Authors: Toni Anderson
“And the other one.”
Scarlett turned toward Valerie, and her mouth dropped open.
“I know you have a burner. Just bring it out carefully and take the battery out of that too. I’m not going to hurt you. That man has Angel.” Scarlett’s eyes whipped around as the figure opened the trunk. “He wants to swap you for Angel because he’s worried what you might know.”
Dread squeezed her from the inside. She’d told Dorokhov that Maidstone had told her something before he died. Had someone passed that information on to this man? Had Raminski betrayed his Russian boss before shooting him dead?
Was this the man who’d set up her father all those years ago? Was she finally close to figuring out the truth? This wasn’t quite how she’d expected it to go down.
Scarlett put her burner phone on the dash, but also clicked the switch of her transmitter to activate it. Then she saw the signal jammer Valerie drew out of her pocket and placed on the dashboard alongside the cells. Crap. Her bug would record, but not transmit until it found a cell phone signal. Then the digital audio file would beam directly to her email account. The truth would come out eventually, but until the jammer was disabled there was no way anyone could trace her location. Mrs. LeMay removed the keys from the ignition and eased out of the car. She went around the back before coming up and opening Scarlett’s door. Scarlett sat there thinking frantically, but coming up with nothing. Then it was too late. Valerie waved the gun to indicate she get out. Scarlett did so, the cold bite of the air at least making her feel more awake.
“Walk toward him. This is a straight swap. You for Angel. You said yourself this was all your fault. I just want my daughter back. She hasn’t done anything.”
Scarlett nodded and breathed lightly. “I want her back too.” But she did not want to die and this did not seem like a situation where an abductor would let his captives walk away. “What makes you think you can trust him to keep his word?”
“Oh, he’ll do as I tell him.” The woman sounded confident. Too confident.
Scarlett half-turned to look at her face, but was captivated by a blonde-haired figure climbing out of the trunk of the car. The figure wobbled.
“Angel, honey. Are you okay?” Mrs. LeMay called out.
“Mom?”
Scarlett swallowed back a cry of relief that her friend was still alive. Then Valerie prodded her forward with the gun. Angel was alive, but Scarlett doubted it would be for much longer. This man wouldn’t want any witnesses.
To think she’d shied away from telling Matt how she really felt. How foolishly optimistic to think she’d get a second chance.
Scarlett had to keep them talking. She wanted that second chance. She wanted a future with him. Matt would find her. He and Parker and Rooney and Frazer. They were smart and brilliant and they would find her. She just hoped it wouldn’t be too late.
“Let her go, Guy.”
Guy? Clarkson?
“I brought Scarlett. For the love of God let my little girl go.”
“I told you I’d get her back for you.” The man eased the blindfold up over Angel’s forehead. Even in the dim light Scarlett could see a cut on Angel’s cheek, and her eyes were almost swollen closed from an obvious beating. Angel’s arms were secured behind her back, and she staggered as if she couldn’t hold herself up properly. The man grabbed her from behind, and she cried out in pain.
“Oh, God, Oh, baby. What did they do to you?” Valerie sobbed.
“I think she might have a broken rib. The drugs are wearing off. She’ll be fine.”
“Thank you. I can’t thank you enough.” Valerie was sobbing.
“Send me the girl,” Guy ordered. “That’s all I want.”
“You first.” Valerie grabbed Scarlett’s arm and dug in her nails.
Ouch
.
The man smiled sadly. He was unremarkable, nondescript—someone easily overlooked. “After all these years you don’t trust me? All those afternoons we spent together naked? All those promises you made me?”
“Mom?” Angel said uncertainly.
“Be quiet, Guy,” Valerie snapped.
“You always were dominant, Valerie. I dug it in bed. Didn’t much care for it the rest of the time.” His voice became harder.
Things were clicking into place in Scarlett’s head. “You two were lovers?”
“What the hell, Mom?”
“Wow—no wonder everyone says you’re so smart, Scarlett Stone.” Guy’s gasp was mocking. “Your daddy used to sing your praises like you were the only kid to ever learn the alphabet. Heard he wasn’t doing so well…”
Rage rose up inside Scarlett, but she controlled it.
“Stop talking, Guy. You’re going to ruin everything.” Valerie was edging closer. Trying to get to her daughter.
“No, Valerie.” His voice rose. “You don’t get to tell me what to do. Not anymore. I believed you. I
loved
you. You said you were going to leave him, but you never did.”
“Oh, my God, Mom. How could you do that to Dad?” asked Angel.
This was a nightmare.
Valerie’s fingers on her arm grew even more painful, but Scarlett had figured it out. “Dorokhov found out you were having an affair, didn’t he? Blackmailed you into spying for him. You’re Marlon, both of you.”
Clarkson sneered. “He said it would be a one-time deal and then photographed us doing that too. Had us by the balls.”
“You persuaded Raminski to shoot him.” Scarlett didn’t know how, but she knew it was true.
“Dorokhov deserved to die.”
“Shut up, Guy!”
He put his pistol to Angel’s head, and Scarlett heard Mrs. LeMay’s breath seize. These two people had destroyed so many lives simply because they’d refused to own up to having an affair.
Scarlett refused to stay quiet. She had to stall for time. For some sort of chance to get away. She eyed the gloomy tombstones, mist clinging to the ground. It was dark enough they might be able to run and hide. Maybe. “And you two decided to set up my father to take the fall. You destroyed my family.” She half-turned to Valerie. “Then acted like you were doing us a favor to even talk to us.” She felt sick. The betrayal was beyond anything she’d imagined. “You planted that evidence in our house.” It all made sense suddenly.
“You set up Scarlett’s father? He really is innocent?” Angel asked on a whisper. “Oh, Scarlett, I’m so sorry. All these years and I never believed you.”
Scarlett’s heart ached for her friend. She couldn’t imagine what this would do to their family. God knew what hers had suffered had been bad enough, but a spy sex scandal involving a congressman’s wife, and a rogue FBI agent? Combined with the wrongful conviction of an innocent man and the assassination of the Russian Ambassador? It would make the press coverage from fourteen years ago look like a community picnic.
Assuming the truth came out.
Angel’s expression held a touch of madness. “This is actually all my fault. I should never have made you go to that party, Scar.” She started to laugh, but the sound was awful, full of the knowledge she was about to die. “Next year we’ll stay home and watch old movies, I promise. Is it still Christmas?”
Scarlett nodded. “You’re the best friend a girl could ever have, you know that?”
Guy Clarkson gave a harsh laugh. “Without your friendship, your dear, old daddy would never have gone to jail.”
“Maybe, maybe not. You and Valerie are the ones who set him up.” She couldn’t keep the revulsion out of her voice.
Valerie LeMay shoved her forward. “Send Angel to me. Now. Take this one and do what you have to.”
Angel staggered forward as Clarkson pushed her. “You mean kill her, right, Mom?”
“Shut up, Angelina.”
“Why? Because you’re my mother?” Angel spat at her mother’s feet. “You disgust me.” Angel took a step toward her, and Scarlett locked her arms around her friend, making sure Angel felt the stiff vest she wore beneath her clothes.
Over Angel’s head she watched the man, Guy Clarkson. His eyes glittered and never left Valerie.
A noise in the darkness had him glancing quickly around.
Was that the cavalry?
Think fast. “I lied,” Scarlett said quickly, “when I said Maidstone told me something. The FBI used it as bait to see what the people under their surveillance did. They’ll be here any minute.” She edged Angel a little sideways. Hugged her again and whispered in her ear, “We need to run.”
Clarkson’s mouth thinned. “There’s no way they’ll link this to me.”
“They were watching Branson all night. They know it isn’t him.”
He lifted the gun, aiming not at her but at Angel’s mother, the woman who’d ultimately betrayed him—the only person left alive who knew the true extent of his crimes. Valerie was the true reason he’d brought them all here.
Angel’s mother seemed to figure it out in the same moment. Her hand shook as she pointed the gun at Guy. They stared into one another’s eyes. “Please,” she said. And then she pulled the trigger.
* * *
Parker drove like
the getaway man from a bank heist. Rooney was in the back, strapped in, laptop on her knees as she and Matt poured over satellite imagery. Scarlett had been out of his sight for twenty-five minutes and was probably in mortal danger, and it was his fault. He’d been blind because of some outdated notion of what…that American housewives didn’t commit espionage, or weren’t dangerous? How stupid could he get?
Had he lost Scarlett forever? Even if he found her alive would she forgive the fact he’d lied to her about her best friend? Right now, he could only think about getting her to safety. Everything else would wait.
He had Rooney’s phone to his ear as the traffic cops fed him information.
“Camera has her as far as Fenwick Street North.” Which they were just passing. “But they didn’t pass Bladensburgh Road.” He repeated what the operator told him.
“Big intersection ahead,” Parker stated, not slowing down. “Left or right?”
Matt was staring at a map of the area. Industrial plots and residential houses. He zoomed in on a big green space. There were two big crosses on the ground visible from the air. What the hell was that?
“Left or right?” Parker demanded.
“Left,” Frazer ordered.
Matt stared harder. It was a cemetery. “Right.”
Parker went right. They took the corner hard, and Matt cushioned Rooney as she was pressed against him from the g-force. They were traveling too fast to take the first right again and ended up on Montana Avenue. “Mount Olivet Cemetery on the right-hand side.”
The dispatcher was talking him through more negative sightings on the traffic cams. Suddenly the phone went dead. “Shit. I lost the signal.”
Parker pulled over so fast Matt thought he’d get whiplash. “Then they’re here.” Parker pointed to the iron railings that surrounded the cemetery.
“How can you be so sure?” Matt asked. Then he spotted it. A big ass cell tower fifty feet away, which should have provided crystal-clear service, but didn’t. “Bingo.” They got out of the car, and he vaulted the railing. Rooney was pissed that she needed help to get over the high metal fence.
“Everyone is wearing a vest, yes?” They all nodded, weapons drawn. Frazer pointed Parker and Rooney north behind the building to circle around from one side while they went the other.
* * *
Scarlett didn’t wait
to see whether or not Valerie hit Clarkson. She pushed Angel ahead of her. “Run!” There was another shot behind her. And then another. Scarlett risked a look, and Valerie was down on the ground, hands outstretched above her head.
“Mom?” Angel tried to turn around.
Scarlett grabbed her arm and shoved her along. “Run, dammit.”
She heard footsteps behind them and knew Clarkson was in pursuit. They were almost at the side of the nearest storage shed when a fourth shot rang out. The force of the bullet hit just beneath her right shoulder blade, punching hard enough to drop her to her knees. Angel stopped and whirled, but then a dark figure—Matt—stepped out from behind the wall. Another man dove on top of her friend as a bullet whizzed over her head and smashed into the wall. Matt took aim and fired two shots.
The silence that followed seemed to swallow up sound. All she could hear was her breath rasping in her chest as she sank to the icy grass.
Arms rolled her over. “Scarlett? Are you okay?”
Matt
. He’d found her.
Hands kept searching her body, icy cold seeping in when he ripped up her sweater and scanned every inch of flesh. “It’s okay.” She tried to grab his hands. “I’m not hit. Just winded.” Holy hell, it
hurt
.
“I’m so fucking sorry I let them get their hands on you.” Matt closed his eyes. “When I saw you go down…” His voice cracked. “I thought I’d lost you.”
She touched his cheek and smiled. “You
found
me.”
His arms closed around her. “I should never have let you go in the first place.”
“I love you.” It came out as if she’d said it a million times, rather than being the first time. “I should have told you on the phone earlier, but I was scared you didn’t mean it, or you’d changed your mind.”
Matt kissed her. Not a polite peck on the lips, but a toe-curling, lip searing, take-me-to-Heaven smacker. Immediately her heart started beating faster and her blood heated. She wrapped her arms around him and never wanted to let go.
Then Angel’s forlorn cry of “Mom!” shattered her happiness and her relief. She clung to Matt as she listened to her friend scream out her grief. And although Scarlett was glad they’d finally found the real traitors, she hurt too. All those years she’d been taking comfort from the person who’d been responsible for setting up her father. She felt so stupid. So used. Matt helped her up out of the damp grass and tucked her under his arm.
Their footsteps crunched as they walked across to where Guy Clarkson lay dead. Matt handed his weapon to Frazer who took it with a nod. Scarlett knew that anyone involved in this type of shooting had to go through all sorts of questioning, but there could be little doubt it was justified.
Angel was bent over her mother’s body, holding her hand. Someone had released her bonds. “Mom,” she sobbed. “Don’t die. Please don’t die.”
Parker met Scarlett’s gaze and shook his head.