But if Jessie had been to her right, who stood in the shadows ahead?
Alexa wouldn’t wait to find out the hard way. Without a word of warning to Jessie, she held up her weapon and headed to the next doorway down the hall. She saw the bounty hunter tense beside her and fall into step.
Down to the left, a shadow moved and eclipsed a very faint light. It drifted as if it were a ghost. And she heard a muffled gasp, at least she thought she had. With her heart hammering her chest and adrenaline coursing through her veins, Alexa pushed her shoulders to a wall and inched closer for a better look.
She held her breath and peered around the corner.
Across the room, she spied a pale glimmer under another door, one with a series of heavy metal brackets, like coat hooks, screwed on the outside of it. And movement obscured the light that spilled onto the floor. Someone was behind the door.
Alexa stepped into the room with Jessie at her back. She moved to the closed door, wedging her body along the far doorjamb. And Jessie took the nearest one. The sparse light from below cast eerie shadows into the room, shedding light on the haunted eyes of the bounty hunter. She’d never seen Jessie frightened like this. The woman was normally rock solid, but something had a firm hold on her.
She nudged her head toward Jessie—her way of asking if she was ready. When the bounty hunter grimaced and gave her attitude with one look, Alexa knew Jessie would back her up.
Being cautious, she listened at the door and heard the soft gasp again. With another nod, she signaled to Jessie and reached for the doorknob. She turned it slowly and realized it was open. One more time she caught the eye of the bounty hunter, then shoved the door open.
Gun drawn, she charged inside, with Jessie close behind. Half the room was steeped in shadows, but a dim light shone from a far corner. It was enough to force her to wince, protecting her night vision.
What the hell…?
It was the last thought she remembered.
Alexa entered the room first, taking the lead into a windowless chamber that was dark except for a single light on the floor. The beam reflected up, positioned against the far wall. With her Colt Python aimed, Jess avoided squinting into the light that would screw with her night vision. Instead her eyes fixed on a dark silhouette of a man sitting across the room. His shoulders were slumped, and the dim light profiled his face.
She didn’t see what happened to Alexa until it was too late.
Jess heard a loud thud and caught a glimpse of another man, his movement a blur. Alexa’s body blocked her view. And time slowed to a sluggish crawl. She watched as her arm shifted, holding the Colt Python, but Alexa collapsed into her. The blow knocked her off-balance. It took everything she had to hold on to her gun, but Alexa’s weapon skittered into the dark.
When Jess hit the floor, Alexa collapsed on top of her. She shoved the woman aside and grappled for her footing. But as she got to her knees, she came face-to-face with a gun muzzle pointed dead center, right between her eyes. That was enough incentive to stop her cold.
Panting, Jess knew she’d been beat. She slowly set her gun down and shoved it toward the man, then raised her hands, hoping he wouldn’t shoot.
“Okay…okay. You win.” She took a quick look down to see if Alexa was still breathing. She never saw what happened. “What did you do to her?”
Alexa had a nasty gash over her eyebrow. Blood pooled under her head, making her blond hair glisten in the faint light. Jess wanted to stop the bleeding, but when she leaned toward the woman, a man’s booming voice stopped her.
“You…stay put,” he ordered, raising his weapon and kicking her gun behind him into the dark. “By the time your friend wakes up, this’ll all be over.”
He made it seem as if Alexa would walk away from this, but she knew better. Jess shifted her gaze to the spiky-haired man with a nose ring, who had grown careless with his gun, waving it in the air to punctuate his demands. It took her a moment to recognize him, but when she did, surprise made her flinch. And remembering his name had challenged her too.
“Jake Cordell, isn’t it?” She forced a smile when he lowered his weapon. “You’re a long way from Dirty Monty’s. What’s this got to do with you?”
She hated admitting her ignorance, but getting him to talk was important. Her mind raced with why Jake was willing to kill to cover his ass. He wasn’t a drug-dealing pimp, or a thug with an attitude and a quick knife, or even a guy trying to hide stolen merchandise. The guy was the bartender at Dirty Monty’s—a damned barkeep—the bastard who had her chasing after tattoos and no doubt lied about everything he’d told her about Mandy.
In an instant she realized she was back at square one—and completely screwed.
“No way. I got the gun. That means I ask the questions.” He narrowed his eyes, anger seething behind them. “This kid should’ve come alone. Now you’re all fucked.”
He clenched his jaw, looking real mean. But when he realized that whatever plan he had, it was about to blow up, his face got red, and he yelled, “Why are you here, damn it?”
Spittle ran down his chin. And she heard the panic in his voice. The man looked like it wouldn’t take much to shove him over the edge. He walked toward the door, looked outside to make sure they didn’t have company, then shut it. Guess he didn’t like surprises. Her eyes followed Jake, looking for a way to get a jump on him. But being on her knees gave her a disadvantage.
Recognition flickered in the bartender’s eyes. He stared at her, then jabbed his gun into her face, and asked, “Hey…didn’t you say you worked for an insurance company?” When she shrugged, he spat, “You lied!”
Given all that had happened, the guy was actually pissed at her for lying? Unbelievable.
“Murder trumps lying. Guess you win.” When humor didn’t defuse the situation, she tried a distraction. “Where’s Seth, by the way?”
She tried to keep the edge from her voice. But when Jake’s eyes shifted to the floor behind her, she slowly turned her head to look.
“Oh no,” she gasped. “Seth.”
CHAPTER 25
Her eyes took in the rest of the room for the first time as Jess rocked back on her haunches, taking the weight off her knees. The gasp they’d heard outside the door must have been Seth’s father, Max. At the edge of the shadows, the feeble man sat on a wooden bench, his wheelchair missing. He quietly sobbed, staring down at the body of his son.
That’s when she saw Seth. His foot was bent at an odd angle. Belly down, he lay twisted on the floor at his father’s feet, with most of his body in darkness. And the familiar tang of blood hit her. She willed him to move, but when he didn’t, she searched for any signs of breathing. There were none.
Jess nearly choked. Her body shook. And something deep inside her broke. The onset of another panic attack gripped her, but when she crawled toward Seth, Jake stopped her with a vicious kick. She rolled to lessen the blow, but he’d gotten a piece of her ribs.
“Don’t move! Or I’ll kill the old man,” he yelled, shoving the gun barrel against Max’s head. “Nothing you can do for the kid anyway.”
She grimaced in pain and fixed her eyes on the man with the gun.
“Is Seth…” She couldn’t say it.
Looking deranged, Jake paced the floor and ran a nervous hand through his hair, the whites of his eyes showing. His mind elsewhere.
“This is all wrong,” he muttered. “It didn’t have to go down like this. This was supposed to look like the kid offed himself.”
It pained her to think about Seth. And if she had been alone with Jake, with no one else to worry about, she would have taken out her rage on him. But that wasn’t the case. Max needed her help, and Seth would have wanted her to take care of his father. That meant she wouldn’t wait for a crazy man with a gun to decide their fate. After taking a deep breath, she forced herself to deal with their grim situation and the bastard holding them at gunpoint.