Almost Dead (Lizzy Gardner #5)(78)

“Sweetheart,” he said, his expression filled with concern. “Let me take care of this. You go get comfortable, and I’ll warm you up some soup. Are you allowed to eat this soon after?”

“I don’t think I should. But bringing me soup and flowers was very thoughtful of you.”

He took her into his arms and gave her a gentle squeeze. She closed her eyes and prayed he couldn’t feel the frantic beating of her heart.

She was finished, she realized. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing Dwayne.

Dwayne is a *. You need to focus. You have one more person on your list. Dwayne doesn’t love you. I’m the only one who cares about you. Chelsea Webster cannot get away with all of those horrible things she did to you.

“Dwayne,” she said, looking up into his eyes.

“What is it? What’s bothering you?”

“We haven’t known one another very long, but I was wondering if you thought that maybe someday you could ever fall in love with someone like me?”

He smiled. “Someone like you? Are you kidding me? You have no idea how beautiful you are, inside and out. Every morning I wake up and wonder if this will be the day Jenny Pickett realizes she’s way too good for me. And then I see you and you smile at me and in that moment I know Jenny Pickett is my girl, my one and only. I’ve loved you since the first moment I laid eyes on you.”

“I love you, Dwayne.”

“I love you, too.”

Oh, for Christ’s sake.




Tires sent gravel flying as Hayley pulled her Chevy in front of the warehouse on Sunco in Rancho Cordova. Tommy had followed her on his motorcycle. He killed his bike’s engine as Hayley hopped out of her car and immediately began to dig around in her trunk. Too many damned tools. She quickly found her set of lock-picking tools, but was damned if she could locate the crowbar. At last she unearthed it, though, and headed for the main door into the warehouse.

Jessica and Lizzy pulled into the driveway as Hayley reached the roll-up door. It was a heavy affair, with a white rusted frame. The door was banged up good.

She put the crowbar underneath it and hauled up on it. Nothing happened the first time, but the second time did the trick and she threw open the door.

They charged into the warehouse as a pack. The place was dank and dark and empty except for a rat skittering across the cement toward the back corner. There was a low-ceilinged room back there—an office by the rear receiving door. If Kitally was here, that’s the only place she could be. They hurried over to it.

“Kitally,” Hayley called, “are you in there?”

The door was locked. There was no answer.

Hayley used the tools she’d brought to try to pick the lock, but this lock wasn’t like anything she’d seen before.

“Let me try,” Tommy said. Using a pick gun and a tension tool, he had the door open in a little over a minute.

“Nice job,” Hayley said.

“I’ve been practicing.”

When Hayley opened the door, Kitally was already lunging at her, but she managed to stop herself in midswing, the wire device in her hand mere inches from taking out Hayley’s eye.

Kitally’s pupils had dilated. Her hair stuck out in every direction, making her look as if she’d been trapped in the tiny room for weeks instead of twenty-four hours.

“Are you all right?” Hayley asked.

Kitally stepped out of the room without a word, just kept walking through the warehouse toward the light. Jessica grabbed Kitally’s camera and phone from inside the windowless room, then followed the rest of them out into the open air.

“What’s this?” Lizzy asked, taking the wire from Kitally.

“I made it. I wanted to be ready for Chalkor when he came back.”

“Did he tell you he was coming back?”

“No. I just didn’t think he’d really leave me in there to die.” Kitally looked around the parking area. “Where is he? How did you find me?”

Before Lizzy could answer, a car came roaring into the lot, spraying gravel. A heavyset man jumped out. “What the hell is going on? This is private property!”

Kitally walked up to the man and shouted, “Ay Yaah!” before anyone had a clue what she was up to. A powerful thud sounded the moment her foot connected with Chalkor’s gut. Panicked, he turned about and tried to get back in his car, but another one of Kitally’s kicks shut the door, almost taking his hand.

He turned to face the crowd. “Help me,” he said. “She’s crazy.”

Nobody said a word.

“I could have died in there, you son of a bitch!” Kitally chambered and snapped her leg through a vicious front kick that drove her heel into his side.

Chalkor grunted and doubled over, clutching his side. “I was coming back to let you out.”

“Liar,” she said, driving a sudden knuckle blow into his throat.

Tommy looked at Lizzy and said, “Don’t worry. She’s going easy on the guy. If she wanted to kill him, she’d already have popped his nose into his brain.”

“Great. I feel better now.”

When Kitally advanced on him then, there was something darker in her movements, as though she’d taken Tommy’s remark as an instruction.

Chalkor cowered against his car. “Somebody stop her.”