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“Damn straight I am. And you know what you are? You’re a dead woman.” He came closer. She saw Angela moving, thought at first she was going to try to help her.
She had a small case, like a square compact, in her hands. Kara didn’t know where she’d gotten it. But as she flipped it open, a little white powder spilled out onto the floor, onto her blouse, sticking to the blood there.
Kara frowned. “What is that? What are you doing?”
Vinnie turned, saw the woman and rolled his eyes.“Let her alone. That’s what she does.” He smiled at the woman. “Isn’t it, Angje? Huh? That stuff might help take the edge off the pain, baby, but don’t you worry. It won’t last long, and I got a lot of anger to work off yet.”
The woman said nothing. Instead she picked up a small straw, held it to her nose and closed off the other nostril. She sucked some of the powder into her nose, despite that it was probably broken.
“Don’t,” Kara said. “Angela, stop it. Think about Tyler.”
Angela looked up, peering through eyes that barely opened at all. “I am,” she said. And she sniffed up some more. And then some more. Angela kept it up until there was nothing left in the case, while Vinnie advanced on Kara. Then she backed into a corner, dropped her little gold case and drew her knees to her chest.
Vinnie reached for Kara. “Let’s go, sweet cheeks. We need to move. Thanks to your heroics, you’re my hostage now.”
He hauled Kara to her feet tugged her toward the door, then turned toward Angela. “Angie, can you walk?”
Angela didn’t lift her head.
“Hell, you’re not going anywhere, are you, honey?” He gripped Kara’s upper arm. “Come on.”
“Where? Where are you taking me?” Kara was terrified of leaving there. There, at least Jim and the police and her family would know where to look for her. Anywhere else, and, they might never find her.
“To the car,” Vinnie said. He opened the motel room door and dragged her across the parking lot. Keeping one hand over her mouth, he yanked out a key ring and pressed a button on it. His trunk popped open.
Kara’s blood turned to ice water. She didn’t have time to be afraid long, because he looked around, then shoved her into the trunk and slammed it shut. She thought some of the people standing in the parking lot must have seen. They had to have seen. She pounded on the trunk, kicked it. But within a few seconds the car was squealing into motion, turning, and her body rolled and slammed against the sides. It reversed fast, then stopped abruptly. She banged into the front. Seconds later the trunk opened again, and Angela was dropped in beside her. Then the trunk slammed shut, and the car jerked into motion again, slamming Angela and Kara against each other.
Once they got underway, Kara wasn’t banged around so much anymore. She put her hands on Angela, curled up beside her. Finding her shoulders, she rolled Ang over onto her back.”Angela?” she whispered. She shook her a little. “Ang, come on. We need each other right now. Tyler needs us. We have to help each other get through this.”
There was no response.
Kara didn’t know a lot about cocaine. But she was pretty sure that what she’d seen Angela ingest was way too much. She smacked Angela’s cheek. “Angela?” And when there was still no response, she pressed her fingers to the woman’s throat and then her wrist and then she put her ear to her chest to listen.
But there was nothing to hear.
Angela was dead.
* * *
Jim was speeding toward the motel when another car came careening from that direction, way past the speed limit. The same car Vinnie had been driving when he’d come to the house with his tire iron.
He pulled a u-turn in and pressed the pedal to the floor in pursuit, and it was only when he passed the swarm of screaming black-and-whites that he thought to reach for his cell phone and call in the information.
Chief Wheatly picked up.
“Chief, it’s Corona. The suspect vehicle is currently heading south on Cold Springs Road. I’m in pursuit.”
“Does he have the boy with him?”
“No. No, Tyler is safe. But he has Kara Brand.”
“How the hell... Is she in the car?”
“I didn’t see her.” His heart turned cold at the implication of that. Vinnie might very well have left her behind, and if he had... he wouldn’t have left her alive.
An emptiness yawned in his chest like none he’d ever felt before. Wrong, he thought Hehadfelt it once. Four years ago, while he’d paced outside a Chicago emergency room waiting to learn whether his son would live or die.
God, he couldn’t believe how much Kara meant to him. How could he not have known? “Denial,” he muttered. “Pure self-delusion.”
