twelve
RUTHIE FOLLOWED SALLY THROUGH THE TREES, trying not to trip on the undergrowth. Heart pounding, she hugged the little girl close to her and pulled up short when Sally turned off onto a well-worn path.
Then the woman stopped in front of a small shed and threw open the door. “Here, we can hide in here.”
The inside held a twin bed, in addition to various work tools including a lawn mower, and what looked like a bathroom off the back. “How did you know this was here?”
Sally blinked. “I didn’t. I just saw the path and took it, and it led here.”
Made sense. Ruthie set the little girl down on the bed. The older child sat next to her and pulled her into her arms like she’d done it a hundred times before. “Okay, you guys stay here. Sally, I need your phone. I’m going to call Brady and make sure he knows where to come.”
Sally pulled the phone from her purse and handed it to Ruthie. She swiped the screen. “What’s your password?”
“Nine, five, one, zero, zero, zero.”
When the phone opened, Ruthie dialed Brady’s number. And waited. Then realized it wasn’t ringing. She glanced at the screen. “Ugh. No signal.” She tried again. Ruthie glanced at Sally, back to the phone, and walked toward the door. “You guys stay here. I’m going to see if I can get a signal outside.”
Back among the trees, she tried again. This time it rang. Once. Twice.
Something hard pressed against the back of Ruthie’s skull. She froze.
“Hang up. Now.”
Ruthie did.
“Don’t move. Don’t cry out. Don’t breathe if you know what’s good for you.”
A hard ball formed in Ruthie’s gut. “You deserve an Academy Award.”
“I was the lead in our high school play. Drop the phone.”
Ruthie did so.
“Now your weapon. Nice and easy with no funny moves. Give it a toss, too.”
Ruthie followed the orders, then turned to face the mother of three. “Why, Sally?”
“A lot of reasons.”
“Such as?”
She huffed a short laugh. “Such as a loser husband who only cares about making kids, not raising them. Such as never having enough money because he’s buying some trinket for his latest girlfriend. Such as watching my children go without because I can’t afford to get a job because I can’t afford the childcare I’d have to pay for. Such as—” She drew in a breath. “It doesn’t matter anymore. We’re taken care of now. That’s all that’s important. I’ve done what I had to do.”
“You were unconscious.” Ruthie nodded to the woman’s wounded head. “That’s a real concussion you have there.”
“Yes. And I plan to take that issue up with Heath when I see him. And then I’m going to hurt him as bad as I possibly can without killing him. Or maybe I’ll do that, too.”
“Was Howard really your brother?”
“Yes, he really was. But just like my husband, he’s been a loser all his life. Not to mention a weak and sniveling coward. And one who spends money like it’s an endless supply. Do you know how much credit card debt he managed to rack up? He was my big brother. He was supposed to help me.” She shook her head. “I go to him after years of not speaking and ask him to pay my mortgage for one month. One lousy month. And he says no. He’s broke.” Tears dripped down her cheeks and she sniffed. “Whatever. He got what he deserved. And I’ll finally get what I deserve.”
“What’s that, Sally?”
“My happily-ever-after.”
This wasn’t adding up for Ruthie. “When you ran back to the house to get your phone, you got the gun, too?”
“Sure did.”
“And just how are you connected to all of this? Who’s going to give you this happily-ever-after?”
“Paul Sullivan. The man I’m going to marry just as soon as this is all over. He’s going to take care of me and my kids from now on. No more scraping by on government assistance. No more begging my ex for child support payments. No more pressure to take care of three kids all by myself.” Her last words ended on a sob.
Ruthie’s mind processed the woman’s words even as she was calculating possible escape scenarios. “How did you two even meet?”
“The kids and I used to spend a lot of time at Howard’s place after my husband took off—and before Howard decided he was tired of having us around. Paul would come over a lot. One thing led to another, and I fell in love with him.” She wiped the tears from her cheeks, but the weapon never wavered. “But I couldn’t figure out the connection between Paul and Howard. They sure weren’t friends—they argued too much. So I started spying. And found out they were stealing drugs and money from the evidence room. Howard was real nervous about everything. Then he got paranoid and was scared they were going to get rid of him.”
His paranoia hadn’t been too far off.
“One night, I was in the back of the house with the kids, and Howard was ranting about fixing the video, saying that they needed to be more careful. I walked in and talked to him until he calmed down. Paul seemed really impressed and brought me up to speed on everything. Later, he pulled me aside and kissed me.” Her eyes darkened, and a small smile curved her lips before she blinked and her expression hardened once more. “Then that cop caught Heath stealing and reported it. Paul was livid. Howard said they had to back off, take things easy for a while, but Paul insisted that everything was fine. Howard was terrified they were going to set him up to take the fall for everything.”
“So he made sure he had the evidence he needed to ensure that didn’t happen.”
“Yes. I’m the one who told Howard to get it and hold on to it.”
“For what?” It hit her. “Wait a minute. You’re not sure Sullivan isn’t just using you, right? It’s occurred to you that he was only interested in you because of what you could get Howard to do. The control you had over him.”
The woman’s eyes flashed and her jaw tightened. “You’re very smart, aren’t you?”
“I’m a woman. In your shoes, it’s how I would think.”
“It occurred to me. Only Howard got more stupid than even I could deal with. Once he realized his cash flow was about to come to an end—thanks to your boyfriend in there—he decided it would be wise to blackmail everyone involved. I was all for having the evidence, but blackmailing the others? Stupid. And he paid for it with his life. But I’m not going to let that stop me from getting what I’ve worked so incredibly hard for.”
“Is this really the legacy you want to leave for your children?”
“My children are the reason I’m doing this. They’re going to have everything I’ve never had.”
“Not sure how that’s going to work with you sitting in a prison cell.”
Sally laughed. A harsh, guttural sound that scraped across Ruthie’s nerves. “Prison isn’t an option. Now, we’re going to walk back to the car and get the flash drive, because I’m assuming you don’t have it on you.”
“You would assume correctly.”
“Then you would have left it in the car. Or somewhere nearby. Walk.”
The woman was smart. “What about your kids?”
“They won’t leave the shed. They’ll be fine.”
Ruthie took three steps toward what she thought was the right direction, then stopped.
“What are you doing?” Sally asked.
“I just want to know—did you kill your brother?”
“No. Paul did. Finally.”
The woman was cold. Dry-ice cold.
“Now walk.”
“Where am I going?” Ruthie asked.
“Up that hill then down the other side. The car is at the bottom.”
Because she had no choice, Ruthie obeyed. As they headed toward the car, she realized that the only thing keeping her alive at the moment was the fact no one else but her knew where the flash drive was. She wasn’t a cop. She had a basic understanding of self-defense, but she wasn’t sure she could go up against a woman with a gun and come out the winner. When she’d managed to get the attacker off her in the hospital, she’d been going strictly by instinct. She still wasn’t sure how she’d managed to get loose from him.
This was different. She had too much time to think.
And yet she may not have a choice. She went as slow as she dared up the hill. At the top, she could see the vehicle just as Sally said.
Ruthie let her gaze skim the SUV and the empty street beyond the drive. No sign of help. Dread hardened into a knot in the center of her belly. But Sally didn’t know that just before she’d placed the weapon at the base of Ruthie’s head, she’d shot a text to Brady. What if he hadn’t gotten her message? What if help really wasn’t coming?
With a cry, Ruthie spun and slammed her forearm against Sally’s outstretched arm. Sally cried out and dropped the gun. Ruthie scrambled for it, lost her balance, and went to the ground. Then found herself tumbling down the steep hill.
The door opened. “Yo! Sullivan! Where are you? You here?”
Isaac pulled back into the first bedroom off the hall and glanced at the man he’d managed to drag in there one-handed. His head swam and his shoulder throbbed, but he had no choice but to ignore the weakness and just do it. And fast. Unfortunately, he still hadn’t found the phone.
“Sullivan!”
Where was the cavalry? Surely Ruthie had had time to call Brady—or someone?
Heavy steps headed toward the hall. He stepped out of the room, weapon held ready, waiting for the man to come around the corner.
“Sull—”
“Sullivan’s out of commission right now. Get your hands up.”
Lansing scowled but lifted his hands. “Martinez? Now what?”
“Now we wait for the good guys to get here so we can haul you and your buddies to prison.”
“I don’t think so.”
“So, what are you going to do? Go for your weapon?”
“You’d really shoot me?”
“Three times. Center mass.” He shrugged with his good shoulder. “Don’t think I’ll miss from here.”
Lansing paused, then gave a nervous chuckle. “Come on. We’re both cops. We can just forget this and be done with it.”
“We’re both cops? Really? You still see yourself as a cop? Let’s get something straight here, Lansing. You’re not a cop. You’re a traitor. You’ve betrayed everything the badge means and made the rest of us look bad. You’re not a cop. Not by a long shot. Now, why don’t you head back into the kitchen and have a seat? Then we can discuss what being a real cop really looks like.”
Lansing backed up slowly, his gaze never wavering from Isaac’s. “You’re making a huge mistake, Martinez.”
“Only you would look at this as a mistake. Speaking of mistakes . . . was that you in my bedroom a few nights ago? You and Sullivan and Harrison?”
A smirk tilted the man’s lips. “It was.”
“Thought so. Were you there to scare me or kill me?”
“Does it matter?”
“Not really.”
Lansing reached the couch. Then spun and dove out the still-open front door.
Ruthie’s roll down the steep hill ended with a bone-jarring halt at the bottom. The world tilted around her, her equilibrium momentarily destroyed. She struggled to her feet, and a gunshot sent her scrambling. The bullet pinged off the ground beside her, and she dove behind the back of her vehicle while her head settled. Sally must have recovered the weapon.
Great.
As the second shot sounded, a chopper flew into view. Three law enforcement vehicles roared up the street, and Ruthie wanted to cry.
But Sally was still shooting, so that was going to have to wait. She dodged another bullet that hit her car.
Then the shooting stopped.
Sally had to be running back to get her kids. Doors slammed as officers exited their vehicles.
“Brady!” Ruthie waved, caught his attention, then spun to run back up the hill.
She heard him calling to her but had no time to stop and explain. She couldn’t let Sally get away. And she couldn’t let the woman use her children as hostages. The only thing she could do was lead the officers to the shed.
More shots. Ruthie ducked behind the nearest tree before she realized the bullets weren’t coming her way. Brady was getting closer, so she continued her run down the path.
Brady finally pulled up beside her.
“There,” she gasped and pointed. “In the shed. It’s Sally. And Paul Sullivan. And Heath Lansing. But there are three kids in there, so don’t go in shooting.” But someone had been shooting. Where had those shots come from and why?
“Isaac!” Where was he? Had he found Lansing and fired the shots? Or had Lansing found him? Fear pumped her blood even faster.
Brady and the others passed her, and she backed up. She caught sight of Cole, Isaac’s partner, and felt bad for assuming the worst about him.
Ruthie spun to see Sally on the ground, her hands being cuffed behind her back. “Let me go! I didn’t do anything! You can’t do this! I have children!”
The oldest girl tried to push the arresting officer from her mother. “Let my mama go!” She kicked him, and another officer held her while she wailed.
The two smaller kids stood with a female officer, crying.
Her heart broke for the children, but it had to be. And now she had to find Isaac. She took off down the path that would lead her back to the trailer. Only to have something slam into her back. She fell to the ground and rolled. Lansing looked down at her. “Get up.”
The bullet had missed Isaac by inches. Lansing had fired at him as he’d come out the door of the trailer. Then Lansing had escaped around the side of the home and into the woods.
“Give it up, Lansing!” Isaac hollered.
Fleeing footsteps were his only answer, but other officers were right behind him. Shouts and orders filled the air, warning that the man was armed, but Isaac kept going.
And pulled up short when he found Lansing with his back to a tree and an arm around Ruthie’s throat. “Let her go.”
“No way, man. She’s my ticket outta here.” He started backing toward the front of the trailer, down the path toward his truck. Ruthie grabbed at his arm, digging her nails into his flesh. He growled and moved his arm to the back of her head.
Other officers had their weapons trained on Lansing and Ruthie, but no one would shoot. Not while Lansing had a gun to her head. The man now had a tight hold on her hair. “Put it down, Heath. You and I both know you’re not getting out of here.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
“Leave. It’s really that simple. Let me get in the car and leave, and I’ll let her out somewhere not too far from help. I don’t want to kill her. I just want to get out of here.”
Isaac wished he could believe that. Not that he would even consider it, but he wished he could believe the man wouldn’t hurt Ruthie. The look in his eye and his body language belied his words. Isaac shifted his gaze to Ruthie.
Her pale face told him how scared she was, yet her blue eyes spit fire and determination. “Isaac, I don’t want to die.”
“I know, Ruthie. I don’t want you to die, either.”
“Then scream.”
He blinked. “What?”
“Remember what I said about what to do when I scream?”
Oh yeah. His gaze sharpened. “Yes.”
“Shut up, you two.” Lansing hurried backward, dragging Ruthie with him.
Isaac caught Brady’s tight features watching everything play out. A sniper had to be in place. Could probably get Lansing in the back. But would the bullet penetrate him and hit Ruthie?
Isaac screamed.
Ruthie went slack, pulling Lansing off balance.
Isaac fired.