Chapter 27
TWENTY-SEVEN
B ianca tightened her hold on Eddie’s hand and tugged harder. He shouldn’t have come. But she had a better chance of survival with him. Only now, Eddie’s life was in danger too.
The gunshot plus the shouting from Janice, the gunman, and Roger had changed her course to head back toward the gravel road. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have seen Eddie arrive.
When she’d spotted the headlights coming up the drive, Bianca had tucked behind a tree, waiting to see if the newest arrival would be more trouble or not.
Now, as they ran, Eddie didn’t resist her hold. “Bianca, what’s going on?” His whisper still made her tense.
Had they heard?
She tucked them behind a tree.
The moonlight sprinkled down through the trees. Branches scratched at her arms, but they couldn’t stop. Except her arm jerked backward, and the next thing she knew, she was being hugged up against Eddie’s heaving chest.
He had his back pressed up against a tree. As much as she wanted to fall against him, she couldn’t. “We’ve got to stay hidden and find a way out of here,” she whispered and leaned out of his arms. “They killed Nathan.”
“Killed? ‘They’ who? Carter thought?—”
“That guy who hit Roger kidnapped me and Nathan. Then I think Janice shot Nathan. But it could have been Roger who actually pulled the trigger. I don’t know where Janice ran off to after she screamed.” She squeezed her eyes shut, but it didn’t help the memory of Nathan being shot.
Eddie wrapped her up. “It’s going to be okay. We’re going to have to figure out how to get Riley out too. I’m so glad I was by Riley right after you called her for help.”
Bianca froze. “I never called Riley. We couldn’t get a signal in the limo, and then we were tied up.”
Eddie frowned. “You think she’d be in on this?”
Bianca managed a shrug. “None of this has made sense. They wanted it to look like a ransom. But it wasn’t, actually. I don’t know. I’m not sure who’s really in charge or why.”
Eddie drew her tighter against himself. He was solid and dependable and everything the Lord knew she needed. But what if he got hurt? This wasn’t a movie scene.
A shudder ran up her back. He needed to get out of here. “I’ll distract them. I can’t have you ending up like Nathan.” She pulled away enough to see his eyes. “Eddie, I?—”
“Eddie!” Riley’s voice sounded too close. “Do you see Bianca? I think she might be hurt.”
Bianca fisted Eddie’s shirt. “I don’t trust her.”
Eddie kissed Bianca’s forehead. “You keep running, I’ll go back?—”
“I can’t lose you.” Bianca shook her head. The movement caused stars to fly in her vision.
Eddie placed his mouth beside her ear. “I need you safe. I don’t know what’s going on, but you’re going?—”
Bianca reached for Eddie’s hand and then laced her fingers with his. “Then we’ll go together. Because I need you safe too.” She took off running, and thankfully, Eddie followed.
“I think one went that way,” the kidnapper hollered as a light flickered in the darkness from somewhere to their back left.
“Kelson, get a better light.” Riley’s reply held more anger. “I’m going to stop them before they reach the other cabins. Keep them away from the roads.”
This time, it was Eddie’s turn to pull Bianca behind a tree.
Bianca peeked around the scratchy bark in time for the moon to reflect off something in Riley’s hand—a gun. Bianca grabbed on to Eddie’s shirt. “Riley’s got a gun too.”
A stick snapped behind them.
Eddie put his finger to his mouth and motioned down. He flicked his fingers for them to move. He crouched low and waited for her to follow his lead.
“Bia!” Kelson spat as a flashlight inspected a bush nearby. “If you come out, I’ll let the firefighter live.”
Bianca stopped her crawling, and Eddie covered her mouth. He shook his head.
“You know you deserve to be punished for what you did.” Riley’s voice rang like a storm siren in the night. “Don’t bring him down with you. You’ve got the poor guy blinded by your fakeness. He actually believes you might love him. No one deserves to be lied to! The world knows who you truly are.”
Bianca’s eyes watered. “What is even happening?” she breathed.
“You have any idea what she’s talking about?” Eddie’s whispered words were hot against her neck.
“No.” She blinked, and through the trees, it looked like another cabin up ahead. This one was possibly smaller than the one Roger lay dead on.
Riley’s position separated them from any escape to the next cabin, and Kelson was more than likely behind.
Surrounded.
“Don’t move.” A gun clicked over Bianca’s shoulder. “They’re to your six o’clock!” Kelson shouted.
“Keep their location. Try not to mess this up too.” Riley’s voice was laced with the same heated tone as the day she’d been caught crying, supposedly in anger.
But I’m forever fixing his messes.
Riley’s story about her brother and his work and money problems came flashing into her head. Could the kidnapper who’d chased and shot at Bianca be Riley’s brother? But what was the point?
Bianca squinted in the darkness. She couldn’t see Kelson. “Maybe he’s bluffing.”
A bullet hit the tree beyond her. “Don’t make me come over there.”
Bianca lifted to stand, but Eddie tackled her. “No, you run. I’ll stand.”
She put her hands on the side of his cheeks. She pressed her lips to his, and he stilled. As much as she wanted to keep kissing him, she had to save at least one of their lives. “You go get help.”
“Bianca…”
She pushed away from him and stood.
Please, God, keep Eddie from standing too.
“Stop!” Kelson shouted.
A flashlight blinded her until she blocked the light with her hand. Darkness may have fallen, but the moon reflected off the gun pointed at Bianca.
Kelson remained beside a grouping of three saplings no less than ten paces off to the left. Close enough to not have to aim too hard and still hit her. “Where’s the other one?”
Bianca swallowed. “I tripped and fell. He kept going.”
Kelson grunted. “Serves you right to be left with nothing. It’s not a great feeling, is it? Start walking toward me, slowly, or I’m going to shoot you in the leg and chase down the other one before I finish you off.”
Riley’s footsteps circled back toward them as her flashlight bounced over the brush.
Please don’t see Eddie crawling away.
Riley zeroed her light in on Bianca’s back, creating a monster-sized shadow of Bianca in the treetops. If only she stood as huge as her silhouette. Then she could beat the enemies around her and Eddie.
Then again, God would be better to trust than Bianca’s own power. No matter how weak or strong she remained.
Riley stomped around Bianca. Her face shadowed but her mood clear. She pointed her gun at Bianca’s chest. “I get to kill her. You didn’t have to listen to her whine every morning.”
Bianca shifted her feet. “Why are you doing this, Riley? Why did Janice murder Nathan? What’s going on?”
“Nathan ruined everything. He’s a cheater, and you helped him. To those the Duke awards favors to, much is required. Nathan finally gambled his last.”
“About time,” Kelson grumbled.
“You played poker against Nathan?” Bianca’s calf whacked against a stump, and she grunted. “That’s why you wanted his money?”
Kelson shook his gun at Bianca. “He cheated. No one’s that good all the time.”
“It wasn’t Nathan’s money.” Riley huffed. “He stole it. I don’t care what the media says, you’re not dumb. You can’t pretend that stealing people’s money isn’t a crime. So keep up.”
Bianca inched back another step. “You think I stole your money too?”
The light shined from Riley’s direction into Bianca’s face.
Her body stiffened.
“No.” Riley walked toward Bianca, gun in one hand and the light in her other aimed in Bianca’s eyes. “I don’t think you did. I know you did it. Nathan isn’t the only one who should’ve been convicted for his involvement in the gambling ring.”
Bianca licked her lips. “Honestly, Riley. I didn’t know what Nathan was involved with. I knew he played poker with his friends but?—”
“Not friends. Na?ve victims who got invited into a club only to be scammed. You can’t take our inheritance and not pay. Nathan invited my fiancé to his little game night. And guess what? His money’s all gone too. But then Nathan was indicted. Finally. Some kind of justice. Except Nathan was let off the hook, and you were never tried.”
Apparently, Bianca hadn’t been the only one hoodwinked by Nathan. “I testified against him. I didn’t know?—”
“Yes, you did!” Riley screamed. “You knew how Nathan kept his expensive lifestyle. How he afforded your apartment. I saw you flaunting online the purses and shoes he bought you. If we can’t get our money, we’ll take justice. It’s only fair. Because not only did we lose our inheritance, but when my fiancé got hooked into Nathan’s poker ring and lost everything, he had to marry an heiress to recover financially. I lost the man I loved.” Riley shrugged. “It’s only fair that Nathan does too.”
Bianca swallowed. “Nathan’s dead.”
“And you should’ve been dead already too, except my idiot brother can’t seem to kill you. Third time will apparently be the charm.”
Third time? “It was you all along.” Bianca stumbled.
Kelson growled. “It was Nathan’s fault that Roger stole my business. That wasn’t supposed to be part of the deal.”
“Until you gambled and lost the rest of our money.” Riley trudged closer to her brother.
My brother’s work company’s in money troubles.
“Your brother owes the Duke too?” Bianca whispered.
The light on Bianca drifted to the ground as Riley turned toward her brother. “You might have finally done something right.” A half smile took over her scowl. “By killing Roger, you just made me the new Duke.”
Kelson tilted his head back toward the cabin. “Well, Duchess, only after you kill the old hag I tied up in the cabin.”
Bianca probably should care what Riley was talking about, but nothing really mattered except getting herself and Eddie out of here alive. She rocked another step away. If she could reach the tree behind her, she could duck, and then what? Grab a stick for a weapon?
“Don’t move.” Riley’s voice whipped over the crickets. The light refocused in on Bianca’s face. “You better take ten steps—only—in my direction and not move any other way, or I’m shooting you and then making you crawl out. If you obey, I’ll make it quick.”
Bianca squeezed her fingers together. Whatever happened gave Eddie more time to get away. She lifted her chin. One step, then the next one. Her shoe crunched on a leaf.
“Keep coming. You think you’re smart, but trust me, I’m smarter. It’s taken me months to get you where no one can connect the dots to me.”
“To us,” Kelson mumbled.
Bianca forced her feet forward. “I thought we were friends.”
“Friends don’t steal my money.”
Kelson raised his arm with the gun again. “I’ll just shoot her.”
“No. You’re done planning. We’re tying her up with Roger and his girlfriend. Then we’ll burn down the cabin.”
Kelson grabbed hold of Bianca. “Except you brought the firefighter.”
Riley motioned with her gun for her brother to go ahead. “Don’t worry. He’ll come out soon enough.”
“Leave him alone.” Bianca jerked her arm, but Kelson thumped his gun against her head, and her knees buckled, making her lean against Kelson’s hold.
“Let her go!” Eddie’s yell echoed from what sounded like the direction of the other cabin.
Bianca tried to shake her head, but it throbbed too much.
“The police are on their way.” If he’d reached the cabin, he should have kept going. Not returned. “Better to be arrested for attempted murder than actual murder.”
Riley shined her light into the woods, sweeping east to west. “Good try. But there’s no cell phone signal up here. A hero’s luck runs out eventually, and yours is long overdue.”
“My firefighter radio doesn’t need the cell phone tower. Help is one minute out,” Eddie’s voice rang out.
Was he only pretending?
Please run, Eddie.
But all she could see were trees and bushes in the shadows.
Riley turned to the left as if she knew exactly where Eddie was. “Change of plans. I’m going to kill him first. Tie Bia up. Make sure you finish the job this time.”
Kelson grabbed Bianca’s shoulder and murmured, “I got rid of that makeup artist for her to get closer to you, but does she remember that? No. I make a couple of gambling mistakes and I’m the screwup. Nathan was a cheater. It wasn’t my fault.”
No wonder Grace hadn’t heard how Tiff’s family was doing. Riley had faked Tiff’s family’s illness to get the makeup artist away. All so Riley could get closer to Bianca.
What about Grace? Was she safe somewhere?
Bianca pushed against Kelson. “Run, Eddie…please.” A tear fell from her cheek. She wasn’t worth his life for hers.
But God was enough. Always.
She balled up her fist and spun, sending her knee into Kelson’s groin.
Kelson moaned and released his grip enough for Bianca to wiggle free. She stomped on his foot. He grunted and bent over. His gun was in his other hand as it hung against his side.
She grabbed the gun and sprinted toward Riley.
He coughed. “She’s got my gun.”
Riley spun around. “Idiot.”
Bianca aimed the gun at Riley’s chest. “Drop your weapon, or I’m going to shoot.”
Riley only laughed as Bianca’s arm shook. “You really are an awful planner.”
The moonlight reflected off Riley’s gun. It was pointed right at Eddie, who was hiding behind a stump.
Apparently he’d tried to sneak back to save Bianca.
Riley smiled. “You try to shoot me, and I’ll shoot him. Which is more important? Your life, or his? No room for your pretending now.”
That was an easy answer. Bianca lowered her weapon.
“No!” Eddie yelled.
Flashes of red and blue lights seared through the canopy of branches.
The police were actually here. Everything would be all right.
Until Riley readjusted her position, and a pop came from her gun.
Pain burned Bianca’s shoulder. She cried out and crumpled to the ground.