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She stood and wiped the phone off as best she could. This was just not her day.
“Here,” Davenport offered her a handkerchief. “Wrap your phone in it so it can soak up some of the water. When you get home put it in rice. That might help. It wasn’t in the water long. It should be fine, but I’ll buy you a new one anyway.”
She took the white cloth and secured it around her phone and then put the phone in the pocket of her puffy coat. Just another thing she lost in Venice to go along with her leather jacket and her heart.
Davenport grabbed her suitcase and started walking down the alley.
“I think we’re going in the wrong direction,” Riss called out.
“No, we’re good,” was Davenport’s response. He was a few steps ahead and gaining speed.
Riss started moving faster but she couldn’t keep up. Davenport turned again, heading into an even smaller alley. There was no way this was right. Riss started to jog. She lost Davenport around a curve in the alley, so she started to jog but came to an abrupt halt when she rounded the curve and found Davenport at a dead end. The gun in his hand was pointed at her head.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Cash glanced at his phone again. After Antonio called him to inform Cash of the change in plans, he’d pulled up Riss’s cloned phone. He’d been following her on the map for only a few minutes when the dot had died. His stomach knotted. He was already worried. Riss wasn’t anywhere near where she was supposed to be. He’d tried to call her a few times, but the calls wouldn’t go through. Nothing explained why Riss was headed into the middle of the island instead of toward transportation to the mainland.
Cash started to jog. Intuition told him Riss was in trouble. The tingling of his senses had saved his ass in battle, and now, he hoped it would help him find her. He could not lose her, not after he’d admitted to himself what she’d meant to him.
He glanced at his screen. Still nothing and he was at least ten minutes behind her. He broke into a dead run.
* * *
Riss stared at Davenport. “What the hell?” Her heart hammered and her hands shook when she raised them. The gun was big and long. Where the hell had it come from? It has one of those things screwed on the end of it that muffled the sound of the shot. She started backing up. The sound of footsteps reached her, and she whirled around to call out for help when a large man came around the bend. It was the guy who’d chased her when she’d left O’Toole’s. Her stomach dropped.
“About time,” Davenport snarled. “I had to walk her in circles.”
“I hate Venice,” the other man grumbled as he pulled a gun from his belt.
Riss tried to back up so her back was to the wall, but the large man pushed her closer to Davenport.
“Whatever,” Davenport responded. “Put the gun away. Just slit her throat and let’s go. We don’t have much time. I need to be on that plane. Is the boat nearby?”
“Yeah. It’s all set.” The big man put his gun back in his pocket.
Riss’s knees were weak. She was struggling to stay upright. “Wait! You killed my sister, didn’t you? You killed Alicia.”
Davenport glanced at her. “He did the deed. But she was annoying as hell. Took me a while to get her alone. I tried sleeping with her but she was too busy fucking Walker. What is it with you Fitzgerald women and Walker?” He shook his head as if that was the biggest mystery in the universe for him.
The words hit Riss like a sucker punch and she had to bend to catch her breath.
“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” the large man said. “It was dark last time, and we had more time to get away. Might be better to get her on the plane and just push her out over the ocean. We can tell everyone you two separated at that woman’s house where the boat got caught in a traffic jam.”
“I thought of that, but she wasn’t keen to come with me,” Davenport gestured to Riss with the gun. “And honestly, I need to go directly to Dublin. This deal needs to get done now if I have any hope of making that deadline. Just slit her throat like the last time.”
The large man grabbed Riss. “Don’t stand there,” he said to Davenport, “you’ll get sprayed with blood.”
Davenport moved. “Maybe just stab her in the heart like Li’s man did to Vanessa. Less bloody and then Archer will think it was Li. It’s a win-win.”
Riss fought with the guy as he tried to manhandle her. “Wait!” she yelled. “At least tell me why you’re doing this.”
“I don’t have any more time to waste,” Davenport snarled. “Just do it,” he ordered looking at the big man.
Riss tried to remember what she knew about self-defense. What had Cash told her to do? She tried to knee the man in the balls, but he was too quick. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head back as he dug a knife out of his pocket. She tried to stomp on his instep, but it was ineffectual. She was wearing sneakers and couldn’t get a lot of momentum.
He let go of her hair but grabbed her arm and bent over her, raising the knife. She let out an ear-piercing scream and jammed her thumbs into the guy’s eyes. He roared like an angry animal but dropped the knife. He started stumbling around the alley.
Riss had just turned to run when the brick above her head exploded.
