Page 104 of With a Vengeance

Anna uncrosses her arms, revealing Reggie’s gun gripped in her right hand. The whole time she’s been wearing his jacket, it’s been right there, deep inside a pocket. Reggie doesn’t know how long it took for her to remember it was there. It doesn’t matter now that the gun is in her hand and aimed squarely at his chest.

He smiles at the sight. He can’t help it.

“Before you shoot me, I have one question for you,” he says. “Did you honestly think I’d give you a loaded gun?”

Anna’s eyes dim. When she pulls the trigger, the action produces nothing but a sharp click.

“No, I didn’t,” she says, flicking her gaze to the hallway behind him. “And do you honestly think I’m the only one who knows you’re the killer?”

Just then, Reggie senses someone at his back, followed by the wind of something fast and heavy rushing toward his head. When it connects with the base of his skull, pain explodes through his body, causing instant paralysis.

He drops to the floor, his vision distorted, like he’s looking through smudged glass. As he flops onto his back, he sees Sally Lawrence step into the room. In her hand is the blunt object she’d just used to take him down.

The champagne bottle she’d picked up in the lounge. She now holds it by the neck, its base smacking against her open palm.

It’s the last thing Reggie sees before his entire world goes dark.

Forty-Nine

Sal drops thebottle and wipes the crimson spot on her forehead, destroying the illusion of blood and a bullet hole. While it lasted, though, it was surprisingly effective. Anna was taken aback when she first saw it, even though she knew it was created by two items in Sal’s handbag.

Lipstick and nail polish.

While not the most sophisticated way to fake a shooting death, their options had been limited. Anna knew it was a risk, but she hoped that Sal shooting out the window behind her would cover the lack of blood spatter, while keeping Seamus at a distance would hide the fact that she wasn’t dead. Thank God, the risk paid off.

The entire ruse had been Anna’s idea, thought up on the spot when she started to suspect Judd had been strangled to death by Seamus. Because she assumed he would target Sal and Lapsford next, she decided to make it look like one of them had been eliminated. The other would then be used as bait to lure Seamus and catch him in the act.

What Anna hadn’t counted on was there being a third killer on the train.

“What will you do for us if we go along with this?” Sal asked after Anna presented her idea while Dante and Seamus were moving Judd’s body for the second time.

Anna shook her head. “Nothing.”

“Then why should we help you?” Lapsford said.

“Because both of you will die in the next three hours if you don’t. He’s after you, not me.”

That was enough to convince them.

It was decided that Sal should fake being shot after Lapsford pretended to have a heart attack more convincing than his first attempt. The goal was to make him look more vulnerable to his would-be killer, thereby encouraging an attack. To sell the illusion of urgency, Anna angrily peppered Lapsford with real questions. That his answers might not have been true doesn’t matter. It kept Seamus distracted enough to not realize Sal had stolen the gun from his jacket pocket.

“Can I trust you?” Anna had asked them before going ahead with the plan.

“No,” Sal said. “But just like me, you don’t have any other choice.”

Anna didn’t. But Sal ultimately did the right thing. Now the two of them move into the corridor, stepping over Reggie’s unconscious form.

“Nice work back there,” Anna tells Sal, who accepts the compliment with a nod.

“You’re welcome.”

“But it doesn’t make us square,” Anna adds. “Not by a long shot.”

Sal nods again. “I know.”

They burst into Sal’s room, where Lapsford’s been hiding. A last-minute decision made after his close call with Seamus. Stuffed into the room with the two of them, Anna still can’t quite believethey’re temporary allies. Sally Lawrence and Jack Lapsford are the last people she thought she’d be working with.

A truce that might not last much longer.

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