Suspicious Activities (13 page)

Nikki felt her head nod as she recalled all too clearly what had happened.

“The fire,” she whispered.

With his free hand Andrew patted the gas can in his hand. “You burned me, and now it’s time to burn you.”

Chapter Nineteen

The pain in his shoulder was nothing compared to the fear of what Andrew Miller was doing to Nikki inside Orion.

“If she dies, you’ll pay for it,” Jackson tried. Heather still hadn’t dropped her aim on him. “The people who care about that woman will find you and, repaying a favor or not, they won’t care. You’ll go down with the rest of them.”

Heather raised her eyebrow in perfect sync with the corner of her lips.

“Says the man bleeding in the back of an ambulance with no hope in sight,” she deadpanned. “Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I’m not as crafty as my friend in there. If I need to disappear? Well, that’s just another Tuesday for me.”

Jackson gritted his teeth.

Once again he mentally went through the motions of trying to get through Heather without getting shot. It wasn’t the pain that made him wary. It was the possibility that she just might kill him, which meant he couldn’t help Nikki. What he needed was a distraction. One good enough that she’d look away. All he needed was a lapse in her attention and he’d find a way to disarm her.

He didn’t have to hope for long.

Movement over Heather’s shoulder caught Jackson’s attention. Someone was walking toward them. Hope rose hard and fast.

Then crashed back down.

The man was coming from Orion, which meant he probably wasn’t an ally to feel good about. Jackson slid off the stretcher to the small space between it and the steel bench, wishing there was some kind of cover.

“That’s not Michael,” Jackson said, nodding to the approaching man.

“Good try,” Heather huffed. She rolled her eyes. “But how stupid do you think I am? I’m not falling for that ‘there’s someone behind you’ bit.”

No sooner had she said it than the echo of the man’s boots bounced around the empty street. Heather’s eyes widened. Jackson in turn tensed, knowing the window he was about to have would be a small one.

He’d asked for a distraction and he was about to get it.

Heather spun around, taking the aim of the gun with her. The moment it cleared him, Jackson ran forward and flung himself out of the back and onto the asphalt. Instead of trying to fight Heather, he immediately turned and ran alongside the ambulance until he got to the door. Heather didn’t follow. She was shouting at the man. Seconds later a weird
pop
sounded. A body hit the ground.

Heather.

Jackson didn’t wait around to see if the man would come for him. He already knew that was the plan. Something told him that Michael might have already met the same fate. He stopped at the passenger door, still hidden from the rest of the street, and tried the handle. It opened without a problem.

Jackson peered inside and could have clapped.

The keys were still in the ignition.

Without hesitation, he rocketed himself over the passenger’s seat and maneuvered into the driver’s side. The pain from his shoulder made him suck in a breath, but the thought of Nikki being hurt, or worse, kept his limbs moving without pause. He turned the key in the ignition just as a loud
bang
followed the rev of the engine. Jackson swore, afraid it was the vehicle dying, when the right side started to sag.

“Oh man,” he said as another
bang
made the vehicle shudder. The man had just shot out the back tires.

Jackson threw the ambulance in drive and slammed his foot down on the pedal. It connected with the floorboard. Metal scraped against the asphalt as the vehicle jutted forward and picked up speed. In the side mirror Jackson saw sparks flying. Beyond them he could see the gunman standing in the middle of the street. Jackson glanced into the passenger side mirror and saw Heather’s body next to the curb. Orion stood even farther back, its metal sign reflecting light from the streetlamps.

The ambulance whined something awful the farther away he got until he was at a four-way stop. He started to slow but had no intention of stopping. He also had no intention of driving forward anymore. Sure, he knew he could keep going and be completely out of harm’s way. The man behind him couldn’t hurt him now. Jackson could drive away from Orion, from the street, from this part of town... But what he couldn’t do was drive away from her. Jackson said a quick prayer and turned the wheel hard. The back end of the vehicle swayed something awful, but it didn’t flip, tip or even spin out. Jackson punched the gas again, sights set back down the road.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Jackson didn’t have a weapon on him. Which meant that, for all intents and purposes, the ambulance had become his only weapon and shield. The gunman saw him speeding toward him and backtracked to the curb. Jackson turned the wheel, slightly angling his direction toward the man. The ambulance shook in response.

The man raised his gun and smiled, as if to say, “Yeah, right, buddy. You’re going to hit me with a busted-up ambulance.”

He was right about that, but Jackson had no intention of trying to run over the man. He cut the wheel again and slammed on the brakes. The gunman, appearing confused, was still several yards away. Heather’s body, however, was not.

Jackson threw open the door as another
pop
cut through the air. The passenger window shattered, but Jackson was already at Heather’s body. Or, more aptly, her discarded gun. He grabbed it from just outside her open grasp and ducked as another spray of glass filled the front seats.

Definitely not going back in there
, he thought, seeing the windshield was majorly gone. He moved along the driver’s side of the vehicle down to the corner. Checking the clip and making sure the gun was cocked and the safety was off, Jackson took a deep breath and peeked around.

The ambulance was angled enough that the gunman wasn’t in view. Which, Jackson hoped, meant he was still at the curb. Holding out his new gun, he moved past the opened doors. He bent low and swung around to try to get a visual on the man.

Sure enough, he was still at the curb and, sure enough, he still wanted to kill Jackson.

* * *

F
OR
ONCE
,
HEARING
a gunshot wasn’t the most alarming thing for Nikki. In fact, it was far enough away that it didn’t even seem real. Every part of her was currently frozen in fear because of one very real red gas can that was being used to pour very real gasoline around the room.

“You don’t have to do this,” she whispered, knowing full well it was a weak attempt at an impossible goal. Andrew’s attention toward the sound of the shot switched back to his current activity. She didn’t miss his smile.

“Oh, but I do, Miss Waters,” he said. A moment later he let out a loud laugh and slapped his knee. “Miss Waters... How fun is it that your name is Waters and yet you’re about to burn?” He laughed again and looked at her, eyebrow raised. She didn’t return his mirth. “No? You don’t even find that a little funny? Tough crowd.”

Another gunshot went off and then another, still far enough away that it didn’t seem to concern Andrew too much. He continued along the wall that connected the lounge to the gym, furthering the line he’d started at the hall. Nikki watched in muted horror as he kept on, making a box around the room, before finally emptying the can back at the hallway. He threw it behind him with a sigh. Brushing his hands together, he made his way back to her.

“I know you’re wondering why I didn’t douse
you
,” he began. “But, you see, that would be too easy. Once I threw the flame you’d go up too quickly. That’s not what I want.” He motioned to the path he’d made around them. “I want you to feel trapped first.”

Nikki couldn’t look away from his smile. The way a man whom she’d once worked for had turned so hateful terrified her to her very core. There was no remorse or doubt in his actions. No last-minute regrets. He had a plan and he was going to finish it. There was nothing in the entire world that would change his mind.

So Nikki didn’t try. Instead, she thought about her sister and her children and how much they’d grown in the last few years, then her father, who had always been nervous about her starting Orion but had always supported Nikki without pause. Then she thought about her godson and his mother, Oliver’s wife Darling, who had become such a dear friend, which always led to Kelli and Kate—Mark’s and Jonathan’s significant others, respectively—before her mind went to the three agents who were her closest friends. She tried to picture them at their happiest in the various stages of their relationships with their equally wonderful women—the day Oliver and Darling became parents, Mark and Kelli’s wedding, and the day Jonathan and Kate had announced their engagement—and only wished what happened to her wouldn’t darken the many other great moments they deserved.

Nikki’s thoughts brought up the memory of when she first walked through Orion’s front door after it had opened for the first time. She’d been so determined to make a difference, focused on helping as many people as she could. Oliver, Mark and Jonathan had followed her inside, ready to help her achieve that goal. Not once had they questioned the validity of her position. Not once did they tell her a former secretary couldn’t run a security agency. They had believed in her so strongly that she’d felt fear that first day. Fear that she’d fail. That, in the end, she’d let them all down.

But what about now?

How did she feel years later?

Nikki squared her shoulders and lifted her chin.

Proud.

Proud of Orion’s successes, proud of those who had helped accomplish them, but, mostly, proud to be lucky enough to be a part of it all. Nikki finally decided to acknowledge the heartbreaking realization that had been on the back burner since she had walked into the building.

She was about to die in the very place she loved so dearly. However, now she also realized that in some way it gave her a sense of peace.

One last image crossed her mind before Andrew pulled out a box of matches. Regret and longing shot through her chest, breaking her newfound calm.

She wished that Jackson would be okay. She wished that the gunfire outside was because he had the upper hand. She wished that people would realize when all this was said and done, he had been a hero and deserved nothing but kindness. She wished that he’d find someone who made him happy.

She wished she’d met Jackson Fields much sooner.

Andrew waved the box of matches in front of her. Instead of absolute fear, Nikki looked into his lifeless eyes with what she hoped looked like courage. She wanted him to know that now she felt strong. That, in the end, he hadn’t broken her. He was having to burn her alive to achieve some type of win from the situation. He’d overcome nothing.

“I hate to say it, but it’s time for me to leave,” he said. Nikki was glad to see his smile had gone. “I’d like to say it’s been a pleasure, Nikki, but... Well, why lie to someone about to die by your hand?” He lowered his face to her level. When he spoke, his words were low. They dripped with absolute menace. “May you think about the life you stole as it burns away.”

He gave her one last look of hatred and walked to the hallway and the line of fuel he’d created. Taking a match out of the box, he ran it across the side until it lit. For one moment they simply looked at the flame, each mesmerized.

“This won’t change anything,” Nikki said when she could no longer stand it. Andrew shrugged.

“No,” he admitted. “But it will make me feel better.”

Then he dropped the match.

Chapter Twenty

Jackson flattened his back against the ambulance door. The gunman yelled in rage and sent another bullet his way. Even with the silencer on, it sounded harsh as it hit the vehicle.

Jackson checked his clip again. He had three shots left. If he was correct, the gunman only had one. Though there was a chance that he had miscalculated even that.

Both men had found adequate places to take cover. Jackson, the ambulance. The man, the stoop of a closed Realtor’s office behind the curb. Whoever the man was, he was slippery and quick. Jackson hadn’t been able to hit him. Not even a scrape. Though, in turn, he hadn’t been able to hit Jackson, either. A silver lining, if ever there was one in a shoot-out. Jackson took a deep breath. He needed to try to get the man to shoot his last bullet. Bending low, he moved around the corner and shot.

He wasn’t the only one.

A burning pain scorched his arm as the man fired off his last bullet, but Jackson didn’t back down. He walked toward the man and shot once more. Out in the open like this, the man across from him was no longer shielded by the side of the brick steps.

This bullet hit its mark, striking the man’s shoulder to almost mirror Jackson’s own wound. The force slung him back. He didn’t fall, using the brick wall of the office to keep himself up. His face twisted in disgust as Jackson kept his gun raised.

“Drop it and kick it over,” he said, motioning to the man’s grip on his gun. “And if you try anything I’ll shoot you. Again.”

The man gave a grunt of anger, and probably pain, and did as he was told. Jackson lowered himself, gun still on the man, to collect the weapon.

“She isn’t worth all this,” the man said. “I don’t know why—”

Before he could finish his thought, Jackson closed the space between them and knocked him out cold. He didn’t have time for another speech from one of the bad guys.

Jackson checked to see that the man’s gun was indeed empty and threw it to the ground. Then he was running to Orion. He might have shown the man mercy, but he wasn’t sure he’d extend that courtesy to Andrew.

He had torn the front door open, raising his gun, when two things happened at once. The moment he stepped into the lobby, he ran into Andrew. At the same time he caught a whiff of something that made his stomach turn.

Why was Andrew walking away? And why did Jackson smell smoke?

He narrowed in on Andrew with such insane rage that he all but forgot the gun in his hand. He threw himself at the man with a wild wail of aggression. Andrew didn’t have time to step away or pull up his own gun. The disgraced socialite took a volley of hits against his jaw, nose and chest until his back was against the wall. In that moment Jackson didn’t care about the pain of his wounds.

“What did you do?”
he roared.

Andrew tried to raise his gun, but Jackson wasn’t having any of it. He yanked it from the man’s grasp and threw it across the room with enough force that he heard a window shatter.

Andrew had made it abundantly clear that he wanted to be the one to kill Nikki.
Everything
he’d done to bring her to him and now he was just walking away? That could only mean he’d already done the deed.

He’d killed Nikki.

Compassionate, beautiful, smart, hilarious Nikki.

And now Jackson was going to kill him.

“Help!”

His mental gears ground to a halt.

“Help!” Nikki screamed again.

Jackson’s rage instantly switched to relief. He threw another punch into Andrew’s jaw and didn’t wait around to see him hit the floor. As he ran into the hall, that relief dissolved.

He could already feel the heat of the flames.

* * *

T
HE
CALM
N
IKKI
had latched on to—the peace she felt she’d grasped—went clear out the window the moment the first flame sprang up.

Starting in the corner where the large room connected to her office, one little match had created a wall of fire behind her, ratcheting the fear she’d been trying to ignore clear through the roof. In horror that had her utterly still, she watched the fire spread until it hit the outer wall to her left and ran across the space left before the gym’s doors. Whatever accelerant Andrew had used, it had coaxed the flames quickly into one path. However, it stopped there, not catching the rest of the liquid he’d poured.

Though that wouldn’t matter soon. The fire would spread regardless.

The room filled with heat and smoke quickly. For one moment Nikki hoped the sprinklers would come on and save her, but she let that idea die. Since the fire alarms hadn’t gone off, it was safe to assume Andrew had disabled them, too. Probably when he’d disabled the alarm to get inside Orion in the first place. He’d managed to turn a building that operated under the idea of providing safety to others into a burning box of danger. Another thought that made her heart break a little more.

Heat from the flames behind her intensified, not licking her skin but biting it ruthlessly. Instead of sitting still because of fear, she found it was that very fear that pushed her to struggle once again against her restraints. The rope bit into her skin, but she didn’t stop. The alternative was worse. That thought motivated her to pull and twist and struggle for all she was worth.

And then she heard the glass shatter.

Did that mean Jackson was okay?

“Help!” she yelled. Her voice wavered something awful as she inhaled smoke. Still she tried for one more plea. “Help!”

No sooner had the word escaped her mouth than a fit of coughing racked her body. It was starting to cloud the ceiling, but she didn’t think she’d be lucky enough to pass out before the flames got to her.

Which was probably the exact thing that Andrew wanted.

She bent her head as low as she could and was trying to suck in enough oxygen to stave off an endless bout of coughing when movement from her periphery caught her attention.

“Nikki!”

A myriad of emotions seemed to pass over the bodyguard’s face. She didn’t have time to pick out what each meant. All she knew was what
she
felt at seeing him still alive. Absolute joy, despite everything.

“Hang on!” Jackson yelled, rushing to her side. The fire was nearly roaring now, and all relief at seeing each other was replaced by urgency.

Jackson went straight for the wrist tied to the chair arm. He tried to untie the binding, but the knots were too intricate. Jackson started to reach in his pocket. He stopped, jaw hardening. He’d been going for his knife, she realized. The one he’d used to hot-wire the SUV. She guessed the one that was
still
in the SUV.

Their eyes met for a moment. Blue-gray clouds surrounded by a sea of fire.

Nikki doubled over as much as she could as another coughing fit made her body spasm. In the next second she felt Jackson’s arms slide between the back of her thighs and the seat of the chair while the other slid between her back and the back of the chair. Nikki watched in amazement as the man whom she knew for a fact had been shot in the shoulder lifted her and the wooden chair she was tied to up to his chest. She didn’t get to commend him for the amazing act. Another wave of coughing shut her eyes. Her body shook as the two of them moved as fast as Jackson could go.

The heat of the flames lessened the more he walked until finally Nikki felt the cool night air against her skin. She sucked in as much of that as she could before opening her eyes to the man who had just saved her.

“No!”

Someone hit them just as he stepped into the empty parking lot outside of Orion’s front door. Since Jackson had his hands full with her and the chair, he was helpless to stop himself from falling backward. Nikki winced as they hit the ground, knowing Jackson had taken the brunt of the fall. She heard his breath wheeze out just as she turned to see Andrew pick himself up.

It was Jackson’s turn to cough. He was trying to get his breath back but didn’t have the time. He managed to roll to the side, slamming Nikki’s knees against the asphalt. Pain pushed through her jeans, but she tried not to show it. Jackson pulled his arms free of her and the chair just in time to block her from a right cross from Andrew. She might have avoided that pain, but without Jackson holding her up, she continued to tip over until her right side hit the ground hard. Something
cracked
at the movement.

“She was supposed to
burn
!” Andrew yelled. Nikki watched, helpless on her side, as the crazed man continued to beat her bodyguard, still unable to catch a break.

“Leave him alone,” she cried. “It’s me you want!”

Andrew stopped, bloody fist paused in midair. He turned to look at her, eyes wide. Nikki knew in that moment that there was no sanity left in the man.

“You’re right,” he said, voice so low it didn’t sound human. He came at Nikki hard and fast, ready to kick her while she was bound and on the ground. On reflex she tried to cover her face.

That was when she realized what the cracking noise had been. She moved her right arm, and the attached chair piece that had broken at her fall came up in front of her face. Andrew’s foot connected with it less than a second later. The piece of wood absorbed most of the power before clattering to the ground. He had brought his foot back to try again when a car horn blared down the street.

Andrew’s attention turned long enough for Jackson to stand up and rush the man. His shoulder connected with Andrew’s chest and sent the two a few feet away from her. This time it was Andrew who fell on his back. Unlike with Jackson’s fall, however, Andrew’s head snapped back and hit the asphalt hard. Much like when Ronald Dabney’s neck hit the lip of her tub, a sickening
crack
cut through the air.

Andrew’s body went still.

The car horn stopped but sirens in the distance came soon after. Like music to her ears.

“Looks like our backup has arrived,” Jackson called back to her. He turned and slowly made his way over. The fervor that he’d been fighting with was dying out, Nikki could tell. He was tired and bloody and could no longer hide his pain. He dropped down to his knees next to her side and gave her a smile. It was weak but genuine. “Should we tell them they’re a little late?” he asked, nodding in the direction of the car that had approached. Doors opened and closed, but she still couldn’t see them. “Oliver and Mark,” Jackson offered. The sirens in the distance became louder.

It was over.

It was finally over.

Jackson turned his head back toward the two Orion agents and asked if either had a knife to cut the rope. However, before either could answer, a gunshot tore through the air. Jackson moved in front of her so fast that it took Nikki a few moments to realize what had happened.

Oliver and Mark yelled something and then there was a scuffle, but in that moment, Nikki only had eyes for one man.

Jackson, still on his knees, fell next to her.

“Jackson?” she whispered. The blue-eyed man didn’t respond. In fact, he didn’t even move.

Nikki screamed.
“Jackson!”