Colby Velocity (12 page)

“You didn't have to kill Yoni,” Kendra said, her voice shaking with anger.

“But Yoni was trouble,” Wayne countered. “He wasn't going to just shut up and move on. And Roper was getting nervous, running off his mouth about Ferguson and the senator. His suicide ties up all the loose ends. You see,” Wayne shook his head, “Roper had a thing for Sayar. But Sayar wasn't interested. Roper was scorned, killed the object of his desires and then couldn't live with it so he killed himself. Pictures of his dead idol and notes he'd written to him are scattered inside his car. Too bad.”

“You're insane,” Kendra said.

Wayne laughed. “I'm a genius, that's what I am. Neither of the two can cause any trouble. I'll be assigned the case and all the evidence will fall into place just the way I want it to.”

“The bill,” Kendra muttered. Yoni was dead because of the bill. Roper, too. Yoni's integrity wouldn't be bought. Not when threatened with lies, not for anything. Wayne had known that. She stared at her former lover in abject disgust. “Who hired you to do this? How much did you decide your integrity was worth?”

“Better to walk away a rich man,” Wayne offered, “than to run with nothing.”

“I ran,” Kendra tossed back at him, “with my integrity intact.”

Wayne stared at her for too long, making Kendra shudder in disgust. “I guess now you're going to die with your integrity untarnished.” He nodded toward Rocky. “So's your friend.”

Rocky chuckled. “Make the first shot count, friend. Because, trust me, you won't get the opportunity to take another one.”

The air evacuated Kendra's chest as the two men stared off, the weapon in Wayne's hand aimed directly at Rocky's face.

“Trust
me,
” Wayne said, “even if you weren't going to die very shortly, she would never be yours. She doesn't trust herself enough to trust anyone else on that level.” He glanced at Kendra. “She likes being alone.”

Kendra wanted to slap his arrogant face but his words hit too close to home. Maybe he was right. Maybe she hadn't given herself fully to anyone. Maybe she couldn't. She stared at the gun in his hand. If Wayne had his way, it wouldn't matter anyway.

 

T
HEY DIDN'T GO FAR
before the driver came to a stop. Burton got out, opened Kendra's door and ordered her out. The driver did the same, shoving his weapon in Rocky's face to ensure his cooperation.

Parked behind them at an angle just past the guardrail, half on and half off the pavement, was
the rental car Rocky and Kendra had been driving, the front tires scarcely clinging to the edge of the road's shoulder. The other two thugs climbed out. The vehicle shifted precariously. Two of the men, one on either side of Rocky, pushed him toward the rental. Rocky got a good view of what lay beyond the shoulder of the road. Air…with a steep drop that ended in the trees below.

Burton ushered Kendra to the driver's side of the rental. “You must have been pretty upset when you found Roper dead,” he explained. “You missed the curve and crashed into the trees below.”

Rocky's escorts ushered him to the passenger side of the car, allowing an unobstructed view of the ravine below. Considering the distance, surviving the plunge wasn't impossible, but highly unlikely.

It was four against two. Sorry odds any way you looked at it. Not to mention he and Kendra were no longer armed.

“Open the door and get behind the wheel,” Burton ordered Kendra.

She hesitated, stared across the car's roof at Rocky.

Rocky needed a plan, damn it!

“Maybe if you'd been able to call for help,” Burton taunted, “you might have survived. But no one's going to find you until tomorrow morning. Neither of you will survive.” He looked across the
top of the car at Rocky. “By the way, we'll need your cell phone.”

The man who had stood at Rocky's right but now stood behind him considering their proximity to the shoulder's edge jammed his weapon into Rocky's spleen. “Give me the cell phone, then open the door and get in,” he growled.

Rocky glanced over his shoulder at the shorter man. “Make me.”

“Putting a bullet into your head,” Burton warned, “isn't part of the plan, but I'm flexible.” Burton sent a lethal stare in Rocky's direction. “Now, give up the cell phone.”

There was only one thing to do.

Rocky's gaze locked with Kendra's. He silently mouthed a single word.

Jump.

Nothing but air…falling…falling…

Bullets whizzed past her.

Something hot pierced her left shoulder.

Leaves crushed into her face.

Something hard hit her in the stomach, stopped her forward momentum, sending her into a cartwheel-like spin.

Then she was falling again.

Limbs lashed at her, slapped her face.

Reach out,
she told herself,
grab on!

The voice in her brain prompted her hands to reach…her fingers to clutch.

The too small branch slowed her fall for a split second then slipped through her fingers.

Her hip jarred against a larger branch. Pain shattered in her pelvis.

Adrenaline detonated in her brain.

Grab something!

She clutched with her hands, her arms.

Bark scraped at her forearms.

She blinked. Shook her head to clear the spinning.

Her arms tightened around the tree branch.

She wasn't falling anymore.

Voices on the road above…she couldn't see through all the branches and leaves.

Where was Rocky?

She twisted her neck, looked to the right and then the left. All she could see in any direction was leaves and branches and more leaves.

Her heart pounded. Her shoulder burned. Her body ached.

A sudden shift in the air pressure made her heart stutter.

A crash sent her flying loose from the limb she'd been hugging.

Glass exploded…metal whined.

She slammed into something hard. Flung her arms and legs frantically…scrambling for some kind of purchase.

Her face rubbed against something rough as she slid down…down…down.

She bounced on something softer.

The air whooshed out of her lungs.

The ground.

She was on the ground. Alive. And conscious.

She blinked. Where was Rocky?

She wanted to shout his name but a sound stopped her.

Voice…male.

“Get down there and find them! Make sure they're dead.”

They were coming. She had to move.

Something above her snagged her attention.

Black…or dark. Metal.

Kendra tried to focus.

Tires.

The car.

The car was lodged in the trees directly above her.

She had to move.

To run!

A hand latched onto her arm.

Her head came up. A scream lodged in her throat.

“We gotta get out of here.”

Rocky!

He helped her to her feet.

Pain radiated through her shoulders…her back. Her entire body.

He dragged her forward.

Her right ankle burned like fire.

Ignore the pain.

Run!

The sound of wood groaning and splitting rent the air.

A crash echoed through the trees as the car impacted the ground behind them.

Rocky darted around trees, dragging her behind him.

She tried to focus on putting one foot in front of the other. On keeping up with him.

The pain subsided, allowing her brain to concentrate on escape.

Rocky suddenly stopped. She butted into his back.

A new sound reached her ears.

Water. They'd run into the river.

What did they do now?

He ripped open the buttons of his shirt and tore it off his shoulders.

“What…” she moistened her dry lips “…what're you doing?”

He flung the shirt on the bank near the edge of the water and grabbed her hand once more. “Now we double back, going wide and keeping very, very quiet.”

His left eye was swollen. His nose had been bleeding and, like her, his face and neck were scratched.

She nodded. “Okay.”

He moved through the woods, going wide to the right and slowly forward.

Her heart pounded hard enough to burst out of her chest. She ducked, following his movements, beneath low lying limbs. He avoided the thickest underbrush to prevent unnecessary noise.

Voices and the sound of slogging through the brush reverberated from their left. The enemy was a ways off but not far enough to suit Kendra.

Rocky pulled her to the far right and into a tall thicket of undergrowth. He parted the foliage and weaved his way inside, towing her along behind him.

Once they were deep into the thicket, he settled on the ground and pulled her into his lap. “Don't make a sound,” he whispered in her ear.

She nodded her understanding.

His arms went around her and he opened his cell in front of her. She stared at the screen where a text message from Patsy read: help is en route.

Relief shook Kendra. He hadn't given up his cell and somehow during all this he'd summoned help. She leaned into his chest, fighting the tears.

She was stronger than this…she knew she was. But he was far stronger than her. If they survived…it would be because of him.

 

K
ENDRA COULDN'T GUESS HOW
much time had passed. Rocky held her in his arms like a child.
The pain radiated along every muscle in her body. She also couldn't assess her injuries. Her shoulder was still leaking blood. Rocky had checked it out. Bullet wound, but it had only cut through the skin and muscle. Nothing she wouldn't survive. Her ankle was swollen…her face burned like fire. But she wasn't having any trouble breathing.

Rocky appeared to be in better shape. No gunshot wounds. Nothing broken, he'd assured her.

The crunch of underbrush snapped her from the worries.

Someone was close.

She felt the tension in Rocky's muscles.

The whisper of leaves against fabric came nearer still. Heavy footfalls. Whoever was coming wasn't afraid of being overheard.

More voices in the distance…maybe in the direction of the river.

Didn't stop the approaching threat.

Someone was right on top of their position.

A familiar whop-whop-whop grew louder and louder.

Helicopter.

Hope swelled inside Kendra.

Had to be the help Patsy said was en route.

Thank God!

The bushes suddenly parted.

The business end of a handgun rammed into the opening.

“Too bad someone had to leave a swipe of blood on these leaves.”

Wayne.
He shook the bush.

Kendra's hopes withered.

“Get up!” Wayne roared.

Rocky pushed Kendra off his lap and scrambled up. “Hear that helicopter, Burton,” he warned. “That's one of the last sounds you'll hear before spending the rest of your life in prison.”

Kendra had to do something.

She couldn't see through the bushes. Tried to part the limbs so she could assess the situation.

“Come out, Kendra,” Wayne snarled. “I want you to watch your partner die before I kill you.”

She parted the foliage and scrambled out but didn't stand. She stared up at the man she'd once cared enough about to share her body with him. His weapon was leveled at Rocky's bare chest.

Wayne laughed as he stared down at her. “You don't look so self-righteous now.”

Rocky moved. Pushed the weapon upward. A shot exploded from the muzzle.

Wayne struggled to pull the weapon down low enough to get a bullet into Rocky's face.

Kendra stopped looking…stopped thinking.

She lunged at Wayne's legs. Clamped down on his shin with her teeth. Bit him as hard as she could.

He let out a howl. Tried to kick her off.

Her teeth tore into the fabric of his trousers.

He stumbled back.

She reached up, grabbed his crotch, squeezed then twisted.

He went down.

Wayne's shoe heel connected with her jaw.

Kendra let go. Rolled away from him.

Wayne was suddenly on his feet, swaying with pain. Rocky had the weapon pressed to his temple. “Maybe you won't make it to prison,” Rocky snarled.

Kendra scrambled to her feet.

“Get behind me,” Rocky ordered.

She didn't question his command. Obeyed without hesitation.

“Stop right there,” Rocky roared.

Kendra didn't dare peek around him, but his warning told her Wayne's friends had joined the party.

“Release him and we'll all just go our separate ways,” one of the goons suggested.

The helicopter was right on top of them now. Not visible through the trees but there.

Sirens wailed in the distance.

“Put your weapons down,” Rocky countered. “I
want you facedown on the ground, arms and legs spread.”

Rocky held Wayne in front of him like a shield. His quick thinking might very well be the sole reason they survived.

“Now!” he commanded.

“Shoot him!” Wayne screamed.

Fear burst in Kendra's chest.

If she made a run for it, the other men would be distracted.

The sound of rustling foliage caused her to hesitate.

“Good friends are hard to find, Burton,” Rocky taunted. “Looks like yours fall into a different category.”

Kendra dared to look beyond Rocky. The three men were barreling through the woods.

The sirens were on the road just above them now.

And she and Rocky were alive.

By the grace of God, his quick thinking and all those lovely trees.

9:15 p.m.

Kendra leaned her head against the wall of the small office she'd been sequestered to after she'd given her statement. She hadn't been allowed to see Rocky since they'd been treated at the ER.

Statements had been taken at the scene, but then after the doctor had released them from the ER, they had been brought to police headquarters in separate vehicles.

She had been questioned for nearly an hour.

Since then, she'd been sitting in this damned office for half an hour.

Ian Michaels from the Colby Agency had arrived. Kendra had barely gotten to speak to him when she'd been ushered away.

Ian had assured her that Rocky was fine and being questioned in another interview room.

Kendra just wanted this over.

She hadn't been allowed to contact Yoni's parents. She wanted them to know that he had been completely innocent of this entire travesty.

The door opened and she sat up straighter.

Senator Castille entered the room and closed the door behind him.

Anger and disappointment roiled inside her. He was the last person she wanted to see right now.

“Kendra.” He sat down in the only other available chair besides the one behind the desk.

“What do you want?” She blinked back the tears of grief that had been building for days…since she'd heard about Yoni's murder.

Castille stared at the floor a moment as if the generic carpet held some secret.

Secrets…lies…she'd escaped this world once.

As soon as this part was over she intended to return to Chicago and never look back. Again.

“I'm sorry you were hurt by all this.”

Her gaze flew to his. “All of
this
is your fault!”

He nodded. “To some degree, yes. It is.”

The only good she could see coming of this was if he stepped down from the office to which he'd been entrusted.

“I want to explain how this happened.”

Like she wanted to hear anything he had to say. “I'll hear it all in court.” She had no choice but to return for that. Damn it!

“Sharon found out about Aleesha and she went a little crazy.”

Kendra glared at him, wishing desperately that looks could kill. “You should have thought of that when you were chasing that poor girl.” She shook her head with the disgust writhing inside her. “I thought you were better than that.”

He held up both hands as if to protect himself from her poisonous words. “It's not what you think.”

Yeah, right. Every cheater said that.

“Aleesha was my daughter.”

Shock quaked through Kendra. “What?”

Castille heaved a forlorn breath. “She sought me out a few months ago. Her mother had passed away and left a note explaining who her father was. I had a one-night stand with her mother more than two decades ago.” He dropped his head. “It was foolish. Sharon had lapsed into another one of her depressions.” He shrugged. “She wanted children, but cancer had taken that opportunity away from her. I told her it didn't matter, but as the years went by it just ate at her…taking up where the cancer had left off.”

Kendra tamped back the sympathy that attempted to rise. “Why didn't you adopt?”

He smiled sadly. “We considered it, but Sharon just wouldn't be suited with any of the options
presented. She turned away from me and to the bottle.”

His wife had a drinking problem? “I never heard any rumors about a drinking problem.” Didn't seem possible. Nothing about a person's life was sacred here. How had Kendra not known this?

“She was careful. Always. She reserved her disgrace for late at night at home where no one could see. Including me.

“Eventually I gave in to the loneliness.” He shook his head again. “It was wrong. I know. But I am human and I had needs. But it only happened once.”

“She never told you—Aleesha's mother, I mean—that she was pregnant.”

“That's the strangest part. She knew I had money. But she never contacted me. I didn't know until Aleesha showed up.”

“How can you be sure she was your daughter?” Kendra hated to think the worst, but desperation and greed were strong motivators.

“Anonymous DNA test. Grant took care of the details for me. There was no denying. And, there were other indications.” A sad smile trembled on his lips. “She looked exactly like my mother did as a young girl. And the birthmark.” He patted his
chest. “Over the heart. My mother had it. Aleesha had it.”

Kendra couldn't pretend the man wasn't grieving, too. Still. Grant had said…
Grant.
God, he was dead, too. “Grant told me that you'd killed Yoni. That you were having an affair with Aleesha.” None of this made sense.

“Grant realized the power he had,” Castille explained, “when I trusted him with the task of seeing to the DNA test. He used it to push Sharon over the edge, to extort money from her and then from me.”

“Sharon wasn't the one who killed Aleesha.” Kendra wasn't ready to let the senator off the hook entirely but he needed to know that.

“Your colleague, Mr. Michaels, showed me the video statement from Delilah Brewer that your agency prepared. You don't know…” his voice cracked “…how much that means to me. Grant had Sharon convinced she had been driving the car when in fact she had been so inebriated that she barely recalls the incident.”

“I don't understand why he killed Aleesha. She was a meal ticket for him.”

“Aleesha threatened to go public with the whole thing. Grant wanted to continue holding it over
Sharon and I, so he neutralized an unnecessary threat. He had the photos and the DNA results.”

Kendra had known the guy was a sleaze. “But why Yoni? Did he find out what Grant was up to?”

“That was my fault.”

“How so?” Kendra braced for more shocking revelations.

“I saw Grant and the whole situation with my wife and Aleesha's death spiraling out of control so I contacted Wayne Burton. I asked him to see what he could do to quietly put the brakes on.”

She supposed that made sense.

“At first, it appeared he would be successful. He claimed he might be able to prove Grant was driving the car that struck Aleesha. If so, Grant would likely be easy to pay off. Get him out of our lives. But then things changed. About two weeks ago Burton started insisting he'd hit a stumbling block. Yoni came to me with the threats he had received. At first it didn't make sense.”

Kendra's stomach knotted. “He believed the threats were connected to the Transparency Bill.”

“He was right. Burton had gotten a better offer. He has given up the names of the two lobbyists in hopes of getting a lighter sentence. Bernard Capshaw is the ring leader. He's being brought in as we speak.”

“Wayne killed Yoni.” Kendra could scarcely believe Wayne would be that heartless.

“He killed Yoni and Grant and attempted to frighten you into leaving. When that didn't work, he was prepared to kill you and your partner. He wanted nothing to get in the way of his big payoff.”

Kendra couldn't believe she'd once cared about the man. It was…astonishing to learn that he was capable of such evil.

Castille stood. “I'm going to resign my office before this turns into yet another sideshow.”

Kendra looked up at him, saw the defeat and the sadness. She'd thought the worst of him and he hadn't deserved it…at least not all of it.

“But,” he qualified, “not until I see that this bill is passed. I owe that to Yoni.”

A traitorous tear escaped Kendra's firm hold. “He would be proud.”

The senator nodded, then started for the door. “One piece of advice, Kendra.”

Until a few moments ago she wouldn't have wanted to hear any advice this man had to give. But, like he said, he was only human. Circumstances had prompted wrong decisions from him, as it did from all mere humans.

“Don't devote all you have to your career. If you do, you'll end up old, tired and alone.” He heaved a sigh. “Like me.”

The door closed, leaving Kendra alone once more.

The memory of how it felt to have Rocky's arms around her, of his hot kisses made her tremble…made more of those damned tears slide down her cheeks.

Castille was right.

Maybe even Wayne had been a little bit right about her.

But she wasn't too stubborn to acknowledge her weaknesses and to institute change.

 

“A
LL RIGHT
, M
R
. R
OCKFORD
,” the police captain announced, “you're free to go.”

Rocky nodded and turned to the door. Lucky for him one of the rescue personnel had given him a T-shirt since he'd tossed his shirt into the river in an attempt to throw off the bastards chasing them. Right now, he was tired as hell and he ached all over. Bruised ribs and lots of abrasions were about all he'd gotten in the fall, except for the sore muscles. Of course that didn't take into account the black eye and split lip that he'd gotten from one of Burton's dirtbags.

He would live.

More important, Kendra was okay.

He stepped out into the corridor fully expecting to see Ian Michaels waiting for him, but Michaels
appeared to be in deep conversation with the chief of police at the other end of the hall.

Right now, Rocky just wanted to find Kendra.

As if luck was on his side for once, a door opened and she stepped out into the long gray corridor. She smiled.

He smiled back, then winced at the burn in his lip.

“You were wrong about Yoni, you know,” she said. “You have to wear a suit to work every day for a week.”

“I've always been a man of my word,” he relented. At the moment he would have done anything she asked. He was just glad she was okay.

She walked straight up to him then. Despite all the scratches and bruises she looked amazing. “I gave lengthy consideration to your offer.”

Confusion furrowed his brow making his head hurt. What the hell was she talking about?

“I decided that I don't want to wait or to weigh the consequences or anything else.” She threw her arms around his neck, went up on tiptoe and kissed him.

Then he understood.

Kendra was ready to give them a chance. To take the risk.

He drew back, smiled at her even though it hurt like hell. “You won't regret it.”

She kissed his bruised jaw. “I know. You're my partner, you would never let me down.”

The Colby Agency, Monday, July 10, 5:15 p.m.

“D
O YOU HAVE A MINUTE
?”

Victoria Colby-Camp looked up from her desk and smiled at her son. “Absolutely.”

He swaggered into the room. Such self-confidence. Incredibly handsome just like his father. And full of compassion for others. There wasn't a day that went by that she didn't feel immensely grateful for having him here…where he belonged.

“I was thinking,” he said as he settled into a chair, “that we should celebrate.”

“What's the occasion?” Tasha, Jim's wife, was due any day, but she felt relatively certain that if he'd gotten a call about that he would already be en route to the hospital. A man didn't get the chance to welcome his son into the world every day. Last week's false alarm had heightened the already merciless tension.

“Considering this latest case and the amazing way our teams have merged, I think it's time to celebrate that success. The Colby Agency and the Equalizers are now one. We have full velocity.”

Victoria agreed. Kendra and Rocky were back home, but taking a few badly needed days off. A smile tickled her lips. Rumor was that the two
had formed more than a professional bond in the past week.

“I think that's an amazing idea,” Victoria agreed. “You call Tasha and I'll call Lucas.”

Jim braced to stand. “Excellent.”

The phone on Victoria's desk rang. Mildred, her assistant, had already gone for the day so Victoria took the call herself.

“Victoria, is my husband in your office?”

Tasha. She sounded a little out of breath. Victoria bit her lips together…this could be the call. “Certainly, he's right here.” Victoria reached the phone across the desk. “It's Tasha.”

“Put it on speaker,” he said, grinning, “and we'll tell her about tonight's celebration.”

Victoria did as Jim requested though she had a feeling there would be a different kind of celebration tonight. “Tasha, you're on speaker. Jim is right here.”

“You'd better come home. Now,” Tasha said, her voice rising as she spoke. “This boy is ready! For real this time!”

Jim jumped to his feet, his eyes wide with anticipation and maybe a little uneasiness. “On the way!” Jim backed toward the door. “Sorry…about tonight.”

Victoria grinned. “Go! Lucas and I will pick up Jamie and be right behind you.”

Jim Colby bounded out of the office. Victoria blinked back the tears building in her eyes. She had already been blessed with a beautiful granddaughter, Jamie, now she would have a grandson.

She stood, grabbed her cell phone to put through a call to Lucas.

A new Colby was about to be born.

The name would live on…and so would the agency.