Chapter 10 Loose Ends
Ten minutes earlier
“Showtime!” A.J. shot to his feet, tossing his cards on the table. “Gotta run.”
“Where are you going?” Aurora, who was at the coffee maker brewing a cup while he took a call, whirled in his direction. “You can’t leave while I’m winning!”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can, darling.” There was a spring in his step and a note of suppressed excitement as he hurried across the room to give her a kiss.
“No fair.” She pouted as he pivoted away from her. “It’s like icing the kicker in football. I could lose my momentum while you’re out doing…whatever it is you’re doing.” Since he wasn’t telling her, she knew it must have something to do with the case.
“Do me a favor,” he called over his shoulder, “and keep yourself locked inside for the next hour.”
“Okay.” She stared after him, sensing something big was about to go down. “Be careful, please.”
He paused at the door, turned around, and strode back to her with a pistol outstretched. He pressed it into her hands. “It’s loaded. Use it if you have to.”
Her eyes widened. “Is this about Elise?”
“Maybe, but you didn’t hear it from me.” He gave her a rough kiss and swung away from her again.
“She’s back in town, isn’t she?” Aurora squeaked.
He didn’t answer, and she didn’t expect him to.
“What about Aaron?” She followed him to the door, stuffing his pistol in the back waistband of her jeans. “Is he getting called in to work, too?”
“Probably. I’m about to find out,” he added grimly.
She locked the door behind him. While she was double-checking the lock, she heard him jog down the stairs and shout something. Her brother shouted something back. Then A.J.’s truck rumbled to life and roared off.
A few seconds later, a vehicle honked.
What in the world? She moved to the window and peeked outside. Aaron was sitting in his truck, honking like a moron. She was surprised he hadn’t left the same time A.J. had.
Before she could call him and ask what was going on, her phone vibrated with a text message. It was him, of course.
Meet me outside.
A.J.’s warning echoed through her mind, but Aaron was her brother, and she was armed. Also, running outside for a quick chat with him before he took off might shed more light on what A.J. had been called away for.
She unlocked the door and stepped outside without her jacket and immediately regretted it. Her breath came out in white puffs as she hurried down the stairs.
The passenger door was open. Her brother was waiting for her behind the wheel with his head tipped back against the seat.
His hat was pulled over his face. She’d recognize his favorite ratty Stetson from a mile away.
It was sweaty and stained, and she was forever threatening to throw it out, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to do it yet.
“You alright?” Concern filled her as she hopped inside the truck, slamming the door shut to provide a barrier against the cold. In the midst of all the chaos they’d endured lately, she’d all but forgotten he was still in recovery mode.
The sound of the doors locking made her tense in alarm.
“I’m fine, thank you,” a woman trilled, pushing Aaron’s sweaty old Stetson higher to reveal her hateful eyes. She raised a gun and pointed it at Aurora.
Aurora’s hand flew toward the pistol A.J. had lent her, but her assailant cocked her weapon, halting her movements.
“Hands on the dashboard,” Elise said coldly, sitting up straighter.
Aurora glared at her and slapped her hands harder than necessary on the dash. The cell phone she’d been holding flew out of her hand, hitting the windshield and cracking its case. Seriously? She’d paid a lot of money for the stupid case, but that was the least of her problems right now.
“What are you doing in town?” she snapped. Elise should’ve been miles away by now. Out of the country, even.
Elise reached over to yank the pistol from Aurora’s waistband. “Toss your cell phone out the window.” She tapped a button, and the window rolled down.
Aurora wasn’t surprised by the request. Anyone with a brain knew that phones contained tracking devices. As she reached for her phone, her cracked phone case nearly slid off, which gave her an idea.
“Slowly,” Elise warned. “Any sudden movements, and I’ll shoot!”
Unsure if her hasty little brainstorm would be successful, Aurora took the slowly part of Elise’s order as an opportunity to slip her cell phone the rest of the way from its case.
She was careful to keep the front of the phone facing the window to her right so the maniac seated on her left wouldn’t notice.
Holding both items out the window, Aurora dropped the cell phone case while shoving the phone itself up her sleeve.
I did it!
She heard her phone case clatter against the pavement.
Then the window rolled up, and the truck lurched forward.
Since Aurora was locked in, it would make any attempt at escaping trickier, but she still had her cell phone.
That was something. It was only a matter of time before Aaron and A.J.
thought to trace it. Not soon enough for me!
She focused on controlling her breathing and curbing her panic while she did a rapid assessment of her situation. From the corner of her eye, she could see pieces of plastic and vinyl dangling above Elise’s knees, indicating she’d hot-wired Aaron’s truck.
“No one will be looking for us,” Elise spoke in a casual voice, as if they were discussing nothing more important than the weather.
“Not for a while, anyway. I made sure of it, so you and I would have time to…chat.” The emotionless way she said the word chat suggested she had something more ominous in mind than a simple conversation.
“Fine.” Aurora masked her growing alarm as best she could. “Let’s chat.”
Elise hung a right on the road skirting the lake, then another right before pressing down harder on the accelerator. They zoomed down a back road, leaving the main part of town behind. The cars on the road thinned to a trickle. Eventually, Elise and Aurora were alone on the road.
“Nice chat,” Aurora noted sarcastically, trying to goad her captor into saying something.
It worked. “This is your fault, you know,” Elise snarled.
Wow! That was rich coming from a soon-to-be-convicted felon. “I’m not the one driving a stolen truck,” she reminded.
Elise gnashed her teeth. “You’re the reason it didn’t work out between Aaron and me. You saw me as a threat, didn’t you?”
Aurora wasn’t sure what the demented woman behind the wheel was talking about, but she knew it was best to play along and keep the woman talking. Hostage handbook tips 101. “A threat to his happiness, I suppose, and his wallet. Definitely his wallet.”
“Like it would’ve killed you Cannons to part with a few measly dollars!” Elise pressed harder on the gas pedal, and the truck sped up.
Measly? Was she forgetting about the millions of dollars in life insurance proceeds that she’d stolen?
While Aurora scrambled for an answer, she watched the speedometer top a hundred miles per hour. She nervously gripped the dashboard, wishing she’d been allowed to put on her seatbelt. Without one, she wouldn’t survive a collision.
It took her an extra second or two for her brain to register that Elise had moved on to a different subject. “With me as a sister-in-law, you would lose your personal watchdog,” she spat. “You wanted your brother all to yourself, following you around the country like a faithful hound.”
It wasn’t true. For one thing, Aaron hadn’t become Aurora’s self-appointed bodyguard until well after his relationship with Elise had ended. Secondly, Aurora was constantly begging him to find whatever closure he needed so he could move on with his life, especially now that she was promised to A.J.
“Honestly?” She spoke slowly since her main mission was to keep her captor talking, even if it meant spewing colorful word salads on her own part.
“I think he mainly felt sorry for me. After we lost our parents, he considered it his responsibility to look after me. It had nothing to do with you.” Not directly.
Aurora doubted Aaron and Elise’s relationship would’ve worked out, regardless.
“Nothing to do with me,” Elise repeated angrily.
“Story of my life! My birth parents tossed me away like trash. My adoptive parents only wanted a kid to complete their white-picket-fence image. Even that was only to compete with your parents’ white-picket-fence image.
As for your brother, he only dated me because our parents liked the idea of their Ivy League children making a match of it.
It’s never been about me! Ever!” Her voice rose to an indignant shriek.
Aurora waited until her voice faded before answering. “I get it. I was adopted, too.”
“No, you don’t,” Elise retorted furiously.
“You were given a job and a title. Real ones! You were worshipped like a princess by the mighty Cannons, whereas I had to fight for every cent of my allowance from my stingy parents. All those stories about my shopping habits? Lies! Lies! Lies! Why else would a Hathaway apply to become a glorified secretary at Diamondback?”
Aurora was no longer sure what to think, but all she could do was listen. Elise’s tirade was far from finished.
“I worked my fingers to the bone for your father, and again for your demented uncle!”
Demented! Poor Uncle Cary! If Elise truly viewed him as mentally unstable, why had she bothered burying him alive? It was the dictionary definition of overkill.
“And what did I get for my efforts?” Elise pounded the steering wheel with a fist. “Not even a holiday bonus!”
“That must have been disappointing,” Aurora muttered and immediately wanted to kick herself. She’d been gunning for empathy, but her words came out sounding more lame than anything else.
“It was,” Elise fumed. “I had no choice but to take things into my own hands. When you want something done right…” She gave an ugly chuckle.