One Last Call (28 page)

He shrugged as if that were a given. “Well, yeah.”

“You arrogant prick!” She took a step forward, and Richard retreated.

“It’s no secret you’ve been single a while.” He gave her a disinterested once-over. “I figured if I threw you a bone, you’d return the favor.”

“Get out. You slimy son of a bitch. Get the hell out of here!” Before Sarah could click the call button, Richard had her phone and threw it as hard as he could against the wall. There was a sickening crunch and a clatter of plastic.

“You’re desperate. I’m desperate. Those payments are going to stop soon. Come on, Sarah, after all I’ve done for you…” His voice remained insanely reasonable as he entreated her for help.

“Get away from me, Richard. You never did a damn thing for me. I wish I’d never met you.”

He grabbed her wrist in a manacle-tight squeeze and twisted it behind her back. Sarah gagged at the stench pouring off of him. She felt something hard press into her side.
Not again
. Sarah was momentarily relieved that it wasn’t his erection until she realized that it was a gun.

“Do you always have to do everything the hard way, Sarah? I need the fucking money. Give it to me!” He yanked a little harder on her arm, sending waves of agony skittering up to her shoulder. Sarah rolled up on her tiptoes in an effort to relieve the pressure.

“Fuck off.”

“Ah, Sarah, I tried that.” He lowered his voice in a pantomime of seduction. “You were playing hard to get then too.”

Sarah schooled her expression into a semblance of calm. Richard was one of those sick bastards who got off on fear, and she wasn’t going to give him another reason to rub against her. Her mind was running a hundred miles a minute, trying to figure a way out of this. She wanted to call for help. Julie was the only other person here, and she didn’t want her to get hurt. Josh was at the garage for the day, and her kitchen workers weren’t due until lunchtime.

“Were you the one who planted the cameras?”

Richard held her tighter against his body and scanned the walls. Sarah tried to control her gag reflex when the movement of air stirred up his stench. Then again, it would serve him right if she puked on him. He did a three-sixty, not leaving as much as an inch between them. “What cameras? You don’t have a security system.”

Wildly, she thought,
Guess that goes on the mental to-do list.
Her next thought was,
So who the hell planted the cameras? Grant?

“I know you have money stashed in a safe back here. Give it to me, and you never have to see me again.”

There wasn’t much money in the safe. If Richard would have ever paid attention to her business, he would have known she deposited the majority of yesterday’s take the next day. Like this morning.

“What about Brandi?”

“What about her?”

“Where does she fit in to all this? Does she know about the insurance fraud?”

“Of course. She did the paperwork.” His nonchalance was incredible.

“Isn’t she going to…?” Something permeated the scent of his funk. “Is that smoke?”

“Nice try.”

“You’re not going to blame it on me! You wanted me to
find
some money for you, so I did!” Brandi stood in the doorway, her normally silky black hair disheveled as if she forgot to brush it this morning. Her mint-green top was misbuttoned and haphazardly tucked in to the matching mini skirt. Sarah wished she could dig up some satisfaction in seeing her look a mess. Instead, she was a little bewildered that the woman thought nothing of Richard holding a gun to her stomach.

“I
knew I would find you here, Richard. It was only a matter of time before you came sniffing around her again. I’ve been watching her everywhere. Sooner or later, I knew I would catch you!” Brandi’s screech could probably be heard from the parking lot. Too bad no one was in the parking lot.

Had she planted the cameras?

Richard, in tried and true cheater fashion, exclaimed, “It’s not what you think!”

Yeah, hello? Gun? Wrenched arm. Gross guy? Not exactly a love connection.

Brandi’s abundant chest trembled with the force of her breaths. “I don’t want to hear it, Richard! You were too stupid to know how to skim money off of those policies. I did that for you.”

Sarah’s less well-endowed chest was constricted from being up on her toes, but, yeah, she was pretty sure she smelled smoke. “Uh, Richard?”

Brandi lashed out at Sarah. “Do not speak to him! He’s mine now!”

“You can have him.” That one slipped out. Richard gave an extra jerk to her arm, hard enough to make her eyes water.

“Brandi, baby, I’m not here for that. I told you, I was only pretending to want her. I was doing it for us. You know that. Remember?”

“You left me!” The crazy woman stuck her bottom lip out in a childish pout.

Is this chick for real? Doesn’t she see the freaking gun?
Sarah was definitely smelling smoke now. She didn’t know if her vision was getting foggy from the pain or if there was something on fire in her bar.

“I didn’t leave you. I told you I had to lay low! Baby, they’re after me!”

Somehow, the woman finally caught sight of the gun. “Are you going to shoot her?” Brandi’s eyes lit up in gleeful anticipation.

“Let me handle this.” Richard gripped Sarah’s wrist tighter. “You messed up the last time you were supposed to take care of her.”

Sarah’s legs were getting tired from trying to relieve the pressure on her arm. She realized she was sucking in her stomach too. As if that would deter a bullet.

Wait. Last time?

“Brandi, you were the one to mess with my car?”

She folded her arms over her chest and beamed with mean satisfaction. “You would be amazed what a mechanic will let you do for a blowjob.”

“Brandi!” Richard sucked a breath in, in shock. Unfortunately, that meant he exhaled his rancid breath in Sarah’s face. “You were only supposed to flirt with him.”

She leaned against the doorjamb and flashed a spiteful sneer. “Guess I got carried away. Besides, I know you’ve been fucking around with Kelly.”

Richard twisted them a little more so he could plead his case better. “She means nothing to me.”

Sarah was stuck in an episode of
Days of Our Lives
,
Twilight Zone
edition. This couldn’t be real. Too bad Rod Serling couldn’t pop out and flick his cigarette on Brandi.

Brandi sniffled, “He didn’t mean anything to me either. I did it for you. You wanted Sarah out of the way, so I did what I had to do.” She eyed them. “Do you have to have your hands on her?” Sarah closed her eyes. The woman was jealous that Richard had taken her hostage.

“It’s only for a little while.” To Sarah. “Give me the money.”

Sarah had had more than enough. “Listen, you lunatics! Forget the money. Let me go. Don’t you smell the smoke? We need to get out of here!”

Richard, glanced around them, finally taking in the hazy conditions. “Brandi, what did you do?”

Brandi pointed an accusing finger before letting her arm drop to her side. “I thought you were in here, fucking her. I was going to see to it that you burned in Hell for it.” She narrowed her eyes at Richard’s arm around Sarah. “For all I care, you still can!” Brandi ran out, slamming the door behind her, only to have it pop back open again.

“Brandi, baby, wait!”

“Go to Hell!” Brandi screeched like a banshee as she headed for the back exit.

“Brandi!” Richard kept the gun trained on Sarah while he called out over his shoulder, “You know I love you!” He coughed on the smoke and then he laughed. He muttered, “That’s my girl.”

“What the…”

He pushed Sarah away from him.

Richard was grinning like an idiot. “Brandi’s right. She always had the brains.” He shook his head in wonder. “Sometimes I get distracted by her tits, but she’s the one who takes care of things. She remembered something I forgot.” He barked out a laugh. “It was my idea too!”

“What?”

“Life insurance.”

“What life insurance?”

“The five-hundred-thousand-dollar policy you took out when we got married.”

“I never…”

“Sure you did. Guess who the beneficiary is?”

That rat bastard!
“No!”

“Yes.” He drew closer to her, and Sarah backed up. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to shoot you.”

She tried to take a relieved breath. The air was getting too heavy.

“Policy only pays out for a natural or accidental death.” He loomed closer. “Passing out from smoke inhalation and dying in a fire qualifies.”

“I’m not going to…”

“Oh, yes, you are.” Richard’s arm came up and the butt of his gun slammed into her temple. Sarah didn’t have time to pray that her ex-husband’s face wouldn’t be the last thing she saw before she died. Everything went black as she collapsed.

* * * *

Josh saw the smoke when he hit the parking lot. “Holy shit! No!” His hand shook as he tried to push in the numbers for 9-1-1. He didn’t wait for the dispatcher to ask his emergency. “Fire! There’s a fire at Sarah’s Suds and Spuds. Send…” His mind blanked on the words “fire truck.” He couldn’t think. “Send help!” He didn’t remember ending the call. He shoved the phone in his pocket and made a mad dash for the building.

Most of the smoke was coming from the back where Sarah’s office was. Josh made it to the back door, but it was locked from the inside. “Shit!” He shot around the front and tore through the front entrance. “Sarah!” The bar was hazy with smoke. They had to get the fire out before it reached the liquor. Once it hit the store room or behind the bar, the place would be one huge Molotov cocktail.

“Sarah!” The smoke was thicker in the hallway. He got on his hands and knees, hoping to suck in a little oxygen and crawled along the floor. Josh couldn’t see anything farther than a foot in front of him. He pulled his T-shirt over his mouth and nose, to block out the smoke. The heat was intensifying. Trying to peer through the gloom, he saw where the fire had started. The women’s bathroom door was closed, but Josh saw the bright orange and smoky gray flickering in the gap between the door and the floor. The fire was eating its way through the room. It wouldn’t be long before it spread down the hallway to the bar and the shelves of liquor.

There was a crash and a boom. He heard the roar and was blasted with another billowing wave of black smoke. He froze on his hands and knees. This was all too familiar. Josh couldn’t breathe. Flashes of memory that he’d only seen in his nightmares came at him. He was sucked back to Afghanistan.

Josh and his crew were supposed to be performing routine maintenance for ground support. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something about one particular vehicle hadn’t felt right. Some sixth sense screamed at Josh to back away, but his friend, Jake Jacobs, was already lifting the hood. He remembered calling out to Jake to get away from the Jeep. It all seemed to happen in slow motion. Jake, shorn scruff of hair bleached from the sun, face already dusty with sand, turned his head to see what Josh wanted. His inquisitive smile disappeared, and his light blue eyes widened when he saw Josh running for him, waving his arms like a bat out of hell. Josh never made it to his friend.

The concussive blast from the explosion had thrown him back yards from where he’d been standing. Everything had gone lights out. He woke with his ears ringing and his head feeling like a brick wall had slammed into it. Josh wiped hot, viscous liquid from his face. He thought it was oil from the Jeep until he was told later that it was blood from his head wound.

With a Herculean effort, he’d forced his eyes open, only to be faced with a horrible truth. Jake was gone. Amid the smoke, fire, debris, and confusion, the only thing left of Lance Corporal Jacobs was a lone boot lying on its side.
No! Jesus, no! Not Jake!
Josh tried to scream out, “No!” The word never made it past his lips. His head fell back, and the darkness had overtaken him again.

Josh must have blacked out for real because when he woke up, he realized he was in a smoky hallway. The hardwood floor planks underneath him were warm. Wood, not sand. Where the fuck was he? Josh stared at the floor, trying to get his bearings. It all came rushing back then in a kaleidoscope of catastrophic images. Sarah! He was home, and he had to get to Sarah.

Josh ignored the cold sweat that broke out all over his body from the flashback. His past and present had run headlong into each other, and he needed to get his shit together. He wanted to take deep breaths to calm the pace of his runaway heart. It was slamming like a kick drum against his rib cage. In the miasma of smoke, it was impossible to sip even a little clean air. Oxygen was becoming a luxury.
How long had he been out?

Pushing back up, Josh called out. “Sarah!” He coughed on the smoke invading his lungs. Josh had to get to her. She should have answered him. He heard a pounding sound farther down the hallway. It was muffled yet frantic. Crawling forward, he found the office door on the right, slightly ajar. From his kneeling position, Josh could see the golden-blonde tendrils of Sarah’s hair where she was lying next to her desk. She wasn’t moving.

“Sarah!” He rushed to her and shook her but she was unresponsive. He laid his head to her chest, praying to God for a heartbeat.
Please
. Josh couldn’t hear past his own pulse drumming in his ears. “Please, sunshine.” Josh had to trust she was alive. He couldn’t waste any more time trying to revive her, or they’d get trapped in the fire. There was no way to pick her up and carry Sarah over his shoulder without dropping from even more smoke inhalation. He grabbed her under the arms and dragged her out into the hall. The flames had crawled past the restroom, licking greedy tongues of fire toward the wall of booths up front. They were cut off and couldn’t get out that way.

Maneuvering to slide Sarah out the back, he heard the thumping sound again. Julie was still here! He tested the door to the store room and found that it was already getting hot. Josh grabbed the knob to open it, but it was jammed. She must have been lying in front of the door. “Julie!” His voice was barely a rasp from the smoke. “Move so I can get to you.” There was no response from Julie. They were running out of time. He tried the door again and was overtaken with a fit of coughing. “I’ll be back for you!” He dragged Sarah farther until he reached the back exit. He pushed on the lever. Nothing happened. Sarah lay like a lifeless doll on the floor.
Please be alive
.