Blindsided (4 page)

FOUR

“Y
ou’re nothing but a criminal.” Roni spoke low, less than an inch from Ethan’s face. He could feel her rapid breathing brush his lips, the only sign of fear she emitted, and he would have missed it if he hadn’t closed in to protect himself from her assault. Not that he blamed her. Why should she believe him to be anything but a criminal?

“I know what it looks like, but you need to trust me. I’m your friend.”

“Friends don’t kidnap you and put you in danger.”

Ethan slowly released her wrist and stepped back toward the door, his hands raised to show he meant no harm. He pushed the door ajar, just enough to hear the manpower out looking for him coming. He peered through the crack, knowing it could be any second. He’d raced down here as soon as Ramsey and Guerra left the office to join the guards. “Are you sure about that? Because from what I just learned you’re in this situation because one of your so-called friends put you here.”

Roni came at him, her pointer finger raised to his chest. “I’m here because
you
put me here.” Her ice-blue eyes crystallized as she went head-to-head with him.

The woman believed him to be dangerous, and yet, she didn’t let that stop her from defending herself. He would hate to be on her blacklist. Something told him she would be relentless in her revenge tactics.

Perhaps it wasn’t a friend after all who put her in this situation.

“How many enemies do you have, Roni Spencer? I’m going to need the list.”

“The only thing you’ll be getting from me is my dust. And a slammer in your face. And you can tell
your
so-called friends the same thing. You’re all going down. Believe me when I tell you that you’re going to wish you let Guerra kill me.”

“Shall I call him upstairs?”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“You’re right, I wouldn’t, but I need you to listen to me if I’m going to get you out of here and someplace safe.”

“And why would I let you take me anywhere else after you already brought me to such a horrid place? Do you know there are people kept here against their will? I’m not the only one.”

“Yes, I know, but right now my only concern is getting you out of here.”

“Why?”

Because I’m a federal agent who got you into this place, and now I feel responsible.

Blowing his cover wasn’t an option. There had to be another way to gain Roni’s trust. But how, when honesty was the best policy for such a thing?

But honesty is what nearly got his last civilian killed when he allowed her to play a role in his work. The less Roni knew the better for her safety. Let her fear him if it kept her alive...and in line.

Ethan leaned in. “I’m in the business of stealing cars, not murder. I’m not about to go down for yours. I meant what I said before. Someone you know paid Guerra to kill you. Someone who feels you have wronged them in some way, enough to want you to pay with your life. If you want to live into your golden years, you better start trusting me with a list of all the people you have aggrieved in some way.”

Roni tilted her head, her mouth still pursed in rebellion. “Would that be on or off the track?”

Great
. Just what he thought. He wasn’t looking at one list. He was looking at multiples.

* * *

Roni’s ambivalent face in the three-way vanity mirrors proved her indecision from all sides. Her lips curled in distaste that she would even consider Gunn’s offer to help her as legit.

She averted her gaze to the other face reflected behind her. To the man, himself, who should be paying for all the atrocities inflicted on her.

Not earning her trust.

His baby blues stared at her, waiting for her compliance. She searched for clues to any real innocence in them. An innocent criminal.
Yeah, right
. The idea was absurd. Insane. Crazier than racing without a pit crew.

Ah
, and there was the clincher. She knew a racer was only as good as her crew. And she was as good as dead without a team to get her out of here alive.

But to trust a criminal?

“Clock’s ticking, Roni.” Gunn urged her to make up her mind. “If I didn’t care about your life, I wouldn’t have interrupted Guerra’s handiwork at your garage.”

“My school,” she mumbled. Would her dream ever come true now? Would anyone but her care if it didn’t? Definitely not Uncle Clay.

“What school?” the criminal asked.

Roni hesitated sharing anything with this man, but made the decision to test the waters. She’d find out soon enough if she dipped too far. She also hoped she’d uncover a little information about the identity of Gunn. “You can put Clay Spencer on the top of the list.”

“Your uncle?” he replied quickly.

She folded her arms. “Interesting you should know that. Are you working with him? Did he give you and Guerra access to my track?”

“If I knew that I wouldn’t be asking you for a list of your enemies. As for knowing he’s your uncle, I like to check out the places we’re setting up shop. Like who’s running the joint and who might come after me.”

“So that’s how you knew I owned Spencer Speedway? You had me checked out?” Roni’s hand went to her throat. “What else did you learn about me?”

“That’s a topic for another day. Right now, I need to know why you think your uncle would want to harm you. Has he in the past?”

She hesitated. “No, but let’s just say he’s never been very supportive of me.” She dropped her arm and moved to the edge of the bed, resting a hand on the bedpost. “For years I’ve wanted to open a racing school at the track, but he’s stood in my way. Even tried to marry me off so I would walk away from the business.”

“Marry you off?” Ethan huffed. “Who got the door prize at that bazaar?”

A laugh bubbled up Roni’s throat and slipped out before she could stop it. She couldn’t help herself, even if the joke was on her. “That is totally something I would say. You’re a funny man, Gunn.”

“Ethan.”

She sobered. Too intimate. “We’ll see, Gunn.”

He gave her his striking profile as he peered down the hall. “That’s fine. Back to the list. Who did your uncle want you to marry?” He faced her again, and she hated that she liked that view too.

“Jared Finlay.”

“The racer?”

“Only because of me. I taught him everything he knows and sponsored him all the way.”

“And?” Ethan asked.

“And what?”

“And should I add him to the list?”

Roni dropped her gaze to the floor, giving a reluctant half nod after a few moments, questioning how much more information to give Gunn. She would surely regret trusting him. Just as she regretted ever trusting Jared Finlay. Gunn should know how she worked, just in case he got any ideas.

Roni lifted her chin to the criminal before her. “You should know Jared’s days of racing are over. No sponsor will touch him. I made sure of it.”

“So you ruined him. Is that what you’re saying?”

“I’m saying I know how to make people who cross me wish they never did. I’m trusting you as you asked. Don’t make me regret it.”

Voices drifted down the hall, followed by a deep voice bellowing, “Where’s her guard?”

The Boss was back.

“Everyone was called to look for Gunn,” someone else spoke quickly.

Ethan reached a hand out and twisted Roni’s arm behind her, catching her off guard.

“What are you doing? Let me go!” she yelled.

“You think you’re going to break out of here? Not on my watch.” Ethan spoke so loud she ducked her rattling ear away.

The door pushed open wide, exposing the Boss and Guerra with more guards in suits. “What’s going on? Why are you in here, Gunn?” Guerra bellowed.

“Caught her sneaking around the place. I was bringing her back to lock her up.”

The Boss sent a scathing look her way, but it didn’t even come close to the one she sent Ethan Gunn’s way. If this was how he would repay her for trusting him, it would never happen again.

“See what I mean?” Guerra said to the Boss. “He’s like a chameleon, but he always delivers.”

The sleazy owner of this place turned his gaze onto Gunn. “You’ve bought yourself another day on this earth, Gunn. Miss Spencer, I’ll expect you at my breakfast table, and you better have a good explanation for leaving this room. You can be sure there will be more guards posted, so you won’t be walking away unnoticed again.”

Roni yanked her arm from Ethan, but he sent her toward the bed with a slight shove. He made his way to the door before the men. As he stepped over the threshold, he looked back at her and caught her gaze. Something in his expression had her holding her tongue from spilling her side of the truth. Once again she wondered why she trusted Ethan Gunn. The man had just thrown her under the bus to save his own hide. He used her for his own gain just as Jared had. He should be receiving her wrath.

Instead, her lips stayed sealed.

Roni dropped to the bed for the first time since being tossed in here. The horror of what this meant floored her. Her panic tripled.

Why? What was it about Ethan Gunn that silenced her? He wasn’t a killer, as he’d stated. She didn’t fear for her life.

And yet, she did.

But somehow, it was different.

Her hand went to her neck and the silk of her scarf slipped through her fingers like water. One moment in her grasp, in her control, the next...gone.

She had her answer, and it scared her. She felt her control disappearing in the presence of Ethan Gunn. He had something Jared never had, even when Jared was in the driver’s seat.

Ethan had power over her.

She never gave that to anyone. So why him?

FIVE

T
he long, red-carpeted hall leading to the dining room felt like a death march to Roni’s sleep-deprived mind. Four guards now accompanied her. After Ethan portrayed her as the escapee, her entourage had been beefed up to maximum security. An opening for an escape looked bleaker than when she’d arrived. All because she’d been duped by Ethan Gunn.

Hello? Criminal
. What did she expect? A man of his word?
Criminal, criminal, criminal
, she silently reminded herself, as she had done since the moment he had left her room a few hours ago. She hoped saying it enough times would release whatever hold he had on her.

It was probably another reason he came to her room. Yes, he needed to cover himself, but he most likely wanted to torment her with the hold he had over her.

Something told her he knew more about her than he let on. Roni felt her scarf’s knot at her neck. A quick perusal, and she knew the silk covered her well. It would have to.

And not because of Ethan Gunn,
she told herself.

The open double doors at the end of the hall were her curtain, and she needed to be more than the spectacle at the show. She needed to be the showstopper. Her life depended on it. And so did Maddie’s.

Roni thought of the young woman. She hadn’t seen the maid yet that morning, which surprised her...and concerned her. Had her owner penalized her in some way? Had he learned that she planned to help Roni escape? Had the man left Roni during the night for an impromptu interrogation of Maddie? Roni’s stomach clenched at the thought of what his interrogations would consist of.

She passed a door with two guards posted on either side. Her recollection of Maddie’s drawn map labeled it the door to the garage below. Getting through those men would take some figuring,
if
she could get away from her four, first. And who knew how many more awaited her below. Would she even get near a car to hot-wire it? She would need a diversion. The proverbial rabbit-in-the-hat trick. While the goons went all crazy for the rabbit on one side of the stage, she would pull a fast one on the other side. The faster the car the better, too, she thought, speculating about the models of cars below.

The doors were before her and her boots slowed on the carpet. The hand of one of her guards touched her back. Roni pulled away as though he burned more of her skin, but that movement also put her through the threshold into the ornate dining room on a rush. Her heels slid across the mosaic tiled flooring, glimmering like the surface of a lake in the setting sun. If only it could swallow her whole in this moment like one.

A raise of her eyes caught the dreaded man already seated in the head chair, his elbows resting on its golden arms in waiting. His tight lips said for a while.

“Sit,” he instructed with a point for her to take the chair at the other end of the long table. An honor or a tactic? She would find out soon enough.

“Has my family been notified yet?” she asked when she pulled her seat in and mimicked his pose right down to his clasped hands at his chest.

He watched her but no reply came. The door behind her opened and a cart wheeled across the floor, coming up on her right.

Maddie stood behind it.

Roni jumped to her feet, scraping the legs of her chair on the floor. “There you are. I waited for you this morning. I thought maybe you—” Roni cast a glance at the Boss, before finishing “—weren’t well.”

Maddie kept her head down as she lifted the serving dishes to place them on the table. She gave no inclination she even heard Roni. When she picked up Roni’s goblet to pour her juice, Roni put out her hand to stop her.

“I can pour my own juice.”

The liquid jostled over the rim of the glass.

“You were told to sit,” the Boss spoke, his voice heavy with an unspoken threat.

Slowly, Roni pulled her hand back and found her seat again.

“You are not to address the help. They have a job to do, and it would do you well to watch carefully.”

Roni picked up her napkin, opening it to fit over her lap. “Where I come from, we treat our help differently. Our maid is treated like family. She sits with us for meals.”

“You will need to leave those notions behind. Servants are to be treated as servants, not family. Knowing their place is what makes them happy.”

“I would have to disagree. There is nothing wrong with being a maid. It’s a job to be proud of and blesses both parties. When they’re paid well of course.”

The Boss sipped his tea, and his eye twitched, accenting a tiny scar by his right eye. He brought the cup back to the saucer with a clatter.

Roni continued to speak over it, not letting it cut into her nerves. “My maid, Cora, has been with my family since before I was born. We’re devoted to her as much as she is to us, and because of that, she’s never wanted to leave.”

Until recently anyway.

Roni kept that to herself. No need to go into the details of Cora’s retirement. “All I’m saying is your servants might not feel the same way as you do about their place.”

“Remove your scarf.”

Roni jolted at the request. “I’m sorry, what?”

“You heard me. I don’t repeat myself.” Not a hair of the man’s slick black hair moved.

Roni lifted a hand to her throat where the silk covered her scars. She quickly brought it down to grab her fork. “I would rather not. It’s my signature piece. I’m never seen without it.”

The scrambled eggs on her plate looked as if they would lodge in her throat if she dared put them down it. She reached for the juice and took a sip, then another and another. Returning it to the white-clothed table, she moved some more eggs around the plate. Her fork hit something hard.

Roni paused and looked back at the man across from her. Two of her remaining guards had stepped up beside him from out of nowhere. The Boss waved a finger and they moved down the sides of the table toward her, their eyes only on her scarf.

Roni wanted to move her eggs to find out what was under them, but she also needed to protect her neck from being exposed.

She reached for her napkin to blot her mouth and threw it over the eggs just as she stood up, upending her chair to the floor.

“Step away from me,” she said with a glare at both men.

“They only follow orders from me, Miss Spencer. Something else you need to learn how to do, as well.”

Just then Ethan and Guerra entered the dining room. They halted as one of the guards wrapped both arms around her, pinning her arms down so the other man could pull at the knot at her throat.

“Drop your hands!” Ethan shouted.

Roni willed him to look away. Why did he have to come in now? She wasn’t ready for the disgust in his eyes when he saw what was beneath the silk. She wondered if she would ever be ready.

And yet, at the same time she wanted to shield his view, a hope blossomed that her scars wouldn’t matter to him. What if he was different?

Before the idea took root, Ethan frowned.

Roni thought maybe the scars had already made an appearance, and he caught his first glimpse, but with the guard’s hands at her neck, she knew that wasn’t the case.

Ethan could only be frowning because he already knew.

After all, he’d checked her out.

Disappointment waged war with anger. Both responses were enough for her to fight her own battles, and she twisted with all her might to free herself from the guard’s pawing hands.

Ethan reached for the other man still holding her.

But not fast enough.

It was over before she knew it. One moment her neck was covered, the next, her imperfections were exposed for all to see...and judge.

The man behind her dropped her as though she’d burned him. The one with her scarf held his hand frozen in midair. The Boss slowly stood, his hands gripping the edge of the table. She raised her gaze to his face and saw the familiar cringe, the distasteful curl of lips, but there was something different in his eyes that she was not used to seeing.

Anger.

Usually people’s eyes widened and they looked away to some sudden interesting occurrence off in the distance. A child might stare and snicker or point and ask what happened, but adults never did. But they also never turned eyes so boiling on her that her skin could melt again.

“Kill her.”

The words spilled from his lips in smooth clarity but bounced off her ears as her mind rejected the command as real.

Then the man who held her arms down before wrapped an arm around her throat.

Roni reached for his tightening forearm, knowing she couldn’t stop the quick death coming her way. She closed her eyes, but suddenly the arm fell away lifeless in her hand. She had no time to understand why, but a quick turn of her head showed Ethan dropping the unconscious man to the floor.

He jerked his head to his left, and she took that as her cue to run for it, but a lift of his boot caught her attention. He reached for something and a tear of fabric could be heard.

The next second he dropped some plastic disk to the floor and stomped on it. She looked back over her shoulder and he shoved her to his right. “Run!” he shouted as he jumped up on the table to dive at the Boss who suddenly had a gun aimed at her. Roni fell to the ground. Her scarf lay in front of her, forgotten in the commotion of fists against flesh above her and around her. She grabbed the silk and pushed to her knees, her head peeking up above the line of the tabletop.

Above her plate of forgotten food and napkin, she saw Ethan had kicked the other guard in his dash across the table. The man now roused and gained his feet. He rushed at the back of Ethan, who fought the Boss and Guerra at the same time.

Three against one. He’d never make it out alive, which meant neither would she. Roni reached for one of the tureens of food and aimed it at the guard’s head. It found its target and bounced off, eggs flying one way while his body went the other.

The eggs reminded her of her own uneaten ones—and of the object under them.

Roni reached for her napkin, scooping up the object in it. With no time to look, she fled for the kitchen door. It was time to get Maddie.

The door swung in on an empty kitchen. Maddie was nowhere in sight.

“The FBI is storming in right now.” Ethan’s voice halted her search. One look back and she saw Guerra and the Boss had him cornered. But his threat lingered among them all.

“You’re a snitch?” Guerra growled.

“A federal agent, and you’re both under arrest. This whole operation is going down today.”

Ethan Gunn was a federal agent?
The idea smacked Roni speechless. He wasn’t a criminal?

“I should have known,” the Boss said.

Guerra leaped at Ethan. “You’re dead!”

Roni ran at Guerra’s flying back without hesitation. Some unexplained decision in her mind pushed her across the room to help Ethan. With the full force of her body, she slammed into Guerra, sending him off his course. She dropped her napkin and scarf in the impact and landed hard on the floor in a skid across the tiles, the wind knocked from her lungs.

Her body jolted in pain, but her ears heard more than bones smacking stone tiles. They heard the tinkling of whatever was in the napkin.

Something black and silver skidded across the floor, stopping ten feet away.

A key fob.

And if she wasn’t mistaken, the unique black crystal told her it belonged to a very special car. Maddie, Roni realized, had given her wheels out of here. And she couldn’t have picked a better set.

On her knees, Roni raced across the floor and made a dive for the key—only to be stopped by the heavy stomp of the Boss’s Italian leather loafers. But if he blocked her path, then what happened to Ethan?

* * *

Ethan plowed his fist into Franco Guerra’s face. The punch felt liberating. He’d waited a whole year for such an occasion. Cuffing him would take the prize, though. And as soon as Pace got in here and threw him a pair of shackles he would do the honors. Until then, fists would have to subdue the man. Ethan took a punch to his solar plexus that bent him over. He used his hunched body to propel him into Franco’s.

As the two went stumbling back into the wooden sideboard, glasses crashed in a tinkling cascade of destruction. Franco grabbed the front of Ethan’s shirt and bent him back over the table’s edge. He took a swing at Ethan’s jaw, sending his head off to his right.

And bringing Roni into his view.

The sight of her stunned him, a response he tended to have since the first time he’d studied her picture in her case file. He had to admit, though, she was more than just a pretty face, but now was not the time to dissect those thoughts.

The Boss stood above Roni, a gun trained on that stunning face.

The fight with Franco would also have to wait. Getting to Roni before Lyle Ramsey’s bullet found her took precedence.

Ethan lifted himself onto the sideboard in one jump. His legs tucked up and kicked out, sending Franco flying and landing on the long dining room table with momentum. The man’s head collided with platters and smashed a vase before groans of pain monopolized his attention.

“Lyle Ramsey!” Ethan spoke loud and clear, choosing the most powerful words to stop the man from shooting.

They worked beautifully.

The Boss jerked his head to send Ethan a scathing look.

Ethan ignored it and stepped closer. “Yes, I know who you are. And so does every federal agent storming this atrocity as we speak. I’m sure by now they have everything they need on you to take you out of here in cuffs.”

Ramsey turned the gun on Ethan—just as he’d hoped. Ethan didn’t wait a beat, but swung to his right at the same time his left hand reached for Ramsey’s inner gun arm. The gun went off, but Ethan expected that, as well. A step to his right before he reached for the weapon cleared him of the shot, and as his hand slammed into Ramsey’s arm, the gun came loose and flew up right into Ethan’s waiting right hand.

In less than a second, he had the gun turned on Ramsey and an elbow jammed up into the man’s throat, bulldozing him straight back into the wall.

“Go, Roni!” Ethan yelled. He hoped she would follow his orders this time. At this point, Pace had to be inside. He would take Roni in, for sure, and Ethan flinched at the thought. He had wanted to be the one, to assure she was treated well until the record could be set straight about her. Pace tended to run a bit hotheaded.