Page 141 of Putting Out
The shout from up front got her attention.
“They couldn’t possibly know. Not yet.”
He turned around and looked at her. He must have seen the empty spaces of the pictures she’d managed to take down.
“You.”
There was little point in denying anything. Instead, Reilly deliberately reached for another picture when she saw his hands spin the wheel dramatically to the right. The vehicle lurched and her body turned and slammed into the side of the van. Nasty bumps told her they were leaving the main road. There was no reason to do that unless someone was chasing them.
The blare of sirens followed and Reilly let her head fall back on the floor in relief. It was over. The cavalry was her e and she was saved.
“There’s nowhere for you to go, Mark. Stop and let me out.”
The van vaulted over an unknown obstacle and she felt herself lifted and dropped. Then it hit something large enough to force an abrupt halt. She rolled all the way to the front of the vehicle, banging into the seat-backs, doing her best to duck her face into her shoulder.
She felt a hand grab at her hair and pull her through the narrow space between the driver’s seat and passenger seat.
“You are coming with me,” he shouted. “Do you understand I have a gun?”
Reilly whimpered as he tugged on her hair even harder.
“Do you understand I will use it?”
There was no point in answering. She’d already seen him use it once.
He opened the door and maneuvered his body so he stepped out first then dragged her over the seat and out of the car. Falling face-first she scrambled until she could pull her still-tied legs up and underneath her.
“Let her go, Mr. Leonard.”
Reilly felt Mark stiffen as he jerked her up, her knees struggling to lock so she could support herself. The next thing she felt was cold metal pressed against her temple. Instinctively, she closed her eyes.
“Sig Sauer semi-automatic,” Mark whispered into her ear. “It’s a common gun among federal agents. Nobody will ever say I didn’t do my research.”
“Where is this going to end, Mark? There’s no point to this.”
“I’m sorry, Reilly. I can’t let you go. You don’t understand that my love is stronger than your life. That’s how much I feel for you. How much I need you to be mine. If I can’t have you...”
Grateful he didn’t bother to finish the thought, she opened her eyes. In front of her were three marked police cars positioned all around them in a crude blockade along with a blue Chevy, which had a strobe light attached. The detective that had questioned her yesterday was the man in front holding the gun and Luke was behind him. An officer tried to pull him back behind one of the other cars but he wouldn’t budge.
“Luke,” she breathed, willing him to get behind something.
“I’ll kill her,” Mark shouted.
Calmly the detective shook his head and lowered his weapon. Since there were six other officers pointing guns in their direction she figured one more was overkill.
“It doesn’t have to end this way, Mr. Leonard. You’re clearly a very clever man. You had to be to fool us all. That means you know this can’t end with you leaving here alive if you hurt her. Put down your weapon, let Ms. Carr go, and we’ll all walk away alive.”
“I have money and power. My father willnotlet me go to jail.”
Again the detective nodded.
“That’s good for you then, isn’t it? He’ll hire some fancy lawyer and this will all go away for you. Now I’m going to ask Ms. Carr to do her best and shuffle over to me. Then we’re going take you in with all due respect.”
“I should be respected,” Mark called to them. “You said it yourself. I fooled all of you. None of you suspected anything. I was so close to getting away. To having her all to myself.”
“You can still get away. A good lawyer is all you’ll need.”
Mark snorted and ran his hand holding the gun under his nose to clear away the snot that had begun to drip.
