Branded (23 page)

“Sit down,” he said.

She did as he commanded, fighting the debilitating
fear that threatened to reduce her to a whimpering puddle.

“I know about the money.”

She jerked her gaze to his eyes.  If he was
looking for a reaction, she’d given it to him.

He nodded.  “Your aunt told me pretty much
everything.”  He sat on the couch, lounging as though they were two friends
having a conversation.

It sickened her to think what he might have done
to her.  She glanced at his hand, his shirt, looking for traces of blood.  “Is
she all right?” 

He wrinkled his brow.  “Sure.  Why wouldn’t she
be?”

She prayed he wasn’t lying.  “You didn’t hurt her?”

He straightened.  “Why would I?  She’s the one
paying me.”

She was certain he’d lost his mind.  “I don’t
understand.”

“I thought she told you.  She was calling as I
walked out the door, though she did warn me you might not be too happy when I
got here.”

Nicole stared at him dumbfounded.  Her aunt
had
called, but she hadn’t answered.

“After she found out we were friends at work, she
contacted me and asked if I would keep an eye on you, make sure you got on the
bus okay.  Stuff like that.  You almost caught me following you the day you
went back for your bus pass, and I wish you would have.  I would have gone
inside with you, and they wouldn’t have been able to pin that theft on you.”

“Or they would have blamed both of us.”

He tilted his head as though considering her
point.  “True.”

“Did my aunt say who was after me?”  She’d feared she
been a target all along.

“She didn’t know who specifically.  But she wanted
to pay me, and I kind of liked the idea of being a bodyguard.  I bought me a
gun to be more legit.”  His light blue eyes flashed with excitement.  “Now,
your aunt’s worried that word has gotten out about the special account as she
calls it, and she’s more afraid someone might come after you like they did her
last February.”

“Last February?”

“The car accident.  She was pretty suspicious of
the hit-and-run, but then nothing else came of it.”  He frowned.  “And then you
got fired which made
my
job a lot harder.  I wanted to tell you what was
going on, thought it would make things easier, but she said no.”

Anguish and fear ripped through her.  “Why wouldn’t
she tell me?  God, they could have killed her.”

“I don’t know.  Her call, I guess.”  He shrugged. 
“As soon as you get a few things packed, I’m moving you to a hotel.  Then we’ll
find somewhere else safe.”

“You want me to pack up and leave?”  She wanted to
add “everything” to her question, but really, what would she be leaving? 
Xander was already gone.  She was pretty sure the job with his friend was,
too.  That left her apartment and Janie.  “I’m not leaving Stormy.”

“Of course not.”

She stood, and then her heart nearly dropped to
the floor.  “Oh, no.  Janie’s going to call the police.”

“What?”  He jumped to his feet.

“My neighbor who was just here.  She could tell
something was wrong, and I think she’s going to call the police.”

“Shit!”  He glanced about the room.  “We gotta get
out of here.  Now.  Grab your purse.  Get your dog.”

He headed for the door as she scrambled to retrieve
Stormy’s leash from the closet.  “You want me to run from the police?” she
asked as he opened the door.  The only answer she received was a muffled shot
echoing from the hall.

She jerked around and found Riley at the feet of a
short woman dressed in a blue button down shirt and tan pants.  Her mousy brown
hair that normally hung limp above her shoulders had been pulled into a
ponytail, but there was no mistaking her identity.  “
Mary
?”  The quiet
girl from IT had shot poor Riley with no remorse in her expression.  Only a
cold, deadly stare.

Xander shrugged off his soaked jacket and tossed
it behind the passenger seat as a wet Apollo jumped in the car panting.  Xander
had run them both until they were beyond exhausted.  He glanced up at Nicole’s
apartment building, sending another piercing pain through him.  He ached to go
up there and give her another piece of his mind, but it was pointless.  She’d
made her choice, and it hadn’t been him.  For all he knew, she was currently
stuffing her bags, planning to make a run for it.

He had to get out of there, and God knew, he’d
avoid this end of town for the rest of his life.

He started the ignition, his engine roaring to
life.  His tires squealed on the wet pavement as he pulled into traffic.

He made it two blocks when his phone rang.  He
wrestled his cell out of his pocket, the sick part of him wishing it was Nicole. 
It wasn’t.  Sam’s number glowed on the screen, and he dropped the phone into
the console not wishing to hear anything from his friend right now.

Whatever would happen, would happen.

He turned the corner and headed toward the bridge
that would take him to his side of the river.

His phone rang again, and he glanced at it.  Sam. 
“Fuck.”  He ground his teeth together as he reached for his phone and answered.

“Where are you?”

“On my way home.”  He should use a nicer tone.  It
wasn’t Sam’s fault he’d been such an idiot.

“There’s something going down at Nicole’s
apartment.”

“She making a run for it?”  It would be his fault
if she did.

“No.  A neighbor called, said she thinks there’s
someone in Nicole’s apartment who might be threatening her.  Maybe a deal gone
bad or something.  I have units heading there now.  I’m not far behind.”

“Shit.”  He slammed on the brakes and made a swift
U-turn on a one-way street.  Blaring horns screeched about his illegal
activity, but he didn’t care.  He cruised down the gutter a hundred yards
before turning onto the street that would take him back toward Nicole’s house. 
“I’m a couple of blocks away.”

“Don’t interfere.  Let my men handle it.”

His frustration got the better of him.  “Then why
the hell did you even tell me?”

Sam paused.  “I don’t know.  I thought you’d want
to know.”

“I’ll see you there.”  He ended the call, fishing
his gun out of the glove box before stepping on the accelerator.  He hated the
part of him that insisted on running to her defense.  She didn’t deserve it,
but damn it, love was a hard thing to kill.

*        *        *

Nicole couldn’t form a sentence.  Her brain didn’t
have a clue how to piece together the madness unfolding in front of her.  She
and Mary stood outside her apartment, Riley bleeding out at their feet.

“Where’s the money?”  Mary lifted the gun,
pointing it at Nicole’s forehead.

Fear iced her veins.  “I didn’t take the money
from First Freedom.”

“I know you didn’t.”  She leaned forward and
whispered, “We did.”  The strong odor of stale tobacco on her breath nearly
gagged Nicole.  She had no idea Mary smoked.  She’d always been this quiet
thing that never made waves.

“I don’t understand.  If you have the money, why
are you here?” 

She moved forward until the barrel hit her between
the brows.  “The other money,” she whispered.  “The offshore account.”

“I don’t have it.”  So Mary wanted the sixteen
million.  How she knew about it was beyond her.  “I-I mean, it’s not here.  It’s
in an account in Singapore.  But I could get it.”  She had no clue how to
access it.

“I know you can.  That’s where I’m taking you
next.”  She took a step back, waving her gun at an unconscious Riley.  “Now be
a good girl and pull him inside.”

Riley groaned when Nicole grabbed his hands and
began to tug.  He’d lost a lot of blood, but at least he wasn’t dead.  Not yet.

Mary pulled out her cell while Nicole tried to
budge Riley’s weight.  “The pretty little ditz is going to cooperate.”  She
paused.  “Yeah, he was here.  Just like you thought.  There was an unfortunate
incident, so we can’t stay here long.  Someone might see the blood on the floor
and call the police.”  Mary glanced down the hall.  “Of course I used my
silencer, douche.  The fucking gun still makes noise.  Call me when you’re
ready.  I’m giving you five minutes.”

*        *        *

Nicole sat on her couch, unable to stop her
tremors.  Mary hovered over her, restless and agitated.  She kept her pistol
pointed at her, waiting for someone to call.  Riley remained motionless where
she’d dragged him near the front door, and she feared he’d died.  All because
he tried to protect her.

“Why are you doing this?”

Mary grinned, her dark eyes glinting.  “Because I
can.  Because I like power.  Because everyone thinks they can walk all over mousy
Mary, and she’s going to take it.”

“I’ve never done anything to hurt you.”  Nicole
tried to be kind to everyone she came across, though she
had
inwardly
thought of Mary as mousy.

“Doesn’t matter.  Your dad did.  To Mr. Donati. 
He ran out on a deal that they were supposed to share.”  She displayed a sickly
sweet smile.  “Sometimes the children have to pay for the parent’s sins.”

“I don’t even know Mr. Donati.”  Though she was
pretty sure she’d heard his name associated with her father before.

“He knows you.”

“Why did you set me up?  Why couldn’t you have
just asked for the money?”

“It was all a ploy to put you at our mercy.  See,
that’s one of the reasons I like working for Mr. Donati.  He doesn’t want just the
money.  He likes the game of it, likes using his mind.  Did you know he’s the
one who sent the headhunters after you with a job?”

“No.”  She shook her head, not quite believing it. 
It had been strange though that First Freedom never used her art talents.

“Yep.  It was our first chess move, and you didn’t
even know we were playing.  He was already planning a job there, already had me
in place.  It worked out perfectly.  The police…no one suspected anyone but
you.”  She frowned and glanced at her watch.  “After that whole accident thing
with your aunt didn’t pan out, we knew we had to come up with something
spectacular.  If she’d have had access to the money, she would have touched it for
medical bills instead of mortgaging her house.  So, we figured he must have
given the money to
you
.”  She pinned her with a crazed smile.  “I came
up with my brilliant plan that Mr. Donati loved.  Lots of twists and turns,
ending with you ultimately paying for your dad’s mistakes.”

She had a feeling Mary didn’t mean only paying
with money.

“My plan gave us another ten million in addition
to what your dad took, and you’d either end up in jail serving his time, or we’d
figure out another way to make you pay.”

The chances of her surviving to see the sun rise
one more time were almost nil.  She’d never get to explain things to Xander. 
He’d believe she went down because of her crimes.  Even if the police showed,
there was no guarantee she’d come out alive.

With the way Mary was spilling information, it was
doubtful they’d let her live after this.  “Mr. Barton?  Was he in on it, too?” 
She might as well learn what she could.

“Not exactly.  He was easy to bribe, and we paid
him well to represent you, but not let you know we’d hired him.  It was his job
to keep you under control.  Nothing illegal about that.”  She chuckled.  “Although,
he did earn his keep by figuring out someone else was in your video.”  She
smiled.  “Of course, we took care of that, too.”

“The police still have a copy of it.”

Mary grinned.  “Do they?”

Xander had one, too, but she wasn’t going to
mention that.  Wasn’t going to tell this psycho that Xander had seen the
mysterious figure, too.

Mary glanced at her watch again and cursed.  “We
can’t stay any longer.  Dumb fucks for not having this set up in time,” she
muttered under her breath as she stood.  “They really shouldn’t push me, you
know?” she said, waving Nicole to her feet with her gun.  “I’m the one in
control of the goods right now, and if I was in charge of the organization, I
would have found that offshore account information before the police
ever
did.”

“How
did
you find out about it?”  For that
fact, how had Xander?

She narrowed her gaze.  “Enough talk.  Time to go.”

Nicole frantically searched for a reason to delay
their leaving.  If she could keep her there a little longer, the police would be
there any minute.

“
Now
,” Mary demanded.

Nicole walked forward, watching the motionless Riley. 
If she had to wonder how deadly these people were, there was her answer.

As they neared the front door, Mary grabbed her
hair, yanking until she whimpered.  “Don’t try anything because I promise you’ll
regret it.  If you don’t pay for your father’s crimes, we can always go back to
your aunt.”

She tried to breathe past her terror.  There was
no way this would end well.

Nicole nodded her agreement, and Mary opened the
door, pushing her into the hallway.  She prayed for an answer to her dilemma. 
There was nothing.

She descended the first flight of steps, Mary’s
gun at her back, listening for sirens.  There wasn’t another soul in sight as
they came upon a landing before starting down the next set of stairs.

As they turned the corner halfway down to the
first floor, Xander appeared, racing up the stairs.

The second he spotted her, he stopped.  She froze,
causing Mary to bump into her.

He glanced between the two women as though trying
to understand the situation.  “Duck,” he yelled as he pulled a gun from the back
of his waistband.  Before Nicole could follow his orders, a shot rang out from
behind her, and she watched in horror as it hit Xander in the side of his torso.

She crumpled to the stairs in shock as Xander returned
fire.  The bullet whizzed past her and lodged in Mary’s leg.  She fell,
knocking Nicole as she went down.  Her gun landed on the stair below them.