Bluegrass State of Mind (13 page)

Turning, she ran as fast as she could.
Danielle was halfway down the hall and froze when she saw Kenna
running right at her. Her lip bleeding, her shirt hanging in shreds
and the skirt pushed up over her waist.

"Kenna, what the fu..."

"Run!" Was all Kenna could scream
before she reached Danielle, grabbing her arm without slowing
down.

Danielle spun around with the force
but didn't take off. Instead she started yelling, "What happened to
you? Kenna stop, tell me what happened."

"Kenna!" Danielle and Kenna turned
toward the name being bellowed.

"It's Chad, we gotta go now," she said
to her friend. Chad turned the corner around the cubicle at the end
of the hall. Danielle's eyes widened as she started putting the
pieces together. They both turned and took off at a dead run toward
the stairs. The sound of Chad's heavy breathing and feet hitting
the thick carpet echoed in the office as he closed in on
them.

"We gotta haul ass, girl!" Danielle
said as she flung open the door to the stairs.

"You have to be careful. He's
dangerous, and so is Bob. I'll explain when we get out of here.
Just get to your car and get home. I'll call you." Kenna huffed as
they flew down the stairs heading to the underground
garage.

They looked at each other when they
heard the door opening four floors above them and pushed harder to
make it to the garage. Kenna's stockings ripped as her bare feet
slapped each concrete stair. They hit the door to the garage and
Danielle took off to the left to the general parking area half a
ramp up. Kenna pressed the unlock button on her keys when Chad
burst through the door. She looked over the trunk of her car as she
rounded it to get to the driver's door and saw him running towards
her. The garage was lit by eerie yellow light enough for her to see
the blood staining the front of his shirt from his broken nose. His
left eye had begun to swell shut. Knowing she only had seconds, she
wrenched open her door as fast as she could and hurled herself into
the front seat. She didn't bother with a seatbelt and pushed the
engine start button at the same time as the autolock. But she could
already see Chad behind her car. He stood there with his hands on
his hips and the twisted smile was back. Apparently he thought she
wouldn't run him over. Boy was he wrong. Before she could put her
car in gear and have the satisfaction of flattening him like a bug,
car lights appeared from the level above and an engine roared to
life. Tires squealed and a brown Lumina rounded the corner on two
wheels.

Kenna could see Dani's eyes narrow as
she gunned it in Chad’s direction. Kenna heard a thud and saw the
Lumina race past her with a honk. She looked back, but could no
longer see Chad. Not caring if she was going to run over him again,
she put the car in reverse and floored it. She didn't feel a thump,
so she looked into her rearview mirror and saw Chad's body lying
motionless in an empty parking space.

Her body shook as she navigated her
car to her apartment, trying to figure out what just happened. Who
was Chad? What was this poker night? What did Bob do with the
stripper?

She reached her apartment and parked
her car in the private garage. She told the footman to allow no
visitors and went up the elevator to her apartment. She approached
her door slowly and listened before opening it. She walked into her
apartment and stood quietly. She listened, just to make sure no one
was going to jump out before locking the door.

Placing her purse on her Queen Anne
chair, she jumped when her cell phone rang. "Hello?" Her voice
trembled.

"Kenna, sorry for any disturbance our
party caused you tonight. I am guessing you were working late?" She
recognized Bob Greendale's voice immediately.

"I don't think I would call that a
party. I think I would call it a felony. What happened to the girl?
Is she okay?"

"Oh, fine, fine. She does this kind of
thing all the time for VIPs. The Senator really enjoys the ladies,
you know. Did Chad explain everything to you?"

"Explain what to me? There is nothing
to explain, he was going to rape her and you all were just going to
watch and maybe have a go at it too!" Her voice was starting to
rise with each word. She knew she had to move. This was a firm
phone and they could track her on it. She was breathing heavy again
and darting glances around her apartment half expecting to see Bob
walk in from the bedroom.

"Kenna, you misunderstood the whole
thing. It was just guys hanging out. I hope we aren't going to have
a problem, are we?" Bob asked in a very patriarchal
voice.

"Um, yeah, I think we have a major
problem." Did he think she was going to believe his story of her
wanting to be raped?

Bob's voice took on a hard edge, "What
are you going to do Kenna? You better think real hard about your
answer. There were powerful people in that room who could destroy
you."

Bob was right. The judges could easily
fix any trial. The Senator could put pressure on the police chief
or D.A.'s office to dismiss any lawsuits against them. Actually,
they could bring attempted murder charges, or maybe even murder,
against her or Danielle for the hit and run since Chad could be
dead. They had enough power to circumnavigate the judicial system
to see to it that she was the one who spent time in jail. But,
could she allow this to continue? Did they do this every month? She
thought of all those victims, all those potential victims. Tears
threatened and Kenna shook her head regaining control of
herself.

"Kenna, what are you going to
do?"

"Bob, I am going to destroy you and
everyone there tonight. Every minute from now on you won't be able
to think of anything but me. Am I going to report it to the police?
Am I going to go to the media? Will I file a civil suit on top of a
criminal one? Will I take everything you own? Just remember this,
you know I am damn good lawyer. Which means I know how to protect
myself. If anything happens to me, Bob, people will still find out
about you. It will make it even worse for you. Missing body and
all, after the evidence comes to light with a nice note penned by
me, you will be exposed. Touch me and you will go down. Leave me
alone and then there's always a chance. You like to gamble, Bob.
What are you going to bet on?" Kenna moved to her closet and pulled
out her set of suitcases. "So Bob, what are you going to do?" Kenna
waited for an answer but only heard the click of the phone. Knowing
she had no time left, she dialed Danielle as she carried her bags
to her bedroom. She had worked so hard to live in all this luxury
and now she was leaving it all behind. She was stuffing her clothes
into her Louis Vuitton trunk when Danielle answered.

"Kenna, what the hell just
happened?"

"Danielle, listen we don't have much
time. There was this stripper and Chad was raping her in front of
all the VIP's, including Bob. They were cheering him on. They were
going to go next. It was going to be a gang rape. I couldn't just
stand there and do nothing. I called 9-1-1, there should be a tape.
I barged in and tried to stop it, but Bob just dragged this young
girl out of the room. It was horrible. Anyway, Bob sent Chad after
me while those bastards dragged the girl out the other door. Chad
knocked me around, but with your interruption didn't get a chance
to do anything else."

"Shit. I mean, shit, Kenna! What are
we going to do?" She heard Danielle's voice start to show evidence
of her calm veneer cracking.

"Bob just called here. We both
threatened each other. We gotta get out of here, and I mean now. I
am packing right now. Withdraw cash, toss your firm cell phone, and
get out of town, Danielle. You have my private email, and I know no
one else has it. Email me on that when you get a new address so we
know how we're doing. Keep it vague until we know what's happening
here." Kenna finished with her trunk and had filled a second bag
with her toiletries and her family photos.

"Okay girl. You stay safe and I will
get in touch with you. I will pack up and leave within the next
twenty minutes. Legal Sisters?"

"Always." Kenna closed the phone and
tossed family heirlooms and anything with meaningful into the last
bag while calling for the footman. Minutes later, she had her car
loaded and watched the footman disappear back into the building as
she slid into the front seat.

A knock at the window elicited a
scream from her throat. Chad's face was pressed against her glass
window, his hand slowly rapping against the glass...

Chapter Eight

"Kenna, you up yet dear?" said a
familiar, friendly voice.

Kenna bolted upright in bed. Sweat ran
off her face as she looked around. “It was a dream. It was a dream”
she chanted to herself.

"Kenna, did you still want to go to
the sales today?" June's lyrical voice floated through the door
scattering her remaining dark thoughts. Kenna jumped out of bed and
started peeling off her clothes, "I'll meet you downstairs in
ten!"

"Okay, take your time. We weren't
planning on leaving for another thirty minutes."

Completely stripped, Kenna hurried to
take a quick shower to wash the remnants of the nightmare away. She
knew she'd have to do something soon about the situation. So far,
she'd penned a note and gave it to her parents’ estate attorney for
safe keeping. Soon, but not now, she'd have to start gathering her
evidence.

Kenna blasted her hair with the
hairdryer and deftly put it into a French twist while it was still
somewhat damp. March in Kentucky was hit or miss on the weather, it
would be Spring one day and Winter the next. Opening the window and
sticking her head out, she discovered a nice Spring day. So she
pulled out a jungle green wrap dress and dug around her trunk for
her brown high heeled sandals. Twenty minutes later, dressed and
with at least some make-up on, she hurried down the stairs and met
June on the porch.

Looking around the patio she noticed
they were missing someone. "Where is Julius?"

"Oh, he hitched a ride this morning
with one of our friends. He wanted to see this one horse have its
early morning workout. He is debating on whether to buy it or pass
on it."

Kenna opened the passenger door and
slid in beside June. June kept up a steady stream of conversation
on the drive to Keeneland. Kenna was sure she was caught up on all
the gossip, who did what, and who said what of the entire sale. So
much so that she could likely pass as being a regular horse person
by dropping a couple lines like, "Can you believe he tried to pass
that horse off as yearling? You know him, he tries it every couple
of years." and so on.

Walking into the paddock area, the
sale seemed busier. There were more people milling around and
certain passageways were shoulder to shoulder with people. As Kenna
and June tried to slide through the crowd by the railing
surrounding the sales pit, Kenna saw some men dressed in black
suits approach. Everything from the shiny black shoes to the
reflective dark sunglasses screamed hired guns. They couldn't have
found her. Not here, not so fast. She looked in every direction,
but was walled in by the crowd. Just as she was getting ready to
push her way back towards the exit, the lead man walked by her as
if she wasn't there. Although, it would be more accurate to say he
walked through her. Kenna felt the man's shoulder hit hers and spun
her back with such force that she stepped backwards and stumbled
into a man along the rail. She reached out to steady herself and
found herself being saved from landing ass first on the brick
walkway by a very handsome and well groomed man. His arm reached
out and caught her around the waist as she was falling
back.

"Are you okay?" His accent was heavy
and obviously from the Middle East. Kenna took a breath, relieved
not to have landed on her bottom. More relieved he didn't seem to
want to kill her. "Please let me apologize for my man running into
you. A beautiful woman like you should never have to put up with
such vulgar behavior. Please, let me assure you it will never
happen again." With a nod to a dapper man standing slightly behind
his shoulder, the man immediately left and approached the offender.
Quiet words in a language she didn't understand were had. The
offender's head hung low as he nodded finally.

"Thank you for making sure I didn't
take a tumble. But I am alright now, you can release me." He
dropped his arm from her waist and stepped back to allow her some
room to stand upright and straighten her dress. "Again, I
appreciate your help very much. Thank you." She took a step
forward, but was stopped by a hand laid gently on her
forearm.

"Madam, it would please me greatly if
you allowed me to make up for this unfortunate accident by taking
you out to dinner tonight. Please, allow me to introduce myself. I
am Sheik Mohtadi Ali Rahman. But, please, call me Mo."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mo. I am
McKenna Mason. And this is my friend June Kranski." She gestured to
June who was approaching them.

"It is all my pleasure to meet such
beautiful women." Mo tipped his head slightly, allowing Kenna to
study him.

He was thin, but from what she could
tell from his arm when he caught her, very well muscled. More like
a marathon runner than the thick muscles Will had. His skin was a
handsome shade of light brown and his slightly long, wavy hair was
slicked straight back. He didn't have a beard, more like a five
o'clock shadow. When he raised his head and looked at Kenna, she
observed his dark black eyebrows and amber colored eyes. He was
very handsome. But more than that, he gave off the friendliest of
airs.