The Confession (32 page)

M
axim leaned against the back of a seat, dressed more casually than I'd ever seen him in jeans and a thin black sweater. He assessed me as he always had when I'd come to his home to give him massages. Like I was nothing more than a servant, despite the fact that I was armed.

He had his own weapon though, which he pointed directly at my father, sitting in one of the plush leather seats beside a window, draped with lacy white curtains. Dad's posture was rigidly straight on account of his bound arms, and his nose and mouth were stained with dry blood.

Swallowing a sob, I readjusted my hands on the gun, and aimed it clearly at Maxim's chest. We were moving faster now; I could feel the pull from the wind outside and braced myself against the corner beside the door.

From this position, I had a clear view of the center aisle, where Alec lay across the floor, facedown. Jessica Rowe crouched beside him, what looked to be a gun in her hand.

My heart stopped.

My hands wavered.

Not a gun, a Taser.

“Alec?” My voice was barely a whisper
. “Alec,”
I said again, this time a little louder.

He didn't move.

I stared at Maxim.

“Alec, get up!” I called.

Jessica stood, gripping a seat for support. “Help me throw him out.”

“Don't you touch him,” I growled.

“We can't
throw him out
,” snapped Maxim, revealing just a hint of the stress hiding beneath his cool exterior. “It's too late for that. If he survives the fall, he'll tell the FBI I did it.”

“Then kill him first.”

My eyes shifted to her, shocked at her frigid tone, even now when I knew the harm she could do.

“And be extradited for murder? Not just for one, but three?” Maxim gave an annoyed groan. “My dear, you think too much like a woman. These problems don't just disappear when you sweep them under the rug. They fester, and stink. Better to take them with us, and dump them somewhere they'll never be found.”

Jessica frowned. “They'll think Alec and his girlfriend skipped town because he was going to jail.”

“That's right,” said Maxim.

My jaw was clamped so tightly closed, my teeth ached.

“Anna,” said my dad quietly. “There's still time.” He glanced behind me toward the open door. We were outside now, and had slowed to turn. The line of red lights outside the cabin window told me we had reached the runway.

From the pilot's cabin came the muffled voice of air control, alerting the pilot that we were clear for takeoff.

“Let us off,” I told Maxim, as he leisurely made his way across the cabin to sit beside my father. My dad winced as Maxim's weapon pressed into his ribs.

“Anna, jump,” said my dad.

“All three of us,” I continued to Maxim. “Let all three of us go. You'll be halfway over the Gulf before the police find us.”

“Who says we're going over the Gulf?” asked Maxim.

My mind shot through the alternatives. He wouldn't go stateside; there was nothing for him there. He'd have to go over the Atlantic. Europe maybe? Alec had told me Force did business with big oil companies in the Middle East. Maybe that's where he was heading.

“I don't care where you're going,” I said. “Just let us leave.”

Maxim gave a smug smile. “You seem quite concerned about the welfare of your private investigator.”

“Close that door!” called Jeremiah from the front of the plane.

Stein sighed. “Anna, would you be so kind as to shut the door. It's the button right there to your left.”

His persistent calm was pissing me off.

“Move that gun and I'll do whatever you like.”

Maxim snorted. “I'm hours away from losing my company—my entire
empire
. What makes you think I'm in the mood to negotiate?”

It was a diversion. The last I'd heard, he was winning. After what had happened with Jessica's testimony, and my humongous failure, I'd doubted anything Alec had said would even be considered by the jury. Bringing down Maxim Stein had turned into the biggest white-collar cluster fuck since the creation of Wall Street.

My dad seemed to have had enough. He turned fast, throwing his shoulder into Maxim Stein. Jessica screamed.

“Go!” Dad shouted, just as the sound of gunfire cracked through the small space.

For a moment, time was suspended. No one moved. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't even hear above the rushing in my own ears. And then my father went still.

“Dad!” I rushed toward them, forgetting that Maxim still held a gun. Forgetting that I did, too. Only seeing my father, the first person who'd ever been straight with me, who'd really loved me, crumpling to the floor.

I rolled him onto his back, hands flying over his chest as the plane rocked to a sudden halt.

“Dad?” He was bleeding from the shoulder. Dark, red blood stained his already dirty shirt. The jacket had fallen off in the scuffle, and I grabbed it now and pressed down on the wound. His green eyes, still open, focused on mine with a hard, angry intensity.

“That was your break,” he muttered.

“I'm not leaving you.” I swiped at the tears dripping down my nose with the back of my hand. “How bad is it?”

He groaned as I tied the arms of the jacket around his shoulder.

“Just clipped me. Where's the gun?”

I searched our immediate area, and zeroed in on the weapon still in Maxim's hand. He pointed it in my direction now, and as I stared down the barrel, a dark despair twisted in the pit of my stomach.

“Dad,” Maxim said, still breathing hard as he picked himself up off the floor. “The things we do for kin . . .” His perfect wave of hair was mussed, and his cheeks had gone ashy white.

“What have you done?” Jessica shouted at her boss.

“What have
I
done?” Maxim countered. “We wouldn't even be here if you'd stayed in Miami like I told you.”

“I couldn't. You know that,” Jessica snapped. “He'd followed me all the way down the coast!”

It occurred to me she was referring to my father.

“And had you told Jeremiah he could have handled it then,” shot Maxim. “But because you didn't, Anna's
father
is now bleeding all over my floor.”

“What the hell is going on back here?” At the sound of Jeremiah's voice I twitched, and turned to see him on the wooden aisle beside Alec. “You can't fire a gun in here. Surely you of all people know that.”

In his hand was the weapon I'd dropped in my hurry to get to my father. It must have slid down the wooden aisle. Fear gripped me as I contemplated what he'd already shown himself to be capable of. This was not a man I wanted to be holding a firearm.

He assessed me with a chilly smirk.

“Last time I saw you, you had considerably less clothes on.” Jeremiah tucked the gun into the back of his belt and strode quickly toward the open exit. There, he pressed a button to raise the door. As it suctioned close, I felt our last chances of survival slip away.

We had nothing to lose now.

Jeremiah returned to the aisle to kneel beside Jessica. She'd been trying to fasten Alec's wrists behind his back with a curtain she'd pulled off the window.

“And last time I saw
you
, you had a shiv in your back,” he said to still unmoving Alec.

“There's a special place for people like you,” I growled at him.

He looked up at me, and for a split second a memory overlapped with the present. I could see him as he'd been in the bar, just after he'd bought me a drink. Eyes bright and grin dangerous.

“You believe in karma?” he asked. “Think I'm going to get what's coming?” He stepped on Alec's back while Jessica hurriedly tied the knot. Now that he had a gun he seemed to find this whole thing amusing.

“I know you will,” I said.

“What does that mean for you?” he asked. “You must have done something really bad to end up passed out in the back of my car.” His voice lowered. “Do you even remember taking off your dress? Oh that's right, I did it for you.”

A spike of fury had me rising to my feet, but I held tight as Maxim's weapon pressed against my side.

“Get your kid under control, Stein,” my dad said through his teeth. “Or I'll do it for you.”

For a flash I wondered if my dad had found proof that Maxim was Jeremiah's father, or if he was still relying on the information Jessica had told me in St. Augustine. Either way, my father may have been flat on his back, but Maxim wavered when he saw the resolve in his eyes.

“Get this plane up in the air!” Maxim barked.

Jeremiah retreated to the cockpit.

Come on, Alec. Wake up.

The engine switched to a higher gear, roaring outside the closed door. We lurched forward.

Jessica stood, and inhaled through her nostrils. She marched over toward us. “Who did he tell?”

“It doesn't matter who he told,” said Maxim. “By the time we hit Swiss airspace we'll have new passports waiting for us.”

Confused, I glanced to my father, who forced a smile.

“Ms. Jessica Barlow,” he said to the secretary. “Looks like your apple didn't fall far from the tree.”

Her eyes hardened.

“Barlow?” I said, blinking at the woman before me.

Max mentioned she had a kid once, years ago, but there's nothing on paper.
Alec had told me that when I'd first come to stay at the apartment above the restaurant.

“You're Jeremiah's
mother
?” I asked.

I thought of the night I'd met him at the bar, and the pictures, and how Jessica Rowe had taken them from her room at the neighboring hotel. She'd done this for her son. Her son had done this for his father. The rage grew sharp inside of me as I stared at her.

The plane picked up speed.

“The paperwork was buried pretty deep,” my father said. “But I found the name change documentation. And the birth certificate. No father listed, that must make you feel bad, doesn't it Stein?”

Maxim snorted, and then laughed coldly.

“Should it?” he asked. “Little bastard got more than enough of my money.”

My mind turned to the high salary and cash bonuses Alec had told me Jessica received. Before she'd testified, she'd even told me that Maxim Stein had given Jeremiah money himself.

This family gave
dysfunctional
a whole new definition.

Behind Jessica, Alec's head turned slowly to the side. It took everything I had not to call out to him.

“Sit down!” shouted Jeremiah through the open door.

The force of the jet's sudden acceleration pushed me back, and I had to release my father to keep from rolling down the center aisle.

“Stop the plane,” I said to Maxim. “I've called the cops. They're probably already here. If you stop now, they won't come down as hard on you.”

“It's too late for that,” said Maxim.

The nose of the plane tilted up. I clung to the seat, one hand on my dad's chest. He bent his knees, trying to keep himself from sliding down the aisle, but it put more of a strain on his shoulders. With his arms bound he could barely move.

“If you're not going to get rid of her, tie her up and put her in the luggage compartment,” said Jessica. She took a seat and fastened her seat belt. Behind her, Alec's foot twitched.

I stared up at her as the wheels left the ground.

“You had me back in St. Augustine,” I said. “I honestly thought you were scared.”

Her brow arched. “We all do what we have to in order to survive.”

I forced myself to look at her, even while Alec's knee bent.

“Does that include sending your own child away to be raised by his aunt?” I asked. “Did Maxim make you do it? Or was that your choice?”

She glared at me, her Taser pointing at Alec's back. “That's not your business.”

“Must really piss you off that Maxim didn't choose him as heir to the Force fortune.”

“He's taken good care of us.”

“He's paid you off, you mean,” I said. “So he could keep whatever number wife he was on happily ignorant.”

“Ease up, Anna,” warned my dad quietly.

“He kept Jeremy out of it,” she snapped. “I didn't want my son falling into this life.”

“And yet here he is,” I said, “Driving your getaway plane.”

While I'd been talking, Stein had watched me closely. He gave a small nod now, as if impressed.

Alec rolled fast, taking Jessica off guard. He'd ripped his hands free from the bindings she'd secured, and slapped the Taser out of her grip before she could fire again. I dove for it, and as my hand closed around the handle I jammed the metal clamps against her calf—the closest part of anyone I could reach—and pressed the button. It shook as the charge ran up her leg, and she let out a short scream before arching back in her seat. Alec was already charging Stein, but stopped suddenly, as if he'd hit an invisible wall. A moment later I released the trigger of the Taser, frozen by the gun pressed to the back of my skull. Jessica slouched, every muscle slack, eyes closed.

“What's going on?” shouted Jeremiah from the pilot's seat. “What was that?”

“Nice of you to wake up, Alec,” said Stein.

“Max,” he said warily. “I'm not an expert, but I think you've exceeded the tether on your fancy ankle bracelet.”

Stein snorted. “House arrest didn't really suit me. Fortunately, my probation officer felt the same way.”

“How much did you pay him?” I asked. Stein twisted my hair around his wrist and yanked my head back, pressing the gun to my temple. I siphoned in a tight breath.

“You don't want to do that,” Alec said, in a voice that even now gave me chills. My dad was trying to push himself into an upright position, using a seat as leverage.