Runaway Witness

by Maggie K. Black

  All she had to do was agree to let the mayor control who she helped and how. Iris would get paid to make a difference the way the mayor approved and in return the mayor would have the perfect way to change the story about the entire Oscar Underwood debacle before she hit the global stage.

  Help me, Lord. Help me see what I need to see.

  The rising sun cast long streaks of pale light along the walls. The door couldn’t be locked, could it? After all, why would the mayor’s office lock from the outside? She couldn’t see the green-masked Jackal anymore. But that didn’t mean he hadn’t been there. Or that he wasn’t lurking nearby.

  Iris’s eyes ran to the rows of young people on the wall. And then she saw them. There, among the hundreds of pictures, were six youth she’d met through the homeless center, including the two who had pulled her into the helicopter.

  “Who are they?” Iris pointed.

  “The young people I’ve helped with my scholarship program,” Mayor Kats said.

  “But several of them ended up living on the streets,” Iris said. “I know, because I’ve met them at my center. They had serious problems and needed help.”

  “I assure you that didn’t happen.” Darkness moved between the mayor’s eyes. “Every single recipient of my scholarship program is now in full-time education or gainfully employed. I guarantee it. I have a one hundred percent success rate.”

  Something in her tone said there was no other option.

  “But you can’t control how someone else’s life is going to turn out,” Iris said. “People make mistakes. They start dating the wrong person or get addicted to painkillers or flunk out of school. So don’t tell me that you don’t want to help the wrong kind of people. We’re all the wrong kind of people, and in need of constant help, forgiveness and grace. We all fall down a lot, and it’s our job to help each other get back up.”

  “I’m trying to help you, Iris.” The mayor scowled. “And you’re being difficult. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

  Iris laughed and felt fresh air fill her lungs. Oh, but she was difficult. And tenacious and scrappy and not about to let anyone tell her who she was allowed to help, how she was allowed to help them and what she was allowed to say. No, she was like a storm. And that was something she’d been proud of whenever she’d looked deep into Mack’s eyes.

  “I have a theory,” Iris said. She stood slowly, praying her feet to hold. “And if I’m wrong, it should be fairly easy to prove. My theory is that you turned a blind eye to what Oscar Underwood was doing because it benefited you that he was getting the people you didn’t like off the streets. I think you nudged the police to turn a blind eye to what he was doing. And when you realized three of your scholarship recipients were living on the streets, you were worried they’d be a blight on your success rate and reputation, so you saw Oscar’s Jackals as a way to solve the problem. I think you ignored me for months because I was an inconvenience and now you want to use me to salvage this crisis that could ruin your career and expose you as a monster.

  “But maybe I’m wrong, and if I’m wrong, it should be simple enough to prove. Take me to wherever the police are holding Mack and let me talk to him. Hold a public inquiry into what Oscar Underwood did and make it your mission to help everyone he hurt. If you really want to fix this, I’m with you. I’m on board a hundred percent. We just do it out in the open. No secrets. No nondisclosure agreements. We let it be messy and full of truth. What do you say?”

  The mayor chuckled. It wasn’t a nice sound.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Iris said.

  “You really think you have the upper hand here?” Mayor Kats asked. Her lips turned at the edges like she was forcing herself to taste something unpleasant. “I was offering you an opportunity to get out of this mess with your life intact. You need me more than I need you. You have nothing. You are nothing. You’ve lost everything. And I’m offering you the opportunity to have the kind of life you’ve never had while doing the work you want to do.”

  “And in exchange, I keep my mouth shut about Oscar Underwood,” Iris said, “and let everyone believe that Mack is a criminal who manipulated me. You really don’t know who I am at all if you think I can be bribed into betraying either the truth or someone I care about.”

  She turned and started toward the door, one step at a time.

  “You think you can just walk out of here?” the mayor said sharply.

  “I don’t know,” Iris said. “But I’m going to try.”

  Thankfully her legs were supporting her weight. She was feeling stronger with every step and now that she was moving, her head was clearer. She grabbed the door handle, it turned, and then fresh, cold air filled her lungs.

  A gun clicked behind her. Iris turned and stared at the small handgun in Mayor Kats’s hand. “Miss James, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

  “If you knew anything about me,” Iris said, “you’d know I never do anything the easy way.” In one swift motion, she snatched a potted plant off a table and flung it at her.

  The mayor fired, her bullet missing its target and shattering the clock on the wall beside Iris’s head. Pottery and earth exploded around her.

  Iris yanked the door open and pelted outside. Cold air struck her face, and fear filled her core so suddenly she almost froze.

  She was on a boat.

  The mayor’s yacht was huge. Pale blue skies spread above her and gray waters beneath her. The Toronto shoreline was a dark silhouette in the distance.

  Iris turned to run, choosing a direction at random and praying she’d find a way off the boat and to shore. But before she could even move, a large man in dark fatigues and a green Jackal mask stepped out in front of her. He raised his weapon and pointed it at her.

  “Down!” he bellowed, deep and loud. “Now!”

  Iris’s knees buckled as a whimper slipped out her lips. She was trapped. There was no way out.

  “Turn around!” he ordered.

  She turned back and watched as the mayor strode toward her, a small handgun in her grip. Iris felt her knees give way. She tumbled to the deck.

  “How long have the Jackals been working for you?” Iris asked, looking up at the mayor. If she was going to die, here and now, trapped between the criminal pointing a gun at her back and the one he was working for in front of her, at least she was going to get answers.

  “Did you go visit Oscar in jail after he was arrested and offer to help get the charges dropped if he got his guys to work for you?” Iris asked. “Or did you both have something worked out before he was arrested?”

  “I might have done him a favor in return for helping me clean up the city.” The mayor smirked.

  Iris gasped in a deep breath of cold air and felt her head clear even further. “And in exchange for turning a blind eye to what he was doing, his Jackals kidnapped the street youth you’d given scholarships to and forced them to work for you.”

  “They knew the scholarship came with conditions.” Anger flashed in the mayor’s eyes. “I took good care of them—”

  “Let me guess,” Iris said. “You gave them a place to live and a job in exchange for their freedom? Then you had Oscar killed and Mack framed for it, clearing up all the loose ends but me.”

  The mayor smirked but didn’t answer. The Jackal pressed the barrel of his gun into the back of her head.

  “What do you want me to do with her?” he asked.

  “Get rid of her,” Mayor Kats said. “She’s too much trouble alive.”

  Iris closed her eyes and let prayers tumble wordlessly through her mind.

  The Jackal’s hand landed on her shoulder.

  Then he squeezed her shoulder twice.

  THIRTEEN

  Mack? Hope surged through Iris’s heart. She glanced back and up at him, ignoring the barrel of the weapon as it brushed against her head,
hoping with everything inside her to see a pair of fierce blue eyes locked on hers.

  But he was staring straight ahead, and she could barely see the face beneath the mask. She had no reason to believe it was Mack. And yet...

  “How do you want me to get rid of her?” he asked, his words curt, like a soldier waiting for orders.

  “Kill her.” Cold menace spread through the Mayor of Toronto’s voice. “Take her with you, kill her somewhere remote and make sure her body’s not found. I don’t want any evidence she’s ever been on this boat.” She paced a moment, like she was brainstorming a solution. “I need the scholarship Jackals killed, as well. And make sure Mack Gray has an unfortunate run-in at the wrong end of a shank. It’s the only way. We clear house completely and get rid of any potential witnesses.”

  The hand disappeared from Iris’s shoulder.

  “Got it,” the man behind her said. “Kill Iris James, Mack Gray and the Jackals who received scholarships from the mayor, and make sure nothing links you to helping Oscar Underwood’s Jackals drug and abduct people. You got that?”

  “Yes,” Mayor Kats snapped. “That’s what I said!”

  “I wasn’t talking to you,” Mack said in the dry, warm voice she’d know anywhere.

  Oh, Mack, I knew it was you!

  “I think he was talking to me.” Seth’s voice crackled from a phone speaker somewhere behind her.

  Then Mack’s strong arm grabbed Iris by the elbow, steering her behind him as he placed himself between her and the mayor. The mayor fired. So did Mack. Twin bullets ripped the air. But only one person fell. The mayor yelped in pain and stumbled to the ground.

  Mack ripped the Jackal’s mask off and she caught a glimpse of the fierce eyes and determined smile that sent hope and happiness flowing through her core.

  “Come on.” Mack grabbed Iris’s hand and pulled her to her feet. “I know you’re gonna want to help her put a compress on the wound or something. But it’s only a graze. She’ll be fine. And there are more people with guns on this boat to worry about.”

  Already she could hear the footsteps coming toward them. Her grip tightened in Mack’s hand and she let him lead her down the deck. He opened a door and pulled her inside what seemed to be a cupboard, filled with life jackets and cleaning supplies. Mack slid his arms around her and pulled her close to his chest as they heard footsteps running outside.

  He turned to his shoulder microphone. “How’s that evacuation coming?”

  “On its way,” Liam’s voice came back. “Just hold on.”

  Mack let out a sigh of relief and hugged Iris hard, as if she’d been a piece of him that had been missing. “How’s your head?” he asked. “You were hit with a pretty hard tranquilizer.”

  “Two darts,” Iris said. “I’m good. The cold helped wake me up. When did you join the Jackals?”

  Mack chuckled. A slight smile turned at the corner of his mouth and then his lips brushed hers.

  “You’ll never guess who I ran into wearing that camo-green Jackal’s mask outside the mayor’s door,” he said. “Travis Otis, that rather nasty security guard who used to work for the mayor and had a history of domestic assault. You can’t believe how surprised I was when I ripped his mask off and saw Travis’s face.”

  Iris whistled. The vile man who’d been fired from the mayor’s security detail after threatening Iris had gotten a new job as a Jackal.

  “I’m certain he’s the same man who shot me months ago and has been pursuing you,” Mack said.

  “You were right,” she said, “you did know him.”

  “Well, I’m sorry to scare you,” he said. “But I needed that confession on tape. I didn’t want this case resting on just my word and yours. Not after everything that happened. She’s too powerful to arrest without irrefutable evidence and I didn’t want to put you in the position of being the only witness to a major crime again. You deserve to be free to live your life knowing the person who hurt you is put away for good. And we needed her confession to get other witnesses to come forward.”

  “Thanks for that,” she said.

  Yeah, it was nice to know that this time the weight of seeing justice done wouldn’t all be on her shoulders.

  “RCMP are on their way,” he added. “Of course we’re on the top floor of a triple-decker yacht with a whole bunch of security people with guns hanging around the lower level. I did my best to avoid them, but had to knock down and tie up a few, including Travis. It’s only a matter of time before their buddies find them or us. My only goal was sneaking onto this boat, getting to you and getting off alive. I’m leaving the mass arrests up to the other cops.”

  She gazed at his face, wanting to memorize every curve and every line. She hoped she never lost sight of him again. “How did you find me?”

  “Liam arrested me. Seth helped me figure out the red-masked Jackal and the people who pulled you into the helicopter were from the homeless center.”

  “They need help,” Iris said quickly. “They were vulnerable and in need, and the mayor forced them into this.” She knew how tempting the mayor’s offer could be and where her own life could’ve been without God’s grace and her family.

  “I knew you’d say that,” Mack said, and squeezed her tighter. “Jess and our friend Noah arrested the red-masked Jackal and the two who got you into the helicopter. Their real names are Joseph, Sara and Elliot by the way. They’ve all agreed to testify and also help find scholarship recipients who were forced into doing the mayor’s dirty work. They also all hope you’re okay and want you to know they’re sorry.”

  Thank You, God.

  “I can’t wait to see them,” Iris said. It didn’t matter what they’d done. The important thing was who they chose to be now. “How did you find them?”

  “The helicopter tipped me off they might be connected to wealth,” Mack said. “Seth found their identities, and sure enough they were all from rich families, so I called my father for help—”

  “Your father?” Her arms tightened around him. She couldn’t imagine how hard it had been for Mack to overcome his pride like that.

  “Yeah,” Mack said. “I know I said I’d never ask him for help, but I couldn’t risk losing you. My mom is hoping you’ll come over for dinner, by the way. I can’t promise there won’t be a whole lot of family drama, but it will be my family and it will be real.”

  Something swelled in her heart as she realized what it meant that he was opening up his life to her.

  “Dad remembered that all three of the young people were recipients of the mayor’s scholarship programs,” he went on. “Apparently it was a big deal around his country club. Seth tracked the mayor to her yacht. Liam’s been coordinating with police. I came for you.” He looked down at her. His hand brushed her face. “I’m always going to come for you.”

  “Well, I was planning on escaping and then rescuing you,” she said.

  He chuckled. “I’m not surprised.” He pulled away, opened the door a crack and glanced out. She followed his gaze. The coast seemed clear.

  “Your ride is here,” Liam’s voice came again. “Starboard side.”

  “Copy that,” Mack said. “We’re on our way.”

  His left hand slid into hers. With the other, he kept his weapon at the ready. They slipped out onto the empty deck and started running. Shouting voices and heavy footsteps rose in the distance. He reached a doorway and paused to make sure it was clear, and then they ran down a narrow spiraling staircase, until they reached the next deck. At the railing, they looked down. There far below them sat Liam at the wheel of a small rescue dinghy. Mack waved at him and then pulled a rope from somewhere inside his jacket and anchored it over the edge.

  “You okay to climb?” Mack asked. She nodded, and he smiled. “I’ll see you down there.”

  Iris took the hand he offered and climbed over the railing. Then she turned around a
nd braced herself against the side of the boat, held the rope with one hand and Mack’s strong arm with the other. Icy gray water lay beneath her. Freezing wind lashed her body. She let go of Mack and gripped the rope with both hands. “Thank you for coming for me.”

  “Always,” he said. “See you down there.”

  The voices grew louder. Figures pelted around the corner. And then she saw him, like something out of a nightmare—Travis Otis was running toward them.

  “Stop!” He raised his weapon. “Right now or I’ll shoot!”

  “Iris, go!” Mack shouted. “Don’t stop! I’ve got this!”

  Her heart caught in her throat as Mack spun toward the man, placing himself between her and danger. He raised his weapon. But it was too late. Travis had already fired. His bullet split the air, catching Mack hard in his chest.

  Mack stumbled backward, his body struck the railing and he fell over the side.

  * * *

  Pain swept through Mack’s body from the unexpected gut-punch of the bullet that had lodged in his bulletproof vest. As he fell, he could hear Iris screaming from above. Then he felt the cold, hard impact of the freezing water. He gasped and the choppy waves swept over him.

  Help me, Lord. Please help me, Lord.

  He struggled to take off his bulletproof vest and equipment weighing him down, battling against the numbing cold of the water. He hadn’t remembered anything the first time he’d been shot and drowned. He’d just vaguely been aware of the sensation of numbness in his body, and then air moving rhythmically through his lungs and the softness of the bed beneath him as he slowly came back into consciousness. But this time he was painfully aware of the unrelenting power of the water sucking him down. Darkness filled his eyes. Pain engulfed his lungs.