Page 88

So she dropped her hand to her side and nodded at him. Walked toward his truck, with Don close behind her, his gun pointed at her back.

Chapter 28

Don’s gun stayed steady as they walked to his pickup truck. He opened the passenger door and gestured for Jo to climb in. She did but readied herself to jump out as soon as Don moved away from the door.

Then she heard the click of the doors locking. She yanked at the door handle, but by then Don was framed in the open driver’s door.

“Stop, Jo,” he said, and she turned to find his gun pointed at her as he stood on the running board. “I don’t want to shoot you, but I will if I have to.”

Jo swallowed and let go of the handle. She slid her right hand into her pocket and found her phone. She knew exactly where her recording app was because she’d practiced this maneuver many times. She pressed on the app, starting the recording, then slowly slid her hand out of her pocket, pulling a tissue with her. With any luck, Don would assume the tissue was why she’d reached into her pocket.

“What do you want with me, Don?”she asked, swiveling to face him as he drove out of the school parking lot. “What does kidnapping me get for you?”

“Cam’ll chase after you.” He snorted as he accelerated away from the school. “I recognize that lovesick look on his face from high school. You’ve always been the one for Cam. Once he realizes I’ve taken you, he’ll come after us. By then you’ll be dead, and I’ll have a clean shot at him.”

“You think you’d get away with that?”she said, shocked that Don could be so obtuse. “The first thing he’ll do is call the police.”

“Then you’d better call him right now and tell him not to get the police involved. Or you’re going to die.”

“Why would I do that? You’re going to kill me no matter what.”

“Call him, Jo.” Don’s voice was low. Threatening. “Or you won’t have an easy death.”

If push came to shove, would Don really kill her? Jo had no idea. But she wasn’t about to contact Cam and have him chase after her and Don. “Don’t think so, Don. I’m not easy to kill.”

He glanced over at her, boiling rage in his expression. “Put that gun you have on the floor behind my seat. Or I’ll shoot you right now,” he ordered.

She leaned over and set the gun on the floor, not completely behind Don’s seat, making sure she could reach it if necessary. As she straightened, she thought about grabbing the steering wheel and throwing Don off balance. Taking his gun.

Too risky, she decided. All he had to do was pull the trigger, and he’d have a damn good chance of hitting her in the small truck cab. So as she straightened, she surreptitiously tugged at the loose pants she wore, trying to make it easier to grab her backup gun from her ankle holster.

“So what’s the plan, Don? You wait for Cam or the police to start chasing us? Then you kill me?”

“Yep,” he said. He glanced over at her, smirking. “I’m not taking any chances this time. I did a little research on you, Jo. You’re more than just an old friend of Cam’s. You’re a bodyguard. You work for a company called Blackhawk Security. You’re the reason I can’t get close to Cam. Every time I’ve tried, you’ve been in the way. So I’m going to get rid of you. Then I’ll have a clean shot at Cam.”

Had he forgotten that Fiona saw Jo leave with him? She wasn’t about to remind him about Fiona. “Why are you so eager to get rid of Cam?”she asked. “He made you a partner in his business. I’m sure you’re making good money from it.”

“Not enough.” Don scowled. “I have gambling debts. Big ones. I can’t pay them off, so I need sole ownership of the company.”

“You think you’d get the company if Cam died?” Jo stared at Don, shocked at how oblivious he seemed to be. “I’m sure Fiona is Cam’s heir. You won’t get Cam’s half of the business, even if you kill him.”

“Then I’ll take care of Fiona, too. I have to get that money. There are some scary people after me.”

“I’m sure Cam would lend you the money if you talked to him,” Jo said.

Don was shaking his head before she’d even finished speaking. “Hell, no, he wouldn’t. Before he’d make me his partner, I had to sign a bunch of papers saying I wouldn’t gamble again. If I did, and ran up debts, the company wouldn’t pay them off.” He clenched his teeth, and his jaw tightened. “And I’d be out as his partner.”

“So why did you keep gambling, Don?”

He stared out the window, his fingers tightening on the steering when. “It’s a fever in my blood,” he muttered. “I resisted for a long time, but the need was eating me alive. I started out small. But I got into a hole and couldn’t get out. I tried gambling more, but that didn’t help. Just dug me deeper into that hole. If I owned the business by myself, I could put in the non-spec pipes and studs and pocket a lot of extra money. Use that to pay off my debts.”

Jo drew in a shaky breath. She recognized the road they were approaching. It ran parallel to the river. But instead of asking where Don was taking her, she said, “So you’re the one behind that scheme.”

Don scowled. “Yeah, and it was working like a charm until you stuck your nose into my business.”

“It was my business, too,” she reminded him. “My mom bought one of your houses, and you were cheating her.”

Don scoffed. “That’s an over-fifty-five community. The people who live in that subdivision are all old. They’ll die before the defects are noticed.”