Baby Breakout (19 page)

Erica’s eyes widened with fear. She hadn’t thought her action through—hadn’t realized the danger she was putting herself in…

Jed had known the man would be armed and ready and that he would be waiting for just this opportunity. Brandon wanted to kill Jed but not before he made him suffer more.

“Don’t hurt her,” he pleaded.

“You’re the one who keeps hurting her,” Brandon said. “You dumped her before you left for Afghanistan.”

“I didn’t want to do that,” Jed said. “But I didn’t want her waiting for me.”

“Yeah, you were being self-sacrificing and heroic,” Brandon said with heavy disgust.

“I was scared,” Jed admitted. “I didn’t think I was coming home.”

Brandon sighed. “Yes, I thought you were going to die over there, too.”

“That’s why you started embezzling from my accounts.” He wasn’t just trying to get him talking now; he was trying to figure out how to distract him so that he could get Erica out of danger.

Brandon glanced around the parking garage, as if looking for witnesses. Maybe the police officer would have still been alive if Brandon had done that the last time he’d been in this garage.

“Come on,” Jed said. “You’re going to kill her. I’m going to kill you. Before you go down, you may get a shot off that eventually kills me. Don’t you think I deserve to know the truth before I die?”

Brandon chuckled. “That must have been the worst thing about your three years in prison—not knowing who put you there or why.”

“Was it because of me?” Erica asked, her voice trembling with fear. “Did you want to put Jed away because you wanted me?”

Brandon laughed heartily now. “You think I was in love with you?”

The man was a narcissist; he loved no one but himself. That was why his former girlfriend and witness for the prosecution was dead; he hadn’t needed her. He hadn’t ever needed anyone. If only Jed had realized that before he’d agreed to become the man’s business partner…

“I was just using you to get to him,” Brandon admitted.

“Like now,” Jed said.

“But I wouldn’t marry you. I only went out with you to feel close to Jed,” she said, “so we could talk about him.”

Brandon groaned. “I know. Everything’s always been about Jed. All my life. My parents were so damn impressed with him. Our teachers. Our clients. Everything was about brilliant, honorable Jedidiah Kleyn.”

“So you weren’t in love with me,” she said, “you were in hate with Jed.”

“To frame me for murder—your murder—and send me to prison, you really have to hate me,” Jed said.

“Hate is too mild a word for what I feel for you, my old friend,” Brandon admitted, the words surging forth as his control finally snapped. “I thought it would be enough to destroy your reputation, to send you to prison, but it’s not…”

“What about the money?” Jed asked. “Hasn’t that made you happy? You embezzled nearly a million dollars from my clients.”

Brandon shrugged, his grip loosening slightly around Erica. Instead of taking advantage, though, and struggling, she stood perfectly still, as if hoping the man would forget all about her. Maybe, with his focus so completely on Jed, he would.

“It was more than a million,” Brandon boasted. “And I’ve doubled that since. I’m a very wealthy man.”

“Isn’t that enough?” Jed asked. “I’m in prison and you’re rich.”

“You weren’t supposed to last in prison,” Brandon said, “just like you weren’t supposed to last in Afghanistan.”

“You wanted me dead so that I wouldn’t eventually figure it out,” Jed realized.

“I wanted you dead so I didn’t have to keep hearing about you,” Brandon said, nearly gagging on the admission as if just the thought of Jed made him physically sick.

“You stayed around here?” Jed asked.

“No, but I stayed in touch with Marcus, making sure that no new evidence came up that would get you off on an appeal.”

“That had to be expensive,” Jed mused. “Marcus was always very nervous. You would have had to keep paying him to keep him quiet. Is that why you finally killed him?”

“I should have killed him years ago,” Brandon admitted.

“Like you killed the woman?”

His bright teeth flashed again. “That was a suicide.”

“It was murder. And if you’d killed Leighton, the authorities might have figured out it was strange that everyone from my trial was dying.”

“Especially while you were prison,” Brandon agreed.

“So you would have had no one to blame for Marcus’s murder. Or the other witness’s.”

Brandon’s teeth flashed in another grin. “You breaking out of prison really helped me tie up the loose ends I had to leave after the last murders.”

“And what about me and Erica now?” Jed asked. “What are we?”

Brandon shrugged. “Just more loose ends…”

Jed had never hated the man more than he did right now. How could he dismiss Erica Towsley—who was a loving, devoted mother—as nothing more than a loose end?

If only Jed could get the shot…

But even though Brandon had loosened his grip around Erica, he still held the gun pressed against her temple with his finger right on the trigger. If Jed took the shot and missed, she was dead. If Jed took the shot and hit him, she might still be dead; Brandon could pull the trigger as a reflex before he died.

* * *

J
ED
WAS
DYING
TO
KILL
HIM
. Brandon could see the hatred in his eyes as he studied his options, trying to determine if he dared to take a shot.

He wasn’t the man Brandon was. He wouldn’t dare. He cared too much about the woman to risk her life. So, soon Jed would just be dying.

All these years of anticipation and it might be over this quick? Brandon wanted to savor the moment, wanted to taunt him a little bit more. He leaned forward and pressed his face into the woman’s hair.

Erica shuddered as if in revulsion.

“Oh, come on, honey,” he said. “Don’t act like you don’t like it when I touch you. You went out with me after this guy dumped you. You wanted to see what a real man was all about.”

Jed’s darkly stubbled jaw tensed, a muscle twitching in his cheek.

“If only I had time to show you now,” Brandon teased. “You would forget all about this guy—just like you did before. But I don’t have time.”

He had a private plane to catch, to bring him back to the island with no extradition treaty where he had spent most of the past three years. He hadn’t trusted Marcus or the witness not to eventually give him up.

But when he’d heard about Jed’s escape, he’d had to return. The opportunity had been too good to pass up.

Brandon figured either Jed or the woman had some kind of recorder, taping his confession. That was why Jed had kept him talking instead of just killing him the minute he had stepped into the parking garage.

If Jed had stolen three years of his life, his money and his reputation, Brandon would have killed him the minute he’d seen him. Jed cared more about honor than revenge. His very integrity would be what finally destroyed him completely, though.

Brandon would just kill them both and check them for recording devices, probably Jed was using the voice recorder on his cell phone. Brandon would destroy that and then no one would ever know the truth.

“I really appreciate you making this easy for me,” he told them. “Your showing up here, Erica, makes it all so easy to stage another double murder. Or should I say murder, suicide.”

He grinned as his new plan took shape and taunted them with the details. “Jed here is going to kill himself before going back to prison, and because he doesn’t want any other man to have you, he’s going to kill you, Erica, before he takes his own life…in the very same spot where he committed those murders three years ago.”

“Who was he?” Jed asked.

He snapped at the inane interruption. “Who?”

“The man you passed off as yourself,” Jed reminded him. “The man you murdered and then burned his body to pass off as yours.”

Brandon sighed. “Enough with the questions. It doesn’t matter anymore. You’re not going to prove your innocence. And you’re not going to stall me until help arrives.” He laughed at his own joke. “Help? You have no one who can help you.”

He must have just imagined that Jed’d had help to escape the woods because if he’d had someone there, the guy would have been here already. He wouldn’t have let him walk into the parking garage alone, and he certainly wouldn’t have let Erica run between two armed men—especially if it was the DEA agent, the only person besides Jed’s sister who had expressed belief in his innocence.

“Everybody hates you now,” he reminded Jed. “Your parents, your clients—everyone who thought you were such a hero has forsaken you. Even you…” He pressed a kiss to Erica’s temple where he didn’t hold the gun. “You doubted him. You believed he was a killer.”

“I didn’t… I wouldn’t have…” she stammered, “but Marcus convinced me.”

He snorted in derision. “Marcus never made a compelling argument in his life. You doubted Jed because you didn’t trust him then. And you don’t trust him now or you wouldn’t have shown up here. So I guess you really have no one, Jed, not even the woman you love…”

He cocked the gun. It was time to pull the trigger—time to end all this nonsense and get back to paradise.

Chapter Eighteen

“You’ve been so brave,” Macy praised her niece, keeping her voice bright and happy.

Over the phone, Erica had calmed her daughter’s fears but for just a short while. The little girl must have felt the same awful sense of foreboding that gripped Macy. Something bad was going to happen.

Lives were going to be lost—futures destroyed.

And Macy was helpless to do anything to prevent the pending tragedy. She had accepted her role in this horrible play when she’d promised Erica to keep the little girl safe. As she pulled her car up outside the parking garage, she realized that Erica probably wouldn’t consider this the best way to protect the child.

She wasn’t bringing her into the line of fire. But they would be able to hear shots from here. They’d be able to know when it was over…just not whose lives were over…

* * *

C
HOKING
ON
FEAR
,
E
RICA
HELD
her breath. It wasn’t supposed to go like this, but then nothing had gone according to her plan since she had first met Jedidiah Kleyn. She’d been applying for a job and wound up with a boyfriend. But she hadn’t kept him.

She had already known that she wouldn’t be able to keep him now. But she hadn’t suspected that she was the one who might wind up dead. Of course it should have occurred to her, since she’d run out between two men holding guns on each other.

But still…it wasn’t supposed to go like this.

The look on Jed’s face would haunt her…for however long she lived. Fear and horror darkened his eyes even more, so that they looked more black than brown.

“I’m sorry.” She mouthed the words to him as he’d once mouthed them to her. And she flinched, waiting for the bullet to strike. That little scalpel she carried wouldn’t protect her now. Before she could unsheathe it and stab Brandon, she would be dead.

“You’re wrong,” Jed told Brandon.

The guy laughed. “This should be good. What am I wrong about? Are you going to try to save her? Going to try to hit me? Your bullet won’t be able to hit me before mine tears her brain apart.”

Erica shivered at the coldness of Brandon’s voice. She had once been taken in by his charm. Not enough to fall for him but enough to go out with him even though she had already been in love with another man.

“You’re wrong that I have no friends,” Jed informed him. “That I have no one to help me.”

Brandon lifted the gun slightly away from her head and glanced around. “I don’t see anyone else here. It’s just the three of us. For the moment.”

“You’re not looking hard enough,” Jed advised him. “Look harder…”

“We’re right here,” a raspy voice added, and Rowe stepped from the shadows behind Brandon, his gun trained on the madman’s head.

“And if Kleyn and Cusack aren’t able to get off a shot fast enough to save Ms. Towsley, I sure as hell will,” added another male voice.

Erica glanced up to where Sheriff York stood on the parking level above them, a sniper rifle trained on Brandon’s forehead. And if he doubted the man, he would only have to look in a mirror to see the red laser mark between his eyes.

Brandon sucked in a breath of shock and fear.

“It’s over,” Jed informed him. “They heard everything.”

“And we had the D.A.’s approval to record it,” the sheriff added. “In fact he’s been listening in the entire time…”

Brandon’s breath escaped in a gasp and a curse. “Son of a bitch…”

Erica didn’t relax. It might be over according to Jed and the lawmen. But Brandon was used to calling the shots. He was used to having things go his way. He wasn’t likely to go out how these men wanted him—in handcuffs—but in a blaze of glory. And he would take her with him, caught in the crossfire.

She saw that same fear in Jed’s eyes as he waited, his gun still trained on Brandon.

They might all die yet.

But then Brandon lowered his weapon and stepped back. Obviously he hadn’t wanted to die for real. “Goddamn you, Jed. I thought I’d taken you down. Finally. I’d thought you lost.”

“If it makes you feel any better,” Jed told him as Rowe slapped cuffs around the man’s wrists, “you took away three years of my life that I’ll never get back. Three years of time I could have spent with my daughter.”

Three years of time he could have spent with her. Erica wanted to tell him that, but he wasn’t looking at her. Until Rowe led Brandon away, reading him his rights. Then Jed walked up and grabbed her, shaking her gently.

“What the hell were you thinking, woman?” he asked, his voice cracking with rage and residual fear for her safety. “You almost got yourself killed.”

“She was never in any danger,” the sheriff assured Jed as he dismantled his weapon and returned it to the case in which he’d carried it. “From the way he was answering your questions, it was clear Henderson suspected it was a setup. He wasn’t saying anything that the D.A. could use against him in court.”

“But Brandon would never believe that I would let you be part of the trap to catch him.” Jed clenched his hands on her shoulders. “And he was right to believe that. I never would have gone back for you if I thought you would put yourself in danger.”

He had gone back for her, though. But not just her—he had waited for Rowe, who had brought in the sheriff of Blackwoods County. Together, with guidance from the Blackwoods district attorney, they had concocted their plan to bring Brandon to the justice he had eluded for far too long.

She had never been part of that plan until the sheriff and Rowe had realized Brandon was never going to implicate himself until he was certain Jed wasn’t trapping him. Both men had assured her of her safety before she’d run into the garage.

And she had felt safe in the bulletproof vest she wore beneath her jacket—until Brandon had pressed the gun to her head. Then she’d felt stupid and reckless. “You’re right,” she agreed. “I shouldn’t have gotten involved.”

“Remember, it got us what we need to overturn your murder convictions,” the sheriff said as he came down from the higher level of the parking garage.

“But nothing Brandon said will get rid of the charges against me for breaking out of prison,” Jed said. With a heavy sigh, he turned around—presenting the sheriff with his back, his wrists linked behind him for the cuffs.

A squeal of “Mommy” drew Erica’s attention to the entrance to the parking garage. The little girl, still clad in her pajamas and bare feet, ran across the concrete.

Macy followed closely behind her. Rowe must have told her about their plan. “She got away from me. She really wanted to see you.”

Erica caught the little girl up in her arms, holding her close. Her daughter had almost lost her mother. And she would lose her father. Not for life but for however long a judge sentenced him for the prison break.

“And I wanted to see you,” Macy said, as she reached for her brother.

Jed hugged his sister tightly. But he stared over her head at Isobel, his eyes full of longing. He glanced back at the sheriff. “Is it okay if I spend a little time with my daughter before you take me back to Blackwoods County?”

He’d broken out of prison there, so no doubt he needed to return to the local jail in the county where he’d broken the law.

The sheriff nodded. “Your friend will be turned in to the police department here since this is where he committed his crimes.”

His murders. Several innocent people had lost their lives over one man’s greed and envy. Jed tensed, as if the same thought had occurred to him, but instead of blaming Brandon, he seemed to be blaming himself.

“He was never Jed’s friend,” Macy said.

“No,” Jed agreed. “I’ve trusted people I shouldn’t have.” He glanced at Erica now.

Her stomach clenched with regret. She hadn’t betrayed him as he had believed for the past three years. But her believing the worst about him was a betrayal, too. And she had done that more than once.

She wanted to apologize again, but she worried that it was too late for that. That it was already too late for them.

“I’m trusting you to come out to where the cars are parked in the alley,” Sheriff York told Jed.

“I’m done running,” Jed said. “I’ll be out in just a few minutes.”

“I’m going back to talk to my fiancé,” Macy said. “I’ll see if he can do something about the charges for escaping prison. Maybe he can talk to someone…” She hurried out after the sheriff.

Erica faced her sleepy-eyed daughter. “Honey, this is your father.”

The little girl blinked thick lashes at her, totally confused.

“This man.” She couldn’t look at him when she confessed all to her daughter. “My friend Jed—he is your father. Your daddy.”

Isobel turned to him for confirmation, her chocolate-brown eyes wide with shock and awe. “You’re my daddy?”

Jed’s throat muscles rippled as he swallowed, as if choked with emotion. “Yes, honey, I am your daddy.” He held out his arms for her.

But she hung back a moment, no doubt overwhelmed with the new information. “I—I have a daddy?”

“Yes,” Erica assured the little girl, sick with guilt that she had never told the child about her father.

She continued, “And he wants to spend some time with you, honey.”

Before he had to go back to jail…

Erica handed Isobel over to Jed’s outstretched arms and turned to leave the garage.

“Wait,” he said. “Stay with us.”

Either he was nervous alone with the little girl or he was concerned that the little girl would be nervous alone with him. Either reason had Erica’s heart warm with love for him. Watching him with their child made her see what kind of man he really was, the man he had always been: gentle, honest and affectionate.

She had to say it—this time aloud. “I’m sorry.”

“I know it wasn’t your idea to interrupt my meeting with Brandon,” Jed replied, absolving her of any carelessness and stupidity. “I know you thought you were perfectly safe.”

She shook her head. “No. I’m sorry about…” She glanced at their daughter, who had affectionately snuggled her head into the crook of Jed’s shoulder and neck. “I’m sorry that I didn’t believe in you like I should have.”

“Why should you have?” he asked.

Because she loved him. But she couldn’t tell him that now when her mistrust had already ruined any promise they had once had for a future together.

“I should have known better,” she said. And now that he and Isobel seemed so comfortable together, she had no reason to stay. She started toward the entrance to the garage.

“I never gave you the chance,” he said, again absolving her.