“I will.” Leaning closer, he gave her a swift kiss.
Getting out, he tucked the gun into the back of his pants. He didn’t want to advertise he was a threat if this was a simple misunderstanding.
He’d barely cleared the vehicle when he heard, “Holy shit! Monkey Boy?” and froze.
Terrence Godwin.Terrence Fucking Godwin. Just a few yards away from him, laughing and slapping his thigh like this was the funniest thing he’d ever seen.
Before Kong’s brain could fully comprehend that his prey had come to him – older, rougher looking, a bit soft around the middle – Godwin, remarked, “I’d love to stay and catch up, but…”
He saw the gun in the man’s raised hand, felt the breath-stealing punch of a bullet hit his chest before he heard the shot, and suddenly, he was on his back, looking up at the sky. Through the roar in his ears, he heard Katherine screaming his name. He wanted to tell her to go. Drive. Get away, but his body was already shutting down on him.
“Kong!” Katherine scrambled for the door latch, her fingers clumsy in her haste. Kong had been shot and she couldn’t see him anymore. He might be bleeding, dying… She needed to get to him. Needed to help.
Her foot slid as she stumbled out and she just barely caught herself. Scrambling around the SUV, she spotted him then. He was on the ground, his eyes closed, and a bloom of dark, spreading red stained the front of his shirt.
“Kong,” she sobbed, her knees buckling.
Her head was suddenly wrenched back by her hair, and Katherine let out a gasp of pained surprise as she reached up and grabbed onto a clenched fist.
“Time to go.”
Katherine struggled, digging in her feet, as the man who shot Kong dragged her away by her hair. She needed to stay with Kong. He might still be alive! She couldn’t leave him! She clawed at the hand that held her, her nails digging into his skin and drawing blood. “Let me go!”
With a curse, he yanked her to her feet and shoved the barrel of his gun into her cheek. Katherine froze. She didn’t even dare to breathe.
“Bitch, I will shoot you in the fucking face. Now shut the fuck up.”
She shut up, but she couldn’t stop fighting. Kong needed her. As soon as he lowered the gun to propel her along, she gritted her teeth against the pain in her scalp from his tight grip and lashed out with her fists and feet until he was forced to bodily pick herup to restrain her. Her back to his chest, she flailed against him ineffectually.
He carried her around the back of his car and popped the trunk. The lid raised slowly and Katherine spotted something inside. It was a woman. She was wearing a light gray suit dress that was rucked up her blood-smeared thighs, her legs bent so she’d fit in the space. Her blonde, blood-matted hair partially concealed a face that was mottled with bruises as sightless eyes stared up from the trunk. Dead. She was dead and Katherine screamed as she was thrown on top of the body.
Roughly, he shoved at her legs to get her fully inside before the trunk closed and darkness swallowed her. “Let me out!” Repeatedly, she threw her elbow back, ramming it against the trunk lid in a panic, but it didn’t open. Her heart raced, as fear seeped in until she was panting in short, staccato breaths, a hairsbreadth from hyperventilating.
Through the roar of blood pounding in her ears, she heard a car door slam shut, felt the engine come to life and the car started moving. Bile rose in her throat, almost choking her. Her fear was bordering on debilitating as she grew lightheaded, but blinking hard, she forced herself to push through and think. A trunk release. Every car had an emergency trunk release. She just needed to find it.
Wincing as she shifted on the dead body beneath her, she searched with her eyes and spotted the glow-in-the-dark tab. She gasped in a painful sob of relief. She was going to get out of this, go back to Kong, arm herself with his gun, and use his phone to call Black Bay.
Grabbing the cord, she pulled – only for it to come free in her hand.
No! He must have disabled it…
With a keening cry of hopelessness, Katherine’s grief and fear overwhelmed her as hot tears leaked down her cheeks. “Kong…”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Terrence Godwin slapped thesteering wheel and laughed. Monkey Boy. After all these years. He’d heard a rumor once that the Legratia experiments had been put down, but he’d figured that was bullshit. The government wouldn’t waste potential assets. They’d want to squeeze every drop of usefulness out of them. He had no idea what the freak was doing with Katherine Knox at Black Bay, but it didn’t matter. Shooting that animal had been damn satisfying – even if it wouldn’t stick. Didn’t matter though. He’d be long gone before the gorilla woke up.
He checked his mirrors. No one was following them and the bitch had finally stopped screaming. Good. They’d be hitting more populated areas soon; he didn’t need her alerting some do-gooder. Besides, he only liked to hear them scream when he was an active participant in causing them pain. Otherwise, the sound was just annoying.
He couldn’t wait to get her to the place he’d found. It was rundown, little better than a shack, but it was out of the way, with no nosy neighbors to interfere with his plans. It wouldn’t be long now before August Cleary learned that he’d fucked with the wrong guy.
Cleary had left him high and dry in Florida. He’d called for help, for a pickup, and the asshole claimed it wasn’t a good time.Wasn’t a good time?!Godwin’s mug was all over the news and plastered on social media because of that weak bitch he’d killed. There was no better time. Then Cleary stopped returning any of his calls – had left him to rot – basically nullifying their deal, but if Cleary thought he’d seen the last of him, he was dead wrong.
He’d been squatting in abandoned buildings and eating food from dumpsters since he couldn’t go into a store without being recognized. He’d made the mistake of going into a convenience store before he realized what was going on, and his face was right there on the TV, wanted for murder. If he hadn’t spotted the shifty look on the cashier’s face, making a phone call, he might not have gotten out of there before the cops showed up.
Well, he’d show Mister Not A Good Time. August Cleary was going to pay for every run-down place Terrence had been forced to hide out in and every bit of disgusting food he’d had to force down just to keep up his strength.
Cleary didn’t know it, but he’d fucked up and thanks to the information Cleary had divulged, Terrence had all the leverage he needed. And he would use that leverage to get his revenge. It would be fucking sweet.
