One Lucky Lady (15 page)

As soon as it opened, she launched herself at one of the goons. She hit him at the shoulders with her head and they both went to the ground. Alex was clawing and kicking and trying to get away while the other goon was trying to get a hold of her. To her surprise she felt one large hand pull her up by her hair, and turn her.

She was facing the guy that had stuffed her in the trunk, Goon Number One. She hadn’t gotten a good look at him, but she could smell his breath again. She really didn’t like him, and she was getting more pissed off by the minute. She brought her knee up and connected with his groin. He lurched over but didn’t fall, grabbing himself with his free hand. He still had her by the hair and she was twisting, trying to get away. She was sure she was losing plenty of hair in the process, but she didn’t care.

He finally caught his breath and yanked her up to face him again. His eyes were black, soulless and Alex felt a shudder run though her body. She was trying to get control of herself when he brought the back of his other hand across her cheek hard.

Stars danced in front of her eyes and it felt like her head was going to explode. She hit the ground and felt the pavement bite into her hands and knees. She rolled to the side trying to stay conscious.
Well, at least he let go of her hair.

She heard the smaller guy, Goon Number Two, chuckle as he was grabbing for her hands. She tried to pull away from him but he just wrenched her arm up pulling her hand painfully between her shoulder blades. She stamped down the urge to cry as he pulled her other arm behind her back and taped her hands together. Alex fought to stay alert. When he finished binding her hands he took his hands off of her for just a second and she rolled to try to get away from him but he grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her upright.

The big guy was standing against the car with his arms crossed. When he caught her looking at him, his eyes went hard and icy, even as she thought they couldn’t get more scary-looking. He said, “I’m gonna like takin’ care of ya, bitch. You gonna die real fuckin’ slow. I’m gonna do things to ya that’ll make ya beg me to kill ya. ”

Alex could feel her whole body start shaking. She could feel the hot tears on her cheeks. She wanted to scream, but it wouldn’t come out. Her mouth had gone dry. This had to be a nightmare. She was scared and mad as hell. She wasn’t sure which one of those had brought on the tears, but she needed to keep it together. She had to give Mac and Pedro time to find her.
Please, Lord, let them find me soon.

“Quit scarin’ the lady.” The smaller guy said. The boss ain’t gonna like it if she’s so scared she can’t talk.”

The smaller guy while still holding the back of her shirt, said, “Walk.”

The night was cool and humid. Alex could feel the sweat running between her breasts and down her temple. She was pretty sure once they got what they wanted she was going to be turned over to the guy with halitosis. She shivered. The thought of getting eaten by a shark was more appealing. At least the shark’s eyes looked more sensitive than Goon Number One’s, and she would be willing to be the shark would have better breath.

Alex looked up and realized where she was. They were parked in the driveway behind
her
house and they were marching her through her kitchen door. Jarred’s car was also there. Her mind reeled. She stumbled and the smaller guy yanked her back up. If Jarred was here… Her stomach felt like it dropped. The same feeling when she got when she would go over the top of a roller coaster and free fall into the next turn.
Jarred is the boss.
She felt the anger fighting its way past her fear.
How dare he!

Jarred was sitting in Tom’s study when Jim and Earl brought Alex in. Earl looked like he was ready to maim someone, and Alex had a cut and the beginnings of one hell of a shiner around her right eye. Jarred laughed. She looked like she wanted to maim someone too. Her green eyes were looking right at him. He really did like Alex, but he knew as soon as they had the PDA, Jim and Earl were going to have to get rid of her. It should be pretty easy. According to the police department, she had left town for California. She didn’t have any family to worry about. She would just be another missing person. This was going to be easy.

Alex watched him laugh. She had always thought he was a nice-looking man with his reddish hair and bright blue eyes, but right now she thought he looked a little crazy. She always hated dealing with crazy. At least people who were just bad in general were relatively predictable. Crazy was a whole other box of tacos. She decided that, if she had a gun, she could probably pull the trigger now. She still didn’t know what all this was about, but Jarred had to be behind Tom’s death. Otherwise, why would he be sitting there and why would he have sent these two goons after her?

Jarred finally spoke. “So, Alex, I take it you had a pleasant trip.”

Alex felt her eyes go wide and her heart start pounding. “What in the hell do you want? They stuffed me in a trunk you miserable piece of shit.” She said between clenched teeth. She barely noticed the pain in her right jaw over the anger.

He was shaking his head at her still smiling. “Alex, I have never known you to say a foul word. Shame on you.”

“You’ve never seen me this mad, and I promise I’ll only use words that are accurate. Now answer my question. What do you want?”

“Well, it seems Tom’s PDA is missing. You wouldn’t happen to know where it is, would you?”

Alex was glaring at him. “No, the last time I saw it was on his desk. What did you do to Tom and where’s Lucy?”

Ignoring her question, Jarred continued. “We found the PDA that was on Tom’s desk. I do not think Tom had the Drug Handbook as part of his software. Do you?”

Alex intentionally looked puzzled but she realized that she must have picked up Tom’s by mistake. She had gone into his office, removed it from the charger and put it in her purse the night Tom was killed. She would have realized it when she got to work. His was password protected. Hers was not.

“You think that I have it? I left with only my pajamas that night. I didn’t even have my shoes.”

Jarred looked calm as he waved his arm over the room and said, “It’s not here. As I’m sure you can see, we’ve looked everywhere. Now, where is it Alex?”

Alex knew she had to stall so she looked around the office slowly, taking in the papers all over the floor, the open drawers and the dismantled leather couch. While she was looking around, she prayed Pedro and Mac would hurry up. She knew once Jarred had the information he needed he would kill her. Of course, if she told them the truth, that she really didn’t know where it was, they would probably kill her anyway.
Right?

Jarred seemed a little less calm-crazy and a little more crazy-crazy when he said, “Alex? I don’t have all night.” He got up and walked around the desk to stand directly in front of her. He seemed to think for a minute, looking curious. “Did you know about Tom when you married him?”

Warily, Alex said, “Did I know what? What are you talking about?”

“Alex, honey, Tom was not straight. He really wanted to be, but he wasn’t. His only relationships were with women, but he would look at men. He loved you, you know.” Jarred slid the back of his finger over her uninjured cheek. “Any man, gay or straight, can see your beauty.” His hand continued down over her collarbone and toward her breast.

Alex felt like she was going to vomit. She really wished she had a bra on. Just before her stomach went into total revolt there was the faint sound of a door opening. She knew someone else had just come in the kitchen. In her heart she knew who it was.

Jarred looked at the smaller goon. Without a word said he walked over and taped Alex’s mouth shut. Jarred backed against the desk, pulled her back to him and put a gun to her head.
Great, now she was bait.
She had never been bait before. Now at least she knew how those poor worms on the hook felt. She would never fish with them again.

Alex was getting really tired of the guns. She watched as the Goon Squad separated and backed up to either side of the door. They both had a gun. Jarred was behind her
with a gun
. Pedro and Mac were probably both carrying at least one gun. Right now she was the only one without a gun.
Well that just sucks.
What is the world coming to? Everyone has a gun except me?

Alex could see through the open door into the hallway. She could see Mac and Pedro walking toward her. They couldn’t see the Goon Squad. She started to squirm, but Jarred tightened his grip and pressed the gun harder against her already tender head.

Mac saw Alex. Pedro put a hand on his arm to slow him down a little bit. They had both seen Alex look right, and then left. The two guys who had taken Alex were on either side of the door, most likely with guns. Mac walked forward slowly with Pedro close behind. They were both armed, but he knew that was going to change as soon as they walked into the room.

Mac and Pedro stepped across the threshold into the study. They heard the men move behind them and close the door. Mac turned to see a gun pointed at each of them. Mac and Pedro both put their hands up. The goons quickly relieved them of their weapons.

Mac could see Alex’s face clearly now in the light. He could see the bruise on her right cheek and the cut above her eye that was still oozing blood.
Alex’s
blood. His own blood went cold. “Who hit you?” He asked through clenched teeth.

Alex cut her eyes to the guy with the scar. She could see the anger in Mac’s eyes. She imagined it was the same look he saw in the eyes of the man who stabbed him. Alex felt goose bumps pop up all along her body. He was going to kill him, and it wasn’t going to bother him a bit. Funny, that didn’t bother her as much as she thought it probably should.

Pedro spoke up. He sounded tired, but calm. “What do you want Jarred?”

Jarred, seeing that he had the upper hand, decided to fill Pedro in. “I need Tom’s PDA. It has some, ah, incriminating information on the Senator. And Alex here is going to tell me where it is.”

“And the Senator asked you to retrieve it for him?”

Jarred laughed. “Something like that.”

Pedro suddenly understood. Poor Jarred. “You were going to try to blackmail the Senator, Jarred?”

“That’s none of your damn business, old man. Just get Alex here to tell me where the PDA is and I’ll be on my way.”

“And you’re going to let all of us go if she tells you? I don’t think so, Jarred. Do you know what happens to people who cross the Senator? They wind up missing. No bodies, no information, no witnesses.”

Alex knew where this was going. Jarred was going to kill them all. He was going to kill Mac and Pedro. She couldn’t let him do that. She loved them both too much.

Jarred pointed the gun he was holding to Alex’s head at Pedro. “She loves you. I bet she’ll tell me where it is if I shoot you.” Jarred moved the gun to Mac. “Maybe I should shoot him first, though. He looks pretty dangerous, maybe a little unstable. What do you think, Alex, honey?” He said the last part into her ear.

Mac saw the look of pure fury in Alex’s eyes.
No chance to stop her
.
Ah, hell.
Here we go
. Mac rocked up onto the balls of feet.

Pedro had also seen that look in Alex’s eyes too and stepped back slightly.

Jarred didn’t get a chance to say anything else. His focus had been on Mac and Pedro and he had loosened his grip on Alex. She launched herself backwards against Jarred. Her head connected with his nose. The gun went off into the ceiling. The sound of gunfire covered the sound of Jarred’s nose breaking. The Goon Squad was watching in surprise just as Mac and Pedro turned on them.

Mac knocked the gun away and had the guy with the scar on the ground, with his fist in his shirt and the guy’s hands around Mac’s neck. He was able to catch a glimpse of Alex. She had knocked Jarred to the ground and was kicking him
. Hard.

She looked like she was holding her own so Mac turned to punch the guy with the scar. Then brought his arms down under the other man’s arms and brought them up hard, breaking his hold on Mac’s neck.

Alex kicked Jarred in the head, and decided she needed time to get her hands in front of her, so she kicked him in the groin, too. That felt pretty good so she did it one more time just for good measure. She knew he wouldn’t get up for a few seconds so she lowered her hands behind her knees and dropped to her bottom to bring her hands over her feet. She ripped the tape off her mouth and grabbed Jarred’s gun.

Jarred was still curled up in a ball, but she hadn’t made her point yet. She squatted beside him and put the gun to his head and said, “Don’t you ever threaten the people I love, you jackass! And don’t you
ever
call me honey, again!” She stood and kicked him in the ribs. That felt pretty damn good, too so she did it again. Then she turned to look at Mac and Pedro. The guy under Mac was grinning.
Not good.
Her instincts were screaming.

Mac heard what she told Jarred and paused long enough to look up at her and see her looking back at him. Then he felt the gun in his ribs. He heard a shot fired and waited for the pain, but the guy beneath him went slack. Mac let go of his shirt and he fell back with a bullet hole in his forehead. Dead. Alex had fired first.
So much for her not being able to pull the trigger.
Go figure.