She felt torn. She wanted to watch the interrogation, see Richard or Carl crumble and confess, but she’d promised she’d relieve the other volunteers, that she’d man the booth for them, helping them collect donations. Her integrity overrode her curiosity. “I need a ride. Can you pick me up at the field office?”
“Are you back to work already?”
“No. We captured the guy who tried to kill me.” Now that she was safe, there was no reason for her to hide, to drag bodyguards with her. She could go to the festival without fear.
“Great. I can pick you up. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
She gazed wistfully at the interrogation room. If Richard or Carl didn’t confess right away, she’d find out everything from AJ after the festival.
* * * * *
The Fall Festival in Fells Point topped the list of Kate’s favorite things about living there. The loud noise, the music and the crowds excited her.
She and Ariana arrived early so they stopped at a few booths along the way to the Humane Society tent. It felt good to be free of someone trying to kill her. Free from looking over her shoulder. Free from hiding out at Jesse’s. Free from being surrounded by bodyguards. She could relax and enjoy herself.
She caught a glimpse of Josh and Mary holding hands. About damn time. She didn’t think those two would ever find each other. Josh had confessed to her that he loved Mary, and Mary had confessed her crush on Josh.
She knew Mary hadn’t loved Dan. As long as he’d been in the picture, staying around harassing her, she wouldn’t go out with anyone else for fear of what he would do to them. Exactly what Dan had done to Josh when he’d tried to defend her.
Kate smiled. At least Mary got a happy ending.
Patronizing local artists and businesses was important to Kate. At Homemade in Fells Point, she purchased a necklace with a topaz crystal and a small hand-painted picture of a Dalmatian.
The photo reminded her of Dottie. She still had to go back to Jesse’s to get her clothes and her dog. Maybe she’d have her sister take her so she could avoid him. No, she didn’t know the code to the gate. She could call Devon. He’d let her in to get her things.
Her phone vibrated, and she pulled it from her jeans pocket. It was Jesse, bound to be angry she’d left without saying anything to anyone. She hadn’t needed to, hadn’t needed any bodyguards. Her mood was too good right now to have him ruin it. Besides, she would never hear him over the band. She put the phone back in her pocket, the call unanswered.
At the Heaven on Earth Pet Treats booth she saw Dan watching her. She and Ariana continued on and stopped at Baltimore Hats. Her phone vibrated again. She ignored it.
Dan followed her, watching her. She leaned toward her sister. “I’ve got a problem.”
“What’s wrong? If you don’t have cash on you, I can cover whatever you want to buy.”
“It’s not that. There’s someone following us. Someone who might want to hurt me.” Thankfully, she’d put her weapon in her purse before leaving for the field office.
Ariana spun around. “Where? I thought they caught the man trying to kill you.”
“Don’t look. He’s a different story. Let’s keep walking.” She herded her sister through the crowd, glancing over her shoulder. He still followed but kept at a safe distance.
“Kate, if he’s trying to hurt you, let’s go to your apartment. It’s right down the street. I’ll call Carmen and let her know we can’t fill our time at the booth. Then we can call the police.”
“No, we promised.”
“But that was before you might bring trouble to them. The smartest thing is to get out of the crowd and safely behind a locked door.”
“You’re right. Let me get there and call the police. He’s violated his restraining order.”
On the walk to Kate’s apartment her phone vibrated again. Jesse. He could send someone to take care of Dan. “I need to take this call. Let me step into this shop.”
Kate answered the phone. “Hold on a sec.” She entered the store and walked to the back, trying to find any space where the music wasn’t too loud for her to hear. “Hello, Jesse.”
“Kate, where the hell are you?”
“Jesse, I can barely hear you. Dan’s here. He’s following me.”
“Where the hell are you?”
“I’m at the festival. I’m on my way to my apartment with Ariana to call the police. Did you want me to wait and have your men take care of him?”
The music level increased, and Kate couldn’t make out what Jesse said.
“Jesse, I can’t hear you. I’ll call you later when it’s quiet.” She ended the call. “Is he still out there?”
“Yeah, he is, and he looks angry.”
She scanned the area and thought she’d seen Ken. She looked back at the spot, but no one was there. Wishful thinking. “Let’s get moving.”
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
“Dammit. She couldn’t hear me.” Jesse wanted to throw the phone, punch the dashboard, something to rid himself of his anger, his fear. He’d tried to warn her, but she hadn’t heard him.
Richard happily told him he wasn’t in it just for himself. As the Facilitator, he’d been hired to kill Kate. She’d have been his target whether Jesse had been involved or not. Jesse had been icing on the cake. A chance for revenge.
“She’s at the festival. You’re driving too fucking slow, AJ. Step on it. We have to save her.”
She’d left the field office without telling anyone. She’d left without him, without a protective detail. Okay, she’d probably thought the threat to her was over and didn’t need a protective detail, but she’d left without him, without talking to him.
Last night had been the right time for him to tell her that he loved her. So why hadn’t he?
She’d opened up to him, told him what held her back from a committed relationship with him. He’d seen what it took for her to tell him, how painful it had been for her to talk about it. She saw herself as less of a woman because she couldn’t have children. He should have told her it didn’t matter. That she was still worthy of love, of his love.
After she’d opened up to him, he’d held her trying to comfort her, and he knew he had to do anything and everything to make her world safe. So he’d woken focused on catching Richard and Carl. He realized how he’d treated her, ignoring her when she’d needed him the most. He’d screwed things up. That’s why she’d left without him. She didn’t think it mattered to him, that she didn’t matter. Well, she mattered one hell of a lot.
“I’m not driving too fucking slow. Try calling her again.”
He’d already pushed the call button.
* * * * *
Kate removed her cell phone and weapon from her handbag and put her weapon uncomfortably in the back of her waistband. She didn’t want to have to use it, but she would if she had to. She knew what Dan was capable of, and she had Ariana to protect.
Right now, she conceded that she needed help, and Jesse was the first person to pop in her mind. She walked to the center of the room. “Let me call Jesse real fast. H.I.S. might want to take care of Dan instead of leaving him to the police.”
“Hang up the phone, Kate.” Ariana pulled a handgun from her purse.
Kate stepped back, startled. “Ariana put that away. We could accidentally get shot. Dan hasn’t come to the door. We’re safe.” She furrowed her brow. “Why are you carrying the weapon in your purse?”
Ariana pointed the gun at her chest.
“Ariana, what’re you doing?” This felt wrong, very wrong. “Ariana, I’m not joking, put that weapon away.” Her hand itched to pull the weapon from her waistband, but she didn’t want to pull it on her sister. She didn’t understand what was happening. Or why it was happening.
“It’s time for you to die. You just wouldn’t die.” Ariana’s eyes were wild, her face flushed, her nostrils flaring with each heavy breath. She brought her other hand up and grasped the handgun with both hands, her grip so tight her knuckles turned white.
“What do you mean? H.I.S. caught the man who tried to kill me.” Her fear level slowly crept from frightened to terrified. She had no choice.
Ariana’s eyes widened when Kate pulled her weapon and pointed it at her sister. “Put the weapon away, Ariana.” She slowly inched closer to her sister, praying she didn’t pull the trigger.
“I hired Richard to kill you, but he failed. I even tried to help out by sending you poisoned chocolate, but you didn’t eat them. You seem to have nine lives. You should have cats instead of that damn dog. It’s true what they say, if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself. This time I will ensure you’re dead.”
“What are you talking about, Ariana?” She needed to keep her sister talking until she could get the weapon out of her hands or talk her down, hopefully without firing a shot. It was her sister, dammit.
“You got half. I was their daughter, and you got half. It should have all been mine. Mine. Now, it will be.” Spittle flew from Ariana’s mouth as she talked.
How had she missed that Ariana felt this way? Sure, Kate had felt guilty about the money, but at the will reading her sister told her it happened the way it was supposed to happen. They loved Kate like a daughter.
A multi-millionaire in her right, Ariana didn’t need her money. Greed. The good old-fashioned greed bug had bitten her sister.
“Ariana, if you wanted the other half all you had to do was ask. I’ll willingly give it to you. I haven’t touched it.”
“Like you would turn millions of dollars over to me just like that. You shouldn’t have told me you left me everything in your will. That gave me the easy way to have it all. All that had to happen was for you to die.”
Ariana waved the weapon as she talked. Kate had to keep her talking. She hadn’t called the police yet. Jesse and H.I.S. weren’t here to protect her. She had to do this on her own. She continued to slowly close the distance between them. If she died, she’d go down fighting. It pained her to think it would be her sister who she’d have to injure or kill to stay alive.
“Ariana, you don’t have to kill me. I’ll give you everything.”
“I have to kill you now because you’ll tell the police or your boyfriend that I tried to kill you. I can’t risk it.”
She stopped as close to her sister as she dared. “Ariana, no I won’t tell. You’re my sister. I wouldn’t tell anyone about this.”
“Yes, you would. I took care of you growing up, but you’d turn on me. I know it.” Ariana’s hands shook along with her voice.
Kate had to do something, quickly. “We can work this out. You don’t have to do this.”
She didn’t want to die. She didn’t need the money. Her sister could have it all. She wanted to be able to have a life with Jesse and Reagan. Her life had little meaning without them. If she survived this, she’d try again with him. She had to find a way to survive.
“No, you have to die, and now, I have to do it myself. Luck is with me, the noise from the festival with cover up the sound of the gun firing.”
The festival spilled on the streets in front of her apartment. Bands constantly played on a stage near them with loud music reverberating through her living room. They were almost shouting to hear each other. If anyone heard the gunshots they’d probably think it had been firecrackers for the celebration.
“Ariana, I beg of you, don’t do this. You don’t want to really do this. I’m serious about giving you my half. And, I’ll keep the secret of you trying to kill me.”
Ariana brought the gun down in one hand, relaxing her grip. “No one would do all of that for someone else.”
The moment she’d hoped for had arrived. She couldn’t shoot her sister so she lunged at her, knocking them both to the ground, both weapons flying out of their hands, each struggling to take control of the fight. Her sister surprised her by fighting wild and scrappy, but she had been trained to fight. She had Ariana secure until she grabbed on and with all her strength and squeezed Kate’s right hand.
She cried out at the pain. Her automatic reflex had been to grasp her injured hand. After being released, her sister pushed her off and scrambled up, picking up a weapon before Kate recovered. On her knees, she looked up at Ariana and froze. Her sister pointed the weapon at her head, at point blank range, and she had nothing to defend herself.
Her sister’s eyes looked pained. Kate thought she might not be able to do this, not kill her. She hoped her sister’s conscience would win the obvious battle within her. She knew her sister loved her. She wouldn’t do this. She’d stop. Any moment now.
“I love you, Ariana. Please don’t do this.”
Like a flash of lightning, love lit Ariana’s eyes. It lasted only a brief moment. Then hatred glowed in them. “I love you too, but I have to kill you. I need your half, Kate. The half that should have been mine to begin with. I made a bad investment and the employee pension is gone. Your half is going to save the company, save my daddy’s legacy. It’s over, Kate.”
She closed her eyes, her body tense, her breathing erratic. This couldn’t be it. This couldn’t be the end. Not at the hands of her sister. There were so many things she’d never done, like telling Jesse she loved him.
* * * * *
Jesse’s phone rang as they turned a corner and came to a screeching halt. The roads were blocked for the festival. “Dammit. I’m getting out here. I can run the rest of the way faster than you can get us there.” He climbed out of the car and sprinted away, answering his phone on the run. “Yeah.”
“It’s Ken. Thought you should know that Dan followed Kate at the festival. Rob and I took care of him when he headed toward her apartment. Rob’s taking him to HQ to have a personal meeting with you.”
With the noise, Jesse could barely make out what Ken had said. “You followed Kate?”
“Well, yeah. You never said to stop. We knew she wouldn’t like it so we were discreet. She didn’t know we were there. She’s safe up in her apartment with her sister.”
A bit of relief flowed through Jesse. He might not get there in time, but he could get help to her. He could save her. “Get in her apartment now! Ariana hired Richard to kill Kate.”
“Fuck.” The line went dead.
Jesse sprinted toward Kate’s apartment, running through back roads to avoid the crowd. He heard AJ close behind him. His brother must’ve parked the car where they’d stopped in the street.