Page 89

CHAPTER 89

M ERCEDES KING PULLED THE 4-WHEELER to a stop in front of her home and leapt off. She didn’t have much time to get this done. Her Porsche was destroyed, but there was still a Lexus sedan in the garage that would do for now. She had made prior arrangements, and the call she had made on the way here had initiated those arrangements. All she had to do was get to a certain place at a certain time with a certain someone named Danny Glass in tow. From there she would be in a chopper that would take them to a private airstrip, where a private jet was waiting to take them out of the country. And then all her dreams of riches would hopefully come true once she sold Glass to whichever of his enemies bid the highest amount, and who would then take over his criminal empire. She had decided to start the bidding at half a billion dollars and see where it went from there.

She unlocked the front door and called out to the men she had stationed here. They were not part of 12/24. They were loyal only to her. But when they didn’t answer, she did not take that as a good sign.

King pulled out her gun and her phone. She called them. Nothing. She tried again. Same result.

She hurried up the stairs after using a phone app to turn off the trip lasers.

She reached the top landing and saw the blood on the floor and along the walls. She used her own key fob to access the panic room. When the door swung open and King saw the bodies piled inside, the woman wheeled around and ran to her bedroom. She grabbed her go-bag and flew back down the stairs.

And then her phone buzzed. It wasn’t a call; it was a FaceTime.

What the hell?

She answered it and found herself looking at a woman wearing sunglasses though it was now growing dark outside.

King tried to process all of this, was unable to do so, and finally exclaimed, “Who are you? And how did you get my number?”

The woman took off the sunglasses.

“Hello, Anne,” said Pru Jackson. “I didn’t think I was ever going to have the chance to come back and face you, but that goes to show what one can achieve if one never gives up hope.”

King’s expression was one of confusion, and then that was replaced with dread.

“Pru?”

“Here in the flesh.”

“I’m… I’m so glad. I was worried something had happened to you when you vanished years ago.”

“Your caring about me is so very appreciated, Anne.” She pointed to her neck. “No hard feelings, right? For what it’s worth, I think you sound very sexy with damaged cords.”

King looked upward and then back at the phone. “You’ve been in my house. You took something that belonged to me. Something I really needed. And I want it back. Maybe we can do a deal. It’ll be lucrative, I can tell you that.”

“I have never been in your house.”

“We can still work together on this. Like old times. I really can make this worth your while.”

“I’m always interested in worthwhile things.”

“Great, but I don’t have a lot of time to haggle. I need to get going and—”

Jackson cut in. “And just so you know, the one thing that kept me going all this time was the dream that one day I would be in this exact situation talking to you. And now that dream has finally come true.”

“I don’t know what happened to you, but I can assure you that I had nothing to do with it.”

“You had everything to do with it, Anne. Everything.”

“Look, I don’t have time to deal with this right now. Where are you?”

“Far closer than you think. And I spent a long time with a world-class sniper, Anne. I can literally shoot the wings off a fly at five hundred meters.”

King quickly moved away from a window. “Well, unless you can fire through walls, Pru, I don’t think it matters, dream or no dream. So if you don’t want a deal, we have nothing to discuss.”

“No, we do. You see, I want you to admit that you were the one to betray me.”

“I don’t have time for this shit.”

“It’ll only take seconds.”

“Fine. Yes, I fucked you over. Satisfied? You slit my throat and left me for dead. And the only thing I’m sorry about is that you’re not still in that prison being tortured every minute of every day. So, why don’t you go eat shit and die, okay?”

“But I wanted my shot at revenge. I’ve dreamed about it, actually.”

“You will never get a shot at me, Pru. You’re not up to it.”

“You misunderstand. I already took my shot, Anne, when I was at your home the last time.”

“You said you were never in my house.”

“That’s true. I was just on the outside of it.”

Jackson held up a small black box with a single red button. “And just so you know, Anne, the reality is actually about to become far better than even the dream.”

King’s eyes widened slightly. “Oh shit.” She threw down the phone and started to run.

Pru Jackson waited a second and then pressed the button on the device.

The explosive she had earlier buried right under the gas line going into the house detonated. Combined with the natural gas, the resulting blast blew all ten thousand square feet of Mercedes King’s beautiful home into small pieces, and did the same to the woman right along with it.

From nearly a mile away, Jackson watched the fire and smoke rise above the tree line in the distance. She stood there for a few more seconds taking it all in, every last moment of it. She drew a deep, cleansing breath of the crisp mountain air.

Thank you, former captain Travis Devine. You are an officer and a gentleman.

She slid her glasses back on, climbed into her car, and drove slowly away.