You Really Got Me (31 page)

This couldn’t be happening.

“We’re going to leave,” he said to Dedra. “That was my plan. Now…” He scowled at Kendall. “Fuck!”

“I wish you would put that gun down,” she said loudly, through lips that felt stiff and cold.

“I said, shut up.”

After a short pause, she asked, “Why did you kill her?”

“Shut up!” He paced in front of the window, looking through the curtains, then pulling them closed tightly. As if he thought there was someone out there. Confusion swirled in Kendall’s head.

“You stupid bitch!” He yelled again at Dedra, who cringed, tears running down her face.

“I didn’t tell her!” she cried. “I swear.”

He gave her a backhanded blow across the cheek, making Kendall flinch and her eyes fly open wide. Oh Jesus.

“I’m not an idiot,” he snapped. “You gave her the clothes. Of course you told her.”

Dedra made snuffling, choking noises, once again her arms wrapped around herself.

“I told you to get rid of the clothes!” Wade yelled at her and she flinched again. “Where the hell were they? They weren’t here last night when the cops stopped by, that’s for damn sure.”

Kendall puzzled over that.

“I hid them,” Dedra whispered. “I hid them in my locker at school.”

“Why the fuck did you bring them back here?” he demanded.

“I don’t know! I couldn’t keep them forever. I was afraid to throw them out in case the police found them. They’ve been searching garbage cans and dumpsters. After they were here last night, I thought it was okay.”

The police had been there last night? Kendall’s mind spun around in circles, trying to figure things out. She could not believe this was happening. This was crazy. This was a nightmare and she was going to wake up. Dedra was the sweet girl who worked in the tasting room, who loved wine and loved talking about it to their customers. How had she gotten herself mixed up in something like this, something so vile, so evil?

“She didn’t tell me you killed Natalia,” she tried again. “She told me she didn’t know what happened to her. She just knew you told her to put on the clothes and walk out of the lab.”

Wade turned his dark eyes on her. The manic gleam in them behind the lenses of his dark-rimmed glasses sent a shiver over her. Dear God, he was intense, so furious he practically vibrated with it.

“I saw Dedra’s tattoo on the surveillance video,” she said loudly, praying someone was listening. If she died, at least they’d know what happened. “It’s so unique, I knew it was her. Everyone else thought it was Natalia. You did a good job of fooling everyone.”

Wade’s right eye twitched.

“Until they found the body.”

Wrong thing to say. She might have been calming him down a little, but fury heated his gaze again.

“You can’t keep us here. They’ll figure it out. The police will know it was you, Wade.”

His mouth thinned. He shoved his glasses higher on his nose and walked to the window again.

“I just want to know why,” Kendall continued, voice wavering. Maybe she shouldn’t push him.

“Shit!” Wade’s voice sliced through the thick tension. He leaned forward at the window, the curtains parted barely an inch. “Sonofabitch!”

“What?” Kendall and Dedra asked at the same time.

“Cops. They’re back. They’re fucking following me. I can’t fucking believe it.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “They’ve been following me around for days now. I thought I lost them. Fuck!”

They had? Kendall tried to focus her wildly scattered thoughts. Why were they following him? Had they known he was the murderer?

She swallowed, her mouth and throat chalk-dry.

A pounding on the door had all three of them jumping.

“Police! Open up!”

Wade’s eyes narrowed and he yelled back, “No! We’re not opening that door! I have a gun.”

Some muffled noises from the other side of the door followed but no more knocking or shouts.

A few minutes later, the telephone rang.

They all looked at each other.

“Don’t answer it,” he barked. Dedra made no move, neither did Kendall. It rang and rang. And finally stopped.

“What are you going to do?” Kendall asked, voice shaky.

“I don’t know,” he muttered. “I’ll figure it out.”

She rubbed her wet palms over the knees of her jeans, the same worn, ragged jeans she’d put on that morning to start harvesting grapes. It felt like a lifetime ago but it was only a few hours.

The police were right outside. Surely to God it would be okay. They’d save them. Jason would make sure. If anyone would, he would. She trusted him with everything she had to do the right thing. To get them through this.

He was a hostage negotiator. He would know
exactly
what to do.

And then she remembered his sister. How she’d died. Lord, oh Lord, what was he going through out there? Was he reliving that nightmare? Was he okay? Her heart ached for him, which was completely crazy since she was the one sitting here with a gun pointed at her by a lunatic.

She put her fingers to her mouth and tried to think. She had no clue what to do here. None. She felt helpless and terrified and out of control. So out of control, a crazy man holding a gun on her. Who knew what he would do. She could hardly breathe.

It occurred to her that this was the
ultimate
loss of control–being held hostage at gunpoint. Her life really was at stake. Comparing this to how she felt when Jason restrained her was–nothing like that. Nothing.

Sure, there was a little adrenaline rush of fear and anticipation of what Jason would do to her when she was helpless, when she’
d given him control. But there was the difference–she
’d
given
him control. He was right. She was the one in control in those situations, because she’d given it to him, in that exchange he’d talked about. The exchange that made both of them vulnerable and made for such a profound intimacy between them. And she’d given him that control because she respected him and trusted him and…loved him. Oh God.

Then another phone rang. A cell phone. Heat flashed inside her at the fear that it was her phone ringing, but of course it wasn’t. It was Wade’s. He snarled. She thought he was going to ignore it too, but then to her shock, he answered it.

“What?”

He listened. Kendall licked her lips and watched his face.

“We’re not coming out,” he said. “I have a gun.” He paused. “Yeah. They’re both here.” He watched them as he talked, the gun still directed right at them. Kendall held onto her knees.

“What do I want?” Wade rolled his eyes. “I don’t know what I want!” Then, “Yeah, right. Sure you do.”

But he kept talking. Who was he talking to? Kendall bit down on her bottom lip, hard, barely aware of the pain.

Her hand slid beside her to her cell phone. Was it still working? She watched Wade, but he didn’t turn away or even look away as he talked to the person on the other end of the cell phone.

“Yeah,” he said. “Pretty damn furious. She was fucking stealing my research.”

He listened again. “Yeah. She was a bitch.” His words were calmer. Jason. It had to be Jason. He was talking to Jason.

Jason would get them out of this.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Jason talked softly into the phone, keeping his voice low and steady. He’d moved away from the others, getting some space. He’d focused on getting into that place, that hyper-alert place where everything was intensified, every sound sharper, every color brighter. He went calm and quiet and let his training kick in, all the things he’d done so well, so many times he didn’t have to think about them.

He blocked out the self-doubts, the worries that he wasn’t good enough, the fear he’d screw up and lose one more person important to him. He had to do this.

He could do this.

For Kendall.

He talked to Wade Krayton, remembering the conversation he’d had with Dr. Durban that afternoon, the information he’d shared about Wade that had led him to believe he might know the motive for Natalia’s murder. Wade was suspicious of everyone, overly sensitive to insults, often perceiving innocent events as personal attacks. He was a brilliant scientist—logical, analytical, dedicated—but also had a wicked temper. And some kind of personality disorder, no doubt.

Wade and Natalia had been working on similar research projects. Dr. Durban was both their faculty advisors. He related a story to them about an incident that had happened a few weeks earlier, when Wade had flown into a rage against Dr. Durban, convinced he’d stolen some of Wade’s research and given it to Natalia. And that wasn’t the only time something like that had happened.

So he tried to talk to Wade about that now. To empathize. “Pretty damn frustrating when someone steals your work, huh?” he said into the phone.

“Fuck, yeah,” Wade replied. His tone of voice was easing slightly. “That bitch, I knew she was doing it.”

“You were the better scientist,” Jason said quietly. “She had to steal your research. She probably couldn’t do it on her own.”

“Exactly!”

Jason gave a sympathetic sigh. “Yeah. That sucks, man.” He licked his lips, took a breath. “Your girlfriend must love you a lot. To help you like that.”

“I guess. She does what I tell her.”

“That’s good. Women should do that.”

“Yeah.”

“D’you love her too?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“What are we going to do, Wade? We can’t sit here forever like this.”

“I don’t know.” His voice had gone thin. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“Let the women out. They don’t know what to do. They need you to tell them. Tell them to leave.”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Fury flared again and Jason closed his eyes. Too fast. He’d pushed too fast.

“No, course not.” Panic started buzzing again. He had an HT here who didn’t want anything—there was nothing to negotiate. There were three ways this could go—he could surrender. He could negotiate. He could kill the women and himself too, making himself a martyr. Like Linc and Stephanie.

No. Don’t go there. Not now
. Jason determinedly blocked those dismal thoughts, focusing on the issue at hand. Sweat trickled down his back.

But there was nothing to negotiate. Wade didn’t want money. He knew better than to ask Jason to let him go. There had to be something. There was always something. Go for it.

“Wade. Do you want to run?”

Silence. Did he strike out?

“Run where?”

“I don’t know. You probably just want to get away from all this.”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe I can help you.”

Wade snorted. “You’re gonna let me go? I don’t think so.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Jason saw that the SWAT team from Santa Barbara had arrived and were quietly surrounding the house. He made eye contact with one of the officers who approached him, but didn’t want to interrupt the conversation with Wade.

“Let the women out. I know you don’t want to hurt Dedra.”

“I’m pissed at her right now!”

“Yeah, I know. You said you love her. She loves you. Let the women out. Then we’ll talk about what we can do for you.”

Kendall sat there listening to Wade talk. She was sure it was Jason on the other end of the line. Overall, Wade did seem to be calming down. At least he was listening and talking. The hope that had been a tiny flame inside her flared brighter.

If anyone could do this it was Jason. She trusted him. God, at that moment she realized how much she trusted him, her faith in his ability to get them out of this solid and unwavering.

She reached for Dedra’s icy hand and clasped it. The girl had gotten herself in trouble. This was what Kendall had been worried about. Well, good God, Kendall had never dreamed of anything
this
bad happening. She knew Wade was controlling and jealous and had worried that the relationship could turn abusive, but never in a million years would she have thought he’d murder someone.

Dedra curled her fingers around hers and their eyes met in a brief exchange. “I’m sorry,” Dedra mouthed, her eyes full of pain, and Kendall nodded.

Keeping that secret inside her had obviously made Dedra sick. Once again, Kendall knew that feeling. Regret for how long she’d hidden the truth from Jason washed over her, along with the guilt. If—no,
when
—they got out of there, she was going to find Jason and apologize. A million times. It might not make any difference. He might never forgive her. More regret filled her at what they might have had together, had things been different. Had timing been different. Had she been a better person.

And then—the gun still pointed at them—Wade looked at them both, and with weary resignation, gruffly told them, “Get out of here.”

They both stared back at him, Kendall not sure if she’d heard right. She didn’t want to move in case he didn’t mean it, in case he’d shoot them if they made a move toward the door. He lowered the gun and pointed at the door with his chin. “I said, get out!”