Her gaze met his. “Trust? Maybe that’s going a little too far.”
Lauren grasped her arm. “But you do believe that what we’ve told you is the truth.”
Susan studied her for a long time. “The resemblance … it’s amazing. What did you look like before?”
Dropping Susan’s arm, Lauren glanced awkwardly at Matt, who nodded. “I was awful.” Lauren proceeded to paint a brief, if blunt, picture of her former self. “Richard took care of it all, bless him.” She winced. “Then again …”
Matt curved his hand around her neck. “No, no, sweetheart. From a purely medical standpoint, it is a blessing, what he did. And as for this other, we’ll work it all out. Susan will go to the police with us—”
“Whoa. I never said that.”
“But you have to!” Lauren cried. “It’s your only chance. Sooner or later those guys will find you—”
A deep voice cut her off with an ominously sarcastic “Hel-lo, hel-lo.”
All three heads jerked around. Lauren and Susan gasped in tandem. Matt grew rigid.
“What have we here?” drawled the man whose face and voice Lauren would never in a million years forget. He stood several yards away, a human wall with a gleaming gun in his hand. “Matthew Kruger, Lauren Stevenson … and if it isn’t the elusive Miss Susan Miles.”
“What do you want, Leo?” Susan demanded. Her eyes were hard, glittering more with disgust than with fear.
Leo grinned, that ugly grin Lauren remembered so well, and looked first at Mouse on his left, then at another thug on his right. The eyes he refocused on Susan were nearly black. “You know what I want. I want you.”
“I’m not available.”
“Seems to me you are.” He cocked his head toward Lauren and Matt. “These two don’t want you, that’s for sure. You’ve been a thorn in their sides.”
“I’d pick her any day—” Lauren began, only to be silenced by the restraining hand Matt put on her arm, and by his own retort.
“You’ve got the three of us, and you know damn well that if you so much as touch Susan, we’ll go straight to the police. Do you plan a triple murder?”
“Wouldn’t bother the boss any. I have his okay.”
“Think, Leo, think,” Susan urged. “There are too many people involved now. If you do something to Matt and Lauren, someoneelsewill go to the police. This isn’t another one of your little in-house jobs. If you kill one of your own, you’re doing us all a favor. But to kill me—and these two, who are totally innocent … The police will get you one day, Leo. And if you think Ted will come forward on your behalf, you’re crazy.”
Leo laughed. “The police won’t get me. I’m good at what I do. We’ll have it arranged so it looks like you shot the others, then killed yourself. Very clean.”
“Very simpleminded,” Susan retorted. When Leo made a move toward her, she slipped into a half crouch, arms raised. “I think it’s only fair to warn you that I’ve learned karate.”
Lauren and Matt glanced at each other, then at Susan. Leo threw back his head and laughed louder. “Talk of simpleminded. That threat’s the oldest in the book, and in your case it’s empty. You haven’t had the time to learn enough karate to protect yourself.”
“I’m a quick study.”
“Against a gun?”
Susan had no answer for that, and Matt and Lauren said nothing. They were concentrating on the gun, measuring the distance between Leo and his accomplices, peripherally evaluating the potential weaponry within reach.
“Gotcha there, don’t I?” Leo said. He took a step back. “Okay, I want the three of you to start moving. Straight to the car at the head of the alley.” He gestured at Susan with the gun. “You first.”
Lauren swallowed hard. She had no desire to be in a car with Leo and company. She knew the helplessness of that. No, if a move was to be made, it had to be now.
Matt’s hand remained on her arm, but it was steadily tightening. He agreed with her. She waited for his signal.
Slowly Susan moved forward. She hadn’t taken two steps, though, when her ankle turned and she buckled over.
“Ah, hell,” Leo moaned. “That’s the corniest move I’ve ever seen. It won’t get you anywhere, Susan, and if you think I’m going to carry you, you’re nuts.”
“These heels,” Susan gasped. “They’re too high.”
