Secret Obsession (Carder Texas Connections #6)(54)

She studied his face. She believed him. “I know.”

“Your instincts will be to fight. Don’t. He has a huge ego, but it’s fragile. You need to be smart. Play up to him. Get him to lower his guard. I’ll look for an opening.”

“What if—”

“If I can’t get at you for some reason, when he’s vulnerable and least expects it, use the head butt, then I’ll make my move.”

“Run at him? I thought you said not to fight.”

“The key is to surprise him. If you’re docile, he won’t expect it. Do you understand?”

She nodded.

“No halfways, Lyssa. Don’t hesitate. Give it all your strength. If you use your body weight, it will knock him off center and give you enough time to get out of reach. I’ll be there to take him out. I promise.”

She reached for her knife. “I know what to do.”

“We do this together.”

Noah hugged her close, and she leaned into him, drawing from his strength. They’d get her daughter back. She had to trust in him.

“Be careful,” he said.

She nodded.

He exited the SUV and Lyssa slid into the driver’s seat. She rolled down the window. “I want your solemn promise, Noah. Jocelyn first.”

“Jocelyn first,” he said, his brow furrowed.

Noah walked behind her and disappeared into Elijah’s truck.

Lyssa took a last glance in her rearview mirror and pulled forward. She hadn’t been down these roads since her father had been reassigned right before graduation. Her parents had been killed six months later in a terrorist attack at the Spanish embassy.

She’d thought at the time nothing would ever be worse. How wrong she’d been.

“Prom? Who are you, Archimedes?”

Prom night was the last big event she’d attended in high school. She’d been so excited. Bill Zeigler had been the quarterback of the football team. She’d had a huge crush on him, and she couldn’t believe when he’d actually asked her out.

Somehow, Archimedes knew about that night. She had no idea how or why.

Lyssa drove onto the large campus and headed toward the gym. She turned into the deserted parking lot. The sun was high in the sky. She grabbed her shotgun.

“Don’t be stupid, Alessandra. No guns,” a voice bellowed over a loudspeaker. “You’ve followed instructions so far. Come through the main doors. They’re open.”

With a curse, she tossed the weapon into the seat, resisting the urge to pat her ankle, where her knife rested.

“The blade, too,” the voice roared. “You are trying my patience.”

How could he possibly know?

A toddler’s squeal sounded through the speaker. Lyssa didn’t hesitate. She unstrapped the knife and removed the small pistol from her other ankle.

“Very good. You can be taught. I am pleased. Now walk through the front door.”

Lyssa glanced around the parking lot. The gym loomed in front of her. A gust of frozen wind buffeted her. Somewhere, out of sight, Noah was there.

She wasn’t alone. She had to believe that. She had to keep calm, keep cool and have faith in someone besides herself, a faith she’d lost two years ago. A faith she struggled to hold on to.

“Oh, Lyssa. Turn to the west. I have a surprise.”

In the distance a huge explosion rocked the horizon. Fire and smoke billowed into the air.

“That was your two friends and their truck. I suggest you enter this building in the next fifteen seconds before I decide your daughter will receive your punishment for betraying me.”

No. It couldn’t be.

Black smoke burned. It was from the direction she’d come. Her entire body went numb. It wasn’t possible. Noah couldn’t be dead. Oh, God.

Her hands shook, her knees quivered. All she could see in her mind was Noah’s ready smile, and his disappointed gaze.

She hadn’t told him. She hadn’t told him how she felt.

He’d given her everything, and she’d been too afraid to grab hold of what he offered. She’d done this. She’d caused his death. Now she was on her own, with Archimedes.

And her daughter.

She had to get ahold of herself. Remember what Noah had said. He’d believed in her. She could do this.

Lyssa shoved through the front door to the gym and skidded to a halt, stunned.

Silver-and-blue decorations littered the walls and ceiling. Balloons, streamers. It was as if the past ten years melted away.

Music played softly, Alicia Keys’s “You Don’t Know My Name.”

In the center of the room, a red, strapless dress hung, a tiara and shoes to match on the floor below it. If it wasn’t her prom dress, it was a close match.

A baby’s scream echoed through the gym. It was quickly muffled.

Lyssa whirled around. “Don’t hurt her. Please. I’ll do anything you want!”

“I know you will,” the silky voice echoed through the room.

A thin man dressed in a tuxedo walked through a curtain of streamers, a mask still covering his face. He stood several feet away from her.

“Two years. It’s been two long years,” he said with a smile. “You’ve run me a merry chase.”

He watched her for a moment and Lyssa shivered under his study.