by Simply BWWM
She thought about an older couple, going to sleep together and never waking up. All because their morals were worth more than money, and they had no idea the danger they were in. Would knowing all this save her and Jake? She couldn’t be sure, but she hoped so. Her life depended on it.
Chapter10
Carter Oakfield cursed under his breath, waving his new personal assistant out of the room when the phone on his desk rang from the direct line. It was late on a Saturday, which meant it could only be one person, and it was the last person Carter wanted to talk to.
“Serenity, I’m done for the day; you can head home.”
The woman smiled and scurried away, and Carter shook his head. If only he were ten years younger.
He waited for the door to close behind her, answering the phone that had continued to ring without the benefit of being attached to a voicemail box. Pat could wait through several rings before the call was answered. Carter was just that pissed.
“I told you never to call me here,” he hissed when he answered the phone, but Pat ignored him.
“I can’t find Jake or the girl.”
“Surprising,” Carter said, his voice dripping with angry sarcasm. “I guess blowing up a car and leaving a trail of bodies in your wake isn’t working out, is it?”
“I was expecting her to go back to her car. She doesn’t know Jake, and she had no reason to stay with him.”
“Except that she witnessed a murder.”
“Her father was a cop, killed in the line of duty. She should have gone to the police and straight to her car. I had no way of knowing that she would-”
“Enough with your excuses. What about Eric Price? How did he end up dead?”
“He was getting out of Berrington’s car. I had no way of knowing that he was there, trying to break into the Corvette. I saw a man fitting Berrington’s description, and I did what I was paid to do. Price shouldn’t have been there.”
“I sent him.”
Pat was shocked into silence.
“Why?”
“Because you didn’t get the job done the first time. I had to cover all my bases to make sure we didn’t have a repeat of the last time you tried to take care of Jake Berrington.”
“What was Eric Price going to do?”
“I didn’t ask. He said he had a plan.”
“So, you sent an amateur to make sure I got the job done.” Pat was furious. “Carter, I’ve been working for you for over a decade. I always get the job done.”
“Jake is a different story, and you’re getting sloppy.”
He could tell that Pat was angry, but Carter wasn’t done.
“Your only job was to take care of Jake and make it look like an accident. It wasn’t difficult.”
“I couldn’t do the same thing I did with his parents. No one would believe that was just a coincidence.”
“I didn’t say you had to go the same route. You were creative with the others.”
“And Jake Berrington is a whole other animal.”
“Are you saying that you’re no match for a washed-up, Special Forces wannabe with a bum knee?”
“I’m saying that regardless, Jake Berrington is not just another citizen.”
“So, you were going to make it look like a mugging gone wrong?” Carter laughed. “Did you think that was going to work?”
“It’s worked before, or don’t you remember?”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Not threatening. But when you’re about to announce that you’re running for political office in the next election, maybe you should consider everything we know about each other and how many times I’ve cleaned up your messes.”
Carter was silent for a long time, but he knew he couldn’t push Pat any further, and he knew who held all the power in their relationship. Pat wasn’t about to let Carter forget his own mistakes, and Carter Oakfield had made plenty of mistakes. He would take care of Pat later. For now, he needed Jake and the girl found, and Pat Barkman was the best contract killer in all of Texas.
“What is your plan?”
“I’m going to try a different approach.”
“Thank God,” Carter sneered.
Pat ignored him and kept talking. Carter was irritated, but he let it go.
“I’m going to call in an anonymous tip about Eric Price and claim I saw a man fitting Jake’s description kidnapping a woman on the street after she witnessed him killing Eric Price.”
“Do you think that will work?”
“His Corvette is practically modified to look like the Batmobile. Everyone in town knows exactly who that car belongs to. His face will be plastered all over Dallas in a few hours.”
“I’ll have my people call in an anonymous reward to sweeten the pot.”
“That’s why I called you first.”
“It’s not perfect, but it might work.”
“It’s better than waiting for the body to be discovered. Monday is the earliest it would be found, and I doubt anyone is going to just stumble upon him. I don’t know why that woman was even walking down that street in the middle of the night.”
“Prostitute?”
“Hairdresser.”
“Does she have a family?”
“She does, but mostly out of town. Looking through her phone calls, she doesn’t talk to them much.”
“Did she see your face?”
“Doubtful.”
“Good.”
“What are you thinking?”
“She doesn’t know enough to justify killing her. Not yet, anyway. We can hold off with her for a few months so things don’t look suspicious. Hell, maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll leave town. I’m sure she’s shaken up after you blew up her car.”
“If she even knows about it.”
“It’s all over the news, so I’m sure she knows about it.”
“Fair point. I’ll let you know when the job is done.”
“Do you think calling in the tip on Jake is going to work?”
“Of course, it is. Jake Berrington doesn’t trust the police, and he’s armed and wanted for Eric Price’s murder. It’s perfect.”
“You won’t even have to pull the trigger.”
“Exactly.”
“Don’t call this number again,” Carter said. “I’ll hear about Jake Berrington’s death on the news like everyone else. With no next of kin for the land to go to, it will get auctioned off to the highest bidder like the rest of the land. Once I have the Berrington Ranch, I’ll have everything I need.”
“What about my payment?”
“If Jake dies at the hands of the police, you didn’t kill him.”
“The contract is to make it look like an accident or anything but a murder. Death by cop accomplishes that and effectively distracts the public from anything you might be doing. It’s better than what I had planned before.”
“I don’t see how that warrants payment.”
“I guess I could call in an anonymous tip that the future Governor of Texas paid me to kill everyone who stood in his way and make it look like an accident. I’m sure the Detective Ferris would love to know how I made the Berringtons look like they died of carbon monoxide poisoning.”
Pat had him over a barrel, and there was no arguing. It wouldn’t matter; Pat’s fee was a drop in the bucket, and it was well-worth getting Jake Berrington out of his hair.
“I’ll have it wired to your account,” Carter said.
Pat thanked him, and Carter hung up, shaking with barely contained rage. He waited a beat, then picked up the phone. He dialed a number from memory, waiting impatiently for the man on the other end to pick up the phone. When he finally did, Carter didn’t bother introducing himself.
“I have a job for you,” he said without greeting.
“How much?”
“Name your price.”
“Who’s the target?”
“Pat Barkman.”
“The Pat Barkman? The legend?”
“One and the sam
e. Can you do it?”
“Are there any parameters?”
“Just one,” Carter said, a wicked smile spreading across his face. “I want you to make sure that Pat Barkman suffers.”
The man laughed on the other end, cold and heartless just like his idol. Carter had been taking a chance ordering a hit on Pat, but he knew that Ryan Turner was looking for a way to make a name for himself, and this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a young contract killer like Ryan. Ryan’s response came as no surprise to Carter.
“My pleasure.”
Chapter11
“Are you sure I’m going to need this?” Deena asked, hesitant to take the gun that Jake was offering.
“I hope not, but you need to know how to use it. It’s really easy. You just release the safety here, then point and shoot.”
“What if I miss?”
“Don’t think about that. Just line it up like this, point and squeeze the trigger.” He stood behind her, holding her arm up at the correct level and pointing the gun at the door. “Even if you miss, you’ll scare them enough to have a chance to run.”
“Really?”
“Maybe, but I need to know you’re safe.”
“That’s encouraging. What if I accidentally shoot you?”
“You won’t, because I have a key.”
“Doesn’t the hotel have a key? Can’t they let anyone in?”
“Good point. When I leave, close the security latch.”
“And if they open the door and kick it down?”
“Shoot out the window and go out that way.”
“Can I just go with you?”
“No,” he said flatly. “You’re safer here. No one is going to come here to get you.”
“Then why do I need a gun?”
Deena had been leading him in a circle like this for almost twenty minutes. The truth was, she didn’t want him to go. Even though it would be daylight in a couple hours, she was terrified of what the world outside their hotel room held. Now that her car had been blown up, and the news had been updated with a picture of Deena, the “missing motorist,” she couldn’t separate herself from what had been going on. It was all too real, and Jake going to meet someone who was supposed to be able to help them was pushing her to the edge. There was only so much she could take, and this was too much.
Jake took a deep breath, setting the gun down on the end table and gathering her into his arms.
“Nothing is going to happen,” he said. “I’m going to go meet with this guy, and he’s going to help us. I’ll be back, and we’ll hide out here until things are safer, then we’ll leave, and it’ll be over. You can go back to your life and forget that any of this ever happened.”
“You’re a fool if you think it’s that easy.”
“I know that it isn’t, Deena, but we don’t have a choice. The more they know about you, the more danger we both are in. It’s gotten to the point that I can’t just get you to safety and help you walk away without exposing Oakfield. I can’t do that on my own.”
“I don’t understand why I can’t come.”
“Deena, this guy is shady as hell. I know that doesn’t sound like a big deal right now, but he’s not the kind of person I would normally turn to for help. But I can’t trust anyone else to go after this guy. He’s too important.”
“We could go to the media.”
“And we’d be dead within the hour.”
“How is this guy going to stop it?”
Jake sighed, then kissed her forehead.
“I have to go. I have a short window of time to meet with him. I’ll be back, and I won’t leave your side after that.”
“Promise?”
“Absolutely. I still owe you a date, remember?”
“And a tropical vacation,” she teased.
“If you’ll go with me, I think a week on an island would be a great first date.” He nuzzled her neck, then kissed her tenderly. “I don’t want to leave you any more than you want me to leave. I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t necessary, okay?”
“Okay,” she said.
“I’ll be back as quickly as I can.”
He untangled himself from her embrace, leaving the room and dutifully waiting for her to lock the security latch behind him. She stood there for a long time after he left, watching the hallway through the peephole, but in the early hours of a lazy Sunday morning, there was no activity in the hallway.
Still on edge, she took one of the straight-backed chairs from the dining nook and shoved it under the door handle until the legs dug into the carpet and wouldn’t move. It wasn’t much, but it made her feel a lot better, and that was something.
She paced the room, checking the large window on the other side of the living room area, but the parking lot was equally dead. Nothing was going on, and all she was doing was borrowing trouble. Jake was right; there was no way someone could track them here, and there was no reason for anyone in the hotel to suspect that one of the countless couples living in the extended stay hotel near Market Center was on the run from the law. They were only six miles from where her car had blown up, but it was a world away from the Deep Ellum neighborhood. Even Tamika wouldn’t think to look for Deena there. As easy as it was to let the fear override common sense, she knew that she was as safe as she was going to be without fleeing the state altogether.
“Keep it together, Deena,” she admonished herself, checking the clock for the umpteenth time.
She checked the parking lot one last time, then decided that watching TV would ease her mind. It was still really early, but she knew that there would be plenty of mindless entertainment on even at almost four in the morning.
Using the remote, she flipped through the channels, bypassing the channels that played nothing but news starting at four. She’d had her fill of seeing her little blue sedan blow up on the security camera, and the lone image of her and Holt getting into the Uber outside of the club. She’d cringed when it came up, but Jake hadn’t batted an eye over it. It was easy to guess why she’d left with Holt, leaving her car down the street in the process, but Jake hadn’t said a word.
Deena wondered if the police would be looking for Holt. If they managed to hunt him down, she hoped it was at his parents’ house in front of all the neighbors. She was still salty about him lying to her. If it wasn’t for him kicking her out when he did, she wouldn’t have witnessed a murder.
But she also wouldn’t have met Jake. Whether he ended up being worth all that remained to be seen, but at this point, meeting Jake was definitely the silver lining in this never-ending shit storm.
It was funny, because Holt had tricked her into believing that he was wealthy, then practically drove her into the arms of a rich man. Deena wasn’t sure exactly how rich Jake was, but the Berrington name was well-known to many in the Dallas area. They were definitely old money. In most cases, Jake would have been able to buy them out of trouble without too much effort, but they were up against Oakfield. It wasn’t just his wealth that made him unstoppable, it was his seemingly endless string of political connections. If Jake’s friend couldn’t help them, Deena wasn’t sure that anyone could.
She got up again, leaving the TV on and making herself a quick breakfast with their leftovers. It wasn’t how she usually started her day, but between the packaged muffins they’d snagged from the hotel dining room and what was left from dinner the night before, she had plenty to eat, and more individual orange juice cartons than they could finish in a week.
“Too bad there’s no vodka,” she mumbled, drinking one as she grabbed a blueberry muffin and removed the wrapper.
The first bite was delicious. She realized it had been quite some time since their early dinner the night before, and she was hungry. She ate the blueberry muffin quickly and grabbed another, opening all the cabinets until she found the napkins stocked by the hotel.
She was nibbling on the last of the second muffin when the television show playing in the background went silent, interrupted by a breaking
news story. Expecting it to be more coverage of the car, she almost turned it off, but then she stopped. Maybe they’d found Holt and they were taking him in for questioning.
Perking up for the first time since Jake had left less than an hour before, she bounced into the living room from the kitchenette, then stopped in her tracks.
There was a familiar face on the television. Deena stood there in the middle of the room, instantly numb, the muffin wrapper falling from her hand and onto the floor unnoticed. Standing in the middle of the room, she was in disbelief as Jake’s face flashed across the screen, then the camera went back to the scene on Cedar Springs. She shook her head, forcing herself to focus on the news anchor, who was rattling on in the background about the death.
“…from an anonymous tip called into police late last night,” the newswoman said. “The deceased has been identified as Eric Price, known rival to amateur real estate investor and billionaire Jake Berrington. The only son of Sophia and Dale Berrington, Jake Berrington was caught on camera arguing with Eric Price shortly before Price was murdered.” The scene changed to a grainy video from one of the parking lots near the shopping center on Cedar Springs.
Deena gasped, watching the video in horror as Eric Price grabbed Jake’s shirt sleeve and Jake turned, punching the man in the face. Eric went down not far from Jake’s Corvette, sitting on the ground for several seconds before the video went back to the studio. “In addition to the eye witness who saw Jake Berrington fleeing the scene, police have information that an offshore account in Berrington’s name was used to pay a known contract killer.
They won’t say where this information came from, but it looks as if Jake Berrington may have paid to have Eric Price killed, not realizing that they would be at the same place when the murder happened. Things are looking bad for Jake Berrington, to say the least.”
“They are looking bad, indeed, Colleen,” the male anchor said. “We’re also being told that Jake Berrington and Eric Price bid on the same properties several times. No one can say for sure what the two men were arguing about in the video, but the fact remains that Eric Price was dead a short time later, and so far, the police are calling Jake Berrington a ‘person of interest’ in his murder. Anyone with information is asked to call the number on the bottom of the screen, and police are cautioning people not to approach him. Jake Berrington is known to be armed and dangerous. Do not approach him if you see him.”