Nothing to Lose (Book 3: Kayla Walsh Suspense Trilogy)

He stalks me wherever I go, but I can’t afford to stop the search now.

On the final leg of my journey to deliver justice to the man who killed my parents and put me in a coma, I find myself in Australia. Under duress, I know who the murderer is and why he did it, and I fear he’ll get to my grandmother, Martin, and me before I can find the priceless gem he claims my parents stole. But I know better.

Arriving in Broome brings back memories of a happier time with my parents, but this trip is far from a vacation. Yves, the man who once seemed like an ally, has drugged and deceived me, leaving me to fend for myself in a foreign land. The scorching Australian heat is nothing compared to the pressure I feel to uncover the truth and retrieve the diamond Vincent demands.

What I find in Australia shocks me, but it might just be the evidence I need to finally take down my stalker. Every clue leads me deeper into a web of lies and danger, but I have to keep pushing forward. My search provides yet another clue, sending me back to the U.S., where I must act quickly.

Can I get there in time to save myself, my grandmother, and the man I’ve grown to love? Or will Vincent’s reach extend further than I ever imagined?

Find out in this bone-chilling final installment of the Kayla Walsh Mystery Suspense trilogy. Buy Nowhere to Run to uncover the truth and see if justice will finally be served.

Twenty-four-year-old Kayla Walsh stood on the yawning metal ramp of a cargo plane, awed by the clear blue Indian Ocean and cloudless sky in Broome, Australia. Ignoring the conversation between the pilot and her traveling companion Yves, she breathed in the hot, salty air that blasted her face.

During a family vacation to this place six years earlier, her late mother had described the first impression of Broome as opening the door of a convection oven and leaning in too far. That was accurate, plus, thinking of her mother put a brief smile on her face.

Unlike her arrival with her parents in a passenger flight on the last leg of that summer vacation, she had just endured two days on two different loud and bumpy cargo aircraft. She and Yves had boarded one in Austria, then got off to change shuttles in Bangkok, where they had been able to purchase a sandwich and water before boarding the next cargo transport, belonging to the owners of a diamond mine. That had been their only meal along the way, and her stomach was now rumbling.

In contrast to the long-ago trip with her parents, this wasn’t a vacation.

Yves and Vincent—the man Kayla was sure had murdered her parents and put her in a year-long coma—believed Mom and Dad had hidden a priceless diamond in Australia. A diamond Vincent claimed her parents stole from the Louvre in Paris, but that he believed should have been his.

Kayla refused to accept that her parents, Inola and Kevin McGee, would have stolen anything, especially with their teenaged daughter present.

That vacation seemed like a ridiculously long time ago, when life was carefree. She had been engaged to a fellow med student, and her name was Kendra McGee—before the home invasion that changed her life forever and put her in witness protection. Turned out it wasn’t witness protection at all. It was Vincent deceiving her grandmother so he could control and keep track of Kayla.

She heaved a sigh, ready to head to the diamond mine, retrieve the diamond Vincent demanded she find, and catch the next commercial flight back to the States. Back to Martin, her best friend and the man she had grown to love during this arduous journey spanning three continents. He had joined her on the first two legs of her quest to deliver justice to her family’s attacker, but he had to stay behind this time to convalesce in a Paris hospital.

She hoped finding the diamond would finally bring her back to the normal life she craved.

Martin’s kind, gentle spirit had captured her heart during the past few weeks, and they had confessed their love before tragedy struck him down in Paris. She’d hated to leave him behind as she completed her task, but his injuries had been too extensive to allow him to travel.

The diamond mine where they were headed used to be owned by the family of Lucas, Yves’s university roommate and best friend. The two men claimed to have been close with Kayla’s parents years earlier.

Yves had maintained that her dying father had entrusted him with Kayla’s childhood safe phrase, the words her parents had taught her when explaining stranger danger. “If we ever send someone to get you, they will know these words,” Dad had told five-year-old. “Otherwise, don’t go with them.” Her first occasion to use the phrase occurred while she fled from Vincent in France.

Despite Yves knowing the words that were supposed to give her a sense of security, she felt unable to trust him because of the way he and Lucas had approached her.

They’d used a sedative to force her to leave Martin behind, and it had given her disturbing dreams. At the same time, it had caused her to finally remember the attack that had left her parents dead. Those memories prompted as many questions as they answered.

Then there were the stories Yves had told during the flights to Australia. They had pierced her heart and drained her hope of getting justice for her murdered parents. She had to find the Rose Diamond to save herself, her grandmother, and Martin.

Regardless of the hot Australia day, she shuddered at the memory of the blast of cold that had ripped through the light fabric of her summer clothes back in Austria. A helicopter had taken her and Yves from a snow-covered mountain top to an Austrian airstrip. When she realized they were about to board the first plane, she had tried to reason with Yves.

“We don’t need to go to Australia,” she had argued. “My family didn’t visit a diamond mine during our vacation there.”

She now recognized that her family’s final vacation together had triggered the destruction of the lives of everyone she loved.

While remaining undeterred by her protests, his voice had sounded as flat and tired as his dark brown eyes looked each time he declared, “We must go if we ever want our lives back.”

Back in Austria, he had placed a hand on her back to nudge her into the cavernous fuselage lined with jump seats. While showing her how to buckle up, he explained that although Lucas’s family no longer owned the diamond mine, they had remained in contact with the new owners.

“It’s where the Rose Diamond originated,” he had said. “Lucas’s grandfather gave it to the Prime Minister of France when he toured the mine in the 1980s. When Lucas heard of Vincent’s plan to steal it, he talked us into helping him.” He shook his head. “What a mistake.”

Now, Yves placed his hand on her back again, this time to nudge her out of the plane and into yet another attempt at shaking loose memories of that fateful family vacation. She didn’t believe they’d hidden the diamond in Australia, and she was still so angry with Yves for drugging her in France that she shook off his hand to wrap her arms around herself.

“You’re still afraid of me?” He sounded hurt, and his crinkled-up face showed concern.

She huffed. “I trusted Vincent, and he turned out to be the very enemy I left Arizona to find. Then I got into a van and realized you and Lucas were the guys who chased me all over Virginia. You drugged me and made me come to Australia. Why would I trust you?”

His exhale and quiet apology gave her a twinge of guilt for her sarcasm. She sloughed it off. If there was ever anyone who deserved recrimination, Yves and Lucas were at the top of the list in her mind.

Yves led her to a bus that drove them past Cable Beach, where children and families played on the golden-sand and in the gently lolling surf. She had done that with her parents. The memory calmed her and gave her the courage to ask about what had bothered her since she met Yves.

“How did you know Vincent was going to my family’s house that night?”

“Your father called me the evening of the attack.” Yves stared at the floor of the bus. “There was a prowler behind your house. It didn’t click that it could have been Vincent. Your dad said we all needed to go underground as soon as you got home from Princeton that night. I didn’t want to force my family to live a life on the run, so I rushed to your house in hopes of finding other ways to get ourselves out of the mess we’d created. When I got there, your mother was—”

His voice broke, and he looked at Kayla with moist eyes. “I wish I had done it differently.”

With a quaking breath, he tapped his chest and looked skyward before continuing. “Your mother was already dead. I should have called the police instead of driving over there. Or convinced your dad to do it. Your parents might still be alive. You might not have ended up in a coma.”

He wiped pools of tears from his eyelashes. “When I got there, your father was struggling to breathe. Then you came through the door, which triggered Vincent to kill Kevin and shoot at me before coming after you.”

He rubbed his shoulder. “Stunned, I played dead. I’ve never held my breath for so long, but I must have flinched or something. Vincent kicked me and told me to keep you alive. After he left, I heard you moaning outside. I stumbled to you and called an ambulance for us both.”

“Has Vincent left your family alone?” Kayla asked.

“Kind of. He thinks you, Lucas, and I have what he wants. He keeps reminding us he owns us because he has video of us taking the diamond from the security guard he had hired to steal it. He will get that diamond back at any cost.”

Kayla struggled to control her breathing and digest what Yves had told her during the last several hours. Could she count on him to avoid making the same kinds of stupid mistakes that got them all into this mess?

More important, could she keep Vincent from harming Nana while she was away looking for clues in Australia?

She slipped a new burner phone from her purse to look up the time difference between Arizona and Australia. Seventeen hours. Afternoon at Nana’s house. She dialed, rubbing her forehead while listening to the phone ring. When it went to voicemail, she told herself not to worry, but she obsessed about why Nana didn’t keep her burner phone with her as they had agreed.

Anxiety unsettled her empty stomach as she stepped onto the bus. Overthinking everything had taken its toll; she tried to relax by focusing on watching the town’s businesses fly past. Stores that catered to tourist needs. Restaurants. Resorts across the road. Green lawn above the golden-sand beach.

They stopped to let off passengers at a campground called Beachside Caravan Park. Exhaustion weighed on her as she scoped out the place through the window beside her. Abundant shade trees gave her a feeling of being closer to nature, relaxed her tension, and almost revived her. RVs and travel trailers of all sizes dotted one side of the campground. A large pool and recreation area filled an exp