Sky moved toward it. He reached past her to shove it open.
If she pushed him, if she went for his arm...
“Don’t even think about it,” he told her.
She pushed the panel, went through the door. They started to move up to the main level again, reaching the door to the backstage parking.
“An alarm will raise all hell. If you just go and leave me—”
“Not on your life!”
“But—”
“You forget. I run this place,” he reminded her, smiling grimly.
Of course.
He hit a code in a box by the door and pushed it open. The door silently moved, and they stepped outside.
There were agents everywhere!
Except out here.
Because, of course, they’d had the place locked down. The agents were approaching, questioning and perhaps even searching everyone.
Somewhere busy talking to Chris and Brandon and others...
No. They would know. Brandon would have told them about the entry to the lower-stage area and they would be coming after her...
“Hey!” someone shouted.
But Kenneth Malcolm didn’t hesitate. He turned, taking a wild shot, not really caring if it hit its target or not.
They heard the sound of a thud. Someone had hit the ground.
And there was no fire in return.
“So you just killed another innocent?”
“Maybe I just wounded a bastard cop. No time to figure it out.”
“After all this, you think your king is going to get you to Mexico? I hear he kills people who don’t carry out all his plans.”
“I’m not just a flunky.”
“Hmm. That could be all the worse!”
“Shut the hell up and move. Over there. That nice little SUV that looks like every other SUV and has the dirtied plates. I am not an idiot, Miss Ferguson. I’m a smart man—the one who will kill you if he has to.”
She moved ahead as he prodded her with the gun, praying that whoever had called out to him wasn’t dead.
Chase would come after her. She knew it.
But she knew, as well, that she needed to keep herself alive. He’d pointed out that she had no training.
But she had instinct, and she desperately wanted this man brought to justice, to pay for what he had done to her father and others.
She had to watch and wait because...
He would make a mistake. She didn’t know when or where, but he would make a mistake.
And when he did, she swore silently to herself, she would be ready.
She had wanted the truth. She had wanted it so badly because there should be no disbelief, no skepticism ever, that her father had found his focus in life, that he had never fallen again, that he had lived for his music—and for others.
She closed her eyes, remembering him. He’d had such strength and such courage. Seeing him, in her mind’s eye, in her memories, she knew that he had served his country and more, and he had lived every day of his life with courage, the courage to be his own man, the best husband and the best father.
He had given her music. And so much more.
And this...
Whatever happened, she would face it, manage it, do what she could...
This man had caused her father’s death. She wouldn’t falter. And with faith in his memory, and men like Chase, she just might make it. And who knew? Others knew that Malcolm had taken her.
Chase knew.
Malcolm had told her about hope. Hope was good to cling to. Hope, courage...and faith.
