The Gentlewoman (37 page)

“This is unfortunate, running into you, sweet Rory. I hadn’t
intended to meet up with you again. I don’t mind telling you it doesn’t leave me
with choices I desire.”

As he raised his gun to her, she looked to Landon. This
didn’t make sense. “Uncle Landon? What’s going on here?” She eyed the stacks of
money, so many large stacks.

“I’m sorry, Rory,” Landon said. “This was never supposed to
happen. None of it was ever supposed to happen.” He looked at Roan with an
appalled expression. “Sullivan, take this much and leave. This has to end now.”

“This will end when I’m satisfied that I have been duly
repaid,” Roan yelled at him.

“Uncle Landon, what’s going on here?” Rory demanded. She was
incensed, her world turning on its head. It was almost secondary that a gun was
pointed at her. She was too busy hoping that what she was seeing didn’t mean
what she feared.

“I can explain, Rory. It’s time I explained.” He turned to
Roan and shook his head. “I have to explain everything to her. This can’t go on
any longer. I can’t live like this any longer, Sullivan!”

His shouting was abruptly interrupted by the round that Roan
pumped into him. Rory screamed and reeled backward, hitting her back against
the wall. She stared at the lifeless form of her mentor and uncle as blood
trickled from his mouth and temple. His eyes stared at her as if pleading.

She looked open-mouthed across the room as Roan gazed at
her. A satisfied smirk was on his face. “You never knew what you were dealing
with, did you?”

His words trailed off as more gunfire exploded. Rory fell to
the floor and held her arms over her head, trying to shield herself from flying
bullets. When everything went silent and still, she looked up.

Shane Sutton stood in the doorway. She looked at Lon as he
lay motionless in front of her. Roan was spread across the floor, moaning and
bleeding, his gun flung out of reach.

Shane stepped forward and held his hand out to her. She took
it and he yanked her up, pulling her behind him as he raced down the hall and
the back stairs.

He dragged her with all his might, through the back door and
down into the parking deck. When they reached the second level, he pulled her
over to a car and pushed her inside.

He jumped in and started the engine. She looked at him in
confusion and alarm.

“Wait, where are we going? Let’s go to the front!
Everybody’s out front!”

He turned and smacked her across the face so hard she sailed
back against the side window.

“You fucking bitch! Look what I’ve done for you!” he
screamed at the top of his lungs. “I’ve put up with your disrespect and now
I’ve taken care of this for you. You will obey me!” Rory held her cheek and
stared at him.

Shane pulled out and squealed tires around the turns until
they emerged on the other side of City Hall. There weren’t many people to be
seen.

Rory held her cheek and looked back at him in confusion, her
other hand braced on the dashboard. “Shane, what the fuck are you doing?” she
gasped.

“I’m taking what’s mine. I will teach you to never leave me
again.”

“Can you go faster? It’s a matter of life or death.” Jackson
prayed that wasn’t the case, but he felt it in his bones. Something bad was
about to happen.

He called Rory’s phone again and got voicemail for the tenth
time. “Damn it,” he spat. He hit speed dial again. “How much farther ’til we’re
downtown?”

“About ten minutes,” the cab driver assured him. He could
tell he was making the guy nervous but he didn’t care. He was out of his
fucking mind with worry. His sixth sense was screaming.

Spurred on by his crazy passenger, the driver made it
downtown in record time. Jackson hopped from the car, throwing a hundred
dollars at the guy. He looked around at the chaos.

What he guessed were all the inhabitants of City Hall were
standing on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. Picketers were
mixed among them. Everybody was loud. Police were taping off the area in front
of the building.

“Jackson! Jackson!” He turned to find Nicole running toward
him.

“Nicole, where’s Rory? What the hell is going on?”

She grabbed his forearms. “I don’t know, nobody knows. She
hasn’t come out of the building, and there were gunshots.”

Adrenaline shot through him. “Where did you last see her?”

“She was going back to the fourth floor,” Nicole cried.

He looked at her for a split second before taking off. He
ran across the street, ignoring the police and their tape, and into the
building.

Inside, he found the stairwell and ran up the steps as
quietly as he could. He stopped on every landing, silently opening the door and
looking up and down the hall. When he got to the fourth floor, he closed and
locked the stairwell door behind him, to cut off the possible escape route.

He looked into the empty media room. He turned left and
prowled into the office suite.

He heard moaning and raced for the source. He skidded to a
stop outside the large office.

Landon McCollum was unmoving and probably dead. Cash was
scattered all over the office. Another man lay unmoving.

He approached the man who was writhing in pain and kicked
his gun farther away. He turned him and knew right away from the pictures he
had studied that it was Roan Sullivan.

“Where is she?” he growled at the bastard.

Roan struggled for breath. He gripped his gut. Jackson
looked him over and knew he would be dead in minutes. His intestines were
falling out of him. Jackson squeezed his throat.

“Where’s Rory?” he yelled in his face. The man’s eyes opened
slightly.

“He took her,” Roan coughed.

“Who?” Jackson yelled and shook him again. “Who?”

Roan coughed up blood and writhed onto his side. “Sutton,”
he breathed as he gagged against the gurgling in his throat.

Jackson stood and looked around. He grabbed the gun from the
floor. He went back into the hall and ran in the opposite direction from which
he came.

He followed the hall to a staircase. He followed the
staircase, which led straight to the parking garage below. He ran through the
levels of the parking garage, looking for any sign of her. He cursed as he emerged
without a clue.

He dialed Reynolds as he walked back to the crowd.

“Three men are down at City Hall. We have Sullivan. He’s
probably dead by now in there. Landon McCollum is dead. I’m trying to find
Rory. Sutton took her.”

Reynolds replied in expletives. Jackson ran back to Nicole.

“Sutton took her,” he yelled as he ran up to her.

“What?”

“Where would he take her?” he asked frantically.

“I don’t know! Why would he take her away?”

“I think he’s crazy. I know he’s dangerous.” He didn’t want
to tell her what he’d seen in there. He thought back for a moment, trying to
think of what he knew of Sutton. He needed an insight into his thought
patterns.

He remembered what Reynolds had said. Sutton had quit right
before the baby doll box was delivered. The baby doll her father had given her.

“I’m going to her house,” Jackson said, looking around for a
car. “I think he’s taking her home.”

He saw a cab. The driver was leaning against the door,
watching the commotion. Jackson raced up to him.

“I need your cab. I’ll pay you.”

“What?” the guy said, surprised.

Jackson couldn’t waste time. He grabbed the guy by the shirt
and tossed him into the car. He got behind the wheel.

“I’ll pay you. I promise,” he yelled as he squealed tires
down the street.

He really didn’t know his way around, which was why he had
shoved the driver into the car. “Tell me how to get to Bay Village. Now!”

The guy didn’t hesitate. “Go to the right up here and get on
the Shoreway. That’s going to be quickest. Mind telling me what the hell is
going on?”

Jackson’s eyes cut to the guy and quickly back to the road.
“I’m Congressman Jackson Dorn. You heard of Rory Morgan? Have you heard of us?”

The driver, a white-haired stocky gentleman, answered him
immediately. “I know who you both are. Been all over the news. She in trouble?”

“Yeah,” he said as they raced over the Shoreway, taking the
sharp curves along the lake way too quickly.

“Follow this,” the cabby said as the lanes narrowed and the
street became residential. Jackson didn’t slow down. He sped up and sounded the
horn through the few lights they went through. It was a cold day and the snow
had been blowing earlier. That was lucky. Nobody was on the street.

“How long is this going to take?” he asked, desperate to
reach her. He hoped he had it right and he’d find them at her house.

“Shane, don’t do this.” He was pulling Rory from the car in
her driveway. He had hit her more times along the way. He was unhappy with her
denials at belonging to him or that they were supposed to be together. He said
he knew she had been confused, but he was done with her being rebellious. It
was now or never, he explained. He was tired of waiting for her to come back to
him. The way he spoke sent shivers up and down her spine. He certainly seemed
to be a person at the end of his rope.

The whole thing was too fucking close to three years ago.

“Get in the motherfucking house, Rory.” He grabbed the back
of her neck and led her around the back to the sliding door. She looked at Mr.
Lucas’s house, wondering where the hell that busybody was. Shane opened the
door and pushed her hard.

Rory couldn’t believe this was happening. She couldn’t
believe what had happened in Garrison’s office. She despaired to think of
Landon.

“Shane, we need to call the police. That was Roan back
there! He shot Landon!”

“I don’t care! Roan’s nothing. Nobody’s looking for him.
They only think they are.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” she asked, afraid of
the answer.

“I was shocked to see him. I had no idea he was in the
country.”

She looked at him, confused and entranced.

He laughed. “Did you really think he gave a shit about you,
sweetheart? He didn’t even give a shit about his brother after you killed him.
As long as his business is good and his millions are coming in, he doesn’t care
about anybody. He wouldn’t waste his time on you.”

She stared at him, open-mouthed. “It was you,” she gasped.

“You knew it was me, you bitch! You ignored my warnings!” he
screamed at her. His youthful features twisted with hate and sickness.

“What warnings, Shane?” she asked quietly, slowly backing up
to the kitchen bar.

“I watched.” He closed the door behind him. “I saw how Dorn
looked at you. I saw he piqued your interest. I never thought you’d be so
stupid as to fuck him. I mean really, Rory, he fucks everybody.”

“How long have you been watching me?”

“I’ve always watched you. Since the last time I left your
bed. Since you wouldn’t let me back in. But you let Dorn in, didn’t you? Did he
feel good? Did he feel better than I did?” He lunged forward and caught her
neck with both hands.

“I warned you.” He squeezed her throat and she pushed at
him. She gulped for air. Her face turned red and tears oozed from her eyes as
she fought to breathe. Finally, before she blacked out, he threw her across the
room. She landed on the floor by the wet bar.

She panted and gulped for air, quickly dragging herself up.
She wasn’t going to let this happen. She wasn’t going to be beaten again by
some crazy motherfucker.

He came toward her. “Don’t you come near me,” she warned in
a choked voice. “Don’t come near me again!”

He stopped and stared at her. “I warned you. I left messages
and you ignored them. I waited for you to get it out of your system and come
back to me, to where you belong. But you ignored me. I warned you what would
happen when I sent you that baby. After you agreed to marry him! What were you
thinking?”

He lunged at her again and she ran. She ran down the hall
and couldn’t believe it when she made it into the bathroom and locked the door.

“I don’t belong to you, Shane! Leave! Get out of my house!”
There was no escape from the windowless room, so she quickly searched for a
weapon. It was a guest bath. There was nothing.

“No way, Rory! I see what mistakes you make without me. I’m
going to make you remember that! You’ll never run again. I’ll punish you for
what you’ve done with Dorn!”

Shane stepped back and with one kick, sent the door flying
open. He grabbed her by the hair and yanked her out of the bathroom. She fell
to the floor and he dragged her. It felt too much like when Aidan attacked her.

He dragged her into the living room and dropped her in front
of the fireplace. Rory was determined that no man was going to rape her or beat
the shit out of her again. She had taken self-defense classes after Aidan’s
attack.

She jumped up and pushed Shane before he could turn to her.
He fell forward a couple steps, just enough time for her to grab the fireplace
poker. When he turned back to her, she swung at his head as hard as she could.

The poker made contact with Shane’s head with a loud thud.
Rory ran toward the stairs. He caught up with her and grabbed her leg, turning
it until she heard a pop and cried out in pain. She grabbed her leg and stared
into his face. There was blood pouring from a gash in his head, but it didn’t
stop him.

He punched her in the stomach. All the air shot from her
body and she doubled over. He came up with a hook to her cheek. She fell
backward and landed against the steps. Breathing hard, he grabbed her feet and
dragged her back into the living room.

Rory held her abdomen and her face, breathing hard.
Oh
god.
Just like Aidan. Just like before.

He dropped her in the middle of the floor. “Stop fighting
me,” he said between breaths. “Stop fighting me!” He pinned her arms with his
knees and put his hand to his head wound.