Straight Flushed (Hot Pursuit #1)(81)

“Let her bleed,” Stephen said, turning his gun on Avery. Avery’s shoulders sunk and he returned the swatch of fabric to his pocket. Stephen turned back to me. “I knew you were strong in body and spirit, but your ego needed to take a hit so when I came crawling back, explaining I was just trying to save you.” He stopped and made a sound like he was crying, mocking me. “Essentially offering you redemption and a patch for your damaged pride, you couldn’t have said no to me if you’d tried.” I was stunned and hurt and exhaled a big, hot breath. “But you bought it hook, line, and sinker.” He began to pace and walked back and forth twice before he stopped abruptly front of me. He gritted his teeth and shook his gun in my face. “Avery was supposed to die in that car accident. You and your fucking partner screwed that up and created this whole mess. It could have been so much simpler than this.”

Dumbstruck and sickened, I absorbed what he’d said then replayed every conversation and every interaction we’d had in great detail. It had all been lies. The attempt on his life, the things he’d told me about the bank, how the men had followed him, and me. A shallow river rose in my eyes.

“That’s right. Take a second to digest it.” He sneered.

My pride was wounded, but I swallowed my tears—I couldn’t give him the satisfaction. Instead, I tried to focus on the glorious feeling I’d experience when I ground his body into a pulp. I clenched my hands into fists and fought to control myself. Patience was never one of my strong suits.

“My company?” I asked. “The men outside of the café? The picture of you? Vance…why do all of that? Why not just ask me about Avery? You didn’t have to do all of this and hurt all these people.”

“Like you would have told me.” He scoffed. “The people I’m dealing with wanted more immediate results and we weren’t seeing eye-to-eye. They wanted everyone dead, but I needed the information Avery had. I’m not interested in spending the rest of my days in Leavenworth. They don’t understand that until I’m out of the country, it’s my ass on the line.”

I tilted my head toward the ceiling and forced myself to breathe. He deserved to take a pounding in Federal prison, and it would be my mission to see he got it at the end of this road.

“You drugged me last night.” I huffed. I hadn’t been drunk at all. I knew I hadn’t had too much to drink. “Why?”

He chuckled. “I had work to do. Your partner was shot and I needed you incapacitated to tip the scales in our favor. It’s easier to take out a couple of lame ducks. But, it seems you have some tiger blood in you. I was really impressed with you this morning, going and sweating it out. Not very many people could do that. By the way, thanks for the diagram you left behind. That was extremely useful.” He smiled.

“You did this, Stephen?” Avery interjected. “You breeched the bank’s security and bought all those stocks?”

“Well, not me entirely. It takes a lot of money to do what I’ve done. I have backers in Syria and they’re the true ring leaders. With the tension being so tight with the U.S. and the Middle East right now, it’s making a lot of people angry.”

“My God, but why?” Avery asked.

“Because this way they still have some control over U.S. oil. You don’t know how hard it was to make all those profiles and keep those purchases small and under the radar. It took me years to plan it. Of course you, of all people, had to sniff it out.”

Avery grunted several times trying to come up with the words to express his shock and disgust. “It’s treason. You’ve betrayed our country. How could you do this?”

“How?” he asked as if the question was beyond absurd. “Easy. For power and money.”

Avery exhaled a large breath and shook his head. “Your father would be terribly disappointed with you, my boy.”

“Yeah, well.” He laughed. “There’s a lot you don’t understand. Give me the flash drive. Now!”

Avery jumped then reached inside his jacket and retrieved the flash drive. He placed it in Stephen’s palm, shaking his head. Stephen slipped it into the pocket of his pants.

Beyond our walls, a gunshot sounded. Stephen spun around. I pulled my hands out from under my thighs and gripped the edge of the bench. I leapt and reached for my gun, but I hadn’t prepared for my world momentarily going black. My blood pressure had been so low from the blood loss, my brain compensated by taking my sight. I was pushed backward with more force than I could have anticipated. My butt clipped the edge of the bench, and I was splayed on the ground. My vision returned just in time to make out the tip of Stephen’s shoe coming toward my chest. I grunted and coughed from the pain—he rebroke my ribs that had nearly healed.

“I told you not to move. Now stay down like a good little girl.”

I lay with my cheek on the floor, fighting to remain conscious. Then, new sets of footsteps entered the room. I was suspended in a dreamlike state, able to hear but unable to speak.

Off in the distance I heard Stephen say, “Dad?”





Twenty-seven



I willed my eyes open. Two men stood in the entryway of the room.

“What are you doing here?” Stephen asked.

“Charlie?” Avery chimed in.

“Sit down!” Stephen yelled to Avery.