His To Keep (29 page)

Jason Carlson.

Nic had met the man only once, the day he’d told the man to stay away from Annie or he’d put him in jail. Or the hospital. The guy was scum.

Annie had worked for a law firm before coming to DeMarcos. When Carlson had joined the firm, he’d taken one look at Annie and decided he wanted her. He’d gotten the firm to assign her as his assistant and began to pursue her with cold-blooded ruthlessness.

One night, Carlson had cornered her in his office and nearly raped her. Luckily, Annie had kept her head and kneed the bastard before he’d hurt her. She’d told Janey, who’d encouraged her to tell Frank. Frank had taken care of Carlson with the firm’s senior partners. Janey had let it slip to Nic one night.

Nic had managed to restrain himself until the guy made a few comments to the press that made it sound like Annie had come onto him then gotten him fired when he’d turned her down. Then he couldn’t stand it anymore. Nic had confronted Carlson. Actually, he’d told him he’d make Carlson regret the day he was born with a few anatomically impossible threats.

Damn it. This wasn’t about him. At least, not completely.

This was about Annie.

The look he now leveled on Candace made her shiver. Good. “I suggest you take a good, long vacation, Ms. Trudeau. One where I won’t be able to find you after I take care of your husband. If you don’t, I’ll ruin you without laying a hand on you. And you’ll never see it coming. And if anything happens to Annie, you won’t be able to hide. I will find you.”

She stiffened, trying to project disdain but he sensed her fear beneath it. “Are you threatening me?”

“I don’t have to threaten. I’ll never lay a finger on you. There are easier ways to take care of people like you. When I’m finished with you, no one in Philadelphia society will be seen with you, much less mention your name except as a cautionary tale.”

By the time he finished, she’d gone as pale as the paint on the walls behind her.

“Goodbye, Ms. Trudeau. You better hope we don’t see each other again.”

Then he turned and ran for the car, pulling out his cell phone as he went.

* * * * *

Annie heard the doorbell ring as she was heading back down to the first floor.

She wasn’t expecting anyone. Nic would have let himself in. Janey would have called to say she was coming, as would her mother or Colin or anyone else she knew. Fed Ex or UPS would leave a message and Girl Scout cookie time had passed.

She paused, stopping above the sightline of anyone looking through her front windows. Hell, Nic’s paranoia had infected her.

Still, better safe than sorry.

When the doorbell didn’t ring again, she continued down to the first floor. She saw no one on the porch or the street.

She checked the front door. Still locked and no packages on the porch.

With everything going on, suspicion formed into a hard lump in her chest.

She touched the back pocket of her jeans, reassuring herself that her phone was there, then headed for the kitchen. She wasn’t going to call Nic, didn’t want to jump at shadows.

And she didn’t want to be stupidly naïve either. In the kitchen, she checked the alarm system. Green lights across the board.

Jehovah’s Witnesses. Kids selling candy. Anyone could have pressed her doorbell for any number of reasons. No need to freak out about it.

Opening the refrigerator, she reached inside for a soda and, out of the corner of her, saw a shadow pass across the kitchen window.

In the next second, the window blew in.

Chapter Thirteen

Nic whipped his truck through the narrow side streets of center city, avoiding the tangles of Broad and Market streets.

Blood pounded in his ears, his heart raced and nobody was fucking picking up their phones.

He was about to call his mom when Mal finally called him back.

“Where the hell are you? Annie’s not picking up her phone and I know who’s behind the calls. I think he’s going after Annie right now.”

“Janey and I took Toni for lunch but we’re on our way home now.” Mal’s calm tone helped Nic’s heart rate slow a fraction. “We should be there in a couple minutes.”

“I’ll be there in less. Make sure Toni and Janey get in the house and stay there until I tell them it’s okay to come out.”

“We’re on our way—”

Nic cut Mal off and dialed Annie again. Still no answer. He threw the phone onto the seat next to him and pressed the gas pedal a little closer to the floor.

He skidded to a stop in front of Annie’s house only a minute or so later. The front door was locked and he pushed through, calling out her name.

“Annie! Where are you? Why didn’t you pick up your phone?”

“Because she wasn’t in a position to answer it. Why don’t you come into the kitchen and join us, Nic.”

His chest constricted and he couldn’t get enough air. Panic attack. Typically, only his claustrophobia brought one on. Now, just the thought of something happening to Annie made him want to hyperventilate.

Which he refused to do. He needed to keep his head.

He knew that voice, would have known it even if he hadn’t been forewarned by Candace Trudeau.

Shoving his gun in the back of his pants where Carlson hopefully wouldn’t see it, Nic raised his arms and walked into the kitchen.

Annie sat at the table, her hands in view on the top. Jason Carlson stood behind her, the gun in his hand pointed at her head.

Nic punched down his fury. “Annie, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

Her voice held only the slightest hint of a tremble, her eyes were dry and her hands weren’t shaking. Only her lips quivered, which she covered by biting down on the bottom one hard enough to leave a mark.

“I haven’t hurt her. Not yet anyway. We were waiting for you.”

“If you let her go, you can take your best shot at me, Carlson.”

“But see, my best shot at you is through her, isn’t it?”

Annie’s entire body erupted in shivers at the sound of that voice so close to her.

She’d had a moment of complete and utter bemusement when she’d realized who had walked through the blown-out window in her kitchen. It was almost surreal, but it also made perfect sense in a totally psycho way.

“What I don’t understand is why you’re so in love with this slut.”

That bemusement had fast turned to a nauseating mixture of fury and fear.

Handsome, venomous Jason Carlson had been the bogeyman of her dreams for at least a year after the night he’d cornered her in his office. She’d never liked him, not from the first moment she’d met him at the law firm where she’d managed a family friend’s practice. After his retirement, the firm had hired Carlson.

Carlson had thought he was entitled to more than her secretarial services. And she had refused to give up her job because of one asshole.

She’d been lucky for two months. Carlson never had the opportunity to get her alone. And then one night…

She still shuddered to think how awful it could have been. Luckily, he hadn’t thought she’d put up much of a fight. She’d proved him wrong.

And when she would’ve quit, not wanting to drag her name through the papers, Frank had stepped in and had the senior partners fire him.

Then one of the daily rags had run a gossip column item that had included her name and Carlson’s. She assumed Frank had taken care of that, as well. Carlson had disappeared after that. She’d heard he’d moved.

Now here he stood, looking at her with as much hate in his eyes as she had for him. But he had a gun to her head.

And he looked like he’d enjoy using it.

She shivered but refused to panic. She had to keep her head. Nic would think of a way to get them out this. They just had to work together.

With her gaze focused on Nic, she kept her mouth shut, knowing Carlson was taunting her, trying to rile her. Nic would think of something. She had the ultimate faith in him. He’d get them out of this.

Nic put his hands up, never taking his gaze away from Carlson. “What do you want?”

“You know what I want, DeMarco. Or maybe you don’t. You’re not the smart one in the family, are you?”

“So I guess you’re gonna have to spell it out for me.”

“I’m going to put a bullet through her brain while you watch. Then I’m going to shoot you. Simple, really.”

Though she couldn’t see him, she heard the smile in Jason’s voice. In her mind, she imagined a forked tongue slithering from between his lips.

Nic looked cool but she knew he was considering all the angles. “At the risk of sounding like a bad movie, you’re not going to get away with this.”

“Maybe I will. Maybe I won’t. But I’ll go with a smile because you both will get what you deserve. You always were too high and mighty for your own good, Andrea. It’s so nice to see you cringe in terror. You ruined my career, my life. You and this bastard.”

She almost missed the signal Nic sent her. At least, she hoped it was a signal and that she’d interpreted it correctly. He’d glanced at the floor, just a quick flash of motion, so fast she had to wonder if that was what she’d actually seen.

It would totally suck to get this wrong.

Taking a deep breath, she let her gaze lock on Nic’s face. Even though he wasn’t looking at her, she knew he saw her every move.

And then she closed her eyes and went limp.

Nic knew Annie had understood what he wanted her to do.

He didn’t know whether to be surprised that she’d picked up his signal or that she didn’t give him a hassle.

He didn’t have time for either because she closed her eyes. In the next second, he grabbed for the gun with one hand and punched Jason Carlson in the face with the other as Annie went limp and dropped to the floor like a stone.

Carlson grunted, the gun went off and Annie screamed.

Sheer panic hit him in the gut. He wanted to make sure she hadn’t been hit but he couldn’t release Carlson. The guy fought like someone who’d had a lot of training.

But so had Nic. He propelled Carlson backward, away from Annie. Carlson’s head hit the cabinets and Nic smashed the guy’s hand against the edge of the counter until he dropped the gun and it clattered to the floor.

Kicking it out of the way, he made the mistake of looking to see if Annie was okay. Carlson landed a fist to his face that rocked his head back and Nic stumbled to the side. Carlson lunged forward and Nic couldn’t get to him fast enough.

But amazingly, Carlson stopped.

“Move another inch and I will shoot you, Jason, somewhere that will hurt much more than your heart.”

Annie’s voice was steady and Nic turned to see her holding the gun exactly like she was supposed to. Only she didn’t have it pointed at Carlson’s chest. No, she had it pointed exactly where she wanted the bullet to go.

Nic straightened, grabbing Carlson’s hands and pulling them behind his back. “Annie, honey, get me something to tie his hands.”