Lori Harris - Someone Safe

“No, he didn’t. But does an innocent man hang himself? Leave a note admitting to a crime he didn’t commit? In that same note, exonerate his daughter? I’m sorry for what he did, but he was guilty.”

“And me? Because I didn’t hang myself. Does that mean I wasn’t guilty? Is that why you guys didn’t charge me?”

Nick rubbed his face. Had she been guilty then? Had she known what her father was doing? It was a question he’d wrestled with for the past seven years. And as far as the reason Kelly hadn’t been indicted, it had been a judgment call made by prosecutors. There had been no direct evidence linking Kelly to the guns. And they’d thought that selling nineteen-year-old Kelly as a desperate gun runner with connections to a terrorist organization to a jury would be a real uphill battle. One they might not win.

“Nick?”

“You’d do better to worry about the present, Kelly. If you want to talk, really talk, I’ll listen. I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”

“Just as you did in New Jersey?” She picked up the satchel from where she’d laid it on the bed, and then hesitated. In the dimness, he couldn’t read her eyes. “Maybe you’ve forgotten how it was, Nick. How you left me in that holding cell. How you walked away without ever once looking back.

“I had just watched my father be cut down from that rafter.” She took a deep breath, met his gaze again. “I thought I was in love with you back then. It was your arms I turned to, your arms I wanted locked around me. Until that moment, I trusted you. Even when I learned who you really were. What you were. I don’t think I’ll make the same mistake twice,” she offered and, without waiting, crossed to the door.

“Kelly?”

She stopped, her hand already on the knob.

“Be careful. Binelli plays by his own rules.” Nick didn’t know why he felt it necessary to offer the warning. Maybe because he knew the people she’d chosen to associate with, was worried she might not know the full extent of what they were capable of.

“I already got a taste of it tonight.” Turning, she unzipped her jacket, pulled it wide.

Confronted with the torn and bloodied blouse, Nick hauled her forward into the moonlight coming through the window. What he’d thought was a burn or scrape on the side of her neck, what she’d been careful to conceal from him by the hooded collar of her jacket, he now recognized as the work of a knife. Though it wasn’t, the cut in the area of her collarbone had bled enough to look serious. He didn’t miss the pattern some scum had drawn on her bra. All wounds easily concealed beneath clothing. Her attacker obviously had some practice at terrorizing women.

“Who did this?”

“We didn’t exactly get around to formal introductions.”

“Why did it happen?”

“Why? Because Binelli thinks I have something that belongs to him?”

Kelly stepped free of his grasp, rezipped the jacket as he moved back half a step. “I don’t suppose it matters that I have never set eyes on Binelli.”

“And that’s why some of Binelli’s muscle messed you up? Because you don’t know the man?”

“If I knew what was going on, I wouldn’t have wasted my time coming here, would I?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” he said, his tone hard-edged. “With your back plastered to the wall, I might look like your best hope.”

Something, maybe indecision about his next move, made him look out the window at that moment.

A man sprinted across the lawn. A second followed.

Busy watching the two, he hadn’t seen Kelly reaching for the door again until it was almost too late. He grabbed her before she could get it open. “Don’t go out there. You’re safer with me. For now.”

She tried to shake free of his hold, but he only tightened his grip on her upper arm. “Damn it! Listen to me. There are two men outside watching the room next door.”

“I don’t think I was followed. I was careful.”

“Which means it’s me they’re after.”

“Why would they be after you?”

“Doesn’t really matter, does it? The outcome will be the same. For both of us.”

“I was warned not to contact you or the police.”

He stared outside again. “So why did you come to me, Kelly, and not the police?”

“The police wouldn’t be able to protect me, not against someone like Binelli. And they’d only have questions. You, on the other hand, have answers.”

“None you’ll like.” He pushed her back into the shadows next to the wall, out of harm’s way, then flicked off the automatic’s safety.

“Hell of a first night of vacation, don’t you think?” he added as he took up a position next to the window.

Nick watched the shadows of two men sweep past. He didn’t question the decision to take Kelly along, told himself it was because she just might be able to provide him with some of the answers he needed. But he knew better.

“How did you get here?” he asked.

“Boat.”

Nick eased forward and, as he watched, one of the men rolled around in a smooth, practiced motion and kicked in the door to the adjoining room. Furniture thudded and banged. Nick’s attention shot to the connecting door between the two rooms as a solid blow landed against it.

He checked back outside to where the second man stood guard. He needed him to follow his partner inside. Otherwise, they were as good as trapped.

Another kick landed against the connecting door. He could hear the jamb splinter.

“Be ready for anything,” Nick said between gritted teeth, but didn’t look in Kelly’s direction.

The chair under the knob exploded across the room.

The second man followed the first in.

Nick ripped the front door open, grabbed Kelly and shoved her outside ahead of him.

“No matter what, keep moving!”

Nick dragged her along with him. Moonlight splashed down on the wide expanse of yard, forcing them to hug the shadows of the cement block building.

At the sound of footsteps behind, he glanced back. “We’ve been made.” His fingers tightened around her upper arm. With the automatic held easily in his right hand, he looked more like a warrior than anything civilized. She took comfort in that. Nick was a tenacious fighter, a survivor. If anyone could keep them alive, he could.

He crowded her closer still to the building, until her shoulder scraped the block’s roughness. She gritted her teeth against the pain.

When she looked up at him, she noticed his attention focused on the walkway ahead. In another dozen yards, they’d run out of cover; they’d have to sprint across open lawn. “Is there another way to the dock?”

“Not without going back.”

“Where are the keys to the boat?” he asked sharply.

“In the ignition.”

Glancing back, he swore and roughly shoved her ahead of him, his body blocking hers as he lifted the gun. He squeezed off three quick rounds.

The vibration of sound slammed through her, sharp staccato punches to her chest. At any moment, she expected to feel the impact of bullets. She lost her hold on her bag and grabbed for it as Nick pulled her forward.

“Leave it!”

“No.” She jerked free.

With a grim expression, he retrieved it, passed it to her.

Thirty feet out, motion-sensitive outdoor flood lamps captured them in a searchlight glare. A shot, muffled by a silencer, popped. A second and third followed. The ground at their feet exploded.

Nick turned, fired quick rounds at the wall where their pursuers sought cover, then two more at the spotlights. Glass exploded and rained down as they continued to run.

Kelly shifted the weight of the satchel to the opposite shoulder. She pushed herself, yet still slowed Nick. If she hadn’t been such a damned coward, she’d tell him to leave her, but when it came to men with guns…