Hot Pursuit (42 page)

That’s when Ben spotted the red dot on the thug standing closest to Ben. Ben turned, lunging into Wolf as he shoved him back into the storage room.

“Duck!” Ben yelled as four loud popping sounds reverberated through the air.

“What the fuck?” Wolf bellowed, not taking nicely to being pushed backward. Instinctively he pushed back.

Wolf was a big, muscular man and succeeded in sending Ben backward a step or two. But Ben’s effort was successful. He turned, gaining his footing, and stared at four men, dead. They hadn’t been shot through the heart; the aim would have been impossible. All four men had been shot in the head and lay, crumpled on top of one another, in the alley next to the still-running car.

“What?” Wolf leapt around Ben and the dead men. “Which direction?” he shouted, looking both ways down the alley.

Micah would be gone. Ben pointed, still stunned as he stared at Cortez’s dead body, in the direction the shots would have come from.

Angel and Zoey ran into him from behind.

“Oh God!” Angel cried out.

“What?” Zoey said at the same time. “Oh God! Oh God!” she began repeating.

Ben turned, pushing both women back inside. “Stay in here,” he ordered. “Stay away from the windows. I don’t know what’s going on yet,” he told them, it pretty much being the truth.

The next hour seemed to pass by within minutes. Ben acted on instinct, barely thinking but moving fast, without thought to any repercussions. Something told him there would be none.

“There’s no driver,” Wolf said, after searching as far as he could in the dark to satisfy himself that he wouldn’t find the shooter.

“We’ve got to get them out of here,” Ben said, staring down at the four dead men.

“Okay. How?”

Ben had surveyed the alley, the running car, his parked bike, which thankfully hadn’t been hit. “We load them back into Cortez’s car.”

“Then what?” Wolf was already moving around to the other side of the corpses, which stunk from pools of blood each of them laid in.

The storage room door opened behind Ben. “I just called a friend.” Angel stuck her head out of the door, intentionally not looking down at the dead bodies but instead shifting her focus from Wolf to Ben and back again. “Drive down to the beach. I have directions.” She paused for a moment, still diverting her attention from the dead mean. “One of them is Cortez?” she whispered.

Ben finally felt the pain in his fist from breaking Cortez’s nose. It was the best pain he’d ever felt. “Yup,” he told her.

Wolf hurried to the door, pulling her into his arms and using his body to block sight of the bloody mess outside her door. “Stay inside. I’ll be in there in a few minutes.”

“Okay,” she said, her voice wavering.

Then the two men worked fast, loading dead men, who were a lot heavier than they looked like they would be, into the trunk and onto the backseat of the spacious luxury car. Angel gave directions, and Ben drove, with Wolf riding shotgun. Angel and Zoey followed in Angel’s car. Ben was surprised at the group of men waiting at the docks. Within minutes, the men moved methodically and the expensive car was set off to sea.

“Cortez is dead,” Zoey whispered when Ben walked up to her.

He looked down at her, noticing the war of emotions on her face. “I know he was your father.”

Zoey looked up at him. “That man was never my father.”

A sea-weathered old man limped heavily, putting most of his weight on one foot, and stopped when he stood in between Zoey and Ben. He smelled of fish and the sea. Ben imagined he’d lived his whole life as a fisherman.

“You want my boat?” he asked, as if his question would make perfect sense to them.

“Your boat?” Ben asked.

The man’s face was like leather, with thick creases and dark skin in spite of the time of year. “For your girl here. She will say good-bye to her father.”

It seemed as if the world grew quiet. The old man wasn’t speaking loudly. Everyone around them shifted, looking down as if this moment belonged exclusively to Zoey.

“Thank you,” was all she said.

Ben didn’t know a lot about boats. Fortunately, the old man walked them over to a small speedboat, the
Christina
, as it said on its side in red cursive letters. Ben helped Zoey in, then cranked on the motor. It took off over the water as if she needed no driver. In spite of the chill in the night, water splashed up the sides of the boat to the point where Ben stripped out of his jacket and sweater, just so he’d have dry clothes when they returned to shore.

“The car went down over there,” Zoey pointed.

Ben circled around the area over the descending car and finally cut the motor. He slipped back into his jacket and let the boat drift. Zoey sat next to him, cuddling into his arms. He wasn’t sure how long they sat there. But the thick blanket of stars on an incredibly black sky and the dark inky water lapping at the side of the boat shrouded the two of them.

Zoey didn’t say anything. She didn’t cry. She never tried moving from his arms. Ben knew her past would haunt her for quite a while, possibly even years. He prayed she was able to let go of a little of it as she relaxed against him. He’d say this much. That old sailor had offered Zoey a wonderful gift. When she finally looked up at him, and nodded it was time to return to shore, the demons he’d seen on her face earlier were gone.

Chapter Eighteen

Ben pulled into the narrow drive, one hand covering Zoey’s two smaller hands, which were wrapped around his waist. It would be a cold ride for a while, but they were headed to a warmer climate. He couldn’t wait to get home. There was one thing the two of them had to do before leaving Zounds.

Micah walked out of his shed at the sound of Ben’s Harley.

“Nice bike,” Micah said, grinning as the two of them climbed off the bike.

Maggie was out of the cabin almost at the same time Micah appeared. Zoey ran to her, and the two women hugged.

“We came to say good-bye,” Ben said.

“She agreed to go home with you?”

“We’re going to give it a shot. I, personally, think Zoey would be perfect running the shop at KFA, if I can convince Greg and Haley to give her a chance.”

Micah was still smiling and rocked up on his heels. “I heard those two were slowing down a bit, going to enjoy the golden years.”

Ben shook his head. “They are way too young for golden years.”

“You might be right, but you never know. We’re enjoying them.”

Ben shook his head. Micah was a strange man, but then given his background and history there was no denying why. “What are you two going to do?”

Micah shrugged and looked over his shoulder at the cabin. Zoey and Maggie were standing not too far away. The women looked at the men when they noticed they were being watched.

“What?” Maggie demanded, her eyes sparkling.

“Just enjoying the view,” Micah said, using his dark, ornery tone that could mean so much and told so little.

“That’s no lie,” Ben agreed.

For a change, the sun shone down brightly against a deep blue sky. Both ladies were so beautiful in such very different ways.

“How is Zoey doing?” Micah asked, keeping his voice low so the women didn’t hear as he studied Ben.

“Pretty good,” Ben said, not sure if he wanted Micah to know that she had actually mourned the man who had destroyed the first half of her life and at the same time rejoiced at his death. It had been a hodgepodge of emotions Ben hadn’t been sure how to handle, other than holding her and letting her have time for the emotions to come out. “The doctor at the hospital gave her a clean bill of health when he removed her cast.” It had been a long couple of weeks, and Ben was glad they were behind them.

Ben didn’t know whether Zoey heard them or not, but she started across the yard, Maggie in tow. With the bright yellow bandana wrapped around Zoey’s head and pulling her black hair back, along with the matching yellow sweater and her tight-fitting jeans, Zoey had informed Ben she was going for the “biker chick” look. Ben would never tell her that she’d failed badly. Zoey looked way too adorable.

He held his arm out to Zoey, but instead of walking into his embrace, she walked straight up to Micah and wrapped her arms around him. The surprised look on Micah’s face was comical. Almost as funny as petite Zoey hugging the tall and muscular Micah.

“Thank you,” Zoey whispered into his chest.

“For what?” Micah seemed hesitant in putting his arms around her but looked down at her head as he slowly placed his hands on her back.

“For giving me my life back,” she said, and pushed away to look up at him. “I can’t even mourn the loss of my only parent. I tried. I think I thought I was supposed to, but I couldn’t. He was mean to me from the moment he took custody of me. Now it’s over. Thank you.”

“Oh.” Micah looked incredibly uncomfortable as he stared over Zoey’s head.

He stared into the woods behind Ben, and his expression changed. Ben heard the popping of gravel, of someone approaching, a moment later. Micah pushed Zoey away from him, and she let out a start as Micah pulled his gun from his waist where it had been holstered.

It was too late. Ben turned as Wolf walked into the clearing from the woods. Wolf had waited for the exact perfect moment when Micah’s guard would be down, and he’d found it.

“Wolf!” Ben yelled, staring at the man and the rather large gun he held, aimed directly at Micah.

“You know it’s just him I want,” Wolf said, not looking at Ben. “But then you knew that from the moment I entered KFA. You followed me up here only to warn him. Now get the fuck out of my way, Mercy!”

“Wolf,” Ben said again. His gun was on his bike. For Zoey’s sake, he hadn’t worn it figuring she’d been around enough violence for a while. Ben didn’t doubt for a moment that if he moved, Wolf would shoot him.

A car pulled into the drive. Both men barely gave the car a glance as they continued aiming at each other.

“Oh my God! Wolf!” Angel yelled as she leapt out of the car, but then, spotting Micah, came to a frozen halt. “Maggie? Zoey? Ben?” she said, her voice having gone up a notch.

“Angel, just stay there.” It was Maggie who spoke. She held up her hand in warning.

“You’re the assassin,” Angel continued, her attention still transfixed on Micah. “Wolf, you found him,” she whispered, sounding in awe.

“He’s my husband!” Maggie yelled.

“You’re the one that I knew,” Angel responded, still speaking in awe.

“Get back in the car!” Wolf yelled.

Ben had no idea how Angel knew they were all there. At the moment, he didn’t want to see anyone shot. Later he’d worry about how this little party came together. “Both of you lower your guns. No one needs to die today.”

“Die?” Angel wailed.

Micah fired! All the women screamed, making the scene even more insane. There wasn’t a silencer on the gun. Wolf roared and it was all Ben could do to hold on to both women. He didn’t have ahold of Angel, though. When she screamed, she rushed into Wolf.

“Goddamn it!” Wolf yelled, managing to brace himself against Angel’s charging into him and shaking his hand that a moment ago had held his gun.

Micah had just shot Wolf’s gun out of his hand. The weapon skidded across the grassy area next to him into the brush. Wolf looked in that direction slowly, then returned his attention to Micah.

“You son of a bitch!” Wolf roared.

“Don’t you dare kill him!” Angel shouted at Micah. “Maggie, if he’s your husband tell him to put that thing down,” she continued, saying both sentences so fast she almost spoke them over each other.

“One way or another, I’m taking you in,” Wolf swore.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Micah said, his tone cold. “And you aren’t hurt,” he pointed out.

“No one is going to get hurt.” Ben pushed Zoey and Maggie behind him and stepped toward Micah.

“Stay back,” was all Micah said. He straightened his arm, aiming at Wolf.

“Oh God,” Angel whimpered.

“Angel, go to Maggie,” Micah instructed.

“Go,” Wolf encouraged, but kept his attention aimed on Micah.

“Please, don’t,” Angel begged, and hurried over to Maggie and Zoey. “Maggie, God. He did such a good thing. Don’t let this happen.”

“What do you mean that he did a good thing?” Maggie demanded.

The whole lot of them grew incredibly quiet. Ben kept his focus on Micah. The man was focused, yet his face looked relaxed. Had he killed so many times that he’d become immune to it? Ben couldn’t see it that way. And he wasn’t blind to Micah’s nature because the man had bailed him out and allowed him to get his life moving forward. Nor did he feel he only knew one side to the man. Right now, Ben would swear Micah was more worried that Angel, who was definitely the core to all town gossip in that bookstore, might have picked up on something from Wolf. The two of them were getting mighty cozy together. And if she had, all of Zounds would be talking about having their very own personal assassin who cared enough about them to rid them of the monster who had been sucking the life out of many of Zounds’s citizens. That kind of gossip would cost Micah his life.

Ben imagined Micah would do just about anything, except kill to protect himself. He would kill for Maggie, though. Micah had fallen hard for her almost the moment he’d slapped handcuffs on her over a year and a half ago. From that point forward, he’d fought to save her from the men who’d been framing her. Ben couldn’t swear to exactly when Micah had told Maggie who he really was. She’d joined Micah out of love, knowing and believing he’d retired from a terrible past. Micah had spent a lifetime helping people out from under monsters and evil that was indescribable in some cases. Granted, his means had been extreme and he’d been paid well for his services, not to mention what he had done had been against the law. But he’d killed rapists, pedophiles, serial killers, and men like Cortez. Ben couldn’t see Micah killing Wolf.

“Oh. Well, I was guessing really,” Angel blurted, breaking the silence.

Ben glanced away from the men to find Zoey. She stood next to Maggie, who stood next to Angel. Both women were looking at Angel. She shot furtive glances at Wolf and Micah, then at Ben. He didn’t take time to notice the incredible breathtaking backdrop behind the women. Nor did he care that even the chattering of birds in the woods surrounding them had stopped. All he could focus on right now was how to end this very bad scene. Wolf had obviously followed Ben and Zoey to Micah’s, which made this his fault. He should have thought through that Wolf might have guessed Ben would seek Micah out before leaving town. Ben and Zoey had stopped at the bookstore before coming here so Zoey could say good-bye to Angel. As excited as he’d been to share with Greg and Haley about pulling Zoey out of Cortez’s home, Ben would be embarrassed and ashamed to tell them about this situation. It was simply proof of how much he still needed to learn about paying attention to his surroundings. Although for the life of him, he had never noticed Wolf following them here.