End Game (The Game Series) (3 page)

Chapter Seven

It looked like they were in the clear. Deshaun’s mu
rder had now officially been closed and it wouldn’t be investigated any further. Her relief was palpable, and as Sandy left the station, she said a silent thank you. She couldn’t believe how much she had risked over this whole mess but she knew she would do it again in a heartbeat. She loved her job, was good at it, and had never done anything like this before.
And never again!
she thought to herself wryly. She hated lying to her colleagues and while she felt no remorse as far as what happened to Deshaun was concerned, it did go against everything she believed in to prevent justice running its course.

She’d stayed late at work today, trying to catch up on some of the paperwork she’d let slide while she’d been looking after Kyle. Her boss had made a couple of comments recently and she knew that she was going to get hauled in soon for a
reaming if she didn’t get on top of it.

Starving, she’d tried to
call Kyle to see if he wanted take-out but he hadn’t answered his phone. Guessing that he was probably sleeping, she’d gone by the Chinese restaurant on her way home and grabbed them both some food. The smell of it now as she walked up the stairs to Kyle’s apartment was making her stomach growl.

Slipping her key in the door and pushing it open, she was surprised to find all the lights were off. Flicking them on with one hand and placing the hot food on the counter with the other
, she walked through the apartment to his room and knocked on the door. Not getting any reply, she gently pushed the door open, not wanting to wake him.

All thoughts of stealth left her as soon as she realized he was not in his bed. Checking the whole apartment, which didn’t take long, she realized he was not there. Leaving the food to go cold on the counter
, she checked the bathroom and realized his toiletries were gone.
Dammit!
She should have known better than to leave him alone! There was no doubt in her mind at all where he had gone, she just hoped she wasn’t too late.

Running out of the apartment, letting the door slam behind her, she ran to her car.
Her hands were sweating on the steering wheel as she drove, way too fast, to the airport. She had to stop him. He was capable of anything in the frame of mind he was in at the moment. She’d just got him out of one mess and it certainly wasn’t so he could turn around and jump straight into another one!

He’d obviously had this planned but he’d given nothing away when she’d left for work this morning. For all she knew
, his flight could have left hours ago but she had to try. Praying all the way to the airport she dumped her car outside the terminal, risking getting towed. She had no time to go and try and get parking.

Inside the terminal was a mass of heaving humanity with thousands of travelers
, seemingly without any apparent structure.
Where was she going to start?
Just about every major airline flew to London and the check-in desks ran the full length of both sides of the building.
What on earth had she been thinking?
She chided herself. There was no way that she would be able to find him in this place, even if he hadn’t already checked in. Her heart raced as she felt the clock ticking inside her head. Overwhelmed and hopeless, she knew she had to try.

The departure board was just a few steps away, and she quickly scanned it.
She decided to start with the desks that had flights to the London leaving soon. Delta, United, Southwest and British Airways all had flights leaving in the next couple of hours and she knew that that their check-in desks would be open.

The crowded terminal loomed before her as she felt herself jostled about. Walking as quickly as she could, s
truggling not to run, she checked Delta and United, searching the full length of the check in lines. Nothing.

Knowing that the chances were getting slimmer by the minute she moved on to Southwest. No sign on him. If he wasn’t in the British Airways queue then she was out of luck. Holding her breath until she’d walked the entire length of the line
, her shoulders fell when she realized he wasn’t there.

That was it
, then. There was nothing more she could do, he was on his own. She slowly shook her head and turned toward the exit doors. Taking a final glance around the terminal before giving up, she was walking away when she saw him, hurrying towards her with his head down, looking at the paperwork in his hand. Stepping in front of him he mumbled an
excuse me
as he went to step around her, barely looking up with a quick glance. He did a double take then when he realized it was her. A moment passed, their eyes locking.

“What are you doing here?”
he asked, clearly shocked.

Crossly
, she replied. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that question? What do you think you’re doing?”

He sighed. “You know what I’m doing
, Sandy. I’m going to find Tara.”

Sarcastically
, she replied, “Oh, really? Silly me. I thought you were going to a foreign country to take on a murdering bastard on your own, totally unprepared.”

“Ha. Very funny
,” he shot back, though he wasn’t laughing. “This has got to end, Sandy.”

She nodded slowly. “I know it
does. But is this the way to do it?”

He smiled now, sadly. “Is there any other way?”

They both knew what they were talking about now, and that as long as Sergei was on this earth Tara would never be free.

Knowing she was going to regret it but knowing she would regret it more if she didn’t she said “Ok
ay. But you’re not going alone. I’m coming with you.”

Kyle laughed
, shaking his head. “No, you’re not!”

Sandy nodded, her mind made up. “Yes. I am.”

“No. You’ve risked enough for me over the past few days, I will not let you risk any more. Why would you want to go, anyway?”

Sandy thought a moment before replying. “Because it’s the right thing to do. And I’m not doing it just for you, I’m doing it for Tara
, too. What this monster has put her through is unthinkable and she deserves our help. There’s no other way, is there?”

Kyle shook his head. “No. Even if we let the authorities in the UK know what’s going on, and if they take us seriously, this guy knows how to cover his tracks. There’s no way they woul
d be able to stop him in time.”

“And if I don’t come with you, you’re going to go on your own anyway
, aren’t you?”

Knowing the answer before she’d even asked the question
, she wasn’t surprised when Kyle nodded.

Sandy nodded. “That’s decided
, then. Now, where do I go to get a ticket? You’re paying, by the way.”

Chapter Eight

She’d slept fitfully, haunted by dreams of Kyle and her daughter, and had already been awake when Joey opened the door and brought her some breakfast.

“When can I see Sergei?” she said, trying one more time to get any bit of information about her fate.

He set the breakfast tray down on the dresser, ignoring her question as he had all the others.

Tara stood up and got between him and the door. “I said, when can I see Sergei?” She asked it again, more forcefully this time.

His only reply a smirk, Joey pushed her out of the way.

“Please tell him I need to see him. I need to know what’s going on,” she said, reaching for his arm, standing in front of him again.

Joey’s smile widened as he pulled his arm from her hand. He moved closer to her, and she could smell his horrible breath as his face came within inches of hers. She tried not to flinch, not to let him feel her fear.

“Get out of my way
, bitch,” was all he said before leaving her alone again and locking the door behind him.

***

Sergei was feeling particularly pleased with himself. It was all coming together nicely. Tara would get her punishment and he would get all those who’d complained when she’d left back on his side. The damage would be repaired and the game would continue with renewed vigor meaning more players and more money. And Tara would be dealt with, once and for all.

As he thought of the finality of his plan, the end for Tara, his mind turned to his daughter.
He was sat in his office enjoying the silence. It was nice when Anna wasn’t here, quiet.

He’d been stunned when he’d f
ound out Tara was pregnant and his first reaction was that he would need to get it taken care of. Having a child had never been in his plan, and he wasn’t one to change direction after a course had been charted. He had made a nice business for himself, and he had all the money he could want.

But when the surprise had worn off
, he’d started to think about the possibilities. He knew that one day he would want to take more of a back seat in the business, enjoy the rewards that he’d worked so hard to earn. But the question of who would take over when that time came had never occurred to him until then. As he pondered the possibility of having a child of his own, he’d realized it was a perfect solution, really. An heir. Obviously, with his new plan formulated, he’d hoped for a boy and had felt a bit disappointed when Tara had given birth to a girl, but an heir was an heir and he would make do.

Once his plan
had taken shape, he’d never had any intention of letting Tara raise her. She was far too valuable to him as a prize and, in any case, no child of his would ever be raised by a whore. He’d had no qualms about telling her the baby had died. If she’d known the truth, she would have been incredibly hard to manage and would no doubt have been an emotional mess. No, doing it that way had allowed her to grieve quickly, ensuring the shortest time possible spent away from her main priority, servicing his clients. This way, she was able get over it and return to work as quickly as possible. The cruelty of it, for both Tara and his daughter, hadn’t even occurred to him.

He’d
bought this house in the Dorset countryside, hidden away from his London life, and as soon as she’d been born he had packed her off with Monika. He’d barely had anything to do with her for the first few years of her life, and at times he almost forgot about her existence.

He’d never been sentimental, and a
baby held no interest for him. He couldn’t say he had ever felt any desire to be a father, and that hadn’t changed when Anna had come into the picture. For most of her life, she’d held no more interest for him than any of his other business ventures.

He was interested in making sure she was doing well, and would be capable of taking over the business when it was time.
Monika provided him with monthly reports on her progress and as long as she performed well at school he had been pleased. As a teenager now, he realized that the time was drawing near that she would be learning about the business, beginning to take part, and just lately he’d been making more of an effort as the time was coming when he would need to introduce her to her future life.

He wouldn’t
say he loved her. Wasn’t sure he could love anyone, in all honesty, and wasn’t sure he ever had. But he had a lot invested in her and there was no way that he was going to let Tara spoil all that. She had served him well as bait but he’d never had any intention of letting her anywhere near Anna. As far as Anna was concerned, her mother was dead and that was the way it was going to stay.

That
he would have to get rid of Tara once and for all was obvious. She knew about Anna now and she would not forget, never be able to let it go. But he wasn’t going to make it easy on her. She had put him through far too much and she needed to suffer before he put her out of her misery.

“Joey!”
he shouted, knowing he wouldn’t be far away.

“Yes boss
?” He immediately appeared in the door of his office.

“I need you to go to London and
pick up the players. There are six of them,” he said as he handed Joey a list. “They will all meet at the Casino tomorrow morning at ten and come back down here with you in the limo.”

Joey looked down at the list and nodded. “Will you be ok
ay down here on your own with Tara, sir?”

Sergei chuckled. “Yes
, Joey. Thank you for your concern, but I can handle Tara.”

***

He watched as Joey drove away from the house. It was just the two of them now. Shutting the front door, he turned and looked up the stairs. It was quite sad really, he thought to himself. They’d been together a long time. It was a shame it had to end like this. Walking up the stairs to Tara’s room, he opened the door. Tara was sitting at by dresser staring out the window and never even turned as he entered.

“You’re never going to let me see her are you?”
she asked him.

Sergei shook his head. “No
, Tara. Did you really think I would?”

She just shook her head. “So why am I here?” She turned to look at him.

“Because you need to pay for what you did to me. What better place to do that than where your daughter spends her days?”

“Did I not do enough? You had me from when I was a child. You took me from my mother and you broke me. Not once in all th
ose years did I ever try to leave or do anything to hurt you. Why would you do this to me?” Tears were streaming silently down her face now as she spoke. The agony on her face didn’t move him, and she turned away

“I didn’t take you from your mother
, Tara, she gave you to me. You know that. I did you a favor. I looked after you, made sure you had anything you could ask for and you betrayed me.”

“You took my baby from me.”

“You were too young to be a mother. She’s had everything a child could want, and more. She goes to the best schools, mixes with the best people, has everything she needs or wants. What mother wouldn’t want that for her child?”

If he’d been human, Sergei would have felt a moment’s remorse at the look of pain in her eyes
as she crumpled on the bed under the weight of her sorrow. But he wasn’t human and he felt nothing.

***

Any hope that Tara had held had drained away now and she felt a depth of sorrow she had never known. She knew that her life had ended then and that whatever Sergei had planned, it didn’t matter as she was already dead inside.

Part of her had always known that she would never see her daughter but she’d known, without a shadow of a doubt, that she would rather be dead than try
to live her life knowing she was out there but out of her reach. She would die happy that she had done everything she could to find her again. She couldn’t help but think of Kyle now, hoping that he was okay, hoping that Sandy had caught up with him in time and saved him from himself. She couldn’t bear to think that Sandy hadn’t gotten to him in time and that he could be sitting in a jail cell somewhere or, worse, dead. She had deliberately closed her mind to him over the last few days. Thoughts of him were more than she could cope with, her despair so complete that it left no room for other emotions. It had been a choice in the end, and she had chosen her daughter. There really hadn’t been any doubt that she would in the end.