Chapter 17
Victoria
“What kind of Law and Order mess are you mixed up in?” Grace asked as she drove down the Interstate, barely keeping within the posted speed limit.
Victoria could do nothing but sigh. “It’s complicated. Look, I’ll just drop you back off at your house and then I’ll go meet with Alayna. I’ll call you right after the meeting,” she told her hoping it would be enough to stop the questions she’d been barraged with since climbing into the car.
“If you think I’m just going to let you go off to meet some witness who’s been considered dead for the past few months you’re even worse off than I thought.”
“Well, I’m certainly not going to let you waddle into the middle of this mess. I’ve already involved you more than I should have, but I didn’t have any other choice,” Victoria retorted.
Grace honked her horn at a white truck that had narrowly missed hitting the front end of the car as it cut her off trying to get into the exit lane.
“Okay, arguing is stupid and its giving me a headache. Why don’t we go to my place and ask Clinton what we should do,” she suggested.
Victoria immediately began shaking her head. “No!” she exclaimed. “I mean, I don’t want to involve either one of you. I wouldn’t have even called if I didn’t need a ride.”
“Listen here, we’ve been friends for way too long for you to start keeping secrets. Especially secrets that involve somebody throwing bombs through your window and having you followed.”
Grace was so melodramatic. But she was also loyal and courageous and the best friend Victoria had ever had. At this very moment the worry over whether she’d ever see Grace and or her baby again was waging a war with Victoria’s adamance to see Alayna.
“I just need to go alone. She wants me to come and see her by myself. Now, you know who I’m going to see and once I drop you off I’ll even text you the address Alayna gave me. If you don’t hear from me within the hour, call the police,” Victoria instructed just as Grace pulled into her driveway.
Grace didn’t respond right away. She parked the car and killed the engine. Letting her palms rest on the steering wheel, she stared straight forward for a few seconds.
“I don’t want anything to happen to you, Vic,” Grace said, the crack in her voice almost bringing Victoria to tears.
She reached for Grace’s hand, pulling it into her own and holding tight.
“Nothing’s going to happen to me, Grace.
We’ve been friends for too long for this great duo to be split up now.
” Tears blurred her eyes as she spoke but she dared them to fall, dared them to make an appearance at this moment because if they did Grace would cry as well and then they’d both be a blubbering mess.
“I have to do this. If I can get Alayna to testify Vega will be put away for life. As long as he’s on the streets there are so many people in danger. I can’t let that happen without at least trying to do something. This is my career, Grace, and it’s my life I’m fighting for.”
Grace turned to face Victoria, big fat tears dripping instantly from her long lashes. “I’m afraid for you.”
Victoria nodded, the lump in her throat too thick to speak instantly.
She reached up and wiped the tears away from Grace’s cheeks.
“Fear makes you weak,” she heard herself whisper.
“You’re the strongest person I know, Grace.
You’re the strongest and the smartest and I love you with all my heart.
I’ll be okay.” Then because more words, more time, sitting here with Grace would definitely tear her apart, Victoria pulled her friend close for a tight hug. Then let her go quickly.
“Now, get back in the house and wait for my text,” she said climbing out of the passenger seat and walking around to the driver’s side.
Grace did get out of the car and Victoria touched both palms to her stomach. “Go back inside and get some rest. My niece is not a morning person, remember.” She smiled when she felt a swift kick beneath her left palm. Never had Victoria felt anything as amazing as the movements of a baby in utero.
“You text me in five minutes with that address and then you’ve got another fifty-five minutes to call me and confirm you’re alright. If you miss either of those deadlines I’m telling Clifton and I’m calling every police officer in Las Vegas to come and find you. Do you hear me?”
Grace smoothed back what Victoria was sure were unruly tendrils of her hair. The quick ponytail she’d made was hardly her best effort, but beauty wasn’t exactly what she was going for today.
Victoria nodded. “I hear you.”
They didn’t embrace again, neither of them thought they could take it if they did.
So Victoria climbed into the driver’s seat and buckled her seatbelt while watching Grace move slowly into the house.
When the front door closed, shutting Grace in the house, Victoria backed out of the driveway.
At the corner of Grace’s street she picked up her cell phone and texted Grace Alayna’s address.
Then she set the GPS on her phone and listened as it guided her to what might turn out to be the worst mistake of her life.
Alayna
This had to work. She was running out of options and probably out of time. He’d offered her money, put it in her bank account and waited for her to use it. At first she hadn’t because it wasn’t about the money. It was about love.
Alayna sighed, pressing her forehead against the grungy window at the motel where she’d been staying.
It was only five blocks away from where she’d been living with her grandmother.
She originally thought about going farther but couldn’t bear not seeing her baby.
The idea to drastically change her appearance so she wouldn’t be recognized came in the middle of one of the loneliest nights of her life.
The night she’d made the mess of her life ten times worse.
Three years ago, she’d been young and innocent, working in the mailroom at City Hall.
Her aunt had gotten her the job two weeks after she’d graduated from high school and Alayna had been supremely grateful.
After her mother died when she was ten she’d moved in with her grandmother and her Aunt Jaynie who’d never been able to have children of her own.
It wasn’t a dream job, but she received a paycheck every two weeks and after working the entire summer she’d saved enough to buy herself a piece of crap used car that gave her a sense of independence and a thirst to achieve.
Larry was like a superstar in her eyes. She remembered the first time she’d seen him in person.
He’d been standing in the elevator, his security team draped around him like he was the POTUS, instead of the Clark County mayor.
She’d been too afraid to get onto the elevator even though Larry had smiled at her and one of his men—she would later learn his name was Timothy Hall, a lying bastard—had beckoned her inside.
It had only taken a day or so for Timothy to walk into the mailroom and escort her out. Her heart had hammered wildly as she thought she was being reprimanded for doing something wrong, or possibly fired. Instead, he’d taken her straight to the mayor and that’s when it all began.
Alayna’s cell phone chirped and she looked down at the screen.
The phone had been in her hand all night long, just as she felt like she’d been standing in this window for the same endless hours.
With desperation clawing at her throat she read the message and felt the burn of tears at the words.
She was coming. Victoria Lashley was coming to see her, to save her.
Her hopes of being rescued from this situation had been dashed so many times before, Alayna had almost lost faith.
But that would totally break her grandmother’s heart.
Nothing else she did could be worse than not having faith in the God Ethel Jonas had taught her to love and trust. And even though she knew she’d sinned—so badly that in another time and place, she would’ve surely been stoned to death—she could repent her sins and she could be forgiven.
That was the small glimmer of hope in her mind that kept her going.
It sparkled right next to the memory of her daughter.
Lia was her life and Alayna refused to spend more time away from her, no matter what she had to get back home.
She had to start thinking about Lia and not the broken heart that would never be mended because the man she’d loved with all her being was gone.
That was probably for the best, she’d had months to come to that conclusion.
Months to realize that men would continue to be users and abusers, if she let them.
Moving from the window finally, she headed into the bathroom and turned the rusty old faucet.
She waited a few minutes, and then a few minutes more, while the water warmed before she grabbed the moderately clean washcloth to cleanse her face.
Her eyes were puffy from the crying bouts throughout the night.
And her lip was split from the fight that had pushed her over the edge.
There was a soft knock at the door. It seemed much louder as it jolted her out of her deep thoughts. Alayna sucked in a breath and said a prayer.
Ben
“She’s going to call me within the hour,” Grace told Ben as they stood in the living room of the home she shared with Judge Ramsey.
The judge was standing right beside his wife, an arm around her shoulder, his pensive dark eyes glaring at Ben.
He hadn’t been too pleased to open his door at seven in the morning to find Ben with Trent and Devlin standing behind him like henchmen on his doorstep.
But Ben was respectful, or as respectful as he could be under these circumstances.
He’d explained why he was there without going into too much detail and asked to see Grace.
When Grace had come into the living room she looked like she’d been crying and like she’d been expecting him.
“Where did she go?” Devlin asked impatiently.
To that Grace responded with an elegant eye roll and a squaring of her shoulders. On another day, in any other circumstance, Ben would’ve found the complete brush off funny and would’ve joked Devlin about it for days to come. But not today, not now.
“She’s in a lot of danger,” Ben said, the words sticking in his throat with razor-edged sharpness.
“I know everything that’s going on,” Grace informed him. “You should have told her when she first got this case dumped in her lap. Then maybe she could’ve gotten out before it was too late.”
Grace’s words were cool, not filled with so much vehemence as fear. Ben respected her, he respected her relationship with Victoria and so he only nodded, taking her words and the accusation that went with them.
“I did what I thought was right at the time. Yes, I could have done things differently but I don’t really know that we would be at a different point then we are now if I had,” he admitted honestly. “But I’m not about to let him hurt her. That’s why I need you to tell me where she went. Now.”
He hadn’t raised his voice. Judge Ramsey was not going to take that well if he did. And the last thing Ben wanted was an altercation between the judge and Devlin. That wasn’t going to work out well for any of them.
“I think we should contact the police,” Judge Ramsey interjected.
Ben nodded. “Detective Noah Hannity is already aware of the circumstances, Your Honor.”
“And why isn’t he here? If this situation is as dire as you say, and I believe it is since my wife is trying valiantly not to shake and or cry in front of you, why aren’t the police already out looking for Victoria?”
“Because we have information that leads us to believe there’s a leak in the police department,” Trent offered.
“I’ve been looking into the disappearance of Alayna Jonas for the past couple of months and the conclusion I’ve come to is that someone on the inside must have tipped Vega’s men off about her whereabouts.
Or, in the alternative, someone on the inside is one of Vega’s men. ”
Judge Ramsey’s frown was immediate. “That’s a serious allegation,” he told Trent.
“One I can back-up,” was Trent’s response.
“Then you know who the leak is?” The judge persisted.
Trent stood with his feet spread apart, hands clasped in front of him, shoulders squared.
He looked directly into Judge Ramsey’s eyes when he said, “I’ve got a couple of leads.
But Victoria’s safety supersedes that. Look, Judge, I’ve been on the battlefield, I’ve been in covert operations and for the past few years working all sorts of cases on the streets of Las Vegas and in other states.
I’ve seen guys like Vega in my travels. He’s a walking deadly weapon and if we don’t stop him, the death toll is just going to keep rising. ”
“Unless we can take him down now,” Devlin added in his dour tone.
Grace’s eyes had just about bulged as fear gripped her. She touched a hand to her stomach and gasped. The judge immediately directed her to a seat.
“It’s alright, baby. Just take a deep breath. It’s going to be fine,” he was saying to her.
From a distance Ben just watched. There was a connection here, an intimacy that was unlike anything he’d ever seen. This was a family, or they were about to be a family, and the love between them would be apparent. This is what Ben wanted in his future. It’s what he wanted with Victoria.
Crossing over to the chair where Grace was seated, practicing what he thought were most likely Lamaze breathing methods, he knelt down and took her free hand in his.
“Grace, you know me. You know how long I’ve been in love with Victoria. I can’t let anything happen to her. Not now when we’ve just found each other. Please tell me where she is,” he implored.
Grace blinked, one tear rolling down her cheek. She took in a deep breath and stared back at him with blurry eyes. “The address is in my phone. She got a text from Alayna Jonas and she went to meet with her.”
“Dammit!” Devlin cursed.
“Not in front of my wife.” The judge bellowed.
Devlin’s lips closed tightly right after he apologized.
“Where’s your phone, darling?” the judge asked Grace.
She pointed to her purse on the table across the room. Judge Ramsey retrieved the purse and at Grace’s nod of approval, removed her phone from the side pocket. He pushed a few buttons signaling he must’ve known his wife’s security code, and finally arrived at the message.
His face was tight with consternation as he walked over to Trent and showed him the screen. Trent eased the phone from the judge’s hand and sent the text message to his phone.
“Thank you,” he said, returning the phone to the judge. “Let’s go,” was directed at Devlin.
“You bring her back,” Grace said to Ben. She’d pulled her hand from his grasp and grabbed hold of his arm. “You bring her back alive.”
Ben nodded. “I will.”