The Last Bride (DiCarlo Brides #6) (37 page)

“Go into the living room.” Natalie gestured for them to pass her as a couple of neighbors down the block set off smaller fireworks. “I want what’s coming to me. All these years you’ve been a burr in my side, always Dad’s favorite, always currying favor with Mom. You got the running of the estate, you were chosen to oversee Mom’s needs. Not me. What was wrong with picking
me
? I was the one who was there for her every day, but she didn’t care.”

Jonquil listened, scared as she passed Natalie, but Gage did not looked away from his sister. Jonquil stopped in the living room.

Gage held up a calming hand, palm out. “You don’t even want to work part time, why would you want to take over the estate? You hated college. You didn’t even like to take care of Mom when she wasn’t feeling well.”

“You think I don’t miss her, don’t wish that she were here all of the time?” Natalie pounded her free hand on her chest, true unhappiness in her face. “To think that it could have been different. That it was my fault that she’s gone. And now you want to take away the house too.”

“Natalie, you can’t blame yourself that those men hurt your mom,” Jonquil soothed. “You couldn’t have known anything like that would happen.”

“Yeah, I couldn’t have known the blow would be so hard. That it would kill her.” This was nearly muttered under her breath. “I told you to go in there, Gage. Don’t come closer to me.”

He paused in his slow shift closer to her. “Sorry. Please, explain why you’re doing this. You don’t need to hurt Jonquil. Let her go.”

Jonquil focused on what Natalie had said. Had she been behind her mom’s injury? Had she hurt her mom? She felt almost lightheaded at the thought and glanced at Gage. He didn’t show any of the shock she was feeling. Had he missed the comment?

Natalie snorted. “How big of a fool do you think I am? You’ve spent more time with her than with your grieving sister since Mom died. You probably spent more time with those stupid friends of yours, too. You didn’t think about me, about how I’m grieving. That I might need you, did you?”

Jonquil moved slowly away from Natalie, letting Gage worry about the gun for now. She was looking for something else. Something more.

“You didn’t want me there,” Gage pointed out. “I called and you ignored my calls. I left messages and you didn’t return them.”

Jonquil decided to try reasoning with Natalie again. “It’s hard to lose someone you love, especially a family member. I miss my dad so much, I can hardly believe he’s been gone more than a year. And my stepdad is sick. Really sick. I don’t know how much longer he’s going to be around. It’s heartbreaking and overwhelming. I’m sorry you had to go through that in addition to being abducted.”

Natalie laughed a little crazily, glee in her eyes. “You have no
idea
, do you? Not even a clue. I was afraid that someone would have figured it out by now, but you really have no idea.”

Jonquil sick at the thought that she’d been right—Natalie had been behind everything. She’d faked the abduction, at least. What about the overdose at the hospital?

“Yes, you get it now, don’t you?” she asked Jonquil, nodding. “I always knew you were smarter than most of them. I wasn’t abducted. It was a scam. I needed the cash to pay back my loan sharks and they helped me a little with the ruse. Along with a new friend. Too bad you already killed him.”

A moment of taut silence beat between them while they took that in. “Wait. If you weren’t abducted, what happened to Mom?” Gage asked.

Gage couldn’t believe his ears. How could his sister have done that to him? “Why, why would you pretend to be abducted? Do you know what Mom and I went through? And who hurt her? Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to come up with the cash, and how miserable it was sitting beside Mom’s bed while you were out plotting? She nearly died before they could operate.”

“I needed the money, Gage. You wouldn’t help me. Mom always helped me out, but she put her foot down this time and said no.
No
, to
me
. I was desperate. What did you expect me to do?”

“Find a way to be an adult for a change and pay your own bills,” Gage said.

Natalie’s eyed narrowed. “You really want to die, don’t you?”

His head was reeling, his heart pounded and he couldn’t make the things she was saying make sense. How could it be true? “Did you hurt Mom or was it James Scott?”

“I didn’t mean that to happen,” Natalie said, her lips pursed. “It was an accident. She got in the way.”

“
She got in the way
?” He couldn’t believe the casual way she’d said it.

“What do you care, you refused to move back home. She begged you to. I begged you to after she died, so I wouldn’t have to be alone, but you stayed here. In this gesture to bachelor life.” She waved her free arm to indicate the house. “You can’t possibly be comfortable here,” Natalie said to Jonquil.

“Actually, I find it very comfortable. It’s a great house, lots of space, terrific lines. Your brother did a fantastic job designing it. It could use a woman’s touch in a few places, mind, but it’s lovely. Perfect for the area. I bet your brother could design a place for you that would be perfect for wherever you wanted to live. What would be better? He knows you so well.”

Gage focused on her words for just a second. She loved his house, thought it was beautiful?

“What are you going to do to us?” Jonquil asked.

“Well, apparently the only way I can save the house is to have my brother out of the way so I can make decisions. I thought I’d start there.”

Gage’s stomach tied up and his heart hurt. How could this be his sister? He thought she was selfish and lazy, but this? How could she have been behind so much badness? “You must be really disappointed that James missed me on the hike.”

Natalie frowned. “Yes. He promised to kill you.”

“Wait.” Jonquil looked pale and scared. “You were behind that too?”

“I promised him that I’d sell him the ski resort for cheap if he got rid of you. He was only too happy. With some incentives.” Her lips curved as if in happy memory and shrugged. “I guess you were the better shot.”

“I’m not proud of it, except that it means Jonquil stayed safe.”

“Yes. Isn’t it odd that you keep practically living in each other’s pockets and yet when I suggested it, you said you wouldn’t marry her.”

He was on overload, needing time to process everything but there wasn’t any. “Don’t take that out of context. And I would never use someone like that just so you could have your way.”

Her empty hand clenched in a fist and her eyebrows came together in the middle. “Big mistake.”

Jonquil felt like she’d taken a blow to the stomach. She knew how he felt about marriage, that he wasn’t interested in the long term, but it still hurt to hear it from Natalie. He’d been talking to his sister about how he wouldn’t marry her? Did she have some specific defect she wasn’t aware of?

She pushed the hurt away and focused again on her surroundings. She knew Gage’s house pretty well by now—the knives in the drawer, the baseballs in the mudroom cupboard, her backpack. She turned and stared at her backpack. It was still sitting in the corner next to the sofa where they’d set it after coming in from the hospital after their hike. It had rope, a pen knife and pepper spray.

Pepper spray wasn’t ideal—it would spread around the room, not just hit Natalie, so they would all be affected, but if Gage had any warning at all, maybe he could take advantage of it?

The backpack was too far away to do any good right now. But maybe… “Natalie, do you mind if I sit down? It’s been a long day. Have you ever been in Gage’s balloon? He took me up this morning. It was amazing.”

“No, I don’t like heights.”

“That’s too bad. Everything is so beautiful from up there. We floated right over the hotel—it was incredible to see everything from that angle—my dad’s dream come true. I bet your dad had a lot of dreams for you guys too.”

“Yes, but Gage broke his heart—or he would have, buying that ski resort instead of becoming a working architect. Do you have any idea how much it cost to put him through school when he was never going to use it? They could have spent that money on me instead. I needed things, you know.”

Jonquil quelled her thoughts of irritation about Natalie’s one-track mind and stayed focused on the gun, even as she eased into the closest end of the sofa. “I’m sure it was hard having to share your parents with him—share their attention and love, share the space. I have three younger siblings. It was not always fun.”

“Do they hate you the way I hate him? Their golden boy?” Natalie asked. She didn’t take her eyes off of Gage.

“I was not their golden boy,” Gage protested. “Dad was never pleased with anything I did and Mom complained all of the time, even if I dropped everything for her.” Gage’s brows furrowed.

“She talked about how successful you were all of the time,” Natalie said. “And Dad never stopped going on about how well you were doing in school and how smart you were and how you could do anything if you wanted to. And then he died and you wasted everything and bought the resort instead. He would have wept for the waste you’ve made of your life.”

“Dad was proud of me?” Gage’s face echoed the shock in his voice. “Since when?”

Jonquil lay down on the sofa while Natalie’s attention was on Gage.

Natalie glanced over, looked suspicious, but didn’t comment on it, focusing back on Gage. “Since always. It was always about you. Why can’t you get good grades like your brother, Natalie? Why can’t you settle down to a good job, Natalie? Why can’t you be as good as your perfect, responsible brother?”

“It sounds like you both have a lot to tell each other,” Jonquil said to them. “I bet if you sat down you could talk this all out.”

“It’s too late for that. I can’t lose the house. It’s the only thing I want and he wants to take it away from me, so he has to go. I’m sorry that means you have to die too. I wish you’d gone home after the party.”

“Me too.” Jonquil studied Natalie. Obviously she didn’t really want to kill her brother, or both of them would be dead already. Was she steeling her nerves to do it, or did she just have a few things to get off her chest first? “This puts a big damper on the plans for the rest of my life.” She kept her voice as even as possible, even though her heart pounded and blood thrummed in her veins. She put her right wrist over her forehead, then let it fall limply onto the floor beside the sofa—right next to her backpack. “It must be hard knowing your parents didn’t appreciate you as much as you deserve. My brothers get all of the attention. Their dad took them to self-defense classes and shooting and stuff and all he did for me was toss me a can of pepper spray and tell me to keep it handy. But it totally messes up the lines in my clothes. Besides, who’s going to carry it around here?”

Natalie’s head cocked. “I know, right? What was he thinking?”

Jonquil shot a glance at Gage and tapped her finger on her backpack.

He nodded almost imperceptibly back at her. “Dad loved you, Natalie. You were his real pride and joy.” He moved slowly toward the kitchen, drawing Natalie’s full attention. “Don’t you remember how he would take you out for dinner sometimes, just the two of you? He never did that with me. And he always called you his angel or his princess.”

Jonquil fingered the zipper pull on her backpack and slid it slowly open, a notch at a time so it would stay quiet.

“That was only once,” Natalie said. “But he went to your games all of the time.”

“Funny how we remember things differently. I swear he only came to three games the entire time I was in high school, and that you had more dinners together.” He reached into the cupboard where the dishes were kept. “Would you like some water? I’m parched. You probably are too.”

Natalie had other ideas, apparently. “Don’t. I don’t know what’s really in that cupboard. You can stay thirsty—you’re going to die anyway. It won’t matter.”

Jonquil stuck her hand into the backpack and started rooting around a little, trying to find the can of pepper spray. With her luck it would be in the bottom.

“Fine. What do you need from me, Natalie?”