Come Hell or High Desire (22 page)

Chapter Thirty-one

Zack’s boots hit the pavement before the cops screeched into the Samuel’s Construction
parking lot. He flew out the door and jerked on the glass back door.
Locked.
He spun around to look for something to smash the door in.

“Stop! Put your hands up.” Three cruisers lined up, car doors shielding the officers
with their Glocks aimed at his torso. A wild current raced through him.
Run!
His hands clenched. A large cargo truck roared up behind the squad cars. Men in camouflage
poured out.

SWAT.

Zack’s legs itched. There was enough firepower aimed on him to guarantee a closed
casket.He wanted to squirm. He looked down. A piece of rebar was only inches from
his right boot.

No more running
.

He cupped his hands around his mouth. “Sloane Swift is being held hostage inside by
Ross Julik. I’m going in!”

He thought he heard a man yell, but the rebar connected with the glass, fragmenting
the Samuel’s Construction logo into a thousand blue and green shards. He crouched
between the glass and took the back stairs three at a time.

“Sloane!
Sloane!
” He rounded the corner on the top floor and bumped into Morgan as she was stepping
off the elevator. His fingers bit into the skin of her upper arms, and her eyes grew
round.

“Jesus, Morgan! What the hell are you doing here, and what happened to you?”

When she looked over his shoulder and started to cry, he was floored. He’d only seen
her cry once before. Not the time he’d found her in an alleyway, battered and raped.
And not when she’d been slashed by an ex-boyfriend. But rather, the night
he’d
been beaten senseless by Kasey’s thugs.

He loosened his hold and brushed the hair from her swelling forehead. “Take it easy.
Have you seen Sloane or Ross?”

She plowed into him, wrapping her arms around him in a death grip. He wanted to shake
the information out of her, but his head was growing foggy. He squinted, trying to
get his eyes to focus, but Morgan’s face swam before him. He could see her lips moving,
but he couldn’t quite understand her. What was happening? He tasted blood on his tongue.
Then he heard it.

Zack!

A river of ice poured through him.
Sloane?

Help me!

A sensation of damp, cool air drifted through his mind.
Where are you?
He held his breath, listening for her, but heard only his own heartbeat. His vision
cleared, and he looked down to see Morgan’s face plastered to his chest. He leaned
away from her, his fingers shaking on her arms. “Right now, Morgan.
Tell me where they are
.”

She lifted her tear-streaked face, then leaned to the side and pointed behind him.
Zack twisted around and nearly staggered to see what was left of his CFO. He tore
away from Morgan and hunkered down beside Ross. He thought he’d feel sadness and regret,
but there was only urgency. He looked back at Morgan. “Where’s the gun?”

“I…threw it in the dumpster. Outside.”

That must have been where she was coming from when he ran into her. “Where’s Sloane?”

“He was going to kill her, and I couldn’t let him! You know how I feel about men assaulting
women.”

“Where the fuck is she?”

She backed up slightly. “He…uh, he’d…someone else took her. To hide her. For Ross.
She was so scared, Zack! She hasn’t had the experiences we have—”

Bad experiences
.

All of a sudden, he knew.
Cold and damp
.

Hell, yeah, he knew.
The tunnel.

Abruptly, he pressed Morgan against the wall, a hand covering her mouth. He shushed
her silently while he listened. There it was again.

A slight shifting of leather.

Someone was in the stairwell
.

He motioned for her to hurry with him down the hall, past Ross’s lifeless body, into
John’s office. Inside, he shut the door soundlessly, grabbed a flashlight from the
desk, then led her to the bookshelf.

“Aren’t we going to—”

Again, he shushed her, and felt with his hands along the paneling until the bookshelf
slid away to reveal a small, secret elevator. He’d never used it. Had never been able
to make himself, though John had told him it’d be good to know where it let out in
the tunnel.

Just in case.

He used to laugh at many of John’s just-in-cases.
Pretty damn unwise.

When he joined Morgan inside, he had to put his arms up to make room for both of them
to fit. He waited for a stir of panic in the cramped space, but it didn’t come. The
door closed, the light dimmed, and she leaned against him.

SWAT officers had to be spreading through the building like a marauding virus by now.
He ignored the blinking elevator light.
Hold on, Goldie.

“Who was working with Ross? Who took Sloane just now?”

She hesitated for a moment. “Colette O’Neill.”

“
What?
”

“I swear it’s true. Once Ross learned of Dallan’s involvement with Ann, he blackmailed
Colette into helping him. He told her he’d help fix her problem, but after she took
Ann to his house, she refused to help him anymore. Until he took her kids, the evil
bastard.”

Zack slammed the elevator ceiling with his fist and looked at Morgan’s feverish eyes.
“Where is she?”

“Colette? How am I supposed to know?” She hooked her fingers in the waistband of his
jeans. He tried to angle his body away from Morgan but the space was too cramped.

Hold on, Goldie, I’m coming for you.

None of this seemed to make any sense. “Why are
you
here?”

“I promise I’ll tell you everything, but please, let’s just get out of here,” Morgan
said.

The elevator door opened, and he pushed back an iron gate to step into the dark passageway.
Relieved to put some distance between Morgan and himself, he turned on the flashlight,
its weak beam projecting onto rough-hewn concrete.

Sloane was down here. He’d bet his life on it. “What do you mean you’ll tell me
everything
?”

“I…I have a theory. But I won’t— What are we doing down here? I thought we were going
to leave the building—”

A low clang came from the passageway. He started jogging down the long tunnel, praying
he’d know which turns to make to find Sloane.

“Wait!” Morgan ran after him and grabbed his arm. “We have to leave! Please, Zack,
I…I love you! Please, let’s go. I think Ross put a bomb down here.”

“
What
did you say?”

“I love you. I always have.” Her bottom lip trembled.

“Not that. A bomb
?
Ross knew how to make a
bomb
? How could you know that?”

“When he and Sloane were fighting, he said that’s how she was gonna go. It’s too late
for her, but we can still make it.
Please.
We have to hurry.” She pulled on his arm, but he brushed her off.

“I’m not leaving Sloane down here to die.”

“You don’t have to be anybody’s damn hero!”

He didn’t understand the look in her eyes. “I’m sorry. You’ll have to deal with the
police, but they’ll realize you’re innocent.” He pushed her back inside the cramped
elevator and slid the gate’s lock in place to prevent her from returning to the passageway.
This might be their final goodbye.

At least she would be safe. “Take care, Morgan.”

Her pale fingers gripped the gate and rattled the metal until the sound reverberated
up his spine. “You’ll regret this!”

“Only if I die.” Then he sprinted away, hearing her cries and feeling her eyes on
him until the elevator doors slid shut, enveloping him in a woolen darkness pierced
only by the thin beam of his flashlight.

Help me find you, Goldie
.

Again, a low clang. But farther away this time. Zack shucked his shirt, tore strips
of fabric with his teeth, and changed directions, running through the maze, leaving
pieces of his shirt to find his way out, until the clanging grew louder. He set the
flashlight down before one of the doors and pressed his cupped his hands to the metal
to project through the door. “Sloane?”

“Zack!”

He nearly dropped to his knees in relief. He stooped to grab the flashlight, panning
for something to break the padlock. He ran down the passageway where he’d noticed
a concrete block set on its side, overlaid by a small piece of wood in a makeshift
stool. He grabbed the block and carried it back to the door.

He hefted the concrete block over his head and crashed the corner edge against the
lock. The sound was unbelievably loud in the soul-sucking shaft.
Screw it
. He could live without eardrums. But not without Sloane.

He did it again.

And again.

Sweat stung his eyes as he raised the cinder block once more. This time the lock gave
way. He put his lips near the spot the lock had been. “Stand back from the door, Goldie!”

He backed up and kicked, heel first, extending his leg until the muscles jarred like
a sledgehammer connecting with a locomotive. The door sprang open on the third try,
and he had her in his arms in a heartbeat, his hands covering as much of her body
as possible, searching for signs of injury. “My God, woman, you have no idea—”

She wrenched back, nodding, and turned away to gather…

Children
.

The girl had wide brown eyes in a face so expressionless his throat burned. “O’Neill’s?”

Sloane nodded again, her arms tightening briefly around them before shuffling them
toward the door. “They’re dehydrated. We have to hurry! Ann’s at the mall. I think
on top of the Ferris wheel.”

“The Ferris wheel?”

“No time to explain. I know from the vision I had when Ross…he…”

When she gasped, he examined the arm she was favoring. “I know. I know everything
now,” he said. Satisfied her arm didn’t seem to be broken, he looked at her. “I left
you with him. Sloane, I didn’t know. If he would have—”

“But he didn’t.” She checked her watch and blanched. “We really have to hurry. If
Ross wasn’t lying, Ann’s bomb is gonna blow at one-thirty.”

He couldn’t have heard her right. “Wait. The bomb is on
Ann
?” But Morgan had said the bomb was down here…

“In the vision she was on top of a Ferris Wheel. I heard the ticking of a bomb. I
saw the brooch from before, too. Let’s go!”

His gut plummeted. Less than ninety minutes before they’d have to scrape Ann’s remains
off the mall’s eight story skylights. During business hours.

When the amusement park was set to open.

There’d be a huge line waiting at the entrance.
Son of a bitch.

He stepped back to hurry them out of the room when he saw pieces of duct tape scattered
around. And what looked like old blood. “Colette tied you up?”

Sloane had taken the flashlight and was already following his ripped shirt trail.
When she looked back, her face was set in fierce lines. “No, Morgan did. She wanted
you all to herself so she helped Ross get Ann out of the way! I thought you said you
knew everything.”

“
Whoa
. Whoa, whoa,
wait
!” He grabbed her by the shoulders. “You’re lying.” She had to be.

“No, Zack. Your beloved Morgan’s in on the whole thing. She made hambu—” She glanced
at the children cowering in the shadows and spoke softer. “She took care of Ross,
then injected me with some drug and tied me up. She left me to die.
With these children.
”

Morgan?
No!

The world shuddered. Literally. The ground and the walls around them. Shook so hard
they stumbled into one another. He reached for Sloane after breaking the little girl’s
fall. Sloane’s pupils dilated in the shadows. “Oh, Lord, was that what I think it
was?”

He nodded and saw a ripple of panic flow over her features. “We’re going to make it.”
He squeezed her arm, watching her struggle to master her fear. She managed it as the
little boy began to cry, his tears leaving a soft peach trail on his otherwise grimy
face. Zack fought back fury as he hugged the boy and looked at Sloane over the child’s
head. “Their names?”

“Derek and Kate.”

He set the boy in front of him, still holding his hand. “It’s going to be all right,
Derek. We’re going to get you and your sister out of here, but we have to hurry. I
need you to be brave for a while longer, okay?”

Derek nodded, and Zack could see he was weak with hunger, so he scooped him into his
arms and reached for the flashlight, wishing Ross was still breathing so he could
skin him alive. They were nearly back at the elevator when Zack began seeing dust
and small chunks of concrete on the shirt strips he’d left on the ground. A bad feeling
rolled through his gut, but he didn’t want to believe it. Until he saw the rubble
in front of them.

The bomb had sealed the tunnel back to the elevator.

Chapter Thirty-two

If she made it out of this alive, she was never—
ever
—going into a basement again. Sloane’s lungs, legs, and arm burned from piggybacking
Kate the last few minutes, but they were almost there. Wherever
there
was. “We’re almost out of here, right?”

“Yes.” Zack wasn’t even breathing hard, and he’d carried Derek the whole way.

She knew he’d come to get her out. A bone-deep sort of knowledge. He’d demonstrated
he was kind, loving, strong—so many qualities. Actions speak louder than words, and
his had shouted. But…

He’d worked with Ross. And did
what
with Morgan? Were they lovers? How had he not known they were conspiring against
him? Could he really be so oblivious?

Don’t judge until you have not only all the information, but knowledge of the situation
as well
. Another of mother’s pithy little sayings.

Her head was gonna explode right along with her limbs any minute now. “Dammit!”

When Zack turned to face her, she saw strain written on every contour of his face.
He shifted Derek to one arm and reached for Kate with the other. “Here, let me take
her. I can carry both.”

“No. I’m fine. Just get us out of here.” When they finally reached a narrow wooden
staircase, Zack set Derek down and looked at Sloane. “You need to stay here for a
minute while I make sure the area’s safe. I’ll be back.”

“No! I don’t want to stay down here—”

“I can’t risk you and the kids getting shot if SWAT’s waiting for me beyond that door.”
He stepped closer and looked like he wanted to touch her. Her muscles jumped in anticipation.

“Trust me?” he asked.

She nodded, but her stomach churned. If he’d only touch her, she would feel so much
better.

But he didn’t. He turned away, taking the flashlight from Kate to shine it on the
combination lock to put in the series of numbers. A shaft of white light poured onto
the stairs when he opened the door a crack. He peeked through it, then turned around
to hand Sloane the flashlight. She couldn’t read his expression.
Please don’t leave us.

His fingers came up to feather over her cheekbone. “Trust, Goldie.”

“Ann lost her baby in that
tomb,
you know. Morgan and Ross are gonna burn in Hell.”

His jaw tightened, and he nodded, then slipped outside and shut the door, leaving
her and the children behind in the silent darkness.

…

Zack arranged the large tablecloth over the hidden door, grateful none of the Chinese
restaurant staff was in the supply room when he’d made his entrance. He nudged a stepstool
to the wall to peer out a high window facing the alley.
So far so good
. No police that he could see. He exhaled, grabbed a Shanghai Surprise T-shirt from
a stack on the shelves, and slipped it on since the one he’d had was now in shreds
in the tunnel.

Morgan.
She had a mean streak, but never in a million years did he think she’d be vicious
enough to kill an innocent adult, much less children.
Why?
He curled his sweaty palm around the supply room doorknob and twisted ever so slowly.
Peered out. A slim, bent cook stood by the industrial sized dishwasher while two tiny
waitresses bustled about, unloading bowls of food from a cart.

He jammed the doorstop under the door, grabbed his phone out of his pocket, and speed
dialed Archie, who picked up before Zack even heard it ring. “Where in the Sam Hell
are you, man? Did you find Ross?”

“
Shhh
. I found Sloane and the O’Neill kids.”

“They okay?”

“Yeah.” Zack pinched the bridge of his nose. “Christ, Arch. Morgan’s part of this.”

“What?”

“Long story, but Morgan offed Ross, then drugged and tied up Sloane in the underground
with the kids.” Silence on the line. “She was going to leave them there to die.” More
silence. “Did you hear?”

“I can’t—
You sure?
”

Archie’s disbelief nearly did him in. “It’s killing me, too.”

“Where is she?”

“I don’t know. She took off when I wouldn’t leave the building with her. I need you
to pick up Sloane and the O’Neill kids at the corner of Broadway and Second Avenue
North. ASAP. Take them to the hospital. Phone the cops on the way, tell them to get
a bead on Morgan.”

“She packin’?”

“When isn’t she?”

“Right. What else do you need?”

Zack pressed his ear to the door, listening. “A bomb squad at the mall.”

“What?”

“Ann’s in the top car of the mall’s Ferris wheel wired with a bomb that’s set to go
off at one-thirty.” He ground the phone’s speaker into his thigh to muffle Archie’s
response. When it sounded quiet again, he put the phone back to his ear. “They’ll
need a heavy law enforcement presence because the mall’s bound to be packed with the
opening of the amusement park.”

Archie exhaled loudly. “
Fucking A.
Someone in the universe hates you, brother.”

“One last thing. I need you to have our buddy Peter cause a disturbance on the south
side of the mall by the theater so I can get in Skinny Dipping’s back door unseen.”

“Ah, shit, you oughtta let the police handle this, man.”

“I can’t sit back and not help Ann. Besides, I have a bad feeling about Morgan showing
up there. You know how she hates uniforms. But she might listen to me. I’ve gotta
be there. Let’s just hope my gut isn’t right this time.”

Archie’s heavy silence reinforced his instincts.

Finally, “I’ve got you covered, buddy. I’m out.”

Zack pushed the phone back in his pocket and opened the passage door again. He put
his finger to his mouth to keep them silent, then reached out to Sloane. He brought
his other hand on top of hers to chafe it while she looked around, obviously trying
to figure out where they were.

“Shanghai Surprise on First and Broadway,” he said quietly.

She nodded, bringing the children in front of her. Almost like a shield between them.
He frowned, grabbing two water bottles from the shelf for the children, and looked
at Sloane. “I’m going to get everyone out onto the restaurant floor while you and
the kids sneak out the back door into the alley. If anyone’s on break, ignore them
and keep running north up the alley toward Toscana’s. My buddy Archie will pick you
up in a blue Explorer. He’s bald and has a jaguar tattoo on his neck.”

“Like yours,” Sloane said. Their eyes held for a moment. God, he wanted to hold her.

Derek’s lips started quivering, and the sight of the beautiful children pressing close
to Sloane put a lump in his throat. He wondered not for the first time why bad things
happened to innocents. He smiled to give them confidence. “Archie’s kind of scary
looking, but he’ll protect you and get you to the hospital.”

“What about you?”

He understood what she was asking. “You need to go with them. They need you right
now.”

She opened her mouth, but shut it again. It had been a safe gamble. She’d never leave
the children alone. He needed her, too, but he wouldn’t tell her that. Besides, he
couldn’t let her go to the mall with him. “I suppose you don’t have a key for the
back door of your shop, do you?”

“No, my purse is in the hallway of your office, but I keep a key duct taped to the
underside of the dumpster nearby. If Carmen’s still there tell her I’ll let her have
the Salvador Dali oil if she helps you.” She smiled slightly, then looked down at
her hands. “I had to have a backup plan because Tori was notorious for losing keys,
and I didn’t want to have to run to the store on my mornings off.”

So much had happened. So much still
had
to happen before this nightmare was over. What if he never had another chance?

Fuck this distance shit.
He crushed Sloane in his arms, careful of her injury, and whispered in her hair.
“You make me want to believe in happily ever after, Goldie.”

He squeezed her reflexively, then turned and slipped out the door.