The Bodyguard (16 page)

She glanced around but didn’t see him anywhere. She braced her hands on the smooth top of the wall, lifted her legs over the side, then dropped down into the darkness below.

Chapter Seventeen

There was no sign of movement near the main building of the meatpacking plant. Luke sprinted from the wooded area where he’d parked and quickly crossed the short distance to the parking lot. He crouched beside the patrol car Grant had stolen and felt the hood. Cold. He hurried to Daniel’s BMW and knelt down behind the rear bumper, watching the building.

“Their cars are both here,” he whispered into his cell phone. “And there are lights on inside the main building, the one with the stockyards out front. Don’t come in hot. You’ll have to come in without sirens or lights. I don’t want you to spook them. Have you contacted the plant manager to bring the keys?”

“He’ll meet us a quarter mile outside the entrance. Just keep the line open and let us know if you see anyone outside,” Cornell said. “ETA about fifteen minutes. Do not engage the suspects.”

“To hell with that, Cornell. If Carol’s inside, there’s no telling what could be going on. I’m not waiting.”

“Just a minute, Dawson. You can’t just—”

Luke punched the button to end the call, then turned the ringer off. He shoved the phone into the holder on his belt and pulled out his pistol. As a force of habit, he popped the clip and double-checked the loading, then popped it back in. He waited a few more seconds, closely watching the high-up windows for movement and observing the shadows around the building.

A distant whining noise filtered from inside the building. Luke’s stomach dropped. He knew that sound.
An electric saw.
He took off running toward the entrance.

* * *

C
AROL
DUCKED
DOWN
at the loud noise. It was coming from another part of the building—close...too close. She swallowed against the thickness in her throat, shying away from admitting to herself that she was pretty sure what that sound was. And since it seemed to be coming from the direction where Daniel had dragged Grant’s body, she had a good idea what was going on.

She closed her eyes and pressed her hand to her mouth, trying not to gag. The sound stopped. Her eyes flew open. She had to get moving, had to find a way out. Now.

She took off running down the constantly winding shoot again. It was dark, but since the top was open, the dim light in the factory filtered down enough for her to see where she was going. The walls smelled of disinfectant with an occasional waft of manure. She tried breathing through her mouth and forced herself to keep going even though the shoot never seemed to end.

The tunnel came to an abrupt stop at a solid metal door. She slid to a halt, feeling the door, but there was no knob. She pushed against it, but it didn’t budge. A bitter curse word flew through her mind. She was trapped. And all Daniel had to do was peer over the top of the concrete walls and follow them to the end. Then he could aim his gun and shoot her as if she was nothing more than a helpless cow waiting to be slaughtered.

“Oh, Caroline,” Daniel’s singsong voice called out. “Where are you, dear?”

He was so close! Had he heard her pressing on the gate? Was he about to peer over the wall at her? She bit her bottom lip and started forward, trying not to make any sound that would give away her location while she headed back the way she’d come.

“What are you doing down there, Caroline?”

She gasped and looked up. Daniel was casually leaning over the sloped top of the wall directly above her, shaking his head. “Do you know why the shoot curves back on itself so much instead of going in a straight line? Cows, when they get scared or confused, like to turn around and go back where they came from. So, even though we build the tunnel too narrow to allow them to turn around, we curve the tunnel back on itself. It fools the animals into thinking they’re going back where they came from, when really they’re getting closer and closer to the end, where death awaits. The animals stay calm the entire time.” He grinned. “Makes the kill easier. Brilliant, don’t you think?”

Carol whimpered and started running.

“There you go. That’s a good girl. Run all the way to the end. You’re just making this easy.”

She stumbled to a halt and glanced uncertainly behind her.

“Now, now. We can’t have you turning around.” He leaned over the wall above her and aimed his gun. She screamed and took off running. The gunshot echoed through the tunnel behind her.

* * *

T
HE
SOUND
OF
a gunshot froze Luke on the platform outside the window. He hadn’t been able to get inside through the main door because it was chained. The only other possibility seemed to be one of the windows set high up in the wall. He’d used the access stairs for the roof to get to one of the windows. He used the butt of his gun like a hammer and busted the glass. He yanked off his leather jacket and flipped it over the jagged edges in the frame and climbed through the hole, then dropped to the floor.

He landed in a rolling crouch to break the long fall, then leaped to his feet waving his gun in front of him. He hurried out the door, pausing when he saw a trail of blood across the concrete. As if a body had been dragged through the hall.

Please don’t let it be Carol.

He rushed out the door into the darkness beyond.

* * *

C
AROL
STOPPED
AND
flattened herself against the wall. What was that sound? Breaking glass? She looked up. Daniel must have heard it, too, because he’d paused and looked back toward the front of the building. He looked down at her and smiled, then pressed his fingers to his lips as if to tell her to be quiet, before disappearing over the edge of the wall.

Were the police here? Or Luke? She waited, hoping to hear sirens or voices, but all she heard was silence.

“Hello?” she called out. “Is someone there? It’s Carol Ashton. Is anyone out there?” She waited. Nothing. Could anyone even hear her down in this pit?

She debated running back toward the gate, but that was a dead end, a trap. The only way out was up ahead, where the cattle were slaughtered. Bile rose in her throat but she fought it down and took off running again.

* * *

A
MUFFLED
SOUND
echoed from somewhere up ahead. Luke peered into the gloom and listened intently. Another sound, like someone...running? He spotted curving concrete walls in the middle of the room. They ended at the beginning of the assembly line, where heavy drill-looking machines hung from the ceiling—probably the pneumatic guns used to kill the cattle before they were processed.

The sound echoed again. It was definitely coming from that concrete opening. He glanced around, then sprinted to the nearest curve in the wall. He looked over the side and caught a glimpse of someone running.

Relief swept through him.

“Carol,” he called out in a low whisper.

She stopped and jerked her head up, her eyes wide. “Luke, watch out!”

He whirled around and kicked in one movement, catching Daniel Ashton in the chest. Ashton grunted and fell against the concrete wall. The gun he’d been holding went skidding across the floor and wedged up beneath a machine.

Luke brought his own gun up, but Daniel lunged at him before he could get off a shot. His arms wrapped around Luke, forcing his gun hand up. They both tumbled to the concrete floor.

Daniel landed on top of Luke and bit down on Luke’s wrist. Luke shouted and tried to shake him, but his hand went numb and the gun dropped from his fingers. Daniel grinned triumphantly and dived for the gun. Luke flung himself on top of Daniel’s leg and yanked back, pulling him across the floor before he reached the gun.

Daniel cursed and twisted beneath him, sending a punch flying at Luke’s jaw. Luke ducked just in time, but his movement allowed Daniel to scurry out from beneath him and lunge to his feet. The gun was a few feet behind Luke now, but he couldn’t grab it without taking his eyes off Daniel.

His foe seemed to weigh the choices in front of him, glancing from the gun to Luke and back again. His mouth twisted in a bitter smile. He lunged toward the gun, but when Luke moved to intercept him, Daniel whirled around and sprinted into the darkness, disappearing behind a row of machines.

Luke grabbed the gun and ran to the concrete wall. He peered down but didn’t see Carol anywhere. He looked back up, keeping an eye out for Daniel, then raced along the curve of the wall, glancing down every few feet, looking for Carol.

He ran all the way to the end of the tunnel before he found her, standing in the slaughter box, her eyes wide, her body shaking as she stared at the bloodstains on the floor beneath her.

“Carol,” he whispered. “It’s Luke.”

She didn’t respond. She kept staring at the blood, her face alarmingly pale.

Luke glanced around. “Sweetheart, listen to me. It’s Luke. Can you tell me where Grant is?”

She finally looked up at him. “Grant?” She shook her head. “Grant is...Grant is...” She closed her eyes and swallowed.

He knew the end of that sentence. Grant was dead. Luke couldn’t say that bothered him a bit. It meant one less lunatic to deal with before Carol was safe.

He peered into the gloom. There was a light directly over the slaughter box, which made it difficult to see anything else, like someone shining a flashlight in his eyes.

“I have to go find Daniel. Wait here.”

She shook her head back and forth. “No, no, don’t leave me! Don’t leave me here!”

His heart broke at the terror on her face, in her voice. “Okay, okay. First, take my gun. Just in case. Here, take it.” He tossed it down to her.

She caught it and looked at it as if she didn’t have a clue what to do with it.

Luke gritted his teeth. He glanced around one more time, the hairs standing up on the back of his neck.

“Luke, please, help me.” Carol reached her arms up toward him.

He flattened himself on the floor at the edge of the box and hung down over the opening, his arms outstretched. “Take my hands. I’ll pull you up.”

She shoved the gun into her waistband and raised her hands.

A swishing noise was Luke’s only warning. He dived to the side just as Daniel lunged at him with one of the pneumatic drills hanging over the slaughter box. It fired, the steel bolt slamming against the concrete before retracting, ready for another shot.

Carol screamed from below.

Daniel bellowed his rage and whirled around, knocking Luke flat on his back. Daniel slammed the drill down toward Luke. Luke clasped his hands on the sides of the drill, grappling for control.

Noises sounded from the front part of the building, voices yelling, feet shuffling. A loud pop echoed through the room. One of the rolling doors began rising.

Daniel cursed and renewed his struggles. The drill lowered closer, closer. He smiled, smelling victory. Luke bucked and twisted beneath him. Daniel lost his grasp on the drill and fell to the side. He must have seen the gun holstered on Luke’s ankle because he cried out in triumph and yanked the gun out. Luke grabbed the drill and twisted around just as Daniel came up with the gun.

Luke shoved the drill against Daniel’s head and squeezed the trigger.

A sickening crack echoed through the room. Daniel’s eyes rolled up in his head and he fell to the floor. He didn’t get back up.

“That was for Carol and Mitch, you piece of filth,” Luke rasped.

“Police! Freeze!” someone yelled behind him.

Ignoring the order, he tossed the drill aside and crawled the last few feet to the slaughter box. The sound of running feet echoed behind him. He reached down and pulled Carol up and out of the box. Her eyes widened as she looked past him at Daniel’s body lying on the floor. Her fingers dug into his shirt. He twisted to block her view, cradled her in his lap and pressed her face against his chest.

She sobbed and a flood of tears soaked his shirt.

“It’s okay,” he whispered against her hair. “It’s okay. It’s over. You’re safe. You’re finally safe.”

Chapter Eighteen

Three months later

Luke leaned his forearms on his new desk and looked through the glass wall of his office into the main room of Dawson’s Personal Security Services. Fifteen other shiny new desks sat in the enlarged space. He’d rented the office next to his and had knocked down the wall in between to expand. He’d hired eight more bodyguards and an admin assistant to help Trudy since her workload as office manager had gotten so heavy.

The notoriety from the Ashton case had gained him more paying clients—
well
-paying clients—than he could handle. And it didn’t hurt that Stellar Security had suffered a severe blow after the investigation proved Daniel Ashton had been fed information from GPS locators on his family’s vehicles and that some of the guards had even spied for him. They’d looked the other way when asked—like the night Grant Ashton allegedly “broke into” the mansion.

Business was good, but it didn’t bring the joy or sense of accomplishment he’d hoped for. Nothing these days did. And he knew why.

Carol.

He hadn’t seen or heard from her since that harrowing night at the packing plant. They’d both been brought into separate interview rooms at the police station where they’d each given their statements about everything that had happened.

Cornell had sent his men to all the Ashton warehouses in the city to search for Grant Ashton’s family, based on the warehouse in the background of the pictures Grant had taped to the door at the plant. His hunch had paid off and Grant’s wife and daughter were found safe. It had taken a few hours, and Luke had stayed in Cornell’s office receiving minute-by-minute updates, until it was over. Then he’d gone out to update Carol, but she was gone.

Luke pulled his top desk drawer open and unfolded the single sheet of paper she’d asked Cornell to give him that night.

Luke, I’m sorry to leave things this way, but I have to get out of here. I’m leaving Savannah and all the ugliness behind. I don’t know if I’ll be back. Thank you for being there for me. You kept your promise. You saved me. That’s a debt I can never repay. All I can say is thank you, and goodbye.

He refolded the note and dropped it back into the drawer. Blowing out a deep breath, he shoved his chair back and crossed to the window to stare down at the street below.

Behind him, in the outer office, the little bell Trudy had insisted on putting above the door tinkled, announcing they had a visitor. Luke didn’t bother to turn around. Trudy had taken her role of replacing Mitch as office manager quite seriously. She was like a little general, bossing the bodyguards around, undaunted by the fact that most of them were well over a foot taller than her. Luke had yet to see anyone Trudy couldn’t handle.

“Well, hello, there,” Trudy called out, obviously recognizing whoever had come in. “It’s good to see you again. What can we do for you today?”

“I need a bodyguard.”

Luke froze at the sound of that soft, achingly familiar voice.
It can’t be.
He slowly turned around.

Carol stood fifteen feet away, her startlingly blue eyes meeting his, her pink lips curving into a smile. “Hello, Luke.”

Trudy glanced back and forth between them, then—for once—melted quietly away to the far side of the room without saying a word.

Luke stepped out of his office and stopped in front of Carol, his hungry gaze drinking her in. “You colored your hair brown.”

She patted her hair as if self-conscious. “It’s as close to my natural color as the stylist could make it, for now, until the roots grow out.”

“I like it.”

“Thank you.”

He wanted to reach for her, to pull her against him. Instead, he shoved his hands in his pockets and cleared his throat. “You told Trudy you needed a bodyguard. Someone’s bothering you?”

“No. No one’s bothering me.”

He frowned. “But you need a bodyguard?”

“Well, I suppose to be more accurate, I’d have to say I need
the
bodyguard. The bodyguard who saved my life a few months ago.” She stepped forward, until the toes of her heels pressed against the toes of his dress shoes. “I need
you,
Luke.”

Afraid to hope, he cleared his throat again. “You might need to spell this out for me because I have a feeling I’m misunderstanding you. After that night at the plant, you left. You didn’t wait to talk to me. You didn’t answer my calls or letters. That doesn’t sound like you need me.”

She glanced around the office, at the handful of bodyguards trying to pretend not to listen to them. Trudy didn’t even bother pretending. She sat at her desk, her head in her hands, unabashedly staring.

“Is there somewhere...private...where we can talk?”

He stepped back and waved her toward his office. When she stepped inside, he closed the blinds on the glass walls and door, then turned to face her. “All right. No one’s watching, or listening. Except me.”

She bit her bottom lip and crossed the room to stand in front of him again. She held her hand out. “Hi, my name is Carol Bagwell. I legally changed my last name. I’m an Ashton no more.”

He shook her hand and smiled reluctantly. “Believe me, you were never an Ashton. You’ve always been better than that.”

She grinned. “I think so, too.” Her grin faded. “Luke, when I left Savannah, it wasn’t you I was leaving. It was...everything that had happened. I was confused, scared. I needed to get my head on straight. I went from living with my controlling, critical parents to living with a husband and having my every action, my every thought, controlled by him. When you came into my life, you were too good to be true. But I wasn’t ready for you. I didn’t even know who I was anymore. I needed time, and space, to figure that out.”

“Where did you go when you left?”

“As far away as I could get without leaving the country. I went to the West Coast, to Seattle. But I couldn’t escape my past by running away. I had to work with lawyers to settle the Ashton estate. They located Richard’s true will at Wiley & Harrison and refiled. Grant’s wife and daughter got nearly half the estate. The other half went to Daniel. True to his nature, Richard left me nothing.” Her lips curved in a smile. “But Daniel didn’t have a will, and no spouse or children. So the court awarded Daniel’s portion to me. I hope Richard is turning over in his grave right now.”

Luke smiled. “Good for you.”

“I gave it away, though,” she said.

He coughed. “What?”

“The money. Half a billion dollars in assets. I gave it to a women’s charity. They’re going to build a halfway house for abused women right here in Savannah. And with all that money, they’ll be able to help women all over the country. Isn’t that wonderful?”

He ran his finger down her soft cheek. “I think you’re the most kind and generous woman I’ve ever met. Personally, I’d have kept a few million. But I understand why you didn’t want to keep your husband’s money. You wanted a fresh start. Right?”

“You
do
understand. I knew you would. I’m in therapy, probably will be for a long time. I’m a mess, actually, in a lot of ways. But I’m growing stronger every day. And there’s one thing for sure that I know that I want.”

“And what’s that?”

“You. I want you. That is, if
you
still want
me
now that I’m a pauper.”

He spanned her waist with his hands and set her on the desk so they were almost at eye level. “Carol,” he said, “I’m in love with you, in case you haven’t figured that out.”

He covered her lips with his and consumed her in a searing kiss. Her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him tightly against her as she kissed him back. When they broke apart, they were both out of breath.

He leaned down and kissed the side of her neck.

She shivered. “Luke?”

“Hmm?” He kissed her collarbone.

“When I told you I gave away a half a billion dollars, I may have neglected to mention something.”

He moved to her ear and sucked her earlobe between his teeth.

She gasped. “Luke!”

He laughed and pulled back, looping his arms around her waist. “I don’t care how poor you are, or what kind of trouble or baggage you bring with you. I’ll take you any way I can get you.” He leaned in for another kiss, but she pressed her hands against his chest, stopping him.

“I just need to make sure there’s complete honesty between us.”

He grimaced. “The video card, right? I destroyed it. I got it back from Alex and I cut the thing into pieces. Then I burned it. I’m so sorry I broke my promise.”

She blinked. “The video card? No, no. That’s ancient history. I understand why you felt you had to do that. I’m the one with a secret this time.” She chewed her bottom lip. “I did give away half a billion dollars, but my portion of the estate was a little bit more than that. I may not exactly be a pauper.”

“Oh? Exactly how much are you
not
a pauper?”

She grinned. “I might still have a few million dollars left over.”

He laughed and swept her into his arms. “At least I’ll know you don’t like me for my money. I’m not exactly hurting these days, in case you hadn’t noticed. Now, if you’re through with all this talking, the rest of this...conversation...requires a bit more privacy.”

She giggled and looped her arms around his neck again. “Lead the way, bodyguard. Lead the way.”

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from SAWYER by Delores Fossen.