Chapter 2 - The Name Dean Wouldn’t Say
Victor lowered his shovel.
“Which kid?”
Dean breathed hard through his nose.
“You think I’m telling you now?”
Miles took one step toward the edge.
Dean laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“You kill me, you lose the only person who knows where the rest of the payment is coming from.”
Victor’s expression tightened.
That interested him.
Evelyn watched everything.
Dean had not said he could prove who hired them.
He had said he knew.
There was a difference.
Victor crouched near the edge.
“You arranged the job.”
“I arranged transportation.”
“You took the money.”
“I took the first payment.”
“And the rest?”
Dean looked toward the SUV.
“Not where you think.”
Miles muttered, “He’s stalling.”
“Of course I’m stalling,” Dean snapped. “I’m in a grave.”
Victor said nothing.
That silence gave Dean time.
He shifted his bound wrists beneath him, pressing the plastic restraint against the jagged metal edge of a shovel that had fallen into the pit when he was thrown.
Evelyn saw what he was doing.
She stopped struggling.
Victor pointed at Dean.
“You get one chance.”
Dean kept sawing the zip tie against the metal.
“The person who hired me knew Mrs. Cross’s Thursday schedule. Knew what car she’d be driving. Knew she’d leave the house before five.”
Evelyn felt cold for a reason that had nothing to do with the morning air.
Thursday.
Her physical therapy appointment in Hendersonville had been moved to 6:15 a.m. because she had a Cross Ridge Holdings board meeting later that morning.
Only three people knew.
Her assistant.
Mara.
Colin.
Dean continued.
“And your client knew she’d changed the route.”
Victor glanced toward Miles.
That was when the plastic finally snapped.
Dean moved fast.
He drove his shoulder into the dirt wall, caught the rim of the pit, and swung the fallen shovel upward with both hands.
The wooden handle struck Miles across the forearm.
Miles stumbled.
Dean hauled himself over the edge.
Victor grabbed for him.
Dean slammed into Victor, and both men went down in the loose soil.
Evelyn twisted desperately below them.
Dean reached Victor first.
A folding utility knife clipped inside Victor’s coat flashed in the dim light.
Dean grabbed it.
Miles came toward him.
Dean pointed the blade.
“Back up.”
For one second, nobody moved.
Then Dean dropped back into the pit.
He cut Evelyn’s ankle ties.
Then her wrists.
Then the tape.
Her first full breath burned.
“Can you climb?”
Evelyn looked at the two men above them.
“I can if I have to.”
May you like
Dean braced his back against the wall and gave her his shoulder.
Behind them, Victor had begun getting up.
