License to Love (56 page)

“Wasn’t much left, but we didn’t need much,” the other one
said, laughing.

“You lied to me! You tried to kill my dad. You’re a monster
like Keith. I can’t believe I fell for it.” She tried to sit up, but Alexander
pushed her back against the floor.

“No!” She fought him, “I’m not leaving with you.”

“I don’t believe I asked.” He had to use his full body
weight to keep her down. Cora kicked, hit, and bit him, not stopping even when
he slapped her. Her face stung, but she fought on, shoving her thumb into his
eye and sending his head reeling back. 

“I can’t get out,” the driver yelled. “We’re stuck.”

“What?” Alexander shrieked as he shook Cora. He jumped up to
see the commotion that was blocking the exit. With her free leg, Cora threw
everything she had into his crotch. She saw his eyes bulge as she scrambled
away.
That’s for kidnapping me! For tricking me! For shooting my dad!

The injury didn’t slow him down as much as she hoped, but
then the sickness set in. She was able to escape through the van doors before
he could grab her leg.

She sprinted across an indoor parking lot and soon realized
she was in a hotel’s underground parking complex. She thought it was the same
hotel, so maybe they hadn’t left the building yet. Using the vehicles to hide
behind, she made her way to the stairs and then up to the next level.

The stairs ended and she ran into the door, hoping it would
open.

Locked! Damn, damn, damn! She pounded and pounded.
Someone
be there – open the door!
Mixed in with her racket, she heard Alexander’s
heavy footsteps as he raced after her. Boom, boom, boom, boom. He had to be mad
as hell that she got away – that she tried her best to beat the shit out of
him. 

He slowed down on the last set of stairs. It was quiet. He
wasn’t yelling or cussing at her as she expected. He knew she was trapped, and
he was taking his time, taking each step with a gleeful thump. Slowly, she
turned around to face him. Was there any chance Nick had gotten free and was
about to find her?

“You picked the wrong door, dear.” His face held a smirk of
triumph, but there was also blood on his face and his hair was a mess.

“You picked the wrong girl,” she shot back. “I’m not going
with you.”

He smiled again as he pulled his gun out. He had put on
quite a show when pretending to help her before. That hadn’t been him at all.
This evil monster was the true Alexander.

He took the last few steps and snatched a fistful of her
hair. She didn’t scream. She wouldn’t give him that. He yanked her down the
stairs with him and rammed them both into another door on the first flight,
throwing it open. There they stood, both panting, between two doors, one
leading outside while the other led back to the parking deck.

“The van’s outside,” he said as he stopped to breathe. At
least she had winded him. “We’re getting in it, or I’m putting a bullet through
your head and then one through Nick’s.”

He didn’t care about getting the key? Maybe this wasn’t
about the money after all. She felt sick. Trapped.

“Then shoot me.”

His teeth-baring sneer relaxed into a confused frown as he
studied her eyes. His fist held her hair tightly, keeping her head in place so
she had to stare back at him. He wasn’t a cold-blooded killer. He was an
emotional killer. She watched his eyes and, as he battled his conflicting
emotions, his expression changed. She realized she was a prized possession to
him, something he didn’t want to smash to pieces.

“I said shoot me.”

He unintentionally let his hand slip from her hair. She
stepped toward the inner door.

The movement jarred him and he aimed a gun steady at her.
“Do you really want me to shoot you? How about in the leg? You won’t be running
off then.”

“Ha! I thought you said you’d put that bullet through my
head.” She yelled at him and immediately regretted it. She was playing with
pain. He could, and he would, shoot her if it wasn’t fatal. She didn’t know
which would be worse: dying or going with Alexander. Cora took another step and
was only two feet from the door.

He shook the gun. “I’ll rather have you with a bullet in you
than not at all.”

Her hand reached out and touched the door handle behind her.
He didn’t react but a tremor shook through her. “You’ll really shoot me?” She’d
managed to change her tone. Maybe she could talk him down and get him back to
the fake and polished manner he used before. Maybe she could use his feelings
for her. Because, otherwise, she wasn’t making it out of this alive.

If only she’d told Nick how she felt.

She took the last step and stood with her back against the
door. Her hand gripped the handle and she wondered if she could run out the
door before he shot her.

“Does this game turn you on, Cora?” he asked, half smiling.
“Do you think I love you enough to not kill you?”

“Love?” At her question, he lowered the gun and his face
relaxed as he looked at her.

“I’ve watched you grow into the woman you are. No one else
knows what you want.”

“So you thought I wanted to lose my father?” She used a
daring tone, one she probably shouldn’t use when he had a gun. “You thought I
wanted you to frame my father? Try to kill him? Take my life away? Is that what
you’re claiming love is all about?”

“I did whatever it took to be with you.” His arm lowered
completely. “Did Nick try all that hard? You’ve been chasing Nick, but I’ve
been chasing you.” His gun hung on his limp arms while he waited for her
answer.

“You’re wrong about him. I ran from him, and he still risked
his life for me. He does what’s right.”

Alexander fired his gun.

She dove down, covering her head, but the second shot didn’t
come. The first one hadn’t hit her. Thank God, she wasn’t hurt. She looked up
at him. Alexander’s eyes grew wide and crazy at what he’d done. The gun
remained pointed at the door as she swung it open and passed through it, away
from him.        

Cora waited till the door clicked shut before breaking into
a crazy sprint, inhaling air like she’d been underwater. He could have killed
her! Oh God, he had been planning to kidnap her this entire time. She just
wanted to get Nick and get out of this unhurt.

She followed the stairs upward, two or three at a time. She
didn’t know where she was going, but only that she was running away from
Alexander.
Please, please, please, don’t be behind me.
She burst through
a door and into someone’s arms.

“No!”

“Here she is!”

It wasn’t Alexander. Her body jerked to fight him but he was
huge. He carried her thirty feet down the hallway and into another hotel room,
where he all but dropped her on the floor. She spotted Nick seated in an
armchair against the opposite wall, and he sprang to his feet. Terrance pushed
him back, but Nick fought him off and engulfed her with his arms. She was
shaking all over and unable to stop, even with Keith and Terrance watching.

“Are you alright? Are you hurt? Damn it! I’m sorry. I should
have been watching you.” Nick rambled and checked her over before aiming a
death-threat glare at Keith. “You asshole!”

Keith drummed his fingers on the wall, looking irritated as
if his basketball team wasn’t doing well in a game. “Sit down, both of you. I
need to think.”

“You almost got her killed.” Nick started to step toward him
but Cora gripped his arm. He looked into her eyes; his face was fierce and
dark. She didn’t want him trying to strong arm his way out of here, given what
everyone else was carrying.

“That’s your problem.” Keith paced, holding onto his gun and
studying it as if it held the answer to all of this. “My problem is getting my
money back. I don’t mind sacrificing the two of you to do it, either.”

They had no choice but to sit on the couch. She turned to
Nick. They couldn’t talk but she hoped he was thinking along the same lines. It
wasn’t hopeless, not when they knew how to get Keith’s money back. It suddenly
seemed so simple.

“I can still get the key,” Cora said. Keith stopped and
turned to her. “Let me go and I can get your money back.” She didn’t want to
confess that they have had the key all along.

“No.” Nick grabbed her shoulders and faced her. “You can’t
try that again.”

“What other choice do you have?” Keith slipped his gun into
his holster under his jacket.

“Let me go,” Nick said. Cora dug her fingernails into his
arm to stop him. She needed Keith to believe that they had to get the key back
from Alexander. She could do that. Nick couldn’t. When Keith tilted his head
and studied Nick, she could tell he knew that too. She had to pretend she was
going to find Alexander.

“No,” Keith said at last. He turned to Cora. “I’ll keep Nick
until you return my money. That’s a nice, easy swap.”  Using the hotel’s
stationary and pen, Keith wrote several numbers down and gave her the paper.
“This has Alexander’s cell phone number as well as mine. Get in contact with
him. Get the key and then my money. I don’t care what you have to do. Understand?
When you have my money, call me. I’ll give you the rest of today.”

She wouldn’t be calling Alexander. They were done with him.
Thank God she didn’t really need him to get the money. “And I’ll hand over the
money when Nick is safe.”

He met her gaze and tipped his head. “Exactly, my dear.” 
She couldn’t read him. It didn’t matter anyway. She would get the money. Nick
grabbed her arm and looked deep into her eyes. He wanted to know what she was
thinking. Sadly, there was no way to tell him.

She took in his warm, loving eyes and striking face,
imprinting every detail to memory. He had risked his life by getting involved
and standing up to his family, to save her life and Jerry’s life. Now she’d try
to save his. 

“This won’t take long,” she promised. “I’ll call soon when I
have the money.” She hoped he could read everything she felt in her eyes.

Nick continued arguing as Keith opened the door and smiled
at Cora. “We’ll talk to you soon, now won’t we?”

“Want me to follow her?” Terrance asked.

“No, not necessary,” Keith said as she walked away. “If she
wants Nick to live, she’ll be back.”

She felt herself shaking as she walked to the lobby, but she
shoved her hands into the pockets of her shorts in an attempt to control it.
Tears threatened her eyes. She’d left Jerry before and he got shot. Now she was
leaving Nick – again – but this time it was the right thing to do. It was the
only way. An old saying came to mind: if it’s meant to be, it will be. Maybe
fate could work even in such a dire situation as this. 

She stopped at a bathroom to fix her appearance, running
damp hands through her hair to tame it and washing her face. There was a light
blue coloring developing over one of her eyes, and she didn’t have makeup to
hide it. So she did what she could and hurried out.

The hotel had a phone for local calls so she dialed Adam’s
number. She had memorized it earlier. 

“Adam.”

“Are you all right? Where are you?”

“I’m okay, but they’ve got Nick,” she started. “Keith wants
his money today or he’ll kill him.”

A string of Spanish followed and she easily guessed what it
meant. “Okay, alright, stay calm.” Adam’s steel voice reassured her. “I’ll come
get you, we’ll get the money as soon as the bank opens and then meet Keith.”

She directed him to a meeting place several blocks away.

“I’ve got good news,” he said. “The FBI is helping us.”

“The FBI?” Herald and Adam had been busy the last two days.
“Tell me about it once we meet. I need to get some distance between me and
Keith.” Adam agreed, and she took off at a good pace, using alleyways and
walking between buildings. She watched her back the entire way so she noticed
right away when a blue Sedan started trailing her. Maybe Keith had sent someone
after all.

Her gut told her otherwise. She broke into a run. Tires screeched
behind her. People yelled at her as she pushed through the morning crowd. She
ran past a narrow alley and spun around when she realized it wasn’t wide enough
for a car. She ran down it while recalculating how to get to her meeting place.
She’d be safe once she reached Adam.

Two men stepped in front of her. She tried to run around
them but one caught her with an arm around the waist. “What the hell!” She
punched and kicked him. “Are you with Keith? Because I’m helping him.”

The large, rough man stared at her without answering.

“Thanks.” It was Alexander behind her. He strode down the
alley, a stern expression on his face. The man let Cora go and then he took
something from Alexander’s hand. Money. Payment for helping him. Son of a
bitch. 

He grabbed her arm and headed back toward his car. The two
men walked behind them, ensuring she’d go.

“Who are you running from?” he asked as he opened the
passenger door.

“You don’t need to worry about me.” She considered screaming
for help. Someone would help, wouldn’t they? Alexander pushed her in and
hurried to the other side. She tried the door but couldn’t open it.

He jumped in and ripped the car back into traffic.

“Please, you have to let me go.” She turned to face him and
changed tactics. “Keith’s going to kill Nick if I don’t meet him this evening
with his money.”

Seeing the amusement in his cold eyes enraged her beyond
belief. Stupid laughing eyes.
Nick, think of Nick
.

“So tell me, how are you going to get a million dollars?”

At least she got to smile now, even if it was short lived.
“I’m giving him the million dollars you stole.”

He pulled into a parking lot and parked, turning to her.
“Your old man actually took my money?” His cold voice didn’t reveal anything,
but she could guess how mad that made him. He was just like Keith.