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Authors: Katy Lee

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BOOK: Blindsided
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“When I see how he avoids hitting us. I taught him how to avoid cars spinning out of control on the track. Cars are always coming at you, and you need to know how to get out of the way.”

“And you think he’ll be the one to get out of the way first?”

“I’m hoping.”

“You’re pinning this on
hope
? Great. I can’t believe this is how I’m going to die. I’ve survived gang fights, drive-bys, mob hits, and this is how it will all end?”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence. I know what I’m doing.”

The two cars careened toward each other. Roni pushed the car to its max, the engine sound of the Aston Martin blended with the oncoming Porsche’s. The strain grew louder as the cars approached head-on.

Roni twisted her grip over the wheel, her eyes on the front of the car. Nowhere else. A car goes where the driver’s eyes go. If the wall is the focal point during a spin, it will be the wall the car finds. Eyes on the track equaled control of the car.

Roni’s focal point lay dead center on the Porsche’s black, red and gold emblem. Her focus so strong she barely heard the sound of another motor approaching.

“Roni!” Ethan yelled. “The helicopter’s back!”

She ignored him.

She gripped the wheel harder, her head pushed forward as though it would propel her faster at her Porsche.

“Roni! The helicopter is barreling straight down at us. They have guns!”

For the first time ever in her driving experience, Roni took her eyes off the road. At the same moment, a flash of gunfire sprayed out from the long barrel of a huge gun aimed straight at her. She’d escaped whole races of cars spinning out of control and gunning for her, but never did she think she would need to be fast enough to escape actual bullets.

EIGHT

E
than needed to take control of this situation. Now. Roni may think she was in charge and he was just along for the ride, but he didn’t work that way. He worked alone, only. How could he forget that critical fact? Critical because depending on other people got you killed. Or worse. He got them killed.

“Take the right!” he shouted, reaching for the wheel. His hand covered Roni’s and turned the wheel just as bullets blew out the rear passenger side window. The Porsche spun out in front of them and Maddie screamed from the back. If he hadn’t turned the wheel the bullets would have come through their front windshield.

With no time to dwell on the outcome of that scenario, he yelled, “Maddie, get down on the floor! Roni, drive!”

Roni took the turnoff. She sped forward, but her face paled and gone was the bravado she’d held on to since her kidnapping. Good. About time things got real for her.

She shouted with a screech to her voice, “I can’t outdrive guns! Especially not ones coming from helicopters! I thought they were news crews shooting film, not guns!”

“They call it organized crime for a reason. People are kept in back pockets, and we can’t trust anyone.”

“Including your boss! How do I know it’s not him up there? How do
you
know it’s not?”

The fact was, Ethan didn’t. Pace always got his man, and would again, even if that meant he took his friend out in the process. If Pace believed her to be a kidnapper of a federal agent, he would shoot first.

Ethan regrouped. “I need a phone. I need to call him and tell him to stand down. I’ve got this under control.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning I’m taking you in before they take you out. You’re no longer in charge. I am. I can’t get you out of this if we’re running from the law. Get to the nearest phone, and I’ll set up a meeting place.”

Roni’s lips trembled, but she frowned, her head shaking in defiance.

“Yes, Roni. It’s for the best. This can’t end any other way. You know it as well as I do.”

“So I’m just supposed to turn myself in as if I’ve done something wrong?”

“We will get your name cleared. But as long as you’re running, you look guilty.”

“We? Who’s we?”

“You and me. I know you’ve been set up. I don’t have the evidence other than an overheard conversation, but I will uncover it. I promise.”

She drove in fuming obedience, but Ethan took that as a good sign. She was seeing reason, and even if it made her mad, she would do the right thing.

At a road sign pointing left for gas and food, she turned. Ethan leaned back in his seat, his eyes glued to his passenger side mirror. The distant sound of the helicopter told him they were still out there. The overgrowth of trees allowed for cover, but all it would take was one glimpse of the rooftop through the new spring blooms on the branches, and the chopper’s gunman would have his target back in his scope.

“You’re doing the right thing, Roni.”

“What if I’m tired of doing the right thing? The right thing is always for someone else’s benefit, and I’m always the one putting on the face to cover up the sacrifice.”

“You’ll be sacrificing your life if you don’t turn yourself in. They weren’t shooting to blow out tires. They were shooting to kill. If that was one of Ramsey’s men, you’ll need the FBI for protection.”

“And if it was the FBI, who will protect me then?”

“I will. I haven’t let you out of my sight for a reason. No harm will come to you from my men as long as I still have breath in me. From anyone for that matter.”

A gas station with a convenience store appeared down the road on the right. She reached it in record time and pulled the car around the back, wedging it between a tree and a Dumpster. The garbage bin acted as a wall of cover for the car.

“Maddie, stay down,” Roni instructed while opening the door. She looked to both sides of the building before making a run for the back employee entrance. Ethan followed her in but stopped her before she made herself known to the worker at the counter. The young man, shirttails hanging out, drummed his fingers on the counter while a small television broadcasted into the empty store.

Ethan placed a finger on Roni’s chin and turned her face to his. His finger then went to his lips. “Let me do the talking,” he mouthed.

“Why?”

“Because I’m in charge now, remember?”

She made the symbol of a phone with her hand to her ear and mouthed back, “I want to make a phone call, too.”

“No. Too risky. You’ll make your phone call in custody.” His voice rose to a whisper.

Her arms crossed at her front. “Why do I get the feeling my sacrifice is for your benefit?”

Ethan paused before stepping out. “Maybe it is, but it’s not for my career, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s for my sanity, and for your life.” He reached out for the biggest pair of sunglasses on the sunglasses swivel stand and placed them on her face.

“So now you’re covering me up too?”

Ethan bored into the dark lenses; her words froze his hands on the arms of the glasses. He wished he could look into her eyes. “It’s for your own protection.”

“Where have I heard
that
before?” She twisted away, but Ethan sprung a hand out for her forearm.

“Look at the television.” He nodded to the screen.

She didn’t move a muscle, the stubborn woman. He shouldn’t care that she misunderstood his reasons for the shades. He should only care that she came out of this day alive. But for some reason nothing else mattered in this moment.

He released her arm to point at the screen.

Roni begrudgingly looked up at what played out on the wall.

Her picture was front and center as the news reporter relayed all the untruths about her that someone fed into the man’s earpiece.

Roni’s head immediately dropped down, her own way of shielding her face from view. Her hand went to her neck and she adjusted her scarf that didn’t need adjusting. Not to him anyway. Her scars were showing, though, and they might give away her identity, so he didn’t stop her, but he silently vowed to stop her the next time she did that, and he knew there would be a next time. She’d reached for her neck enough times for him to know it was a habit, but instilled by who, he wanted to know.

For now, he spoke aloud to the employee at the counter. “Excuse me, sir, would we be able to use your phone?”

The cashier startled, stepped back and pulled down one of his shirttails farther. He squirmed a bit before he found his voice. “I—I didn’t even hear you come in.”

“Sorry about that. We parked in the back and thought we could use that door.” Ethan maneuvered his body to block the screen from the cashier’s view. “May we use your phone?”

“Oh, um, it’s not supposed to be for customers, but we don’t have a pay phone anymore either, so I guess it would be fine.” He reached for the handheld and passed it over the counter.

Ethan took it and dialed Pace’s info line set up for them.

Roni stepped past him and asked, “Do you have a cell I could use? I need to call someone, too.”

Ethan’s line rang as the cashier handed his personal phone over to Roni without debate. Before Ethan could stop her, she dialed the phone and turned away from him.

“About time you called,” Pace said. “I’m working on getting a trace. Hang on just forty more seconds, and I’ll come pick you up. And your kidnapper, too.”

“She’s innocent,” Ethan whispered into the phone.

“She standing right there, is she? I get it.”

Ethan looked at the cashier squinting at him, and then the screen. Then Roni. Ethan attempted to listen to who she spoke to, especially when her voice rose to a cry.

Something was wrong.

“That woman is a piece of work, kidnapping a fed. Unreal.” Pace spoke but Ethan barely heard him over Roni’s rising panic.

“Where’s Uncle Clay? What do you mean he’s out of town? What are you doing staying at his house? Get back home where it’s safe.” Roni’s voice cracked.

“Ten seconds,” Pace announced. “And then she is mine.”

“Someone is setting me up. You can’t trust anyone. I mean it.
Anyone!
People are shooting to kill.”

“Five seconds,” Pace spoke with a little too much glee in Ethan’s estimation.

“I could have died!” Roni cried out.

“Two sec—”

Click.

Ethan pushed his thumb hard over the end call button.

Call over.

And most likely his job, too. But Ethan had to take Roni’s words to heart.

You can’t trust anyone.

Ethan never believed that would include Pace.

* * *

Roni bent her head low to avoid the store clerk’s inquisitive eyes. She covered her mouth and said, “You need to get back home. It’s safer there. Get into the safe room and lock yourself in. Trust no one. Do you understand me, Cora? No one.”

Roni turned her head to find Ethan had stepped up behind her. Deep concern etched his brow. His hand came to rest on her shoulder, but when he moved from his spot, something pulled the clerk’s attention. Over Ethan’s shoulder, Roni saw a glimpse of his face on the television screen. She shot a look at the clerk in the same moment the young guy’s eyes widened on Ethan. His head bounced between them as realization of who they were hit him dead center.

Slowly, the man moved up to the counter. Roni jerked her head for Ethan to take notice. Forget about concern for her phone call. Something else was about to go down right in front of them.

Roni dropped the phone on the counter. “Thank you for letting us use the phone.”

The clerk nodded as his hand reached under the counter.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Ethan said.

“And why not?” The clerk stilled.

“Because I’m a federal agent, and it won’t end well for you.”

The clerk tossed his hair at the screen. “They say you’ve been kidnapped.”

“Does it look like I’m being held against my will?”

The clerk looked back at Roni. She held up her hands to show she had no weapon.

The clerk stammered, “I—I suppose not. But—”

“But we are being hunted down and need your help.”

“My help? I’m not giving you my gun, if that’s what you’re thinking. Since I’ve been employed here, I’ve been robbed three times. I got a permit to protect myself. And judging by what the news is saying about you, I need to protect myself from you two. They’re saying there’s a chance you’ve gone rogue, and to consider you dangerous. That she’s kidnapped a young girl.”

“Rescued,” Roni said. “I rescued her from a man who bought her and kept her locked up. He also had me locked up. I was able to escape, but now I need to clear my name from someone who set me up.”

“Why should I believe you?” A click came from below the counter.

A shuffling sound stole all their attentions. “Because it’s true,” a soft, timid voice spoke. “They didn’t kidnap me. They freed me.”

“Maddie!” Roni spun around. “You should have stayed in the car.”

“The helicopter flew overhead. I thought they might come back. I thought they might shoot at the car again.”

“I parked it as close to the woods as possible so it wouldn’t be seen.”

“I didn’t want to stay. And I’m glad I didn’t. Sir, please don’t hurt these people. They helped me. They’re so good. God sent them to me.” Maddie came around Roni so fast, neither of them had time to stop her.

Both Ethan and Roni reached for Maddie to try to pull her back out of the line of fire, but Maddie dug in her heels and widened her arms out to stop them.

“Please help us get out of here. I can’t go back there.”

The clerk studied Maddie’s pleading eyes. Contemplation covered his face as he sent glances to Roni and Ethan, too. “You were really bought and kept locked up? Like a prisoner?”

“She was trafficked here,” Ethan said.

“Trafficked? I thought that only happened in third world countries, or something. Not here.”

“It happens everywhere.”

The clerk looked back at Maddie. His eyes studied her and slowly he frowned and dropped his hands by his side. “I’m sorry that happened to you. I’ll help you guys. What do you need? Food? Gas?”

“What’s your name?” Ethan asked.

“Sam. I’ve lived in this town my whole life. I guess I had an idea that something illegal was going on at the big mansion. I just never thought...” Sam swallowed hard and looked at Maddie again. “I’m so sorry.”

“Not your fault,” Maddie assured.

“No, but I didn’t have to look the other way.”

The distant sound of the helicopter grew louder. Ethan raced to the front glass entrance. “They’re coming back. As soon as they pass over, we need to make our move, in the other direction.”

Sam came out from behind the counter. “Grab what you want off the shelf. I’ll get a container from the back and fill it with gas for your car.”

Sam reached over the counter. He withdrew a small .22 and handed it to Ethan. “It won’t do much but slow someone down. It sounds like you’re up against bigger guns than this.”

Ethan reached down and removed his .45 Glock. “Keep it. I have my own.”

Sam’s face paled as he pocketed his smaller weapon. “You’re right. It wouldn’t have ended well for me.”

Roni took Maddie’s hand as the young woman said, “Thank you, Sam, I pray you will be safe from no more robberies.”

“Wait. You’re praying for me?”

“I will always pray for you. You helped me today.”

“No one’s ever prayed for me before,” he mumbled in confusion. Roni understood the feeling. She knew Cora used to pray for her, but those days were long gone. Especially after she told her maid not to bother anymore. The prayers didn’t work.

The helicopter overhead had them all rushing to get ready to make a run for it. As soon as the chopper passed on they could make their move.

Except, the sound of the rotating blades remained above them.

Ethan snuck to the edge of a window. He peered up through the glass. “They’re hovering.”

“They must know we’re in here.” Roni rushed up behind Ethan. He put his hand out to stop her from getting closer to the glass. “What are we going to do?”

As if her question was heard above, a voice came over a loudspeaker. “We know you’re in the store. Come out with your hands up.”

BOOK: Blindsided
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