Edmond grabbed her around the waist, his arm banding across her stomach. He dragged her back to the waiting helicopter while the gunfight continued around them. Cops versus bad guys versus Zander and his team guys.
Tears streamed down, leaving muddy tracks on her face. Kaylee wanted to scream again, but he was compressing her diaphragm and cutting off her air.
Stuart didn’t get up. Sergeant Basuto rolled on the ground, moaning.
All she heard was her breath and a rush of air in her ears. Not any more gunshots, even though they kept going off.
Tate lifted and fired a shot at Trina that had her yelping and stumbling. No one helped her back up, though she managed to get back on her feet and keep up with them.
Kaylee’s world darkened. She tried to get air.
He jerked her against him, adjusting her grip. She sucked in a lungful and screamed. She went limp. If she could be dead weight in his hold, then surely he would drop her. But there was just too much fight in her. So Kaylee screamed, kicked, and fought against his hold. Determined to make as much noise as possible. Cause him as much hassle as possible. Get him to drop her.
Leave her here.
But his grip around her waist only tightened. And then she was tossed in the helicopter. Kaylee’s hip slammed onto the floor of the aircraft, and her foot jammed against the open door as others climbed in. She cried out as her ankle was bent unnaturally.
“Shut up!” Trina slapped her across the face.
Kaylee’s injured head flashed with a pain that made everything swim. She felt the helicopter lift off the ground and screamed again.
“Someone shut her up.”
She focused on Trina’s face. Why did her friend sound like she had any authority here? They’d found Trina in the holding cells. The sniper who shot Conroy—the one Trina had killed—had said she made a deal. How would that hold up, now that the guy was dead?
A ping hit the chopper, and it lost a few feet in altitude. Warning alarms screeched. Kaylee held her breath, along with everyone else. Would they be shot down?
But the pilots got it back under control. The screaming alarms shut off, and they kept climbing up as the engines roared, taking Kaylee farther and farther away from her home. Her friends. The family she had made.
Just days ago, she’d been riding her bike through town. Doing her brother a favor, keeping that flash drive safe. Now she was in a helicopter. Kidnapped, again.
“Can this thing go any faster?”
Edmond pointed a gun at Trina. “Shut your mouth. Your place here isn’t secure, and you have yet to prove your worth.”
Trina’s hand whipped up. Nope, it was both hands, moving at a pace so fast they looked like just one hand. In a split second, Trina had managed to confiscate Edmond’s gun and was now holding it in her hands.
He slammed a knife into her thigh.
Trina screamed.
He took his gun back. “Like I said. Not secure.” He sat back in his seat.
“Yet.” She gasped, pressing both hands into her leg.
“You killed one of my men. That’s going to cost me. So, you’d better provide restitution for that.” Edmond pulled a gauze packet out of the First Aid kit one of the other men was using and tossed it at her.
Kaylee sat up. She tore the gauze pad open and gave it to Trina, shooting Edmond a look. “You’re all insane. This whole situation is insane.”
She couldn’t believe what was happening. After everything that had happened already she was in a helicopter? All because her brother sent her that package. These people had been watching her, trying to get their information back. Why take her too? They didn’t need her. And why had they left Stuart?
Because they hadn’t been able to grab him in the confusion of the gunfight? Did that mean they would return later to get him? Any surprise they’d relied on before would now be gone. Stuart would be expecting them. Looking over his shoulder all the time. Waiting for Edmond to jump out and attack.
Or Stuart would gear up and mount an offensive.
You’ve read too many crazy stories. She’d suffered some kind of mental breakdown. Maybe years ago. This probably wasn’t even real and she was actually in a mental institution, on medication, having a delusion that felt so real she was convinced it was real life. Would she wake up? Kaylee didn’t know which she would prefer.
At least if this wasn’t her life, then she was in a place where she was protected, under supervised professional care. There were medical professionals, psychologists, and doctors who cared. Their work was more than a job, it was a mission. People like Dean who believed in what they did. Kaylee wanted to see one of those. They would be able to help her break free of this crazy scenario where gunmen kidnapped her, Trina betrayed her to become one of them, and she was riding in a helicopter. Because there was no way this was really happening. Right?
“I’m exactly who they made me to be. If that means I’m crazy?” Edmond shrugged.
They had to shout to hear each other in the helicopter, but it was satisfying to yell. Kaylee said, “I’m on a rollercoaster I never signed up for, and I want to get off.”
He flashed his teeth and she was pretty sure he was laughing at her, but she couldn’t hear it.
“Where are we going?”
Trina was the one who answered. Through gritted teeth, she said, “To their base, or whatever. For training.”
Wait—what did she just say—training? What did that even mean? She didn’t want anything to do with this place, even though her former friend seemed to be jumping at the chance to sign on.
Who even were these people?
Kaylee moved closer to her former friend. “You really want to be one of them?”
She’d thought Stuart was some kind of CIA agent, but they seemed more like off-book people with no fingerprints and no names. The kind who did anything just for money.
Like her brother.
Or Stuart.
No. She knew the kind of men they were, and it was in no way this.
And Trina? Never mind who her father had been. A bank manager who was a criminal hiding in plain sight, someone who used others for his entertainment and destroyed lives in some relentless search for satisfaction. That kind of thing was as powerful as a drug. The high of controlling someone who had no choice but to do what he said.
Kaylee’s whole body shuddered. She could see that now. He’d bred that need in Trina, taught her to take charge and go for control in any situation. She recalled even the way Trina had to be the one to decide which restaurant they would eat at every time the two of them went out. And Kaylee hadn’t even noticed. Or maybe she just hadn’t cared enough to object when Trina’s personality was the more dominant one. Kaylee just wanted to spend time with her friend instead of arguing about where they would go.
“Uh…yeah, I want to join.” Trina shook her head, like that should’ve been obvious. “I’ve been training for this my whole life. An opportunity like this? I’m not going to pass up the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“You’re insane. All of this is insane.” She tried to lean back, but there was nowhere to go that wasn’t occupied by a sweaty, grimy body smelling like gunpowder. “I’m in a nightmare, and I can’t wake up.”
Trina laughed. Out the window, mountains passed. Edmond had taken her and Trina and the flash drive she’d given him, and now they were just leaving? To where?
“This is a nightmare.” Yes, she was repeating herself. “I’m crazy,” she muttered. “I may as well start acting like it.”
Maybe they would decide she wasn’t worth it, and they’d leave her here. Somewhere. Anywhere. Drop her off and abandon her.
Why do they want me anyway? She could make no sense of it in her brain.
She watched him pull out the flash drive then, turning it over and over in his hand. Please let there be nothing on it worth anything. That would be satisfying.
She prayed for Stuart while tears rolled down her face. Her nose was stuffed up, which made her face hurt even worse. Kaylee wanted to collapse to the floor of the helicopter and dissolve into a puddle of emotion.
This whole thing had been the worst experience of her life. If being locked up in a facility for people who needed psychological treatment sounded more pleasant than her present circumstances, then that was saying something. Trapped. No control. Kaylee desperately missed the everyday freedoms she now knew she’d taken for granted. Riding her bike, the wind in her hair. Reading a book in the sunshine.
These weren’t going to happen again anytime soon.
Maybe even never again.
The helicopter began to descend, landing on the driveway—a private runway, perhaps—of what looked like a huge ranch house. An airplane was at the end, closest to the house. When they neared it, Kaylee realized the engines were already running. The heat wafted toward the buildings and a small red crop duster that was parked to the side, leaving scorch marks on everything.
Her hair ruffled across her face as she glanced back, looking at Trina. Still unable to process that this person sitting across from her was a completely different person than she had thought she was. Trina looked nervous but, in a twisted way, also excited. Her dad was dead. Did she even know that? She appeared to be satisfied, as if she was holding everything she had ever wanted and bargained for in her hands.
Kaylee wanted to be sick.
Aside from that, her only goals were to stay alive and get away from these people. But at what cost? Would they shoot her? Did she have the courage to find a way to kill herself before they could load her on that plane? Would Stuart jump out from behind cover half a second after her last breath? That would be devastating to be robbed of a proper goodbye.
Kaylee didn’t think she should risk it when she was sure that Stuart would come through and try to rescue her.
Unless he was dead.
She let out a sob. Edmond shoved her forward. “Why are you doing this? I’m nothing to you, or the people you work for.” She gasped for breath. “What do they want with me when you left Brad back in the hospital? And why not Stuart? Why am I the one you’re taking?”
Surely there was a reason. There just had to be, or none of this made any sense—and that would be a waste of time and resources. No one with any intelligence ran a business like that.
“Just get on the plane.”
“No. Tell me why you’re taking me when you can’t be sure that drive doesn’t contain a leak.” She wanted to wipe her cheeks, but that would be a bad idea. The pain in her head was hard to deal with. “Stuart and Brad are still out there. You’ve hardly done your due diligence, and I’ll tell everyone you work for that you left loose ends.”
“Stuart is dead.” He shoved her toward the airplane steps. “There can be any number of copies of this flash drive out there, but now that we have one, we can scrub the others from existence as soon as they show up on any network.” Shove. “Anywhere.” Shove.
She stumbled, spun around, and screamed, “Stop pushing me!”
“I knew your mother’s fire was in there somewhere.”
She choked on her gasp.
“Stuart needed to believe this was all about him. If he’s not dead already, he’s destroyed knowing you’re in our hands now. He’ll never find you. And he can never stop what’s about to happen.” He led her up the steps and onto the plane. “This is the best result the boss could’ve hoped for and I have plenty to show for it. That will cover my losses. The main thing is that the mess your family made is now set right.”
“My family?” She whispered the words.
“Y’all were always trouble for us. But that’s done now.” He clapped his hands together and brushed them off. “Problem solved.”