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The boat’s hull slapped against the chop of Estero Bay as the resort faded from view. The jarring movement intensified the pain in Josie’s shoulder. Blood stained her blouse where Erica had rammed the butt of her gun against Josie’s clavicle. If the grinding sensation was any indication, she suspected her collarbone was broken.
The second Troy had cleared the building, Erica had taken aim. Josie had recognized the stance. She’d spent time at the firing range with Steve. “Aim for the central mass,” he’d told her, repeatedly. Erica had been aiming to kill. Josie’d had no choice. She’d thrown her full weight against Erica as the trigger was pulled. She was immediately slammed to the deck by the blow from Erica. Hopefully, the damage had been worth the effort and Troy wasn’t hurt.
Erica had hauled Josie into the seat next to the captain’s chair ignoring her cries of pain. Now the crisp November air stung Josie’s face. Her eyes teared as the boat sped across the Bay she’d admired just yesterday. The tears had more to do with the searing pain in her shoulder than the biting wind. Bile rose from her stomach as it protested the pain and the rocking of the boat.
The sound of the Yamaha engines grew louder as Erica kicked them up another notch, clearing a bridge and heading toward open waters. Josie pressed her left hand against her collarbone hoping to minimize the painful movements. It had little effect.
“What the hell, Erica? What the fuck is going on?” Josie screamed to be heard.
“Retribution!” Erica yelled. Her lips curved in an evil grin. “It’s due.”
“Retribution for what?” Josie croaked. Her voice was getting raw from the shouting, not to mention the acid that rose from her stomach. “Can you slow this thing down?”
Instead, Erica pushed the small boat’s engine to its max. Were they breaking any laws? Was it silly to pray they’d be spotted and stopped by a Wildlife Officer or the Coast Guard?
They passed another boat. Erica waved casually. Just another boater out for the afternoon. Josie considered waving her bloody hand in a plea for help. Her hesitation cost her. Erica pointed the pistol at Josie. “Don’t try it.”
Why had Josie hesitated? This was a one-way trip. She may have missed her only chance for help.
This was a one-way trip. The break in her heart surpassed the pain in her shoulder. She wouldn’t see Steve again. God. Had she told him she loved him? She couldn’t remember if she’d said the words. Last night they’d made love. There was no other word to describe the tenderness—the joining as one. They’d had last night, and their first dance. Steve had held her awkwardly as they swayed to the music. The man couldn’t dance worth a lick but he’d given her what she’d needed. To be held and loved.
Don’t give up on us, Josie. The silent order in Steve’s voice rose from deep inside her. Was she giving up? Not on them but on her chances of surviving?
She’d once stopped fighting for Steve. That had been a major mistake. She wouldn’t make another one.
“Erica!” Josie screamed to get her former friend to look at her. “What did I do?” Could she reason with this woman she no longer recognized?
Erica’s head snapped in Josie’s direction. Rage emanated from her, its power sucking the air from Josie’s lungs.
“You didn’t go,” Erica spat. “You wouldn’t go. You wouldn’t go that night like you promised.” Erica was screeching. Not just to be heard over the noise of the engine but in sheer anger.
“What night?” Josie asked, her breath ragged.
“Our last semester together. The keg party. You said you’d go then decided to study instead.”
The mist in Josie’s mind cleared. The night of Erica’s accident.
The night Erica had almost died.
Josie had stayed home to study for a test the following day instead of going to the party. Erica had been livid. The viciousness of her anger was as strong as a blow. She’d gone on a verbal tirade until Josie’d finally had enough. She’d told her friend to go get drunk, high, or laid—whatever the hell she wanted. Erica had stormed out. Josie had never had the opportunity to apologize. After the accident, Erica hadn’t wanted visitors. Then she was gone.
“If you’d been driving, I wouldn’t have been hurt,” Erica accused her. She’d been badly injured when the accelerator on her car stuck. Erica had lost control and slammed into a tree. She’d spent weeks in the hospital with broken bones and internal injuries.
“Why am I responsible for what went wrong with your car?” Josie countered, while eyeing their surroundings. They passed the last of the small mangrove islands and were headed out to open water.
“There was nothing wrong with my car,” Erica sneered, easing back on the throttle now that there were no other boaters in sight. “I was drunk, high—both.”
“You couldn’t have been drunk. You would have been charged.” No charges had been filed against Erica, not that Josie knew about. Certainly, word on campus would have reached her.
“I was charged after I was released from the hospital. I got the prosecutor to drop the case.” A smile crept over Erica’s face. The rage and hate had been replaced by evil. The woman in front of Josie could kill. And kill without remorse. Was this the real Erica? Was this the girl she’d known since middle school?
Sure, before college their time together had been limited. They’d kept in touch but what did you really learn about a person from their emails? Josie’d sensed a difference when they were reunited in college but she’d thought she was the one who had changed—had matured more.
“That was my first lesson in the power of research,” Erica said. She kept one hand on the wheel as the shoreline began to disappear. Her left hand rested on the gun in her lap pointing in Josie’s direction. “It’s been a very lucrative business ever since. It’s how I stumbled onto Aaron. Then you managed to fuck that up too.”
Erica’s moods fluctuated so quickly from anger, bragging, and rage that Josie had a hard time keeping up. It was as if three different people were assailing Josie. There was something twisted in Erica, something Josie wasn’t capable of understanding. There’d be no reasoning with her but damned if Josie was going to die without knowing why.
“Why is any of this my fault? You drove drunk. Not me. I didn’t know who the hell Deets was until you sent me that damn list. What the hell is going on? Why are you ready to dump me in the Gulf now because of something that happened ten years ago?”
Erica slammed the throttle into neutral causing the small boat to rock violently. The pain of hitting the bulkhead almost caused Josie to black out. She blinked more tears away. When she opened her eyes, Erica was looming over her. The gun pointed at Josie’s abdomen. “I might just shoot you in the womb before I dump you in the water. It would only be fair.”
“Fair?” The boat was no longer moving forward but the wake created by the sudden stop of the engines along with the chop of the water jostled Josie. She reached out to steady herself. The action sent a searing pain through her arm. She had to catch her breath before continuing. “Why would that be fair? You’ve gone to a lot of trouble to get me out here. Tell me what horrible crime I committed to deserve this?”
“They literally had to put me back together after that accident. Not all the pieces fit. Now I can’t have children! It’s your fault that I’ll never have kids.” The words spit out like venom. With the boat stationary, Erica turned and sat coiled in her seat. The gun was no longer laying passively in her lap but was pointed dead center at Josie.
“Why wait until now to come after me?”
“Aaron. I didn’t give a damn about having a couple of rug rats to trip over—not until I met Aaron. He was my golden ticket.” Her lips had thinned and her grip tightened on the gun as she said the name.
“What a sleaze bag,” Erica continued. “I discovered he has a hidden taste for young girls. I couldn’t have asked for a better mark but he was different. Ambitious. Very ambitious. He had Washington in his sights. He had the money to win.”
Erica’s eyes sparkled like a child getting her first look at the Magic Kingdom.
“Imagine the secrets I could unearth and the money I could make,” Erica said, wistfully. “We struck a bargain. He needed a wife on his arm during his run for Congress. I wanted the connections he could give me.”
“But he’d seen the scars. The bastard did research on me. Got my fucking hospital records! He kicked me to the curb as soon as he got the report. What good was a wife, he said, if he wouldn’t have kids to parade in front of the press?”
“But you knew about his history,” Josie said. “You knew about Ruth Carr.”
“And others. He knew about my blackmailing. He could make good on his threats to put me in jail if I spoke a word about him or his past.”
“You manipulated Deets to believe I was the blackmailer so that he’d come after me?”
“Bingo! Sweet, wasn’t it? You both needed to pay and he paid handsomely. Along with the other cash I’ve accumulated, I’ll have enough now to lay low and reinvent myself. Meanwhile, you’ll be feeding the fishes.” Erica gazed at the now quiet waters. “Are there sharks out here?” she asked. “I didn’t have time to research that. After I saw his email to you, I had to get my ass down here in a hurry.”
Josie hadn’t given any thought to how Erica had located her but now it made sense. Somehow, she’d found a way to monitor Deets’s emails. No wonder Erica thought she owned the man. How could he make such a stupid mistake?
“Did you kill those men?” she asked. “Esteban and Roemer?”
“Why would I kill them? They could help bring Aaron down. They were my ace in the hole until he turned on me. Knowing Aaron, he has some ex-cons going after those he knew at camp. Won’t be many left for a reunion after he gets done. That bastard is bat-shit crazy.”
Takes one to know one.
Erica looked over the horizon. The sun would set in a few hours. Darkness came early in November. Josie didn’t have much time left.
“You know?” Erica smiled. “Aaron’s going to be pissed that you didn’t show.”
The woman was insane. She had a gun pointed at Josie with no qualms about pulling the trigger yet she was enjoying the idea of Deets being pissed because Josie missed her appointment with him. She was indirectly responsible for the death of two men by exposing their names on a list she’d sent to Josie.
Erica had no idea that Deets had walked into a trap. Would that change Erica’s plans? Why the hell did she care about Erica’s plans?
Except how those plans might affect Steve. He’d be looking for Josie. Troy had definitely seen her on the boat. Every minute she stayed on board increased her chances of being found. Once she was in the water, even if she managed to stay afloat and assuming Erica didn’t shoot her first—she’d be the needle in a haystack. The Gulf of Mexico was one hell of a haystack.
“Did he think I could lead him to you?” Josie asked to keep the conversation going.
“You didn’t know where I was. You did a pretty good disappearing act yourself. If he hadn’t contacted you for a meet, I wouldn’t have found you. At least, not so fast.”
“Why is he just now cleaning house?”
“Doesn’t matter to you anymore. It’s time for your swim,” Erica grinned. “I want to be off these waters before sunset. It was nice catching up with you, though.” With the barrel of the gun pointed at Josie, Erica motioned for her to stand. Josie didn’t move.
“Get up,” Erica ordered. “You can sit there where you’ll be an easy target or you can get your ass into the water where you might have a chance.”
The boat rocked as Josie awkwardly made her way over the rear seats and onto the first tier of the swim deck. Stumbling, she instinctively grasped the seat to steady herself. Shit! Her shoulder screamed and her knees buckled. Josie rolled to the second tier of the deck.
Erica was laughing as she leaned over the seat and pointed the gun at Josie’s abdomen again. “I was just kidding.” An unholy grin returned to her face. “You don’t deserve a chance.”
Josie didn’t hesitate. She rolled off the platform and into the water.