“Steer clear, sir. Help is on the way.”
“I’m getting closer.” Kade silenced the phone and slid it into his back pocket. No way was he sitting in his car, not after that gunshot. They’d spared a few trees in the development, but not nearly enough. As he crossed empty lots toward the clubhouse, he wished desperately for something, anything to hide behind. Because that gunshot hadn’t come from a rifle or a shotgun. He’d done enough hunting to recognize those sounds.
He thought of Ginny. Surely she wasn’t here. Surely she was home safe. But now, the missing boxes from her garage seemed very odd. The closed blinds on her house seemed sinister. He should have kept pounding until she opened the door.
He should have called the police hours earlier.
If Ginny was here, if this had anything to do with her, he’d never forgive himself.
He made it to the edge of the building and peeked inside.
There was a body on the floor, blood beneath the head. God, no…
He forced himself to focus.
He saw a business suit. It was a man. A huge man. He studied the face, tried not to look at the bullet hole.
Oh, no. It was Mike Sokolov.
The sound of a scuffle had him shifting to see the other side of the space.
Another man was on the floor, very much alive. Beneath him, a woman was squirming, trying to get away. Kade couldn’t see her face.
But he caught sight of the long dark brown hair.
Ginny.
He swallowed his fear and nausea and the overwhelming desire to burst in and stop this now. The man was armed. For all Kade knew, a gun was pointed at her right then. Kade could make things worse if he wasn’t careful.
He crept to the opening to what would someday be the rear floor-to-ceiling windows and stepped inside.
“Please don’t,” Ginny said. “Please, you don’t have to—”
“Ah, but I want to.”
There was the gun, lying a few feet from them.
Kade crept toward the gun.
Ginny caught sight of him, and her eyes widened.
A cell phone rang.
The man reached behind him to grab it from his back pocket. When he did, he saw Kade.
Kade lowered his shoulder and barreled toward him. He wrapped his arms around the attacker. They rolled off Ginny. “Run!”
She scrambled away.
He punched the man in the side of the head, twice, three times.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Ginny scoot toward the gun. But Kade couldn’t focus on that. This man was strong.
He didn’t know if he could best him.
“Run!” he shouted again. “Please!”
She stood, seemed unsure.
The man kneed him in the stomach. Kade ignored the pain and aimed punches at his back, his ribs.
He couldn’t see Ginny now. She’d left, thank God.
But then, he saw movement.
Ginny kicked the man in the head.
The man reached toward her feet, but she danced away.
Kade landed a hard blow against his nose.
The man faltered, weakened.
Ginny kicked him in the back. Kade punched him again in the face. And again.
The man lifted his arm for another hit, but it went wide.
Kade punched him in the face again, then scrambled away. “Where’s the gun.”
“I have it.”
He grabbed it from her and aimed at the man.
His eyes were closed, and he didn’t move.
A new voice said, “Drop it or she dies first.”
No. Whoever it was, Kade wanted to turn and fire, but he couldn’t take a chance with Ginny’s life. He stole a quick glance behind him and saw a weapon pointed at them.
He dropped the gun.
He and Ginny swiveled toward the voice.
“Now, kick it toward me.” The stranger had an accent like Sokolov’s.
Kade did as he was told while he studied the face.
It was the old man who lived across the street from Ginny. The one who always waved. The one who always wore the hat. He bent down, grabbed the firearm, and slid it into the pocket of his jacket.
He had no hat on now. The birthmark on his head meant something, but Kade was too rattled to put it together.
Ginny said, “Yuri Petrovich. It’s nice to see you again.”
While Petrovich chuckled at Ginny’s remark, Kade tried to figure a way out of this.
Where were the police? They should be here by now.
“I called to warn Pavlo you were here”—he nodded toward Kade—“but it seems he was busy.” Petrovich pointed a look at Ginny’s jeans.
Kade followed the gaze and saw her pants were unbuttoned and unzipped. He turned to face her, expecting a bullet any second. But he hated that invasion of her privacy. With her hands bound as tightly as hers were, she probably couldn’t lift the zipper. “May I?” he asked.
She nodded, and he zipped and buttoned the jeans. This was as intimate as they’d ever been, as intimate as they would ever be. He met her eyes. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Of course she did. The breakup had all been a ruse to send him away.
“Where’s the information?” Petrovich said.
Ginny glanced at her attacker, who lay a few feet away. His eyes were closed, but Kade didn’t think for a moment he was unconscious. “He has it. It’s in his pocket.”
Petrovich barely spared the man a glance, then focused on Ginny again. “Get it.”
“I’ll do it,” Kade said. “There’s no need for anybody to get hurt.”
“You will stay still,” Petrovich said, “and she will get it. She knows where it is and what it looks like.”
Ginny met Kade’s eyes as she turned. She seemed to be trying to communicate something to him. What, though?
She walked across the space slowly. “Are you going to kill us?”
Petrovich sighed. “I don’t wish to hurt anybody, but I need to know how to access my money, and I need to know now.”
Ginny stood above the stranger. “Did you order my mother killed?”
Her mother was dead?
“Your mother betrayed you,” Petrovich said. “Why do you care?”
Ginny shrugged. “She was a lousy mother, but she was the only one I had.”
“Get the information,” Petrovich said.
“I don’t think so,” she said.
“Fine.” He shifted his gun to aim at her and moved his finger to the trigger.
“No!” Kade didn’t think of anything except saving Ginny. He rushed the man, ducking low to avoid the bullet that was sure to come.
Petrovich turned toward him, but he was too slow.
Kade reached for the weapon. The man lifted it high, backed away, tried to fight Kade off. Kade pushed him until they hit the framed wall.
Kade kept his left hand on the man’s arm to keep the gun from coming down. He used his right arm to land a blow against Petrovich’s ribs.
Another blast from a weapon.
Petrovich’s gun clattered to the floor.
Blood spewed from the old man’s hand.
Behind him, Ginny screamed.
And there was another gunshot.