Page 81 of Almost Dead (The Cahills 2)

Cherise landed on the floor. Her head cracked against the Mexican tiles.

Pain exploded behind her eyes.

A hot, oozing sensation spread through her abdomen.

Her assailant stepped closer, holding the gun on her. “You miserable, money-grubbing bitch. I hope you go to hell.”

Marla? Why? No…no…not Marla…

As darkness pulled her under, Cherise watched her killer drop something soft and floating onto the floor in the vestibule before she slipped out the unlocked front door.

Why? she wondered futilely, knowing she couldn’t make it to a phone, to anyone in time. She felt the lifeblood seeping out of her.

I’m going to die…oh God, Donald, I’m going to die…Please know that I love you…. I…love… The blackness dragged her under. A blessing and she gave herself up to it.

Please God, take my soul.

Chapter 15

Elyse’s blood sang through her veins.

Killing Cherise had felt so right. And the confusion and sheer terror in her eyes when she’d thought she was facing off with wicked Marla.

Priceless!

Almost as satisfying as watching that pampered bitch Cissy nearly stumble down the stairs when she’d thought she’d seen her mother in the doorway of the house on Mt. Sutro. God, what a rush! It would have been so easy to kill her then, and Elyse had considered it. She’d had the gun with her. But she wanted Cissy to twist in the wind a bit more, feel a little pain, the kind Elyse had lived with for years.

“You’ll get yours,” she said and thought about the man she loved…. Oh, wouldn’t it be perfect to make love to him tonight, when the thrill of the kill was still in her bloodstream, the adrenaline rush still pounding through her.

Eyes on the road, she reached into the side pocket of her purse, pulled out her cell, and hit the “2” pre-set button. It rang once, and a male voice answered.

“Hello?”

Holy Christ! This was the wrong phone. She’d used Cissy’s damned phone.

She clicked off and cussed herself up one side and down the other. What had she been thinking? Had she been too high, too revved up not to notice the subtle difference in the cell phones?

She had to ditch it now. Fast. Fortunately, she was near the bridge. Stepping on the gas, she drove across the illuminated span and tried hard to keep the needle of her speedometer under the limit. Her heart was pounding, her skin hot, sweat collecting under her hair.

“Son of a bitch,” she whispered, and at the south end of the bridge, before driving into the city, she turned into the park and left her car so that she could walk back along the span and, once she was a distance from the shoreline, wipe Cissy’s cell phone clean and drop it over the railing and into the water so far below. It would never be found. Quickly, once her mission was accomplished, she walked briskly back to her car and climbed behind the wheel. She had t o be more careful. She’d already nearly run over a bicyclist, and then there was the woman walking her damned dog when Elyse had left Cherise’s house. Fortunately she was wearing the disguise and it had been dark, but there was always a remote chance either she or her car would be recognized. And then she called the wrong number by dialing Cissy’s bloody phone. God, she had to be smarter if this was going to work. She had a few people on the payroll; the guy from whom she’d bought her fake ID had also done a great job of terrorizing Cissy, bumping into her at the coffee shop and then walking in front of her car. But he could talk. Elyse just wasn’t too sure how much she could trust him.

And she couldn’t afford any more slipups.

Not now.

Not when she was so close to getting everything that was due her.

Though she wasn’t as high as she had been a few minutes earlier, she was still keyed up, and so she tried again, this time with the right phone. Her phone.

The phone rang three times before he picked up. “Hello?”

“Hi,” she said a little breathily. “What’re you doing?”

“Not much,” he admitted, and she heard the wariness in his voice.

“Are you alone?”

“No,” he said, giving nothing away to whoever was close by.

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