Jordynn shivered and bit her lip. “There’s still time to undo it, Reed.”
Her boss shook his head slowly. “There really isn’t. I’ve made too many mistakes already.”
“So don’t make another one now.”
“I won’t.”
Jordynn wanted to feel relief, but something about his face told her to hold back. “That’s...good?”
“Good for me,” Reed said. “In the past, I’ve let the wrong people live for the wrong reasons. I’ve done it for sympathy. Or because I thought someone was good. Or trustworthy. I made the mistake with Lu’s son. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, and I believed everything he said about wanting to distance himself from his father’s past. I even gave him seed money so he could buy in as a partner with Fryer Development when the company was first starting up. Then I watched as he turned the company sour from the inside out. Fryer quickly became as corrupt as Young Enterprises. And Ranger was skimming off their profits, too.”
“So you started sabotaging them,” Dono said. “Stopping them from doing what Ranger’s father did with Young Enterprises. If they can’t buy the properties, they can’t start any more cut-corner projects.”
Reed nodded. “Simplified and far nobler than my true intentions, but yes.”
“Then Ranger found out what you were doing, and he retaliated,” Dono added.
“He did. Probably figured it out sooner, even, than he let on. And the truth is, I offered to back down. Sasha had just got married and her husband was on the road a lot. They were already talking about kids. But Ranger couldn’t accept that I’d just stay in Ellisberg out of familial obligation. He couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that I was buying and developing here so I could stay close to Sasha. He became fixated on this place. Kept turning up at the construction sites, asking questions.”
“That must’ve been so stressful for you,” Dono snapped.
Jordynn shot him a look, pleading with him silently to not make things worse. He narrowed his eyes, but pushed his lips together and nodded.
“What happened next?” Jordynn asked. “Why did you...do what you did?”
Her boss blinked. “Why did I have Ivan kill Lance Ranger?”
Hearing him admit it—so coolly, so casually—made her throat tighten. “Yes.”
“It wasn’t my decision, at first. I tried to buy him off. I made the mistake of underestimating how badly he wanted revenge. He came at me full force. Brought in documents that implicated me in the negligent deaths, years earlier. Would’ve made his dad proud, I’m sure. So I didn’t have a choice.”
Jordynn’s heart thumped nervously. “But you do have one now. We can be trusted. And you know me. You know I’m a good person, Reed. You’ve been taking care of me for years.”
He tipped his head to the side. “And yet, here you are. With the one man who can put me behind bars.”
Tears formed in hers, then spilled over. “Let him go. Please. Everyone thinks he’s dead anyway. I’m not going to tell anyone what I know, and if you just—”
He cut her off. “You can’t tell me anything I don’t know. Or suggest anything to me I haven’t already considered. I’ve spent more than three decades doing this. I’m a sixty-year-old man, Jordynn. I want to live my golden years in peace, and the two of you are the last thing left that can connect me to a crime that started a lifetime ago.”
“But you didn’t even commit the original crime.” Jordynn knew she was begging now, and she didn’t care.
“Not that one. But others since,” Reed said.
“What about Sasha and the kids?”
“What about them?”
“She’s my best friend. Her kids call me Auntie Jo.”
“They’ll get over it.”
With that statement, spoken in what seemed like an impossibly indifferent tone, her boss turned his attention to his group of hired lackeys. He moved closer, speaking too low for Jordynn to hear. But seconds later, Ivan was on her, a rope in his hands and a smile on his face. And it made her tears come that much harder.
* * *
Every fiber of Donovan’s being was coiled in anger. Tamped down and ready to burst. The sight of the murderer’s hands on Jordynn’s body was enough to make him want to let go of his carefully maintained control. Her muffled sobs made it even worse.
But he was sure acting on his fury would end badly.
Four armed men. The life of the woman he loved. Not a wager he wanted to make.
He did his best to give Jordynn a reassuring look, but it was a struggle.
What Donovan really needed was more time. Some breathing room to think of a way out of this.
But what can I use to get it?
Jordynn’s conversation with her boss had already bought them a few minutes. Maybe he could build on that.
Donovan studied Reed’s face as he gave more muted instructions to the other men, searching for a solution. Jordynn had likely asked her questions based on the hope of doing just that. Donovan knew better than to think that would happen. He recognized both the resigned look of a person who believed his fate was predetermined, and a man who seemed to have outgrown any sense of moral responsibility. He’d seen the former on the faces of many of the victims who came to Carlos’s gym for help. He’d seen evidence of the latter in the actions of the people chasing those same victims.
People like that had spiraled down too far to come back.
So, no. There was no way Reed was backing out of his chosen course of action. He’d simply answered Jordynn’s questions because he liked the sound of his own voice.
The man was smart. And knew it.
That doesn’t mean he can’t be stalled.
Donovan cleared his throat. “How did you do it, Reed?”
“Do what?” the other man replied.
“Get Lance Ranger out here to this spot.”
Ivan had finished tying Jordynn’s hands together, and he grunted a dismissive interruption. “Again, it doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me,” Donovan argued. “If I’m going to die because of him, I want to know it all.”
“Might as well tell him, Ivan,” Reed said. “Kill some time while we set everything up.”
Ivan sighed, then gestured to the pair of thugs. They moved toward Donovan as he explained.
“Luring the man out here was easy,” he said. “All I needed to do was figure out what motivated him. Just like I figured out what motivated you.”
Thug one shoved Donovan against a tree at the edge of the clearing.
“Sit,” he ordered.
Donovan gritted his teeth, but complied. He didn’t need to start a fight he couldn’t win.
Thug two dragged his hands behind his back and fastened them together. “Stay.”
He ignored the man’s grin, and addressed Ivan instead. “What was it? The motivation?”
The older man smiled. “With you?”
Donovan didn’t take the bait. “I’m aware of how you got me here. I want to know what you did with Ranger.”
The killer’s smiled drooped. “He only wanted one thing. Control over Reed. So I offered it to him. I told him that in exchange for handing over any and all physical evidence that put Reed in the crosshairs for Young Enterprises’ misdeeds, he’d get a controlling share of the Haven Corporation.”
“He believed you? Just like that?”
“Men like him are egotistical. They think they’re above getting caught.”
Donovan nodded, his eyes drifting automatically to Reed. “I get it.”
Jordynn’s boss laughed. “Not me. I knew all along I could get caught. I’ve just lived the last thirty years making sure it didn’t happen.”
“Ranger was the last hole that needed to be plugged, before you came along,”
Ivan added.
For a second, Donovan closed his eyes and let regret wash over him. It all seemed so senseless. There was one thing Ivan and Reed hadn’t explained, though.
He opened his eyes again. “Why did Lance make buying Greyside Mountain a part of his will?”
Reed lifted a brow. “Ranger believed that there were a few other...secrets...buried up here.”
Donovan’s guts twisted with anger and disgust. “You used this bog as your own personal dumping ground.”
The other man shook his head. “I didn’t. Ivan and his men are smart enough that they spread out their conquests. But like I said, the man was fixated, and I have to admit...his will blindsided me. At that point, I thought we were in the clear as far as Fryer was concerned. Never even checked if our bid for Greyside was contested. Found out too late to do anything about it. Tried to buy it back from them, but Ranger’s instructions were clear, and they refused to circumvent his wishes. The project is going to net them more profit than they could dream of.”
“And that’s why they didn’t go to the police,” Donovan said. “And you didn’t have to worry about it for almost a decade, because my dad tied up the site in red tape.”
Reed nodded. “It was kind of perfect, really. The police—other than Sergeant Grady himself, of course—weren’t interested in looking around up here. And even Sergeant Grady was only focused on one thing—the bridge. Kept things in limbo until he died.”
“Then I showed up at the funeral.”
“And here we are now. You’ve given me the perfect setup, actually.”
Reed’s words lit up Donovan’s mind with a flash of understanding.
“I’m your fall guy.”
Jordynn’s boss nodded. “When Fryer gets the go-ahead to drain this little bog, they’ll find Lance Ranger’s body. But before that, they’ll find yours. And hers.”
From across the clearing, Jordynn let out a muffled whimper. She had her lips pressed together and her chin held high, but her fear was evident in the shake of her body and the continuing tears on her cheeks.
“They’ll find a file—covered in your fingerprints—that connects her father’s death to Young Enterprises. Without my name on it, of course,” Reed said, his voice full of conviction. “And it might not make sense to the police at first, but it won’t take long for them to connect the dots. Lance Ranger’s father killed Jordynn’s. You took revenge when you found out, ten years ago. You found out about the development going through, and you knew you were in trouble. So you came back and confessed it all, hoping Jordynn would understand and maybe flee with you. Instead, she threatened to turn you in, so you had to kill her, too. Then you took your own life.”
He turned away then, his attention focused on lining up the thugs into the perfect position. They couldn’t seem to agree on what would make the murder look “most natural.”
And Donovan still hadn’t come up with a plan. The only option seemed to be a desperate, chaotic escape attempt.
Yeah. And that’ll only work if I can get free.
Which seemed unlikely.
He lifted his arms behind the narrow tree and wiggled his wrists under the rope. It was fastened far too tightly to stand any chance of loosening quickly enough. Frustrated, he dropped his hands down. They smacked against something sharp, and whatever it was, it tore into Donovan’s skin. Carefully—making sure not to attract any attention to himself—he felt along the edges of the object. It was cool. Made of metal, and boxlike in shape.
No. Not boxlike. It is a box.
With a strange, surreal feeling running through his veins, Donovan ran his hands over it again. More slowly. He didn’t know how he was so sure of what it was, but he had no doubts. Even before his fingers found the etched lettering along the side.
DG and JF, forever.
The simple inscription he’d carved in himself, ten years earlier when they’d used the box as a place to hold their memories.
His palm made another stunned pass over the time capsule, and he quickly figured out that what he’d hit the first time was one of its corners. And that edge was broken down. A little sharp. Chipped, probably from when he’d been forced to drop it, then further degraded by the elements.
And useful.
Donovan lifted his wrists a second time, then slammed them down with precision. The rope snapped. So quickly that he stayed still, momentarily too stunned at his success to react. He sat still, his mind frozen for several seconds before he gave himself a mental kick and told himself to act.
He lifted his eyes, assessing the scene in front of him. Priority one was getting Jordynn free. Reed and the two nameless thugs were closest to her, while Ivan stood nearest to Donovan. Thankfully, the man’s attention was on the other three.
Slowly, Donovan inched upward, the metal object grasped in his hands. He got to a crouch, and still no one turned his way. He had a rough plan worked out now. All he needed was for it to work.
Chapter 19
From the edge of her vision, Jordynn saw Dono inch up to a crouch. At first she thought her tears must be blurring her sight. But no. When she blinked, he continued to rise, and was already three-quarters of the way up the skinny tree.
She looked away quickly, not daring to let her eyes linger on him. But her mind raced with worry. What was he doing? He couldn’t possibly think he stood a chance of coming out on top in any kind of fight. Not while he was tied to a tree. Their situation was desperate, but she couldn’t imagine him taking such an unnecessary risk.
She hazarded another quick look.
And then she saw one of his hands slide out from behind his back.
He’s free, she realized, hope lifting her heart.
She started to drag her gaze away quickly, but couldn’t, because it landed on the smallish, metallic object in his hands. And she could barely contain a gasp of surprise. She’d recognize that box anywhere. It had once held all their future hopes.
And maybe it was about to again.
Because Dono was moving now, the time capsule a weapon. His hands swung it forward with enough force that he let out a grunt that carried over the clearing. He hit Ivan’s knees, and the older man fell forward hard enough to smash his face into the dirt. His weapon discharged a wild shot, and all three other men rushed forward, Jordynn temporarily forgotten. It was four against one.
He needed her help.
Jordynn brought the knotted roped at her wrists to her mouth. She didn’t care how unceremonious or unattractive it looked; she’d literally work like a dog to get free so she could do whatever needed to be done.
But when she looked up, Dono was already in action again.
As the first thug reached him, he sprung to his feet, then used the metal box again, slamming it into the other man’s head. It sent him reeling. Then—with a tuck and a spin—Dono drove the time capsule up to the second man’s jaw. He flew backward, too, then landed on the ground and stayed there, unmoving. The first man pushed up from the dirt and made it two steps before Dono rounded on him again. Another smack, and the thug went down twitching.
The knot on Jordynn’s hands refused to spring free. It refused to even loosen. And she watched in horror as Ivan recovered. As she continued frantically trying to get out, he pulled himself up to a tree and was fumbling for something at his side.
His gun. “Dono!” His name ripped from her throat in a shriek, but Jordynn’s shrill warning didn’t come quite quick enough.
A bang tore through the air, then another and another. And a fourth. The shots came in quick succession, echoing through the clearing. A scream built up in Jordynn’s throat, but faster than it could make its way out, Dono lifted up the metal box. The bullets hit it—smash-smash, smash-smash—and the impact knocked him over.
He hit the ground and groaned, but didn’t move again. He just h
eld the time capsule tightly against his chest, the flattened bullets right over his heart.
Ivan stepped closer. Then closer again. He was right on Dono, poised above him.
Jordynn hurtled forward, intent on knocking him down again, her tied feet be damned. But before she could take a single hobbled step, Dono was back in action. He leaped up, and in a fluid motion smashed the box into Ivan’s thigh, then into the hand that held the gun. The man crumpled. The weapon dropped straight into Dono’s lap. And for a brief joyous moment, Jordynn was elated.
Then there was a click in her ear, and hope fell away.
“Don’t move,” said Reed in his soft, familiar voice.
Jordynn lifted her eyes to find the barrel of a gun pointed directly at her forehead.
And Reed added, over his shoulder, “I assure you, Mr. Grady, if you fire that one bullet you have left, I will, too. Point-blank. Whether I mean to or not.”
* * *
Donovan went still. He had a gun in his hand. His finger was less than a quarter of an inch from the trigger. He’d knocked two men into unconsciousness and turned a third into a rag doll. Yet here he was. Wavering. Because the fourth man—the one who’d been pulling the strings since the beginning—held the woman he loved at gunpoint.
“Let her go.” The command came out as a thick growl.
“You know I can’t do that, Donovan,” replied the grandfatherly man.
“She doesn’t need to be a part of the way this ends.”
Jordynn’s boss shifted sideways so that his weapon was just above her ear. “You also know that’s not true.”
Donovan forced his eyes to stay on the man’s face rather than the gun. “We can negotiate this. Maybe make a straight trade.”
“You for her?” Reed replied. “Interesting. But no.”
“I’m not putting down the gun,” Donovan said firmly. “Not unless you let her go.”
Last Chance Hero Page 23