Chapter 382

Anna and I ran as fast as we could. We made it to the side of the building before I dared to look back. Three of the men had made it out of the window and were running after us.

After we rounded the corner, I saw how far we were from the gate. I could see Victor’s car parked on the other side of the heavy metal slat barrier along with a half dozen police cars. But the gate was still closed and locked.

The men were about to come around the corner, and there was no chance I could get to Victor before they caught us.

“Hide, my love,” Victor said in my mind. “Hide until I can break down this gate and get to you.”

“Hurry, but be careful, Victor,” I replied. “John Cameron ordered his men to kill me and you.”

“Hide, sweetheart,” Victor repeated. “I’ll be there to help you soon. John’s time to terrorize us is over.”

“We must hide until Victor breaks down the gate,” I told Anna.

“Where?” Anna asked as we frantically looked around.

There were barrels next to the building, two pickup trucks and another van parked twenty feet away, and big trees along the rear and sides of the fence.

“Let’s try to hide under the trucks,” I decided. Glancing around the corner, I was sure we would make it to the trucks before the men made it around the building.

Anna and I ran for the pickup trucks. We rushed to the far side of a green Ford 4x4 and rolled beneath it.

Hiding in the shadows beneath the truck, we watched John Cameron’s men run around the corner of the building. When they didn’t see us, they stopped and looked around.

“Where are they?” Rodney Wells shouted. I hadn’t realized he was part of the group of men after us, and I enjoyed his frustration.

“Find them, or John will have our heads,” another demanded. It was Kirk Sanders.

“Kirk, did you notice we have company at the front gate,” Rodney said. “It looks like Victor Klein brought the police. Maybe Daisy did get away, and she alerted him.”

“She’s still here. We just saw her go out a window.” Kirk stared at the crowd of uniforms on the other side of the gate. “I'm going inside to warn John. He needs to get out of here.”

“What about the rest of us?” Rodney asked. “I don’t want to go to prison anymore than John does.”

“Just hold the cops off and watch for the girls,” Kirk ordered. “They couldn’t have gotten out of the compound. Capture Daisy and take her to John.”

“Hold off the cops!” Rodney exploded. “How?”

“Be a leader for once!” Kirk barked. “Arm the men or ram them with a truck. Just hold them off.”

Do the men have more guns? Was Victor in danger of being shot?

As the men argued, I crawled closer to the edge of the truck’s bed to see what was happening.

More police vehicles had arrived on the other side of the gate. Their flashing lights lit up the front of the old factory.

Victor’s voice echoed through my mind. “The police have almost cut through the lock. I’ll be able to get to you soon.”

“Anna and I are hiding beneath the green pickup truck,” I told him. “But we will move closer now that you are almost through the gate. I can’t wait to be in your arms.”

Kirk strode around the corner of the building, and Rodney began to walk toward a shed near the trees.

There were other men around, but if we were careful, we should be able to make it to the gate to meet Victor and the police.

“Victor and the police are cutting through the lock on the gate,” I told Anna. “Let’s move closer to them and away from John’s men.”

“Is it safe to come out of our hiding spot?” Anna asked.

“The men were talking about evacuating the factory,” I reasoned. “They may want to use the truck to do that. I don’t want to be under it when they do.”

“You’re right,” Anna agreed. “Let’s stay near the trucks and then stick to the trees along the fence until we get to the gate.”

There was a loud cheer from the police when the lock gave way, and the gate swung inward. They finished cutting through the lock.

“Or we could just run to the police and Victor,” I said. I couldn't wait much longer to be with my love.

We crawled out from beneath the truck on the side away from the building. Then we went from truck to truck to get closer to the gate.

The police were now inside the fence, fighting with John’s men. I saw Victor just behind the line of police officers.

“Let’s run for it,” I said. “We’ll run around all the men and be safe once we reach Victor.”

Anna looked unconvinced, but she nodded her agreement to the plan.

“Let’s go,” I said, and we began to run in an arc toward the gate.

The fighting between John’s men and the police was fierce, but the police were winning. We saw several of John’s men face down on the ground, wearing handcuffs.

We were several yards away from the open gate when someone grabbed me and put a strong arm around my chest.

“Troublemaking wench,” a voice growled into my ear. “You’re not going anywhere.”

I recognized the voice. It was Rodney Wells. He had a gun pressed against my side.

“Start walking back to the factory,” he growled. “If you don’t cooperate, you’re dead.”

“No!” I cried. To be this close to freedom and the love of my life and be pulled away was unbearable.

But Rodney brutally rammed the barrel of the gun into my side. “I said walk,” he snarled.

“Run, Anna,” I told her. “Tell Victor …”

Suddenly, he struck me in the head from behind, and I was stunned. The world spun, and my legs turned to jelly. Strange arms caught me as I began to fall.

I was dizzy and weak, yet conscious as I was dragged back inside the factory.

I was beginning to recover as I was forced inside the luxurious room Anna and I had seen from the crawl space above the ceiling.

But it wasn't just a room. John had turned a portion of the factory into a posh hideout. It was apparent he had been living here among silk wall hangings, thick carpets, and plush furnishings.

He grinned with delight when Rodney forced me to stand in front of him.

“Miss Wilson,” he crooned. “How wonderful to see you.”

“I can’t say the same about you,” I said. My voice sounded far away in my ears. Maybe the blow to my head gave me a concussion. “Your thirst for wealth and power destroys other people’s lives, and you couldn’t care less. You are despicable.”

“Climb off your golden pedestal, Princess Daisy,” he snarled. “Only do-gooders like you act like you don’t want money and power. Yet you and Victor have both, and you seem to enjoy it.”

He ground his teeth. “You both take having money and power of the leadership of the Association for granted. Then you look down on me. But you know what? Unlike me, you would never be smart and brave enough to go after what you really want.”

“Power and money aren’t as important as self-respect or having someone to love and love you back,” I countered. “But that’s two things you’ll never have no matter how much blood money you accumulate.”

“It’s going to make me ecstatically happy to kill you, Daisy,” John growled. “I should have done it a long time ago when you interfered with my takeover of Wilson, Inc.”

“You failed then, and you’ll fail now,” I said. “You are evil, and evil never prevails.”

John laughed. “You poor naive girl. Of course, it does. I have a huge offshore bank account, and I’m about to get rid of you once and for all.”

“And then what?” I asked. “Almost all of your men have been captured and are under arrest. Your drugs will be confiscated. And best of all, Victor is coming to make you pay for kidnapping me.”

John’s face turned red as he sputtered, “Shut up! I’m sick of you. I should kill you now.”

“If you kill me, Victor will avenge me,” I warned. “He will make sure you pay dearly for my murder and the rest of your crimes.”

John grabbed me and shook me, making my head spin.

“If Victor loves you so much, you could be more useful to me alive,” he said. “I’ll take you with me to ensure me and the rest of my men get away.”