She was still hacked, and he wasn’t sure she would answer, but eventually she said, “I love it. I have an excellent staff.”

“How many people?”

“Eight full-time. Others work only the events. They’re all talented and hardworking. They didn’t tuck tail and run when Josh began making headlines.” Her eyes began to fill with tears again. “In fact, they remained fiercely loyal. I regret the hell they must be going through right now, not knowing whether I’m dead or alive.”

“You can blame me.”

“I do.” Her expression turned even bleaker. “You’ve asked me a lot of questions. Am I’m entitled to ask you one?”

“You can ask. Don’t know if I’ll answer.”

“If…” Her voice became husky with exhaustion, anxiety, fear, and a mix of other emotions he couldn’t isolate and identify but wished he could. “If you finally had come to accept that I couldn’t deliver Josh to you, and if I hadn’t done this…” She nodded down at the wound. “If you were certain that Panella would have paid your price…” A single tear slid from the corner of her eye and ran unchecked down her cheek. She took a catchy breath. “Would you have killed me?”

Chapter 21

Her question hung in the air between them.

Suddenly the quiet was shattered by his name being boomed through a speaker and reverberating through the building. He sprang bolt upright and almost blacked out from the reflexive movement and the riot of pain it caused. But his left hand was steady as he aimed his pistol toward the door.

“This is Special Agent Joe Wiley, FBI. Shaw Kinnard?”

“Yeah. And I’m not deaf. Turn off that damn bullhorn.”

After a pause of several seconds, the agent spoke to them in a voice no longer amplified but loud enough to carry. “All right, you asked for me, you got me. I’m coming in.”

“Alone and unarmed,” Shaw said.

“I’m both.”

Jordie slouched with relief. “Thank God,” she breathed, and said to Shaw, “You can put the gun down now.”

“Not a fucking chance.”

“But he said—”

“He’s lying.”

A silhouette appeared in the open doorway, arms extended at his sides, fingers spread wide to show that his hands were empty.

She whispered, “See? He’s keeping his word.”

“Not to me he isn’t.”

“But—”

“Ms. Bennett?” the agent called.

Shaw nudged her with his elbow. “Don’t say anything until you hit him with the spotlight.”

Jordie looked at Shaw with misgiving. “Why? What are you going to do?”

“Hit him with the spotlight.”

“So you can see to shoot him?”

“I could already have shot him, and if I’d fired, he’d be dead. Now shine the light on him.”

Still uncertain, she picked up the spotlight, turned it on, and pointed it toward the agent, who blinked against the bright beam but didn’t recoil from it.

“That your guy?” Shaw asked her.

“Yes.”

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

“Okay. Answer him.”

She cleared her throat. “Agent Wiley? I’m here.”

“You all right?”

“Yes. I’m fine. But Mr. Kinnard is seriously wounded.”

“How so?”

“I…I—”

Shaw said, “She stuck me in the gut.”

Joe Wiley took a moment to process that. “You’re bleeding out?”

“Not quickly. But I think my entrails are filling up with pus.”

“Then you’re out of options except to surrender peacefully.”

“Wrong. I could opt to kill you where you stand.”

“You do and it’s likely that you and Ms. Bennett would also be cut down.”

“At least I’d die trying.”

“It still amounts to a hopeless outcome.” Joe Wiley let that sink in. “Surrender, Mr. Kinnard. You’ll receive immediate medical attention. You have my word.”

During their exchange, Jordie had kept the spotlight trained on the federal agent, afraid of what either he or Shaw would do if she switched it off. She feared a hair-trigger reaction to the sudden darkness that could result in an eruption of catastrophic gunfire.

She looked at the small but menacing pistol still gripped in Shaw’s hand, then into his fever-glazed eyes. Please. She didn’t even speak the word. It was merely a beseeching movement of her lips, and it persuaded him.

He lowered his gun hand, drew in a deep breath, and released it slowly. Turning his head to bring their faces close, and speaking in a voice only she could hear, he said, “To answer your question . . . The moment I laid eyes on you, your life was spared.”

She took that in, her throat constricting with emotion. “So all this time I’ve been safe from you?”

“Safe from me?” He gave a grim smile and shook his head. “Not for a single second.”

He held her stare for several beats more, then, moving quickly, reached behind his back, took the knife from his seat pocket, and flicked it open. “Hold still.” He cut the cuff from their wrists. “Now go.”

“Shaw—”

“Go!” His whisper was harsh, emphatic.

Sounding alarmed, Wiley shouted from the doorway. “Ms. Bennett, what’s going on?”

Shaw said, “Go!”

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“Jesus!” He reached for her hand and slapped the pistol into it. “Now will you get the hell away from me?”

She hesitated a second more, then made to stand up, but Shaw grabbed her arm. “Alert him, so he won’t blast you.”

“Agent Wiley,” she called shakily. “I’m coming out. I have his gun. He gave it to me. All right?”

“Hold it where I can see it.”

Shaw released her arm and gave a brusque nod. Again, she wavered, then stood up, turned away from him, and started walking slowly toward the door, holding her right hand away from her body.

In one glance, Joe evaluated the physical condition of the woman coming toward him, and his immediate impression was that she was a much diminished version of the Jordan Bennett he remembered from months before.

She was walking unsteadily. As she neared him, she raised her hands in surrender. Both her hands and her clothing were liberally bloodstained. In her right hand she was holding a small pistol.

“Set the pistol on the floor.”

She did.

“Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“Okay, just like that,” Joe said, “with arms raised.” He jerked his head toward the open door behind him. “Now. Hick?”

“Here!”

“She’s coming out.”

She scurried past Joe and through the door. Joe stayed where he was, but he could hear Hick speaking to her quietly and urgently. After a moment, Joe spoke softly over his shoulder. “Hick, can you hear me?”