Rainier cut him off. “You aren’t listening, Jack. If you want to keep your marriage and, ultimately, your life, you should listen closely.”
A chill went down Jack’s spine and for the first time, real fear crept in. He tasted bile. Rainier was capable of carrying out his threat—and that was a direct threat to Jack’s life. Rainier came and went from his heavily guarded home at will, showing his ability to end Jack’s life easily.
“I’m listening.” He choked out the words. His voice sounded strangled even to his own ears. Rainier’s calm demeanor was getting to him. In truth, he’d always been a little afraid of the man, which was one of the many reasons he had for despising him.
Men were afraid of Jack, not the other way around. He gave orders and everyone listened, but not Rainier. Rainier gave theorders, and no matter how Jack tried to get around the man, he never came out on top in an argument between them. He’d tried to use his considerable clout to get Rainier fired from his job with the idea he would lose government protection as well as his information sources. Jack discovered very quickly that Rainier had much more power and influence than he had. He hadn’t found a way to remove the “ghost” from their lives.
It wasn’t just Jack’s marriage Rainier had threatened. He warned Jack his life might be forfeit. If he knew anything about Rainier, it was to take everything he said seriously.
“Shabina doesn’t want to see you or talk to you, and you’re going to respect her wishes. She does want to be able to talk with her mother and see her. You’re going to allow that to happen. You’re going to encourage Yasemin to call her daughter and suggest a visit because you must go out of town and Yasemin can’t go with you. Tell her you’d feel better if she was with her daughter and under my protection.”
Jack found himself shaking his head, his heart pumping wildly. “No, I can’t do that. Yasemin stays with me, where I can look after her. We don’t separate for any reason.”
“That’s too bad, Jack. I’m sorry you see it that way.” Rainier stood up. He was no more than a faint shadow of gray in the unrelenting darkness. “Make sure your affairs are in order. You have two weeks to get that done. Make the most of your time with your wife. Teach her anything she might need to know about running your business in those two weeks. Prepare her.”
Rainier spoke so casually that it took a minute to sink in, to realize what he was saying.
“You’re going to kill me.” Jack made it a statement. He was so scared that he feared he might disgrace himself by vomiting, or worse, his bladder letting loose.
“What did you think I’d do when you tried to lock my wife in a mental institution? When you put a hit out on her? I gave you my terms, and you refused them. I’m not going to argue with you. For me, I find it much easier just to kill you and get you out of the way. Yasemin will grieve for a while. Shabina probably will too, but they’ll both get over your death. Life goes on.” He sounded pragmatic. “Believe me, Jack, after what you did to Shabina, I will find great satisfaction in ending you.”
Jack swore under his breath. Rainier was the man the government sent to carry out dark deeds. A “ghost.” One of the best, if notthebest. He had walked into Jack’s home dozens of times, right past the guards. He had come into Jack’s home tonight despite the number of security personnel scattered through the house and on the grounds. No alarm had gone off. Jack could almost believe Rainier was an apparition. He did believe he would carry out his threat and never look back. There would be no way to stop him.
“I agree to your terms,” he capitulated.
Rainier sighed. “If you think you can renege on our agreement, Jack, even if I miss somehow, if you manage to find a way to kill me, my men will lock on you so fast you won’t know what hit you. You climbed to the top of our hit list the moment word of what you’d done got out. We all stick together and look after one another’s families. You’re already considered a dead man walking. Don’t be stupid enough to make it real.”
“I understand,” Jack said. “I agreed to your terms, and I’ll stick with them. That doesn’t mean eventually I won’t try to get back in my daughter’s life. Hopefully, she’ll be able to forgive me.”
“I’m sure she will, given time,” Rainier said. “But I won’t.”
Chapter Eighteen
“I screamed,” Theresa admitted. “We were there to have fun. We’d been talking so much about how Felicity and Eve were helping us. Miguel sometimes too. I had pointed out this one boulder and said it looked epic and I wanted to climb it, but Eve said no, that was a ‘highball’ and I wasn’t ready for a climb like that. Janine loved the name and wanted to see it, so Edward offered to take us out early in the morning.”
Shabina sank into the empty chair at their table. Raine, Zahra and Harlow leaned closer to hear.
Three days into Rainier’s absence, a fifth victim was discovered. The fact that he was discovered alive, but in a coma, shocked everyone. Lawyer Collins, a man well-liked and respected in the community, had been out climbing the Buttermilks. Usually, there were numerous people around this time of year, and that was probably what saved his life.
“Edward said he knew a good boulder for Janine to start. We’d already put our crash pads down and were discussing who would climb first, but he didn’t think the boulder was right for Janine. He was going to check out another one to see if any climbers had beat us to it.”
Val took up the story. “I was going to climb the boulder where we had our gear when Miguel showed up with Avita and her brother, Pablo. They had the same idea as Edward—to get there really early before too many climbers were out. Edward did have a flying gig later in the afternoon, so he wanted us to have fun and all of us get our climb in before he had to go.”
“We heard moaning. But it sounded awful like someone was really injured and in pain. We decided to investigate,” Theresa said. “There was a spot just where the next boulder was, and there was blood all over the ground. I’m not going to lie, I was scared.”
“Terrified,” Janine corrected. “I started yelling at the top of my lungs for Edward. We followed the blood trail and drag marks in the grass. His body had been dragged away from the boulder into the brush.”
“Miguel got ahead of us, and he was the one to find the body on the ground,” Val said.
“I screamed,” Theresa reiterated. “I’m surprised everyone in Knightly didn’t hear me. The man’s skull looked as if it had been bashed in.”
“It looked like a scene from a horror movie,” Val said. “Edward and Miguel said they knew him. They kept calling his name, Lawyer, and told him to hang on, help was coming. We called the emergency number, and they sent the paramedics and the sheriff.”
Shabina gasped. Lawyer. She knew and liked him. Why would the murderer choose Lawyer?
“Edward said it looked like his skull had been smashed with a rock, not once but twice,” Theresa said. She brought a shaky hand to her eyes as if she could blot out the image.
“A flat rock had been set very close to where his body lay, but only a few items were on what appeared to be a makeshift altar,” Janine added. “Some were scattered on the ground.”
