Love Inspired Suspense December 2015, Box Set 2 of 2 (31 page)

He turned to face her, and the hope that blazed in his eyes pierced her heart. “What about now?” he asked. “Do you think we could?”

She shook her head. “I don't know. The years have damaged me, and I'm afraid I can't ever be the woman you deserve. I want something better for you.”

He reached over and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and touched her cheek in a soft caress. “There's no one better than you. We deserve some happiness. Don't we?”

She closed her eyes and nodded. “We do, but I'm not sure I can ever make you happy. I'm afraid I would only prove a disappointment to you.”

He closed his fingers around hers and brought her hand to his mouth. She tingled all over when he pressed his lips to her palm. “You could never disappoint me. Just promise me one thing.”

“What?”

“Promise me that you won't close the door on us. Think about it, and when this hunt for Tony Chapman is over, we can talk about how we go about working out our problems. Can you do that?”

She wanted to refuse, but the pleading look he directed at her wouldn't let her. After a moment she nodded. “I can do that. We'll talk later.”

Lucas smiled and started the car. “Good. That's all I'm asking right now.”

Mia pulled her seat belt tight and settled back in her seat as Lucas maneuvered out of the parking lot. When he didn't turn in the direction that led downtown, she swiveled to face him. “I thought we were going to police headquarters to turn this evidence in.”

“We are, but I need to make a short detour first.”

“Where are we going?”

He glanced at her, and a shy smile tugged at his mouth. “Tomorrow is the day the sanitation workers pick up the trash on my street. I always put Mrs. Peterson's garbage can out for her and bring it back in at the end of the day. I try to get there before dinner, so she won't worry about it. So we'll just go by and get that done, and I can put mine out, too, while I'm there.”

A heaviness filled her chest at his words. How like Lucas to remember that he had a responsibility to an elderly neighbor even when it wasn't a convenient time for him. He truly was the best man she had ever known. She turned to stare out the window and placed her hand over her chest as if to keep her heart from breaking at the regret for past choices.

Neither of them spoke until Lucas pulled to a stop in his driveway. “I'll only be a few minutes,” he said as he climbed out of the car.

Mia nodded and watched him roll his garbage can to the end of his driveway and then run across the street to Mrs. Peterson's house. The elderly woman came to the front door and waved when he'd pushed her can down.

“Thanks, Lucas,” she yelled.

He glanced at Mia waiting in the car and walked back to where Mrs. Peterson stood. They talked for a few minutes, and then he was back in the car. He smiled at her as he started the car and was about to back out of the driveway when his cell phone chimed that a text message had just arrived. He pulled his phone out and grinned when he saw the message.

“Mom wants to know if we found what we were looking for at the gym.”

“Text her back and tell her we're just leaving to go to the police.”

Lucas nodded, and his fingers tapped out the quick message. He was about to put the phone back in his pocket when it chimed again. He grimaced as he read the message, and then looked up at Mia.

“She needs me to come by the house for a minute before we go downtown.”

Mia frowned and leaned over to try to get a better view of the message. “Did she say what she wanted?”

Lucas shook his head. “No, but she doesn't text often. So when she does, I know it's important.” He glanced at his watch. “I'd better go see what she wants.”

“I think I'll stay with her to help with dinner while you take the jewelry to the police. That is, if it's okay with you.”

He smiled, and her heart pounded. “I think that's great. I want you and my mother to get to know each other better.”

She wanted that, too. While she'd waited for Lucas to go to Mrs. Peterson's house, she'd thought about their conversation earlier in the gym parking lot. She still wasn't sure they could ever have a relationship, but the first glimmer of hope had begun to cast a glow in her soul.

She settled back in the seat and smiled all the way to the Knights' house. When they pulled into the driveway, Lucas glanced around and frowned. “Dad's not home yet. He was going to do some work at the agency this afternoon but said he'd be home way before dinner.”

Lucas jumped from the car and appeared at her door before she had time to grab the handle. He pulled the door open, and she handed him the gym bag. “We don't need to leave this in the car,” she said. Taking the bag from her, he smiled and reached for her hand. She stared up into his eyes for a moment before she placed her hand in his. With a smile on his lips, he laced their fingers together and led her toward the house.

The Christmas lights on the front porch had already been turned on, and Mia glanced up at Lucas as they stopped in front of the door. “Your mother invited me for Christmas. Do you want me to come?”

He squeezed her fingers tighter and smiled. “If you're not here, I'll come looking for you.”

They laughed and walked inside. The smell of baking bread drifted through the air, and Mia's stomach growled. Lucas bumped her shoulder with his and grinned. “Hungry?”

“Starved,” she said.

He leaned over and touched his lips to her forehead. “I love a woman with a healthy appetite,” he whispered as he pulled back. Then he glanced toward the kitchen. “Mom, where are you?”

His mother's soft voice answered. “I-I'm in here, Lucas.”

Mia's stomach clenched at the frightened tone of Mrs. Knight's voice, and Lucas dropped her hand as he stormed toward the kitchen. At the door he stopped suddenly, and Mia plowed into his back.

A chuckle reached her ears, and the breath left her body. She'd heard that voice before. She peeked around Lucas and struggled to keep her knees from collapsing. Mrs. Knight sat in one of the kitchen chairs.

Tony Chapman stood behind her with a gun pointed to her head.

Mia gasped and took a step back but turned when something nudged her in the back. She glanced over her shoulder and grasped Lucas's arm when Donnie Miller raised his hand and pointed a gun at her head.

CHAPTER TWELVE

L
ucas's knees trembled so hard he felt they might collapse at any moment, and he grabbed at the doorjamb to keep from falling. His gaze locked onto the gun in Chapman's hand, and he stared at it, almost unable to believe what he was seeing. A small cry escaped his mother's throat, and he blinked.

“I'm so sorry, Lucas,” she said as a tear ran down her cheek. “They used my phone to text you that message. I would never have called you back here to see this.”

He tried to shake the image of his mother's face from his mind, but he couldn't. He put his arm behind him to shield Mia against his back, but she leaned against him. “Lucas,” she whispered. “Look over your shoulder.”

Reluctantly he pulled his gaze away from his mother's face and peered back at her. His heart plummeted to the pit of his stomach when he saw Donnie Miller with a gun pointed to Mia's head. Struggling to control the rage that had begun to flow through his body, he turned forward again. “What do you want, Chapman?”

Tony laughed. “What do you think I want? What I've been looking for ever since I had to kill that two-timing Kyle Lockhart.” He glanced down at the gym bag in Lucas's hand. “And I think you've just brought it to me.”

Lucas glanced down at the bag he was holding. “All right. If that's what you want, let my mother and Mia go, and you can have the bag.”

The corner of Tony's mouth lifted in a smirk. “Oh, I'm going to get it, but I'm not sure yet what's going to happen to these two lovely ladies you seem to care so much about.” His face dissolved into a grim mask of hatred as he glared at Mia. He turned his head so that Lucas could get a good look at the red burns that streaked the side of his face. “Especially the one who did this to me. I have a score to settle with her.”

Lucas's stomach clenched, and he held out the bag. “You can have this. Just let them go.”

Tony glanced down at the gym bag again. “I don't think you're in a position to bargain. Now drop your gun to the floor and place the bag on the table.”

Fear flashed across his mother's face, and she tried to rise from the chair. Tony grabbed her shoulder and pushed her back into the seat. “Lucas, no,” she whispered. “Don't give up your gun. You know he's going to kill all of us.”

Lucas hesitated a moment, unsure of what to do. He'd faced death many times when he was a navy SEAL, but he'd always had his band of brothers there with him. Now he was alone, and Chapman and Miller were threatening the lives of the two women he loved most in this world. Did he risk all their lives by giving up his gun, or did he take his chance that he might be able to get at least one shot off before Chapman or Miller could react?

Tony pressed the gun harder against his mother's head, and in the end Lucas did the only thing he could. He pulled his gun from its holster, dropped it to the floor and set the bag on the kitchen table. His mother looked up at him, a sad smile on her lips.

“I'm sorry,” he whispered.

He could see tears shining in her eyes. “Don't worry, son,” she said. “I understand.”

Behind him he heard movement, and he turned to see Donnie holding on to Mia's arm. He pushed her past Lucas and propelled her across the room. They came to a stop next to the others. Lucas let his gaze drift over the group now facing him—Chapman with a gun to his mother's head and Miller holding one on Mia.

Donnie slipped his gun back in the waistband of his pants and glanced at Chapman. “Hold on to her while I check to see if everything's there.”

Chapman reached out and wrapped his left hand around Mia's arm but still aimed the gun in his right hand at Lucas's mother. Lucas watched as Donnie unzipped the bag and threw the clothes on top to the floor. When he peered into the bottom of the bag, a big grin covered his face. The smile grew larger by the second when he reached inside and began to take inventory.

After a few minutes he nodded to Tony. “It looks like it's all here. Now take care of them and let's get out of here.”

Donnie's words sent panic racing through Lucas, and his eyes grew wide. “Wait,” he said. “You two have already committed enough crimes to keep you in jail for the rest of your lives. You don't need to add more to it.”

“We may not need to add more to it, but we're going to,” Tony seethed. “This deal wasn't supposed to take this long or have so many problems with it.” He glanced at Mia. “We wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for Lockhart double-crossing us. We had a nice business going, and we were all getting rich when he decided he wanted it all. He and that Abbott woman thought they could fake a robbery of this shipment, and we wouldn't be any wiser. Too bad they were wrong.”

Lucas glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. If he could keep Chapman talking, he might be able to stall them until his father arrived home, and together they might be able to take down Chapman and Miller. He licked his lips, searched his mind for how to play for time and took a deep breath. “So it's true that you and Kyle were smuggling artifacts into the country and selling them off the books through Shackleford's Imports. How long had you been doing that?”

Tony shrugged. “Since right after old man Shackleford got sick and Kyle took over the business. I met Donnie about five years ago when we were both knocking around Europe. We ended up working for some guys in Paris who hooked us up with a smuggling ring. They set us up with a cartel that wanted access to my contacts down in New Orleans and could get the goods into the country and up the Mississippi River to Memphis. All we needed was someone in the import business who had clients that would pay top money for one-of-a-kind artifacts.”

“And that's where Kyle came in.” The angry tone of Mia's voice made Lucas's breath hitch in his throat. What was she doing? She didn't need to make Chapman angrier.

“Mia...” he began, but Chapman was quicker.

He wrapped his fingers around Mia's neck and pulled upward until she was standing on her tiptoes. Her face turned red, and Lucas took a step toward her.

“Back off,” Chapman ordered, “unless you want me to blow her brains out right here.”

Lucas held up his hands. “Calm down. There's no need to get excited. Let go of her neck.” Tony squeezed harder and then laughed as he released his hold on Mia's throat. Lucas breathed a sigh of relief and then continued. “So Kyle was your front man and sold the stolen artifacts for you. And Donnie was there at Shackleford's to help make sure that nothing showed up in the official records. You were all working together until Kyle went behind your back and...what was it you said? He pretended the shipment had been robbed?”

Donnie looked up from inventorying the contents of the bag and zipped it closed. “That's right. Lockhart and his girlfriend planned to sell it on their own. We couldn't let them do that.”

Lucas glanced at the clock again. He didn't know how much longer he could keep them talking. “So you killed Christine, too?”

Chapman nodded. “I took Donnie and Clyde to her house to use her boat so Clyde wouldn't have to drive up to the front door of Lockhart's house. We didn't expect the two of you to show up. At first, it seemed like the perfect chance to grab our little troublemaker here.” He gave Mia an evil grin. “But when you caught Clyde, and he decided to make a deal, I had to take care of him, too. Then I went back to meet up with Donnie at Christine's.”

Donnie chuckled. “Yeah, it was kind of funny that I was holding a gun on her the whole time she stood at the door talking to the police about her boat being stolen. When they were gone, I paid her back for double-crossing us.”

Lucas shook his head. “How do you guys live with yourselves? I suppose you shot Janet, too.”

Donnie nodded. “Yeah, once I overheard her talking to you and realized she knew about the jewelry, she had to be taken care of. I didn't shoot to kill, just to hurt her bad enough to shut her up. By the time she's able to talk to the police, we'll be long gone. So I guess she got off lucky.”

“Lucky?” Mia shouted. “The woman is badly hurt and may die, and you say she's lucky. What kind of men are you?” Lucas took a step forward as Donnie started to raise his gun.

“The kind who are about to do the same to you if you don't shut up,” Donnie snarled.

Lucas held up his hands. “Calm down. There's one thing I don't understand, though. How did you guess we were going to the gym to look for the artifacts today?”

Donnie and Tony exchanged knowing glances before Tony looked at Lucas. “We figured this was the only place you'd feel safe bringing your girlfriend, and we watched until we were sure she was staying here. Then a few days ago while everybody was out, I disabled the security system and picked the lock on the back door so I could leave some bugs all over the house. We've been listening to your conversations ever since. Today we knew it had paid off because it made sense that Lockhart had stashed the loot at his gym.”

Donnie pointed to the bag. “And there it is. And now it's time for us to be going.” He turned to Chapman. “I'll leave the girl to you since you have a score to settle with her. I'll get the other two.”

Perspiration popped out on Lucas's forehead, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He had to do something. Then he blinked as Donnie raised his gun and aimed it at him. A movement caught his eye, and his stomach lurched. A strangled cry escaped his lips as his mother pushed up from her chair.

Before he could warn her off, she launched herself at him just as Donnie pulled the trigger. He heard Mia's scream, but it sounded as if it came from far away. He was only conscious of his mother's body jerking at the impact of the bullet ripping through her. With a muffled cry she collapsed against Lucas. He wrapped his arms around her and cradled her body against his. With a thud they tumbled to the floor.

The sound of the bullet still ringing in his ears, time stood still for him, and he felt himself spiraling into the mind-set of the well-trained combat SEAL he'd once been. Before he had time to think, once again he was on the battlefield, and the survival of those around him depended on what he did next. In one swift movement he scooped up his gun, which lay a few feet away, and fired off two rounds.

Donnie's eyes opened in shock as the two bullets found their mark, and the gun dropped from his hand. His eyes glazed, and then he fell to the floor.

Lucas turned the gun on Chapman, but Chapman held Mia in front of him. His left arm circled Mia's waist with the gym bag dangling from his hand. The right one still held the gun next to Mia's head.

“I'm leaving now, Knight, and if you come after me, I'll kill her.”

Mia's frightened eyes appeared locked on his mother's figure, and a tear rolled down her cheek. “Take care of your mother, Lucas,” she said.

And then Chapman pulled her backward, and she was gone.

Lucas heard the front door burst open and running footsteps. He'd just pulled out his cell phone when his father ran through the kitchen door. His mouth gaped open, and he dropped to his knees next to his wife.

“What happened?”

Lucas shoved the phone in his hand. “Call 911. We need an ambulance and the police. Tony Chapman has taken Mia.”

He knelt beside his mother and laid her on the floor. “Mom,” he whispered. “You're going to be okay.”

She opened her eyes and smiled. “Go after Mia.” Her voice was so weak he could hardly hear her, and tears filled his eyes. His mother frowned. “Go, before he gets away,” she murmured. Then she closed her eyes and drifted into unconsciousness.

Tears stung his eyes, and Lucas leaned over and kissed her forehead before he jumped to his feet and ran to the back door. He looked back at his mother once before running outside. His dad was with his mom, and he had to hurry. Mia's life depended on it.

* * *

The moment Tony Chapman pulled her out the back door, he stuck the gun to her head again. “My car is parked at the end of the street in the cul-de-sac,” he muttered. “Don't make a sound or I'll kill you before we get there. And then I'll go back inside and kill your boyfriend.”

Mia's heart pounded as if it was about to burst, and all she could do was stare at him wildly and nod. He tightened his grip on her arm and started around the house to the street, but he ducked against the house and yanked her to him when a car pulled into the driveway.

Muttering under his breath, Tony dragged her back the way they had come and headed behind the home. “This way. We'll go through the backyards to get to my car,” he whispered as he propelled her toward the house next door.

As they ran behind the neighbor's house, Mia blinked at how brightly lit the backyards were from the Christmas lights on all the neighborhood houses. In the distance she heard sirens, and she knew Lucas had been able to call 911. She stared up into the sky as Tony half dragged her across the yard and prayed that help would reach Lucas's mother before it was too late.

Suddenly a large German shepherd dog ran off the back porch of the neighboring house and rushed at them, his teeth bared and his bark splitting the air. Mia gasped in horror as she saw Tony raising the gun at the approaching dog. She screamed and slammed her body against his before he could pull the trigger. The impact knocked him off balance, and he fell to the ground. The gym bag that he'd been holding flew from his grasp and landed a few feet away from him. The dog came to a stop and stood nearby growling, his hackles raised as if daring Tony to rise.

Tony didn't take his eyes off the dog as he slowly pushed to his feet. His face contorted with rage as he turned to Mia and raised the gun. “You've gotten away from me for the last time.” She held up her hands in front of her face as if that could ward off the bullet he was about to fire. Before he could, a voice yelled out.

“Mia! Where are you?”