Synergy: New Adult Romantic Suspense (U-District, #1) (42 page)

A STIFF BREEZE SHOVED
past Donald and into the bowels of the stairwell. The screech of the door told him exactly where Jade was. It was a relief that she wasn’t below him. He’d never catch up to her if she was going down. And she wouldn’t have gone to the roof if she’d had a key for the forty-second floor.

Donald clutched the key card in his pocket and headed to the roof.

When he made it to the top, he slammed the door open and leaned against it, wheezing. He needed to catch his breath.

Jade couldn’t get away from him now.

BRYCE RAN DOWN THE STAIRWELL
, pulling on every door he came across. He was on the thirty-third floor when a door slammed above him and a whoosh of hot air tickled his skin, and then nothing, the air went stale.

He pressed redial on his phone and ran up the stairs two at a time.

All he got was Neal’s voicemail. “He’s on the roof.” Bryce cursed and hung up the phone.

THE FIRE DOOR
was still lodged open an inch. Donald tugged on the steel door to close it so Jade couldn’t get past him. The damn piece of wood was wedged in so hard he couldn’t get it to budge. He’d just have to block her from getting past him. “I didn’t mean for this to go on so long, Jade. I know you’re up here. I know you can hear me.”

Jade stayed hidden.

“I owed some very mean men sixty grand. I needed the money quickly. I figured I would pay your grandmother back. I had a plan to return the money.”

As he’d hoped, Jade couldn’t hold back. “Why didn’t you? You could have asked her for the money. She would have helped you.”

“I know that now. I was new. I didn’t know your grandmother then.”

“So why?”

Donald followed the sound of her voice. “It was Tanya. I made the mistake of telling her. I should have kept my mouth shut. She would never have known.”

“She didn’t make you steal the money.”

“I told her I was done. I was going to start paying Gloria back out of my paycheck. But Tanya wouldn’t let me. Said she would leave me and go to the police, tell them everything. She wanted more. I didn’t take much at first, but then she wanted a bigger house, a nice car, jewelry, a place in Hawaii.”

Donald heard something scrape along the side of the HVAC unit.

“I finally talked her into letting me stop, told her how close you were getting. She doesn’t want to go to jail. I started to close some of the bogus companies and fix them in the system. You didn’t give me enough time, Jade. I would have made it right.”

“I saw the profits rising, Donald. I know you were making it right again.”

“Then why didn’t you just leave it alone, Jade? I like you. I don’t want to have to hurt you.”

“That silver dollar you left in my condo pointed to Bryce, but I couldn’t believe he was the one. I had to find out who was responsible. I had no idea it was you.”

“Bryce? You did this for Bryce? I didn’t want to hurt you, Jade. Not like the others. But now, I have no choice.”

“Others?” She went silent.

Donald was getting close to the HVAC unit.

“Arnie, Professor Murti… my… grandmother?”

“I couldn’t get caught.” Donald turned the corner, towering over Jade.

She gasped and tried to scramble way.

He grabbed her arm. “I did Gloria a favor. Just a few drops of peanut oil in her coffee. She died quickly and peacefully.”

“Peacefully? You took her away from me”—Jade pounded her fists on his chest like a madwoman—“before I could say goodbye. You’re a murderer!”

Donald grabbed both of her arms. “You should have left it alone, Jade.”

She thrashed violently. “You killed innocent people, you stole from my company, and you tried to frame Bryce. I won’t let you get away with this.”

THE ROOF DOOR WAS BARELY OPEN.
Could Jade be up here? Bryce rammed his shoulder into the steel door twice before it finally budged. He squinted in the harsh sunlight as he scanned the rooftop.

“Jade!”

He heard her cry in pain.

Bryce ran toward her voice, turned the corner, and stopped dead in his tracks.

“Don’t come any closer.” Donald held Jade by the throat. He backed away, pulling Jade with him.

She cried out again and appeared unable to bear any weight on her left leg. She collapsed. Donald’s arm around her neck kept her upright, but it was literally choking her. Jade grasped his arm with both hands, pulling herself up, desperate to remain standing. She stopped trying to walk, just let him drag her on her good leg so she could stay upright and breathe.

Bryce held both hands in the air, fighting a strong urge to lunge at Donald. He couldn’t risk Jade’s life. Donald was pulling her to the edge of the building. “You don’t want to hurt her. Jade hasn’t done anything to you.”

“It’s your fault, Bryce. This is all your fault. I wouldn’t have to hurt her if it weren’t for you. I was making things right. If I’d had enough time, everything would be all right. She did this for you.”

“I know, Donald. It’s me you want. You want to hurt me, not Jade. Let her go, take me instead.”

“It’s too late. The police know. My life is ruined because of you.”

“It’s not too late. You can turn yourself in. No one needs to know about what happened today. Jade and I will help you.”

“You love her.”

“Yes, I do.”

“I love my wife. I’ll never see her again because of you.”

“That’s not true.”

“I’ll go to jail for the rest of my life, I’ll never see her again. You took her away from me, and I’m going to take Jade away from you.”

Donald pulled Jade to the edge of the building.

“No!” Bryce ran forward and his heart stopped when Jade screamed.

NEAL HELD HIS GUN STEADY
in both hands as he came up behind Radisson.
God, give me the strength not to have to pull this trigger.
He’d heard the tail end of the conversation and would have gotten up there sooner if building security hadn’t been doing their rounds. The odds of ending this without anyone getting hurt were low, given the hostage situation. If he couldn’t talk Haley down, Jade could die. “You don’t want to do that, Mr. Haley.”

“Don’t move any closer, or I’ll throw her over the edge.” Haley swung Jade around, pulling her in front of him. At least he’d moved her away from the edge of the building.

“Then what will you do? There won’t be anyone between you and this gun.” Haley was using her as a shield, which meant he didn’t want to die. Neal just might have a chance.

“Handcuff him,” Haley motioned to Bryce.

“What?”

“I said handcuff Bryce, right now.” Haley pulled Jade closer to the edge.

“Do it.” Bryce walked up to Neal and put his hands out in front of him.

If he had a shot, if he could bring Haley down without risking Jade, he’d do it right now, because where this was heading was not good. But there was no way to make such a shot.

Neal lowered his gun and pulled out his cuffs. He placed them on Bryce’s wrists, then slid the key into Bryce’s front pocket. He was pretty sure where this was going. Since he hadn’t taken the shot, Haley had just figured out that Neal wouldn’t put Jade at risk.

This was going to end badly.

DONALD DIDN’T KNOW
what to do. None of this was supposed to happen. Everyone he’d killed had looked like an accident. But this time, how could he kill all three of them and not make it look like murder?

He needed to talk to Tanya; she would know what to do. But that wasn’t possible. He would never talk to his beautiful wife again, never see her again. He would be behind bars for the rest of his life.
No.
Someone needed to pay for this.

“Get down on your knees.” Donald waited, knowing Bryce would do whatever he asked. The detective, he wasn’t sure about. “Throw your gun over here where I can reach it, or so help me, I’m throwing her over the edge.” Donald intentionally shifted Jade’s weight onto her bad leg.

Her scream had the desired effect. The detective put down the gun and kicked it toward Donald’s feet. “Good, now back up. Keep going. I said, keep going!” He shoved Jade toward the edge.

Detective Hawkins stepped back.

“Stop there.”

Jade screamed as he shoved her out of his arms and she fell to the roof of the building.

Donald grabbed the gun before Bryce or Detective Hawkins could react. He held the gun in his unsteady hands and pointed it at the detective. The only people who knew he was guilty were on this rooftop. All he had to do was get rid of them and run. He would start with the cop, since Jade couldn’t walk, and Bryce was handcuffed.

As he walked by, he slammed the gun into the side of Bryce’s head. Bryce fell to his hands.

Jade whimpered and crawled toward her boyfriend, who opened his eyes and wiped the blood running down his temple.

Donald stepped toward the detective, rage simmering deep in his chest. “You should have stayed out of this. Only the three of you know. Once I get rid of you, I’ll be in the clear.”

“I’ve already notified my department.”

“Don’t lie to me!” Did the detective think he was a fool, that he could outsmart him? “Jade told me she just sent you the report. You haven’t had time to link it to me.”

“No.” Detective Hawkins stepped back. “They don’t know about you stealing from Synergy yet, but they do know about you breaking into Jade’s house and stealing her jewelry.”

Donald let a sinister smile form on his lips. “But you said so yourself, didn’t you, Detective, that I didn’t know I’d bought stolen jewelry. My wife gave it to you freely.”

The detective continued to step back with his hands in the air. “You might be able to get away with that one, but what about the laptop? I have an eyewitness who saw a redhead steal it. After I met your wife today, I sent my partner with a picture of her down to the restaurant where the laptop was stolen. Your wife is going to jail, Mr. Haley.”

Pressure built behind Donald’s eyes. “You son of a—” The gunshot muffled his words.

Detective Hawkins went down, blood gushing from his shoulder.