Dead and Gone by Jack Patterson (universal ebook reader .TXT) 📕

a plane and go home, never to show your face around a racetrack again. Got it?”

“What did I do?” Cal asked.

“I think you know exactly what you’ve done. And it’s time for you to leave.”

Cal didn’t flinch. “Who are you working for?”

The man pulled out his gun and jammed it underneath Cal’s throat. “I ask the questions around here now. It’s time for you to go.” He whipped Cal in the head with the butt of his gun while the other man put a sack on Cal’s head and heaved him back into the trunk.

***

AN HOUR LATER, Cal awoke in his own car to a black sky. On the passenger seat was a ticket for a flight home, scheduled to depart in ninety minutes.

He reached for his phone. As he was dialing, a text message appeared on his screen:

We’re watching you.

Cal glanced around in every direction, searching for whoever might be watching him. Then he saw a pair of headlights flash at him.

Great.

Instead of calling Kelly, he decided to text her. At best, they’d bugged his car. At worst, his phone. He had to take a chance on getting in touch with her somehow.

He started to type when another message flashed up on his screen.

Quit texting and drive … or we’ll make your life miserable again.

Cal put down his phone and fired up the engine. He eased onto the accelerator and headed toward the airport.

A pair of headlights on high beams glared in his rearview mirror.

CHAPTER 35

JESSICA TANNER TRIED to take a deep breath but failed. With each passing second, she recognized the necessity to do so, even without the nurse’s constant reminders. After a minute, she succeeded and leaned back in her bed.”

I need to call Cal.

She picked up her phone and started dialing his number.

A nurse entered the room and rushed over to her bedside. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Mrs. Tanner. You need to rest,” she said as she wrangled the phone away from Jessica. “You can call people later.”

Jessica sat up. “How dare you? I need to make a phone call right now. You can’t tell me what—”

Jessica’s vitals spiked as she turned her focus on trying to regain control of her breathing. No sooner had she stopped hyperventilating than her face contorted and she began to grunt.

“This is why you need to listen to me,” the nurse said, seizing control of the phone from Jessica’s limp hand. She put the phone on Jessica’s bedside table.

“I think I’m—I’m having a contraction,” Jessica stammered.

“Sure you are.” The nurse fluffed up Jessica’s pillows and propped her up in the bed. “Those are stress induced, which is why you don’t need visitors or to be talking to anyone right now. You need to rest.”

“I know, but this is really important.” Jessica let out a long sigh and relaxed.

“Nothing is more important than that little baby in your body right now. Whatever it is, it can wait. It’s not life or death.”

“But it is.”

The nurse rolled her eyes. “What? Your husband didn’t bring you the right shade of mascara for your hospital visit? You are having second thoughts about the color you painted the nursery? Relax. It’ll be all right.”

Jessica clenched her fists and seethed. Based on how she felt, she wanted nothing more than to plant a punch between the nurse’s eyes. She thought better of it, relaxed her hands and nodded. “You’re right. It’ll be all right.” She closed her eyes and waited.

The moment she heard the door latch, she opened her eyes to find the nurse gone. She grabbed her phone and dialed Cal’s number.

“This is Cal Murphy.”

“Cal, it’s me—Jessica. I need your help.”

“Now’s not a good time.”

She felt her heart rate rising, attesting to the increased pace of beeps on her monitor. “I really need your help. I’m here in Phoenix now, and things have spiraled out of control since we last spoke.”

“Seriously—it’s not a good time.”

She ignored him. “I got a call from some random guys threatening me if I didn’t pay them a half-million dollar debt that they are saying Tanner racked up. I passed out in the parking lot at the track and woke up in the hospital, where Ned Davis visited me. He offered me what amounts to hush money if I drop the investigation and renounce the findings. I just don’t know what to do.” She began to cry.

“Look, Jessica. I’m sorry—I really am. I want to help, but I can’t right now. In fact, I’m done. I’ve got my own problems I’m dealing with now, starting with the fact that I no longer have a job. But even worse, somebody has threatened my wife. And that’s the end of that. I won’t be pursuing this story any longer.”

“But you have to. You can’t just—”

“I can and I have, Jessica. I’ve got a wife and a daughter to worry about. And no story is so big that it trumps my family’s safety. I’m really sorry, but I wish you the best of luck.”

“Cal Murphy, I swear to God—” she said before the line went dead.

She threw her phone across the room and seethed, trying to ignore her increased heart rate. It was all she could think about.

The nurse stormed into the room and noticed the phone missing from the bedside table. “What did you do?”

“I think I’m having another contraction.”

“What happened to get you so worked up? This isn’t normal.”

Jessica said nothing before she turned pale and fainted.

CHAPTER 36

KELLY MURPHY PRESSED the redial button again and muttered under her breath. It wasn’t like Cal to ignore her calls and fail to call her back unless something was wrong. More often than she’d like to remember, things had gone wrong for Cal while investigating various stories. It wasn’t a nightmare she wanted to relive again, but her stomach sank when her latest attempt to reach him ended in a direct-to-voicemail answer.

“Come on,