CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Because a condition of Stuart’s bail was that he surrender his passport and that he was not to leave New York City, they could not involve anyone else in their trip to Larkin.
Only the three of them: Stuart, Tabby, and Lou Fenson were in on it.
But it also meant that they could not take Stuart’s plane. They had to drive the entire distance.
But as soon as they arrived in Larkin, and Darius was not at his apartment, they piled right back into Lou’s SUV.
“Didn’t you say he owned a clothing store?” Lou asked as they got back in.
“He does,” Tabby said. “On the far end of Grant Street, just past Bright’s Barbershop.”
“You think he’s there?” Stuart asked her.
“He’s out of town a lot on business trips, usually to buy more inventory, but if he’s in town then he’s at his store.”
Lou looked at Stuart through the rearview. Stuart gave a nod and Lou drove off, heading for Grant Street.
But when they arrived, Lou didn’t want to go up front. “If he sees us, he may run. Is there a back way in, Miss Morgan?”
“It sure is. Pull up just after you pass the intersection at Richmond,” Tabby said. “There’s an alley on the side of his store. You can park in that alley and then walk around back.”
“There’s a backdoor?” Stuart asked.
“Yes, and he keeps it open to let a breeze in because that’s where his workers hang out when nobody’s in the store. They play cards and smoke cigarettes and whatever else they smoke back there.”
Stuart looked at Lou. “That means we make get resistance.”
“From who?” asked Tabby. “Not from his workers, that’s for sure. They can’t stand Darius. They’ll act like they don’t even see us.”
“There’s no us,” Stuart said as he and Lou began getting out of the car. “You’re staying put.”
“But why? If he sees me, he won’t think nothing of it.”
“And you’re still staying in this car.”
“You let me get out at his apartment.”
“Because we could take control of him as soon as he opened that door. That’s not the case in a store. You’re staying here,” Stuart said.
Tabby didn’t like it, but she let it go. “But leave the keys in case a delivery van needs to get through.”
“It’s still on,” Lou said, “or you’ll burn up in there. It’s hot as hell in this town.”
“Just make sure you bring him with you so I can ask him some questions.”
Lou smiled. He’d never known the boss to have a girlfriend like her. He liked her. “Yes ma’am,” he said, and then he and Stuart made their way around the back of the building.
Tabby moved from the backseat to behind the steering wheel up front after they left.
But she didn’t have long to wait. Because within a minute of the two men leaving the vehicle, she saw Darius in that same BMW driving up through the alley beside the building that stood behind Darius’s building, as he headed toward the back of his clothing store.
But when he saw that Genesis, and when he saw Tabby behind the wheel, he slowed, as if he knew something was up.
Tabby knew something was up, too, because Darius suddenly slowed down, and then stopped.
And when he looked over at the back of his clothing store and apparently saw Stuart and Lou talking to his workers at his back door, she could see panic grip him.
And then he looked at her again and a kind of rage seemed to settle over him.
He was going to do something crazy. She could see it on his face. She could feel it in her bones.
He put his feet on his gas pedal and began speeding toward that Genesis.
He was coming so fast that Tabby’s heart fell through her shoe.
Because he looked as if he wasn’t going to stop.
He wanted to hit her. And not just hit her: he wanted a head-on collision.
That was what it looked like. He wanted to kill her for finding him out? Was that what he was doing?
Stuart and Lou turned when they heard tires squeal, and that was when they saw that red and gray BMW speeding through the alleyway heading straight for where Tabby was parked.
“Tabby!” Stuart screamed and began running toward the alley, with Lou running behind him.
But Tabby knew nobody was going to be able to save her in that moment. She had to save herself.
She had never drove a Genesis in her life, but that didn’t deter her.
She found the gearshift, slung it in reverse, and hit her own gas pedal.
And as fast as Darius was speeding toward her, Tabby was speeding backwards through that alley, trying for the life of her to move faster than he was moving to get away from him.
The BMW sped past Stuart and Lou as if they weren’t even there as Darius raced to crash into that Genesis. But Tabby wasn’t about to sit back and let him have at it. She was determined to get out of it. She knew, she stood a chance, if she could get out of that alley.
She didn’t know how, but she had that Genesis flying faster than that BMW because she flew out of that alley and onto busy Grant Street with so much speed that she nearly went airborne as soon as she backed into the street.
She had to swerve to miss a pedestrian, and then she jumped a curb violently, as if she was certain to lose control.
But she didn’t. She was able to slam on brakes just before she backed into a furniture store on the other side of that curb.
But when Darius flew out of that alley and drove blindly onto that busy street, he didn’t even swerve. He barely missed two cars, but the third car broadsided him with such force that it flipped him sideways and carried his little BMW on its hood until it came to a stop near the end of the road.
Stuart’s heart was hammering as he ran through that alley and across that street to make sure Tabby was okay. Lou ran to make certain Darius didn’t get out of that car and make a run for it.
By the time Stuart made it to the other side of the road, Tabby was getting out of that Genesis. She didn’t have a scratch on her.
“Tabitha!” Stuart cried out as he ran to her and pulled her into his arms.
“I’m okay,” she said. “He was trying to kill me, Stuart. He looked like he was trying to kill me!”
Stuart saw it too. He saw how Darius sped through that alley with that horrific look on his face.
It was as if he saw them, and knew he’d been found out.
He was like a madman who wasn’t going to prison, and he didn’t want to go out alone.
He wanted to make a splash. He wanted to take Tabby with him.
Stuart terrified at just the thought of it, pulled her into his arms again.
Lou left the BMW and ran past the other badly wrecked car. The passengers in that car were okay. Then he hurried over to Stuart and Tabby. Most didn’t even realize that the Genesis was involved at all, because it wasn’t hit. Which was fine by them.
“Did he run?” Stuart asked.
“Get in, sir,” Lou said. “We don’t need anybody recognizing you.”
“But where’s Darius?” Tabby asked as they got into the backseat of the Genesis while Lou got behind the wheel. “We can’t just leave him here. He needs to be arrested.”
“Won’t do him any good now, ma’am, Lou said. Then he looked through the rearview at both of them. “He’s gone. He’s dead.”
Stuart looked at Tabby. Because she was stunned. She saw the hatred on his face. She knew what he wanted to do to her. But it was still jarring to hear that somebody she used to care about was gone for good.
“You okay?” Stuart asked her as Lou drove away.
She nodded, and then looked at him. “But why? Why would he try to kill your son? Why did he want to kill me? What’s the connection?”
As soon as she said it, she saw it as clear as day. Just like Stuart had already saw it. Just like Lou had already saw it.
Tabby was connected to Stuart. Alan was connected to Stuart. Darius was connected to Stuart because he once dated the woman who was now with Stuart. Stuart was the connection.
But why was still the sixty-five-thousand-dollar question.