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“She hung up the phone!” Brax hit his fist against the passenger door of Gideon’s Ford 450. “What the fuck?”

Mateo chuckled from the backseat. “Call her back.”

“She better answer,” Brax said as he dialed.

She picked up immediately. “Now what do you want to tell me? Have you bought stock in bubble wrap?”

“This is serious, Jenny.”

“I’ve got the gun. I called the police, they’re on their way. We’re good. In less than five minutes I’m going to be hugging Tina. Now mellow.”

Brax blew out a deep breath and smiled. Good. This wasn’t going to go like all the other clusterfucks that had gone on with every other woman of Omega Sky.

“I’m going to be doing more than just hugging you in an hour and twenty minutes,” he crooned.

“I can’t decide if I’ll agree to that. On one hand, you’ve been a domineering jackass, on the other hand, you sure do care about me.”

“Don’t hang up until you get back to Gideon’s, okay? No matter what, you don’t hang up, and you don’t let go of this phone. I want to hear everything. Do you understand me?”

“Aye-aye.”

He heard Jenny talking to Jada. “Is Gideon like this?”

“They all are,” Jada answered her back.

“She didn’t happen to say which corner, did she?” Jada asked in a louder voice.

“No,” Jenny answered. “Just on Village Road.”

“Shit. We’re going to have to drive just a little bit. Holler if you see her.”

“Why are all the cars in these parking lots either white or gray?” Jenny asked.

Brax felt like ants were crawling in his ears.

Where were the police?

“How many cars do you see?” Gideon asked.

“About six or seven in each parking lot,” Jada answered. “Haven’t seen any people yet. Not every parking lot has lights.”

“Hey, I think I see the car,” Jenny said. “Across the street.”

Where are the police, for fuck’s sake?

“Jenny, wait for the police,” Brax shouted.

“We’re fine, Brax. No bogeymen in sight. I’ve got to go to her. She’s scared to death. Jada, here’s the gun. I’ve got my phone. I’ll go knock on the window,” Jenny said. “She knows me, two of us showing up will scare her with the state she was in.”

Then Brax heard Jenny get out of the Range Rover.

Jenny wished she was wearing something warmer than a suit jacket, skirt, and shoes more comfortable than high heels. She put her hands in her jacket pockets to warm them and continued walking the short distance over to the Toyota, smiling in anticipation. When she didn’t see Tina’s head in the driver’s window she slowed down.

“Tina?” she called out.

The driver’s window started rolling down and she smiled again, rushing forward. “Girl, how are you?”

Up popped a clown with a gun. She stuttered to a halt.

Lik a giant jack in the box.

“Keep coming,” the clown crooned.

Jenny couldn’t. Her feet were glued to the cement.

“I said keep coming. You want to see your friend alive again, don’t you?” Jenny nodded.

It was a set-up. Brax was right.

“Cops are coming, you won’t get away with this,” she blurted out.

“Jenny, how’s Tina?” Jada shouted from the Range Rover.

“Say, ‘fine.’”

“Fine,” Jenny did her best to shout back.

“Now get in the car and we’re going to go on a little drive.”

Jenny stood up straight. “No. You’re going to end up killing me anyway, so no.”

“You’re right. But you can save the life of that pretty woman over there, if you get in the car with me and we go.” He moved the gun and aimed at Jada.

Jenny rushed around to the passenger seat.

“Jenny, what are you doing?” Jada called out.

“Tina just wants to tell me something really quick. We’ll be over there in just a minute.”

“Good girl,” the clown rumbled as Jenny opened the passenger door and got in. It smelled like cigarettes.

“You can’t smoke in a rental car,” she told him.

Where had that come from?

He laughed. “Yeah, that’s the sin I’m worried about.”

Then he shot twice at the Range Rover before tearing out of the parking lot.

Jenny sat there in shock, then lunged at him. “You promised you wouldn’t kill her!”

He hauled back and hit her hard with the butt of his gun. “I didn’t, you stupid bitch. I shot out her tires.”

Jenny looked over her shoulder and saw Jada running into the street. She took a shooter’s stance and fired off a round. Nothing happened. Everything started to get fuzzy. Jenny felt tears rushing down her face.

No wait.

That was blood.

So fuzzy.

“Where are you?—”

Nothing.

Everything went black.

“I don’t ask for much out of life, do I?” a familiar voice said.

“Well, actually you do.” It was the clown speaking. She recognized his voice.

Jenny coughed. The cigarette smell was making her nauseous. But at least she wasn’t in a car anymore. Where was she?

“Each time I ask for something, you ask for more money, and I pay you, and you fuck up. This is not a good return on my investment.”

“Yeah, well, I’m the only guy you know to take care of these kinds of problems, so you’re stuck with my lousy ROI. I did get rid of that namby-pamby idiot you were fucking. Made it look like he was a druggie.”

“So, you’re one out of three. I do hope when she wakes up you can better your score.”

“Or what? You’re going to hire someone to take me out?” The clown laughed. More cigarette smoke blew her way, and Jenny rolled over and threw up. The vomit got all in her hair and on the side of her face. The only reason she cared was that the puke messed up her vision in the eye that wasn’t swollen shut. Now she was basically blind.

“Put out that cigarette,” the man who wasn’t the clown yelled.

“Where’s Tina? What did you do to Tina?” Jenny choked out the question.

The clown laughed. “Nothing. She’s safe and sound in Colorado. Just had her husband knocked out for a couple of hours so she thought we had him. Told her to make that call or we’d kill him. Worked like a charm. They’re probably canoodling by the fire right now, not giving one fucking thought about you.”

Jenny blew out a long breath, so thankful that her friend was safe.

“Tell us what we want to know.”

“Mr. Lynch?” Jenny asked.

“Yes.”

“You’re going to let him kill me, aren’t you?”

“Yes. I’d like him to do it so it’s painless. I told him to get a vial of narcotics so you would just fade away. But you’ll only receive that kind of death if you cooperate.”

She wanted to see his face. Here he was, a man who had everything, stooping down to murder. And for what?

“I’ll tell you where Fiona is, if you tell me why you’re doing this. I respected you. I don’t understand, and before I die, I want to understand.”

“Good girl, keep him talking,” Brax whispered.

His hands were so sweaty, he was afraid he was going to drop his phone. He kept staring down at it, making sure the mute button was on. It was. Waiting for her to wake up took years off his life. He hadn’t prayed this much since CiCi had been in the hospital, hell, he was probably praying more.

“Where are they?” Gideon asked.

Brax looked down at the tracking app. “They’ve stopped at a place on Westminster Avenue near Grandy Village.”

“Give me the address, I’ll plug it into the navigation system,” Mateo said from the backseat.

Brax gave him the info, desperately waiting for someone to talk.

“Edgar was such a disappointment,” Ronald said. “I should have had him prosecuted the minute I found out about the embezzlement, but by the time I did, I was in too deep. I’d already given him a promotion and brought him to the States. And Edgar was more than happy to point that out.”

“He blackmailed you?”

“I was about to turn the tables on him, when Jeffrey here told me about the untimely death of Angela Polk. When I confronted Edgar, he admitted to her murder. I was fucked. A month later you were kidnapped. Finally, fortune was smiling down on me. Until Jeffrey screwed the pooch.”

Brax looked over at Gideon. “Just the two of them.”

“Sounds like,” Gideon agreed.

“We’ve got this.” Mateo stated with confidence.

“How long to get there?” Brax asked Mateo.

“Eleven more minutes, brother. We’ve had worse timelines than this, and come out alive, we’ve got this.” Mateo reached over from the back seat and squeezed Brax’s shoulder.

Brax stared down at the phone in his hand and kept praying.

“How did Jeffrey screw up?” Jenny coughed. The blood that had been dripping down her face was starting to congeal. She still couldn’t see.

“He sent in a rescue team before talking to me.”

“I’m sorry, boss.”

I’m going to hate clowns for the rest of my life. Let’s just hope it’s a long one.

“Yeah, I heard about that,” Jenny said. “They all died.”

“That was lucky.” She could hear the glee in the CEO’s voice. “But then they sent in the fucking SEALs to rescue you. What a mess.”

Jenny flinched when she heard a crash and breaking glass. It was like he had thrown something against a wall.

“Then that fucker, Henry Roberts, had to blab to the Washington Post, and it made national news that I hadn’t paid the ransom.”

Jenny smelled cigarette smoke.

“Goddammit Jeff, I told you to go outside if you have to smoke!”

“Who cares, the house already reeks.”

“I care. Put out the cigarette.”

How much longer before Brax gets here?

“Now you know everything. My last two loose ends are you and your friend Fiona. Tell me where she is, and I’ll let you die easy. If you don’t tell me where she is, Jeff will start cutting off body parts.”

“Jesus, boss. That’s just sick.”

“Shut up, you pussy. You already pushed her into traffic. What does it matter if you torture her? I told you I would pay you more for wet work. Instead of a yacht, you can buy an entire island.”

Jenny felt her gorge rising. She was going to throw up again. She could taste the vomit coming up. Puke spilled out of her mouth.

“Hah. Look at her. She’ll be pissing her pants next,” Ronald crowed. “Tell us where Fiona is.”

“I hurt too much. I can’t think.” It wasn’t tough for Jenny to make her voice sound weak.

“Hell boss, all we need is her phone. We can do the same play with her, like we did with Jenny’s friend Tina.”

Oh God, don’t let them look for my phone. It was tucked inside a pocket in her suit jacket.

“She doesn’t have her purse. Fiona’s in Europe, you ass. We’re here in America. How’s that supposed to work? I want this bitch dead tonight. We can’t afford to be dragging her around the world with us, even on the company jet.”

“Yeah,” the clown muttered. “I guess you’re right. Answer the question. Where is Fiona? I’ve got a syringe loaded up. You’ll just float away. Take the easy way out, Jenny.”

“No.” She tried to sound strong.

“Ahhhh!” The pain of a knife slicing through the silk shell of her top and into her flesh burned like fire. Indescribable pain. Worse—she hadn’t known it was coming.