Hard Lies

by Steve Rush

Genres: Psychological Thrillers; Suspense

Synopsis

A hidden past. A shocking discovery. An altered future.

Denise Tyler ends her engagement to Jeremy Guerdon when she finds his kill list. With her name on it. She expects a bullet to the head. She experiences worse. Much worse. Driven by malevolent fervor, Jeremy tracks Denise to her hometown in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Denise's father wants to make a deal with Daniel Baker, a research physician at the CDC. After a meeting to discuss a newly developed drug, Jeremy sees Daniel get in a limo with Denise. He assumes the man is her new love interest. The sight incenses him to target Daniel, a person undaunted by threats and unafraid to fight back.

Amidst Jeremy's onslaught, and battling second thoughts about Daniel and their future, Denise realizes her worst nightmare nears its climax.

And she has one chance of survival.

 

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Release date: March 15, 2022

Publisher: Steve Rush

Print pages: 321

Sample

Chapter 1

 

Denise Tyler tugged off the engagement ring and threw it at the mirror. Her likeness rejected it with equal tenacity. The platinum dinged off the glass and bounced a couple times on the dresser’s mahogany surface. A sparkle flashed off the three-carat diamond as if the princess-cut stone knew what she was going through and winked approval.

A satin robe dangled around her. Wet hair clung to her cheeks. The paper rattled as she pulled out the note for another look. She gripped it with both hands to steady it. She squeezed her forearms against her sides. The shakes continued. Why did Jeremy write this? How could the man she intended to spend the rest of her life with want to do this to her? Each word sliced away any semblance of merit she had for him. The statement in the third paragraph weakened her beyond anything the disease she suffered from had done to her: “Leave the family memories of her, nothing else.”

Denise rubbed her throat and slid the hand to her chest. The rhythm of her heartbeat increased. Paralysis seized the muscles in her legs. Flushed, she plopped on the foot of the bed, teetering on the brink of hyperventilation. She thumbed through the other pages in the file. Halfway through the dozen pages, Denise let the file fall from her hand. Jeremy Guerdon was living a double life. His secret boosted her will to leave even though leaving assured her fate.

Her opportunity diminished if Jeremy returned home before she could get out. His enclosure of control had stifled her too long. Denise refused to vow “love, honor, and obey” to him after reading about his intent. The discovery of Jeremy’s life as a hired assassin snapped any chance of that.

Denise grabbed her cell phone off the nightstand and pressed number five. Two rings. Three. Four. Her dad’s hello interrupted the fifth ring and kept her from teetering off the brink of sanity.

“I’ve got to get out of here. Where are you?” Denise parted the wine and gold drapes on the floor-to-ceiling window next to the bed and checked the street.

“D.C.”

“I’m leaving, Dad. I’m coming home.”

“What happened?”

“Can you meet me in Baltimore?”

“I suppose. Where? Your apartment?”

“Yes … no! Make it the airport. I don’t want to leave my car at the apartment complex.”

“How soon will you be there?”

“Maybe around midnight. Meet me at baggage claim. I’ve got to hurry.”

“Are you okay?”

“I will be.”

Denise ended the call and rushed into the walk-in closet. Release felt as good as the faded jeans she decided on and slipped into. The baggy ones he despised made her feel more at ease. She pulled on a Dodger’s jersey, leaving it unbuttoned until she finished snatching clothes off hangers and out of drawers and gathered necessities for her exodus.

Everything Denise needed to carry with her fit in two leather bags. She jammed her feet into a pair of white sneakers, hooked her arm under the straps on the bags, and rushed out of the room.

She made it halfway down the stairs when light flitted across the front of the house and flashed through the first-floor windows from right to left. A small car sat in the driveway alongside her Acura. Denise retreated up the stairs. She squeezed the handrail with every measured step. If only she could see more of the car than the front. Denise lingered two-thirds of the way up the stairs afraid to move, thankful she had turned off any light that might give away her location.

The car’s headlights stayed on. Denise checked her breathing and listened. The sound of a door closing and clack-clack rhythm on the cobblestone walkway sent her clambering to the second floor.

Denise crouched where the rail attached to the wall. She had a clear view of the front door. She peered through the spindles. She hugged the bags to control the tremors. Anxiety forced her to whirl away from the corner. She slumped against the wall. Her legs felt boneless as she slid to the floor.

Oh, God. Was the front door locked? She couldn’t remember.

Another look provided an answer. It wasn’t what Denise hoped for. The door opened. The barrel of a pistol jutted through the space between the door and jamb.

Adrenalin rushed from her core to her extremities. Denise rolled to the right and pushed herself up with resolve and strength not available to her moments earlier. She hurried through the bedroom and out the open French doors onto the deck. She skittered down the stairs and raced around the house to her car.

Denise jerked open the driver’s door, heaved the bags inside, and dove into the seat. She fumbled the keys. “God help me.” The visitor was nowhere in sight. Good. She’d feel better once she got away from the house, out of the city, and beyond anything and anyone having to do with Jeremy Guerdon.

The familiarity of her old car comforted her as she gunned past the dark sports car and into the street. The Acura’s tires squealed upon transitioning from cobblestone to asphalt. The engine whined. It strained to meet her demand. No traffic clogged her egress.

Motion at the front door caught her eye. A female leaped off the stoop toward the car parked in the driveway. The woman yelled something. Denise couldn’t make out what. At that moment, she didn’t care. The face. She recognized the face. He sent her? Was she a new girlfriend? Denise had noticed the way Jeremy eyed the brunette at the last two or three socials they attended.

So, this is how you’re playing it.

 

***

 

Angela Donavan paused long enough at the driver’s door to glimpse the Acura as it dropped over the hill out of sight. She hopped in, wedged the pistol under her thigh, and started the car. The Infinity G37 seemed to crank and back into the street in one instant. The car swayed side-to-side. Short barks came off its tires when they grabbed and held onto the roadway surface.

Angela jammed the brakes on the far side of the hill. The G37 slid to a stop. Angela jerked her head left and right, trying to figure out which route Denise may have taken. She turned left and caught a flicker of a taillight at the far end of the street to the right. The G37 whipped through the turn and surged forward.

The street ended at the next intersection, giving Angela more options: left, right, or turning around and heading back. Streetlamps illuminated empty streets in all directions. The Acura was nowhere in sight.

Instinct prodded Angela to whip through the neighborhood in search of Denise. Cover as much ground as possible in the shortest amount of time. The possibility of some irate resident noticing the car and calling the police to report a wild driver prompted her to call off the chase.

Besides, she had the contacts needed to locate the Acura no matter where Denise fled to in it. Angela opened the console and pulled out a satellite phone, punched in a series of numbers, gave the computer voice on the other end a code, and listened through three rings.

An answer on the other end put her in touch with the person she wanted to talk to—a contact she knew only as Simon One. “Denise ran. No sign of anyone else at the residence … I agree … Yes, I tucked the widget under the rear bumper. I’ll find her no matter where she goes.”

 

Chapter 2

 

“Denise? Sweetheart? Are you here?”

Jeremy Guerdon draped his gray Armani suit coat over the handrail at the foot of the spiral stairway and placed his right foot on the first tread. He checked his breathing and cocked his head, listening for any sign of Denise in the house. No answer. Maybe she failed to hear his call.

No footfalls on the hardwood floor in either the living room or dining room. No sound of her calling out to him or coming to greet him from the second floor. The stereo was silent. No hum to CMT. He never knew her to go to bed before eleven.

“Denise! I’m home,” he called louder. “Where are you?”

Jeremy loosened his tie, twisted his neck, and unbuttoned the top two buttons of his white shirt. Perspiration trailed his face. He checked the thermostat on the wall opposite the staircase. The digital face read eighty-two degrees.

“What is this nonsense?”

After flipping the switch to “Cool,” Jeremy searched the main floor. He rushed from room to room. Everything piece of furniture stood in its rightful place—exactly the way he liked it. The one thing he didn’t care for was the eerie sensation of something amiss bubbling inside his chest. He hated the feeling aloneness gave him. Uneasiness raked his spine. The emptiness reminded him too much of his childhood and the mother who abandoned him to raise another man’s children.

The awkwardness of silence elevated the eeriness to anger. Jeremy dashed to the stairway and clambered up two at a time. He paused at the top to listen. The copper wind chime on the deck outside the master bedroom clinked in the breeze.

Jeremy pulled the pistol from the small of his back. The bedroom door was five strides from the end of the banister. The carpeted floor made no sound under foot. Inside the master suite, he paused and flipped on the light with his left hand. He kept the weapon trained on the room at arm’s length in front of his chest.

The French doors stood open, allowing entry to the tinkle of copper and the muggy July air. Jeremy lowered the gun, hurried around the poster bed covered with navy blue comforter, bypassed his favorite Queen Anne chair, and peered out onto the redwood deck. Headlights streamed up and down the street on the other side of a patch of trees two hundred yards away. He checked the ground below. Still no sign of Denise.

He stuck the pistol in his waistband and pursed his lips. He jerked the chime from its hook and slung it over the rail. A sparkle on the dresser caught his eye when he turned back to the master bedroom. The next breaths came in waves. He caught a breath and exhaled in a huff.

“How dare she,” he said through clenched teeth. The three-carat diamond glittered under the accent light situated atop the beveled mirror. Denise had purposely left on the light. He sensed it. She wanted him to find the ring. Her act sent a clear message. Jeremy picked up and clutched the ring in his palm until his fingers turned white. He felt the heat of anger flush his cheeks. Arterial pressure boxed his eardrums.

He leaned against the footboard and pondered his next move. Then he noticed the door leading into the walk-in closet. It stood ajar.

Jeremy slapped the ring down on the dresser and rushed to the closet.

The first thing he saw when he flipped on the light was the corner of the blue folder sticking out over the edge of a shelf to his left. She must have left it there. Big mistake. Things started making sense. He wondered how she had discovered the file. Jerking the folder from the shelf, he flipped it open and checked to see if anything was missing. Everything was there, though out of place. The note he had written—the one he figured Denise probably thought implied her end—lay on top.

Although it pleased him to imagine how she felt upon reading it, he wished she had not found it. One more week was all he needed. One week and his job would be finished. He could dump Denise and pursue the babe Richie had introduced him to back in May.

Denise knew his secret. That changed things. Breaking off the relationship was no longer an option. He would have to take time to hunt her. Maybe he should make this happen over a few weeks or even months. If it came together the way some of his other jobs had, he would add suffering and torment to her life according to his forte before finally killing her in grand-finale style.

Content with this new idea, Jeremy scanned the double rows of designer clothes. Every piece seemed to be there. Each spaced two fingers apart the way he insisted she hang them. Not a total loss. He fingered the fabrics, going from one end to the other, thinking how nice Angela would look in them.

Two wooden hangers dangled on the rod at the far end on the left. The two things he hated to see Denise wear were gone. Jeremy threw the file against the wall. He stomped to the master bath where he splashed cool water on his face. He toweled dry, wadded the towel, and chucked it into the tub.

He had to find Denise. He flipped open his cell phone and scrolled through the call log. He reached the number he wanted and hit the call button.

“I told you to make sure she was here … No, she’s not here. You think I’d be calling if she was, you idiot? Meet me behind Sal’s old place … Yeah … Be there in forty-five minutes. Tell Richie. I want him on this.”

Jeremy Guerdon had a personal message for Denise. Be careful who you talk to, Denise Tyler. I’ll be seeing you. Soon.

 

***

 

Denise loosened her grip on the steering wheel on the outskirts of Highland Park. She sighed. The next side street she came to led to the turnpike. She checked the rearview mirror. The dark car was nowhere in sight. Denise looked left, right, left. Another glance at the rearview mirror reassured her. No car lights loomed behind. She jerked the steering wheel. The car shot up the entrance ramp.

Once Denise passed through the tollbooth, she switched on the radio. The first song after an infomercial was “Take Me There” by Rascal Flatts. The tune seeped into her heart. The lyrics planted a yearning beyond any boundary. Denise wanted magnetism and irresistibility. She needed a man she could trust.

Tears blurred the pavement illuminated by the Acura’s headlamps. The future resembled the darkness beyond the light. Love and its splendor remained a mystery to her. She needed both to take her as far away from Jeremy as possible.

“Take me there,” Denise mouthed at the song’s end.

Overtaking traffic concerned her. Relief came only after each vehicle cruised on by. No one paid any attention to her. Glances at the mirrors kept her on edge for the first half hour. Denise eased her grip on the steering wheel and adjusted the seat for hours of driving. No one followed her as far as she could tell.

How terrible might her life have turned out to be? What’s so wrong? He’d wanted to know last night. Denise hated Jeremy’s gruff voice. She loathed the way his lips jutted when he talked. The concern had nothing to do with any of his provisions. She had no problems living a life of luxury. But not when it meant being attached to him.

Jeremy often compared her to a Ferrari, but his antics made her feel like a stockcar. Nothing original. He acted as though he wanted endorsements of others stuck on her life. A necessity, he’d always say right before that’d attend another one of his socials. It’s all about acceptance. In her opinion, approval and acceptance of his lifestyle assured a life of constant sorrow. Denise knew she’d be forever sorry if she gave in to a pious fraud.

If he wanted titillation, let him follow his pug nose and troll the streets after dark. Maybe he’d contract some STD or worse. The “or worse” carved a few ugly thoughts in her mind. It made her grin.

Every mile behind the Acura meant one mile closer to home. The only home she’d known for the last two years—a tiny efficiency apartment in Baltimore—sounded first-rate at the moment compared to the life she left behind. Denise actually looked forward to arriving there. She longed to cuddle in her own bed. She imagined her head nestled on a feather pillow similar to the ones she lay on at the Plaza Hotel.

Denise entertained the thought of moving back to Knoxville and finding a secluded cabin somewhere close to her parents—emphasis on seclusion. Forget luxury, except for the pillow, and maybe a few small items of interest. A lady must have some fringe in life.

The speedometer needle jumped past seventy-five twenty minutes earlier. It hovered near eighty. The Jersey Turnpike was nothing but open road by the time she reached the Twin Rivers exit.

Ominous clouds crept in under the quarter moon and blocked its light. Denise imagined the billows being Jeremy’s arms—muscles filled with hate, closing in on her.

A New Jersey State Police car headed in the opposite direction alarmed her. The sudden chill made her foot leave the accelerator for a moment. She glanced at the side mirror. The trooper passed, never touched the brakes.

Denise resumed her speed. She let down the windows and reclined her seat back one notch. She propped her arm on the beltline and she used her open hand to funnel the coolness straight to her face. The air whisked her dark locks behind her shoulders as if waving goodbye to her former life. And Jeremy.

The ends of the hair tickled her skin. It reminded her of how much she wanted to fall in love with a true gentleman. How nice it would be to have his hands and fingers caress her neck and shoulders. Kiss her with soft lips. Commit only to her and their future.

The scent of rain filled the Acura after she crossed into Delaware. Denise filled her lungs with its freshness. She let off the accelerator and slowed the car to sixty at the first drops. A deluge a mile farther forced her exit. The exit ramp led up to a couple of convenient stores and fast-food restaurants. Denise pulled into the parking lot of the convenient store. She parked on the near side with the Acura nosed toward the road.

The clock on the dash changed from ten fifty-nine to eleven o’clock. She was only a few minutes away from Maryland had she stayed on the highway. It was a little more than ninety minutes from there on to Baltimore.

Rain pounded the metal and glass in a soothing rhythm. After a few minutes, the torrent lessened to a light shower. Denise watched the formation of water on the hood between swipes of the wipers. Beads of water dotted the surface.

The next thing she saw enthralled her. The beads leaped and danced on the hood when subsequent drops met them. Water danced over the entire surface of the hood, leaping and dancing, leaping and dancing until time to leave the stage. They leapt in oneness across the metal and off to their destiny. It bested anything she had ever seen on Broadway.

The rain stopped after six or seven minutes, but the effect lived on. “That’s what I want,” Denise said aloud. “I want a true-to-life water dance. I need a water dance partner.”

Denise got back on the turnpike. She reached for the volume control on the stereo and by mistake pressed the seek button. The tuner leaped to the next station. A woman’s voice said, “Is there any such thing as a perfect man for you?”

“Good grief,” Denise muttered. “Exactly what I need. Some radio hotshot spouting off about the goodness in men.”

The voice continued before Denise could change the dial. “What do you want in a companion? Think about it while we take a break. Then we’ll be back to take your calls.” Denise withdrew her arm. She pressed the back of her head against the headrest and adjusted her grip on the steering wheel.

What did she want in a companion? For starters, he had to be a man with a heart that would beat in rhythm with hers. She had to look into the gateway to his soul and see honesty. Unlike Jeremy, this one would express and nurture a commitment to a lifetime of faithfulness instead of self. And share a love-paved path to infinity.

“Let’s get back to the perfect man issue for a moment and then we’ll hear what our callers have to say. A man like we’ve discussed simply doesn’t exist in our world, ladies…”

Denise cut her eyes to the radio. “I can imagine, can’t I?”

“But I’ll offer this advice. Trust your heart. Let destiny paint your future with love. Hang the portrait in your heart. It’s easily seen on the outside when you do. There is someone for you out there somewhere. You’ll know it when you meet him. He’s your soul mate.”

The word soulmate tumbled through her mind and down to her heart. If ever she met the reflection of her heart in someone else, she would know at that moment. It wouldn’t be the same as it was when she met Jeremy Guerdon. That was at a business dinner. Jeremy had acted kindly. He treated her with respect that evening and until he proposed marriage a year later. She wished now she hadn’t attended the event. If only she had listened to her instinct. And her dad.

Soul mate. If she owned a red carpet, she would roll it out for that man to enter her life. Would she ever find such a man? Would she ever meet her soul mate?

“Take me there.”