Deadly Deception (Deadly Series) (15 page)

“Damn it,” Anne hissed through her teeth.

Approaching three two-story dock entrances, she saw that one was slightly opened. Lowering her body to peer through the thin slit, she could see nothing but darkness. Hoisting herself onto the damp concrete slab, Anne pushed her body through the tight opening, sucking in her stomach until her ribs grazed the bottom of the massive steel door.

The substantial warehouse intimidated her five-foot, five-inch stature. All that echoed through the solid walls was the reverberation of the rumbling thunder.
Inhale, exhale,
she reminded herself while she lightly walked through the open void. She was exposed in the vastness, which sent dread through her bones. Once again, she felt hunted. A set of metal crisscrossed stairs led her to a rickety mezzanine that eventually opened up to the offices of Rita, Steven, and, at one time, Carter. Anne placed her ear to Carter’s office door, desperately listening for any type of noise or a voice. Again a crash of thunder shook the wooden frame. With an unsteady hand, Anne turned the door handle and flung it open; the office was empty.

It was as if she stepped into a time machine; she had not crossed the threshold into this space since his vanishing act. Carter’s taste was very old world; his office was decorated with large wooden pieces intricately designed and fabrics that
danced with burgundy and bronze in meticulous paisley patterns. His smell lingered; he had recently been here, and was possibly still watching her from a distance, biding his time until she was completely vulnerable.

In the corner of the office stood a cherry armoire.
Anne tugged at the black pulls, but it was locked. With all her might, she yanked on the door, breaking the latch as she tried to steady her balance. Papers, photos, and letters shuffled together like a deck of cards in the wooden enclosure. Through the flashes of lightning that flickered through the pane of glass above her, she could see faces of his family, Sam and other people he had befriended along the way, even pictures of her and him on their numerous retreats to the Bahamas, Australia and Italy.

Anne brushed aside letters written in Chinese and English.

Mr.Leeds:

Upon our agreement regarding Mr. Sam Goodman, you will turn over 40% of the life insurance money that will be collected from his widow, Lien (Yang) Goodman. Once I receive my money and you have your 60%, Lien will be instructed to return to Hong Kong and continue her employment with me.

Mr. Cheng

“Oh my
god!”

Carter had bought Lien in exchange for Sam’s life. Anne shuffled through pages of life insurance policies, bank account information, and email correspondence between Lien and Carter. He had promised her freedom when in fact he was planning to send her back to Mr. Cheng, a ruthless and treacherous sex trafficker out of Hong Kong.  He was known for kidnapping women and selling them like meat on the side of the road.

Anne immediately thought of their daughter. What would happen to her? Would Mr. Cheng own her too? She had to turn all this over to Victoria. Her hands trembled, grasping the ghastly evidence against Carter. He was a monster. He betrayed a man that he called a brother for fifty million dollars. The moment Sam took Lien out of Hong Kong, his fate had been sealed. Sealed by Carter.

Anne’s erratic breath burned her throat. On the verge of hyperventilation, she watched the sheets of rain pounding the window. As a flash of lighting streaked across the heavens, a hand grasped Anne’s shoulder, clenching its dominant claws into her collarbone. The combination of her petrified scream and the growling rumble of thunder set off a deafening resonance throughout the building.

The undertones of the darkness and faint light revealed a disheveled Adam Whitney. Scruff weaved auburn and coffee over his face. His eyes were dark and firm. They burned into Anne’s. Without another word, she lunged into his chest. His comfort she once knew so well enveloped her. Silently he laid his cheek on top of her still-damp hair. The miniscule droplets stretched over his skin. Pulling back, Anne looked up at Adam for a heartening expression; all that she saw was anger and distress, while he softly brushed the bruises and scrapes that lined her face. Flinching at the bruise that had surfaced on her cheekbone after Carter and she tumbled around on the floor, she placed her hand over his.

“I know what you’ve done…and Carter,” she whispered, lowering her head. “But I also know you were trying to protect me.” Quiet tears trailed her face, salting her pale lips. Adam brushed them with his thumb.

“I’m not proud of what I’ve done in the past and who I’ve dealt with, but I will never regret falling in love with you. Carter will never take that from me.”

The stream of emotion continued down her face. A cry escaped her. She saw, lying at Adam’s feet, two large black duffel bags.

“What are you doing? This is a bad idea, Adam.”

“Giving Carter what he wants, and in exchange he lets us live.”

That’s all Anne was to Carter—a bargaining tool to reclaim his dirty money.

“And you trust him?”

Anne shook her head, turning her back from Adam. She was still holding the papers she had found.

“He contributed to the murder of his best friend, in cold blood. What makes you think he’s going to let us live?”

Anne shook the papers in the air, wondering when Adam had become so naïve. 

“Sam didn’t have what Carter wanted. I do. I have all the evidence. I’ll destroy it, plus I have the money from a deal that went south a few years back.”

“Adam, he kidnapped me and he was going to kill me. What makes you think he’ll just let me walk away? Did you know he had me?”

His head hung low. Anne knew the answer. Her chest tightened and the pain flowed out of her like a river, again.

“I knew you would escape. Carter told me he had you and if I even thought about coming to you, he would kill you. Carter wants power, not you. He’s only doing this because he knew how to get to me. He’s not who you think he is. He’s not Carter Leeds, he’s…”

Something or someone stirred a few feet from outside the office, tracking them. Adam placed his index finger to his lips, hushing Anne before a scream could escape her throat. Quietly turning on his heels, Adam started to walk toward the noise. Anne extended her hand to stop him but she was unsuccessful. He neared the frame of the door while Anne watched him peer up and
down the corridor, then step out to the right. As the blood raced through her veins at Mach speed, her nerves became numb, and her skin tingled with pinpricks of anxiety. The air lay silent; it was abruptly interrupted by the sounds of shuffling feet, followed by two ear-splitting gun shots. Trying to stir the words from her mouth, Anne shouted for Adam. Illuminated by a bolt of lightning, a sinister shadow appeared in the opening to the office.

“
No!” Anne shrieked to the malevolent being that stood before her, hearing the click of the gun as Carter aimed at her chest. She closed her eyes and inhaled her last obtainable breath.

Carter appeared closer to her. He lowered the gun to his side and stepped beside her.

“I knew you’d come.”

“Who are you?” Disdain dripped from her lips.

“I know this must appear disconcerting, but it’s just bu
siness, Anneliese. That’s it.”

She moved a few feet from him and toward the corner of the room.

“You promised him you wouldn’t kill us if he did what you asked.”

“Well, you should know by now I can’t be trusted, and lying is like breathing for me.”

“Why Sam then?”

“He pissed our money away on some worthless whore he met at a club in Hong Kong, begged me to get them out of China because her boss was after them. He owed him money too. I made a profitable deal with her boss.”

Carter yanked the papers from her clutched hand and tossed them on the floor. Anne watched the damning evidence flutter around her feet.

“What about Adam?”

Carter chuckled and took two steps toward her. Anne slid her back against the wall, slowly inching to the door.

“Adam, Adam, Adam. Well, when he started working for Richard, he didn’t know what he was getting himself into. At first he just sat on the sidelines and took notes, but after he saw the money he could make, greed set in
, and the hunger to be number one, to be the big shot. I will say, he had a few lucrative plans, but you can’t win ‘em all.”

He motioned toward the black walkway where Adam’s body was lying, fading away from the gunshot wounds Carter
had bestowed upon him minutes earlier. Bile began rising in Anne’s throat. She wanted to run to him, scream at his still body for all the hell he put her through, but also that she needed him and loved him. She wanted to beg him to live, to fight for them. She didn’t want to go against Carter alone but it looked like she was going to have to.

Pushing down every ounce of emotion was torture but necessary. Turning from Adam’s dying form, her hooded gaze locked onto Carter.

“You owed the Montgomerys money. That’s why they wanted him to kill you,” Anne alleged. Carter once again laughed with malice.

“
They never asked him to kill me. I lied because I knew you two were conspiring together. Granted they wanted me dead, thanks to Adam and his shit scheme in Chicago. When the investment went sour I had to get out of there but Adam, oh, he decided that he would hide his millions and then snitch to the feds. Thought they could protect him,” he smirked. “Guess not.”

“Carter, we weren’t scheming together on anything. I had no idea this was going on, and I would never be part of something like this! That is blood money!”

Anne’s tears evaporated from the heat that radiated from her face.

“You think I’m going to believe for one minute that he didn’t say anything to you about his hidden wealth? That you weren’t luring me out of hiding so you could take m
y share and then the Montgomerys would finally end me once and for all?”

“What the hell are talking about?”

Every thunderous crack vibrated the wall Anne was leaning against, pulsating through her from the inside out. Carter’s glare was maddening. He darted toward her. Inches from the door frame, Carter leaped to Anne, pinning her tautly against the wall. His hot breath was unyielding alongside her neck; her heart thumped through her veins, almost throbbing as he pressed his weight into her.

“My Anneliese, we could have taken over the world, just the two of us, but you ruined it. I come back and see that you’re on his side, loving him, trusting him. Do you know how
that made me feel?” Carter hissed. “Do you?” His russet eyebrows pushed together in consternation.

“You lied to me, Carter! You left me! You killed our baby! It’s
your
fault. Did you really think I would go anywhere with you after everything you’ve done? You drugged me, kidnapped me and were planning to kill me! You murdered your best friend in cold blood, watched him die right before your eyes, and now you’ve killed Adam, so just do it already—kill me! I would rather be with Adam in death, than with you alive on this earth.”

She could hear his teeth gnashing together; the gun shook between them in his dithering hand. He dug his head into her dirty
blonde locks, exhaling hard. A small whimper fell from her lips while her head dug hard into the wall. She wanted this to end.

“Why must you push me? I love you so much it exhausts all rational thoughts. I know what I must do and if you won’t be with me, you won’t be with anyone and I’ll grant your req
uest, but a life without you—that will truly kill me.”

“Good,” Anne seethed.

The gun was positioned downward toward the floor. She lifted her right knee, gouging it into his groin. Shoving his agony-stricken body away from her, his grip on the gun loosened. She kicked it from his hand; it flew back, hitting the opened armoire. Anne dashed toward the mezzanine that led to the warehouse, her feet stumbling beneath her. She was just a few feet from the stairs when her entire body arched backwards, like she was convulsing in mid-air. Her spine crashed into the metal floor. Searing pain shot through her body like an electric shock. Carter hovered over her, his face distorted like the devil himself had just been released. His elongated fingers wrapped themselves around her slender neck. In one swift movement, she was being hoisted off the ground onto her tip-toes. Her air supply was weakening, but Anne continued to fight Carter off.

Raising her hand and placing it on his scalp, she snatched a handful of wavy mane right from the roots. Carter flinched at the unexpected action, dropping Anne against the mezzanine’s top railing and slamming her lower back against the unforgiving metal. Ignoring the pain, Anne’s survival mode surged through her as she blindly began attacking the man she once cherished more than anyone in the world, the man she would have died for. Her arms flailed ahead of her, landing punches, scratches and gashes to Carter’s face.

Time stopped in the breath of a second, a cry lurched from Anne’s mouth. Her hands released the final thrust while Carter’s unbalanced body twisted over the mezzanine’s railing. She staggered forward. Carter grasped the top railing with his right hand, clinging to it, white-knuckled from the pressure of holding up his six-foot-three-inch frame with one hand. Anne leaned over the metal and stared into Carter’s blackened eyes, searching into the depths of his soul to find any good, any remorse at all. Her hands wrapped themselves around the chipped blue railing.