Nothing To Lose: A Grey Justice Novel (46 page)

“You don’t get it, do you, Jonah? This is life. You provide for your family, you protect the woman you love, and you raise your children to survive and succeed. That’s what my daddy did… That’s what I did. And when you finally find somebody worthy of you, that’s what you’ll do.”

Jonah took a step toward him, fire in his eyes. “Don’t you ever…ever talk to me about Teri. I know you had her killed, you son of a bitch.”

“You think I’m going to deny that? That piece of trash was good for only one thing and—”

Jonah lunged toward him. Eli tackled the boy, keeping him from making a major mistake. “You’d better thank your lucky stars your candy-assed brother stopped you, son. Around here, we don’t disrespect our elders like that.”

A wild-eyed Eli snarled, “Shut the hell up, Mathias, or I’ll let him beat the shit out of you.”

Laughter bubbled in his chest. “Oh…so my boy Eli’s finally got a backbone, too. Maybe getting rid of Shelley actually did help you grow up.”

Eli froze. Had Mathias just said what Eli thought he’d said? Dropping his arms from his brother, he turned and faced his father. He was barely aware that Jonah was now holding on to him.

“What did you say?” Eli whispered.

Biting his pursed lip, Mathias shrugged. “Guess the cat’s out of the bag now.” He shook his head. “She had to go, son. Surely you knew that. She wasn’t Slater material. So damn sickly and weak… The woman never could’ve raised those girls right.”

Still not fully comprehending the awfulness of Mathias’s words, Eli asked hoarsely, “What did you do?”

“Nothing really. I just sent Adam over there with a bottle of booze and some sedatives. He was supposed to offer them to her, to prove to you that she loved them more than she loved you or her children. Next thing I know, he’s calling me, squalling like a baby because she was deader than a doornail.”
 

Mathias shrugged as if it didn’t matter…as if he’d run a stop sign, committed some minor traffic offense, instead of having commissioned a cold-blooded murder. He’d had his own daughter-in-law killed.

A blinding red haze washed over Eli’s vision. He knew his feet were moving, but all he could focus on was the need to purge the world of the sick son of a bitch standing before him.
 

Large hands grabbed him, pulled at him. Eli shrugged them off, kept moving forward.

“No, Eli, you can’t.”

Recognizing Jonah’s voice, Eli shook his head, tried to pull away. “It’s time he dies, Jonah.”

“I know that, but you can’t do it, and neither can I. We’ll make him pay somehow but not this way. Damned if either of us are going to prison for putting the son of a bitch away.”

“Nora…what the hell are you doing? Put that thing away.”

Eli and Jonah turned simultaneously. Eleanor Slater stood several feet away, a pistol firmly clutched in her hands.

 
“Mama! No!” Jonah shouted.

Eli tried to reach her...too late. The gun exploded. Mathias’s face was one of shocked dismay as he clutched his chest and then slammed backward onto the floor.

Life went into surreal slow motion. Eli reached his mother, took the gun from her shaking hands and held her tight against his chest. He looked over at Jonah who was holding a limp Mathias in his arms. The look on his brother’s face confirmed his fears. Their father was dead.

He might have wanted to see the bastard die, but never like this.

His mother buried her face against Eli’s chest. Her words broke his heart as in a voice that was soft, low and incredibly sad, she said, “All these years I’ve made excuses for him. I just couldn’t do it anymore.”

Holding her close, Eli rocked her in his arms, whispered reassurances, and tried to figure out just what the hell they were going to do now.
 

Chapter Forty-four

Nick switched off the engine on his motorcycle and coasted in silence for several yards. For whatever reason, the limo had detoured and gone to the Slater building, parking at the front door. Kennedy had said nothing about plans to go there after she and Adam left the fundraiser. So what the hell was going on?

Powerful streetlamps lit up the entire parking lot, so finding a shadowy area to hide wasn’t easy. He parked his bike then ducked behind a large bush. The driver’s door of the limo swung open, but no one exited. Then the back passenger door came open, and Nick saw the top of Kennedy’s head as she got out. Adam followed close behind her.
 

Cursing himself for not bringing binoculars with him, he squinted, trying to see the expression on Kennedy’s face. It was too damn far and dark. Both she and Adam entered the building, disappearing from his view.

This wasn’t right. There was no good reason for Adam and Kennedy to be at this place and so late. He stepped out from behind the bush. Time to put his Grimm persona to good use.

He halted as another car swung into the parking lot and parked right beside the limo. A tall, thickly built man emerged, took a moment to say something to the limo driver and then strode into the building. The limo drove slowly away.

Shit.
Nick took off toward the building, his heart in his throat. This was no ordinary stop…Kennedy was in trouble. Reaching the front door, Nick went inside, thankful no one had locked the door. Just as he entered, the cellphone in his jacket vibrated. A look at the screen showed him it was Kennedy calling.
 

Hoping that was a good sign, Nick activated his earbud, was about ask her what the hell was going on, when he heard his worst nightmare already in progress.

Thankful that Adam hadn’t objected to her bringing her coat, Kennedy had been able to slip her hand in the pocket and press the key for Nick.
 

Adam pushed her forward, and she stumbled, only halfway acting. Running in stilettos hadn’t been in Irelyn’s lesson plans. Wanting to alert Nick to what was happening, she snapped, “Adam, holding a gun on me is totally unacceptable behavior. I demand to know what the hell is going on.”

His hand swung out, slapped her hard across the face. “Shut up or I swear I’ll kill you here.”

Only by sheer luck was she able to stay upright. The blow to her face stung, but Adam gave her no time to recover. He pushed her into the elevator and pressed the button for the forty-second floor.

“Why are we going to your office on the forty-second floor?” She winced inwardly. Had that been too obvious?
 

She was once again grateful for Adam’s lack of intelligence as he answered her without any hesitation. “We’re going to wait there till someone comes to take care of you.”

In what seemed like only seconds, they had arrived at Adam’s office, and he was pushing her into the lobby. Nodding at a chair in the plush waiting area, he said, “Sit down. Get comfortable.”

Kennedy dropped into a chair and looked around at her empty, elegant surroundings. She turned back to Adam, who had seated himself across from her. Everything seemed so calm and normal. They could’ve been two people conversing about business or world politics. The only anomaly was the pistol pointed directly at her head.

She’d love to get to her gun. Strapped to her outer thigh, its weight was reassuring but frustrating. So far, whipping the weapon out from beneath her dress without attracting his attention had been impossible. His eyes had been locked on her since he’d pulled his gun. So for right now, she could only continue to play his game until he took his eyes off her.
 

She huffed out an angry breath. “Adam, for the last time, I don’t care who you think I am. My name is Rachel Walker, and I’m from Amarillo.”

“Problems?”
 

Both she and Adam turned at the sound of a male voice. A tall, heavy-set man strode toward them, the gun in his bear-claw hand twice the size of Adam’s. Her heart dropped. She might have been able to disarm Adam, but no way could she handle this man.
 

“You must’ve been in the area,” Adam said.

“I’m never far away,” the man said. “You should know that by now.”

“Who are you?” Kennedy asked the question, already knowing the answer—hard to forget the voice of a man who had tried to kill her. She was surprised she had the ability to speak at all. And though she sounded a little shaky, she was encouraged to hear the steel behind the words.

“Cyrus Denton.” He shook his head, real regret in his eyes. “Mrs. O’Connell…it is you. You look very different at a distance, but up close, I can definitely see the resemblance.”

Seeing no reason to continue to deny her identity—even if they decided they’d made a mistake, neither of them intended for her to leave the building alive.

“You’re the man who ran me off the road and stole the packet Thomas left me.”

Adam released a weird crowing sound. “I knew it!”

As if Adam wasn’t there, Cyrus kept his focus on Kennedy. “Why didn’t you just forget about it like I told you? If you had, none of this would be happening now.”

Fury overriding her fear, she sprang to her feet and glared up at him. “My husband was murdered. I lost my child. You think those are things I could just forget?”

“Out of all the jobs I’ve handled for the Slaters, killing you was one of the most unpleasant tasks I’d ever been assigned. That’s why I let you go. I admire your courage and devotion to your late husband and child. Unfortunately, they’re going to get you killed.”

“Wait a minute,” Adam said. “You told me the wreck was so bad, you thought she was dead. If you let her go, then you knew she wasn’t hurt. This is all your fault.”

Denton turned to Adam. “Shut up, idiot. It was your screw-up to begin with. Ever wonder why that was the first and last termination Mathias assigned to you? Because everything you touch turns to shit.”

Eyes and mouth both gaped open in astonishment. “You can’t talk to me that way. My daddy—”

“Your daddy knows exactly what happened. If you had let me handle things when we first learned about those stolen papers, none of this would have been necessary.”

“I didn’t have enough facts.”

“One of these days you’ll learn that if you wait till you have all the facts, you’ve missed your chance. Course, by then, it’ll probably be too late again.”

Cyrus pointed to the elevator with his gun. “Let’s go, Mrs. O’Connell.”

“Where are you taking her?”

“What does it matter? I’m taking care of your problems like I always have.”

“So…like…are you going to shoot her or what?”

As if he were explaining a complicated matter to a child, he said, “First, I need to find out who’s involved in this with her.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“You want details?”

“No…I guess not.”

“You stay here. I’ll be back—” His eyes narrowed, focusing on something behind her.

Kennedy turned and almost cried out. The security monitor on the receptionist’s desk showed the front lobby, where Nick was standing at the bank of elevators, violently punching numbers with one hand, his Glock in his other hand.
 

“Good thing I disabled all but one freight elevator.” His eyes swung back to Kennedy. “Looks like we know of at least one other person involved.”

“That’s her ex-boyfriend,” Adam explained. “Grimm something or other. I had him checked out. He’s evil looking but fairly harmless.”

“Just like you had Rachel Walker checked out?” Cyrus taunted.

Throwing him a hateful glare, Adam slammed his mouth shut.

“There are a whole lot more than two people involved,” she assured him. “Just you wait. An entire arsenal of people will be here soon.”

“Then I guess I’d better take care of the two of you real fast. Adam, keep your gun on her at all times. I’m going to take care of her friend, then I’ll be back to get the girl.”

“You don’t think you should just go ahead and shoot her here?”

“You want to explain the blood to your employees tomorrow?”

“No.”

“Then keep her here till I get back.” And because he obviously thought his employer’s son was an imbecile, he nodded toward the gun in Adam’s hand. “You have bullets in there, right?”

“Of course,” he snapped. “At least I think so.”
 

Rolling his eyes, Cyrus pulled another gun from his pocket, unlocked the safety, and handed it to Adam. “Put yours away and use this one. Just don’t shoot yourself.”

He turned and strode toward the freight elevator in the corner.
 

Only by reminding herself that Nick was a trained professional was she able to sit still and watch the man walk away. If she tried to go after him, she had no doubt he would kill her and wouldn’t even have to use his gun. She closed her eyes and prayed with all her might for Nick’s safety. She could not bear to lose him…she couldn’t.
 

“Sit down,” Adam said. “Looks like we’re going to be here awhile longer.”

Kennedy turned her attention back to the man who had ordered Thomas’s death. A sudden, inexplicable calm swept through her. Earlier today, she had accepted that the lack of incriminating evidence against Adam meant he would never pay for Thomas’s death. But she had a chance to change that. Her cellphone had a microphone. A recorded confession, along with Adam’s notes bragging about hiring a hit man, would be impossible to dispute.