Chapter 15 #3
He’d scoped out a perfect place to dump her in the Colorado River, but then he’d gone and gotten lost. The roads all looked completely different in the dark.
In the end, he’d had to make do with the fucking bridge he’d stumbled upon.
He’d taken a picture with his phone after he’d strangled her, proof of her death.
He had no idea how far down it was to the water, but it sounded pretty far when he’d thrown a rock over the bridge.
He’d then tied the cinderblock to the bitch’s ankles to weigh her down and dumped her over.
The sound her body made when it splashed was satisfying in a way Simon could never explain.
He felt good about another job well done and was dreaming of what he’d spend all his money on when he saw blue lights in his rearview mirror.
“Shit. Fuck. God damn it!” he swore. Taking a deep breath, he mumbled, “Just play it cool, King. They don’t know shit.”
He immediately put on his blinker and pulled over to the shoulder of the road. It seemed to take forever before the state trooper got out of his car.
But instead of coming up to his door, Simon watched as he pulled his sidearm.
“Let me see your hands!” the officer yelled.
Simon’s stomach lurched.
“Shit!” he swore again. Not only had this job been a pain in his ass from day one, it looked like his bad luck hadn’t changed now that he’d completed his assignment.
There was only one reason the cop would be drawing down on him before he’d even walked up to his vehicle to talk to him. If the cops wanted to take him in, they were going to find that Simon King didn’t go down easily.
He opened his door and bolted into the wilderness alongside the road without looking back.
Lefty was riding shotgun in Brain’s 2008 Dodge Challenger, trying to stay positive. It was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do in his life. Everything within him was screaming at him to fix this. But he couldn’t. No one could.
They were headed south toward Austin to aimlessly drive around, but Lefty didn’t have the heart to tell his team that it most likely wasn’t going to be of any use. He figured they already knew it as well as he did.
Brain’s phone rang, and Lefty answered. His own phone was currently smashed into a hundred pieces with no hope of being fixed, and so he had to rely on his friends to get information.
Lefty regretted his outburst, especially because now Kinley couldn’t call him if she miraculously escaped, but he couldn’t change what he’d done.
“Hello?”
“Lefty, it’s Oz. State Troopers have stopped a car matching the description Gillian gave. Same plate and everything.”
Lefty’s adrenaline spiked. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“Where?”
“On State Road 1431, headed east back toward Round Rock.”
“And?” Lefty asked impatiently.
“That’s all we know right now.”
“Is Kinley in the car?”
“Negative, at least from what they can see. They haven’t checked the trunk yet though.”
That thought made Lefty want to throw up, but he controlled himself. “Brain, we gotta get on 1431. It’s to the west,” Lefty said.
“Well, shit, could you be any more vague?” Brain complained, immediately slowing and putting on his blinker to get off on the next exit.
“I’m not sure it’s a good idea for you to go there,” Oz said. “If he managed to kill Kinley…” His friend’s voice trailed off.
“Fuck that. If that’s where this asshole is, then he either dumped Kinley somewhere in that direction, or she’s with him. Either way, I have to be there. No matter what.”
“All right. Be safe. You and Brain getting in an accident won’t help Kinley. We’re all headed in that direction too.”
“Thanks.”
“Anytime. You know that,” Oz said. “Later.”
Lefty clicked off the call and immediately pulled up a map. “Okay, get off here and turn right. I’ll get you to 1431.”
Brain didn’t comment, just pushed his car a little too fast as he roared down the exit ramp.
Twenty-five minutes later, flashing red and blue lights could be seen ahead of them.
They really were in the middle of nowhere, and it didn’t exactly make Lefty feel all warm and fuzzy about what the hitman had been doing out here.
He held his breath as they approached the cars.
Brain pulled over, and Lefty was out and moving toward the closest trooper before Brain had even turned his car off.
“Wait,” a trooper said, holding out his hand. “Stop right there.”
“What’s the situation? That man kidnapped my girlfriend,” Lefty said urgently.
His words didn’t seem to have any effect on the officer. “I’m going to have to ask you to move along,” he said sternly.
Lefty did his best to look around the man, and his heart sank when he saw the open trunk and no Kinley standing nearby.
Brain had arrived behind him by then, and he did his best to explain to the trooper who they were and why they were there. It took some fast talking on Brain’s part—Lefty couldn’t get a coherent word out to save his life—but eventually the trooper called over a supervisor to talk to them.
“I’m sorry, but no one was in the car but the driver,” he told them.
“What happened? Where is he? What’d he say about Kinley?” Lefty shot the questions at the poor man without giving him a chance to answer.
“He ran. The second his car stopped, he bolted. The trooper gave chase but wasn’t able to catch up to him before he disappeared.”
“Did you bring a dog in?”
“We’re working on it,” the trooper said.
Lefty’s head dropped, and he put a hand over his face. He couldn’t believe this. They couldn’t have gotten this close, only to fail now. Not only was Kinley not there, but the man who’d kidnapped her, most likely a hired killer, had escaped.
“What about the car? Any clues?” Brain asked.
The trooper looked uncomfortable now. “There was a burner on the passenger seat, and there’s evidence that someone was in the trunk at some point.”
“What evidence?” Lefty asked, dreading the answer.
“Blood. And a roll of duct tape.”
“That’s it?” Brain asked.
The trooper shrugged. “There might be more, but we didn’t want to contaminate the evidence so we backed off and are waiting for a tow truck. We’ll take the car back to the station and get the crime lab to look it over with a fine-tooth comb. Same with the phone.”
That was all well and good, but it wouldn’t help find Kinley.
Hearing a commotion behind him, Lefty turned to see the rest of the team had arrived. He headed for them without saying another word to the trooper. He heard Brain thanking the man for his time.
“What’s going on?” Trigger asked.
“It’s the car, she was in the trunk, but she’s not anymore. The driver bolted and is in the wind,” Lefty summarized.
“Any ideas on where he stashed Kinley?” Grover asked.
“No. But she’s out there somewhere. He wouldn’t have been on this road if she wasn’t,” Lefty said with conviction.
“So we go out and find her,” Lucky said matter-of-factly.
Brain stepped forward. “We need to coordinate this. We can’t just drive around willy-nilly.”
Lefty nodded, but he stepped away from his friends and stared out into the darkness surrounding him. He closed his eyes. He could hear his team making plans on who was going to search where, as well as the state troopers talking in the distance.
He hoped somehow in their search for Kinley, he ran across the man who’d taken her. He’d kill him without a second thought.
The cicadas were loud in the night, and the sound soothed him.
It was the same sound he and Kinley had heard from his bed when they’d opened the window after a rare evening storm the other night.
He’d just eaten her to an orgasm, and she’d reciprocated before finishing him off with her hand.
They were relaxed and happy, and she’d made some comment about how they were being serenaded by the insects.
It seemed like a lifetime ago, when he knew it was only a few days. The thought of never hearing her little giggle or holding her in his arms again made him almost physically ill.
“Hang on, Kins. Wherever you are, just hold on. I’m comin’ for you.”
His words seemed to echo back at him, mocking in their futility.
“Ready, Lefty?” Brain called.
Lefty had no idea how long he’d been standing at the side of the road staring off into the darkness, but he mentally gave himself a shake. “Ready,” he called, and turned to rejoin his friends. If anyone could find Kinley, it was his team.