“Call him? At least give him a chance.”
Ava squeezed her hand. “I’ll call him.” But her sad eyes conveyed she didn’t think there was much point.
Mallory nodded. Right now, she had another priority so she slid awkwardly into the passenger seat and held her breath as the pain intensified.
*
“Suzanna. What are you doing here?” Ava recognized the woman as soon as she got into the car. “This is Dominic’s neighbor,” she told Mallory.
Suzanna checked her shoulder, flipped her signal, and pulled smoothly away from the curb.
“I’m one of the governor’s donors so I was invited to the party.” Her bony fingers clenched and unclenched around the wheel. “To be honest, I’d hoped to talk to Dominic alone, but when he showed up with you, I figured I’d better get out of there before he spotted me. No one wants to look pathetic.”
Ava agreed. She took her cell from her borrowed, glittery purse and stared at the screen. She knew she should text the guy so he didn’t wonder where she was or waste time looking for her, but emotionally she was still reeling. He’d defended her honor with his brother but hadn’t been willing to do the same with the director.
Why was that? Because he believed in her as a woman but not as an agent? Or was too chicken to stand up to the boss? Either way his silence had felt like a betrayal.
She looked at her phone, fingers poised over the text window, but hesitated. She needed time before she contacted the man who’d come to mean so much to her. Time to put up her defenses and shore up her smile, time to figure out what to do with the rest of her life without him or the FBI in it.
She didn’t want him to know how much he’d hurt her.
She shouldn’t have run out of there, she realized. She was supposed to be watching his back, protecting him, but once again her feelings had guided her actions. Van had tried to get her to slow down, to think rather than react. She was working on it, but obviously not fast enough. Maybe it didn’t matter anymore.
Suzanna caught her eye in the rearview mirror. “You look upset?”
Ava pressed her lips together and hoped she didn’t start bawling. She sniffed. “It’s nothing.”
“I saw him kiss you.”
Ava pulled a face. “Yes, well, as you are aware, Dominic is a very good kisser.”
“Oh,” Suzanna gave a fluttery, little laugh. “We never kissed.”
Ava blinked. What? “That’s not what Dominic thinks.”
Suzanna laughed. “Oh, that’s adorable. I didn’t realize he thought that we… Well, we were both very drunk. I did have the pleasure of seeing his teeny, tiny penis.” Her lips spread in a wide smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “We didn’t have sex though as he couldn’t get it up.”
Ava raised one brow. This was a weird-ass conversation, not least as Dominic’s penis was not tiny. Ava wasn’t about to argue the point.
Something felt wrong.
Mallory was sitting very still in the front seat. Eyes closed. Breathing in a measured way.
A car horn honked. The streets whizzed by. Ava leaned forward between the seats. “You missed the turn to the hospital.”
Mallory’s face was screwed up in pain, and Suzanna was driving too fast.
“Slow down, Suzanna. Turn around. You missed it.”
The woman looked over her shoulder but didn’t take her foot off the accelerator. Instead, she pulled a P320 Compact Carry Nitron 9mm out of the side pocket of the door and pointed at Mallory’s stomach. “Back off, bitch, or your friend and her baby die.”
Shit. Ava had made a classic error in judgment. She’d judged the woman with empathy and pity because she remembered what it felt like to wake up with a guy who wanted you gone. Suzanna was not what she’d pretended to be.
Mallory made a keening noise in the back of her throat, a sound torn from her very soul as the reality of what was happening and a labor contraction hit simultaneously.
Ava sat back, pulling the seatbelt across her body.
She texted Dominic the word “help” and then speed-dialed his number, praying he picked up. She hid the cell beneath the material of her skirt.
While their relationship might be in shreds, this threat wasn’t over yet. He needed to know that. He needed to help get Mallory the hell out of danger.
Suzanna hadn’t noticed the cell phone or maybe didn’t realize it was a threat. The woman was off her rocker—insane or a psychopath. Neither was great when she had a gun and the wheel.
“Did you kill Van?” Ava asked.
Suzanna spat out a laugh. “That old fool.”
Ava flinched.
“Thought he knew every goddamn thing. He was easy to kill. Caroline softened him up with a roofie in his beer, and I helped him home like a drunken bum. Killed him with his own gun.”
The constricting band of grief around Ava’s heart made it hard to breathe. She’d been right about Van’s death, but it didn’t make her feel good, especially when she and Mallory were stuck in a speeding vehicle with the person responsible.
“Did you rape him?” Ava asked. The idea horrified her. Had Van known what was happening? Had he any inkling of the danger he was in amongst the fog of the sedative?
Suzanna sneered. “Don’t be ridiculous. I just wanted him to be humiliated in death.”
“And you shot Mortimer at the funeral?”
Suzanna’s lips pinched. “I should have bought an assault rifle and killed more of you FBI scum. Toss me your weapon,” she said sharply. “Quickly before I put a bullet in her.”
Ava tried to dislodge the anger and fear that threatened to overwhelm her. “The FBI director fired me because that asshole Sheridan kissed me in front of everyone. He took my weapon and creds. That’s why I was upset.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Ava opened her purse and flashed the insides which held a lonely credit card. She pulled her skirts all the way up to flash her panties. “I am not carrying a handgun, lady.” She wished she were, although they were traveling so fast Ava wouldn’t risk shooting the driver. She was terrified what might happen to Mallory and the baby if they crashed.