The Inheritance (The Donatelli Series) (24 page)

“It’s all right, Maria. I’ll hang out in the park and keep an eye on things. Okay?”

“Yes, okay, but I don’t want you getting hurt either.”

“We’ll be okay.”

Maria wanted to believe him, but she didn’t want to put him in danger, too. “Take one of Nick’s guards with you.” The guards were armed, and they knew how to handle themselves in dangerous situations.

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Blade worried about Maria’s safety, and he didn’t want Sunny and her friends around the kids. But he couldn’t be in two places at once. He couldn’t protect her while he was at the park, but he knew someone who could. He called Nick and explained the situation. “I don’t want Maria and the kids there alone. Sunny is pissed, and I don’t trust her and whoever she’s working with.”

“They won’t be alone, and neither will you.”

As soon as he ended his call with Nick, Blade called Maria and tried to reassure her. “Stay inside with the kids until it’s over.”

“Don’t go, Blade.”

“If I don’t go, she’ll come back to your mother’s house, and I don’t want her there.”

“Angelo is taking one of Cara’s guards, and—”

“Nick is coming to stay with you and the kids. He said he’d call the sheriff’s office and see if they could have some people nearby, just in case she tries something, but I’m sure she’s just after money.”

Sunny wouldn’t do anything physical to him now. She was about five-six, and he was six-two. It wasn’t Sunny that worried him. It was the guy who came to the house looking for him when Sunny was in jail. She hung out with a rough crowd, and if Jacobs cut her off, she probably owed someone a whole lot of money.

“She won’t hurt you, will she?” Maria’s voice trembled with fear.

“Nah, she just wants money.” But Blade wasn’t so sure. She’d want money, but she’d also want revenge for having her arrested. Or Jacobs could be paying her to lead him into a trap.

Running away from the house hadn’t solved anything, and he couldn’t run away again. He had to face Sunny and take care of the problem.

He stared at his watch, wanting to go and get it over with, but if he went too soon, Nick wouldn’t have time to get his people in place, and if he waited too long, Sunny and the guy working with her could go after Maria.

Ten minutes before the meeting time, Blade pulled on his jacket and helmet. Watching traffic around him, he rode out to the park. He spotted Sunny’s car at the far end of the parking lot. Lucas and Angelo were sitting at a nearby picnic table, sipping soft drinks. Lucas wasn’t wearing his uniform, but he was wearing a nearly invisible headset under his cap and Blade figured there were reinforcements either in the park or nearby. The thought gave him some comfort.

Angelo motioned slightly with his head, and Blade spotted the other car, a white SUV with tinted windows. He rode on past and Sunny motioned to the empty parking spot beside her car. Ignoring her, Blade parked the bike on the dirt behind her car, where he could keep an eye on the SUV.

“It’s about time you got here,” said Sunny.

“How many people did you bring with you, Sunny?”

“Don’t you trust me, Blade?”

“No. What do you want?” Blade scanned the inside of Sunny’s car to make sure no one hid inside.

“Money. I have no income now, and I’m—”

“How much has Jacobs been paying you?” He glanced at the trees and bushes around the parking lot and saw no one.

“A quarter of a million a year, but he cut me off.”

Blade didn’t want any surprises, and he didn’t want any innocent bystanders getting hurt if things turned nasty. But his gut told him that things could turn nasty any second. He scanned the other cars in the lot and the path going down to the beach. Aside from Sunny’s car, Angelo’s, and the white SUV, there were only two other cars there. Between the cool weather and the day of the week, it wasn’t the best time for people to show up at a waterfront park.

The SUV started, and Angelo and Lucas were on their feet. Blade tensed. Lucas talked to someone on his headset, and that bulge under his arm had to be a shoulder holster. There were two couples on the beach below them, and Blade prayed they stayed down on the beach.

“How many men are watching us, Sunny?”

Her eyes darted around. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The SUV backed out and drove toward them. The front window began to roll down and the barrel of a gun poked out. Angelo ducked behind a picnic table and Lucas took aim. Blade hit the ground, knocked his bike over, and rolled under Sunny’s car. Bullets pinged into the car and the pavement around the car. Sunny fell to the ground on the other side of the car, blood running from her mouth, and Blade couldn’t look away.

Angelo yelled, “Blade, are you all right?”

“Yeah. You?”

“Yeah. The paramedics are on the way. Looks like Sunny was the only one hit.”

Blade rolled out from under the car. “What happened to the shooter?”

“The cops were outside the park. I hope they got him.”

Lucas walked over and checked the pulse in Sunny’s neck. “She’s gone, and the cops have her killer in custody. There was only one man inside the SUV. We couldn’t see through those damn tinted windows or we would have known he was armed.”

Blade’s heart pounded like a bass drum. The shooter may have been after Sunny, but she wasn’t the only target or she would have been killed before, in a place the killer wouldn’t have to risk being seen. Jacobs had to be behind this. Had he set up this scenario to eliminate both of them? Thank God Blade hadn’t agreed to meet Sunny at Sophia’s house.

Although he wasn’t harmed, Blade was badly shaken. He thought he’d left the trouble behind when he ran away from home twenty-five years ago, but when Sunny found him, she brought the trouble with her. Yet, he couldn’t blame her for this. Jacobs had not only cut her off, he told her where to find another source of money.

Cops and paramedics swarmed the park, checking the scene and interviewing witnesses. Before Blade stepped away from Sunny’s car, he looked at her eyes, wide open and staring at nothing. He couldn’t forgive her for ruining his childhood and setting him up for failure as an adult, but he pitied her sorry life. Sunny knew he had a family in New York, and she knew he had a mother who wanted him, but she held onto him to get John’s money. If no one else stepped forward to do it after the authorities were finished with her body, he’d have her cremated with a bottle of Jack Black and turn her ashes into fertilizer.

As soon as he finished with the first cop and his hands stopped shaking, Blade called Maria. “Sunny is dead, but everyone else is all right. The guy who shot her is in police custody.”

“Oh, Blade.” Her words came out in a whoosh of emotion.

“Jacobs is behind this. He may not have been the one who pulled the trigger, but he’s behind it. You and the kids can’t stay there, Maria. I don’t know if the shooter was the only one, and we’re not taking any chances with your lives. You have to leave.”

“We’re all going to California next week for Cara’s birthday party. She won’t mind if we stay longer, but I have to be in court May third, and I can’t take Molly out of school that long. This is her first year of high school, and she can’t miss that much and still pass her finals. Robbie could take a year off and pass everything, but not Molly.”

“Talk to Nick. See if he’ll take Molly and your mother. They have guards watching the house all the time, so they’ll be all right there. You can take the boys with you. Get the hell out of there before something else happens.”

“We’re not going anywhere without you.”

“Honey, I don’t want to bring more trouble down on you.”

“Cara has a walled estate with armed guards. Unless someone flies over with a bomb, there is no place safer.”

Blade took a deep breath and blew it out. It sounded like a good solution. He didn’t want to hang around and play target. One scene like this was plenty. “Clear it with Nick and Cara. After the cops finish with me, I’ll go home and pack.”

While he talked with the second officer, Blade righted his bike and checked for damage. Except for a bullet in the seat and a ding in the handlebars, it looked okay. Sunny’s car was peppered with holes, and most of the windows had been shot out.

Jacobs must be getting desperate.

Gerry showed up a few minutes later. “Blade, you okay?”

“That son-of-a-bitch tried to kill me.”

“Nick called me, and I’ve been in touch with Mort. He’s taking care of things from that end.”

“I never thought Jacobs would go this far.”

“If he’s behind it,” Gerry said. “The guy they caught is a hired gun from LA. They may have been after her.”

“I don’t buy it. Why didn’t they kill her in LA? Why do it here?”

Gerry shrugged. “Maybe she promised them money and they realized she couldn’t come up with it. Look, Blade, you don’t have any holes in your body. Doesn’t that tell you something?”

He’d rolled under the car before the shooting began, but Gerry was right. If the killer wanted him dead, he’d be dead.

What in the hell was going on?

Chapter Fourteen

F
our hours after the shooting in the park, Maria said goodbye to her mother and Molly. Lucas drove her and Blade and the boys to the Tacoma Narrows Airport, where they boarded Cara’s private plane for the flight to California. It wasn’t easy leaving Molly behind, but she was excited about staying with Uncle Nick and Aunt Cara, and Maria knew she’d be safe there. Mom and Cara’s guards would look after her, and they’d all be down for Cara’s birthday party next week.

Blade strapped Daisy’s kennel to a seat in the back of the plane. She whimpered and cried for a while and then settled down. Andy wanted to hold her on his lap, and Blade explained why that wasn’t a good idea. “If we hit an air pocket, she could fly out of your arms and get hurt. She’s safer in her kennel.”

Andy had accepted Blade as the world’s expert on everything having to do with motorcycles and dogs, the two most important things in Andy’s life, so he left Daisy in her kennel.

The kids settled down on the plane. Blade grew unusually quiet, and, after all the excitement and scramble to get packed, Maria finally had a chance to think about what had happened at the park today. A woman she’d spoken with an hour before had been killed, and Blade had narrowly missed being shot himself. Now she understood why he didn’t want to meet Sunny at the house. He was afraid something would happen, although she didn’t think he’d anticipated gunfire.

Was that man after Sunny or Blade? Or both? Angelo said he could easily have shot Blade, but he didn’t. Maybe he shot Sunny to warn Blade not to make trouble. Blade seemed sure that Colin Jacobs was behind it, but Jacobs didn’t seem like the type who would have someone killed.

Someday Blade might decide he couldn’t handle married life. It wouldn’t be easy to accept, but she’d rather lose him that way than to have him mowed down like a rabid dog. Leaning into his shoulder, she finally understood how much her mother must have suffered when she lost the love of her life. When Dad died, Mom was left with six children, one still in diapers. They all grieved, but Mom’s strength pulled them through.

Maria wondered if she’d have enough strength to get through losing Blade. She prayed she’d never have to find out.

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Sophia helped Molly settle into one of the guest rooms at Cara’s house. Molly seemed excited to stay here without her mother and brothers. She was turning out to be a handful, like Gina was at that age. Gina had always been a beautiful, flirtatious girl, popular with the boys in high school, while Maria had been the quiet, studious one. It took Maria longer to grow into her beauty, but she was a stunning woman now. No wonder Blade couldn’t keep his hands off her.

Whatever was going on with Blade, whoever was after him, the situation frightened Sophia. His stepmother was gunned down in the park right in front of him, and even though he had no warm feelings for her, there was still a connection. Knowing that whoever wanted Sunny dead could want Blade dead, too, frightened Sophia. Maria and the kids were with him.

She wanted to tell Blade to go away, to end his marriage with Maria as quietly as it began, because she didn’t want her family hurt or killed. But Maria would never forgive Sophia if she interfered.

Nicky gave Sophia a big hug. “I know what you’re thinking, but Blade won’t let anything happen to Maria.”