Under His Domain (4 page)

“I’m not suggesting you kill anybody,”
Kennedy said, never taking her eyes away from Kane.

The older billionaire slowly began to
smile, and his smile grew wider as he realized the full implications of her
plan.
 
“Oh, you are a devious one,
aren’t you?”

“When I’m desperate, I get creative,”
Kennedy told him.

Red looked from one to the other.
 
“You’ve lost me.
 
What are we talking about?”

“As usual, you’re late to the party,”
Kane sighed.
 
“Don’t worry, I’ll
explain it all on the way.”

“On the way where?” Nicole said.

Kane began to walk to the door of the
townhouse.
 
“We need to get everyone
mobilized.
 
We’re doing the exchange
right away.”

***

Everything was moving too fast.

First they left the townhouse, Red
ushered Nicole and Kennedy into an SUV parked out front but didn’t get inside
with them.

They had a driver, a serious looking man.

“Take them back to Connecticut,” Red told
the driver, who nodded solemnly.

Nicole wouldn’t allow Red to shut the
back door.
 
“What do you mean?” she
cried out.
 
“Why are we going back
to Connecticut?
 
Where are you going?”

 
“It’s not safe for you two where I’m
going,” he said softly.

“If it’s not safe for us, then you can’t
go either,” Nicole replied.
 
She
grabbed Red’s hand.
 
“I won’t let
you get hurt over this.”

Red sighed and shook his head.
 
“I can’t make Kane do this alone.
 
He’s only involved because of us.”

Nearby, Kane waited in another
vehicle.
 
Kennedy noticed that there
was an albino man in the driver’s seat of Kane’s car, and the albino’s light
eyes fixed on hers and his pale lips stretched into an unnatural smile.

“Red,” Kennedy said, trying to ignore the
strange albino man in the other car.
 
“Don’t go without us.
 
I need
to see Easton.”

“It’s not safe,” he repeated.

Nicole turned to Kennedy and saw the
emotion in her sister’s eyes.
 
Then
she turned back to her husband.
 
“You have to bring us,” she insisted.

Red’s eyes narrowed and his jaw
tightened.
 
“There’s going to be
violence,” he told them both now.
 
“People will be hurt—someone might be killed, even.”

“I understand,” Kennedy said.

Red sighed.
 
“Okay, then.”
 
He shut the door and motioned for their
driver to roll his window down.
 

“Keep your distance but follow us to the
meeting.”

Their driver nodded solemnly as Red
continued speaking.
 
“If there’s any
gunfire, you’re to leave immediately, don’t wait for instructions.
 
Proceed back to Connecticut unless you
hear otherwise.”

Nicole stared at Red.
 
“Why aren’t you riding with us?”

“I’m going with Kane.
 
Remember I love you, and just stay calm.”
 
Then Red turned and walked to the car
with Kane and the albino in it and got inside.

 
They started off in their vehicle, and
then Nicole and Kennedy’s driver moved the SUV behind them and started to
follow along.

“I hope Kane knows what he’s doing,”
Nicole said.
 
Her hands were
clenched into fists.

“He seems very capable,” Kennedy said,
wanting to believe that everything would somehow be okay, even though her
stomach was in knots and she’d broken out in a cold sweat.

It was like they were in some alternate
universe now, like they’d fallen into a movie and instead of being Thelma and
Louise they’d dropped into The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

This
is all wrong
, Kennedy
thought, as she watched the car in front of them, and with every flash of the
brake lights,
every new acceleration
, she felt a
little sicker.

What if the plan failed?

What if Easton was killed during the
exchange?

Don’t
think like that, Kennedy.
 
You have
to think positively.
 
You have to
see him holding you in his
arms,
feel his skin against
yours, look into those amazingly perceptive eyes of his.

Soon
you’ll be together again.

Unless…

Nicole was watching her with a concerned
expression.
 
“This is scary,” she
whispered.

“Are you worried for Red?”

Nicole shrugged.
 
“I think he can take care of
himself.
 
He wouldn’t risk his life
for…”

She stopped, catching herself.
 
Kennedy understood that her sister had
almost said that Red wouldn’t risk his life to save Easton.
 
And Kennedy couldn’t blame her for
thinking it, either.
 
Why should Red
risk his life?

Red was a husband and a father and Easton
had no children, no wife.

Kennedy wasn’t even technically Easton’s
girlfriend.
 
She was just some
coworker that he’d had the misfortune to involve himself with, and now he was
paying the price.

There was no time to talk and talk was
useless anyway.
 
Suddenly, they’d
broken through the crawling city traffic and were speeding up, as the car ahead
of them started to race faster and faster.

Their driver was cool, calm and
collected, as the streets outside started to blur.

Nicole gripped her seatbelt and her lips
pressed tightly together.

“It’s okay,” Kennedy said, and then she
reached out and grabbed Nicole’s clammy hand.
 
“We’re going to be fine, I promise.”

Nicole smiled.
 
“I think you just used my line.”

“Well, now I’m using it.
 
It’s true.
 
We’ll get through it together.”

Nicole’s smile disappeared.
 
“I can’t let anything happen to us,”
Nicole whispered.
 
“Riley—“

“Nothing’s going to happen to
anyone.
 
The exchange will go
smooth, and before you know it, the whole thing’ll be over.”

Nicole nodded as the car started to drive
faster still.

“I hope we don’t die in a car accident
before we even get there,” Nicole muttered.

Finally, the race was over, and they
slowed noticeably, turning off the main road and into a small, nearly deserted
cul de sac beneath an underpass.
 
The driver parked the car, hanging back still.

Kennedy leaned forward and peered out the
windshield.
 
In front of them, about
twenty-five yards away, was Kane and Red’s car.
 
Opposite it was parked a large green
van.
 

A few men stepped out of the green van
just as she was watching.
 
They
looked like the men who she’d seen outside Dean’s restaurant the other day.

One of the men getting out of the van was
clearly Jimmy The Muscle DeLuca.
 
His
bald head
, thick neck and linebacker
shoulders were evident and unmistakable.

“That’s him—that’s the mobster,”
Kennedy cried out.
 
“Jimmy DeLuca.”

Nicole leaned forward too.
 
“What’s Red doing?”

Red and Kane and the albino man were also
getting slowly out of their car, warily, their movements cautious.

All of the men were sizing one another
up.

“Where’s Easton?” Kennedy said, straining
to follow what was happening.

“Be patient,” the driver told them.
 
“Everything’s okay.”

“How do you know?” Kennedy asked him.

“I just know.
 
It’s
all calm
.
 
Nobody wants any trouble.”

But Kennedy wasn’t sure about that at
all.
 
She looked and Jimmy DeLuca
and knew that trouble was exactly what he wanted.

She could hardly breathe, and she wished
they were parked closer, so as to be able to follow the action and hear what
everyone was saying.

And where the hell was Easton?
 
Why wasn’t he standing out there with
the others?

The three gangsters stood in one place,
while Red and Kane and the albino stood not far away.
 
They seemed to all be conversing, and if
there was any problem, nothing bad had happened yet.

Kennedy was praying in her mind, begging
God to just let Easton be okay, let everything work out for once.

Please
don’t let anybody be hurt.

Yet her stomach was sour with the
knowledge of the idea she’d given to Kane Wright.
 
She’d told him to return their prisoner,
but not to return him “whole.”

There was room for interpretation, but
Kennedy had an idea what that might mean and it could spell disaster.
 
 

After what seemed like an eternity, one
man broke away from each group and went to their respective vehicles.

The albino walked back to his car, only
he went not to the front door or back door—no, he walked to the trunk and
opened it.

Kennedy felt a sinking sensation in her
stomach.

The albino was pulling something out of
that trunk, and Kennedy had an idea what—or rather who—he was
taking out.

Meanwhile, one of DeLuca’s men was slowly
leading a man out of the green van.
 
The man was wearing a blindfold and his wrists were bound.
 

“Oh my God!” Kennedy cried.
 
It was Easton, and he looked as though
he’d been beaten.
 
She could see the
blood on his face and clothes from all this way away.

“He’s okay,” Nicole tried to reassure
her, but her voice shook.
 
“He’s
walking.”

“Barely,” Kennedy said, but it was some
comfort to see Easton shuffle forward as the mobster guided him.

The albino was now walking with the other
man in his grasp.
 

So now the two “prisoners” were both
prepped and ready to be exchanged.
 

Nicole gasped audibly.
 
“I think I might be sick,” she said.

“Kane fixed it,” Kennedy told her.
 
“That man won’t be able to hurt you
after he’s released.”

“You don’t know Trevor,” Nicole replied,
her voice like ice.
 
“His father
Terrence was a madman and Trevor is even more insane than his dad.”

Nicole didn’t understand, Kennedy
thought, and now wasn’t the time to explain that Trevor wasn’t, and could never
again be, the same guy she recalled.
 

Trevor was wearing a black hood over his
head, which was bowed, hanging low.
 
He wore a blue jumpsuit, and he seemed to be limping as he walked.

The two prisoners were each brought
forward, but
they were still being held by each opposing side
.
 
The switch had not yet been made.

“Please, just get it over with,” Kennedy
mumbled.

As the two sides continued speaking, it
was clear that Jimmy DeLuca was starting to argue with Kane Wright.
 
Kane and DeLuca were standing closer to
one another, almost nose to nose, gesturing and pointing.

That was when Nicole’s driver drew a
pistol.
 
“Something’s wrong,” he
said.
 
He glanced over his shoulder,
then back toward the scene, keeping his gun at the ready.

“What’s happening?” Nicole cried out.

“I’m not sure, but I’ve got a bad
feeling.
 
Someone’s playing games
out there,” the driver said.

Kennedy couldn’t take her eyes off his
gun.
 
It was too close, too real,
too
cold.

And then she noticed movement from the
six men outside.
 
They were making
the exchange.
 
One of the mobsters
gave Easton a hard shove from behind, propelling him toward Red and Kane.

Easton stumbled forward and Red grabbed
him by one arm and started walking him toward the car as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, the albino man was slowly
handing Trevor over to DeLuca and his cronies.
 
Trevor’s hood was still on him, and the
mobsters were trying to take it off.