He paused rowing for a moment, letting the small boat drift. “Are congratulations in order?”
“I turned them down.” Her fingers swirled through the water, as if composing music in her mind. “I asked for a leave of absence. They agreed to two weeks’ medical leave, though after that I can dip into my holiday time. I have plenty saved.”
He went back to rowing. “I thought you were dying to take over the editor’s desk.”
“I was. Dying. But over the past few days I realized how much I missed living.” She shrugged. “So I’m going to try taking some time just to think. And pray. And sleep. Maybe read a book or go for a walk. Figure out where I’m really going and why.”
He nodded. Something told him he’d be doing a whole lot of thinking on that flight to Lebanon on Monday.
The small boat followed the curve of the lake around toward the clubhouse. A bright light shone from the front window. Funny, he thought the police had already cleared the place. He reached for the walkie-talkie. “Albright?”
“Yeah? Mark?”
“Is there supposed to be anyone in the clubhouse?”
There was a pause. “I believe security has someone watching the road in and out. I think they finished with the building.”
“Well, there’s someone there now. Maybe you should get them to send—”
A sudden burst of static broke over the line. The signal screeched. Then a new voice took over the airwaves. “Help! Somebody! Anybody! They’re going to kill me!”
Katie gasped. “Ethan!”
The channel faded to static again. Mark searched through the channels but couldn’t reach either Albright or Ethan. Chances were the radio transmitter was trying to broadcast on all channels again. He started the engine. Did this mean Ethan had somehow escaped with the broadcast unit? Or did Al have him locked up and Ethan had tried to use the unit to call for help?
He glanced up at the bright light shining in the clubhouse window. At least now they knew where he was.
* * *
Mark cut the engine as they came upon the bank. The light had disappeared from the window even before they reached shore. He dug out a flashlight out from under the seat. “Keep trying the walkie-talkie, and see if you can reach Albright. I’m hoping he got the message and is sending a whole team of security heading out this way, but I can’t be sure.”
He pulled a rope from the bottom of the boat, climbed out and tethered it to the dock. Katie scrambled out after him.
“No, we’ll be safer staying together.”
He opened his mouth and then shut it again. If the past few days had taught him anything, it was that sometimes it helped to have a partner. “Okay then. Just stay back if I tell you to. Don’t be a hero.”
“You got it.”
He grinned. He was going to have to figure out a way to marry her when this was all over.
* * *
The windows were dark. The clubhouse looked just as deserted as it had when they’d fled it with his father only a few hours earlier. The huge front door slid open smoothly. Their feet echoed in the empty entranceway. Mark crossed the room and waved for her to follow him down the hallway. “Now, I think I saw the light coming from the—” The words froze in his throat, and his hands rose slowly in the air. He backed into the room, followed by Al and the long, angular barrel of an assault rifle.
TWENTY
“Down on the floor.” Al gripped the assault rifle like a sniper. “Now.”
Mark was stock-still. He dropped the flashlight and held his hands out in front of him like boxer’s gloves. “You’ve lost your army. All those boys you coerced into helping you have been arrested and police know exactly who you are.” He calmly stepped toward Al with a confidence that made Katie’s breath catch in her throat. “You’re nothing but a sick two-bit drug dealer with delusions of grandeur, who probably doesn’t even know now to work that AK-47.”
“I was there the day your family destroyed my home.” Al tightened his grasp. “Someone pushed a button, and then there was nothing left but rubble. Now I’m going to do the same to yours.”
“You’re the one destroying lives.” Mark took another step toward the barrel pointed between his eyes. “I’m not going to let you destroy any more. This is my family’s home and your last warning.”
Al leveled Mark in his sights. Mark dove through the air toward him, just as the gun exploded upward. A loud spray of bullets tore up the ceiling as the force kicked Al off balance.
Mark caught him hard in the stomach and knocked the gun from his hands. He swung low and brought his arm up to the other man’s chest, pushing him back toward the ground. But Al rolled over quickly and lunged at his throat.
Katie ran for the gun and yanked out the magazine before throwing it out into the dense underbrush. Then she turned back, only to watch desperately as the two men rolled on the ground in a mess of fists and feet and flailing limbs, struggling for dominance. Within seconds, Mark had thrown Al against the floor again, and for a moment she thought he had him pinned. But with one desperate lunge, Al head-butted Mark hard in the face. Mark’s grasp slackened. The drug dealer squirmed free and ran out the front of the building.
Katie rushed to Mark’s side. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Like I told you, there’s nothing more stupid than a novice with an AK-47. Fool things always...”
“Pull up and to the right, I remember.”
Mark grinned. He leaped to his feet. “Go. Find Ethan. I’m not letting Al get away this time.”
* * *
Desperately, she searched the first floor, shining the flashlight over every corner, calling Ethan’s name as she went. The dining room was empty. So was the kitchen. She reached the lounge and opened the door.
“Oh, Katie!” A figure rose from the armchair and bowed at her like a shaky marionette. “You’re exactly the person I was hoping to see. So, tell me, how is the story going so far? Is it all over the news?” He was still drunk and probably high. But at least he was still alive. Thank God. By the look of it, Al hadn’t even touched him.
“I heard your distress signal—”
“Oh, you heard that!” He beamed a wide, wobbly and disconcerting smile, as though he expected applause. “I thought it would add to the story. Al was playing with the radio anyway. But he didn’t like me touching things and sent me downstairs.”
“Downstairs? What were you doing upstairs?”
He waved a hand, like he was swatting her question away. “Now, the first thing I need you to do is get the power back on and fire up an internet connection. I really want to end this story with a bang.”
She stretched out her hand. “Just come with me now, and you can use the internet back in your room.”
He dropped back into the armchair and crossed his arms. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She sighed. No wonder Al hadn’t bothered tying him up. He’d probably just supplied him with so many illegal substances that he didn’t know he was in danger.
“Ethan,” she said gently, as if coaxing a very small child out of a tree, “you’ve been kidnapped—”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Yes, you have. We were in a helicopter, and it crashed. Then some people took us hostage.”
He scowled. “I know, I know.” He shook his head. “The story was all getting really exciting, too, and then everyone stopped doing what I told them....”
“No, Ethan. This isn’t a story. It’s real. You’re in the clubhouse on the Shields estate—”
“I know!” He stormed over to the desk, snatched up a lamp and threw it against the wall. It smashed. “But Al won’t let me go until I come up with the fifty thousand dollars I promised him!”
* * *
Al scrambled into a golf cart and started the engine. Mark pushed
his body to run faster, forcing his way through a wall of physical pain even as it screamed in his head like a fury. The golf cart lurched forward, stalled, then sped forward again. But in an instant, Mark had reached it.
He leaped up onto the side and grabbed Al around the neck. Al’s fist flew hard into his face, filling his vision with stars. But throwing his weight backward, he yanked Al from his seat. For a second, he could see the terror in his eyes as they fell through the air. They hit the ground, and Mark lost his grip. There was a screech and then a loud metallic bang as the golf cart plowed into a tree.
He leaped to his feet just in time to see Al pulling a knife from his boot. “Just let me walk out of here, and no one needs to get hurt.”
Mark nearly laughed. “I can’t do that. You terrorized the woman I love. You came into my family home and threatened my father. You think that knife is going to protect you from me?”
Mark threw himself at Al just as the weapon flashed through the air. Grabbing his arm, Mark forced him down to the ground. He smacked Al’s wrist backward into the dirt until the weapon fell from his hand.
“Stand up.” He grabbed Al by the collar and pulled him up to face him. “I don’t want to hurt you. So you’re going to show me where you’re keeping Ethan. Then you’re going to sit nice and quietly while we wait for the police.”
“Please.” Al shook his head, writhing in panic like a drowning man. “You have to let me go.”
“Look, I will drag you in if I have to—”
“The building’s going to explode.”
* * *
“Like I was ever really going to pay him!” Ethan spluttered. “I mean, who’d really pay fifty thousand dollars for you?”
His words struck Katie in the chest like bullets. “You did this?” She stumbled back. “You hired some random criminal to terrorize me for a story?”
“Al’s my guy.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “He finds me things when I need them, and I pay him for it.”
“Like drugs?” She glanced toward the door. Where was Mark?
“And my gun and sometimes women. He knows how to get me stuff.” He sniffed. “None of this is my fault. The board said they’d fire me if we didn’t get subscriptions up, and none of you could get me a decent story. So I told Al to find me a really good shocking story, like a kidnapping. He suggested kidnapping me. But I thought it would be good if we got some ransom pictures, and we wanted whoever it was to look really scared. Like they thought they were going to die. Add some tension to it. Plus I was hardly going to get credit for the story if I wasn’t in the office running the paper. Besides, we figured the longer it lasted, the more papers we’d sell, and it’s not like I wanted to be locked in some closet for a week. I’ve got a life. So we decided he’d just grab one of the women who work for me.”
Her hand rose to her throat. “You paid your dealer to hurt me?”
“Kidnap. He was only supposed to kidnap you.” He rolled his eyes. “This mess is all your fault, you know. If you’d just let them kidnap you already, we’d have a big, wonderful exclusive in the paper about how one of our staff was...I don’t know...kidnapped by some crazy person. But you had to pick this week to be difficult.”
Is that why he’d picked her? Because he thought she wouldn’t fight back? Is that where all her compliance had gotten her? “You bugged my phone. You sent me north to the middle of nowhere because you wanted me isolated, vulnerable...”
“You think it was too much?” he said. “Tying it into the Shields thing? It was Al’s idea. He really hates the Shieldses. Like, obsessively. He insisted on this specific story assignment. He was going to grab you in Kapuskasing and use you to break into the Shields party somehow... I don’t know.... I wasn’t listening. As long as I got my kidnap story, I was leaving the details up to him.
“But Al got kind of sidetracked. He was on his way up here and saw someone he thought looked like Shields Junior at a gas station, so he followed him to a farmhouse in Cobalt. Next thing I know he’s saying he’s going to make the train stop in Cobalt and kidnap you there, so he can try to grab your friend, too. I said I didn’t care as long as he kidnapped you. But it was probably more than he could handle. I just thought, hey, people hate Shields, you know? Hit two juicy birds with one stone and then tie them both together with a big, fat bow.” He grinned. “It was really cool when he managed to get me pictures. I’m thinking a photo spread.”
An almost hysterical giggle was building in the back of her throat. He’d actually thought he could bribe his drug dealer to kidnap her as a stunt to sell papers. This was the Ethan who scared her. The drug-addled narcissist who showed up at work dead-eyed, then carried on an hour-long conversation with an empty chair, and because they’d all been so afraid of getting fired, they let him get away with it. The overindulged playboy who no one had ever said no to. No wonder he thought he could get away with blowing something up or kidnapping someone as a means to propel his little publication to the big time—he’d been too pampered, drugged and indulged to ever realize the world held any limits.
“Ethan! This is serious. People have been hurt. We could’ve been killed. The helicopter pilot died. Not to mention whoever was in the van when it exploded—”
A dangerous scowl flickered across his face. “That van had nothing to do with me. I didn’t order bombs. It’s not my fault Al improvised. Did you know he actually demanded I come up here this morning? He even made me bring up a bag for him.”
“What was in the bag?”
“I dunno. Some kind of bomb. I left it under a table in the party tent. He said it would add to the story if we blew some things up.”
“Like a gala full of people?” No wonder Billy and the other teenagers had run screaming when they heard Mark blow the storage door open. Al had them playing with explosives.
“I think a couple of the guys set some up in other places around the complex, too,” he said. “He didn’t tell me all the locations. I just know he got all hyped up about it when he knew we had a radio detonator.”
Radio detonator...Mark’s broadcast unit. Katie’s mind was reeling so fast she could hardly put words to her thoughts. “Ethan. Focus. Is Al going to use Mark’s radio unit to set off the other bombs?”
“I guess.” His shoulders rose and fell limply. “It’s not fair. He was playing with it, but he took it away.”
“And you said it’s upstairs?”
Another shrug.
She grabbed his arm. “Ethan. Listen to me. You’ve got to get out of here, and I’ve got to find Mark. This is not your story anymore, and Al’s just using you. You’re not the boss here. You’re just another stupid junkie to him. We have to go to the police. Now—”
He lunged before she could react, grabbing her by the shoulders, pushing her into the wall. A small gun flashed in his hand. “I am your boss.” He pressed it to her temple. “And you will obey me.”
TWENTY-ONE
Ethan’s hand clenched her throat. The other forced the tip of the gun into her skin. “You work for me. I own you—just like Al—and I am going to direct exactly how this is going to go. First, you’re going to help me get Al arrested, so I don’t have to pay him. Then you are going to tell the world that I’m your hero and I rescued you—”
She could feel the paralyzing grip of fear creeping up her throat. But she gulped a deep breath and forced it back. “No, Ethan. I won’t.”
He dropped his grip on her and swung. His fist flew through the air, hitting her across the face, snapping her jaw sideways so violently her neck screamed in pain. A wave of nausea swept over her. Her legs gave way.
“You work for me,” he screamed. “You belong to me. You must obey me.”
“No. I will never belong to you.”
“Then you can die for all I care.” He threw himself onto her back, forcing her face
into the ground.
Oh, God. Please don’t abandon me now... You hem me in behind and before. You lay your hand upon me. She screamed with every ounce of air left in her lungs and swung backward at him, her fists falling ineffectually against his sides.
He laughed. “Give it up, Katie. You’re on your own now. You are all mine.” He grabbed a fistful of hair and yanked her head back so hard pain blinded her vision. Her hands shot out, reaching for anything she could grab on to.
Even the darkness will not be dark to you... For darkness is as light to you... Her fingers brushed against the remains of the broken lamp. She grasped the base and swung it back hard toward him. A satisfying crack filled the room as her weapon made contact. Ethan grunted and fell off her. She pulled herself onto her hands and knees, gasping for breath.
“Katie!” Mark appeared in the doorway. “You okay?”
She coughed. Then nodded. “Where’s Al?”
“I let him run.”
He crossed the room and reached for her hand. “Come on. We’ve got to get out of here. This whole place is going to explode.”
She shook her head. “We can’t. They planted bombs at the gala. Al set up your suitcase studio as the remote detonator.”
His face turned the color of ash. “Where?” He grabbed Ethan and rolled him over. The editor moaned faintly, but his eyes didn’t open.
“It’s upstairs.” She dragged herself to her feet. “He’s got a gun.”
Mark patted him down quickly. “Can’t find it and we don’t have time to go searching for it.” He turned to face her. His hands slid onto her shoulders. “Do what you can to get him out of here. But if he won’t go, just leave him. I need you to get as far away from here as you can. Al said there was a bomb in this building, as well. But if the remote detonator for the other bombs is also here, then this building will have to be the last one set to explode. Otherwise, it would just blow up the radio detonator itself before it could set the other bombs off. I just don’t know how much time that will give us.” He kissed her cheek, dropped her shoulders and turned to go.
Killer Assignment Page 18