To Bedevil A Beauty (Southern Sanctuary - Book 5) (19 page)

Berry
didn’t know a Gerry, and she couldn’t recall ever encountering this man
before.  But it didn’t take a rocket scientist to put two and two together
and work out Gerry was the one who’d shot her.  It would have been nice to
ask why, but she was guessing from the increasing pressure of the gun being
ground into her cheekbone and the way Gerry’s dark eyes burned, that he was not
a particularly patient man.

“I
want you to call him, get him in here.”

“Who? 
Gideon?”  That earned her another jab.

“That
fucker, Hughes.”  Gerry hissed directly into her face.  “Betraying
bastard.”

“Chief
Hughes?” Oh Goddess, this was about Ramsey, though now was not the time to say
I told you so, especially to the deranged man holding the gun.

“Chief? 
What a joke that is.  That piece of lying scum…”  Gerry mumbled a few
more words that Berry couldn’t make out.  “Call him.  Tell him to get
his ass over here.”

“Why?”
She couldn’t just call Ramsey, let him walk into danger.  Maybe if she
could figure out what motivated Gerry she could manage the situation
better.  Despite the pain she managed to turn her head slightly so she
could look directly into his eyes.  How could such cold eyes burn with
such anger, malice?  It physically hurt her to stare into those depths,
but she didn’t dare flinch, Ramsey’s life was on the line.

Gerry
barked a soft laugh.  “You haven’t gone and fallen for him have you? 
I wouldn’t trust whatever promises he’s made to you.
 
The man has no code, can’t even face a
brother when he stabs him in the back.”

Berry
tried not to frown, Ramsey didn’t have any family, let alone a brother, and
she’d heard him state he had no friends.  So just who the hell was jittery
Gerry?

“Call
him bitch.”  Gerry picked up the phone on her desk, waving it under her
nose.

“Not
until you tell me what you plan to do to him.”  Berry fought not flinch as
the phone passed within an inch of her jaw.

Gerry
smiled, and it wasn’t pretty.  “I intend to do whatever I damn well
please, bitch.”

Berry’s
magic kicked in as she stared into those dark, hate filled, depths. The future
as it stood right now presented her with a hundred different pathways, all of
which showed her in a millisecond Ramsey entering her office and immediately
being shot dead by Gerry.  She wanted to scream, to howl, as terror at
seeing Ramsey killed a hundred times over rocked her to her very core. 
Instead, she forced herself to reach up and take the phone from Gerry.

“That’s
a good girl…”

She
swung the handset with all of her might at his face, screaming as she did
so.
 
Gerry’s howl of outrage joining
hers.  She elbowed him out of the way, scrambled around the desk and hit
her office door, even as Gerry hit her from behind, slamming her hard into the
wood.  Outside she heard Gideon’s cry of alarm.

“It’s
a trap.”  She screamed.  Ducking Gerry’s arm as he tried to wrestle
her under control.  “He’s not to come through this door.  Not this
door!
 
Do you hear me Gideon?
 
Not this door!”  Crying out as Gerry
grabbed a handful of her hair and slammed her head into the door, dazing
her. 

The
door handle rattled and she heard Gideon calling out again on the other
side.  She screamed again as Gerry bought his gun up, firing through the
wood… deafening her in the process but not enough that she didn’t hear Gideon’s
pain filled cry.  Oh Merciful Lady, she hoped he wasn’t dead.

Gerry
grabbed her by the hair again, shoving her across the room, back towards her
desk.  Turning he leaned his back against the door, grinning at her, blood
streaming down his face from his nose that she’d managed to break when she’d
slugged him with the phone. 

“Well
I guess that’s as good as a phone call.”  He laughed loudly this time, his
teeth stained with blood.

Berry
closed her eyes.  The madness in Gerry’s eyes seared her soul.  Oh
Goddess, this couldn’t be happening, Ramsey would die if he stepped through
that door attempting to save her.  She bit back a moan, blinking away
tears of frustration.  Getting hysterical, letting emotions cloud her
judgement, none of that would be helpful.  She could fall apart later,
after this was all over.
 
Right this
minute, she needed a plan.  If the Goddess decreed someone had to die here
today, she wouldn’t let it be Ramsey.  No matter what she had to do to
protect him.

Chapter
Seventeen

“You’re
a calm one, I’ll give you that.”

Berry
concentrated all her attention on finishing the chicken sandwich she’d ordered
in for lunch.  Her stomach was roiling but she forced down the food,
acting, she hoped, like she didn’t have a care in the world.  Figuring
that ignoring Gerry would prove to be the key to getting him to talk. 
Cray-cray people, ones who smiled all the time like Gerry, they needed an
audience.  They wanted to talk.  But they liked their secrets and
games too. Gerry had to be the one to break the silence, not her.

She
shifted on the visitor’s chair, absently rubbing her bruised forehead.
 
She would be black and blue by the time this
was over.   Lowering her arm she bit back a sigh as she noted a small
rip on the cuff of her blouse, she prayed Riya would be able to mend it. 
Little things, she just needed to keep calm by focusing on the little things.
Ignore the gun.
 
Ignore the madman.
 
Ignore those eyes of his.

“Hey.”

Berry
flicked her eyes up, settling her focus just left of centre, his nose had
stopped bleeding and now Gerry was smugly perched across from her.
 
Strange to see someone else sitting at her
desk, in her chair.  He was swinging from side to side, like a small child
discovering their first swivel chair.  Damn, could the man get any
creepier?  She quirked an eyebrow upwards briefly before forcing herself
to take another big bite of her sandwich.

“I
just worked something out… Gerry and Berry… get it?”  He brayed a nasal
laugh that cut off eerily into sudden silence as he scowled across at the heavy
office door.  “Sure is quiet out there.  I hope for your sake that
sanctimonious bastard is on his way.”

Berry
forced herself to shrug carelessly. “He might be out on a call. Next time, make
an appointment.”

Gerry
laughed again.  “I wonder how that cop’s doing?  The one I shot.”

Berry
turned her head to study the door.  Thank the Goddess Gideon was
tall.
 
She was betting, from the height
of the bullet-hole in the wood, that if he had been hit, it wouldn’t prove
fatal.   She had to believe that, or she’d be a complete wreck.

“It’s
real quiet out there.  You think he’s dead?”  Gerry needled,
obviously trying to get a reaction out of her.

Berry
shrugged again.  “If you’re worried, why don’t you open the door and stick
your head out and take a look.”

Gerry
laughed again, bouncing up and down slightly in the chair.  “You’re funny,
cool in a crisis and pretty.
 
I can see
why Hughes would hook up with you.  Of course, banging the local Judge is
a smart move on his part.”

“You’re
implying Ramsey has a hidden agenda by… dating me?” 

“He’s
Chief of Police and has the local magistrate under his thumb, textbook
definition of having this district sewn up.”

Berry
fought not to take umbrage at the ‘under the thumb’ assessment.  So Gerry
was a chauvinist pig, now was not the time for a feminist rant.  “Maybe
I’m the one who has the town sewn up and Ramsey’s the one under my thumb.”

Gerry
actually giggled this time, it was a chilling sound.  “He never said you
were funny.”

Berry
crumpled the paper bag up that her sandwich had come in and dabbed her mouth
with the napkin provided.  From the corner of her eye she caught a flicker
of movement behind Gerry, out on the balcony.  Was that Ramsey?  Act
natural Berry, for Heaven’s sake, act natural… don’t give the game away. 
“Who never said?”

“Robbie
boy.”

Berry
didn’t have to fake her surprise. “You know my ex-husband, Robert
Granger?”  Suddenly she put a few - staring her in the face - facts
together.   “You’re one of the prison escapees?  Where’s
Robert?”  She turned her head to the door, for some reason expecting
Robert to saunter in.
 
He always did know
when to make a dramatic timely entrance, but the door remained firmly closed.

Gerry
giggled again, bobbing up and down.  “You could say we had a parting of
ways.”

Robert
was behind all this!
 
It boggled her
mind.  Snap out of it Berry, now wasn’t the time to get distracted.
 
She chanced a glance behind Gerry, Ramsey had
made it safely over the stone balcony wall and was now crouched in the shadows,
waiting for what, she wasn’t sure.
 
The
only thing she could do to help was to keep Gerry talking and focused on
her.  “Why does he want me dead?”

Gerry
blinked eerily, looking confused for a moment.

“The
shooting… setting my car on fire?”  She reminded tersely.

“Oh
that.”  Gerry waved the gun in the air absently.  “My bad… the
shooting anyway.  Though you really only have yourself to blame there.”

“I
do?”  Berry was so surprised she almost missed the indistinct, second
shadowy figure ease over the balcony wall.
 
Thank the Goddess, Ramsey had bought back-up.

“Well
duh.  You’re supposed to be some whizz bang witch and you step right in
front of a bullet meant for deputy dipshit.”

“You
were aiming for Ramsey that day?”  She knew it!  And what did he mean
by calling her a witch? 

“If
I hadn’t been so fucking surprised to see him here…   with you, of
all people.”  Gerry grinned suddenly, his eyes blazing with what Berry
could only describe as glee. “Life is a funny thing you know.
 
It kicks you in the balls, then it delivers
your archenemy gift wrapped and oblivious, just standing across a car park from
you. Though why I should be surprised, after everything Robbie boy said about
you… you really are a good luck witch charm.”

“Good
luck witch charm?”

Gerry
rolled his eyes.  “The number of nights he kept us awake going on and on
about his wife, the good luck charm.  How you had to be a witch or a
psychic or something, the way you could predict those winning horses the way
you did.”

Damn,
why did the man have to speak so loudly or for that matter, so
eloquently?  It was one thing for her to distract Gerry and keep him
talking but for Ramsey to hear about magic… no, lunatic remember, no way Ramsey
would believe Gerry’s ramblings had any credibility.

“I
talk in my sleep.”  Berry admitted, embarrassed colour flooding her
cheeks.  “Robert heard what he wanted to hear in my midnight mutterings.
If he’s here with you now, he can’t possibly think I’d go with him
willingly.”  She forced herself not to tense as Ramsey began to ease closer
to the still ajar balcony door.
 
Where
his back-up was, she no longer knew. The balcony wasn’t huge, where had the
other man gone? 

“We
knew you wouldn’t come without some incentive…”  Gerry smiled, waving the
gun her way.  “I’m the incentive.”

“Well…” 
Oh Goddess, Ramsey was easing through the door now, she was terrified Gerry
would sense him.  “You intended to kidnap me?”  Keep talking, keep
talking.  “So the shooting wasn’t planned?  You saw Ramsey…
recognised your… archenemy, and reacted accordingly… but… but, why torch my
car?”

Gerry
rolled his eyes, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Ramsey now loomed behind
him, only five feet away.  The back of the chair Gerry was sitting in too
high for Ramsey to know exactly what he was doing, the angle of his position
all wrong.  “He’s the Chief of Police here, you’d think torching his
girlfriend’s car would have the man running out to check on things.  Not
asshole Hughes.
 
Too busy sending his
minions out to dirty his hands with actual police work.”

“So
you wanted to lure Ramsey out into the open.”  Why wasn’t Ramsey just
tackling the madman?  No, he couldn’t until he was assured she was out of
the firing line.

Berry
noted out the corner of her peripheral vision that Ramsey had begun sidling
sideways, was he insane?  Gerry was bound to sense his presence any
moment.  What could she do?
 
The
visions she’d seen earlier had been erased from the timeline since Ramsey had
thankfully covertly entered the room via the balcony, but now she had no idea
what possible futures might be open. 

Grrr,
she hated this feeling of helplessness.
 
Why couldn’t she shoot lightning bolts out of her fingertips or
something useful? Or be able to decapitate a man with no more than whatever
stationary came to hand like over half of her relatives?  So it sucked to
be her.
 
Well the one thing she could
keep doing was talk, keep Gerry’s focus on her. “And Robert’s fine with all of
this?  The shooting? You torching my car?  Taking me hostage?”

Gerry
cackled, bouncing in his chair.  “No one tells me what to do
anymore.  I don’t need to get up at the shit-crack of dawn every
day.  No more second hand slop to eat.”  Gerry stood up abruptly,
shoving the chair back, leaning over the desk towards her.  “I don’t have
to hear how stupid I am, how I’m just the muscle.  Not now.  
I’ve shown him.  I’ve got the gun, my own clever plan and the balls to do
exactly what needs to be done.”

Berry
fought the urge to check on Ramsey’s whereabouts.  Damn, what should she
do?  Drop to the floor?  Scream, providing a diversion?  In a
room this size she didn’t wanted to be accidental collateral damage if the
bullets started flying.  “A plan?”  She put as much derision into her
tone as possible.  “How can you possibly think you’ll make it out of here
safely after holding me hostage?”

Gerry’s
free hand whipped out, grabbing a fist full of her curls, dragging her forward
over the desk, her nose now only a few inches away from his.  “Because
you’re going to be my good luck witch charm… mine, and mine alone.”  Gerry
tightened his grip pulling her even closer, his nasty breath fanning across her
face. 

Damn,
so much for creating distance between them.  Maybe instead of pandering to
his ego or trying to distract him she should try a new approach, one that
hopefully involved the madman letting go of her hair.  “There’s probably
something you should know about this town before we go any further here
today.”  She gave him the coldest look she had in her repertoire.

“Yeah?”

“The
whole town is full of people just like me… well not just like me, they’re a lot
more deadlier and downright cantankerous than I am.  They don’t like
strangers, especially ones who run around with guns, causing trouble.”

“Watch
me tremble.”  Gerry sneered in her face.

“Oh,
I would be if I were you. We have our own laws in the Southern Sanctuary. 
When trouble comes our way we deal with it, head on… well, when I say head
on…”  She allowed a mocking smile to play over her lips.  “…it would
be more accurate to say head off.
 
You
see, when trouble makers come to town, my relatives get together and squabble
over who gets to have the fun of separating the interloper’s head from his
body.  Right at this moment, I should imagine there’s a line going around
the block for the privilege of removing you from this plane.”

“Are
they faster than a bullet.”  Gerry had stopped smiling but there was still
cool confidence in his crazy-ass eyes.

Berry
laughed softly, letting her own surety shine through.  “Most of them…
yeah.  So what are you going to do Gerry?  You can’t seriously think
you’re making it out of this room alive, let alone the town.  Just what do
you intend to do?”

Gerry
stared deep into her eyes, breathing hard, his hand fisting her hair even
tighter, determined to hurt her. His gun hand waving around rather too near her
head for comfort.  Damn, distract the madman Berry, don’t piss him off
enough to shoot you.

“Yeah
Gerry, just what to you intend to do?”  Ramsey’s voice cut through the air
like a knife.

Gerry
jumped, startled, letting out a small cry as he turned his head in Ramsey’s
direction.  “How did you get in here?”

Berry
let out a cry of her own, mainly because Gerry was now effectively pulling her
across the table. The angle particularly awkward, her face only inches from the
desktop as Gerry pushed her head down, his gun drilling into the crown of her
head, ouch. 

“How
the fuck did you get in here?”  Gerry sounded rattled for the first time.

Ramsey
shrugged, leaning back casually against the wall as if he didn’t have a care in
the world, his hands and holster empty, no gun in sight.  “Haven’t you
heard?  Magic.  I thought you were a believer.”

“You…” 
Gerry shook in anger, reactively forcing Berry’s head down even harder, only
her hands on the top of the desk preventing her nose from being flattened.

“Yeah,
it’s me Gerard.
 
Here I am, just like you
requested.  I hear you wanted to talk… so talk.”

“You
know who I am?”

Ramsey
shook his head.  “Only thanks to a photo I saw in the paper the other day,
otherwise I wouldn’t have had a clue who you were.”  Ramsey shrugged,
eyeing him with flat slate grey eyes.  “Why would I?  You were only a
small cog in a big take-down; sure it was a bonus taking out a dirty cop, made
my bosses happy.  But for me, you were just one of many underlings we
scooped up when the trafficking case finally broke.
 
Too stupid to cover your tracks I’m
guessing.”