want to acknowledge that she was in the presence of such a horrible, evil man. But it was difficult to ignore him. The malevolence radiated off of him in waves.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said with a sneer. “Did I hurt your feelings when I implied your life has no value?”
She wouldn’t let him get to her. Refusing to give him the satisfaction of an answer, she thought about Greg and the way he’d doted on her when she’d come home from the hospital. At the time she’d wondered if it was an act, but now that her memory had returned she remembered all the times he’d shown what a thoughtful man he was. When he made her dinner, then washed the dishes. How his back rubs were the best she’d ever had—better than from a masseuse. The way he surprised her with little gifts for no reason except to show her that he was thinking about her.
Her heart blossomed with love for the man she was married to, the man she would spend the rest of her life with.
If they survived this.
It was time to take action, to see what Eddie’s true intentions were. She lifted her gaze and looked at him. His focus was on his phone.
If she just had some sort of weapon…
No, she wasn’t a cold-blooded killer. As much as she hated him, hated the threat he was to her family, to her happiness, she knew she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she murdered him in cold blood. Then she nearly laughed. She could barely get around. In what world would she be able to leap to her feet with a broken ankle and plunge a knife into his heart before he realized what she was doing? Not that she had a knife. A gun would work better. Then she could stay where she was.
A tiny giggle erupted from her mouth at the absurdity of her thoughts.
That got his attention. “Something funny?”
His eyes were cold, flinty.
All her humor evaporated.
Now that she had his attention, she said, “I just want to know. After Greg pays you, will you really disappear from our lives?”
His stare didn’t waver. “Yep.”
Somehow that didn’t make her feel any better. For all she knew, he could stare a nun in the eyes and straight-up lie. Still, she’d had to ask.
“What about my mother? Will you leave her alone?”
“Uh-huh.”
“She’s gonna get clean.” Olivia said it more as a note of defiance than because she truly believed it.
“Right.”
Annoyed that Eddie doubted that her mother could manage her addiction, Olivia frowned. “If it wasn’t for losers like you, she wouldn’t be addicted in the first place.” That wasn’t exactly true. Her mother had started her addiction with prescription drugs, but it made Olivia feel better to lash out at Eddie, someone who happily provided drugs to addicts. “You destroy lives for a living. I don’t know how you sleep at night.”
He looked away from Olivia and toward the office. “Yeah. Whatever.”
All of a sudden, Olivia wanted to rile him, wanted to hit a nerve. Make him feel something. Maybe even guilt. “There’s a special place in hell for people like you.”
Eddie rolled his eyes.
His indifference only fueled the anger that had been building inside her. “What kind of family did you come from that you think what you do is okay? Huh? Do they even know what you do?” She paused a beat. “Or do you lie to them too? Tell them that all this money you have is because you’re a successful businessman?”
A muscle worked in his jaw.
Olivia glared at him. “If your mother knew what you do, she would be ashamed.”
He was on her before she knew what was happening, his hands circling her throat, his eyes nearly black with rage. “Don’t you dare talk about my mother.”
She couldn’t breathe couldn’t breathe couldn’t breathe. Fingers digging at Eddie’s steel-like grip, Olivia’s vision narrowed to a pinpoint and alarm bells clanged in her ears. She was blacking out. She was going to die. And she’d never had the chance to tell Greg that she remembered him. That she loved him…
The moment Greg had disconnected from dispatch, he’d pressed his eyes to the window. He could wait until the police got here. Everything inside appeared calm and relaxed.
Until it wasn’t.
Eddie had leapt from his chair and thrown himself on Olivia. Greg couldn’t see what was happening, but the absolute rage on Eddie’s face was clear enough.
Without a second thought, Greg raced to the door that he’d noticed while studying the building, and burst into the warehouse.
Chapter Thirty
Yanking the gun out of his waistband, Greg’s gaze was locked on Eddie. The back of the couch faced him so he wasn’t able to see Olivia and exactly what was happening, but it appeared that Eddie was strangling her. Killing her.
They were thirty feet away, but Greg didn’t waste a moment to see if any of Eddie’s goons were nearby. Instead, his focus was completely on what was happening to his wife. Tearing across the concrete floor, Greg yelled, “Get off of her.”
Eddie’s head jerked up and his eyes widened. He released Olivia, but then his hands reached for the back of his waistband. Greg knew what that meant.
Greg’s instincts and reactions were world-class—but that was in football, not in dealing with dangerous criminals. Still, it was up to him to save his wife and those fine
ly-honed responses to split-second action never mattered as much as they did in that moment.
With adrenaline coursing through his veins, Greg aimed the gun and pulled the trigger. And missed. In that moment, Eddie had reached his gun and was bringing it around. Greg pulled the trigger again. And again he missed.
Heart pounding wildly, when he saw Eddie’s gun nearly to the point of aiming directly at him, Greg pulled the trigger once more, then before he could see if he’d hit his mark, he dove behind the couch.
Ears ringing, and with his back pressed to the couch, Greg struggled to hear if Eddie was coming for him. Knowing he couldn’t stay there and wait to be ambushed—not to mention that Olivia was fully exposed to Eddie’s wrath—he frantically looked from side to side. Which way should he go? Which way would Eddie approach from? An office was to his right, so, taking a leap of faith, he began crawling to his left. When no bullets flew his way, he gained courage.
He reached the end of the couch and peered around the corner. Where was Eddie? Sneaking up behind him? The hair on the back of his neck stood on end at the thought and he jerked his head around to check. No one there.
Still on his hands and knees, Greg came around the side of the couch and that’s when he saw him. Eddie was on the ground, blood seeping from a hole in his chest.
The sound of pounding footsteps, then, “Boss!”
Greg pressed himself against the side of the couch, out of view of Eddie’s employees.
He heard a soft moan, a feminine moan. It was Olivia. She was alive! Relief poured over him.
He had to get to her, had to keep her away from Eddie, because if Eddie had the chance, he would kill Olivia as punishment for shooting him.
“Who did this?” one of the men asked, his voice a mix of fear and anger.
“I’ll find him,” another voice said.
That’s when Greg knew his time was up.
Pass Protection (Fair Catch Series, Book Five) Page 13