Chapter 3

Muddy water and blood dripped from my hands.

Dragging my scraped leg, I limped into the underpass on the corner.

Cold wind cut through my wet shirt. I was about to look for a pay phone to call the butler when I heard an engine roar behind me.

High beams blazed across my back. I turned and squinted into the light.

A black pickup with no license plates sped straight toward me.

I threw myself toward a nearby trash can, and the pickup grazed my thigh as it passed.

The tires screeched, and the truck stopped across the underpass exit, trapping me.

The driver's door opened. A big bald man climbed out with a metal baseball bat.

I knew him. Luke was one of Leo's friends from the black market.

Luke rested the bat on his shoulder and gave me a leering grin.

"Well, well, if it isn't Elena. How'd you end up looking like a stray dog?"

I pressed my back to the wall, watching the bat in his hand.

"Who sent you?"

Luke gave a cold laugh and swung the bat twice.

"Leo's real generous. He paid me $10,000 to break one of your legs and make sure you leave Texas tonight for good.

"He said a broke woman like you knows too much. You'll ruin his plans to marry the rich girl if you stay here."

Before he'd even finished, Luke stepped forward and swung the bat into my left shin.

Pain shot through me. I grunted and dropped to my knees in the standing water.

I broke out in a cold sweat, but I gritted my teeth and refused to beg.

Luke grabbed my hair and forced my head up.

The reek of alcohol and cigarettes hit me. His gaze crawled over my soaked clothes.

"Damn, you're pretty. No wonder Leo slept with you for three years without paying a cent."

Luke licked his lips and reached for my collar.

"Be good and spend the night with me, sweetheart. Maybe I'll leave your other leg alone. What do you say?"

I felt sick.

As Luke leaned down to kiss me, my right hand found half a brick in the muddy water. I smashed it into his forehead.

The brick hit with a dull thud. Blood ran down past his eye.

Luke screamed, dropped the bat, and staggered back, clutching his face. "Bitch! You hit me! You crazy bitch!"

I snatched the bat from the ground, got to my feet, and raised it.

Luke started toward me again, then saw the murderous look in my eyes and lost his nerve.

He backed away. "Just you wait! This isn't over!"

Cursing, Luke climbed into his pickup, one hand pressed to his head, and drove off.

When the headlights disappeared, I slid down the wall. My hands shook as I tore a strip from my shirt and tied it around my bleeding leg.

Then I pulled the waterproof backup satellite phone from my inner pocket and hit speed dial.

Margaret, my father's chief of staff, answered at once.

"Ms. Rockwell, what happened?"

Breathing hard, I stared at the blood swirling in the filthy water around me. Something inside me went cold.

"Send a car to the Third Street underpass. Have a surgeon ready.

"And tell the attorney general's office to pull every false entry Leo has made through his shell companies in the past three years."