It was up to her.
They reached the bottom of the steps. Another arrow of fear skittered through her. Then they were past Ryder.
What would the old Zoë do? she wondered. But there was no help there. She’d just let herself be hustled into a limo.
And Hadley Richards was depending on that.
No. The sudden flare of anger spiking through her pushed the fear and the paralysis away. Zoë dug in her heels and jerked Digs to a stop. “I’m not going to get in your limo.”
Hadley turned to face her and spoke in a low tone. “You’ll do what I tell you unless you want Digs to use that gun on someone else.”
She tore her arm free of Digs’s hold and spoke in a tone loud enough for passersby to hear. “I don’t think so, Mr. Richards.”
Several people glanced their way.
Zoë lowered her voice. “Want to bet that someone won’t remember your name if your pal starts firing into the crowd. Or I could just scream right now.”
The look he gave her held frustration and pure hatred. Zoë had an idea that she was seeing the real Hadley Richards for the first time.
“We can’t talk here,” he finally bit out.
Trying to hide the fact that her heart was about to beat its way out of her chest, Zoë glanced around. “How about that park bench over there?” Without waiting, she headed toward it. At any moment, she thought, a bullet was going to enter a vital organ.
“WELL,” BAILEY SAID. “She avoided the ride to oblivion in the limo. I’m beginning to like her style.”
“Yeah,” Jed commented. He liked it, too, but it had been a close call. That goon had had a gun pointed at her, and there was a good chance that none of them could have gotten to her in time if Hadley had decided he wouldn’t tolerate any lack of cooperation.
“I know what you’re thinking, Jed,” Ryder said. “But relax and let her handle it. She’s smart. Calling out his name put a damper on his plan to whisk her away. It’ll take him a bit to come up with a new one.”
Jed tried to hold on to that as he watched Hadley take a seat next to Zoë on a bench half a football field away. He steered the dog around and started moving along the path in their direction.
THE MOMENT THAT HADLEY sat down next to her, Zoë shifted so that she could look directly at him. Digs had moved behind the bench, and she didn’t want to think about the gun that was even now pointed at her. She’d dodged a bullet so far, but she didn’t kid herself. Digs could shoot her, and both he and Hadley could easily slip away into the crowd.
Hadley wasn’t looking at her. He was scanning the crowd. Bailey had said that he was a good planner. He was probably coming up with a new course of action right now, so she had to distract him.
“I know that you had Frank Medici killed,” she said.
“What?” He turned to her then, and she saw that she had his full attention.
“You had Frank Medici killed and you framed Lucifer for it. You had me write that report on him, and then you changed my findings. I also know that McManus Pharmaceuticals has a subsidiary holding—Manning Imports—that is laundering money for the Vidal drug cartel. You had me give that report to you verbally. Remember?”
“WHAT IN THE HELL is she doing?” Jed asked. “He’s going to shoot her dead right here in front of the Lincoln Memorial.”
“She’s shocking the pants off of him,” Bailey said, amusement and admiration clear in her voice. “It’s a brilliant tactic. It’s going to keep him off balance.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Jed said. He was already urging the dog closer to the bench. Cursing silently, he reminded himself that a blind man could hardly break into a run.
“Bailey’s right,” Ryder said. “She’s got him going. Give her a chance.”
Jed didn’t see that he had any choice.
ZOË HAD HADLEY RICHARDS’S full attention now.
And any minute, the bullet would come. She was certain of that. It gave her the courage to be reckless. “I have copies of my original reports, including the one on Manning Imports, and the ones on Lucifer that you doctored and forged my name to.”
“You stupid bitch.”
When the volume of his voice had a couple of heads turning, Hadley spoke more quietly. “It would be my word against yours. Do you think anyone would believe you? They’ll just think you’re a woman scorned who’s trying to get revenge.”
“Yes, but I’m thinking that you don’t want the scandal. And just in case Digs has an itchy trigger finger, I’ve given copies of the reports to my attorney, and he will send them to your director if anything happens to me.”