When She Was Bad Read online

  I knelt down in front of him until he looked at me, the tears shimmering in his eyes.

  “We don’t get to choose the parents we are given. Your father is trying to relive his life through you. If you don’t want to play football, you don’t have to. I’ll make sure of it.”

  There was a faded bruise on the boy’s collarbone, and he had a haunted look, one only recognized by someone who’d experienced the same things.

  “He played football all through high school. He said I have to play.”

  “Do you have any other family close by?”

  The boy nodded. “My grandparents live in the big white house on Main Street. My mom left a long time ago.”

  I picked up his book bag and handed it to him. “Do you have a hiding place, somewhere you can go when he gets mad?”

  “I hide in the back of his walk-in closet on my mom’s side. He left a bunch of her clothes in there and he never looks at them.”

  “That’s where I want you to go after school today. Then call your grandparents and have them come get you.” There was a piece of paper on the ground next to the boy. “Did you draw that?”

  His face brightened, and he looked like a completely different child as he pulled a sketchbook out of his backpack and showed me his drawings.

  “You’re really good. You know you can study art at school when you go on to college. But football can get in the way of doing other things. So if you don’t want to play football, show your grandparents these drawings and tell them what you want.”

  “I’d like to do animation or graphic design when I grow up, maybe for video games.”

  “I know you’d be good at that. Tell your grandparents about your dad. You’re not betraying him; grandparents are family, and you should be able to tell them anything.”

  “I’m going to my grandparents’ after school today. I’ll tell them.”

  I left him there, and when I opened the door to the school, I turned. A fierce determination had settled over him. I hoped his grandparents would be strong and that the father understood the precariousness of his situation. In a town as small as Avid, I’d hear what happened. And if he didn’t let the boy go live with his grandparents, he’d have to deal with me.

  Of course, everyone would hear about what I’d done today too. Inside, I knocked on the door to Maddy’s classroom and greeted the teacher. As I set up the paintings and passed around paper and pencils for the kids to draw, I caught Maddy’s eye. She blew me a kiss, and this time, even the beast within purred.

  CHAPTER 27

  IT HAD BEEN TWO WEEKS since he’d buried his son. The urbane contact from the Organization was the complete antithesis of the man seated in front of Augustus. His name was Hunter, which Augustus thought appropriate, though it seemed unlikely to be the man’s real name. The assassin sucked the heat from the stone veranda, chilling Augustus, as if the clouds had suddenly blotted out the sun. Dead eyes stared into his soul, seeing all.

  “I don’t usually meet with the job.” The man sat with his back against the stone column, and Augustus had the feeling if he made any sudden moves, he’d be dead before he hit the ground.

  “Normally I wouldn’t ask, but try to understand, Kurt was my only son.”

  “I’ve read the file, including your special request.”

  “Is there anything else I can tell you that would assist in your work?”

  The man was quiet as the server brought their martinis. It was the middle of the day, but Augustus needed a drink badly. Hunter waited until the girl left before he spoke.

  “There is no drug cartel, not even a drug dealer acting alone. This wasn’t about drugs at all.”

  Augustus leaned forward, elbows on the table, the scent of the alcohol filling his nose. The murmurs of other diners’ conversations faded away as he focused on the man across from him. “You’ve found the killer.”

  “This is against procedure, but I understand an exception has been made.” Hunter took a sip of the martini and looked out over the golf course as if perplexed that men would chase a small white ball. Hunter probably shot the damn balls.

  “I saw the video you provided. Your son and his friends were abusing the cows.”

  Augustus bristled. “Nonsense. They might’ve gotten a little rough with the product, but sometimes you have to with dumb animals.”

  Hunter drummed his fingertips on the white linen tablecloth. “The Organization doesn’t judge, but they obviously drew the attention of someone.” He went still and delivered his next words with precision. “A man didn’t kill your son—”

  “That’s preposterous. Next you’ll tell me the cows killed my son.”

  Hunter said, in a voice so soft that Augustus had to lean forward to hear the words, “Interrupt me again.”

  “My apologies. Please proceed.”

  “It wasn’t a man. It was a lone woman.”

  Augustus slammed the martini glass down so hard the base broke. The server rushed over.

  “I’m sorry. Don’t know how that could have happened. Are you hurt?”

  “No.”

  She took the pieces. “We can seat you at another table and I’ll bring you another drink.”

  “That won’t be necessary. Just bring the damn drink.”

  Augustus was incredulous. “A woman. Killed four men. That can’t be right.”

  “I assure you it is, and she did. We captured an image of her at a newly installed traffic camera, and again at a hotel.” Hunter finished his drink. “She was smart, doused everything with bleach. It was her.”

  Hunter stood and a passing waiter changed course, giving him a wide berth. “It was wise to handle this matter through the Organization. She has a certain look about her.”

  “What, is she a cop, or some girl Kurt jilted?”

  “A helpless and vulnerable look, one that makes men want to take care of her. The jury would acquit her.”

  “Will you kill her?”

  “I always finish the job. I’ll send you what you asked for when it’s finished.”

  “Wait.”

  Hunter arched a brow. “Don’t have the stomach for the second part of your request?”

  Augustus couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that a woman had killed his son. No. He shook his head. The only reason he’d hesitated was because of her sex. She’d killed his son, so she had to pay.

  “Make her suffer.” He signaled the waiting girl to bring the check. “Who is she and how did she know Kurt?”

  “I don’t know. Yet. When it’s done, the usual report will be delivered through your contact. You won’t see me again.”

  Augustus watched a group of men his son’s age playing golf. I will avenge you, son. Who was she, how did she know Kurt, and why did she kill? Was he the only one, or were there more?

  He would have to wait. The Organization would provide him with the answers.

  CHAPTER 28

  THE GRAB-AND-GO WAS hopping for a Saturday night. I scanned the items quickly, moving the line, and when there were only two customers remaining, I clicked off my light. It was time for my break and I had to pee like crazy.

  I’d closed my register when I caught sight of a waiting customer.

  “Sorry, I’m closed. Robin can—” The room tilted and my hand went to the back of my capris, but of course I didn’t have my gun.

  “Are you going to kill me?”

  “If I did, you’d already be dead and I’d be long gone as you bled out on the floor.”

  “Excuse me, sir? Robin can help you at the next register. Hope is on break.” Caleb stood there smiling at the man who held my life in his hands.

  “Of course.” He took his bottled water to Robin and paid as I forced myself not to run to the break room. How did he know for sure it was me? I had maybe three minutes before he came for me. The smock went in the locker. I grabbed my purse and, with a glance over my shoulder, pushed through the employee exit and ran into a brick wall.

  “Really, Hope?”

>   “I was getting some air.”

  He ignored the stupid comment.

  “If you want to live, come with me now. Or stay and you’ll be dead before dawn.”

  He turned and strode across the lot to a black SUV. Not the Maserati. I’d been looking for the wrong vehicle. Idiot.

  “I’m the best there is, but there are others who I work with who are almost as good. They are coming for you.”

  “They’re not better than you, are they?”

  “There is one, a man I trained, perhaps he has become my equal. Are you coming, or are you going to stand around and chitchat all night?”

  “I have to tell them I’m quitting.”

  “Text them from the car.”

  “I’ll follow you.”

  He opened the door. “Get. In.”

  So I did. “My car—”

  “Has a tracking device on it.” He was wound so tight I could feel the tension radiating off him. Not at all like when he showed up at the beach. And that made me scared.

  “You know better than to blow through a red light after a kill.”

  “What?” It had been a normal day for a change, and I was having a hard time processing the fact he was here.

  “It was a traffic camera. You’re on it. There was a camera at the motel. The night manager likes to watch couples having sex by the pool; it shows the corner of the dumpster. Nice tan lines.”

  He was fairly verbose—certainly a bad sign. “Wait. You never told me your name. I’ve been calling you ‘my hit man.’”

  “Funny.” He cut his eyes at me. “Ryder Maddox.”

  I turned in the seat. “Where are we going?” He had a phone in one hand. “I need Midnight and my things.”

  “I’m blowing your place.”

  “No!” I grabbed his arm. His look was so cold that I shrank back in the seat. “Please.”

  “Fuck.” He pulled a U-turn and floored it. “You should know better. You’re slipping. This is like fucking amateur hour.”

  The phone rang; he looked at it and swore but didn’t answer.

  “Why are you helping me?”

  “As if you didn’t know.” We made it to the cottage in record time, though a few of my teeth felt loose. “You have no idea what you’ve done. Put into motion.”

  “I have to get Midnight and the hope chest.”

  “No.”

  “But…” My voice broke, and no matter how I tried to hold them in, tears streamed down my face.

  “Bloody fucking hell.” He ran a hand through his dark hair. “Get the cat and, since we’re here, some clothes.”

  “I… Thank you.”

  “Move. I’ll get the damned chest.” He stalked off to the bedroom, calling out over his shoulder, “Five minutes.”

  Midnight howled from the cat carrier as Ryder drove away, slowly, headlights off.

  “My car’s still at work.”

  He ignored me, and I shouldn’t have been surprised he knew where Maddy lived. The SUV came to a stop.

  “Why are we here?”

  “When it’s safe, I’ll have the cat and the chest brought to you.”

  “Please. I’ll leave the chest, but don’t make me leave Midnight behind.”

  He sighed. “The best assassins in the world are hunting you. The Organization will not stop until you are dead.” Ryder shook his head. “We may have to abandon the vehicle, leave in the middle of a meal. You think you can carry the cat with you twenty-four-seven? He’ll get scared and run off, then what?”

  I knew he was right, and yet…Midnight was more than a cat. He had become the symbol of how far I’d come. To have another pet to love and to trust after what happened when I was small…the tiny bit of my heart I’d worked so hard to stitch back together shredded, the blood spilling out.

  It was hard to breathe, and I had to lean over, hands on my knees until I thought I could stand without passing out.

  “Okay.” I knocked on Maddy’s window.

  In less than a minute, her sleepy face smiled back at me. She opened the window. “Did you forget your key?”

  “No, honey.” I wiped the tears from my face and took her hands. “There’s some bad men coming after me, and I can’t…I can’t take Midnight with me.”

  “Let’s get a move on, Hope.” Ryder scanned the darkness, clearly impatient.

  My tears were falling so fast that I couldn’t focus on Maddy. I held up the cat carrier and passed it through the window, touching the black paw sticking out.

  “I want you to take care of Midnight while I’m gone.” I handed her a floral pouch. “There’s plenty of money in here. When your mom goes to work tomorrow, go and buy him food and bowls and a litter box. You know what to get.”

  Now the kid was crying too. “I promise, I’ll love him and take real good care of him.” She wiped her nose on her sleeve. “When will you be back?”

  “I don’t know, honey.”

  Ryder leaned down. “Don’t tell anyone you saw Hope tonight. Say you found Midnight and brought him home. It’s important.”

  She nodded at him, an old soul. “I swear.”

  “Good kid.”

  I hugged her tight. “Hide the money from your mom in the spot we talked about. There’s more than enough money to feed you and Midnight. Can you keep him hidden from your mom?”

  “She won’t notice and won’t even care. I’ll tell her he catches mice and birds to eat.”

  Maddy had let Midnight out. She picked up the cat and held him out to me. I cradled him close, stroking the silky fur and kissing him on the head as he purred.

  “I love you more than you’ll ever know. Be good for Maddy. I’m so sorry I’m leaving you,” I whispered. He licked a tear from my cheek, and I gave him to her.

  We turned to go but she called out, “Wait. What about your hope chest?”

  Ryder couldn’t stand all the emotion and had disappeared when I started crying, now he appeared out of the shadows without a sound. “It’s in the room across from yours. You look strong. Push it into your room when your mom’s gone.”

  “Are you going to protect Hope from the bad people?”

  “I am.” He turned to me, and I nodded. There was over twenty-five thousand in the pouch I’d given her; she’d be safe until I could figure out what to do for her. If I managed to survive, I’d find her a new family.

  “Hope?”

  I turned around.

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too, Maddy.”

  Ryder was silent as we drove, leaving Maddy and Midnight behind.

  CHAPTER 29

  “THAT WAS YOU IN THE Maserati back in New Jersey, wasn’t it?”

  “You were about to make a mistake.”

  “This is better.” I ran my fingers over the leather, inhaling the smell of the luxurious Porsche. I didn’t want to ask about my so-called mistake.

  “It was time for a change.”

  “It’s still black.” Of course, he didn’t answer; he’d probably expended his entire allotment of conversation. Between Maddy and I, talking and pleading, he must’ve wished he’d left me to die. My stomach hurt thinking about all I’d left behind. Midnight. Maddy. And my last connection to my past…the hope chest.

  “How are you—”

  To an outsider, Ryder would have looked normal, but I recognized the signs; the tightening of his jaw told me he was still furious. He talked so little that I had to study him, try to figure him out, and it wasn’t easy. No wonder he was so good at what he did.

  I wanted to ask how he came to be a paid assassin—it wasn’t like a company would set up a booth at a college recruiting fair.

  A snort escaped.

  Ryder merely arched a brow, and I kept my mouth shut, making a note to ask when he was in a better mood. After a few hours on the road, I had to make a pit stop. There were trucks at the rest stop and two cars with older couples. I guessed they were retired, getting an early start to whatever state they were off to see next.

 
I sat on the toilet and bit my lip, holding in the sobs, unable to stop the tears from falling. I missed Maddy, but more than that, I ached for Midnight. He reminded me of Max, loyal and faithful. The stall was crowded with my past surrounding me. I hoped my mama was happy wherever she was, though as much as I missed her, I missed Max and Midnight more.

  When I got back in the car, Ryder didn’t say a word about my red, puffy eyes, though I knew he noticed; he would catch the difference if I parted my hair a different way.

  “Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”

  “South Padre Island in Texas. We’ll get a boat out of the country.”

  “How far are we?”

  “About nine hundred miles. Don’t think we’re going to stop and sightsee along the way.”

  And then I knew: he’d been watching me since I left North Carolina. Otherwise, how could he have known all the stops I’d made on the way to Jersey and Kansas?

  I had a new phone. He’d tossed mine out the window not five minutes after we left Avid. I’d never been to South Padre Island, so I read about it as a new day dawned and on we drove. And even though I knew we were on the run, I was excited to see a new place. It was all a matter of perspective.

  The scenery was bland, so I studied Ryder instead. He had an amazing body, like an ancient warrior or modern-day soldier. He looked the most comfortable when he had a gun in his hand. By my guess he was in his early forties. The scar at the corner of his eye stood out when he was angry, one of the few signs that betrayed his feelings.

  There was a brief mention on the news that the CEO of Gier Foods was offering a million dollars for information leading to his son’s killer.

  “Why is he making that offer public if he has someone like you after me?”

  “To make it look like he’s working with the cops. He already knows it was you.”

  “Then why doesn’t he tell them and have me arrested?”

  “Like you were going to turn those thirteen people in?”

  I pressed my lips together. “That’s different.”