Against The Odds (Anna Dawson #1) (31 page)

He nodded, even chuckled a little. “Yes, it’s as simple as that. And that’s how I thought of it too; all the stars aligning. Danny finding out he was dying. The article in that magazine. It was finally time for Ben to pay for what he did to Rachael. To me.”

The perfect storm of murder.

“Hannah, darling, I never wanted you hurt. But I’m also not going to let you stop my plans. Ben will pay. For my Rachael.”

He started to stand, to get on with whatever he’d decided to do when we both heard noises from the front of the house.

Somebody was coming home.

Chapter Twenty-Six

I
t was too far away to make out whose voice was whose, but it was definitely human sounds. Opening and closing of doors. A low voice and then a higher one.

I looked at my watch. “It’s Lorelei and Ben and Gus. I told her to stay away until now.”

Saul looked around the room, looking for a plan, I assumed.

“How did you get away from Lorelei? Why aren’t you with them anyway?”
 
I asked the question that had been bothering me since Saul had walked in on me.

“I knew something wasn’t kosher, she was too jittery, too anxious to get us out of here. Telling us that you needed us to come and get you. That you could be in danger.” He shook his head. “That girl will never make a good poker player.”

“So what did you tell her? The house was empty when I got here.”

“I told her I needed to go over to Jimmy’s. To make sure he was okay. I took my own car. She seemed to be okay with that. That’s when it was obvious she just wanted us out of the house. She didn’t care that we were together. That’s when I knew I needed to get back here. Plus, if everything was kosher here, it would allow me to set up the fake attempt on me.”

 
“Was Jack here earlier? Did he go with them?” I was thinking if Saul had seen through Lorelei, surely Jack had as well. Although he might have made the same assumptions Lorelei probably had.

If he hadn’t been glad he’d washed his hands of me before, I’m sure he was now.

“He didn’t want to. I think he suspected Lorelei was up to something too, but,” He lifted his hands. “What could he do? He had to go with them. For protection.”

“What about your protection?”

He shrugged. “He had officers follow me to Jimmy’s. So I went there, but I only stayed a moment and then came back. Officers followed me home, too. And of course there are the officers outside.”
 
Humor dripped from him as he said, “Protecting us.”

“My car’s in the driveway. Whoever came in, they’ll know I’m home.”

“Mine too,” Saul said, his mind working furiously. I’m sure this was a far cry from the ending he’d had in mind to his vendetta against Ben.

“Push your chair to the table. Pretend we’re playing checkers.” Now he was the one buying time.

But whereas I’d been buying time to try and find a way out of this all, I knew Saul was trying to buy time to finish the job.

To tell Ben about the baby. To hurt him as Saul had been hurt.

And then kill him.

I did as Saul told me. We quickly settled in at the table, Saul’s back to the door, blocking anyone’s view of the gun he had trained on my gut.

“Okay, Hannah, darling, let’s see that famous poker face.”

“I won’t say anything, Saul. We can get rid of whoever’s out there and then leave out the side door. I have my keys in my pocket. We can go somewhere and…work this all out.”

He let out a bark of laughter. “Yes, dear. Let’s do that. But remember, if you send some kind of signal, say something off, not only will it harm you, but it will cost the lives of anyone else you drag into this. Jack. Lorelei. Gus.”

A sadness came over his face. “I’ve killed one of dearest friends, Hannah. I’m an old man. There’s nothing left for me now. All I want is to have my revenge on Ben. To avenge my sweet Rachael.” I saw the subtle movement as he fidgeted with his gun hand under the table. “It really doesn’t matter what else happens from there.”

Which means he wouldn’t hesitate to kill Jack or Lorelei or me if we tried to stop him.
 

It would be best to do as I’d said, get rid of whoever was heading down the hallway. No matter who came to that door, I wouldn’t be able to send any kind of sign.
 

I jumped—as did Saul—at the loud knock on the door.
 

“Saul?” Jack’s deep voice asked.
 

“Remember,” Saul whispered. “No signs of any kind. Or it all ends now.”

I had thought—on some level—that I might be able to talk Saul out of hurting anybody else. I had given up hope of trying to talk him out of hurting Ben—another reason to get Saul out of the house calmly and without attention.

I nodded to Saul’s warning. I wasn’t going to do anything. I truly believed that getting rid of Jack and getting Saul out of here by myself was now our best bet.

The best bet of saving Ben and making sure Lorelei and Gus were safe.

And Jack.

“Y
es, Jack,” Saul called. “Come in.”

“Saul, have you seen—” Jack’s voice stopped when he saw me playing checkers with Saul. “Oh, you’re in here. I saw your car out front.”

“Hi, Jack,” I said. Any tension I was feeling about Saul having a gun pointed at me could be construed as awkwardness over seeing Jack for the first time since he’d dumped me.

“You’re back,” he stated the obvious.

“Yep,” I said and moved one of my checkers.

“Are you all back, Jack?” Saul asked. He’d turned his head to look at Jack, his body, and the gun, stayed pointed at me. “Or are Lorelei and Gus and Ben still out?”

“We’re all back,” Jack said. “Or were back. Lorelei has taken Gus back to his apartment to get some more clothes. The patrol car went with them.”

Saul laughed and turned back to me, a glint in his eye, knowing that Ben was alone out in the front and that the patrol car was gone. “That sounds like Gus, needing more clothes.” He used his non-gun hand to move a checker, then put the hand back down in his lap, under the table. “Jimmy was fine, and a little cranky, so I came back here,” Saul explained to Jack even though he hadn’t asked.
 

Jack was looking only at me, with those soft brown eyes tracking every move I made.

God, he looked so good standing there in his chambray shirt and khakis, his tie totally wrecked. He looked tired, but then he had since I’d met him. The familiarity of him flowed over me.

As did regret.

I calmed my emotions, pretended I was at a poker table playing the top dogs instead of checkers with an octogenarian.

An octogenarian with a gun trained on me.

“Jimmy cranky? That’s a new one,” I said and chuckled. Saul laughed with me. Just two pals playing checkers, talking trash about a buddy.

Nothing to see here, folks, move along, I silently begged.

Jack never cracked a smile.

“Can I talk to you privately?” Jack asked me.

I looked at him. With our relationship in the state it was, it would make perfect sense for me to say, “I think we’ve said all there is to say, Jack.” Which is exactly what I did.

He looked at me for a moment. I expected the brow raise, but he didn’t offer it up.

That, more than anything else, told me it was definitely over with Jack.

He sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. I just wanted to make sure…”

I looked at him, waiting for him.

He raised his hands, then dropped them. In defeat? Resignation? “You’re right. It’s nothing. I’m just glad you’re back and that you’re…okay.”

“I am,” I said, making another move on the checkerboard.

“Okay, then. Well, Frank is here now, so I’m going to take off.”

“Are you coming back?” Saul asked what I desperately wanted to know.

“I’ll be available while the investigation is ongoing,” he said, his cop voice, and face, firmly in place. “But Detective Botz will be here most of the time.”

“Oy, what’d you do this time, Hannah,” Saul teased me.

I wanted to throw the checkerboard in his face. Ah, but that pesky revolver.

“Just the usual, Saul.”

Saul chuckled, like men tossed me aside all the time. They didn’t, even though it sure felt like it recently.

Jack looked around the room, crossed to both sliding glass doors, checked the locks. Closed the horizontal blinds up tight, making sure there were no big gaps, even though they’d already been closed. Saul’s movements were subtle, but he kept the gun out of Jack’s sight the entire time. He even put both hands up on top of the table once while Jack was looking in his direction, but it wasn’t enough time for me to do anything.

Not that I would have with Jack still in the room.

Finally, apparently satisfied that the room was safe from all outside threats, Jack walked back to the door.

“I’m glad you’re back, Ms. Dawson,” Jack said, pushing a knife into me. Back to Ms. Dawson.

“I’m back, and have no plans to leave anytime soon… Detective,” I said.

“Saul,” Jack said as he departed.

“Goodbye, Jack,” Saul said, his back to the door, to a retreating Jack.

Saul was out of his chair seconds after Jack had shut the door. It reminded me how spry the old man was. I’d be wise not to think of Ben’s infirmity when dealing with Saul.

Saul locked the door then looked around the room. “You’re right. We need to leave here, Hannah. We’ll work this out somewhere else. I’ll come back for…”

He didn’t finish his sentence, but he didn’t need to. I knew that the only thing driving Saul now was killing Ben. His life had come down to this burning, ferocious need to kill his best friend.

Nothing—and no one—was going to get in his way.

“Right, Saul.” I said, but I knew then that he had no intention of working anything out, his blood lust for Ben was too high.

And I was to be another casualty. Just as Danny had been. As Gus had almost been.

“We’ll wait for a few minutes, then leave through the door.” He pointed toward the glass door that opened to the side yard.

“Okay, Saul, that’s what we’ll do.”

He’d get me out of here, kill me, dump me somewhere, then come back for Ben.

I thought furiously for options. I figured it would still be safest to get him away from the house. Maybe not safest for me, but definitely for Ben.

Besides, maybe I could overpower him when the time came. He was agile and strong, but he was still in his eighties.

The minutes passed, Saul looking at the door to the side, me watching him. “Okay,” he finally said. “Let’s go. Slowly, Hannah.”

I pushed the chair away from the table and stood. Saul was facing the door leading to the side of the house. I faced the door that led to the patio.

And then I saw it. The barrel of a gun, slipping through a tiny gap in the vertical blinds, coming in through the patio door. A door that Jack had just checked the locks on a moment ago.

It moved in a little more, so slowly, so quietly. I could see a little bit more of the hand, then the wrist.

Wearing a chambray shirt.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“S
aul, why don’t you put the gun down now? I said I’d leave with you. You’re right, let’s just go out the side door now,” I said, hopefully tipping Jack off that I knew of his presence—and that Saul had a gun.

Though if Jack was skulking around outside, he must have figured something was up. That’s why instead of checking the locks on the door, he’d unlocked it. He had also probably figured out that a gun was most likely involved.
 

Now he knew for sure.

Saul looked at me like I was crazy, repeating myself, stating the obvious. But Saul knew I wasn’t crazy, and he was no dummy.

He started to swing back to the main door, the door Jack had left through, expecting something from that direction.

“Come in, come in, Jack,” I yelled. It was enough for Saul to turn fully to the door leading to the hall, and away from Jack.
 

I dove for the bathroom door, slamming it shut behind me.
 

I snatched the plastic garbage bag from the floor where I’d left it as I jumped into the bathtub, dropping to the bottom just as Saul shot through the door.
 

Right where I would have been standing to get the gun.

The enormity that Saul really would kill me rushed through me.

Stupid, I know. He’d told me all his secrets; of course he’d had no intention of me being able to repeat them. But somehow I thought that Saul wouldn’t be able to do it.

Not to me.

I fumbled with the bag, trying to right it to get the gun out, praying Saul was only bluffing earlier about it being unloaded.
 

Who knew? Maybe his last bullet was the one that had missed Ben.