by Kadi Dillon
“I’d rather—”
“We know. But we need you up here.”
Jaw clenched tight, his father nodded. “We get out of here, we’re buying some guns.”
“That’s a deal. Let’s go.” Gideon motioned for Colin to go out.
The small office room opened into a narrow hallway with old, red carpeting. The soft floor helped to muffle their footsteps as they made their way to the stairs.
Gideon shoved his flashlight in his pocket and took the stairs one at a time. There were no guards on the top floor, but he didn’t think they’d be so lucky the farther down they went.
The second stairway was hardwood so Gideon slowed his steps to mute the sounds. He heard men talking in hushed tones behind a set of wooden double doors. Their conversation was over a college football team and one of them snickered over something the other one said.
When he met his brother’s gaze, Colin nodded, and Gideon pulled the gun out of his jeans. He wouldn’t use it. The sound would only alert everyone else and all hell would break loose. But it would come in handy if he had to knock them out. He opened the door to an enormous room full of wooden crates.
The men they’d heard through the door were sitting at a card table, smoking and playing what looked like a friendly game of poker. There were only a handful of them. Over their own laughter, they hadn’t heard Gideon or Colin enter the room.
Gideon pulled Colin to the side and they slipped behind a stack of crates. They waited there, crouched down behind the wood and listened to the idiot’s conversation go from football to women.
He didn’t know what he was waiting for. Rebecca wasn’t in the room, but they’d never make it anywhere with the men sitting right there. They each had a gun holstered at their hip.
Gideon was mentally routing their way through the room when the conversation at the card table turned interesting. He signaled for Colin to listen.
“You hear any more on Roman?”
“He’s lucid and pissed. That bitch really fucked him up with that rock,” a younger voice answered. He hooted out something about upping the ante. “I bet the boss keeps her around so Roman can stick it to her.”
“I’m the one who had to drag her to the boat.” The older man sounded insulted. “And look at these friggin’ scratch marks.”
“You ought to go get a rabies shot.”
The wheels were turning in Gideon’s head. From the way the bastards were talking, Rebecca was still alive. He couldn’t wait any longer. He had to get to her. He was about to stand from his crouch on the floor and do what, he didn’t know. But he stopped cold when he heard Rebecca’s voice entering the room.
He started to lunge, but Colin grabbed his shirt and held him firmly in place. He shook his head and mouthed the word wait. Gideon didn’t want to wait. But he couldn’t think past the sound of blood rushing in his ears.
“I’ve had enough.” Blade pulled Rebecca into another room where two men were sitting at a small table smoking and playing cards. His voice echoed off the concrete walls as he shouted out his frustration. There were more crates in this room, the dim light casting shadows from the tall, wide boxes. “Get Austin on the phone now.”
Rebecca stopped in the center of the room, massaging her bicep where Blade’s fingers had dug in. He’d gone from slightly amused, to anxious, to furious. Austin wasn’t picking up and time was running out until Blade’s next shipment was due. He’d let a few little details slip. With each little tidbit her blood had chilled more because she knew he wouldn’t let her live knowing what she knew. He bought guns illegally and sold them to dealers on the street. A part from running the occasion con, he had turned into one of America’s most wanted men.
Her father was small change compared to the likes of Danny Blade. And Blade was right. Austin had gone in way to deep this time. Fortunately for him, he wouldn’t be the one to face the consequences.
“You already know he isn’t going to come.” Her temper was shot. She’d tried and failed to keep it under control. Not that it mattered. She was going to die anyway. Might as well go out swinging. “If you think you can do any better then be my guest.”
“Give me the phone.”
She handed it over then crossed her arms to stop them from trembling. He dialed several different numbers before growling. He threw the phone against the wall. Dispassionately, Rebecca watched it shatter to a thousand little pieces.
The small buzz the liquor had given her was gone. She was chilled to the bone again and couldn’t find warmth. She’d also learned from Blade’s rambling that Gideon was still alive.
“Told you,” she antagonized. “So Blade, you have two choices. Shoot me now or shoot me later, but I really wish you’d just get on with it. I’m bored and annoyed and it doesn’t look like you’re going to get your money back.”
“Shut the fuck up while I think.” He paced and muttered to himself. “The senator’s going to be on my ass. He’ll ruin me.”
“And maybe you’ll have learned a valuable lesson from all this. Honest work for honest pay. You’ve screwed people out of thousands of dollars. Karma’s a bitch, Danny, or had you forgotten that?”
“I said shut up!”
The guards who had been sitting at the card table were standing behind her now. She knew in an instant, she could be dead. If she had seen just a flicker of humanity in Blade’s icy blue eyes, she wouldn’t have been taunting him so.
But his cold stare and angry sneer insured her that she would be dying no matter what she said or did. If she had been able to dial nine-one-one on the phone he’d given her, she would have. It may or may not have helped but she couldn’t know now because he’d shattered the phone. He’d been watching her like a hawk before but was now swinging around in rage, muttering to himself.
Rebecca stood and waited, trying desperately to think of something.
Blade had left the gun behind. Whether he felt safe with his armed men around him or whether he had forgotten in his angry state, she didn’t know. But she would have to take care of the men with weapons first if she stood any chance.
“What if I were to send him an ear first? You could live without an ear.”
The calm, offhanded way he spoke sent ice skidding up her back. She felt like a bird in a cage. And Blade was the hungry cat just waiting for her to make a move. Terror kept her frozen in place, her heart hammering in her chest.
“So not only are you a con and you sell illegal weapons, but you torture and murder innocent people?” Her voice sounded strong and cool. She held on to that.
He wasn’t listening to her. He paced the room like a starving tiger on the prowl. “He’d pay a ransom after a couple of fingers.”
She wouldn’t die that way, she thought frantically. Backed into a corner, she realized the only thing she could do. “Hey, Blade.”
“Hmm?”
“You know my father used you, right?” Deliberately insulting, she sauntered over to him. A look of puzzlement washed over his face. “He’d come home from working at that department store and we’d just laugh. You do realize you were just his patsy, don’t you? That he was planning on turning you in when the scam was done?”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I may have been young, but I wasn’t stupid. He used you then, he’s using you now. You won’t get your money back because you were a fucking idiot. You gave it to him.”
“Shoot her.”
“You’re never going to see him again,” she shouted.
“I said shoot her!”
Rebecca’s last coherent thought was that if she were going down, she’d take him with her. But then several things happened at once. She lunged at Blade and heard several shots ring out, one after the other. Footsteps echoed off the walls as she clawed at Blade’s face. She heard men screaming, more shots, and smelt the metallic scent of blood, but she couldn’t stop.
She pulled Blade’s hair and pounded his head into the concrete floor. She felt hands
wrapping around her arms, pulling. She didn’t care. She heard sirens getting closer and closer. She couldn’t stop.
Finally the hands that grabbed her managed to pry her off him. She fisted Blade’s shirt in her hands and only then realized he’d quit moving.
There was blood on her. It seemed to be all over. She heard Gideon’s voice in her ears and only then did she let go of Blade. He slumped to the floor, moaning. She was lifted off of him and several pairs of hands were pushing at her, checking her.
She tried to get her voice to work—to tell them she was fine but it, came out on a sob. Gideon crushed her to his chest, tangling his hand in her hair.
“Shh, it’s over, baby.”
He rocked her where they sat while chaos ensued around them. The familiar smell of the sea washed over her, comforting her more than his words. She reached up to find his mouth and he gave it to her. She poured herself into the kiss as if it were a lifeline.
He quieted her again, picked her up, and carried her outside. She didn’t look at the bodies lying on the ground, or at the dozens of officers surveying the scene. There was even a news crew shining a light in her face. Gideon growled at them and dissuaded them of the notion.
“Sit down here and let them check you out.”
She didn’t argue. She sank down on the bumper of the ambulance and sat still while a small lady flashed a light into her eyes. She didn’t budge when the paramedic wrapped the blood pressure cuff around her arm. She couldn’t stop a flinch when it squeezed her, but Gideon moved right in to soothe.
“She’s shocky and will have one hell of a shiner, but other than that everything looks okay. Go home, take a sleeping pill.”
“Thank you,” Gideon murmured. “Are you all right?”
She nodded and took a deep breath. The fresh sea air was a welcoming relief. “Is your family okay? They were going to burn your house.”
“Yeah. Zoey let up a ruckus and woke us all up in time.” His warm hand reached out and cupped her chin before his thumb slid over her cheek. “You knew him.”
She nodded. “He was my father’s partner when I was little.”
Rebecca glanced up and saw that Charles and Colin were dodging the press and heading straight for her. She stood on wobbly legs and was wrapped in a hug so tight, it almost cut off her air.
“Are you okay?” Charles voice was rough. He pulled her back without releasing her to look her over. “You weren’t hurt?”
“I’m fine.”
“You did a hell of a job, sis.” Colin flipped her hair. “That guy looks like he just went ten rounds with a champ.”
“He did,” was Charles’s dry reply.
“The police need to talk to us. Rebecca can stay put, I’ll tell the officer to talk to her here.” Colin ran his hand over her tangling mass of hair.
“I’ll wait here.”
“No,” Rebecca murmured to Gideon as the others left. “They’ll want to talk to me privately. I’ll be fine.”
He stared at her for a minute, his gaze deep and fathomless. Then he kissed her cheek, then her mouth. “I’ll come back with a shirt for you to wear. I love you.”
Before she could speak again, he walked away in the direction where his family went. Rebecca glanced down at her bloody shirt and shivered. Most of it was Blade’s; some of it was the guard who’d been shot behind her. Tears blurred her vision and she ruthlessly gathered herself back together.
By the time the detective came over to question her, she was calm. She told him everything she knew, gave him her contact information, and when he offered to give her a ride, she asked him to take her to a hotel.
She left before Gideon could return to the ambulance. It was cleaner that way.
Chapter Seventeen
The smell of cookies had never made her ache before. Rebecca pulled the first batch of chocolate chip out of the oven and one by one, placed them on the cooling rack. The aromas coming from Brittany’s apartment reminded her of the Avery kitchen. Her eyes watered as she slid another sheet of dough on the wire rack in the oven and set the timer.
She grabbed her bottle of water from the counter and took a slug, though it had turned warm. For the most part, she’d succeeded at keeping Gideon and his family off her mind, but it snuck up on her at the oddest times. She felt alone when she took her run every morning. She felt empty when she munched on carrot sticks for lunch. She felt lost when Brittany wanted to talk about the drummer instead of the things Jess always talked about.
She couldn’t keep the dreams away. Smoky eyes haunted her every night. She could hear Gideon’s voice whispering in her ear and feel his hardness against her back as she slept—alone. Every day she missed him a little more.
The timer on the oven dinged, bringing her out of her stupor.
She was glad Rose had taught her to bake, she thought, taking the sheet out of the oven. She was grateful to be able to take a little piece of the Avery family with her. She’d had a taste of what being a part of a family was like and she loved it. But she didn’t deserve it.
Could she ever forgive herself for putting them at risk that way? No. It was unforgivable. She’d acted just like her father and that disgusted her. She’d jumped foolishly into a stranger’s boat, then handed all her problems to him. He had handled them while she’d sat back and waited.
Hardly that, she acknowledged as she recalled the hours before seeing Blade—the worry and the fear. She’d faced her problems, or some of them, but the end result was the same. She’d risked the Avery’s lives. They could have died in the fire Roman had ordered his men to set.
She hoped she could forgive herself one day.
“Are you trying to torture me?” Brittany bounced into the kitchen and eyed a cookie. “I’m almost desperate enough to eat one.”
“Go ahead.”
“You want Niko to kill me? You’re already prima, what else do you want?” She took the biggest cookie on the rack and bit in with a moan. “I hate you.”
“Stop being so dramatic. It’s only half a day’s worth of calories.” Rebecca chose a small one and brought it to her lips.
Brittany groaned again. “Where’d you learn to bake so well?”
Here it is again. “Gideon’s mother taught me.” They both knew the only reason Lilah would enter a kitchen would be to fetch the telephone. “I can cook some things, too.”
“Becca?”
Rebecca looked up and saw Brittany’s solemn expression. “Yeah?”
“Why don’t you just call him?”
From the little she’d been able to tell, Rebecca knew by the lack of questions that Brittany could read between the lines. She must have been wearing the pieces of her heart on her sleeve. She’d never seen such pity come from her friend.
“I can’t,” Rebecca said, tossing the rest of her cookie in the trash. “I just can’t.”
Brittany took the milk out of the refrigerator and poured two glasses. “Can’t or won’t?”
“It doesn’t matter. The results are the same.” Since her throat had grown thick, she accepted the glass to wash down the cookie. “I’m not calling him.”
Brittany sipped her drink. Silence hummed throughout the sunny room. Since the mess wasn’t going to clean itself up, Rebecca gathered dishes and ran hot water in the sink. She was surprised when her non-domestic friend started rinsing the dishes she washed.
“What did you bake the cookies for?”
“Why?”
“Because I’m getting a hotel in the next city if they’re going to be here. I can’t be in the same house as a batch of chocolate chip cookies.”
Because she knew Brittany was trying to lighten the mood, she smiled. “I’m going to talk to my mother today.”
The plastic mixing bowl clattered in the sink. “You are?”
Just as shocked by the announcement as her friend, Rebecca stared hard out the window above the sink. She’d baked the cookies only because she needed something to feel closer to Rose. She’d been more of a mothe
r to her than Lilah had ever been. It wasn’t her world and she didn’t belong with Rose—but she needed a mother.
It was that, she knew, that had her deciding to have it out with Lilah. She may be even more angry with her at first, but it was an argument years in the making. “Yes. We need to clear the air. I have to go home sooner or later.”
Again, she was struck at how empty the house looked. She parked her car in the driveway and walked slowly to the door. She didn’t know what to say—couldn’t even imagine what had possessed her to come here in the first place.
She clutched the plate of cookies like a lifeline, knowing they wouldn’t make a difference in how things turned out today. They were a useless prop that—for reasons beyond her comprehension—made her feel better.
She opened the tall, glass door and walked inside. Peals of laughter erupted from the parlor down the hall. Rebecca followed the sound, almost hoping there was someone else in there. She could set the cookies in the kitchen and get while the getting was good.
She firmly dismissed the idea. It was the coward’s way out. Rebecca was many things, but she wasn’t a coward.
It didn’t take long to realize Lilah was on the phone. From her end of the conversation, Rebecca assumed there was a man on the other line. Shrugging, she slipped in the room.
Lilah stopped mid-sentence and they stood for a moment, staring at each other. She’d aged in the weeks since she’d seen her last—at the airport. Her straw-colored hair was pulled back in a severe bun, leaving her face unframed. Despite the heavy make-up, the lines around her eyes were deeper. Mild annoyance flashed in her pale, blue eyes.
“Jeremy, I’ll have to call you back. I have an appointment coming up. Yes,” she laughed gaily. “I’ll see you tonight.” She placed the phone in its cradle and rose from the sofa. “Well, this is surprising.”
“We need to talk. I brought you these.”
Lilah peeked at the plate in her daughter’s hands. “Cookies? You bought cookies?”