Page 83 of Billion-Dollar Ransom

“THAT SOUNDED TENSE,” Boo said after a moment of silence, possibly out of respect for Dowd’s bruised ego. She hadn’t had to hear both sides of the conversation to know he’d just had his ass handed to him.

“Doesn’t matter,” Dowd replied.

Was this beautiful woman serious about ditching their lives and driving across the country together?

A true fresh start? Dowd had next to nothing in his bank accounts, even if he could access them without being immediately tracked.

But maybe Boo had some mad money socked away, maybe in some account in the Caymans.

Smart women married to billionaires would think of something like that.

“Wait,” Boo said. “One last request before we leave the beach.”

“Nothing’s open this time of night,” Dowd replied. “It’ll be dawn in a few hours. We can grab breakfast then.”

“No, I’m not hungry,” she said. “I just want to wave goodbye to the Pacific. We’re probably not going to see it again for a while.”

Holy shit. She was serious about running away together.

“The Manhattan Beach Pier is right down the hill.”

“Perfect.”

Dowd steered their stolen BMW down Manhattan Beach Boulevard, then turned left toward an empty municipal parking lot. The gates were chained shut, but he figured idling here for a minute or two wouldn’t hurt.

Boo had opened the glove box and was reaching inside.

Dowd smirked. “Wondering who we ripped off?”

“No,” she replied. “I know exactly who this car belongs to.”

And with that, she removed a Smith and Wesson CSX micro-compact nine-millimeter pistol from the glove box and emptied it into Dowd’s chest. The shots rocked the car and filled the interior with the bitter scent of cordite.

In that moment, Tim Dowd assumed this was an elaborate prank that would end with both of them laughing their heads off before they drove off into the dawn. Not until the life was draining out of his body did Dowd realize that this was indeed a joke, the biggest joke of all, but the joke was on him.

Dowd would have asked why, but he couldn’t breathe, let alone speak.

“I’m sorry, Tim, but…” Boo started. Maybe she finished the sentence, but Dowd would never know, because that was when the lights went out forever.