When again her expression didn’t change, Justin turned the monitor for her to see the screen. At the sight of the explicit pictures, she blanched and immediately started signing the divorce papers.
Justin smirked. “Thought that might change your damn mind.” Yeah, she might have been able to ignore the gossip about her abortion of a child that was not her husband’s or even the scandal of her and her friends being nothing more than prostitutes for some lowlifes, but no one would forgive or ignore fucking her younger brother. The kid was only fourteen, big for his age but still only a child.
“I want those pictures,” she demanded stiffly.
“Sure, I’ll send you copies as soon as the divorce is finalized.” Justin smirked, not at all feeling anything but contempt for her. He thought that there was nothing Melissa could do to make him more disgusted with her, but she’d managed to surprise him.
She glared at him. “You think you’re so damn perfect. You think that bitch you’re sniffing after is so perfect. Well, let’s see who is laughing last when Vincent and his men are through with her.” She squealed with wicked glee. “She’s probably knee deep, or should I say pussy deep, with their cocks as we speak.” She collapsed in another round of taunting laughter.
“What the fuck are you babbling on about?” Colt demanded.
“Do let me know how it turns out.” She cackled again before leaving the room.
Justin picked up his cell and called Carlos’ phone. He needed to know that the other man had sight of Nakia. When Carlos didn’t answer his phone even after the sixth ring, Justin froze all thought and sprinted for the door.
“Justin! Don’t leave here half-cocked. You’re going to get yourself and Nakia killed.” Colt ran to keep up with him and, at the same time, pulled his phone out to call Imani.
Melissa stood by the elevator with a fiendish smirk.
“If those bastards hurt her, I will have Baldacci’s balls in a fuckin’ sling. Your life won’t be worth living.” Justin glowered at her before hitting the button of the elevator to take him and Colt to the underground car garage.
Nakia called Carlos as she started down the elevator. He promised to meet her in the underground car garage. After the dramatic afternoon she’d just had, she was looking forward to a long hot shower. Since she’d skipped lunch, she wanted greasy fried chicken and fries with lots of ketchup and hot sauce. And then she wanted to be comatose soon after, forgetting Melissa Ragnarson ever existed.
As she arrived in the garage, Carlos wasn’t in his usual place to meet her. She’d just gotten off the phone with him, so she knew something wasn’t right. However, before she could grab her gun, three men surrounded her.
“You’re coming with us,” one of the men, who seemed to be the leader, demanded.
“No!”
The man reached for her.
“Don’t touch me!” Nakia fought against their hold uselessly. They ripped her bag from her shoulder and threw it in the nearby trashcan.
Nakia screamed.
They ignored her. Two of the men easily restrained her, while the third, their leader, stood guard to ensure no one came to her aid. “What did you do to Carlos and Laurent?” she demanded as they dragged her over to a waiting black SUV.
“They’re dead,” their leader told her coldly.
Nakia wanted to scream in anguish, but one of her attackers covered her mouth with his palm. She mourned for her bodyguards. Both men had families, and she’d come to know both very well over the past year. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks. She had no idea if the guards at the gate or someone going to their car had heard her or seen what was happening. She fought and delayed as much as she could while they manhandled her into the backseat of the SUV.
As the car screamed through the garage at a reckless pace, several of the firm’s security guards attempted to intercept the vehicle. However, they were no match for powerful automatic machine guns being fired at them.
Nakia prayed that no one else was killed. She used the opportunity of the men’s focus on the guards to ensure the lock on her seatbelt and carefully palm her gun. As soon as the car slowed to navigate into the busy downtown traffic, she didn’t hesitate. Doing something she’d never done and operating on pure adrenaline and fear, she moved with speed and stealth that had taken her years to perfect but had never had to put into use. Not allowing herself to think or be squeamish, she fired her gun first at the back of the head of the driver and then the man beside her as the car swerved and careened out of control. The man in the passenger seat turned and looked back at her in shock before raising his gun and pointing it at her. They fired their guns simultaneously.
The car plowed at a dangerous speed into the flowing traffic. With first a crushing hit to the front of the car and then another to the back, the impacts forced the car into a tailspin that had her dropping her gun and holding on to her seatbelt with a desperate grip. Everything around her seemed loud and eerily silent at the same time. It all seemed to be happening in slow motion. The momentum of the car forced her body first against the door and then slammed her against her seatbelt biting into her skin. Pain from somewhere in her body blinded her to everything, and then she knew nothing.
Justin excited the elevator into the garage and into a sea of chaos. The building alarm blared loudly, the sound of footsteps running was loud in the stairwells, and the shouts of the security guards telling people to stay away from the garage were clear and urgent.
“What the hell happened?” Justin shouted to passing security.
“People have been shot, and there’s a bad car accident at the entrance of the garage.” They all continued running toward the entrance.
The sound of sirens in the distance seemed to be coming closer.
“Who was shot?” Colt wanted to know.
“It’s crazy,” one security guard muttered. “The two guys who usually accompanied Ms. McKenzie and some other dudes in a black SUV. Man, it was like World War III up in here.”
“Shit!” Justin gripped his hair in agitation. “Ms. McKenzie? Where is she? Is she okay?” Justin demanded impatiently.
The guard looked at him blankly and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. They said a woman was there, but I don’t know if it was Ms. McKenzie or not. They haven’t been able to reach anyone in the car wreckage out front.”
Justin and Colt ran toward the entrance, overtaking the guards and coming to a horrified halt on seeing the mangled black vehicle that used to be a large Expedition. And then they joined the dozen or so people trying to pry the doors open.
When Justin saw the familiar color of Nakia’s dress through the shattered glass of the window, he almost lost his mind. Before the car door wouldn’t budge under their collective strengths, but now Justin found a desperate strength that had the door pulling away with a loud screech of metal on metal. He pulled the K-Bar knife , which he always carried with him, from his boot and cut the seatbelt from around her. On his knees beside the open door, and his heart in his throat in fear, he placed both of his hands at her waist and pulled her free of the wreckage.