Текст книги "All or Nothing "

Автор книги: C. C. Wood

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Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 13 страниц)

Chapter Twenty-Six

‡

“So where are we going?” I asked Katie for the third time.

“Where I want,” she answered shortly. “Stop fucking asking.”

We’d been driving for forty-five minutes and we were heading north out of Dallas toward Oklahoma.

I gave up trying to get her to tell me out loud where she was taking me in the hopes that King was still on the line.

“Take the next exit.”

I glanced at the exit name. “Telephone Road?” I asked.

“Yes, Telephone fucking Road. Now take the exit before I shoot you in the head.”

I wanted to wrap the damn car around a tree. She wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and if I wrecked the car, she would probably get thrown. Unfortunately, she wouldn’t allow me to buckle my seatbelt either, and I wasn’t willing to risk killing myself in an effort to get away from her. My survival instincts wouldn’t allow it.

I took the exit and pulled up to the stop sign.

“Take a right,” she directed.

I turned right.

Katie gave me a lot of instructions, taking so many turns I was completely lost.

Finally, she said, “Turn left in the next driveway. Go slow. There are a lot of bumps and I don’t think you’d want me to accidently shoot you, do you?”

I turned and reduced the speed of the car to a crawl as I crept down the bumpy gravel drive. After about five minutes, the driveway turned left behind a huge copse of trees. As we cleared the trees, I saw a white metal building a couple hundred feet away.

“Pull up to the building and stop.”

As soon as I put the car in park, Katie’s hand shot out, turned the car off, and snatched the keys out of the ignition.

“I’m going to get out on this side. You’re going to climb back over and do the same. Understand?”

I nodded.

She opened the door, her gaze never wavering from me, and slid out of passenger side. I crawled over the center console and felt my phone fall out of my pocket. Somehow it landed in the seat and Katie didn’t hear it.

Though I really wanted to try to pick it up, I knew she would notice it then because her eyes were locked on me. I scrambled out of the car, forcing her to take several quick steps back, and slammed the door behind me.

“Do that again and I’ll shoot your ass!” Katie shrieked.

I lifted my hands and fell back a couple of steps. “Sorry, sorry. I didn’t-”

“Shut the fuck up!”

I closed my mouth with a snap.

Katie laughed. “God, I’ve always wanted to be able to make you do that. You always talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. It’s fucking annoying. I’ve wanted to tell you to shut the fuck up so many times over the years.”

I didn’t say anything, keeping my hands up in the air.

She wiggled the barrel of the gun, which made my breath catch in my throat as horrible visions of her accidentally shooting me ran through my mind. “Go to the door of the building and go inside.”

Once we were inside, she flicked on a light and revealed that the building was empty save for a bunch of boxes stacked on one end. To our left, there was a door.

“Go in the door,” Katie demanded. “Sit in the chair in the center of the room.”

We entered the windowless room and I realized it was some sort of office. There was a desk shoved against the far wall, along with a couple of chairs. Another chair was set up in the middle of the room, facing the door.

Immediately I went to the chair and put my ass in it. Katie was clearly getting more and more agitated and I didn’t want to push my luck.

She shut the door behind her, walked around to grab one of the other chairs, dragged it into place about five feet in front of me, and sat down. Crossing her legs, she rested her gun hand on her knee, pointed straight at me.

We stared at each other in silence for several minutes.

Cocking her head to one side and smiling sharply, Katie asked, “What, no more questions?”

I licked my dry lips. “I have lots of questions, but you told me to be quiet, so I didn’t ask.”

Tilting her head forward, like a queen to a peasant, she answered, “Go ahead. We have about a half hour before he gets here. I figure you have a right to know why you’re going to be beaten and raped repeatedly before they put a bullet in your skull.”

My stomach threatened to revolt at her words but I swallowed hard, keeping it down. Then I took a slow deep breath. “Who’s coming in a half hour?”

“You wouldn’t know him. His name’s Renaldo. However, he knows you. I made sure of it,” she answered smugly.

I nodded slowly, even though I knew exactly who Renaldo was courtesy of Larry Peretti.

“Why do you hate me so much?”

Katie threw back her head and laughed. “I don’t hate you, Jena,” she chortled. Her amusement vanished instantly and she leaned forward, hissing, “I fucking despise you.”

There it was, all that rage and loathing clear in her eyes.

“Why?” I whispered. “I loved you like a sister.”

She laughed again, but it was harsh and grating. “Maybe, but you always had it so easy. You saw Justin, wanted him, and had him. Fell like a ton of bricks.”

“But he didn’t really love me,” I murmured.

She scoffed. “Yes, he did. He was crazy about you. He ended things with me because he decided he wanted to marry you.”

I shook my head. “No, he was playing me. He and King wanted to use me to get information on my old boss, Larry Peretti.”

“Don’t fucking lie to me,” she snarled. “Justin told me it was over because he was going to ask you to marry him. The asshole thought he could fuck me, scrape me off, then smile at me across the dinner table when I came to visit. I showed him though.”

Her last statement sent a chill through me. “What do you mean?”

She stood, shoving her chair back with a loud scream of metal on concrete. Katie paced across the office, back and forth, clearly upset.

“Car jacking. Jesus, why are cops so fucking stupid?” she muttered.

My brain was struggling to keep up with the implications of her words. “What are you saying, Katie?”

She suddenly stopped her frenetic movements, whirling to face me and lifting the gun to point directly at my head. “I shot the motherfucker. Right in the goddamn face. He treated me like a whore. He wasn’t the first, but he wasn’t going to get away with it like the others.” Her face formed a strange rictus of a smile. “I taught him a lesson, the bastard.”

“You shot Justin?” I asked, my eyes wide.

“Yes, I did.” She lifted the gun, pointing it at me. “Maybe I should do the same to you. You’d look pretty with half your brains against the wall.”

Holy shit, she wasn’t just whacked, she was a fucking psychopath and she was obviously jacked up on something.

I watched in horror as her finger began to tighten on the trigger and knew I was about to die.

That’s when all the lights went out.

Without hesitation, I threw myself out of the chair and onto the hard concrete floor. As my elbows cracked against the concrete, I heard the boom of the gun and saw the muzzle flash as Katie shot at the spot where I’d just been.

Disoriented, I did my best to aim myself toward the door and crawled forward on my hands and knees. Because there were no windows in the office, it was black as pitch inside.

I felt the rush of air as Katie moved by me and froze for a split second. Over my breathing, I heard the strike of her shoes against the floor as she walked away from me.

“Where are you, you bitch?” she screamed, the loud sound echoing in the small room.

My shoulder brushed the wall as I kept moving forward and I paused. Carefully I lifted a hand and felt along the sheetrock. I put my hand out to the right and felt the corner. I closed my eyes for a second, trying to imagine the distance from the corner to the door.

Pressing my right hip and shoulder against the wall, I began to slowly crawl forward, trying to keep my breathing as quiet as possible. I could hear Katie moving around, bumping into things. I could tell by the sound that she was back in the middle of the room where the chairs were.

I jumped and squeaked as she squeezed off another shot that whistled over my head. The echo of the gunshot covered the sounds I made as I hurried forward.

Terrified, I almost missed it when my bare arm hit the cool metal of the door to the office. I stopped moving, listening intently. I could hear Katie breathing heavily and it sounded like she was a few feet to my left.

Whatever I was going to do, I needed to do it quickly. It wouldn’t be long before she got off a lucky shot or a ricochet caught me. Moving as silently as possible, I lifted my right arm, sliding it to the left edge of the door then up.

My fingertips brushed the doorknob and I held my breath. Careful not to jiggle the knob, I pressed my palm against it and wrapped fingers around it.

It creaked ominously as I turned it.

“There you are!” Katie screamed, more gunshots filling the air.

Something hot streaked across the edge of my right arm and I knew I had no more time to waste.

Twisting the knob violently, I yanked the door open and dove through, slamming it shut behind me. I heard Katie shrieking and firing random shots in the room. There was a little more light in the open space of the building and I was able to figure out where the door was and scurry toward it.

I didn’t dare get to my feet because I didn’t know how much ammo Katie had left and I didn’t want to risk a stray bullet taking my head off.

When I got to the door, I threw it open and tumbled out of the building into the bright sunshine. Without taking a second to look behind me, I jumped to my feet and started to run toward the trees to my right.

As soon as I cleared the corner of the building, an arm shot out and wrapped around my waist, pinning me to a hard body.

Just like that, I was caught again.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

‡

Immediately, I struggled, fighting as fiercely as I could.

“Stop, Jena,” a deep voice rumbled in my ear.

I recognized Jack’s voice. I went limp, all the fight going out of me. My eyes watered with tears of relief. If nothing else, I at least had someone else here to help me.

“Is she still inside?” he whispered.

I nodded. “She’s expecting a guy named Renaldo. I don’t know if he’s coming alone or what.”

Jack grunted. “Get that boss?”

I glanced over my shoulder to see Jack talking into a Bluetooth headset. King must be here somewhere.

The door to the building crashed open and my body went rigid.

“Jena, you fucking bitch!” Katie screamed. “I will find you and I’m going to shoot your fucking kneecaps off!”

Jack lifted me off my feet and literally carried me around the corner to the back of the building. I blinked rapidly when I saw a black SUV sitting there, wondering if sheer terror was causing me to hallucinate.

He threw open the driver’s door and shoved me inside and down into the passenger floorboard. After he slammed the door shut, he sprinted around the hood to the driver’s side. Just as he was about to climb in, I heard the sharp crack of a gunshot. I watched in horror as he groaned and semi-collapsed across the steering wheel before sliding down into the floor, half hanging out of the SUV.

“Jack?” I whispered.

His eyes rolled back in his head and I saw the blood gushing from the wound in his shoulder. He appeared to be breathing, but there was nothing I could do to help him yet.

“Oh shit.” I risked a peek above the dashboard and saw Katie making her way toward the car, her gun up. I knew she couldn’t see me, so I ducked back down into the floorboard, trying to form a plan out of my chaotic thoughts.

I spotted the gun butt sticking out of a holster at Jack’s waistband. Quickly, I crawled forward and grabbed it. I hadn’t fired a handgun before, though Tia had shown me hers when we lived together and explained how it worked. It had been close to six years ago though and the memory was fuzzy.

Hands shaking, I studied it. It looked alien and terrifying. However, I’d rather have it and hope I got a lucky shot off than have to face Katie down with nothing in my hands.

The safety. I had to do something to the safety. I turned the gun and saw a little black lever on one side, close to my right thumb. The dot next to it was white. Shit, did that mean it was on or off?

Quickly I flicked it in the opposite direction and saw a reddish orange dot. That gave my memory a boost. Red or orange meant it was ready to fire.

Panting, I crouched in the passenger seat and wrapped my right hand around the gun butt. I struggled to remember what Tia said about how to shoot, fear clouding my ability to think clearly.

Squeeze, don’t jerk.

As clear as if she were sitting next to me, I suddenly heard Tia’s voice telling me what to do.

Don’t hesitate. If they’re armed, you only have one chance to catch them off guard. Aim for the body, the biggest mass. You’ll be less likely to miss.

Somehow, hearing Tia’s voice in my head calmed me down. I took slow deep breaths and kept my eyes fixed on the driver’s door, bracing my forearms against the seat to keep my aim steady.

I was glad that Jack was also down in the floorboard and out of the line of fire. I didn’t want to risk hitting him.

I heard Katie’s footsteps getting closer.

“Where’s Jena, motherfuck-”

She didn’t finish her sentence. As soon as she appeared around the door, I pulled the trigger. I didn’t let myself think about it, I just did it.

Her body jerked violently, but her grip on the door kept her from falling down. “What in the hell?” she moaned, looking down at her belly.

In horror, I watched as blood bloomed on the front of her grey t-shirt. Her head came up, the fire of hate burning in her eyes. Her arm started to lift, the gun in her hand.

“Katie, don’t do it,” I begged, tears falling down my cheeks.

A thin line of blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth as she tried to smile. It looked more like a grimace. “Fuck you, Jena.”

Her arm came up and I knew she was about to fire. A sob escaped my lips as I pulled the trigger again. Then again. I shot her two more times until her arm dropped and her body collapsed on the ground.

Crying, I lunged toward the door and grabbed her gun out of the grass. I threw it in the back seat.

My hands were trembling as I checked Jack’s pulse. It was quick, but still felt strong, though I wouldn’t know if that was good or bad since I had no first aid training.

My entire body shook as I reached out of the door and laid my fingertips against Katie’s throat. I left them there for a long time. There was nothing.

Sobs began to wrack my body. It was all too much. I didn’t know what to do. I curled up in the front seat and began rocking back and forth.

Jack released a quiet groan, ripping me out of my hysteria. I didn’t have the luxury of falling apart. Jack was hurt and I had to call for help.

I needed a phone. I knew Jack had a Bluetooth in his ear, which meant he had a phone somewhere. Quickly, I started going through his pockets.

I found his smart phone in his back pocket and yanked it out. I nearly dropped it when it rang in my hand. I saw King’s name on the display and sobbed in relief.

Connecting the call, I lifted the phone to my ear. “K-k-king,” I stuttered, my teeth chattering.

“Jena?”

“Y-y-yes.”

“Are you safe?”

“Yes, but Jack’s hurt. We need an ambulance.”

“We’re almost there. We’ll take care of him.”

I sniffled. “Okay.”

“Where’s Katie? Did Jack manage to take her down?”

I sobbed again, louder and harder. “N-no.”

“Where is she? Jena, I know you’re worried about Jack, but you need to get somewhere safe. He’ll be fine, I promise.”

“She’s…she’s dead,” I whimpered.

King was silent. “Jack killed her?”

“No.”

“Oh fuck, Jena, what happened?”

I took a shuddering breath. “I had to-” My voice cracked. I swallowed hard. “I had to shoot her. She was trying to kill me. Oh God, oh God, I killed her. I killed her.”

“Darlin’, I’m almost there. I’ll be there in less than two minutes. Can you stay on the phone with me? Stay with me, Jena.”

I pulled my knees to my chest and began to rock back and forth in the seat. “I killed her, King. I shot her. I did what Tia told me and I shot her until she died right in front of me. Ohgod, ohgod, ohgod.”

“Jena!” King called sharply.

I could hear him, but I was trapped in my mind. I began sobbing in earnest then. “They’re going to put me in jail, King, for the rest of my life. Then I’m going to hell. I took a life. Murderers go to hell, don’t they?”

I couldn’t hear what he said in response because the phone slipped from my suddenly nerveless fingers. My eyes were fixed on Katie’s body.

I wasn’t aware of the passage of time, only the image of my friend’s lifeless body that was curled up against the driver’s side door.

The passenger door opened and I didn’t resist as arms reached in and pulled me out of the car.

“Jena.”

My name sounded so far away, as though I were standing in the bottom of a well and they were at the top.

“Jena!”

Something smacked my cheek, breaking through the shock that deadened my senses.

I gasped and my head jerked back. I blinked and Tia’s face came into focus.

“Where else are you hurt?” she asked, anxiety making her voice tight.

“Huh?”

“Your arm is bleeding,” she stated. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

I shook my head. “No, no. Just my arm.”

I winced as Tia started dabbing away the blood oozing from my bicep.

“It’s just a graze,” she murmured. “The doc will clean you up, maybe give you a couple of stitches. You’ll be good as new.”

Her hand wrapped around mine, squeezing lightly.

Tia scrambled out of the way and I realized I was sitting in the backseat of another black SUV. Then King was in front of me, his arms wrapped tightly around my body.

My own arms lifted and curled around his back.

“Thank God you’re all right,” he growled, hugging me so close I couldn’t breathe.

My eyes lifted to meet Tia’s over his shoulder. Though she didn’t say anything, I knew she understood I’d never be all right again.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Four Weeks Later

‡

It was a dream. It had to be a dream.

I stood in the middle of the field that surrounded the white building where I nearly died. The sun shone down on me, so bright it almost hurt my eyes. Standing about fifteen feet from me was Katie.

It wasn’t the gaunt, damaged woman I’d last seen. This was the Katie I’d met years ago, pretty, sweet, and young. The Katie I knew before life ruined her.

“Why?” she asked me, her hands clutching at her belly.

I looked down and saw the gun clasped loosely in my right hand. Horrified, I dropped it on the grass.

When I lifted my eyes again, Katie was much closer. She stood about five feet from me, holding out her hands. Her palms were dripping with thick, dark red blood. I watched in horror as fat droplets fell to the ground, staining the bright green grass and turning it brown.

More blood welled out of the holes in her torso, all five of them.

“Why, Jena?” she whimpered. “Why did you kill me?”

“I had to,” I answered in a whisper. “I didn’t have a choice.”

“You always have a choice.”

“No, I didn’t.”

She took a shambling step forward. “You always have a choice, Jena. You wanted to kill me. You wanted to hurt me.”

Closing my eyes, I put my hands over my ears like a child, wanting to block out her words. “That’s not true. I never wanted to hurt you, Katie. I loved you.”

Her sticky hands closed over my wrists, yanking them away from my head. My eyes flew open and I gasped in terror.

Katie’s face began to turn brown, then black, withering before my very eyes. Her eyes were bulging out of her skull and her lips peeled back from her teeth.

“Admit it, Jena. You’re just like me. You enjoyed killing me.”

“NO!” I shrieked, fighting against her hold. “NONONONO!”

Screams tore from my throat as the dream shattered around me and I scrambled out of the bed, hitting the floor hard.

Rolling onto my back, I crab walked away from the figure standing over me, crying out in terror.

The lamp next to the bed flipped on, revealing King’s half naked body. I stopped my desperate attempts to escape, collapsing against the cold floor.

When he crouched down, hesitantly reaching out for me, I dove into his arms. He rocked back on his ass, holding me close.

I buried my face in his neck and let the sobs overwhelm me. I cried and cried. I didn’t understand how the human body could hold so many tears. Every day since it happened, I’d cried more tears than I did when Justin died.

“Shh, darlin’. I got you. I’m right here,” King crooned in my ear, his hand stroking over my hair.

My body bucked harder and I clutched at him almost violently. I wanted him to absorb me, his strength to swallow my weakness so I never had to stand alone again.

“Was it the same dream, baby?” he whispered.

I nodded against his neck, the spasms lessening.

He rocked me in his lap, his hand stroking over my hair, as I cried out the rest of my tears. When the storm subsided, he lifted me up and laid me gently on the bed.

He disappeared into the bathroom while I blew my nose and mopped the last of the tears from my cheeks. A few seconds later he returned with a cool, damp cloth, a glass of water, and three pills.

I took the pills, looking at them suspiciously. “What are these?”

“Ibuprofen.”

“And?”

He sighed and sat on the bed next to my hip. “Something to help you sleep.” When I started to shake my head, he leaned forward and laid his lips on mine. “Please, darlin’. You need some uninterrupted sleep. You can’t heal like this.”

Deliberately, I misunderstood him. “My arm is fine, King. The doctor took the stitches out weeks ago.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it,” he stated firmly, calling me on my denial.

“I hate the way they make me feel,” I muttered.

His hands cupped my face, tilting it up so our eyes met. “And I hate the way hearing you scream in the middle of the night makes me feel. Please just compromise for tonight, baby. It hurts me to listen to you cry like that.”

Without another word of argument, I tossed the pills back and washed them down with water. I could clearly see in his eyes that King was sincere. He hurt for me, and I didn’t want to cause him the same kind of pain I was feeling.

*     *     *

The last few weeks had been a revelation.

I’d been too distraught in the days following the shooting to talk to anyone. A doctor hired by Wick had come to King’s house and sedated me. They’d had to keep me sedated for more than forty-eight hours.

When I’d finally calmed down enough to talk, I told King everything, breaking down several times during the story. At the time I hadn’t thought to ask if the police needed to speak to me. I’d been little more than a zombie by this time.

It wasn’t until over a week later that I found out that they’d never called the cops. Instead, Katie had just disappeared. I had no idea what they did with her body. King wouldn’t tell me.

I hadn’t spoken to anyone for days after that. It had taken Tia to snap me out of it.

I’d been holed up in the guest room, keeping everyone locked out. Tia picked the lock and came to sit by me on the bed. We sat together in silence for a few moments.

“You realize I agreed with King, don’t you?” she asked.

“What?”

“About what should be done. I agreed with Wick and King. They couldn’t call the cops into this.”

I sat straight up on the mattress. “Yeah, but what happens when they find the body? I’ll be brought up on murder charges when they figure out what happened.”

“They’ll never find her,” Tia promised.

Katie didn’t have any family left. She’d bounced around in foster homes the last two years of high school because she hadn’t had anyone to take care of her. No one would miss her but her friends and coworkers.

“It was wrong,” I whispered harshly. “They should have told the police.”

Tia grabbed my good arm and shook me roughly. “If they had called the cops, they would be in jail right now and Renaldo would have an opportunity to establish his foothold in Dallas. He would come after you on principal, Jena. Just because you’re King’s woman, you’d be dead.”

“You don’t know that,” I argued.

She sighed. “Jena, you’ve been in your own little world the last two weeks. King and Wick brought me in, explained what’s going on. I understand men like Renaldo and they were right to put your safety, and their own, above doing what was legal.”

I stared up at her with wide eyes. “They brought you in?” I whispered. “Oh God, what have I done? I got you tangled up in this mess.”

“Shut up, Jena. You have no idea what I’ve been doing the last few years. This is better by far.”

My mouth fell open then. “Maybe you should tell me what you’ve been up to the last five years.”

Tia shook her head. “Not right now,” she stated. “You’ve had enough shocks and hits lately. Once you’re better, we’ll talk again.”

“Promise?” I asked.

“I promise.”

Two weeks later, we still hadn’t had the conversation, but I knew I wasn’t ready yet. I still felt fragile, ready to break at any moment.

The most difficult thing had been quitting my job. Because I couldn’t tell Marilyn exactly what happened, I lied. I told her my mother was very sick and I needed to take care of her.

Like the wonderful woman she was, Marilyn offered to put me on leave for the rest of the year, but I’d had to refuse. She needed to replace me, not hold my job open for me when I wasn’t even sure I’d be returning.

I’d cried when we spoke on the phone and Marilyn sounded as though she’d been near tears as well.

Here I was, four weeks after the worst day of my life, jobless and with no idea what my next move would be.

The only constant I had in my life was King. After my conversation with Tia, I’d let go of my anger with him and I’d clung to him hard. I’d forgiven him completely and utterly. There was no more resentment about the past, no more fear that I couldn’t trust him. King came running when I needed him, prepared to protect me in whatever ways were necessary. He wasn’t just a pillar of strength; he was gentle when I needed it. He was also the one who suggested I talk to a psychiatrist.

At first I balked, not because I didn’t think it would help, but because I didn’t know if they would call the cops. I still wasn’t comfortable with the decisions King, Tia, and Wick had made, but I believed them when they said that the consequences of involving law enforcement could be deadly for all of us.

It was actually Wick who solved the dilemma. He found someone for me to talk to and insisted on bringing the doctor to King’s house. Apparently the doctor owed him a favor, one he was more than happy to pay.

Concerned he was there under duress, when I asked Dr. Smith (which was obviously a fake name) if he was being forced to do sessions with me, he’d insisted that he was pleased to do it.

“I’ve owed Wick for too long. Every time I’ve tried to repay him, he refused. As soon as he told me what he needed, I came. He’s a complex man, with his own moral code, but he isn’t altogether bad either. He has his own standards for right and wrong and they’re actually much stricter than society’s.”

When I pressed for more information, Dr. Smith clammed up. Finally, I gave up the ghost and we started our first session.

I’d seen the older man three times a week for the last two weeks and he’d suggested I get a prescription for sleeping pills to help with the nightmares. When I took them, I slept too deeply to remember my dreams if I had any.

I only hoped that Dr. Smith was right when he said I would eventually feel better. I might never be the same, but I wouldn’t always be this…breakable.