Thirty-Five and a Half Conspiracies (22 page)

He cursed under his breath, and that was the last thing I remembered before my legs collapsed and everything faded to black.

I
woke
up with a massive headache and my face pressed to a leather seat. My hands were secured behind my back, a cloth was tied over my mouth, and I was in the backseat of a moving car. A heavy blanket covered my body.

Panic made me lightheaded, and I resisted the urge to scream. It would be better if my captor thought I was still passed out. I was lying on my stomach, and from the way I was positioned, my face was tilted in the direction of the backseat. Somewhere along the way, I’d lost my shoes.

I remained still, hoping my captor or captors would speak so I could figure out who they were and what they wanted. But the driver remained annoyingly quiet, not even bothering to put on any music. I listened to the road instead, trying to figure out where they were taking me. Because I had to escape. Mason was waiting for me.

Mason. What would he do when I didn’t come back? How long would he wait before he went back there to check on me? I’d been in the bathroom a long time, after all. Maybe he and Randy were already coming after me.

Panic raised its ugly head again, roaring for attention, but I beat it back into submission. I didn’t have time to panic. I had to think this through.

We drove on asphalt for what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only fifteen minutes, making several turns—a right, then a left, then a right again. It was another asphalt road, only this one was rougher, more likely a county road.

Finally, I heard a man’s voice say, “Turn here.”

So there were at least two of them.

We drove for a short time before we turned right onto a gravel road. Several minutes later, we came to a stop.

My captors still hadn’t said anything else.

Terror washed through me. I had no idea what they had planned. My hands were tied, but my legs were free. I hoped the blanket would fall off my head as they pulled me out of the car, and if it did, I could try to take off running.

Except we were on a gravel drive, and I was now barefoot.

It was a moot point. One of my captors opened the back door and half-dragged me out of the backseat. He threw me over his shoulder, the blanket still over my head. I considered kicking him in the stomach, but it would serve no purpose other than to make him mad. If I couldn’t run, pretending to be agreeable was probably my best course of action. Unless he had nefarious plans for me. I considered forcing a vision, but I wasn’t sure what I’d do if I saw something awful.

The cold air hit my legs, and his hand grabbed my bare thigh, but thankfully he didn’t attempt to move it up any further. In a few short strides, we were inside, the wood floor creaking under his weight. After several more steps, he stopped and lowered me onto a chair. He left the blanket over my head and untied my hands, giving me a momentary burst of hope, but then his friend tied my left arm and leg to the chair while he worked on the right side of my body.

The blanket was pulled off my head, and I found myself in a bedroom with cedar-paneled walls and a full-sized bed. A small lamp on a nightstand next to the bed gave the room a warm glow. The wall to my left was solid, but there was a window covered by a heavy blanket on the right. But my kidnappers stood behind me. One of them untied the cloth over my mouth, and I started to cough.

I expected one of them to explain what they wanted, but they both stood behind me, not saying a word. I considered staying equally mute, but I hated not knowing what was going on.

“Do you want money? My boyfriend doesn’t have much, but he’ll try to come up with whatever you want.” There was a slim chance this was about money, but at least whoever was in charge hadn’t killed me yet.

Neither of them answered. Instead, I heard their boots thud away from me, followed by the sound of the door creaking shut. I closed my eyes, tears stinging behind my eyelids, but I refused to cry. Crying wouldn’t get me out of this. I had to figure out why I’d been abducted.

The possibilities were endless.

The murmur of voices on the other side of the door was too low to hear, so I squeezed my eyelids tighter, straining to listen. I couldn’t make out enough words to learn anything about their plan.

I sat in the chair long enough for my fear to become a dull roar, and I even started to doze off. But I awakened with a start, my heart kicking into an immediate gallop, when I heard noises outside the door. Shouts and then a gunshot.

A door banged open in another room, followed by yet more yelling. Then the bedroom door was flung open, and a bearded man I didn’t recognize dragged a chair into the room and placed it next to mine. I
did
recognize the man who was brought into the room a moment later, one of my kidnappers restraining him on either side.

Jed.

His left eye was red and partially swollen. He took one look at me and rage exploded from him like a match tossed into gasoline.

Jed gave them a good fight, even with his arm in a sling. He tore loose of the guy who was restraining his good arm, then head-butted him in the nose. The man grunted as blood spurted from his nostrils and stumbled backward.

The guy standing behind Jed was wearing a baseball cap. He wrenched Jed’s injured arm backward and out of the sling. Jed growled in pain, but he spun around and punched Baseball Cap in the face, getting in two quick hits before the man with the busted nose and the man with a beard grabbed Jed and dragged him back. Baseball Cap punched Jed in the gut and the face a couple of times before they pushed him down into the chair. He bucked and fought, delivering the bearded guy a good kick in the ribs before they tied his bad arm to the chair.

A new surge of energy burst through Jed, and he bolted out of the chair and to his feet, bringing the chair with him. He swung it around and slammed it into the head of Baseball Cap, knocking him to the floor. The chair shattered into pieces and fell away from him, leaving him unencumbered.

Bearded Guy and Busted Nose stood on opposite sides of Jed, and Bearded Guy started to circle by me as though looking for an opening to pounce. My calf was tied to the chair leg, but there was nothing securing my foot. His attention was on Jed, so he tripped on my extended foot and fell onto his side. After squawking out a surprised shout, he started to reach for me. Jed was there in an instant, stomping on the guy’s back as he shoved my chair across the floor toward the wall. He barely made eye contact with me before returning to his task.

He stomped on the guy’s back again and got in two more good kicks before Busted Nose made a run for him. Or at least I thought so—he lunged straight past Jed, heading toward me. A look of pure evil filled his eyes as he reached for me, but Jed grabbed him by the shoulder and swung him around, smashing his already injured nose several times with his fist. The guy crumpled to the floor with a whimper next to his cohort, who had now pulled out a gun.

Bearded Guy trained his weapon on Jed. “Go ahead, Carlisle. Make me shoot you.”

Jed’s shoulders relaxed, and he held his hands in the air in surrender.

Bearded Guy climbed to his feet, none too gracefully, and moved slowly toward Jed. “Turn around and put your hands behind your back.”

Jed started to turn, but when the guy was within a three-foot radius of him, Jed spun and gave him a sideways kick in the stomach. The second he doubled over, Jed grabbed his gun and shoved him backward. He stumbled over Busted Nose on the floor and hit his head on the wall, then slumped to the floor, unconscious.

“Drop it, Carlisle,” Baseball Cap growled from the floor. “Or I’ll shoot her.”

I turned my attention to him, horror washing from my head to my toes when I saw his gun was pointed straight at me.

A gunshot rang out, and I was surprised I didn’t feel any pain until the guy slumped to the floor, blood trickling out of the hole in his forehead, his eyes wide and vacant.

I stared at Jed, wide-eyed with shock and horror.

He quickly turned his gun toward the two guys piled on top of each other. Busted Nose was reaching for his gun, but Jed’s deadly calm voice stopped him.

“I’d love to blow your hand off, so keep reaching.”

The man wisely stopped, putting his hand palm down on the floor.

Jed moved closer and pulled the gun out of the back of his pants, then rose and backed up toward me, keeping an eye on the men. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” I croaked.

He set one of the guns on the floor, then pulled a small knife out of his boot and set to work, slicing through the rope around my right arm. Once it was free, he handed me the knife, picked up the second gun, and aimed both weapons at the men.

Bearded Guy began to come around, his eyes blinking open, and he started to scramble to his feet.

“Keep your ass on the floor, or you’ll get a gut full of lead. I hear it’s a painful way to die.”

With a shaky hand, I cut the rope off my left hand. The sparkle of my engagement ring caught me by surprise. How much time had passed? An hour? Two?

But I didn’t have time to dwell on how ecstatically happy I had been. As soon as my left hand was free, I leaned over and sawed through the ropes restraining my legs. The need to hurry wasn’t lost on me, but fear made me sloppy.
Calm down, Rose. Just cut through the rope, then get out of here and find Mason.

Surprisingly, my simple plan helped me focus. Once I was free, I stood up from the chair, wondering what to do next.

Jed handed me the spare gun. “If one of them even looks like he’s about to get up, shoot him.”

I aimed my weapon at them as Jed reached under the dead guy across the room and pulled out his gun.

“Back out of the room, Rose.”

He used my real name.

New fear washed through me. If they had kidnapped me as Rose, they would have to wonder why Jed was so concerned about saving me as well as himself. And if they’d wanted the Lady in Black, the fact that I had been snatched without my veil, mere minutes after my boyfriend proposed to me in a public place was a very, very bad sign.

Either way, this was disastrous.

But I didn’t have time to dwell on that. I did as Jed instructed, backing out of the room while holding the gun aimed at my would-be captors, moving into a sparsely furnished living room and dining room, the walls covered in more cedar paneling.

“You’ll never get away with this Carlisle,” Busted Nose grunted, still lying on the floor.

Jed didn’t respond. He simply backed out of the room. Then he tossed the gun into his left hand behind him to pull the door shut and started to turn the key in the lock.

A gunshot rang out as a hole appeared in the wooden door, close to the doorknob. “Shoot!” Jed shouted as he backed up and shot his own gun too.

I shrieked, but I took a step back and pulled the trigger. Several bullets went through the door, and whoever had been shooting inside stopped.

“Did I kill him?” I whispered, shaking again.

“I don’t know. But he deserved it if you did. Now we need to get out of here before
he
shows up.” Putting himself between me and the door, he led me to the ajar front door, the cold wind gusting inside through the cracked opening.

I was about to ask who he was talking about, but the door flung open. Nothing could have prepared me for the angry man filling the doorway.

Skeeter Malcolm.

W
as
Skeeter the one we were running from? He sure looked murderous, and I took an unintentional step backward, bumping into Jed.

“Where are they?” he asked through clenched teeth.

Jed’s voice was cold. “The bedroom.”

“Did you find out anything?”

“Nothing other than what I already told you. I just got her free. I thought I took all their weapons, but they got off a shot after I locked the door. Rose and I fired a few times, and it’s been quiet since. I suspect there’s at least one alive, maybe two.”

Skeeter nodded, his attention on the door. He didn’t even look at us. “I have a car out front. Take her to the safe house. I’ll find your car down the road and meet you there.”

My gaze pivoted between them. “What on earth is goin’ on?”

Skeeter’s eyes darkened. “
Get her out of here
.”

I started to protest, but Jed didn’t give me the chance. He stuffed his gun into the back waistband of his pants, grabbed my gun, and put it into his jeans pocket, then squatted and threw me over his shoulder. It was just like how I’d come in, only this time I could see my surroundings.

The cabin was surrounded by trees, and two cars and an SUV were parked haphazardly in the yard. It was a secluded location. Definitely the perfect place to hide a kidnap victim.

Jed strode toward the SUV, opened the back door, and set me down inside.

Once I was settled, I turned my attention to the cabin. “What’s he doin’ in there?”

“Getting answers.”

Fear pumped through my veins. I knew this side of Skeeter existed, yet it was easier to pretend it didn’t. But this was a reminder that a darkness lurked inside him—one he hid well from me—yet it resided there, nevertheless. I’d do well to remember that.

Jed shut the door and climbed behind the steering wheel.

“Jed, do they know I’m Lady?”

He shook his head and turned the key, bringing the engine to life. “No. I suspect they work for Gentry and they took you to use against Deveraux, even though he’s not the ADA anymore. Which means this is personal.”

“Then why did they kidnap
you?
”

“They didn’t. I was outside of the restaurant. I saw them take you out the back door, then I followed them here. They found me lurking outside the house, and one of them jumped me.” He looked over his shoulder and backed up the SUV, the bumper nearly touching the trees.

The fact that Jed had been watching me that closely caught me by surprise, but the fact that Skeeter had shown up grabbed my attention more.

“How did Skeeter get here? I thought he was off running his ‘errands.’”

“I called him.”

Jed started to turn down the drive. Then something hit me like a bag of mulch. “My purse! Do you know if they got my purse?”

Jed gave me a look that implied I’d lost my mind.

“My phones are in there! I’d just gotten a text from an unknown number saying he wants to meet tomorrow night at 10:00 p.m. We need my phone to answer him. Is it in the car they used to kidnap me?

Shaking his head and groaning, Jed threw the car into park and hopped out. He climbed into the back of one of the cars, then climbed out seconds later, my small bag in his hand. But instead of getting back into the SUV, he turned to face the house, his back stiffening.

Skeeter was headed straight for him, and it would be an understatement to say he didn’t look happy.

They exchanged words for a half-minute, then Jed handed Skeeter my purse and headed back into the cabin. After pausing to give my bag a disdainful glare, Skeeter stomped toward the SUV. He got into the driver’s side of the car, opened my purse, and pulled out the burner phone. His eyes shifted to meet mine after he read the message on the home screen. It was like looking into two twin flames of rage.

I really was in a world full of crap … and not just from my enemies.

I threw open the back door and made a run for it, the gravel and pine needles poking my bare feet and slowing me down. Though I knew I didn’t have a prayer of getting away, my fight or flight response had kicked in and there was no way I could fight him.

But Skeeter caught up to me in seconds, his arm reaching around my waist and hauling me hard against his chest.

“Let go of me, Skeeter Malcolm!” I kicked his legs and tried to pry his arm loose, but he held me in a tight grip and lifted me effortlessly off the ground, then turned around and stomped to the SUV, not saying a word.

It was his silence that scared me the most. Was he like this because he knew what I had done?

Jed stood on the front porch, watching us. The light from inside made his face unreadable.

“I gave you a job,” Skeeter said, his voice hard. “Now get in there and
do it
.”

Skeeter tossed me none too gently onto the backseat and slammed the door shut. I landed awkwardly, and by the time I righted myself, he was already tearing down the drive.

Then a new horror hit me.

Mason.

In my vision of his murder, Mason had been overcome with grief. It wasn’t from finding out my secret. It was because I’d been kidnapped. I
had
to warn him.

I leaned over the seat and snatched my purse, trying to get to my phone.

But Skeeter pulled the truck over to the side of the drive, screeching to a halt and slamming me against the back of the front seat. He practically dove over the seat to snag my phone out of my hands.

“Give me my phone!”

He tossed it onto the floorboard of the front passenger seat and snarled, “Who in the hell do you think you’re gonna call?”

“Mason!”

“There’s
no way in hell
you’re callin’ him. Not until we get this sorted out.”

“The only thing we need to sort out at this moment is for you to
give me my phone
!”

To my extreme aggravation, he ignored me and continued to drive.

“
Skeeter!
”

“Give it up.” His voice was cold. “I wouldn’t let you have that phone if it was to call God Almighty Himself.”

A lump filled my throat. “I have to call him, Skeeter,” I choked out. “I saw a vision of his murder. I think it happens tonight. I have to let him know I’m okay.”

“No.”

I started to cry, fear and shock twining with my worry over Mason. “I have to call him!
Please!
”

He gave me the silent treatment, and no matter how much I begged, pleaded, and cried, he wasn’t swayed.

After about ten minutes, Skeeter pulled to a stop in front of another cabin tucked into the woods. He opened his door and got out, leaving my phone on the passenger floorboard.

I sucked in a breath as I came up with a quick plan.

The moment he shut the driver’s door, I pounced on the automatic lock and swung my leg over onto the front seat.

“
Goddammit, Rose!
”

I ignored him and slid the rest of the way over, diving for the floorboard and feeling under the seat for my phone.

A loud gunshot filled my ears. I flinched out of reflex as the window of the back passenger door shattered onto the backseat.

Panicked, I snagged the phone, then reached for the passenger door handle with my left, but my hand slipped off.

That was all the time Skeeter needed to get the back door unlocked and jerk the front door open. He grabbed my legs and pulled me across the seat. He leaned over me and snatched the phone from my hand, tossing it back into the truck, then jerked me out of the cab. I almost fell to the ground, but he hoisted me up and over his shoulder and strode toward the dark cabin.

“Let go of me!” I beat on his back and shoved my knee hard into his abdomen. He grunted, but he held my legs tight as he walked into the dark house.

As soon as he entered the house, it hit me. I’d been here before. A couple of months ago, Jed had driven me here blindfolded so I could force a vision of a mostly unconscious guy.

“Who else is here?” I asked, my voice shaking.

“Not a goddamned soul.”

“I want to go home.”

“No.” He dropped me onto my side on the dilapidated, dirty sofa, then switched on a lamp.

Blinking as my eyes adjusted to the light, I sat up.

Skeeter dragged a chair in front of me and straddled the seat, resting his forearms on the back. His face gave nothing away.

Fury pushed away my fear. “You may own the Lady in Black, Skeeter Malcolm, but you don’t own
me
.”

He remained silent, his face a blank slate.

“What do you want?”

He shifted slightly. “We’ll wait for Jed. This seems like a conversation I should have with the two of you.”

So he
was
ticked about us meeting Mick Gentry. I wasn’t about to apologize.

He lifted his index finger toward my hand. “I see you have a new piece of jewelry.”

I looked down at my hand, then glared at him. I didn’t like his tone. “Mason proposed tonight.” I lifted my chin. “And I said yes.”

His eyebrows rose slightly. “Seems to me that you’ve been too busy to spend much time thinkin’ about your love life.” His head tilted to the side. “What with you gallivantin’ around the county lettin’ everyone know you think
I’m a goddamned coward
!”

“I never once said you were a coward!”

He stood, his eyes blazing. “Well, you sure as hell left that impression!”

“Well, I had to give Mick Gentry a good reason to agree to see me.”

“Why in God’s name would you want to see Mick Gentry?”

His voice was so loud I cringed. “If you’d just calm down, I would be happy to explain.”

He burst out of his chair and towered over me, his hands clenched at his sides. “After everything that’s happened, how the hell am I supposed to calm down?”

“Skeeter.” Jed stood in the open doorway. “I’m the one to blame.”

He turned to look at Jed, his eyes wide. He started to advance toward him, but I jumped up and grabbed his arm.

“Skeeter, we managed to set up a meeting.”

He swung his head down to look at me and said, “Oh, don’t worry. I heard
all
about your meetin’!”

“Not that one. With J.R. Simmons.”

His eyes widened and his arm tensed. “What the hell are you talkin’ about?”

Jed entered the room and shut the door behind him. “We’re pretty sure Simmons is backin’ Gentry, right?”

“It’s why we went to see him,” I said. “I wanted to set up a meeting with J.R.”

His eyes narrowed to slits. “You’re not goin’ anywhere
near
J.R. Simmons.”

“I haven’t gone to this much trouble for nothin’!”

A war waged in his eyes, and he shook me off. “We have more immediate issues at hand.” He turned to Jed. “Did you take care of it?”

“It was up in flames when I left.”

I gasped. “What was? The cabin?”

Skeeter looked at me like I was crazy. “No, the bonfire we’re gonna go sing Kumbaya around before we make s’mores.
Of course, the cabin!
”

“But those men were inside!” I turned to Jed. “You set it on fire with them still in there?”

“Rose, they were dead.”

“What?”

Skeeter released a low growl. “You’re focusing on the wrong thing. They kidnapped you in a very public place. You need to be askin’ why.”

“I don’t know.” I shook my head. “They didn’t say anything.”

“It was a rhetorical question. I
know
why.”

“What? How?”

“I asked them.”

The blood rushed to my feet. I knew what he’d done, yet knowing it and having the reality of it in front of me were two different things. But he must have seen my shock.

“If you’re gonna play with the big dogs, Lady, you’re gonna have to roll around in shit.” His face was hard enough to match his words.

“Skeeter,” Jed cautioned.

“What? She jumped feet first into this mess. She’s gonna have to accept the consequences.”

I swallowed the bile in my throat. “Did they know I was Lady?” I hoped to God Jed was right—otherwise there was no way my plan with J.R. would pan out.

“No.” Skeeter walked toward the grungy kitchen. “They only knew they’d kidnapped Rose Gardner, the girlfriend of Mason Deveraux.”

That calmed me down a bit, but it reminded me of my need to warn Mason. “I have to call him and tell him that I think he’s going to be killed tonight. I have to tell him I’m okay. He’s bound to be sick with worry.”

Skeeter pulled his flask out of his coat pocket and took a swig. “No.”

“
Why not?
”

“We need to let this play out. Jed got their phones, and we’ll wait until they get the call to carry out their order.”

“And what was that?”

He took another swig, then said matter-of-factly, “To kill you.”

“
What?
”

“They were gonna video it and send it to your boyfriend in a text.” He walked closer and handed me the flask. “No one says shit to anyone until I know who gave this order.”

My legs started to buckle, so I sat in the kitchen chair Skeeter had vacated and took a big swig from the flask. I promptly began to choke as the liquor burned a path to my belly. It wasn’t Skeeter’s good stuff that usually went down as smooth as honey.

“There wasn’t anyone left to tell you who’s behind it?” Jed asked.

“No. There was only one, and he was already close to meetin’ his maker. My attempts at persuasion only helped him get there sooner.”

“I knew one of them,” Jed said. “Cody Channing. Last I heard he was working for Crocker. He never pledged his loyalty to you. Maybe he sided with Gentry.”

Skeeter grunted in response.

“Their plan doesn’t make sense,” Jed countered. “What could they possibly stand to gain by killing her?”

“It could only be to make Mason suffer,” I said, then took another drink, prepared for the burn this time. “I can’t even imagine how he’d react if he saw that.”

“Sounds like J.R. Simmons, all right,” Jed murmured.

Skeeter pulled another kitchen chair into the living room and sat in front of me, gently taking the flask from my shaking hand. “I need you tell me everything you remember. Start with how you got to the restaurant.”

I looked up at Jed, then back at Skeeter. “Mason took me out to dinner, and he asked Deputy Miller to come with us.”