Blindsided (5 page)

But letting go of Ramsey was out of the question. He pinned the man to the wall. From the corners of his eyes he sought out Roni to make sure she listened to him this time and left the room.

He spotted her crawling across the floor, reaching for something.

“I said, go!” he yelled again.

This time she jumped to her feet and ran from the room into the hall, her scarf and whatever else she had been after in her hand.

No matter, she wouldn’t get far. Whatever it was would be confiscated as soon as Pace intercepted her.

Please, Pace, go easy on her.
But would Ethan’s word be enough to clear her? Guerra and Ramsey were sure to be tight-lipped. The only people who knew the truth were them and God, and Ethan knew God wouldn’t be helping out either.

Ethan jammed his elbow harder into the man’s neck. His lips curled as he leaned in and said, “If I were you I would spill everything you know about Roni Spencer and who set her up. It just might make things go a little smoother for you.”

“Never,” the man replied, his words gurgled in his closed throat.

Then he smiled the sickest smile Ethan had ever seen and Ethan didn’t doubt his word.

* * *

Roni raced for the door that led down to the garage. The guards had hightailed it somewhere to save themselves. The coast was clear, but she couldn’t go anywhere until she found Maddie. The girl had gone to great lengths to produce a car key for Roni to escape and wouldn’t be left behind. It was almost as if the young woman knew Roni would come looking for her to free her. So why run and hide when freedom was being handed to you? The idea was ludicrous.

“FBI! Stop right there.”

Roni paused with her hand on the doorknob to her own freedom. One look at the man barreling down on her and she didn’t get the warm fuzzies. It was a tree trunk of a man, including his thick neck leading up to a shaved head. His hazel eyes glittered with determination, her as the destination.

Ethan had mentioned something about someone setting her up to take the fall. This guy apparently didn’t know.

“I’m not who you want. They’re in the dining room,” she announced.

“I’ll be the judge of that.”

Roni pulled the door wide and let it slam behind her. She took the stairs two at a time and reached the landing just as the door pulled open above.

“Freeze or I will shoot!”

She didn’t waste the time to check to see if he held a gun on her, but took a right down a long hall. Footsteps behind thudding down the stairs pushed her into a faster run for the door at the end of the hall. Would it be locked?

Roni reached it and sighed heavily when it opened to a multibay garage. She turned the lock and slammed it closed as the FBI man on her tail hit the landing.

He shouted, “Veronica Spencer, you’re under arr—”

Roni whipped around and scanned the ten or so cars before her. She held the key fob up and knew exactly what car it belonged to before she clicked the button to unlock it. The key fob was the most expensive car key ever made. Its dark shiny finish wasn’t a finish at all, but sapphire crystals so the key never scratched.

She passed by five cars, all fast enough to hightail her out of here no problem. The Porsche would have felt right at home, but Maddie chose one even better.

Just ahead sat James Bond’s most favorite car.

Roni’s boots clicked speedily along the clean painted cement as her hand reached out for the door handle of the Aston Martin. But before she opened it, a movement inside stopped her.

Someone waited for her in the backseat.

Roni looked back at the exit, the door handle jangling from the FBI agent trying to break it from the other side. She looked back at the car’s tinted windows. The known for the unknown.

She pulled the door wide, saying, “Who’s in there?”

Slowly a face in the rear seat popped up. The black silky hair gave the answer away before Roni saw the face. “You—you said I could go with you, but if you changed your mind—”

“Maddie! No, of course not.” Roni ran to the garage door and lifted it open. She jumped into the driver’s seat and inserted the key fob into its place. She pushed it through and the car purred to life. “You’re brilliant, Maddie, for coming down here and waiting. I thought I was going to have to go back inside to find you.”

“You would have gone back in? For me?”

“I meant what I said. I’m getting you out of here. Now buckle up. We’re about to fly.”

Tires screeched over the cement as Roni floored the gas pedal and the car raced for the open door. Roni expected a blockade but wasn’t complaining when her view stayed free and clear. She picked up speed and took the sharp right as if the car drove a straight line. So smooth, she reflected.

“You picked a great car, Ma—”

A man jumped in front of the speeding car, causing Roni to slam on the brakes, jackknifing it into a screeching side skid.

The vehicle halted inches from Ethan Gunn.

He banged on the window. “Open up!”

“Get out of my way,” Roni replied.

“Roni, trust me.”

“You said that before, and all you did was cover yourself.”

“I had to, or we’d both be dead.”

“You could have told me you were FBI.”

“No, I couldn’t. I’m undercover. That comes with stipulations, one being secrecy.”

“And let’s not forget you think I’m a criminal,” she shot back.

“I did. I don’t anymore.”

“Well, your FBI friends don’t feel the same way.”

“Let me take you in, and I will do everything I can to clear your name.”

“Get out of my way.”

Suddenly a gunshot wrenched through the air, jolting the car.

Maddie screamed in the backseat and hunched down. Roni ducked as well, searching the surroundings for the source.

“Roni, let me in!” Ethan crouched low.

Roni clicked the lock over. Ethan opened the door just enough to jump in, and she took off before he had it closed. She pushed the car to reach its highest speed, climbing up into the hundreds with ease. The long stretch of road in the secluded area gave her a wide range and soon the digital numbers read 160.

“Roni!” Maddie screamed from the backseat.

“Not to worry, Maddie. I do this for a living.”

Ethan gripped his own seat, his head plastered back to his headrest. “I’ve been undercover for a long time, but only now am I fearing for my life.”

“Your choice, Gunn. Shall I pull over so you can get out?”

“I’m supposed to bring you in.”

“Let’s get something straight right now.” She took her eyes off the road long enough to make her point clear. “You are only along for the ride.”

He didn’t seem pleased with that stipulation, but his next words were calmer. “Where are we going?”

“To find out who set me up.”

Ethan looked in his side mirror, indecision on his tight face. “Neither Ramsey nor the FBI are going to just let you go.”

“I’ve already gone,” she stated, but neither of them missed the bouncing headlights gaining on them. The unasked question lingered in the sleek leather cabin.

Which of her pursuers would be the lesser of two evils? Ramsey, who had his operation infiltrated? Or the FBI, who always get their man and wouldn’t take too kindly to being bested today?

SIX

A
sidekick.

Ethan bit down on the backs of his teeth, disgruntled at being reduced to Roni Spencer’s sidekick, a passenger along for the ride.

The tables had turned on him faster than her spinout back at Ramsey’s. The woman could have killed him.

But she didn’t.

The racing princess handled this luxury piece of speed with the ease of a bicycle. He shouldn’t be surprised; he’d read her file. He knew everything about her life at the racetrack and her home life. How she’d lost her parents and baby brother to a car fire when she was three that, up until this year, had been deemed an accident. Recent events had proved the family members had been murdered when an order for a hit on the parents caused them to careen off the side of a mountain to their deaths. The whole family should have died, but two of the children survived, left orphaned and...scarred.

Roni’s burn scars matched the ones in her file. He’d studied them on film numerous times, disgusted, not at her, but at the felon doing time who caused them. Ethan would have liked to hunt him down and make him pay with a lot more than time.

“I’ll put my scarf back on as soon as I lose our tail.”

Ethan jerked in his seat, realizing he’d been staring, and judging by the pain in his jaw, he’d been doing so with a look of distaste. He forced himself to relax. “It’s not what you think.”

“Isn’t it? I know they’re ugly. But I’m used to them, and you’re not. I get it. You did well back in the dining room to hide your shock and repulsion. Better than Ramsey, that’s for sure. I keep them covered so people can be relaxed around me and not have to find something else in the room to stare at. Or, in Ramsey’s case, realize I’m really not the pretty girl he thinks me to be and decide I’m too ugly to live.”

Ethan sputtered. “Ugly.”

Roni wagged a long finger at him before retaking the wheel. “Don’t even go there. I’d have to call you out as a liar. And then I’d have to dump you on the side of road like I did the last guy who lied about them.”

“Finlay,” Ethan said, but he wasn’t expecting a confirmation. “The guy must be blind.”

“Oh, no. His eyes were so keen, he could spot a scar across the room. He was forever righting my scarves. I know it was for appearances’ sake, so I should be thankful, but still.”

Ethan held in a laugh. She must be joking. “Thankful? Why?”

Roni shot a look of incredulity his way. “You’ve obviously been living undercover for too long. Out here in the real world people judge. It’s hard finding your place in the world when there’s always someone better, faster, prettier...not a woman,” she finished under her breath.

The car sped along in silence. Ethan kept his eyes glued to his side mirror. More cars still piled in way behind them but couldn’t catch up. Roni drove at such a high speed with the elegant ease of a queen on her throne.

“Excuse me for saying, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better,
prettier
, woman driver as skilled and as fast as you.”

A giggle erupted from the backseat.

Ethan whipped around, his gun lifted to shoot the intruder. He drew back at the sight of the black-haired maid from the night before. “You brought your maid? Are you crazy?”

“Some have said so. And I wasn’t about to leave her back there.”

“The Feds are there now. They would have taken her to a safe house.”

“Right. Like they were going to do for me? Hardly. I saw one of your Feds. He looked straight at me and was ready to shoot to kill.”

Ethan faced forward, resettling the gun to his lap. He tunneled a hand through his hair in frustration. “Pace.” The man was as hard as granite. Working this job your whole adult life left a mark, but add the fact they had come from the rough neighborhoods of South LA and there was only so much turmoil a person could handle before the world hardened them.

Ethan looked at the flashy woman beside him. She had been through a hard life with the loss of her parents, but she wouldn’t understand the pain of poverty he and Pace had grown up in. The set of her jaw as she gripped the wheel with strength and ability told him her stone could be just as hard as Pace’s, though. Just as hard as his. But he had to think all that bling was just for show. She was still the spoiled little rich girl he’d read about in her files. She didn’t know the pain of poverty.

“Pace is going to catch you, you know. I’ve known him my whole life. He won’t sleep until he’s got his man. Or woman.”

“And I won’t sleep until I’ve got mine.” And with that, the car picked up more speed. The world whizzed by in a blur, sending his pulse through the roof. With his heart in his throat, he chanced a glance Roni’s way.

The woman actually shined. And it had nothing to do with her bling.

Ethan had to wonder if he was wrong about the racing princess. He’d heard the tales of a few people who had lived through the pressures of pain but didn’t just harden into stone. They came out the other side a one-of-a-kind diamond.

Did Roni know her shine was the real thing?

And what did guarding a precious jewel mean for him? A princess deserved high detail. He was a nobody from South LA. A genuine pauper turned cop. He worked alone for a reason. Nobody would miss him.

But if he failed at this mission, everyone would miss the princess.

* * *

Roni spun the steering wheel to the right to escape the sight of cars and SUVs in her rearview mirror. Her throat tightened with trepidation waiting to see if they saw her make the turn. Black cars appeared around the corner behind her and she had her answer.

They hadn’t given up their chase. Not that she expected them to. She would have to lose them with something other than speed.

Straight ahead the road led to a main street four-way intersection of a small village. Signs for the interstate signified another right turn and Roni planned to take it, green light or no.

“Aren’t you going to slow down?” Ethan asked when she hadn’t let up on the gas one bit. “You’re not making keeping you alive easy, you know.”

“You just worry about yourself. And tighten your buckle. You, too, Maddie.” Roni gave the instruction and reached for the emergency brake with one hand. “Hang on.”

The intersection approached and she could see two cars waiting at their red lights in the opposite lanes. She hoped they would call the police on her. But then she had to think Ramsey had the police in his back pocket. How else could the man conduct a criminal organization near this sleepy little town?

“What do you think you’re doing?” Ethan yelled at the top of his voice. “You’ll never make that turn.”

She turned the wheel, hit the clutch and yanked the emergency brake in one move. As soon as she felt her rear wheels lock up she released the brake and hit the gas. The car made a perfect right angle turn without flipping or crashing into the waiting cars at the light.

Or even slowing down.

The open road ahead revealed signs for the interstate on-ramps. Another look in her mirror showed a cluster of cars jammed in the intersection behind her.

She smiled. “Apparently none of your FBI cronies know how to drift their cars.”

One look at Ethan’s blanched face and dropped jaw said he had to agree he’d never seen anything like it. “You have to show me how you did that.”

“You’ll have to sign up for my racing school...if I ever get it opened.”

“That was amazing. What could possibly stop you?”

“Who. My uncle is CEO still. My brother, Wade, left the business in his care when he left for the army. Uncle Clay has been against me opening a school since the first moment I mentioned it.”

The blue highway signs drew closer. Cars whizzed by as she raced past them. The on-ramp beckoned on her right. The off-ramp faced the road on her left, but she only focused on the road that would take her out of this town.

Bad move.

“Roni! Watch out!”

Just before she could crank the wheel to the right, a small black Porsche screamed off the exit ramp and cut her off. It spun out to a stop, blocking her from the on-ramp.

At one hundred sixty miles an hour, Roni did the only thing she could do.

She took the off-ramp.

No other cars exited the highway at the moment, but that didn’t mean one or more wouldn’t hit their blinkers and take the ramp. Good, sensible drivers following the rules of the road, having no idea a speeding car with a woman racing to freedom would be driving straight at them.

She entered the highway facing the wrong way.

Car horns blared as she maneuvered between a few vehicles. They parted like a haphazard Red Sea.

“Another trick of yours?” Ethan asked, noticeable concern in his voice.

“No. I’ve never done this in my life. Start praying that I don’t kill somebody.”

“I’m not much of a praying man. You might want to do the praying.”

“My prayers don’t work.”

A horn blared as another car drove closer, its sound warped as it flew past them and the speed of sound lessened.

“All prayers are heard by God,” Maddie spoke from the backseat, her voice strong but filled with fear. “I never stopped believing that. I couldn’t.”

Roni and Ethan looked at each other for a brief moment, knowing how Maddie’s prayers kept her hope of freedom alive.

Roni couldn’t claim that Maddie’s prayers didn’t work. After all, here they were rescuing her from a place she never would have broken free from on her own.

Had God used this situation to answer Maddie’s prayers? Would He free her only to allow her to be killed on this highway now?

And what about Roni’s abduction? Had God used that situation to bring to light the people in Roni’s life who were out to hurt her?

As soon as the road cleared, Roni yanked the wheel left and hit the clutch again to make the tightest U-turn ever. But when the same exit ramp neared down the road, she hit her blinker and took it.

“You’re turning yourself in?” Ethan asked.

Roni snuck an absurd look his way. “No way. I’m going after my car.”

Ethan shot a look forward. “That was
your
Porsche?”

“With someone else behind the wheel.”

“Someone who doesn’t care if you disappear forever. Do not approach that car, Roni!”

She kept driving.

“I know you heard me.”

“But you apparently didn’t hear me. I told you when I let you into this car that you were only along for the ride.”

Unfortunately when she reached the bottom of the ramp her Porsche was nowhere to be found.

But the screaming cars of her pursuers were headed her way.

Roni hit the gas to race across the street and headed back up the on-ramp. The open highway welcomed her speed and she had the speedometer numbers climbing back to their 160-mph pace with ease.

Trees blurred by as Roni swerved around cars to get ahead, but she knew she’d have to do more than speed to lose the FBI and Ramsey.

“Do you think it was your uncle behind the wheel?” Ethan asked.

Roni laughed at the thought. But something told her there would be no laughing when she found out who it really was behind it all, not just the wheel.

“Someone with professional racing skills cut me off. Someone who knew my moves and how to replicate them. No, it wasn’t my uncle.”

Roni reached for her neck. She was totally exposed.
What would you think of that, Jared?
Would her ex-fiancé cover her up? Would he look away in disgust?

She peered down the stretch of asphalt for her car and gripped the wheel tight with determination of tracking it down.

There was only one way to find out what Jared would do when he saw her. But first she had to catch him.