Page 54 of Crossroads of Betrayal
Grace’s mindwent into overdrive as she tried to find a way out of this mess. The cart was stuck in the mud, she’d never outrun Joan through the woods, and a ravine plummeted down the other side of the trail. Not to mention Joan aimed a gun at her. She tried to connect what she knew about Joan with the woman standing in front of her. “What are you doing?”
“Toss me your phone,” Joan barked, gun still trained at Grace.
Gritting her teeth, she did as she was told. Damnit, she’d already ended her call with Penelope, but she’d hoped to use her phone at some point to get help.
“Good girl. Now step out of the golf cart, hands up.”
She couldn’t get out of the cart. If she did, she’d be screwed. No way she could outrun Joan with her injury, and she didn’t have a weapon with her. “Getting out is a little difficult. My hip is really messed up. Why don’t we just talk?”
Joan took a step forward, closing the space between them. “We don’t have anything to talk about. I just need you out of that cart. Now.”
Grace licked her dry lips and weighed her options. She didn’t have many. Her heart pounded an unsteady beat, but she couldn’t give into the fear threatening to paralyze her. “We could discuss why you have a gun pointed at me.”
Joan took another step, now a mere ten feet separating them. “I said hands up.”
Grace lifted her palms. “Did you learn something about Tessa and Shelly? I’m on my way to the crime scene now. Hoping to find something to shed some light on what happened.” She spit out the lie. A giant beam of light was already shining down on what had happened to the poor women, the question now was why.
“That’s your problem. You ask too many questions. You think you can take over a homicide investigation and get in everyone’s business. Well, you pushed too far, and now I need to make sure your mouth is shut. Permanently.”
Her mind replayed every conversation she’d had with Joan. What was the tipping point? What button had she pressed that ignited the bomb now blowing up in her face?
The crime syndicate.
“Did someone from the crime ring show up? Threaten you?”
Joan huffed out a derisive laugh. “Don’t play stupid. You and that boyfriend of yours have been sniffing around way too much. If you’d just let things be, the cops would pin Tessa’s death on him and everyone could have walked away. But you couldn’t let him take the fall for some reason. Couldn’t just let the police pick up the evidence I left like freaking breadcrumbs.”
Anger beat back Grace’s restraint. “You’d let an innocent man rot in jail? Why? What did Zeke do to deserve that?”
“Oh, there are a million Zeke’s in the world. Always sniffing around Tessa. Always in the way. That’s what caused this whole mess to begin with.”
Struggling to keep up, Grace frowned. “How so?”
“How do you think my cover was blown?” Joan snapped. “One of the criminals fell hard for Tessa, and she could never back down from a handsome man. She showed up when I didn’t expect her. Figured out what I’d been doing. I tried to buy her off, tried to talk her out of exposing me. But she was going to crack. I could tell. When I found her on the phone the other night, I knew I had to do something to shut her up. I just wanted to scare her, warn her away from fessing up to what I’d done. I wasn’t really going to strangle her. Just set her straight and make sure she understood who was in charge. But she struggled and fell.”
Bile sloshed in Grace’s stomach as she listened to the play-by-play of what had happened to Tessa. “What did Tessa walk in on? What did you do?”
Smirking, Joan shook her head. “Maybe you’re not as smart as I thought you were.”
The truth smacked Grace upside the head. “You were undercover. Tessa realized something, and you needed her to keep quiet. You were playing both sides. You were a part of the crime organization you helped take down.”
She shrugged. “What can I say? Extorting a drug lord pays a hell of a lot more than the police force. Now. Enough chatting. Get out of the cart. We’re going to take a little stroll through the woods.”
Sunlight broke through the gray clouds and glinted off the key dangling in the ignition. Determination strengthened Grace’s resolve. This woman had killed two innocent women and attempted to get Zeke thrown in jail. She wouldn’t be led to the slaughter without fighting back. If she was going down, she’d make sure to take this bitch down with her.
Decision made, she turned the key, jerked the wheel toward Joan, and pressed the gas pedal to the floor, avoiding the patch of mud where she’d gotten stuck. The cart lurched forward. Stones flew up from the trail and pinged against the cart.
Leaping to the side, Joan kept the gun trained at her and fired a shot.
The windshield splintered. Grace screamed and ducked low. She kept the wheel steady, bumping along on uneven terrain.
Joan scurried away and disappeared into the thicket of trees.
Grace could never drive the vehicle in the forest, but now was her chance for escape. With her heart in her throat and adrenaline zipping through her veins, she cranked the wheel, turning back toward the trail.
Another shot rang out, and the back tire exploded. The cart teetered. She yanked the wheel, but the golf cart flipped on its side and skidded toward the ridge. Grace struggled to exit her seat, but she was trapped behind the wheel, pinned in place by the damp earth now underneath her. Twigs scratched her cheek and agony tore through her injured side before the cart plummeted down the hill.
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
