“Why, Kay, you know why I’m here.” His smile disappeared. “I did everything for you. Hired you when you were just a kid. Taught you the ropes. Let you move up in the organization until you were my head accountant. Why did you turn on me after all I did for you?”
She lifted her chin. “Because you and your drugs killed my best friend. Julie wasn’t a druggie. She made a mistake and tried it at a party. But you cut your dope with fentanyl, and it killed her. How many people have you killed, Vinnie? How many? Do you even know?”
He shrugged. “There are always casualties, but they are within acceptable limits, so I don’t pay much attention.”
She narrowed her eyes, and her nostrils flared. “Acceptable limits! You’re evil, you know that?” Kaylie looked around her. With one man driving and the second one next to her, she didn’t have much hope of getting free. Still…she tried her door. She’d jump if she could. Hope nearly died with the realization that the door was locked and she had no way out until they stopped.
Vinnie threw back his head and laughed. “You didn’t think I was that careless now, did you Kay? Of course, the door is locked. You can’t escape me.” Then he snarled. “You’re naïve to think that anyone cares about drug users. They die. End of story.”
He lit a cigarette. He blew smoke in her face.
She turned her head to avoid the smoke and then scoffed. “What will you do with me? Are you taking me back to New York?”
“Maybe.” He pursed his lips, then turned and looked out the windshield. “Maybe I’ll just shove you out at 30,000 feet.”
At the glee she heard in his voice, her blood ran cold.Please, Ryan, help me. I don’t want to die.
She tried to keep up the bravado, but her right side was burning and even though the bleeding had slowed, it hadn’t stopped.
Her breathing was becoming shallower. Every breath now hurt her side. “Aren’t you concerned about me bleeding all over this car? The police will know I was in it.”
He shrugged and then turned to face her again. “Why should I care? It’s not my car.”
“Where do you rent an SUV with bulletproof glass?”
“I didn’t rent it. I borrowed it from a…friend.” He hedged and leaned to stare out the back window.
She took a breath, as deep as she could, trying not to move her right side where she was shot. “Who on Earth hasfriendswith bulletproof vehicles?”
“People who are afraid of being shot. This man used to work for me. I used him to confirm your location. I didn’t trust the assistant to the head of WitSec. She was a junkie. She’d have said anything for her fix. Enough talking. We’re at the airport. Your time on Earth is limited.”
“Why don’t you just shoot me?”
He reached back and grabbed her by the chin…his fingers dug into her flesh. “I need to have you disappear without a trace. Nothing to find. Then no one will believe your previous statements, because you disappeared rather than lie on the witness stand.”
She narrowed her eyes, glaring at him. “I wouldn’t have been lying and you know it.”
“I do. You’d be telling the truth, which is why you need to disappear in a puff of smoke. Like you never existed.”
Her eyelids were getting heavy, and she knew she was about to pass out. “You’ll never get away with this, Vinnie. I’m your Waterloo.”I have to keep him talking. I can’t pass out yet. I know Ryan will come for me.
Vinnie narrowed his eyes and his accent became more pronounced. “Waterloo? What are you talking about? What’s a Waterloo?”
She shook her head. “You’re the most uneducated man I think I’ve ever known.”
Vinnie lifted his hand as if to smack her. “You shut up. One more word and you won’t make it out of this car before we set it on fire.”
“Ah, that’s how you’ll get rid of the DNA. Not just mine, but yours, too.”
“That’s why I don’t care if you bleed all over everything.” Vinnie looked at the man next to Kaylie.
The man who had shoved her into the car and then sat looking straight ahead and not saying a word during the entire conversation between her and Vinnie, even when she’d broken his nose.
“Get her out of here and onto the plane.” When the man didn’t move fast enough for Vinnie’s liking, he pointed a gun at him. “Don’t make me replace you already.”
The man popped out his door and came around to her side. He pulled her out and stood her against the car while he prepared to lift her and throw her over his shoulder.
Suddenly, a shot rang out and the silent man went down.