“Go to hell.”
As though she hadn’t spoken, he said, “I’m curious. If you had gotten that door open with your toes, what were you going to do? Try to worm your way through it without me noticing? Was that your plan?”
She didn’t honor him with a reply, only glared up at him.
“And say you had cleared the door, what then, Jordie?”
Her knees nearly buckled when he spoke her name.
Of course, if he had taken her purse when he kidnapped her, he would have read her name on her driver’s license and credit card. Right?
Wrong. Because both bore her full legal name, not the familiar nickname Jordie.
He knew her.
Most despairing, however, was that it came as no real surprise that he’d called her by name. When she saw the grim pair striding toward her on the parking lot, she’d realized instantly what their purpose was and who had sent them.
The only thing she didn’t know was Why now?
“You didn’t think it through too well,” he said, continuing on that thread. “We were going over seventy miles an hour. If you’d opened that door, it would have sounded like a wind tunnel.
“And say you had managed to wiggle out, you’d have landed on the pavement like those bugs on the windshield.” He gestured toward it. “Splat! I’d have had to stop and scrape you up, which would have been time-consuming and messy as hell.”
“Why bother to stop and scrape me up?”
He replied without a blink. “Because in order to collect my money I have to produce your body.”
Chapter 5
Well, she’d asked, hadn’t she?
And he’d told her, answering the question without hesitation or inflection, without even a taunting lilt. More frightening than a voice scratchy with menace was one entirely devoid of emotion. It was characteristic of the cold-blooded way he’d shot the other man.
She swallowed with difficulty. “Who was he? The man you killed.”
“Mickey Bolden. Killer for hire.”
“He was hired to kill me?”
He just looked at her.
“Now you’ll do it alone.”
His expression didn’t change.
“Who hired you?”
As expected, he didn’t answer. Not that he needed to.
She said, “I suppose I should be flattered that I merited two hit men. Did you and Mr. Bolden often work in tandem?”
“First time.”
She looked at him with surprise.
He gave a shrug of complete indifference. “His retirement was overdue. He’d gotten comfortable in the job. Sloppy. For instance, when you walked into the bar, he told me to relax and go with the flow. Said your showing up there tonight was just a coincidence.”
She saw the bait for what it was and said nothing.