The small boulder at Will’s feet became Katrina’s head. Her glossed over eyes stared accusingly at him. Some might not agree with him, but he didn’t think the woman deserved that type of ending. She had redeemed herself somewhat by saving Susie and trying to rid the world of Gorgon. “Christ, the whole underworld will be looking for her.”
“I got a feeling if Gorgon kicks, that reward will double. We’re not only going to have every slime ball looking for them, but also every bounty hunter who has financial problems, and you know there are a lot of them out there who don’t give a rat’s ass about right or wrong. They’re in the profession for the money.”
Gary was right. A couple million dollars was a hell of a lot of cash. Hell, they wouldn’t have to kill Katrina for the reward. Just drag her ass back to New Jersey and throw her at Yegor Novokoff’s feet. The old man had trained his son in the art of torture. Yegor would take great pleasure in ending Katrina’s life himself.
Will’s mind spun. How in the hell was he going to keep Katrina and Luka safe? His gut told him the net meant for Katrina was already crisscrossing the country and getting larger by the hour. He stared at the long, dark road heading west.
“Will, are you there?”
He blinked. “Yeah. She turned against the Novokoff’s for a reason.”
“That’s what I was thinking. Find out why. Offer her a deal. Make her believe we can only help her if she helps us. She’s the key to shutting down their whole fuckin’ operation.”
“I’m already on it. I’ll call you when I know something,” he said, turning toward the motel. For three long years his team had worked on this case. Most days they took two steps forward and three back. Now, in under twenty-four hours, hell broke free and the icy grip round his heart began to melt.
Inside, he knocked three times before opening the connecting door and stepping into the dimly lit room. Katrina led a sleepy-eyed Luka dressed in his PJs out of the bathroom. “I need to talk to you.”
Noting his frown, Katrina’s step faltered. She knew something was up.
She grabbed Luka by the shoulders and ushered him toward the bed. As she passed by Will, she whispered, “Give me a minute.”
The boy was an innocent. “Sure. Night, kiddo.”
“Can we go swimming tomorrow, Uncle Will?” Luka asked on the tail of a yawn.
“We’ll talk in the morning.”
“K’ay.”
Will nodded to Katrina and backed through the door, leaving it ajar a few inches. A minute later he heard Katrina guide Luka through a child’s prayer. What kind of woman could lie with the devil and yet teach her child God’s word?
The woman confused the hell out of him.
Will put his foot on the edge of the bed and tucked his pants leg up over his gun. He unsnapped his leg holster just as he heard the door behind him creak open. With his gun in hand, he let his pants leg drop and turned to face Katrina whose worried gaze dropped to his weapon.
She pushed the door behind her to its jamb. “What’s wrong?”
“I have some news,” he said cutting to the chase.
“You’ve found us a home?” Her face beamed with hope as she stepped toward him.
Will stiffened. She was anxious to disappear. Now he understood why. He’d seen Gorgon’s handiwork. Tossing the leg strap onto the dresser, he tucked his gun into his belt. “Not yet.”
Katrina brushed back her hair. “Then what’s going on? You look worried. What’s happened?”
The tiny room enclosed in on him, along with the scent of sunshine and cotton candy, as she stepped toward him. Will detested the hot rush that Katrina’s closeness sent coursing through his veins, but he held his ground anyway, folding his arms across his chest. “We want to offer you a deal.”
“I don’t know what you mean.” Her brow furrowed under her fringe of bangs. “A deal for what?”
“We’ll put you and Luka into the witness protection program in exchange for information and your testimony against Gorgon and his family.”
“Gorgon is dead.”
Will shook his head while gauging her reaction to the news he was about to share. “No. He’s alive.”
Nicole’s hand covered her mouth and she backed away until the wall stopped her retreat.
“No. He can’t be.” Her throat strained against the rising, hot bile. Feeling like a caged animal about to be slaughtered, she searched for an escape. Will stood between her and the outside exit. She edged toward the adjoining door. She wouldn’t leave without Luka.
“Katrina.” Will’s stern look warned her not to run.
Her lungs burned. She labored to drag in quick breaths, but even those weren’t enough to keep the darkness from edging in on her.
Will stepped forward and a moment before her knees gave out, he caught her by the elbows.
“Come here. Sit down.” His strong arm encircled her waist and provided support while he helped her to the bed. The mattress springs creaked as she sunk onto its edge.
“He can’t be alive. I kill—” Nicole’s cry caught in the vise closing her throat and her hands trembled so hard she couldn’t seem to fit them together. She shook her head in disbelief. “It can’t be true. Gorgon can’t be alive. There was so much blood.” Gorgon’s blood had seeped into the bedroom’s hardwood floor, overflowing the cervices. Its phosphorus smell haunted her memory. Bile rumpled in her stomach and caused her to blurb. “Oh, my God.” She could feel the stickiness of his blood between her fingers. She scrubbed her hands across her lap, first the bottoms and then the tops. She pleaded with glistening eyes before saying, “I swear. You need to believe me. I saw him. He was dead.”
“I’m told you did a number on him. Word is Gorgon still might not make it.” Will studied her for five rapid heartbeats before his fingers curled into fists along his sides.
Was he mad at her? Because she didn’t finish the bastard off?
Will wavered in his stance.
Was he going to hold her and console her? God, she wanted to feel safe and she had a feeling she’d have no fears within his embrace.
Instead of stepping toward her, he turned on his boot heel and crossed to the dresser, tapping the wood with his knuckles before looking at her again. “There’s more.”
A grave feeling snaked its way along Nicole’s spine. She inched back on the polyester, flowered bedspread and braced for the additional good news Will had to share. “What?”
“Old man Novokoff has offered a half of a million dollar reward to anyone who returns his grandson to him and another half million…”
Will’s gaze fell away with his words.
An egg sized lump formed in her throat and Nicole swallowed around blockage. “If they kill me.”
He nodded once. “Yeah.”
She’d known Yegor Novokoff would do this. If she were in the old man’s position and someone had hurt Luka, she would go after them with a devil’s vengeance.
The question now was what was she willing to do to protect her son? The marshals wanted her testimony. She couldn’t testify. Silence was her family’s best defense.
If the law wouldn’t help her, then here was only one way for Luka and her to be safe.
Nicole slid off the bed and walked to the adjoining door with her resolve in place. Holding the knob, she kept her back to Will. How could she make him understand how important disappearing was to her without telling the truth? She turned to face him. The muscles in her neck worked before she spoke. “You were right. Gorgon had brought the girl home to replace me as his mistress.”
“He told you that?”
“No. I just knew he was going to—” She lifted her face and stared at the ceiling tiles while trying to control the anger and the fear produced by the memory of that night. A hot tear drifted down her cheek. “He told me to prepare her for him. I couldn’t do what he asked. I couldn’t let him do to Susie what he did to me. What he made me do… I just couldn’t.”
“Did he attack you when you didn’t do
as he said?”
Nicole swiped a tear from her cheek and ran her tongue across her dry lips. “Yes. Everything happened so fast. I grabbed a letter opener from the desk and stabbed him,” she lied. She had to. “I had no choice. He was going to kill me and give Luka to his wife. I have no doubt in my mind.” She locked onto Will’s gaze. “Gorgon can’t know where I am. He will kill me. Please, you must hide us.”
“I have my orders. We can only help you if you agree to turn evidence against the Novokoffs.”
Not a spark of caring flashed in his cold, steel blue eyes.
Nicole’s heart plummeted toward the floor. Will had his orders and she was the caretaker of her family’s lives. She had to do what was best for everyone, no matter how much her only option would tear her apart inside. “I can not.”
Will crossed his arms over his broad chest. “I don’t see that you have a choice.”
His pupils widened slightly telling Nicole his cool mask was a bluff. She stepped closer to him. “I do and I wouldn’t.”
Will blinked.
She left the room with an escape plan already in mind.
~~
Chapter Eleven
Under the dark shadows, Luka reminded Nicole of Gorgon, which tightened her already wrung out stomach. She repositioned herself on the bed, propped her head in her hand, and smoothed the hair from his brow, careful not to wake the sleeping child.
She prayed Luka would do something with his life that he’d love and that would earn him respect. But as long as he was with her, chances of that happening were slim. They’d always be on the run.
A tear fell over her lashes and followed the path of several others. Her gaze traveled over Luka’s small frame to where the child’s tiny toes wiggled out from under the crisp, white sheet. SpongeBob’s toothy grin sat above the blanket and spanned Luka’s rounded belly.
Nicole smiled in spite of the desolation encasing her heart. Gently, she pulled the sheet up over SpongeBob and slipped from the bed. She had no choice. There was no other way. She had to leave Luka behind.
The connecting door between her and Luka’s room and Will’s stood ajar.
Wearing her underwear and a tee-shirt, Nicole tiptoed toward Will’s room and listened. His soft, deep snore satisfied her that he slept. She took care gathering her things because she had a feeling Will was a very light sleeper. If he caught her trying to leave, he’d have no choice but to throw her ass in jail.
Nicole slipped into her jean skirt and grimaced at the zipper’s song that raked the silence. She tiptoed to the door again and checked Will. He still slept soundly.
She padded on tip-toes to Luka. The awful taste of sorrow coated her mouth while she allowed herself a full ten seconds to etch Luka’s angelic face into her memory before she pecked his forehead, spun away and snatched her bag and sandals off the floor. Then, using her body as a muffler, she unlocked the door and slipped out into the cool, dark night, locking her whole world behind her.
Thinking only of Luka’s future with a new family, she ran around the corner of the building toward the backside of the motel. When Will realized she was gone, he’d assume she would’ve looked along the highway for a means of escape. He’d be wrong.
She hurried across the motel owner’s yard. Cool, fresh cut grass clung to her feet. Chlorine tickled her nostrils as she raced by the pool where Will had taken Luka swimming twelve short hours ago. Behind her, from inside the owner’s house, a dog howled. She had to hustle before the dog woke his master and she was spied.
Huddling next to what once was an outhouse, Nicole dropped her sandals to the ground and while keeping an eye on the surrounding darkness she wiggled her feet into them. Then she raced through the hip-high grassy meadow, checking over her shoulder every few seconds for signs of anyone chasing after her.
At the wood line she caught her breath and then whispered to Luka, “I love you, sweetheart, and I promise, one day I’ll find you. I promise.” Blinking away tears that threatened to fall, she inhaled the scent of moss and flowers. To stay on course, she had to follow a star, and the sky was filled with them. Nicole turned and headed northwest, disappearing into the forest.
***
“What the hell do you mean she’s gone?” Gary’s bellow battered Will’s eardrum and made him yank his cell phone away from his ear. “How the hell did you let that happen?”
He hated that he’d fucked up. He didn’t need Gary to add to the tension jack-hammering his temples. Will paced the concrete sidewalk outside the rooms. Luka still slept, curled up in the blankets with not a worry in the world. “I needed to fuckin’ sleep, okay. Katrina slipped out without me hearing her. Last time I checked in on her was around two. Both her and the kid were sleeping.” Or she had been pretending to be asleep. Damn. He should’ve handcuffed her to the bed, but he didn’t want to send Luka into therapy.
“She left the kid?” Gary questioned. “Some kind of mother she is.”
“She’s not like that.” Will scrubbed a hand over his face while recalling the loving touches Katrina gave her son. What the hell was he going to tell the kid when he woke and saw his mother was gone? “We forced her to do this, you know.”
“What do you mean?”
“She pleaded with me to put her and the boy under protection last night. She was pretty insistent. I played hard-ball and said no, not without her testimony against Gorgon. I guess she figured if she left we’d have no choice but to take the boy.”
“So you think she ran to save her son.”
“Yeah. I do.”
“Why the hell wouldn’t she just testify? She could’ve stayed with him.”
“I don’t know. She said she couldn’t. She’s hiding something.”
“You need to find her, Will.”
“I know, but I can’t go trampling around the countryside with the kid.”
“I’ll send someone out to pick him up.”
“No.” Will stopped in mid-step, imagining Luka’s frightened expression. “You come. I don’t want anyone to know where we are. If word got out and Katrina hasn’t made it too far, she could be found before the sun sets again. We can’t blow the case. Besides, Luka saw you at the station. I’ll tell him you’re my step-brother.”
“Step-brother?”
“He’ll buy it. I’ll explain later. He’s a good kid. He’ll be okay going with you. He trusts me.” Will grabbed the doorknob. “In the meantime, I’ll get him up and take him for breakfast. I can look around town for Katrina.”
“What are you going to tell the kid?”
“Damn if I know.”
“Okay. I’ll be there in a couple hours.”
“Bring my car. She doesn’t know it. You can take your SUV.”
“Okay.”
“One more thing,” Will said, stopping Gary from disconnecting. “I don’t want child services brought in just yet. Can we bend the rules on this one? Do you think Sharon would watch over him?”*
“I’ll ask her.”
Twenty minutes later, Will had Luka in the back seat of Gary’s SUV and they were headed toward town. Luka looked forward to chocolate chip pancakes while Will searched every ditch and corner for Katrina.
~~
Chapter Twelve
He felt heavy. Pressure swelled against Gorgon’s right bicep, causing his fingers to tingle. A moment later the force dispelled and his blood rushed through his veins in a free fall. He blinked against the brilliant light surrounding him, failing miserably to open his eyes. Had he died?
If he had, with wings, wouldn’t he feel light?
Maybe heaven wasn’t in his destiny.
He was so thirsty. Maybe he was in hell.
No. Hell was hot and a deep seeded chill encased his bones, causing him to shiver.
“Yegor, our son wakes.”
His mother’s cry grabbed onto his waning consciousness like a life-line tossed to a drowning soul in a heaving sea and pulled him from the thick, opaque sluggishness that weighed both his mind an
d body.
To his right, a steady bleep kept rhythm with the rise and fall of his chest. The air filling his lungs was fresh. He was reminded of a frosty Serbian dawn, yet, a wash of bad antiseptic moistened his tongue as he licked his parched lips.
“Gorgon, do not worry. We are here with you.” His mother’s soft hand warmed his left forearm below his elbow.
Worry. Why should he worry? His mother always vexed too much over him. He reached to calm her fear and stinging zapped through his right hand and up his arm. He bolted forward in reaction and hot fire ripped through his gut. His shriek rolled over a raw throat and escaped him between clenched teeth.
Tears burned his closed lids.
A familiar force at his left shoulder pushed him back.
“You must lie still,” his father’s order cut through the fog. “That’s it. Relax, son, and breathe deep. The doctor said you must not move.”
The constant beep-beep vibrating his left ear drum raced against his heartbeat. Beads of perspiration spouted on his forehead and upper lip.
“Breathe deep.”
Gorgon listened to the voice that had never led him astray and sucked in puffs of antiseptic spiced air.
The doctor? Where was he? What the hell had happened to him?
Gorgon felt his father’s strength and forced his eyes open. He twisted his neck to the side and blinked. “The light,” he managed to croak across dry lips.
“Sophia, pull the string. The damn light is blinding him.”
Following the click, the radiance pushing against Gorgon’s lids faded. “Where am I?”
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