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“Get down,” he roared as I secured the seatbelt and ducked down.
He tried to reverse again, but a car came barreling in the space behind us, and we were trapped. Swearing, John struck the steering wheel again before he reached over, opened the dash, and then handed me a black-handled field knife.
“Don’t be afraid to go for the jugular,” he warned. “They’re not here to play.”
“John—” I grabbed his shirt and dragged him away as a gun butt smashed his window and sent glass flying everywhere.
West reached in, unlocked the door, and pressed a gun to John’s temple. “Get out.”
“No,” John said.
“I’ll kill you right here then,” West snarled. “I am so sick of you and the trouble you’ve caused. My ranch is swarming with police officers, and my office is bombarded with your lawsuit. My investors are dropping away; my name has been ruined since you sent that video. And you—” he pointed the gun at me. “I told you to stay away.”
John smacked his hand away from me. “You don’t get to order her around. And about the investors? Do you think your savage clip didn’t do that to me? Cry me a fucking river, you hypocrite.”
West’s face went contemplative before he reeled back and slammed the butt of the gun into John’s temple. I screamed as John’s forehead slammed on the wheel. West grabbed John’s hair and yanked him out of the car to slam him on the door.
I scrambled out, holding the knife. “Let him go.”
West jerked his head, and someone grabbed me—Maria's firm grip yanked me away. “You stay out of this. We’ll deal with you later.”
As menacing as she sounded—something was off with her. She didn’t have the same rough bass in her tone as before, and her grip dropped a little while holding me. “And shut it,” she hissed.
John was still reeling from the blow to his head. I could see it. His balance was off. Slumping on the car, John rubbed his temple and pulled his fingers away to see the blood now matting his face.
“You think you can get away with this?” John growled. “You’ll be everyone’s first suspicion if they find me dead.”
“Oh,” West grinned nastily. “It might be that way, but according to my manifesto, I am somewhere in California by now. I’ve taken great pains to make it look like I was never here.”
“How the hell did you know we were coming back tonight?” I shouted.
“I have eyes and ears everywhere,” he slanted a look at me. “And don’t think you’re getting out of here alive either. We’ve got plans for both of you.”
“And what would those be?” John asked.
“You two took a romantic canoe on the river, missy there fell into the water. You went to save her but couldn’t,” West said nastily.
“And how do you fake a drowning without leaving a scratch on us?” John asked right before launching himself at West, and the two went down in a grappling wrestling match. “Because I won’t go down without a fight, rich boy.”
Fists flew, and John knocked the gun out of West’s hand. It went skittering away, and Maria lurched to grab it, but I spun and rammed a knee into her belly. She staggered away but recovered quickly and spun to me, angry.
She spun on her heel and shot a kick at me, and I dodged before she aimed a punch and grazed my chin. I realized I’d dropped the knife and spotted it a few feet away. I grabbed it while Maria snatched the gun from the floor.
“Give up!” West shouted.
“Never,” John yelled while he kneed West in his gut.
The two sprung apart while Maria aimed the gun at me. “You’ll die.”
“You wish,” I said before jumping to the side. The gun went off, a horrible crack in the dark night, and someone cried out.
John.
I spun to rush to him just before West delivered a few punches into John’s jaw and gut, sending him sprawling. A patch of red began blooming on John’s thigh, and I scrambled to him, only to feel Maria grab my hair. “Where do you think you’re going?”
She sounded winded, more winded than I thought she would be.
I twisted out of her hold before Maria staggered back…for no reason. She grabbed at the nearby tree but missed, her free hand flailing while the gun tumbled from her hand. What was going on?
