Blood and Roses (Holly Jennings Thriller) (30 page)

The sheikh suddenly bolted out the doors. As he did, Jack looked at Paul, and in that moment of inattention was caught off guard when Bradley shoved him hard onto the ground. Bradley grabbed the sheikh’s daughter and ran for the entrance.

77

Holly hurried down the corridor, her weapon drawn. She could hear cheering in the stands above her. She spotted a paramedic loitering around his ambulance. She knew it was Ivy and screamed his name. He turned toward her as he shut the rear ambulance doors.

Wild-eyed and confused, Ivy quickly looked from side to side.

Holding the gun on him, Holly yelled, “There’s nowhere to hide, Ivy! You can stop this!”

He bolted around to the driver’s side and climbed into the ambulance. Holly didn’t want to fire. She didn’t want to kill this man, not yet. If Jack and Paul weren’t able to get to Bradley, bringing Ivy in alive might be the only way to find him.

She raced toward the ambulance. As she ran she took the walkie-talkie off her hip and shouted into it, “Ted Ivy is on the south side of the building in an ambulance. I’m going after him!”

She heard Alex’s voice: “Stand down, Detective. Backup is on the way!”

She didn’t respond. She continued running down the drive. The lights on the ambulance turned on and she knew that Ivy intended to head out onto the track. She surged forward to catch the handle on the back of the vehicle and grabbed hold. The doors swung open, and that’s when she saw it. That was the moment that reality hit.

A bomb. Ivy wasn’t only targeting the sheikh.

78

Farooq did not think, did not ask questions, when his bodyguard had told him Whiskey had been drugged. His glass slid from his hands and crashed to the floor as he ran for a staircase, ignoring the elevator. The sheikh charged down the flight of stairs, running wildly toward the track, some of his other people trying to catch up. He screamed at the top of his lungs, “Stop the race!”

The tenth horse had been loaded into the starting gate. “Stop the race!” He continued running, his men unable to keep up. He knew what would happen if the race wasn’t stopped. He knew now that he should have trusted his instinct when he looked into his horse’s eyes. Whiskey had been masking pain in those eyes. He had tried to tell him.

“Stop the race!”

Bystanders got in the way, but the sheikh kept running.

The final horse was loaded into the gate. Tears streamed down Farooq’s face. Gasping for breath, he paused on the sideline with spectators in fancy hats. The woman next to him smiled and held up her drink. He started to sob.

The gates opened.

The horses were off.

Waqqas’s sniper had him in his crosshairs. But the sniper was not the only one following the sheikh’s movements.

As Farooq stood watching and praying that nothing would happen to his most beloved possession out on the track, a woman dove at him and knocked him to the ground. The whine of a bullet whizzed by. Lying on the ground stunned, Farooq heard voices over a radio. “Sniper down. Repeat. Sniper down.” The woman whispered in his ear. “Are you okay, Your Highness?”

“I think so,” he replied breathlessly.

“Good, we need to move quickly. We need to get you to safety.”

79

Holly leaped inside the ambulance as Ivy sped out toward the track. Her head struck a side panel as he made the sharp right turn.
“Ivy!”
she shouted as she fell.

She struggled to pull herself back up. Out of breath, her mind desperate to determine the next move, she was tossed around again as Ivy picked up speed.

Ivy and Bradley didn’t intend to just assassinate Sheikh Farooq.

They intended to kill more than one.

They intended to kill every mover and shaker in the Prestige Box.

Bradley planned to make a statement. His apocalyptic vision would begin right here at the Infinity.

She looked at the bomb in front of her, strapped securely to the gurney. She had no idea how to disengage an explosive device. None whatsoever.

But first things first. She had to take Ivy out.

“Ivy!”
she screamed.
“Don’t do this!”

The ambulance slowed. “Fuck you, bitch! Do you know what they do to these animals? Look at all these goddamn people! They don’t care!”

“I know what they do, Ted, but murder isn’t the way to make it right. And this isn’t about the horses for Bradley! He’s setting you up! Stop!”

He accelerated again. The back doors to the ambulance swung wide and she could see in the distance that the horses were out of the starting gate. The timer on the bomb had started clicking down: three minutes left. Her mind raced at a clip as rapid as the hooves hitting the turf behind her. But she had no time to think rationally. What she had to do was think in terms of survival—and not necessarily her own.

Holly thrust her Glock through the small window between herself and Ivy. “You have one last chance to make this right.”

“Fuck you!”
he screamed again.

Holly aimed at the back of his head and fired. Blood and brains splattered everywhere. The ambulance slowed as Ivy died instantly.

She looked at the timer again: two minutes and fifteen seconds. With strength fueled by adrenaline she jumped from the rear doors even as the ambulance still rolled along, and raced to the driver’s side door. Opening it, she pushed Ivy’s body over to the passenger seat and got behind the wheel. She glanced in the rearview mirror, seeing the horses pounding down the track. She had to get the ambulance off the track, away from the animals, away from people. The horses would be on her within seconds. There was no time to think. There was no time to feel.

She knew what had to be done. In that split second, she understood why Jack had made the choices he had, because in that split second she had to make a choice to allow many, many others to perish—humans and animals—or to take the risk of losing her own life.

She twisted the wheel hard to the left and accelerated. She didn’t know what else to do. Chloe’s sweet face flashed through her mind, then Maddie, Megan, Brendan…Jack. Tears welled in her eyes, but this was the only way. There were over 200,000 people on hand, and she had no idea of the magnitude of the blast.

She prayed her family would understand, as she now understood Jack’s motives from ten years ago. Her heart raced, her mind blurred, but in those last few seconds, Holly felt a calmness go through her, and she knew her decision was the right one.

Holly could not allow a catastrophic tragedy to happen.

80

As they came out of the starting gate, the beating of O’Leary’s heart matched the pounding of the filly’s hooves. He didn’t trust Perez to not play dirty no matter how big the stakes. Perez was pissed and hateful. Bad combination.

Besides, O’Leary knew enough about Karma that hanging back, waiting, watching the positions of the other horses solidify was the right move. The horse was only in second gear and she had at least three more to turn on.

As the colt pulled out in front by two lengths, O’Leary began to put on the gas.

O’Leary blinked hard as Karma broke through to the front.
What in God’s name?!
The filly was thundering along at a clip so fast it was as if they were truly flying. But they weren’t. That ambulance in front of them was. Holy shit! The horses kept running. The jockeys collectively knew that to try and pull up at that moment could be catastrophic. Karma, focused, did not seem to notice what was going on in front of her and to the left.

The filly kept on running.

81

The horses were running their hearts out on the track as Bradley ran with the sheikh’s daughter to the glass doors. Jack regained his balance and Paul was right on his heels.

Jack pulled his gun from his holster, aimed for Bradley’s backside and fired. Bradley fell into one side of the double glass doors, shattering it, a bullet now lodged in his spine.

Paul was next to Bradley within seconds and bent down feeling for a pulse.

Screams rang out in the box. The sheikh’s daughter dropped to her knees next to Bradley. Tears streaming down her face, she glared up at Jack. “What have you done?”

Jack didn’t respond.

“My God, I loved him,” she said, just loud enough for Jack to hear. “I loved him.”

“Thready, but he has a pulse. Get him an ambulance,” Paul said.

Jack called in for help as Alex rushed into the box with another agent, who took note of the chaos. “Jesus! What the hell happened here?”

“Doing our job,” Jack said. “You?”

Alex nodded. “Someone took a shot at Farooq,” he said. “But Samantha saved him. He’s in protective custody now. We took the sniper out.”

As Alex related this information, the people in the room let out another gasp. “Oh my God! What the hell?” someone yelled.

Jack looked out the window as an ambulance careened across the track, went through the rail and was catapulted off the berm.

“Oh no!” Alex said.

“What?” Jack yelled.

“Detective Jennings! I think she’s in that ambulance!”

82

The colt closed in from behind the filly as she pulled out in front. Whiskey worked hard to catch the filly. Perez wanted this! He wanted to tell Elena Purdue and that asshole O’Leary to go to hell. Then he saw it. He tensed, and as he did, so did the colt. It was that one slight shift. That was all it took.

An ambulance had gone off the inside rail.

The filly was just passing where the ambulance sailed through the air. She kept running.

Whiskey pushed on, but Perez knew in that second that the colt was off, and he began to pull back. His career would be on the line, and likely lost, if he drove the horse too hard. And so he pulled back as chaos ensued around them. Horses passed them by.

The sounds from the grandstand came to his ears now. It was a mixture of cheering and a collective gasp. Oh no. Had the colt broken his leg and Perez not realized?

As Whiskey slowed to a canter and then down to a trot, he jumped off.

Thankfully, he could see there was no break, but there was swelling, and although it wasn’t as horrible as it could have been, Perez knew that the colt’s racing career was over.

The Infinity belonged to the filly. Karma’s Revenge was taking it to the finish line at least five lengths ahead of any other horse.

83

Karma’s Revenge crossed the finish line and Jack watched in horror as a burst of water exploded from the lake. It was a much bigger splash than should have resulted from the vehicle landing in the water. Jack knew instinctively that a bomb had gone off.
Holly.

He turned to Paul. “I have to go!”

He headed down a stairwell and out onto the track. He passed onlookers and was pushed back by a security guard. “My wife is out there!” he screamed. The man tried to hold him off.

Sam ran up to him. “Jack! No! You’ll blow everything!”

He turned to her, tears in his eyes. “She’s my wife.”

“No. No, she isn’t.” She shook her head. “And she’s been spotted already. Help is on the way. We’ll keep you updated.”

“I have to know, Sam. I have to know if she’ll be all right.”

Sam shrugged. “I’ll get you out there.”

She contacted another agent, and soon an ambulance pulled up nearby. She flashed a badge at the security guard. They climbed into the back of the vehicle, which sped out to the scene.

Jack jumped out and ran to her. Her lifeless body lay on the side of the berm. “Holly! Please!
Holly!
” He took her pulse. He didn’t feel anything. He began mouth-to-mouth.

Another ambulance pulled up, and the EMTs got out.

“I can’t get a pulse,” Jack yelled.

One of the paramedics radioed in for Life Flight.

Jack continued to work on Holly.

She took a small breath. And then another, stronger breath.

“Oh my God!” he said. “Thank God.”

Sam placed a hand on his shoulder. “We have to go.”

Jack stood. The EMTs grouped around her as Jack climbed back inside the ambulance that had brought them there. He could hear the blades of the Life Flight helicopter in the distance.

“You have to let her go, Jack. You have to let the past go. She’ll be fine. I’m sure of it, but she has a new life and so do you,” Sam said. She took his hand. “So do you.”

They pulled away, and Jack knew that he would never see his wife again.

84

Elena sprinted for the Winner’s Circle. A lot had just happened, and whatever the hell that spectacle was out in the center of the track didn’t matter at the moment. What mattered was that her filly had just won the most prestigious race in the history of racing. On top of it she would be able to call Leann and tell her that no way was Golden Hearts going under. In fact, they were going to expand their rescue center.

She made it to the circle. O’Leary was beaming atop Karma. The glorious mare was slick with sweat. She proudly pranced from side to side as camera flashes went off all around them.

Elena heard O’Leary say, “I’ve never ridden any horse like her. She’s amazing and cool in the head. I don’t know what the hell happened out there, but she didn’t skip a beat. Focused and determined. That’s this filly.” He reached across her neck and wrapped his arms around her, then patted her on either side of the neck. The commissioner approached and laid a blanket of red roses across her.

Elena caught O’Leary’s eye. He swung a leg over and jumped off the mare. He threw his arms around her. “She is amazing. Like you.” He beamed. He reached to unzip the pocket of his breeches and got down on one knee. The cameras went crazy. “Elena Purdue, I lost you once because I was foolish. I never want to live a day without you. Ever again. I love you with all of my heart and soul. I love who you are as a woman, a friend, in business, and with the
animals you work with. You shine with a light that no one can match, and I hope you will say yes to me, because my world hasn’t ever been right without you in it.” He took a breath. “Will you marry me, Elena?”