Her Mistletoe Protector

“I’ll try,” Rachel said, jumping eagerly at his suggestion. She stepped forward to take the keys, and she opened the driver’s door. But before she could slide inside, a man appeared out of the woods, holding a rifle.

“Don’t move,” he barked loudly.

“Karl!” Rachel exclaimed. Then, in a move that was so subtle Nick almost missed it, she pushed Joey behind her, probably intending for him to climb into the safety of the car. “What are you doing? Why do you have a gun?”

Karl? Nick stared in shocked surprise as he realized that the stranger was Dr. Karl Errol, the researcher he’d suspected was secretly working for Global Pharmaceuticals. His instincts must have been right on. The researcher must have purposefully set up Rachel’s company to fail. But seeing him here, as if he’d teamed up with Gerry Ashton, didn’t make much sense. Why would the researcher who’d tried to destroy Rachel’s company work alongside Ashton, who clearly wanted to take over the company himself?

He didn’t know for sure, but obviously Errol wasn’t messing around. The way he held the rifle in his hands told Nick he wouldn’t hesitate to kill them.

FIFTEEN

Nick gritted his teeth as Rachel tried to reason with Karl Errol. “Gerry is dead, Karl. You don’t have to do this. Just let us go.”

“I’m not working for Gerry,” Errol said finally. “And my boss isn’t going to accept failure.”

Nick tried to think of a way out of this mess. But he couldn’t come up with a safe option. Granted, he still had his weapon, but he didn’t dare try to take Errol out while the guy held the rifle pointed directly at Rachel. Maybe if he was at full strength he could rush the guy, catching him off guard.

But he’d lost too much blood to risk it. He was far more likely to fall flat on his face before he reached Errol. He seriously felt as if a strong breeze would blow him over.

“Who’s your boss, Karl? Why are you doing this?” Rachel asked, taking a step toward him. It was all Nick could do not to shout at her to stay back. “Have you really been working for Global Pharmaceuticals this whole time? Why? Why did you hate me so much you wanted to put me out of business?”

Errol shook his head, as if waging an inner war with himself. “I didn’t have a choice. I followed Ashton here and waited, hoping he’d take care of things for me. But he botched the job. Leaving me no choice.”

Nick tried to take heart in knowing the guy hadn’t shot them yet, even though he’d had time. Maybe there was a way to get through to him.

But how?

“There’s no point in trying to reason with him, Rachel. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself. I told you he killed Josie Gardener,” Nick told her in a scathing tone. “She stumbled upon the truth and was going to let you know what she’d found out. So he killed her and set the whole thing up to look like a suicide.”

“No!” Errol shouted. “I loved Josie! I would never hurt her. But she didn’t love me.”

A cold chill snaked down his spine. Now they were getting somewhere. “Who did she love, Karl?” he asked mildly.

“Ashton.” Errol’s tone reeked of loathing. “But that jerk didn’t deserve her love. He had an affair with her even though he had no intention of leaving his rich wife.”

“Ashton is dead. He won’t hurt anyone ever again, Karl.” Rachel’s tone was soothing. She took another small step forward, holding her hand out. “Just put down the gun and we’ll work this through, okay?”

“Stop!” he screamed. “You can’t fix this. Don’t you understand? I did it for Josie! I secretly worked for Global to make enough money to compete with Ashton. I told her I could afford to buy her nice things, and take her to fancy places. But she didn’t care! She wanted to live in sin as Ashton’s mistress rather than to give me the chance to make her happy.”

Slowly the picture became clear. “Are you saying that Ashton killed Josie?” Rachel asked incredulously.

“Yes, because she was pressuring him to leave his wife. Maybe he was afraid she’d tell his wife about the affair. And if he divorced his wife he’d lose all the big bucks he’d gotten accustomed to spending. But none of that matters anymore.” He blew out an angry breath. “I’m glad Ashton’s dead. You saved me the trouble of killing him. But, unfortunately, I have no choice but to kill you, too.” Errol tightened his grip on the gun.