Bad Girl Lessons (11 page)

Evie clenched her shaking hands around the steering wheel and eased out of the parking space. In the rearview mirror, she could see Cass’ crumpled body slumped agains the other car. “Trevor, I don’t know what you’re planning--”

“I’m planning,” he said, “To ransom your fat ass back to Jackson and use the money to disappear before I wind up like Lisa!”

“What happened, Trevor? What’s this all about?” Evie demanded, hoping that if she could keep him talking she might be able to come up with a plan.

“I made that stupid bet, but I had this hot tip from Lisa’s boyfriend... They’d paid off one of the refs to make a couple of bad calls during the game. It was supposed to be a sure thing and I would have made a fortune. But then they made that fucking tackle and the ref got hit! The stupid fucker got knocked out and they had to bring in someone else and it all went south... I had put a quarter million down, but I could only come up with half. So, Lisa’s boyfriend offered to let me make the rest in payments, if I would shuffle some funds around for him, make the money look a little cleaner!”

“You were set up from the get go,” she said, hoping to placate him. If she could appease him, she thought, maybe she could convince him to let her go.

“Exactly! That fucking bitch hung me out to dry! She helped me forge the loan documents to borrow the money and I paid off everything I could. Did a few deposits and withdrawals for them, and then told them I wanted out...But these aren’t the kind of people you just walk away from. They made it abundantly clear that I was their bitch from that point forward. Still, I could handle that. Once I got the debt paid off to them, I was making a shit load of money at it... But once again, Lisa had to fuck it all up! She and Tony got into it, he dumped her crazy ass, and the bitch called the feds!”

“Is that why they killed her? Because she talked to the FBI?”

“Yes, and they’re going to kill me too. These people don’t like witnesses and I saw that fucker shoot her in the back of the head. Not to mention, that I know where all the money is. I’m screwed, Evie. Jackson had damned well better pay up, cause I’m not going down alone.”

He had lost his mind. He had completely lost his mind, she thought.

“Take the next right... Route 9,” he ordered.

They were driving out into the middle of nowhere. He would kill her and they would probably never find her body. The fear congealed in her, forming a hard knot in her gut. It made it difficult to breathe and she focused as much of her attention on that as she could. As if sensing that she was on the verge of doing something reckless, Trevor said, “All he has to do is pay... If he gives me the money, I’ll let you go. But if you make this difficult, if you don’t do what I tell you to, I can hurt you without killing you, Evie, and I will.”

Evie drove, panic keeping her going. She wanted nothing more than to open the door and dive out, to take her chances. But she couldn’t afford to doubt Trevor. He’d already gone further off the deep end than she’d ever imagined possible. Fear for Cass clawed at her. Was she still alive? Had someone found her yet? Other thoughts, fleeting and panicked, assailed her. Would Trevor actually let her go?

CHAOS ensued at the hospital. Cass was in the emergency room getting stitches. They’d done a CT scan and diagnosed her with a concussion and planned to admit her for the night. Jackson paced the waiting area as he waited to talk to her. The police had already questioned her, but they weren’t saying anything to him. They wouldn’t even given the information to Evie’s parents. They were playing everything very close to their chest and that was escalating the stress of the situation to even greater heights. Cursing, mildly, he paced back to the small bank of hard plastic chairs and took a seat. His hands were clenched into fists as he leaned his elbows on his knees and stared down at the tile floor. He wasn’t one to pray, but in that moment, he made a silent request. Evie was finally his, and the very idea of letting her go was more than he could take. He should never have let her out of his sight, he thought bitterly.

“It wasn’t your fault, son. You can beat yourself up for it untill the cows come home, but there’s only person responsible for this mess and it’s Trevor.”

Jackson looked up at Phillip Harper, meeting the older man’s worried gaze, “I know that. Logically, I know that. But logic doesn’t seem to be cutting it right now.”

Phillip took the seat beside him. “It never does when it comes to the women we love.”

Jackson had never come right out and told anyone that he loved Evie. He didn’t bother denying it though. In that moment, he made a vow to himself that he would tell her the second she was back in his arms.

The buzzing of his phone saved Jackson from having to respond openly. A quick glance at the screen and he saw that the text message was from Trevor. He scanned it quickly and then re-read it to be sure he had all the information. “Phillip, Trevor wants a quarter of a million.”

“I can’t get that kind of money right now. It’ll take days!”

“I’ve got it. If Morris will open the bank and get me to my safe deposit box, I can get it for him... He says that if we bring the cops, he’ll kill her.”

“Then no cops. We do whatever it takes to get her back alive,” Phillip responded. His voice was resolute.

“I’ll talk to Reed. We’ll get her back, Phillip. I’m not going to let her go now.”

Phillip nodded, “Whatever happens, Jackson, I know that you’ll do everything in your power to bring her home safely. And if you can’t, if it’s too late for Evie, just promise me you’ll kill the son of a bitch.”

“If I have to follow him to hell and back, I will.”

Jackson left the hospital, motioning for Reed to follow him. Outside, he showed him the text. “He’s at that abandoned motel by the river... I have to get Morris to the bank so I can get the cash.”

“You’re going to pay the ransom? What’s to stop him from putting a bullet in the both of you?”

“You are. I know you have a gun at the office. I need you to get it and head out there first. Get yourself in position and wait for me.”

Reed started to protest, but thought better of it. “Fine, but if this goes south--”

“It won’t,” Jackson said sharply. “It can’t.”

TWO hours later, Evie was seated on the filth littered floor of a motel room that hadn’t housed guests in over twenty years. From the smell, she knew it had housed a few rodents. She could hear scurrying in the walls and shuddered in response. Trevor had tied her hands to the headboard which was bolted to the wall. She’d tugged, pulled, even laid down on the disgusting floor and kicked at it, but the damn thing wouldn’t budge. Shifting her weight, since her behind had long since gone numb, she kicked one of the many empty bottles that littered the floor and it went skittering into a pile of trash.

“Would you stop making so much fucking noise!” Trevor roared at her.

Evie didn’t bother to respond. Two hours with Trevor had told her just how desperate he was. He’d never stopped watching the windows, paranoid that someone would find them. It wasn’t the police, her father or Jackson that he feared. It was a man named Tony. Recalling the shady man Lisa had brought to her engagement party, Evie could understand why. “Trevor, I can get you the money. You just have to let me go,” she said reasonably.

He whirled on her then, “Just shut the fuck up! All your snooping has made things worse! Now it isn’t just Tony I have to worry about! I have the goddamned cops after me too! All because of you.”

Pointing out that it was because he had done things that were illegal would not help her cause any, so Evie bit her tongue. “Trevor, I have money. I can clear out the savings accounts and give you everything in them.”

He approached her then, stalking across the room. Evie braced herself for the blow, but it was still staggering. His open hand struck her cheek so forcefully that her head snapped back, connecting painfully with the wall. She tasted blood and knew that her lip had split again. He grabbed her bound hands, twisting them painfully as he pulled her to her feet. When he shoved her facedown onto the tattered bed, she began to scream. He grabbed her hair, pulling her head back roughly. “Just shut up! This is all your fault! And Jackson’s! How could you, Evie? After all those years together, how could you go straight to him knowing how much I hate the son of a bitch?”

“Trevor, it wasn’t like that! You had left me!”

“I didn’t have a choice! Tony was demanding all the money and I didn’t have it... I convinced Lisa to go and talk to him, to make things right, but I didn’t know she’d gone to the feds! He killed her! Right in front of me and if he finds me, I’m a dead man!”

With every word, his grip on her hair had gotten tighter, the pressure on her neck increasing as well. Evie was afraid it would snap if he didn’t let go. “Trevor, you’re hurting me!”

He released her so quickly that her head bounced against the mattress, but then his hands were tearing at her clothes, shoving the hem of her dress up over her thighs. “I’ll show you, Evie. You just have to remember how good it is between us... You can leave with me. We’ll take the money and go away together!”

She struggled, trying to break free from him, but his legs were clamped around hers, keeping her from moving. “Don’t do this! Trevor! Please, stop this!” Evie could hear the sound of his belt as he began to loosen it, and the rasp of his zipper was deafening in the room. But then he stopped. Evie heard the crunch of gravel and the roar of an engine outside. Trevor stepped away suddenly and she sobbed with relief.

“Looks like Jackson is eager to have you back,” he said bitterly, as he hastily fastened his pants. He grabbed the gun from the scarred table in front of the busted window, and walked outside. Dropping to her knees on the filthy carpet, Evie began to tug at the bed frame again. The mattress shifted off the frame enough to reveal the metal bed rails beneath. The frame had rusted from the leaky roof, leaving sharp jagged edges along the rails. Evie sighed in relief as she began the arduous process of trying to slice through the ropes at her wrists. The metal chaffed at her skin, but she kept going, nearly shouting with victory when the rope began to fray. Moving as little as possible so as not to alert Trevor, she blocked out the pain and simply kept sawing away at the ropes.

Trevor opened the door, calling out, “Jackson! Last room on the left and don’t even think about trying anything!”

Evie could see Jackson approaching through the barred windows. The wrought iron had been intended to give the motel a New Orleans type appeal, but it had failed miserably. Still struggling with her bonds, she watched as Trevor motioned Jackson inside. She felt the warmth of Jackson’s gaze on her, saw him surveying her critically to see if she was hurt. Banked anger blazed in his eyes and Evie prayed that his temper wouldn’t get the better of him.

“Toss the phone out the door and open the bag!” Trevor demanded and Jackson complied, flashing stacks of cash inside the black duffel.

“It’s all in there, Trevor. Now, let Evie go.”

“I’m afraid no one is going anywhere, Mr. Cope.” The voice belonged to Tony Danova, Lisa’s former boyfriend with the mob connections. He lounged negligently in the doorway, another muscle bound good behind him. Even in the heat of summer, they wore heavy sport coats, but the jackets did nothing to disguise the bulge of guns beneath. “You’ve been a very naughty boy, Trevor Dupree.”

“Tony--”

“Only my friends call me Tony, Trevor. My friends don’t duck out of me when they still owe me a hundred grand. You will call me Mr. Danova and you’re gonna hand me that piece right now.”

Trevor’s attempts to be a tough guy ebbed away and he sniveled at the other man. “I have your money right here, Mr. Danova, with interest. I was just coming to see you,” Trevor said, his voice trembling as he handed over the gun.

Tony shook his head, “Don’t bullshit me, Trevor. Now, as for you Mr. Cope and Ms. Harper, I apologize for this. It’s an unfortunate sequence of events that has led us all to be here at the same time.”

Jackson held up his hands in an attempt to placate the other man. “Far as I’m concerned, you were never here. We were never here. Trevor got cold feet and let Evie go,” Jackson said, his voice pitched low and his tone perfectly reasonable.

Tony let out a heavy melodramatic sigh, “I wish it were that easy, but it isn’t. Witnesses have a way of coming to back to haunt you, and I can’t have that. Trevor here is going to come with me. You and Ms. Harper will stay here...Jesus, Trevor, you don’t even have any fucking bullets in this gun!”

“I never really intended to hurt anybody. I just wanted to get the money I owed you,” Trevor said, his voice breaking on a sob.

Tony motioned to the muscle behind him, “Put him in the trunk. I’ll take care of these two.” The goon grabbed Trevor, who screamed like a little girl, as he was being hauled across the parking lot. Evie watched with growing horror as Tony Danova replaced the clip in Trevor’s gun with one that was loaded with real bullets. “Love triangles are always messy.”

“I’m not going to let you hurt her,” Jackson said, and with a move that was very much reminiscent of his football days, leapt across the ruined bed and tackled the other man to the floor. The struggled with the gun for several minutes, but Jackson was obviously the more powerful of the two. He had rested the gun away from him when the goon suddenly reappeared in the doorway.

The loud pop of gunfire echoed in the small room and Evie screamed at the growing red stain on Jackson’s shirt. Tony grabbed the gun from Jackson’s hand as he collapsed to the floor. He rose, brushing off his suit and stepped over Jackson’s prone form. He surveyed her bound wrists, “I’m going to leave here and within seconds, this place will go up in flames. I ought to kill you, I ought to put a bullet in his head and one in yours, but I don’t like to shoot women. It makes me feel a little funny, so... So here is what I am going to do, Ms. Harper. I am going to leave you and your rebound boyfriend in God’s hands. If you get out, then you’re free to go, safe from me and mine. If not, then I guess you’ll just be an unfortunate parable about the evils of jealousy... Because naturally, Trevor will be the presumed culprit.”