Nowhere Safe

CHAPTER 40



Trish ran across the hotel suite living room and into her bedroom to find the false lipstick holder with the pepper spray. It had fallen off the nightstand. She grabbed it off the floor and wedged the gold tube into her evening bag, then dashed back into the living room.

The hotel room phone on an end table rang.

Had Heidi had enough time to go the bathroom and find Trish missing?

The phone rang again.

Could be Josh if Heidi had found him. If Trish didn’t answer, he might come up looking for her. She grabbed the phone on the third ring.

“Avoiding me, Trish?” the mechanical voice asked

Her hand shook. “I didn’t hang up. The call dropped.”

“Don’t let it happen again.”

“Like I have any control over the cell service?”

The stalker ignored that. The mechanical voice said, “Having fun? No? Party girl like you should be enjoying yourself. Don’t worry. I’m having enough fun for both of us. In fact, you may not have any worry at all soon.” Harsh mechanical laughter crackled across the line.

Trish clenched the phone, wanting to choke the stalker. She’d had it with being a victim and hiding in fear. No one was pushing her off the wagon. A buried fury came steaming to the surface. “You’re a coward to send notes and make phone calls. If you’re so bad, come and get me.”

“I won’t have to. You’ll come to me, because losers always run from their fears. And you will lose, starting with your silly little shop, then I’ll turn my attention to those you love.”

Trish slammed the phone down, unwilling to spend another minute living this way.

And neither would she stay in this hotel room.

Closing the door behind her, she rushed toward the elevator.

The hotel alarm went off. A booming, automated voice announced a fire alarm, to take the stairs and exit the hotel.

Doors banged open.

People spilled into the corridor, rushing for the stairs.

Trish fought against the panic rising in her chest. That phone call, and now this. You’ll come to me.

AA

Josh hurried back to the table where he’d left Trish.

Heidi stood there, but no Trish.

What the f*ck?

“Where’s Trish?” Josh asked, keeping his voice calm.

Bunko walked up and handed Heidi a Coke.

Heidi said, “Glad you’re here. She had to go to the bathroom.”

F*ck. Don’t panic yet. “Why didn’t you go with her?”

Josh caught a hard look from Bunko who obviously didn’t care for the tone he’d taken with Heidi. “Sorry, Heidi, I just don’t like her to be alone.”

“I know and I was only waiting for you to get back so I could go with her.” Heidi picked up her purse from the table, grumbling, “I should have grabbed Gunter to stay around so I could go, but that guy gets on my nerves. He’s such pain in the butt. No wonder he’s divorced.”

Josh froze as the understanding washed over him. The first time he’d met Gunter, the annoying German had said he got rid of everything that reminded him of his ex-wife.

Olivia said Trish looked just like Gunter’s ex-wife.

“Stay here.” Josh slammed the drinks on the table.

“What’s wrong, Josh?” Heidi called out in a worried voice.

“I don’t know yet, but I want to find Trish. Now.” He left at a run for the bathrooms, stretching his gait and ignoring all the shocked faces at his lack of decorum.

He hadn’t reached the hallway leading to the ladies room when fire alarms started shrieking.

The crowd turned into a noisy herd that bordered on panic. Security ordered people to not take the elevators. Conference attendees down here on the basement level clogged the stairs, terrified of being trapped below ground, and trying to reach street level.

Josh burst into the ladies room, ignoring the gasps and evil looks of women rushing to exit, He bent to check under the stall doors, looking for the sparkly silver shoes Trish had stepped into just before they’d left the suite. Nothing. Shit.

He raced out of the ladies room, searching all around him until he was convinced Trish must have been closer to the stairs than he was when the alarm went off. He joined the push for the stairs, jostled and shoved by a sea of frightened people.

Trish would be busy doing the same, rushing for the stairs

Then she would be outside, exposed.

Josh trusted his gut, and his gut said this had FUBAR written all over it.

AA

Caught in a wave of humans pouring onto the street, Trish clutched her bag and moved away from the building. With no wrap or jacket, she shivered against the chilly evening air.

The bulging mass drove Trish further from the building. A cacophony of stricken voices yammered all around her while she stepped from one small pocket of open space to another, trying to maintain the bubble of space around her. Fire engines screamed in the distance.

Police directed gawkers and guests to keep moving away from the hotel.

Trish searched the glass-covered tower for a blaze, but saw none. No smoke. Not the first sign of a fire.

The burgeoning crowd forced her down the sidewalk until she had to back down a side street.

She reached for her phone to call Josh and Heidi.

A sharp tip stabbed her ribs.

Knife. She wasn’t in a position to defend against that, and she couldn’t run in this narrow gown. Not yet.

Annoyed and ready to let someone share in her misery, Trish half-turned until the knife shoved harder and she heard, “Keep your hands at your sides and move when I tell you unless you want to die right here.”

From the corner of her eye, scraggly gray hair, thick makeup and a bulky flowered dress came into view.

Pruneface? What was she doing here? The hag tugged her arm, forcing her to take a step.

The pepper spray. But she couldn’t get to it, or to her phone that was now buzzing. Trish felt she could take the woman if Pruneface didn’t have a blade ready to cut her if she made a wrong move. What did this bitch have against her?

“What do you want?” Trish asked. Could this old crow be the stalker behind a terror campaign?

“Shut up and walk.” Pruneface stood upright now, as if her curved spine had miraculously healed itself. She yanked Trish away from the crowd with more strength than expected. “I also have a gun. Make a sound to draw attention and I’ll kill you and anyone who tries to help you.”

Trish kept moving on shaky legs. She cut her eyes to the side at three men across the street who were walking the opposite way toward the hotel. Paying no attention. No help there unless she wanted to get them killed, too.

With all the noise and excitement going on back at the hotel, no one would notice two women in an empty side street.

Trish’s pulse thrummed with fear, but she’d had enough. Frustration and anger battled to the surface. This was the moment she’d been training for with Arnie. She only wished she were wearing clothes she could better move in, but she would not go down without a fight.

AA

When Josh ended up outside, he muscled his way through the crowd and searched for Trish.

He’d lost one woman to a human predator.

He couldn’t fail Trish.

Thousands of guests were pouring out onto the street, pushing him toward the first cross street. He kept turning, looking in every direction for Trish while he called her cell phone over and over.

He’d just glanced down the cross street when he had to look again. A pair of women walked along two blocks away.

One wore a shimmering white gown.

They disappeared around a corner.

He took off after them.

AA

Trish tried stomping on the woman’s foot to get loose. She got choked for her efforts.

Pruneface lost her wig in the struggle and shouted in a much deeper voice, “If I didn’t have to get rid of your body I’d kill you right now.”

Trish recognized that voice.

Twisting, she stared at a person she’d believed was her friend. “Gunter?”

“Took you long enough to figure it out.” Covered in heavy makeup and wearing a bulky dress, he peered at her through bright, insane eyes.

Trish searched the street, hunting for help, but no police officer miraculously appeared. They would be helping with the hotel crisis.

Gunter held her arm in a tight grip and moved the knife to Trish’s throat, pricking the skin. “I don’t want to have to carry you, but make a sound and I’ll cut your throat and drag you to my van.” He yanked her along.

“Why are you doing this?”

“You’re a blood sucker just like my ex-wife. That damn shop of yours is ruining mine, then they want you for that miserable show. I’ve been on Las Olas longer. I’m the pro, not you.”

Gunter’s shop was near Las Olas, not on the street, but that wasn’t relevant when a madman had a knife at her throat. “How am I a threat to your business? I’m struggling to make it.”

He hauled her along faster. The dress he wore slapped at boot-covered ankles. His voice snarled and lifted hairs along her neck. “You stole my customers. You and Charlie were going to team up. Finish me off.”

What was he talking about? She stumbled, but he kept her upright, taking her farther and farther away from Josh.

At least Josh was safe, but he’d never forgive himself if Trish let Gunter kill her. She trembled at the thought of dying, but Josh was right.

She wasn’t ready to give up the life she’d fought so hard to own.

Gunter’s mind had left the room, but if she kept him talking he might make a mistake and give her an opening to escape.

“You’re wrong about me and Charlie teaming up. He didn’t even like me.”

“Oh, sure. Think I’m as stupid as you are? Charlie had plans for you.”

“No, he didn’t.”

Gunter muttered a string of words that made no sense. “He told me. Same day he made me a pity offer. That miserable pig.”

“Told you what?”

“About bringing you into his empire to manage his Florida stores. Don’t act so coy. He was standing right in front of me when he called you. Whore that you are, you couldn’t wait to go see him.”

Oh, dear God. That had been the day Charlie tried to guilt her into selling by telling her that Gunter’s deal depended on Charlie getting ReSolution. Trish never had a chance with arrogant Charlie manipulating everyone.

Gunter dragged her into a parking lot where a handful of vehicles were parked and no attendant. The tip of his razor-sharp knife pricked her deeper.

Trish came up with another argument she forced out between panting breaths. “But Charlie is dead.”

“Yes. He. Is,” Gunter said in a bragging voice. “Using your letter opener was a nice touch if I do say so myself.”

“You killed him?”

“Of course I did.” Gunter’s smarmy laugh crawled along Trish’s skin.

“But...you were with Olivia,” Trish said, thinking out loud. Vickers would have checked his alibi.

“She’s another stupid bitch, but she’s good for an alibi.”

He’d stalked her and set her up for murder and hit her over the head. Trish wanted to scream at him and bash his head with a brick, but until she got her hand on a weapon she’d keep her voice calm. Someone had to remain sane here. “So all this stalking and game playing has been about getting rid of my business?”

“And you.”

“The pawn.”

Gunter laughed, a high, hysterical sound. “Yes, you’re my pawn.”

“Where’re you taking me?”

“Somewhere that you can never be a problem again.”

Trish shivered hard from cold and shock. She hated giving him any satisfaction, but she couldn’t prevent her voice from shaking when she offered the only thing that might save her life. “What if I...give you ReSolution?”

“I don’t want your miserable piece of shit.”

He just wants to kill me.

There was no hope of talking him out of this. They were headed toward a van parked facing a tall brick wall along one side of the lot where the light hardly dented the darkness.

She dragged her feet, forcing Gunter to slow down. He stabbed the tip deeper into her neck and she hissed at the pain.

Her time had run out. If she got in that van, she would never get away.

Drawing on all the frustration she’d suffered from being stalked, she snarled, “I’ve never been anything but nice to you, you crazy a*shole.”

Wrong choice of words.

“You bitch! You’ll beg for death before I’m done with you.” Gunter flipped the knife up and cut a gash under her chin.

Blood ran down her chest. She cried out at the metal hitting bone.

“Stop where you are!” a male voice yelled at them from across the lot.

Josh?

Gunter wrenched around at the order, bringing her with him as a shield.

Any doubt about Josh being a deadly warrior disappeared when Trish faced him. He moved toward them at a steady pace, with both hands locked around a huge gun and a feral expression she’d never seen on his face.

Gunter reached back with his free hand as he changed his knife position to lay the long blade horizontally across her throat. She clamped her lips to keep from crying out and distracting Josh.

In her peripheral vision, she saw Gunter lift his own big-ass gun into view.

Pointed at Josh.