Protecting His Witness (Red Stone Security Series) (15 page)

When he heard one of the bedroom doors shut, he let the drape fall back into place as Jordan walked out from the hallway wearing tan shorts and a blue spaghetti strap top that showed off way too much skin. Shoving back his possessive side, he held a finger to his lips and pointed for her to head back to the bedrooms.

For a moment she looked as if she might argue, but then she nodded and did as he said. As she left, he turned off the alarm, switched off the lights in the house then crept to the front door. He kept his weapon loose at his side as he eased open the front door.

Blue was on his phone arguing with someone as he shut the driver’s door. When he saw Vincent, he muttered something too low for him to hear and slid his phone in his back pocket. Dressed in similar attire as Vincent, Blue strode toward him, but Vincent shut the front door and stepped outside.

He wasn’t letting the other man inside until he had some answers. “How’d you know the code? And how’d you know where this place is?”

Blue scrubbed a hand over his dark hair that he still wore military short. “Zoe gave it to me.”

A range of emotions surged through Vincent as he looked at his friend, then the SUV, but he sheathed his weapon. “You’re the one who picked her up earlier. You’ve been in the city since I contacted you.” He wasn’t asking.

He nodded, his expression wary. “I would have come sooner, but I couldn’t.”

He tried to rein his temper in. “You and Zoe?” Yeah, he couldn’t ask the rest of that question.

“It’s not what you think. She’s in trouble and needed my help. She refused to ask you. It’s why I’m here with her.”

“Zoe’s in trouble? What’s going on?” Shit, and he’d kicked her out of their family home? He’d thought he was keeping her safer being away from him and Jordan. “And why didn’t she come to me?”

“Listen, V, I’m not getting in the middle of anything with you and your family. Zoe needed help, and I think she was too embarrassed to ask you. That’s all I can tell you. She’ll probably rip off my nuts for even doing that much, but I told her I had to come clean. I don’t like lying to you.”

“She gave you the code?”

Blue nodded.

“Is she safe now?”

His head tilted to the side, his expression incredulous. “Seriously, man? I wouldn’t have left her otherwise. Got an old friend staying with her until we sort out…her issues. He’s trained.”

Vincent wanted to call her, hell, to go see her and demand some answers but now wasn’t the time. Maybe he should send Blue back to his sister. He had other friends arriving soon. They could handle this situation.

“I can see what you’re about to say and the answer is no. Zoe practically forced me to come here. I…didn’t want to leave her but she said if you were actually asking for help it must be important. She had a few other choice words for how dumb you were to be helping some female and after I pointed out the irony of her statement, she punched me in the arm. So here I am and I’m not going anywhere until your woman is safe.”

He nodded once, knowing he’d have to wait to talk to his sister later. If Blue said she was safe, he believed him. “Thanks. Come on, Jordan’s inside. I want you to meet her and we can go over the plan.”

Once inside he turned some of the lights back on and headed for his and Jordan’s room. He found her hiding in the closet with one of his weapons. “Everything okay?” she whispered, her grip tight on the pistol.

He nodded and held out a hand for it. She immediately gave it to him and rushed into his arms. He kissed the top of her head. “My friend’s here.”

At that she tensed and he knew why. Earlier he’d told her he’d be handling everything by himself and leaving her with Blue. “I can’t just stay here while you go off in danger. Not when this whole situation is my fault.” The guilt threading through her voice slammed through him.

Stepping out into the room, he placed the weapon on one of the dressers and turned her to face him. “None of this is your fault.”

Her expression tight, she placed a hand on his chest. “I brought this whole mess into your life, Vincent. And I’m so sorry. For more than just this, for everything. For leaving, for—”

“Enough with the apologies,” he growled, putting his hand over hers and squeezing. “None of this is your fault. This woman has clearly been stalking you. Probably because you put her half brother in jail. I don’t care what the reason is. I just don’t want you blaming yourself and I don’t want to hear you say you’re sorry again. I
need
to help you, so let me. Please.” She belonged to him and he took care of his own.

She nodded slowly, but he could still see the hesitation in her eyes. “Okay, but don’t shut me out. I want to help.”

He didn’t want her anywhere near what he had planned, but he nodded anyway. Though he wouldn’t shut her out, he wasn’t letting her be physically involved in this in any way. Hell no. “Come on. Let’s go over the plan and you can tell me what you think.”

* * * * *

Celia Olson watched the steady red blip on her screen. Almost all day the red blip had stayed at one location and it had been too difficult for her to get inside that house or property by herself. The wall had been way too high to climb without anyone seeing her. And right now she had to be invisible. She couldn’t afford to make any mistakes, and getting noticed by a random witness was stupid and something she refused to let happen.

It was how her brother Curtis had been caught. Because of a stupid mistake. He thought he could kidnap that clothing store owner with no backup so instead of waiting for her, in his arrogance, he had gone alone. And gotten taken down by a single woman with a Taser. The only smart thing Curtis had done was lie to the Feds and tell them their brother Corey had helped him in kidnapping and torturing all those women. Corey hadn’t been involved at all. He’d been terrified of both her and Curtis. Sure he hadn’t minded robbing people with her all those years ago, but simple robbery was where he drew the line. When she’d wanted to involve him in other things he’d called her a sick pervert and kicked her out of his life.

She’d planned to kill him then, but he’d known. It was why he’d been in hiding for so long until she’d finally managed to hunt him down and kill him a few months ago. He’d been so wasted that shoving that knife in his gut had been child’s play. Leaving him to bleed out behind that bar in Texas had been the perfect way to dispose of him. She thought it was what Curtis had wanted but after she’d murdered Corey, Curtis had killed himself in prison.

Supposedly.

She still didn’t believe that. There was no way her brother would have offed himself. It had been virtually impossible to stay in touch with him over the years. Occasionally she sent him letters under the guise of being one of his groupies, but she’d never known for sure if he’d recognized the letters as being from her. Because he’d never responded to any of them.

That had stung but she knew he’d just been looking out for her safety. Otherwise he would have given her up a long time ago. She still didn’t like that he’d given the authorities the location of so many of the women they’d murdered but at least he’d kept one to himself.

One unmarked grave she could visit whenever she wanted. Feeling flushed, she squirmed in her seat as she thought about visiting it as soon as she was done with Jordan. If Curtis was here he could have had fun with Jordan before killing the bitch, but Celia just wanted to be done with her.

After the mistake she’d made with the car bomb, she didn’t want to bring any heat down on herself. Across from the marina where Jordan had gone, Celia sat in a deserted motel parking lot and decided to suck it up and take care of the woman once and for all.

Then she could leave Key West and pick up where she and Curtis had left off. Not that she’d ever really stopped. She’d still been killing when she hadn’t been hunting for Corey, but it wasn’t the same without a partner.

Celia had twisted her hair into a tight bun and wore a summer dress. Under it she had on a skintight yoga bodysuit that ended at the top of her thighs. With a weapons belt strapped across her middle, the bodysuit helped keep it secured in place and the dress was loose enough to cover the bulge. She wasn’t sure why Jordan had come to a marina, but she was worried the woman might be trying to leave Key West by boat. If that happened she’d lose the ability to track her for a while. She didn’t know anything about boats and couldn’t hire someone to follow another one. That would just be odd and draw more suspicion to herself.

After grabbing her oversized purse filled with lighter fluid and multiple lighters, she headed across the street. Keeping her stride casual, she was relieved that there were only half a dozen vehicles in the gravelly parking lot of the marina.

As she neared the docks, she slowed but kept her pace relaxed even though she felt anything but. Her heart was racing double time and she had to wipe her palms on her dress once. Partly from excitement but also from nerves. If Jordan was with her lover, then taking them both out would be tricky. Celia would have to shoot the man first. That would be the smartest move. Disable the biggest threat first. At least she had a suppressor to mute the noise of gunfire. But she’d have to be fast and take him down with one shot.

Music played from somewhere to her left and she could see three boats that had interior lights on in the western area of the docks. But according to her laptop, the boat Jordan was on lay docked on the east side, in a secluded section of the marina. Google Earth had given her a decent aerial view of the layout so she knew where she was going.

Heart racing, she surveyed her surroundings as she walked down the last wooden dock. She’d worn dive slippers as part of her backup plan in case things went wrong. They were silent against the wooden planks except for a few creaks every now and then.

Most of the boats along this dock were too small to live in and none of the interior lights were on except for in one. While she didn’t know much about boats, she could see the illumination coming through a curtained window of the fairly large vessel. She could also hear faint music and laughter. Male and female.

Maybe Jordan wasn’t leaving. Maybe this was some sort of getaway with her lover. She probably thought she was safe. Celia smiled. She’d followed the tracker on her screen instead of actually following Jordan and it had been obvious the driver was trying to make sure they didn’t have a tail. After Jordan’s car had been blown up she would have been stupid not to be afraid or cautious.

After one more glance around the secluded part of the marina, Celia reached into her purse and pulled out one of the small white tins of lighter fluid. She popped off the red cap then stepped onto the back of the boat. The water around it didn’t even make a ripple. Stepping down into the back of the open white deck area, she started spraying the fluid everywhere, but was careful not to spill any on herself. She covered every surface; over the deck, the swivel chairs, the wooden paneling.

The dull chatter still continued inside as she hurried down the side of the boat. Once she was on the front, she pulled out another tin and emptied it over every surface she could manage. The splashes of fluid hitting plastic and wood seemed to be over pronounced in the quiet night where there was barely a breeze skittering over the water, but those inside didn’t notice.

Once she was done pouring out the liquid, a sense of elation surged through her, powerful and potent. She never tired of seeing the beauty of flames eating up everything in its path. No two fires were the same yet they were all just as wondrous.

Moving to the back of the boat, she reached inside her purse for her lighter. She was going to be off the boat when it went up in flames, but she wouldn’t go too far. In case those inside managed to escape, she’d just shoot them. Not as much fun, but if she had to do it, she would. Then she’d leave exactly the way she’d come. It would take at least a few minutes for anyone else to see the blaze and that would give her enough time to make it to her car. She’d be ditching it and replacing it as soon as possible though.

As her fingers clasped around the cool metal of the lighter, she couldn’t fight the smile spreading across her face. She flicked it on. The small orange flame danced before her eyes, beautiful and hypnotic. Hungry. But before she could toss it onto the back deck, a bright spotlight suddenly shone in her face. She lifted a hand, trying to shield her face.

“Hands in the air now! Drop the lighter!” an angry male voice shouted.

“Hands up now!” Another louder voice followed.

Panic slithered down her spine as she tried to look around. The spotlight was making it difficult but she could see the silhouette of multiple men, some on neighboring boats, and they all held guns. She could also hear and feel footsteps pounding down the dock coming toward her.

There was no way they were taking her in alive.

Feigning surrender, she held her hands up as the shouting continued. But she didn’t let go of the lighter. As the steps grew closer, she let her body go lax and fell forward toward the opening between the two tied up boats. She tossed the lighter as she fell.

She heard shots and angry shouts right before she hit the surface of the water. The cool wetness was a rush against her senses as she kicked and swam with all her might. She might not be able to get away but she was damn sure going to try.

Too disoriented to tell how many men there had been, she knew it was enough that her chances of escape were slim. But if she could take down one of them with her, she’d do it.