Page 34 of Dusty
Lennox chuckled, though she thought she noted a touch of fear in his gaze. “Fat lot of good running did you. We still managed to find you and your new lover, didn’t we?”
The truth was more complicated than she’d admit to Lennox. She’d panicked after Cooper had killed Vincent Frame and forced her to pick up the gun, planting her fingerprints. She could still see Cooper standing over him with the gun in his gloved hand. The blood. The look in Cooper’s eyes that told her she was next if she tried to cross him. That same night, she’d grabbed what she could from her apartment, leaving behind everything she didn’t need, couldn’t carry in one suitcase, except for the files she’d copied from Cooper’s computer, the flash drive, and fled.
Meeting Dusty had been pure chance—her car breaking down outside that small Texas town. Shiloh Springs felt like arriving at a miracle. The place was like something out of a 50s TV show in so many ways. The people were friendly and giving. People like the Boudreaus, especially Ms. Patti, who’d taken her under her wing without knowing a single thing about her, except she needed help. Didn’t matter that Sharon might be a fugitive, Ms. Patti had rallied her family, brought in the big guns in the form of her son, Antonio, and made her feel like she was something more than a stranger passing through. She’d become a part of the community, a part of the little town, and she liked it. A lot. She wanted to go back—and if there was any way it was possible, she would.
She thought about Dusty, his offer of help, no questions asked. Those kind eyes that saw right through her lies about her car breaking down. She knew he was instrumental in sending Ms. Patti her way. It was not an accident the town’s matriarch plopped herself down on a bench beside a total stranger and offered her a place to stay, a refuge from everything without asking anything in return.
Dusty…the man who’d gone from reluctant protector to something much more.
“Maybe when this is all over, we could see where this goes,”he’d said just hours ago, his calloused fingers gentle against her cheek.“No pressure. Just…a chance.”
Now he might be dead in the abandoned barn, lying in the dirt. She remembered screaming his name as Lennox dragged her from the barn and bundled her into the back of the black SUV.
Lennox stood and mockingly motioned for her to precede him to the now open door of the jet. Stopping at the top of the steps, she paused, feeling the cold hit her in the face like a physical slap. Before she could say a word, she was marching down the steps of Madison’s jet into the chilly Chicago night, Lennox right on her heels. She knew there was no chance to escape, nowhere she could run.
Lennox’s hand clamped around her upper arm as he guided her toward the waiting limousine, its black surface reflecting the runway lights like an oil slick. Two more security men flanked them—Cooper wasn’t taking chances.
“Get in,” Lennox ordered, pushing her toward the open door.
The leather seats of the limo felt cold against her skin. Sharon tried to control her breathing, the panic threatening to overwhelm her. She needed to think. To plan. But her mind kept returning to Dusty’s still form on the ground, the way his eyes had met hers just before Lennox struck him. The unspoken promise lingering between them.
I love you.She desperately wished she’d said it when she had the chance. Three simple words she’d been too cautious to voice.Will I ever get the chance to tell you?
The city passed by in a blur of lights and shadows. Places she recognized from her former life—the lake, the skyscrapers, the neighborhoods she’d once navigated with confident familiarity. Now they felt like markers on a final journey.
“He’s got quite a reception planned,” Lennox commented, scrolling through his phone. “Been waiting months to get his hands on you again.”
Sharon fought to keep her expression neutral despite the creeping dread settling in her chest. Cooper hadn’t built his empire—legitimate and otherwise—by being merciful to those who crossed him. His handsome face hid the soul of the devil. The files she’d stolen documented everything: the money laundering for Vincent Frame’s mob connections, the offshore accounts, the bribes to city officials. And worse, evidence of the murders she’d discovered. One had been the whistleblower from accounting who’d uncovered evidence of money laundering for the mob. Vincent was the tie between Cooper and the Chicago mob, which explained Cooper wanting him out of the picture. He’d outlived his usefulness, and tried to double-cross Cooper, which meant he needed to be discredited and eliminated. It was simply a lucky break that Cooper could kill two birds with one stone—get Vincent out of the picture and frame her for his murder.
The limousine turned onto the familiar tree-lined avenue leading to Cooper’s estate. The large trees were now winter-bare skeletons, reaching into the night sky like grasping fingers. Sharon had been here for company parties, back when she was a rising star at Kerrigan, and many times since she’d become engaged to Cooper. She gave an ugly laugh. What a joke that had been before she discovered what lurked beneath his polished surface. She thanked her lucky stars that she’d refused to move into the mansion, despite Cooper’s many overtures to have her join him in his luxurious home. Now it felt like she’d dodged a bullet.
“Almost home,” Lennox said with a smirk.
The estate came into view—a sprawling stone mansion set back from the road, security lights illuminating manicuredgrounds. The car rolled through the open gates, up the curved driveway. Sharon’s heart hammered against her ribs as the mansion grew larger in the windshield.
And then she saw him.
Cooper stood in the open doorway, his tall figure backlit by the warm glow from inside. Even at a distance, she could feel the cold calculation in his stare. The man who’d once been her mentor and lover. The man who’d framed her for murder when she’d discovered too much.
As the car rolled to a stop, Sharon closed her eyes briefly, summoning Dusty’s face in her mind—his slow, careful smile, the way his eyes crinkled at the corners, how his voice softened when he said her name. Oh, how she loved the sound of her name on his lips.
If I get out of this alive, I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you everything I should have said.
The car door opened. Cooper’s shadow fell across her face.
“Sharon,” he said, her name as hard as ice in his mouth. “Welcome home.”
Pain was thefirst thing Dusty registered as he clawed his way back to consciousness. A dull, throbbing ache pounded at the side of his skull, each pulse sending fresh waves of agony through his head. He groaned, lifting a hand to the tender spot. His fingers came away wet and sticky and coated with red. Blood. His blood.
Memory returned in jagged fragments. The sound of tires on gravel. Lennox’s smug face. Sharon’s scream. The bullet striking his thigh. His helplessness as Lennox’s men held him. And then darkness.
“Sharon,” he croaked, his voice sounding foreign to his own ears.
Dusty forced his eyes open, blinking against the dim light filtering through the barn’s weathered boards.The empty barn.Where Sharon had been standing just moments, or what could have been hours ago, there was nothing but scattered hay and dust motes dancing in shafts of fading sunlight.
Cold dread seized his chest. They’d taken her. Lennox had Sharon. Which meant he was taking her back to Madison.
The crunch of gravel outside snapped him to full alertness. Someone was coming. Lennox returning to finish the job? Or worse, had he left his men behind to finish the job? Eliminate any possible witness to corroborate Sharon’s story?
