Fate’s Unseen Shadow (Cager #1)

Chapter 25

25

E lla’s arms shook from her tight grip on the wheel. She ignored Damon’s warning about going over the speed limit. No way she could keep it to 55 mph. The FBI had to have found her. That’s the only reason for them to show up this way.

Or else Detective Moore was going hard for that date.

She exited the expressway, and a blue vehicle exited with her. She looked a second time as it also turned right onto the highway. Was it Slater’s car? She slowed. A second later she had her answer.

No.

She could see now it was a blue van. But was it truly following her or a coincidence?

Taking a street before Ryker’s, she held her breath, hoping she was wrong.

The van turned behind her.

She floored the gas pedal.

So did the van.

“No,” she whispered.

Everything turned surreal, like an out-of-body experience as she drove too fast through the residential neighborhood. She touched the dashboard screen and clicked the GPS map icon. Ending up at a dead end would be the worst mistake. But did she go to Ryker’s or the police station? Finally, the map appeared. Two lefts and she’d be back onto the expressway.

But when she went to turn, the van clipped the back of her car, spinning her in a circle.

She held tight to the wheel as the world spun.

Her car hit a mailbox and then a light pole on the passenger side, jolting her sideways before rebounding her back into her window with a hard thud.

“Shit!” She rubbed her head, trying to figure out what to do, her head throbbing. She threw it into park and opened the door.

But she was too slow to realize someone stood right there, waiting.

She expected guns in her face and shouts of “FBI! Put your hands up!” And she immediately wished that’s who it was.

She tried to jerk the door closed again, but Walker held it open.

Face bruised and eye swollen from Damon, Walker laughed. “’Fraid that’s not going to work.” With a sad shake of his head, he leaned down and helped her stand with his hand wrapped around her bicep. “C’mon, sugar. No reason to fight this.”

Ella tried to jerk away. “Don’t call me sugar.”

“I’m not a bad guy, despite what Damon says.”

“You offered me three thousand dollars to shake my ass on a table at your bar and promised me tips from men if I, quote, played nice.” She glared at him. “And now you’ve spun out my car. Sorry if I don’t think you’re an upstanding citizen.”

He chuckled as he force-walked her toward the van. “In that light, I do seem sort of horrible.”

But the laughter didn’t take away from the reality of her situation. Ella locked out her legs, pulling back against him. “I’m not going with you. I don’t know”—she grunted with effort—“how you think it will work, forcing me to work at your bar, but this isn’t it.”

“This is way bigger than my bar. I know you’re used to getting your way, sugar, but I’m afraid you don’t have a choice.”

She struck out, slapping his face.

“Oh, Ella.” He tsked under his breath, tightening his grip. “Or should I say, Elizabeth?” He opened the back of the van.

Her vision swam as she saw the man there, crouched down, waiting.

It was him.

Her stalker.

Davies Scott.

“This is a rather interesting turn of events, isn’t it?” Walker led her closer despite her renewed attempts to pull back.

She screamed, hoping to catch the attention of someone in the neighborhood. Although she dug in her heels, Walker dragged her through the gravel. But she didn’t have time to wait for help.

Twisting around, she threw her hand out, catching Walker across the throat.

He grabbed his neck with one hand, coughing and sputtering, but never released her. His grip held strong no matter out much she jerked and bucked.

She shifted her weight, aiming her knee for his crotch.

Before she made contact, he backhanded her across the face.

That made her spin in a circle and drop to the gravel on her knees.

Walker took hold of her ankle and dragged her toward the van, the stones scraping against her belly.

She took a big breath to scream louder, but a hand covered her mouth. A nasty, sweaty hand, the smell making her want to vomit.

The entire left side of her head was on fire after that hit and the slam against the window when she’d wrecked.

Her vision swam as Davies climbed out of the van, picking up both feet while Walker held onto her with one hand under her arm. They tossed her into the back seat of the van. She landed right behind the driver’s side.

Scrambling, she tried the door beside her. Locked. She rushed toward the other door, but it shut in her face. She tugged and pulled on the handle. Nothing happened.

Ella jumped through the seats to the front, only to be shoved back by Davies’s hand in the middle of her chest.

She fell onto the armrest before bouncing to the floor. Taking less than a second to gather herself, she sprang up, but it was too late.

Walker had already sat down on his side.

No way out.

“Don’t do this, Walker,” she pleaded. “You don’t know who you’re involved with.”

Davies grinned. “And who exactly am I?” He chuckled, the sound sending a chill across her skin. “I was worried that you’d forgotten about me, Elizabeth. You’ve been hard to catch.”

Even his voice disturbed her.

“I’ve followed you, you know. City to city. Town to town,” he said, the slowness in his voice sounding like someone telling a scary story. It was. This entire thing was a nightmare. “But we got to Charleston, and I lost you.”

“Should’ve taken me up on my offer earlier,” Walker began, not even out of breath from the struggle. “I would’ve protected you better than that fraud you’re dating.”

He drove the van slowly away from the scene. A few people stood in their yards, watching, but no one helped.

Her heart thumped wildly in her chest as she tried to figure out what to do next. Could she risk Walker wrecking the van if she attacked him? But Davies was there. No way she could take on both of them. She touched the side of her face and winced.

Sitting back wasn’t an option. She had to do something. Come up with a plan. Going to a second location almost always ended in murder.

Frustrated and scared, tears filled her eyes as she realized she didn’t have a plan. Here she was, a passenger princess to her own damn murder.

The van smelled eerily of cleaning fluid, like a mixture of bleach and air freshener—the nasty lemon-scented ones.

Once they pulled onto the expressway, Davies turned and smiled at her. “I don’t believe I’ve formally introduced myself to you. My name is Davies. I wish we could’ve met earlier under different circumstances.”

She looked away, not giving him the satisfaction of asking questions. She had to find a way out of this situation.

It hit her.

With them both facing forward, Ella reached into her back pocket and flicked her phone to silent.

Damon tracked her every movement. He’d find her once the FBI and Detective Moore weren’t holding him up. With her options to escape nonexistent, she studied the expressway. When she saw the sign for Atlanta, she had to ask, “Are you taking me back to my apartment?”

“Yes,” Walker said. “I’m getting paid a pretty penny to turn you over to them.”

“Them?” She eyed Davies. Wasn’t he turning her over to the murderer? “Who else is involved?”

“You’ll find out.”

Matteo and Julia. It had to be them.

She tucked her knees under her chin. “But you’re gonna kill me?”

Walker snorted. “Not me.”

“But you,” she said, looking at Davies. “You’ll kill me like you killed Teddy?”

Davies shot her the same creepy smile he had before while stalking her. “What’s the fun in spoiling your adventure by telling you the ending?”

She rolled her eyes at the corny line. They wouldn’t kill her before Atlanta. They had some other motive if they took her all the way there. “You both realize that if you kill me, Damon will kill you. I mean, look at your face for just touching me tonight. And he only stopped because of Xavier.”

The threat hung in the silent van for seconds before Walker reacted. He readjusted his hands on the steering wheel, his focus flicking to hers in the rearview mirror. But she spotted the concern in his eyes the same way she’d spotted it when Damon had threatened him at the bar.

She pushed forward, hoping to drive home the point. “You saw firsthand how far he’ll go to keep me safe. He will kill you.”

Davies didn’t even acknowledge she’d spoken. He crossed his ankle over his knees, cleaning his nails with a large knife. Did he have a gun? Teddy had been shot. She wished for the gun at this point but quickly pushed the thought away. No. She wasn’t going to die.

Once again, Walker looked at her in the mirror.

She nodded. He knew. He had to realize that he’d never get away with this. Her phone vibrated.

She coughed to cover up any of the humming sounds. God, she was tempted to answer, but she needed to keep it quiet to ensure Damon found her.

“How did you find me?” she finally asked.

“Pure luck,” Walker said. “Davies was traveling through and looking for fun and came to my bar. He said he was asking everyone if they had seen your picture, and he asked me. I was surprised when I saw the woman with that pearl necklace who’d rejected me in the picture. But I tried to do the right thing.”

“Really?” She heard the humor in her voice, displaced for the situation.

“I came to Cager tonight to ask you one more time to work for me. When your boy toy overreacted, I went back to Davies. I told him, yeah, I know where she is, but it would cost him.”

Ella chewed on her lip, wondering if that could be a strategy. If Walker could be bought to kidnap her, he could be bought to give her up—probably not with Davies sitting there, though.

Davies held up the knife, the light hitting against the extra shiny metal. “I polished it for you. Nothing but the best, dear.”

“Don’t call me dear.”

He grinned back at her before continuing his nail grooming.

Bile rose in her throat, but she wouldn’t get sick. She didn’t have time to be weak right now. That weakness would get her killed. Damon would try to find her, but she couldn’t sit by and wait. When they tried to transfer her next, she would make a run for it.