Jonny's Redemption (Gemini Group Book 7)

by Riley Edwards

  Sure, I kicked and screamed but there wasn’t a house within a mile of the farm. My screams were about as useless as my kicks. Dick had simply wrapped an arm around my legs and held me still. That had effectively stopped me from squirming as well.

  Now I was in his truck and he was driving like a madman, which was apt, considering he had to be insane to take me. He had to know Jonny would not rest until he found me. Neither would the guys.

  Dick was fucked.

  And that scared the holy hell out of me. Taking me from the farm meant he was desperate, so desperate he didn’t care there were cameras, so desperate he didn’t care he was courting death by driving onto the property.

  “Where are you taking me?” I asked the same question he’d refused to answer.

  “Shut up and let me think.”

  “So you don’t have a plan?”

  “I swear to God, if you don’t shut up I’m gonna gag you.”

  It went without saying I didn’t want to be gagged, further I didn’t want to find out what he’d gag me with. But for him to gag me, he’d have to pull over, and if he stopped the truck maybe I could figure out a way to get out and draw attention. We weren’t on a main road, but we weren’t on one of the hundreds of back roads that had next to no traffic for long stretches. In other words, before he took me down one of the farm lanes that would give him total privacy to do whatever he had planned, I needed out of this truck.

  “You don’t have a plan,” I antagonized him. “I thought you used to be a cop.”

  “Shut the—”

  “You know Jonny’s gonna find you, right? And when he does he’s gonna be pissed. You should pull over and let me out and maybe I can talk him out of killing you.”

  I didn’t think Jonny would kill him kill him, but Jonny would do some damage, which worried me. The last thing I wanted was Jonny in jail. No, that was the second-to-last thing; the first last thing I wanted was to be violated and murdered. But Jonny behind bars was a close runner-up.

  “Goodie-two-shoes, by-the-book Spencer is not going to kill me.”

  Goodie-two-shoes?

  Did Dick not know Jonny?

  “Um, you must not have been close to Jonny when you were wearing the same uniform as him. Which makes sense, I guess, since you and your pals were too busy framing innocent men on drug charges.”

  “So, Jonny shared.”

  Yes, Jonny had told me all about Anderson Bull and his arrest. He felt mountains of guilt over not being able to stop the guy from going to jail for something Jonny was sure he was innocent of. And now Anderson was missing and his poor wife was beside herself. On that thought, my heart started to ache.

  “Where’s Candy?”

  “Fuck if I care.”

  Oh, shit. Dick had threatened me and Candy and McKenna.

  Micky was safe at work with the guys.

  Right?

  Micky had to be okay.

  “Where’s McKenna?”

  “How should I know?”

  “Breaking this down, you took me because you’re pissed Jonny hasn’t stopped looking into Anderson; something you warned Jonny you’d do. You also said that you’d hurt Candy and McKenna.”

  “I never said that.” Dick slammed his fist onto the steering wheel. “I didn’t want anything to do with this shit. It was over, goddammit. Totally over. I fucking told Jonny to leave it. He didn’t fuckin’ listen. No one ever listens to me.”

  Dick turned down a dirt road and my body pitched as the truck skidded on the gravel.

  Why wasn’t he stopping to gag me?

  I needed him to stop.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Jesus Christ, I have no idea how Jonny puts up with your mouth. I told you to shut up.”

  “Screw off, asshole.”

  Dick slammed on his brakes, my neck snapped forward, and without my hands to brace myself my head slammed into the dash.

  Stars exploded behind my eyelids.

  “A different kind of man would’ve taken his hand to you,” Dick rumbled.

  I didn’t know what that meant. I also wasn’t going to ask. Partly because my brain was rattled but mostly because for the first time since Dick had taken me I was terrified. Not angry, not scared, not worried about Jonny, utterly to my bones terrified Dick was going to hurt me.

  It was time for a new plan, one which kept me alive long enough for Jonny to find me.

  “You make sure Jonny knows I didn’t want any part of this. None of it.”

  Did that mean I’d be alive at the end of this?

  I didn’t ask that either.

  The truck started moving and a wave of nausea hit.

  “You should call Jonny and tell him yourself,” I whispered.

  “Do you think I’m stupid?” Dick snickered and I prayed that was a rhetorical question because I was not going to answer. “I’ve heard all about what McKenna Swagger can do. I know she can trace the burner phone if I call one of them.”

  Well, fuck me running. Didn’t that just suck big ol’ monkey balls?

  “You know—”

  “Yeah, Bobby, I do know,” he spat. “I know I’m totally fucked. I know Clifford went off the rails and killed Baker. I know he’s itching to get his hands on you and Candy and I know my only chance at coming out of this alive is to get you safe. Sucks for Candy Bull, I reckon right now the hours she has left breathing are limited. But she’s not my problem right now.”

  Baker? Sheriff Baker was dead? Candy’s hours were limited? I couldn’t think about what the last part of that statement meant. I couldn’t even find it in me to be sad that a man was dead. I was stuck on the part where Dick had said he had to get me safe.

  “You coulda called Jonny. He would’ve have come for me.”

  An ugly, cruel smile quirked Dick’s lips.

  “And deprive myself of the knowledge he’s freaking the fuck out right about now? I said I wanted to come out of this alive, I never said I wasn’t up for a little fun. Besides, with him and his friends busy looking for you, they won’t be looking for Jarrod.”

  “But they will be looking for you,” I pointed out.

  “No, Bobby, they’ll be looking for you,” he corrected. “And as long as they’re tied up they won’t get in my way.”

  I shouldn’t have asked, I really should’ve listened to the countless times Dick had told me to shut up, but I had to know.

  “Won’t get in your way of doing what?”

  Dick didn’t answer.

  He slammed on the brakes again, this time harder than the first time. Or maybe not, and the first time had given me a concussion.

  Because the second time my forehead made contact with the dash, everything went black.

  27

  Jonny’s gaze was fixed on the computer monitor mounted on the wall in the conference room.

  Dick’s ambush was quick. Bobby had no chance of fighting back before she was handcuffed and thrown over Dick’s shoulder.

  Quick but not violent.

  The view switched to the outside camera and Jonny watched as Bobby lifted her head and her gaze went straight to the camera.

  Straight fucking to it, like she was staring directly at Jonny. There was no fear—no, his woman was pissed right the fuck off.

  Then Jonny lost sight of Bobby when Dick put her in his truck. He didn’t throw her, he placed her in the passenger seat before he hightailed it around the hood and jumped in. Seconds later, he was flying down the lane.

  Start to finish Dick was on and off the property in five minutes, forty-two seconds.

  Eighteen seconds shy of six minutes.

  That was how long it had taken for the sick son-of-a-bitch to get his hands on Bobby. But it was the last hour that had torn Jonny to shreds.

  Quick but not violent.

  The reminder didn’t stop the anger from vibrating through him. The images of Dick taking her assaulted his memory—his filthy hands on her, her hands cuffed.

  Taken.

  A pho
ne rang but Jonny didn’t take his eyes off the monitor. The final frame frozen—nothing on the screen but an empty road.

  Fucking empty.

  No leads.

  Gone without a trace.

  “Shit,” Jameson barked from next to Jonny but still Jonny couldn’t stop staring at the image.

  They were missing something.

  A second later, Alec’s voice filled the conference room, “Back door is busted in. Living room’s a wreck, so is the kitchen, and Candy’s gone.”

  Bone-chilling fear like he’d never known licked up Jonny’s spine.

  “Dillinger?” Jonny asked.

  “Clifford,” Alec answered.

  “She doesn’t have a security system,” McKenna said out loud but it sounded like she was talking to herself. “I could check the neighbors but it’s doubtful they’d have cameras. Decent neighborhood but not expensive. Probably a waste of time. Only CCTV in Cliff City is around the police department, the banks, and the main post office.”

  “See if you can track Anderson’s car. Clifford’s truck is in the driveway, so is Candy’s Toyota, but Anderson’s Honda’s missing.”

  “Are you saying you think Clifford used Anderson’s car to kidnap Candy?”

  “She picked the car up from the station. Unless she’s been storing it somewhere else then I’d say yes, Clifford took her in Anderson’s car.”

  “That’s some cold shit,” Jameson mumbled.

  “By the way, Holden checked in. He’s taking his time cruising through back roads on the north side of the county as he makes his way back to the office,” Alec informed them.

  “Weston called in, too. He’s doing the same, coming in from the west. Nixon’s still at Dick’s.”

  Not having to wait for a search warrant came in handy when the woman you loved was at the mercy of a cocksucking prick.

  “Okay, so her phone is in the house,” McKenna announced and continued to pound the keyboard. “I traced Anderson’s car to H&C Scrapyard out on Route 213. Are you sure she picked it up? Doesn’t the sheriff’s department use them as a compound lot?”

  “Yeah, they do, it’s…” Jonny trailed off and in rapid succession, things started to make sense. “Route 213. The Henderson family bought Teddy Kerr’s business when he retired. They also bought the defunct bowling alley next door. Henderson and his son knocked down the building and closed the mechanic shop and turned the property into a salvage yard.”

  In his mind he went over the specifics of the lawsuit McKenna had unsealed. After the accident that rendered Jarrod’s brother Mark Clifford a paraplegic, Mark and his wife Lori filed a lawsuit against Teddy’s Garage. It was immediately thrown out. Mark had taken his car into Teddy’s for an oil change the day before he got into the accident that put him in a wheelchair. But the accident was due to brake failure. Anderson had only done the oil change, not worked on Mark’s brakes, nor had any mechanic at Teddy’s. A month before, the car manufacturer had sent out a recall notice on the brake parts. Mark never followed up on getting them fixed. The inspector had ruled the cause of the accident as operator neglect, hence the lawsuit never making it to trial.

  “Jonny?” Jameson asked.

  “Fucked up. I was too focused on Dillinger and missed it. Jarrod Clifford blamed Anderson Bull and Teddy Kerr for his brother’s accident. That’s why they pulled him over and arrested him on trumped-up drug charges.” Jonny paused and turned to McKenna. “Did you find the cause of death when you looked Mark Clifford up?”

  McKenna’s eyes grew wide. “Sepsis, related to an infected pressure wound at the base of his spine.”

  “From being in a wheelchair and not taking care of himself properly,” Jonny said. “Jarrod’s blaming his brother’s death on Anderson after all these years.”

  “You didn’t fuck anything up,” Jameson argued. “Who would think he’d hold a grudge that long?”

  But Jonny had stopped listening. Shoddy police work.

  He was on the sidewalk in front of Gemini Group with zero recollection of leaving the office or walking down the stairs.

  “We’ll find her.”

  Yeah, they would. Because the alternative was unacceptable.

  “Did you hear me? Jonny, we’re gonna find her.”

  Jonny didn’t answer. He couldn’t break down—Bobby needed him solid. She needed him sharp and alert using his head to figure out where she was, not coming apart at the seams.

  “We need to get to H&C’s.”

  Jameson blinked then narrowed his eyes. The other man’s stare was disconcerting; Jameson Grant saw too much and Jonny didn’t have time to be analyzed. He needed to get to Bobby.

  Though something was nagging at the back of his mind, telling him he was still missing something. There was something about the way Dick moved, the careful way he’d handcuffed Bobby, the way he’d stopped her from kicking him but he didn’t hurt her when he very well could’ve. Hell, Dick could’ve taken her out at the office and left before any of them could’ve gotten there.

  Obviously. He had taken Bobby before Vaughn had arrived and he was less than five miles from the farm.

  Five miles.

  Vaughn was at the scene where Baker had been shot on the side of the road after stopping Clifford.

  “What was Clifford doing out by the farm?” Jonny asked. “He lives on the other end of the county. Candy lives in the opposite direction. So what the hell was Clifford doing five miles from the farm?”

  “Fuck,” Jameson clipped. “Did Vaughn say which direction Baker’s SUV was pointing?”

  “What does that—”

  “It matters because if Baker was traveling west when he pulled Clifford over, he was headed in the direction of the farm.” Jameson beeped the locks to his truck and announced, “I’m driving.”

  Jonny wasn’t about to admit his head was too screwed-up to drive so he didn’t. Instead, he silently climbed in on the passenger side, which was an admission of sorts.

  What else was he missing?

  Vaughn answered on the second ring and launched right in, “Alec called it in. Units are en route to H&C’s.”

  “Which way was Baker’s vehicle facing?” Jonny inquired.

  “Come again?”

  “Which direction was Baker traveling when he pulled over Clifford?”

  There was a beat of silence before Vaughn caught on. “Jesus Christ, Clifford was going to the farm.”

  Yeah, Jarrod Clifford was going to the farm to pick up Bobby but Dick had gotten there first and taken her without waiting for Clifford.

  Why?

  “See you at H&C’s.”

  Jonny disconnected and looked over at Jameson.

  “What the fuck are we missing?” Jonny asked.

  “He went easy on her,” Jameson noted. “Bobby was kicking the shit out of him and he still set her in his truck gently.”

  There could be a variety of sick reasons Dick wanted to deliver Bobby uninjured. Visions of Bobby beaten and bloody on the dirty floor of the trailer assaulted Jonny. No, not visions, memories. Vivid, cruel memories that had never subsided. Never would. And he’d promised himself no one would ever harm her again. Fucking shit.

  Trailer.

  There was that nagging voice in the back of his mind. Answers floated just out of reach. It made sense Clifford would take Candy to the salvage yard, the former site of Teddy’s—poetic justice in his sick mind. And practicality. Jonny would bet they’d find Anderson’s dead body either buried somewhere on that property or he’d be in the trunk of one of the scrapped cars with a bag of calcium hydroxide poured over him. There were thousands of cars in that junkyard.

  Jonny engaged his phone and called Nixon.

  “On my way,” Nix grunted in Jonny’s ear.

  “Was Dick’s pull-behind at his house?”

  “Shit.”

  “I take that as a no?”

  “No, his camper was not there. What are you thinking?”

  “I don’t know, but nothing’s addin
g up. Clifford was on his way to get Bobby. Dick gets there first, snatches her, then Clifford changes direction and gets Candy to take her to H&C’s. And he does that in Anderson’s car, not his truck.”

  “The last part’s easy. There’s an APB out on his truck. No one would think to look for Anderson’s Honda.”

  Okay, Jonny could buy that. It was actually smart if it weren’t stupid. Clifford had to know they’d look in on Candy. Unless he didn’t care anymore.

  “Gotta go, McKenna’s calling in on the other line.” Nixon didn’t wait for Jonny to respond before he dropped the line.

  “Dick’s camper’s not at his house,” Jonny relayed the information.

  “You think Dick stashed Bobby in his camper?”

  “Yeah. I think he took her before Clifford could get to her.”

  “Playing hero?”

  Jonny inhaled a sharp breath and the anger he’d been keeping in check finally spilled over. Stupid fuck, Dick was playing some sort of twisted game. Jonny used the rest of the drive to the junkyard plotting all the ways he was going to torture Dick into telling him where Bobby was. It was highly debatable if Dick would be left breathing.

  Unfortunately, as life was wont to do, the curveball came fast and sharp.

  They heard the first gunshot from inside the cab of Jameson’s truck. Jameson hadn’t even rolled to a stop before Jonny jumped out and took off running across the parking lot of H&C’s. He noted Dick’s pickup was in the lot as was Anderson’s Honda. No other cars. Jonny and Jameson were the first to arrive.

  The second gunshot was louder and when Jonny rounded the office building he knew why. Clifford and Dick were in a standoff. Candy was on the ground, blood oozing from her stomach.

  “Stand down!” Jonny shouted and he couldn’t believe he was doing what he was doing but the barrel of his weapon was pointed at Clifford instead of the man who’d kidnapped his woman.

  He needed to keep Dick alive if he wanted to know where the fucker had hidden her. Kent County wasn’t big by any stretch of the imagination but there were thousands of acres of woods where he could’ve parked his small pull-behind. That was if Jonny was even correct.

  Dick looked his way and smirked. “Got here faster than I thought you would.”