When She Was Bad Page 18

  How the hell did a complete amateur keep getting away? Hunter had lost her again. Hope seemed to have an innate ability to blend in. He’d lost her in the crowded market, and it had taken him until the next day to find the hotel.

  “The maid hasn’t been in to clean?”

  The guy pocketed the hundred. “Lazy bitch, probably sleeping off her hangover.”

  He opened the door, shutting it behind him in the nosy manager’s face.

  “I don’t want to get in any trouble. Don’t take too long.”

  Hunter ignored him, methodically going through the room. She hadn’t left anything behind, and he had to assume she’d already shed the Hope Stevenson identity.

  Delores answered on the first ring.

  “I’ll need security footage from the cameras at this location and the surrounding area.”

  “It will be done.”

  Hunter canvassed the area, but she was gone. He was sitting in a coffee shop when the message came in. He’d gone through the footage twice before he spotted something. He focused on the camera, ignoring the other feeds, following the woman in the dress. She wore a huge hat and sunglasses as she waited for the bus. Hunter zoomed in. It was Hope.

  “I’ve got you now.”

  She’d been a worthy adversary, but without Ryder’s help, Hunter would have her within twenty-four hours. Mitch was one lucky bastard to be the one to take down Ryder Maddox. He’d been a legend at the Organization. Why had he sacrificed himself for her?

  Not caring, Hunter pulled up the bus schedules, then put in the request for footage at the station where he thought she might transfer, and other stations along the route. He had a grudging respect for her, as he would for anyone who had killed twenty-one people and never shown up on the radar of the authorities. The Organization wanted to hire her, would have if they hadn’t been embarrassed with the client. They had to kill her to save face.

  To survive in this industry, Hunter buried all emotions. Emotion got you killed. Look at Ryder: he had grown weak, saw Hope as more than a job. And look where it got him: dead in the street.

  CHAPTER 39

  FOR A WEEK, I CHANGED buses, hitched rides, and spent the nights sleeping against flimsy motel doors. But I made it to the meeting place over the bridge, just like the guy said. He was wearing a Rangers jersey so I could find him.

  “Thought you would have picked somewhere more private.”

  “Out in the open, we’re safe enough. You took enough precautions; thought you’d never get here.”

  But something wasn’t right. The darkness paced, telling me to leave. I couldn’t put my finger on it—something about the way he kept looking around, not like Ryder watched, but like he was expecting someone.

  “You brought the cash?”

  “It’s in the car. Didn’t know you wanted to do the exchange here. I’ll get it now.”

  For a minute I thought he wasn’t going to let me go, but he did, and as I jogged to the lot where I’d parked, I saw him on the phone. The rain had kept people away; no one was fishing or walking around. Looking back, I didn’t know why I did what I did, only that I heard Ryder and the darkness urging me to flee.

  He’d asked for half a million to get me to Europe. I planned to vanish into the countryside, find a cottage in Scotland or one of the nearby islands, and once I was safe, I’d find a way to send for Midnight and to make sure Maddy was safe.

  How much had they paid this guy to betray Ryder? Maybe since he was dead, the guy thought he no longer owed Ryder a debt? I sped past the man, catching his eye, and floored it. The bridge was long, and I had to get across or I’d be stuck.

  I felt the searing pain as it radiated through my shoulder, and then I heard the shot. The second bullet hit somewhere near my face, and blood streamed down. The third shot hit the old tire. I lost control, and the car skidded and hit the railing. For a millisecond I thought it would hold, but with an awful tearing and screeching noise, the railing gave way and the car went over, the water closer and closer. The impact jerked me forward.

  Water rushed in through the open window as I struggled to release the seatbelt. Was my death the price I had to pay for all the things I had done? I was crazier than a raccoon swimming in a pool full of moonshine to think I could have had a normal life. The car sank faster and faster, my lungs straining until I had to take a breath. Everything went dim.

  Hunter stood next to the man in the Rangers jersey and peered into the water. The rain came down harder and he struggled to see, looking for her dark head to surface. She never came up.

  “Too bad the money went with her.”

  “The Organization will send a diver down to collect the bag and the body. They will require proof.”

  Hunter turned to the man. “Did you get the information to access the accounts?”

  “Everything is in the water. Can’t you hack into both accounts? She said between the two there was more than twenty million.”

  “Perhaps.” Hunter contacted Delores, relayed the information.

  “The client will be pleased. His fee was refunded, but you will be paid. Payment will be wired when proof of death is confirmed.”

  The man left, whistling, no doubt thinking about his cut. Hunter checked, but no one was out in the thunderstorm. He took aim, the thunder covering the gunshot as the man went over the railing. If the accounts could be hacked, all the money would be his. No need to give away half.

  Hunter stared over the water for twenty minutes, but there was no sign of Hope. Either the bullets did their job or she’d drowned. Either way, it was over. He was silent for a moment, respect owed to a fallen colleague, before he turned and walked away.

  “Are you certain? I want a picture of the body.” Augustus wiped his brow in the kitchen as he poured an icy-cold beer into a glass. He’d played golf that morning, had only arrived home a few minutes earlier when the call came in. His son’s killer was finally dead.

  His elation was short-lived, as alarms sounded across the house. The nurse came running and Augustus dropped the beer, the glass shattering as it hit the tile floor.

  The doctor turned. “I’m sorry. She’s gone.”

  “Out. Everyone out,” he screamed. When they’d gone, shutting the doors, he took Janet’s hand, the skin stretched over the bones, the warmth fading. He laid his head on her stomach, sobbing. His wife and his son, gone.

  When he sat back, wiping his face, Augustus kissed Janet on the cheek. There was a slight smile on her face, as if she were finally at peace. He envied her, for he knew he would never find peace. Not in this lifetime.

  CHAPTER 40

  MADDY ALWAYS BROUGHT THE MAIL in. If her mom got there first and there was a check, she’d spend it on drugs and alcohol. Today there was a package. The rest of the mail went on the table, and the package she took to her room, carefully opening it.

  There was a postcard on top with a picture of a black cat on the front.

  “Look, Midnight, that kitty could be your brother.”

  Midnight rubbed against the box, sniffing the contents and meowing.

  There was a note on the back. For care and feeding of Maddy and Midnight.

  Opening the tissue paper, she couldn’t believe it—there was a purple t-shirt that said My book boyfriend is better than yours, a pretty red collar for Midnight, and more money. Maddy still had most of the money Hope had given her. But she went to the hiding place, carefully lifting the board on the floor, pulled out the duffel bag, and added the money to the rest. There was another note in the bottom of the box.

  A woman from Social Services is going to come and take you away from your mother and her boyfriends. You’ll have a good home with new parents who love you. Midnight too. You’ll both stay together, I pinky swear.

  So instead of putting the duffel back in the floor, Maddy put it in her suitcase. It took up most of the room, but she could fit her favorite books and art supplies. She washed Midnight’s bowls, packing them in another bag along with a change of clo
thes.

  “We’re leaving.” Midnight looked in the bag and meowed. “Don’t worry, you’ll eat soon.”

  An hour later, Maddy’s mama was lying on the sofa drinking out of the big glass she used for her special juice. Maddy knew it was vodka and orange juice, but she never let on. There was a knock on the door.

  “I’ll get it, Mama.”

  A woman in a blue suit with tired eyes smiled at her. “Is your mom home?”

  For four weeks, Maddy and Midnight stayed in a small apartment with a nice lady, another boy, and his hamster. Then the woman with the tired eyes came back and told her to pack her things. Hope had kept her word, just as Maddy knew she would.

  The lady said she was going to live with an older couple who couldn’t have kids of their own. A big black car took them to a pretty neighborhood with ginormous houses. Maddy saw a swimming pool as the car made its way up the driveway.

  The man and woman were waiting outside. They looked as scared as she felt. “It’s okay, Midnight, they’ll be nice. Hope wouldn’t let anyone bad have us.”

  After the tired lady left, the woman showed Maddy around. “We hope you and Midnight will be happy here.”

  She followed the man and woman up the stairs, and they stopped on the second floor as a woman came out of one of the rooms.

  “Paula, this is Maddy.”

  The man touched her shoulder. “Paula is our housekeeper. She lives here too.”

  They had a housekeeper that lived with them? How much money did they have? And then she forgot about the woman as the man opened the door to her new room. It was bigger than her mom’s entire house. It was done in shades of pink and white, and there was a whole wall of windows. In front of the window was an easel and paints.

  The woman knelt beside her. “We heard you like to paint. We set you up with art classes three nights a week. And if there’s anything else you’d like to do, just tell us, and you can.”

  Maddy looked around the beautiful room and back up at her new parents.

  “But I can’t paint in here. What if I get paint on the floor?”

  The woman lifted the rug.

  “It’s plastic and can be wiped off. So don’t worry about it, you paint whatever you desire. We want you to be happy.”

  At first the unfortunate outbreaks were a simple cost of doing business. Cost-cutting sometimes led to issues, but an idea formed.

  There were payoffs to the healthcare industry so they would say outbreak, and no one would look closer. The most recent outbreaks had been purposeful, a side effect of a new cancer drug that held promise to help Janet.

  Augustus had bypassed the FDA, set up secret human trials, and sometimes things went awry. With his son and wife gone, Augustus saw how much money was to be made by partnering with other industries. His company addicted consumers, healthcare and big pharma treated them, insurance paid, and everyone got rich. New drugs were developed to treat new symptoms and other industries benefited. Personal fitness, cosmetic surgery, etc. Tie them all together and it was a never-ending income stream. Cradle to grave indeed. Augustus picked up the phone. Time to put the next phase in motion.

  CHAPTER 41

  I STOOD ON THE DECK of the yacht, scarf tied around my head, ends fluttering in the breeze, laughing as Midnight, dressed in a red lifejacket, meowed at the seagulls.

  So many people think they’re basically rats with wings, but I’d always had a soft spot for the birds.

  When I came to, I was on an old fishing trawler. A man and his son had fished me out of the water, said I was clutching a soggy straw tote and a tube. Everything in the tote was ruined except for my ID, which I’d sealed in a plastic bag. The guns were gone too. I gave the man every bit of cash I had on me.

  When I unscrewed the cap on the tube, Ryder had left something for me. A plastic bag was rolled up in there. Inside I found instructions on how to access my money, and he’d left me his, too. Nineteen million. So I was worth almost twenty-one million. Crazy, huh?

  My bracelets caught the sunlight, and I fingered the final charm. Ryder’s charm. When I was in the water, I swore an alligator swam by me, that I stroked the bumpy skin, saw the toothy grin as he glided by, leaving ripples on the water. Though it could have been a delusion.

  After what happened, I should be terrified of alligators. But they are what they are. They aren’t monsters. The real monsters are the ones who look just like you and me. They’re the ones who truly terrified me. To this day I believed alligators were ghosts. Come to warn or to punish. My gram’s words rang in my head. Alligators are the harbingers of violent change.

  Time passed and I healed. The bullet wound Ryder had stitched had faded to a pale pink. The other two—one to my shoulder and the other, I’d been lucky, had grazed my scalp—were pink. In time, they’d fade to silvery white, like the scars I’d seen on Ryder.

  When I made it back to Kansas to check on Maddy, I found something fascinating. Did our name determine what kind of person we would become, or did we grow into the name bestowed upon us? Ryder must have been so amused when he’d chosen the name Rache. German for justice.

  Herman Licht. His last name meant light in German, which I found fitting, since he was trying to shed light on what was going on at the meatpacking company. Even more interesting, Gier meant greed in German and Blesser meant hurt in French.

  Maddy looked happy in her art class. When she went to the bathroom, I followed her in and hugged her tight. She told me a promise was a promise, and I could take Midnight with me.

  When she hugged me, we both cried so hard that we hiccupped. The next day, a delivery arrived, a shelter cat named Starlight. He was a gray tabby, and Maddy was delighted. She told her new parents that Midnight went back to his mommy; she’d only been babysitting. They must have thought the cat had run off and she was trying to be brave.

  I told her to keep the hope chest, something to remember me by. In truth, I no longer needed it. The memories of those I loved had banished the darkness, taken its place within me. At least for now. It was time to become something else.

  Books by Cynthia Luhrs

  Listed in the correct reading order

  THRILLERS

  There Was A Little Girl

  When She Was Bad

  TIME TRAVEL SERIES

  A Knight to Remember

  Knight Moves

  Lonely is the Knight

  Merriweather Sisters Medieval Time Travel Romance Boxed Set Books 1-3

  Darkest Knight

  Forever Knight

  First Knight

  Thornton Brothers Medieval Time Travel Romance Boxed Set Books 1-3

  Last Knight

  COMING 2017 - 2018

  Beyond Time

  Falling Through Time

  Lost in Time

  My One and Only Knight

  A Moonlit Knight

  A Knight in Tarnished Armor

  THE SHADOW WALKER GHOST SERIES

  Lost in Shadow

  Desired by Shadow

  Iced in Shadow

  Reborn in Shadow

  Born in Shadow

  Embraced by Shadow

  The Shadow Walkers Books 1-3

  The Shadow Walkers Books 4-6

  Entire Shadow Walkers Boxed Set Books 1-6

  A JIG THE PIG ADVENTURE

  (Children’s Picture Books)

  Beware the Woods

  I am NOT a Chicken!

  August 2016 – December 2017 My Favorite Things Journal & Coloring Book for Book Lovers

  Want More?

  Thank you for reading my book. Reviews help other readers find books. I welcome all reviews, whether positive or negative and love to hear from my readers. To find out when there’s a new book release, please visit my website http://cluhrs.com/ and sign up for my newsletter. Please like my page on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/cynthialuhrsauthor

  Without you dear readers, none of this would be possible.

  P.S. Prefer another form of social media? You’ll f
ind links to all my social media sites on my website.

  Thank you!

  About the Author

  Cynthia Luhrs writes time travel because she hasn’t found a way (yet) to transport herself to medieval England where she’s certain a knight in slightly tarnished armor is waiting for her arrival. She traveled a great deal and now resides in the colonies with three tiger cats who like to disrupt her writing by sitting on the keyboard. She is overly fond of shoes, sloths, and tea.

  Also by Cynthia: There Was a Little Girl and the Shadow Walker Ghost Series.