Page 56 of Shine On Oklahoma

“I don’t plan to be anyplace he can find me,”he said. “Matter of fact, I was just about to leave for partsunknown.” He sent her a quick look. “I was gonna call you first,tell you goodbye, of course.”

“That’s real thoughtful of you, Jack. So youjust hurl a hornet’s nest at Kiley and me—at your babygranddaughter—and then run like hell. That’srealnice.”

“What do you…?” But he knew. She saw when itdawned on his face.

“That’s right, Jack. If Caine can’t find you,who the hell do you think he’s gonna take it out on?”

A phone rang. Jack answered it.

“Put it on speaker!” Kendra’s voice came outso hard and commanding she didn’t even recognize it. Then shelunged at her father, snatched the phone from his hand, and tappedthe speaker icon herself. The glass screen was shattered, just likehe’d said.

“Nice job getting Russell to accept the trackand call off the snooping CPA,” it said. “Needless to say, though,you are not getting paid. You broke the deal.”

Paid? Kiley shot her father a look ofdisbelief, her brain going into overdrive.

“Meanwhile, I have your daughter. Didn’t knowyou had a grandkid on the way. I’d say

congratulations, but it might bepremature.”

Kendra whispered Kiley’s name. It felt likeall the blood in her body turned to ice and fell to her feet. Shewas dizzy. Jack’s face went white. Every bit of swagger andcockiness just dissolved.

Dax moved closer and leaned in. “This is DaxRussell. I assume I’m talking to Vester Caine.”

“You assume right.”

“Mr. Caine. You can do whatever the hell youwant with the track. You can run it, for all I care. Just don’thurt Kiley.”

“That’s real nice of you, Mr. Russell, butwith all the trouble you and Jack were making for me, I went aheadand made other arrangements for my needs. You can shove your damnracetrack. Turn your back on a fucking fortune cause you’re mad atDaddy. Who does that? Listen, I don’t want your track. I don’t needit anymore. All I want right now is Jack Kellogg and if I don’t gethim, I’m gonna kill his daughter and his grandkid.”

Jack reached out and snatched the phone.“It’s Jack. Let me talk to her.”

“You can talk to her when you keep thebargain.”

“If I don’t hear her voice, there’s not gonnabea bargain.”

“What the hell are you doing?” Kendra yankedthe phone from him and turned away.

“Don’t listen to him. I’ll bring him to youmyself, just… are you there? Hello? Hello?”

He was gone.

Kendra lifted her stricken gaze to Dax’s,then turned toward her old man. “Are youtryingto get mysister killed?”

“He’s not gonna hurt your sister,” Jacksaid.

She stood there blinking at him, wishing shecould shoot him and wondering why she didn’t. “You hate her forbetraying you.”

“This hasn’t got anything to do with that.”Jack grabbed the Caddy keys off the dresser, then started gatheringup all the rest as well. It was more than he could carry in onearm, the humidor, the bottle.

“What did he mean, about you not gettingpaid?”

“No idea.”

She blinked at him as the pieces clickedtogether in her mind. “You did this. You did all of this, didn’tyou? You weren’t kidnapped at all. You made a deal with Caine. Youtricked me into conning Dax again, when you knew…you knew…”

“What did I know?”

She shook her head. “You knew I couldn’t doit anymore. That the last time…changed me.”

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