He blinked, too startled to even think about squeezing the trigger. “Reed?”
The gray-haired man blinked back. “Donovan Grady.”
Donovan took a quick, surprised inventory. Jordynn’s boss didn’t look injured in the slightest. In fact, he was damned sure he looked worse than Reed did. The man stood tall, his gaze as gray and steely as his hair.
Donovan’s eyes drifted down to the other man’s hand. “Why do you have—”
“A gun?” Reed filled in, cocking the pistol in question. “In my own facility?”
Beneath Donovan’s knee, Ivan laughed. And too late, he realized what was happening. He lifted his weapon.
“Before you fire,” said Reed, “you might want to walk over to that room there and have a look out the window. Feel free to take Ivan with you as collateral.”
Slowly, Donovan stood, yanking Ivan with him. He was already sure of what he’d find, but a morbid need for confirmation made him look. He shuffled to the door that Reed had pointed at, then nudged it open. He pulled Ivan across the dim room to the narrow, wire-lined window. Sure enough, his fears were confirmed. Across the parking lot stood both men who’d been dragging Reed through the halls. One had his jacket open, the flash of a weapon glinting in the afternoon sun. The other held on to something far worse.
Jordynn.
Like he’d been waiting for Donovan to appear, the first man closed his jacket, gave a little salute, then opened one of the SUV’s sliding doors and nodded at the second man. And the second man grabbed Jordynn’s shoulder and shoved her roughly into the vehicle.
Donovan’s teeth gnashed together in anger, and he spun toward Reed. The man was watching him impassively from the doorway.
“They have strict instructions,” Jordynn’s boss said. “If I’m not down there in five minutes, they’ll kill her.”
“A lot can happen in five minutes,” Donovan growled back, his hand flexing on the weapon he still held.
“You’re right. Men can live or die. They can witness something that changes the course of their lives forever. They can make a decision they regret for ten years.”
“You son of a—”
“Easy, Donovan. Let’s save the name-calling for the really bad bits. Give Ivan your gun.”
Donovan held tight to the weapon. “She trusted you. She thought you were helping her.”
“I was,” the other man said, his voice a shrug. “I’ve been watching over her for ten years. Making sure the fallout of losing you didn’t take too bad a toll. Giving her a job and a fatherly shoulder. I’m not the one who abandoned her. Or the one who endangered her, again and again. That’s all on you. All on the choice you made. Less than four minutes left of those five I gave you, by the way.”
“You expect me to believe you’re really going to let her live?” Donovan replied.
“I won’t make her suffer.”
“Not good enough.”
Reed sighed. “You want to keep playing Russian roulette with her life? Fine by me. Three minutes.”
Donovan’s eyes strayed to the window. He could just barely see the flash of red in the backseat of the silver car. His gaze went back to Reed, who was looking at his watch. He had no doubt that the man was planning on killing Jordynn. Planning on killing both of them.
“Two and a half minutes.” The statement was a dark, velvet-covered threat.
If there’s a chance, however slim, to save her...
Donovan turned the gun in his hand, and—resisting an urge to clock one, or both, of them over the head with it instead—held it out.
“Good choice,” said Reed as Ivan snatched the weapon.
“Take me to her,” Donovan snapped.
“Glad to.”
As they made their way from the hall to the door to the exterior of the building, Donovan’s body tensed with heavy, uncomfortable emotion. Regret. Fury. Frustration. He felt them all. He couldn’t stand the fact that he was on the verge of letting Jordynn down. Again. By the time they actually reached the vehicle, his muscles had the shaky, used-up feeling he got at the end of a boxing beat-down.
He scanned the parking lot in search of an out. A way to escape that wouldn’t endanger Jordynn’s life, or his own. He saw none.
Ivan slid open the side door. “Get in.”
Donovan paused to meet Jordynn’s eyes, careful to keep his expression neutral. He didn’t need her worrying that he hadn’t yet come up with a plan. She looked terrified anyway.
“Honey—”
Ivan cut him off with a shove. “No chatting.”
Donovan flashed him a look. “You’re lucky I’ve got some serious self-restraint.”
“Pretty sure you’re the lucky one in this case,” the other man countered, then gave him another push. “A lack of self-restraint would only get you killed faster.”
Donovan bit down to keep from lashing out. He didn’t feel lucky at all. And the hopelessness of their situation grew even more as the arrangement in the vehicle became clear. Reed and one of the thugs were in the front. Ivan and the other were in the back. He and Jordynn were sandwiched between them in the middle row, guns aimed at them from all sides.
Hell.
As the SUV purred to life, and they pulled out of the lot, Jordynn reached over to take his hand. She looked at him like she wanted to say something, but Reed turned the music up to a volume that made it impossible to talk. Which was his intention, of course.
They rode through the streets without speaking, the happy pop tunes on the oldies station completely at odds with the tension in the vehicle. It only took a few minutes of flashing scenery for Donovan to figure out where they were headed.
“Greyside,” he murmured to himself, a new spike of concern filling his mind.
Sure enough, they soon reached the turnoff. He couldn’t think of a single good reason for the upward trek. Jordynn’s grip on his hand tightened, and he knew he wasn’t alone in his worry. The SUV climbed the mountainside smoothly, the familiar trees and rocky terrain passing by in a blur. At last they reached their apparent destination—the same bridge where Donovan had disposed of his car ten years earlier, the same spot they’d fled from earlier.
Reed pointed at the big Fryer Development sign, and the driver coaxed the SUV off the road and over the bumpy ground. He pulled the vehicle in behind, safely under the cover of the surrounding trees, then put it in Park. At last, Reed cut the music.
“What now?” Donovan asked, hearing the unease in his own voice.
“Now we take care of business,” Jordynn’s boss replied.
They unloaded, and Reed gave calm orders to Ivan and the other two men.
“Flank these two at all times,” he said. “No more mistakes. Show me your guns.”
Each of the men opened his jacket to expose their metal weaponry. One lifted a pant leg to showcase a knife.
Reed nodded his approval. “Now show them to Mr. Grady and Ms. Gallagher.”
“Hell of a production,” Donovan said as the men turned their way and repeated their actions.
“I want to be clear on where we stand.”
“There are four of you and two of us.” Donovan’s voice was dry. “You have guns and we have none. I think we’re clear.”
“Good. Let’s get moving.”
Guided by the gunmen, they moved past the sign, then pushed farther into the woods. With each step, Jordynn’s hand grew more viselike. Donovan wished he could reassure her, but the deeper they got, the more dread filled him. He had a bad feeling that he knew exactly where they were headed, and it dredged up a part of the past he’d just as soon leave buried.
The trees were thicker now, and they had to move in single file to get through, and the going was slower than Donovan remembered.
Maybe because you’re not run
ning for your life this time.
He couldn’t block out the memory. The dark, all around him. The slap of branches against every inch of exposed skin. The snag of underbrush on his jeans, slowing him down. All of it happening with a furious, unknown man—armed and definitely not afraid to kill—chasing him down, while Jordynn marched down the hill, totally unaware of the danger.
Donovan’s gut churned and squeezed. Young or not, he hadn’t been a timid man ten years ago. Even less so now. But watching someone get gunned down in cold blood had changed him. In the weeks that followed, he’d tried to erase it from his mind. He’d failed. Only time and distance had dimmed it. Now, being here again, headed over the same path—with their lives directly on the line—it brought it all back.
The worst had been the final moment. The one where he’d tripped, and the shooter—Ivan—had caught up. Donovan had thought it was over. Some twist of fate had intervened. A noise up the path had redirected Ivan’s attention, and off he’d gone. It’d given Donovan just enough time to recover and move along to safety.
Temporary safety.
Finally Jordynn cleared her throat softly, pulling him back to the present. He glanced around to give her a quick look. She had her face aimed at the ground and her hands up to protect the rest of her body. The two men following behind had dropped back just enough to give the illusion that she was walking along of her own free will.
She spoke then, and her voice came out with an apologetic quaver, so quiet that no one farther away than he was would hear. “I’m sorry. I had no idea it was him.”
Donovan seized on her fear to push aside his own, speaking softly over his shoulder. “I never suspected someone local, either.”
“But you weren’t here. You weren’t exposed to him every single day.” Her breath caught momentarily. “But if you had been, maybe you would’ve seen something.”
“No. I would only have seen what Reed wanted me to see, just like you. He’s smart enough to cover his tracks. His name wasn’t anywhere on those documents. It sure as hell didn’t come up on any of the searches I did. The man was hidden because that’s the way he wanted it.”
“He was in every part of my life, Dono. My education, my career.”
He hazarded another look back, just in time to see her shiver.
“This whole time...” she added before trailing off.
“I know.” The trail widened, and Donovan scooped up her hand again.
They were almost at the clearing now. He could smell the pungent scent of the nearby bog, feel the slight shift in the air that went along with the fumes being given off. They were walking faster, too, even though Donovan would rather have slowed, stopped and turned around completely.
“I’m sure you’ll recognize this place,” Ivan said from the front of the line, sounding pleased as he came to a halt.
“Hard to forget a murder site,” Donovan replied.
He stepped up beside the other man, then took a slow breath, trying to give himself a second to adjust. Everything looked the same. With one exception. Someone had driven in single large piece of heavy equipment and left it at the edge of the clearing.
“Do you know what that is?” asked Reed.
“Can’t say I do,” Donovan said back.
The man, who really did look more like someone’s grandfather than a criminal mastermind, moved closer to the machine. “It’s for drainage. Belongs to Fryer Development.”
Donovan’s eyes found and held the edge of the clearing. The source of the scent and undoubtedly the target of the drainage equipment.
“I pulled some strings,” Reed told him, “and had the project halted while they assess the environmental impact of clearing this space out. I know it won’t last. The bog is barely half a mile wide, and Fryer bought this side of Greyside with no limitations on development. It was a key point of the deal, actually. Can you guess why that is?”
Donovan frowned, his brain working to figure it out. And it only took a second.
Chapter 18
As a slow, smug smile stretched across her boss’s face, Jordynn’s heart lodged in her throat, and no matter how she tried to clear it out, it insisted on staying there. And the next sentence out of Dono’s mouth confirmed the why of it.
“The body,” he said.
Jordynn’s gaze found the murky, peaty bog.
“You had him dumped there,” she said.
Reed turned his smile her way. “Ivan thought it was the smart thing to do. And he was right, at the time. Impossible to drag a body out of there without draining the whole damned thing. And of course, the Haven Corporation was lined up to buy this little piece of real estate, so that would leave me in the clear.”
“Leave you in the clear?” Jordynn frowned, her puzzlement temporarily pushing aside her horror.
It was Dono who answered. “I think he is Haven, honey.”
“Gold star. Though technically, it’s a publicly owned co-op. And these co-ops are owned by some other companies. Or something. Truth be told, I don’t really understand anything except that none of it can be traced back to me. Apparently, it’d take a year just to get the ties to start to unravel. Lucky for me, I just pull the strings at the top.” Reed’s smile widened. “Still. Don’t really want a body lying around, making people ask questions and feel a need to want to start unraveling.”
Jordynn couldn’t fight a shiver. “But Fryer bought Greyside after Lance Ranger died.”
“Yep. Sure as hell didn’t see that one coming. Ranger and I had history. He knew all along it was me behind Haven. Sneaky kid stuck a clever clause into his will. Posthumously managed to pave the way for solving his own murder.”
“But why did he want to buy Greyside in the first place?” Jordynn asked.
“Because I did. Ranger hated me.”
“Can you blame him?” Dono interrupted. “You and your company had been sabotaging their developments.”
Reed’s eyes tightened, just a little. “Figured that out, did you?”
“Jordynn did,” Dono said, and her boss turned her way and gave her a nod.
“Astute girl. Yes. Haven had been undermining Fryer’s projects. But with damned good reason.”
“What do you mean?” Jordynn wanted to know.
Ivan cut in then. “Why the hell does it matter?”
She tossed a glare at the big thug. “Because Reed’s been my family for a decade. He’s my best friend’s uncle. Practically a grandparent to her kids. I think I deserve an explanation.”
Reed’s expression softened, and he looked almost like the man she’d thought she could count on for the past decade. Except for the gun in his hand and the confession that he’d orchestrated a murder, of course.
“It’s fine. There’s no reason not to explain,” Reed said with a sigh. “Thirty or so years ago, I unexpectedly inherited a business from a distant cousin. Turned out to be a midsize development company. I didn’t know much about real estate, or building, or anything that had to do with running a corporation at all, actually. So I took on a partner. A man named Eli Lu. A financial guru who I trusted to run the show. We were doing well. Buying large, cheap pieces of land. Some we subdivided, then sold at a huge profit. Some we subdivided, then built on ourselves, then sold at an even bigger profit. But ten years in, I figured out a few things. Not only was Lu siphoning funds off the top, but his builder had been cutting corners. Knowingly. Intentionally. Three people died as a result of their negligence. A little girl lost her leg. All because of Lu and the bottom line. What kind of man—what kind of father—deals in business that way?”
He paused then, as if to make sure Jordynn had caught it.
“So Lance was his son like we thought,” she said. “But he was a little boy when all of that happened.”
“That’s true. But as they say...the app
le doesn’t fall far from the tree. Let me ask you something, Jordynn. Do you know who died as a result of those cut corners?” he asked, his eyes burning.
“How could I know?”
“Because one of them was someone close to you.”
Her breathing turned shallow. “You’re lying.”
But a memory was surfacing. A connection being made. And she couldn’t stop it.
“It’s impossible,” she stated.
“It’s not impossible. Just the opposite. And in this case, I’m the most honest man you know. Your dad—he was an electrician. Died in a workplace accident.”
Dono put a hand on her back. “You don’t have to listen to him, honey.”
But she knew that she did have to, because what he was telling her tied directly to her own past.
“Young Enterprises,” she stated. “In Pleasant Falls, Michigan.”
“That’s the one,” Reed said. “We hired contractors to work on our projects. One of them was your father.”
The world spun, and Dono was the only thing keeping her upright. She clung to his arm, knowing any second Reed was going to pull them apart. Reed’s company was responsible for her father’s death.
“Why didn’t you just go to the police?” Her voice quavered.
“And tell them what?” her boss asked. “That my own company was directly responsible for the death of three men? That a little girl would never ride a bike because of me? There was no way for me to untie myself from the responsibility. Like I said, Lu was a guru. A genius at creating the perfect scapegoat, then disappearing.”
Donovan cut in again. “So you did what? Decided you were already culpable, so you might as well just embrace it?”
Reed laughed, short and just shy of bitter. “Hardly. I set out to make things right. I compensated the families of the people who died. I shut down the company and I started Haven instead. I was careful to keep my name out of it. I wasn’t going to let myself get caught like that again. Then I hired people to find Lu. Aggressive men, who wouldn’t just give up. I was so determined to find him and make him pay that I turned a blind eye to what they were doing to get me what I wanted. When they were done...Lu was dead, and a lot of people wanted me dead. Got myself in enough trouble that I needed even more help. So I hired Ivan and his trained specialists on a full-time basis.”
Last Chance Hero Page 22