Page 113 of Blue-Eyed Jacks
I dove to my knees on the stairs, letting the suitcase slide down the carpeted steps where it crashed into the wall as the staircase turned ninety degrees.
The case broke open, and papers and photos spilled out.
More gunfire erupted, and Cara made a strange noise.I glanced up just in time to see her face.Her mouth was open.A bloom of red expanded across her shirt.She staggered, leaning on the railing for support, and the gun in her hand slipped from her fingers.It landed on the carpet with a dull sound.Or was that imagined?Another blast of noise, this one bringing down paint and debris from the ceiling.Cara tried to bend over to pick up the gun, but her balance was all wrong.Instead, she fell against the banister.Her momentum dragged her down.In a last effort to control the slide, she sat down, her shoulder against the railing, mouth open, eyes dead.
The lackey slipped on the piles of papers and then raced past me to shoot Cara point-blank in the head.Her body pitched backward to the carpet.“All clear.”His voice sounded muffled to me.
Bandit was his name.What a dumb time to remember useless trivia.I cursed silently.
I slid down a couple more stairs, my feet landing on the folders and carpeted steps strewn with photos.Faces, names, events, blackmail.One in particular stared at me.A woman… the Jane Doe who’d washed up along the river.
That would be Cara’s fate.Mine, too, if I didn’t act.
I scrambled to stand, but the pile under my feet was slippery.
Bandit beat me to the turn.He grabbed my arm and pulled me with him as he side-stepped the debris littering the staircase.Something caught his eye, though.He halted abruptly and picked up a photo from the pile.His face darkened with anger.
“What the fuck is this?”He held the photo up so Shock could see it.
“None of your business.Bring Kate here.”Shock scanned the scene.“Where’s the kid?”
My lips tightened, and I fought Bandit’s grip, going onto my ass so he’d be fighting my entire weight.But gravity and the slippery contents of the suitcase were my enemies.He dragged me down, rumpling papers and making the mess expand.
Meanwhile, Shock turned in a circle.“Zoe?Come out.We have your mom.”His tone turned into a sing-song.“Come out and play, Zoe.”
It shifted to his normal, more menacing one as he addressed us.
“Move your asses.”Shock pulled out his gun and pointed it at Bandit.
But Bandit was distracted by the photo in his hand.“Are you blackmailing Big G?”
Like a snake, Shock’s focus fixed on his henchman.I’d witnessed that glare before.It promised pain.I shrunk lower so I wouldn’t be caught in that tsunami of destruction.
“Bring Kate here.”
“That’s how you got Nonno to agree to make you regional president, isn’t it?You forced his hand.”
The casual way Shock took aim at his own man chilled my bones.“I’m giving you one chance because you’re a brother.Bring.Kate.Here.”
Bandit’s nostrils flared.I cowered at his feet, covering my ears because I knew what was going to happen next.He’d hesitated.Bandit’s final act wasdefiance.And Shock hated defiance.So much so he’d kill a member of his own club.
Bandit’s body slammed against the wall.He crumpled at my feet.I cried out, not screaming but whimpering like some wounded animal.I scrambled for the door.It was the only thing I saw in my tunnel vision of fear.Not Shock standing there with a smoking gun, nor the new marble Cara installed on the floor that was slippery as heck, nor the papers and photos clinging to me like dark shadowy demons.
But one thing stopped me short.
Zoe.
She stood in the doorway of the office.
Run!
I willed it but did not speak it.I froze at the door, climbing to my feet to save my daughter.“Fuck you, Shock.”
I didn’t stop there.I spewed out a tirade of all the injustices he’d ever had a hand in.From the vile way he raped me to the crimes I’d witnessed in my short time with him.Even spitting on the floor and blaming him for Cara’s death.“It’s all because of you.All this death.All of this torture and loss are because you are the most vile man I’ve ever met.”
The bastard smiled.“You finally noticed?”
“I noticed.”
