Chapter 29 Ilsa #2
Cosi’s fingers tapped on the wheel as we drove down the highway. He’d been tapping ever since we left Spencer with Gwen for the picnic.
“He’ll be okay.” I reached over to put my hand on his thigh. Worst-case scenario, they’d have an awkward lunch and Spencer would walk home early.
“I know.” He sighed. “This is hard. I’ve never had to share him.”
“What about me?”
He clasped my hand, lifting it to his lips. “Doesn’t feel like sharing. Feels like how it was always supposed to be.”
This man. He stole my breath away. I rested my temple against the seat, twisting sideways to smile at him as he slowed for the turnoff to Cotters Lake.
“I love you.” Saying it felt like the thousandth time, not the first.
Cosi pressed my hand to his heart, holding it against his chest. “I love you too, baby.”
Like how it was always supposed to be.
We eased off the highway, taking the gravel road into the mountains. The weather had warmed enough that the thick layer of snow and ice had melted, leaving slushy twin tracks. The noise of the tires and hum of the engine was like a lullaby.
“Don’t fall asleep on me,” Cosi murmured, his warm hand still holding mine as he drove with the other.
“It’s your fault I’m tired.” I yawned. “You kept me up too late last night.”
He grinned. “Planning to do the same tonight.”
I laughed, drawing my knees to the seat as I closed my eyes. Another yawn pulled at my mouth, and I was seconds from drifting off when Cosi dropped my hand.
Not a gentle loosening of his fingers. He let it go so quickly that my eyes flew open and I sat upright.
“What?”
Cosi’s gaze was narrowed at the road ahead, both hands gripping the wheel as he took his foot off the gas pedal.
“What’s wrong?” Was there an animal or something out there? A bear or moose or elk?
I stared through the windshield, trying to make out whatever it was that he saw. But before I had the chance, he floored it, sending us fishtailing for a minute as the tires spun to get traction. Then we were racing down the narrow road, bouncing over dips and bumps.
“Cosi.” I gripped the handle on the door and the console between us.
“Hold on, Ilsa.”
My fingers dug into the seat, my hand clutching the door’s handle, as he kept going faster and faster. Too fast for a rough country road. My body flung side to side in the seat, up and down, as panic set in, my heart climbing into my throat.
Cosi stayed wholly focused ahead, his jaw set in a determined line at whatever he’d seen.
We hit a bump that sent my elbow slamming into the door, making me wince. But as the sting in my arm faded, I saw movement ahead.
A green Chevy truck was speeding backward almost as quickly as we were moving forward.
“Who—” I didn’t finish my sentence. There was only one person Cosi would risk chasing after with me in the passenger seat.
Trick.
The engine revved as he slammed on the gas and the distance between us and Trick shortened. Closer and closer until I could see Trick’s face. It was covered in a beard, a hat pulled low on his head. In passing, I wouldn’t have recognized him.
How Cosi knew it was him, I wasn’t sure, probably the truck.
Trick alternated between looking forward at us and backward at the road, searching for an escape. But the trees blocked him in. There wasn’t enough room for him to turn. If he stopped, Cosi would have him.
Tree trunks streaked by my window. Clumps of snow flew up from the road, sloshing on the windows. And not once did Cosi look away from Trick.
We got so close that our fenders bumped.
Trick’s eyes went wide as Cosi laid on the horn. But it only seemed to spur Trick on, pushing him to go faster, inching away, still driving in reverse, until we came to a small clearing.
Trick spun his Chevy around, and even though we were right behind him, even though he had to know that this was a dead-end chase, he kept driving, off the road and into the forest. His tires cut tracks in the snow as he dodged trees and crashed through drifts.
“I’m not losing him.” Cosi didn’t hesitate to follow. He yanked the wheel, taking the same path as Trick, until we were so close to the lake that I could make out the shoreline.
“Fuck,” Cosi clipped. “He’s going to try and cross the lake.”
“But the ice.” Jerry’s warning from weeks ago not to drive on it came rushing back.
Trick didn’t slow as he shot for the lake. For a moment, I was sure he’d fly across the ice and be gone forever. But then the front corner of his truck lurched in the air, like he hit a rock or tree stump. It sent him careening sideways, skidding to a stop ten feet from the shore.
Cosi slammed on the brakes. The Bronco came to a stop nearly touching Trick’s bumper, blocking him in. Moving faster than I’d ever seen a person move, Cosi was out the door, his hand flicking free the clasp on his holster.
Two quick, deafening pops filled the cab as he shot out Trick’s front tire.
“Out and on the ground,” Cosi bellowed, gun leveled at Trick as he sidestepped for a better angle.
My pulse pounded as I watched Trick slowly open his door. He swung out one leg but didn’t shift from behind the wheel.
“Out. Now, Trick,” Cosi shouted, gun still raised. “Shut off the truck.”
Trick hung his head, his shoulders curling forward as he obeyed. When he looked to Cosi, it was with a sadness that almost made me pity him. Almost.
“It’s over,” Cosi said.
Trick shook his head, looking up. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
Above the hum of the Bronco’s idling engine, I strained my ears to hear.
“Trick,” Cosi warned.
Trick twisted so he could meet my gaze. “All Bluebird ever talked about was the gold. How he was sure he could find it. How he was onto something big.”
So when I’d gone to the bar to ask Trick about Dad, he’d known all along.
“I’m fucking sick of tending bar. Dealing with drunk assholes. Living off shitty tips and struggling to pay the bills.”
“Get the fuck out of your truck,” Cosi yelled.
But Trick didn’t move. He kept his eyes on me as his lip curled, and his stare morphed into a sneer.
“You didn’t even know him. You weren’t here for him when Donnie died.
You didn’t drive him home when he’d drown his sorrows in a bottle of bourbon.
You didn’t listen to him cry because his goddamn heart was broken. You didn’t deserve Ike.”
It was every insecurity, every truth, I felt bone deep.
He was right. I hated that he was right.
“Trick,” Cosi barked. “Shut your fucking mouth and get out of your truck.”
“She knows I’m right.” His gaze swung to Cosi. “She should have stayed away. But she came here, slid right into your bed and started asking questions about the day he died.”
Oh God. I covered my mouth with a hand, knowing where this was going.
Cosi took a step closer.
Trick swallowed hard, his gaze shifting toward the lake.
Toward the snow-covered island where Dad’s body had washed ashore.
“I came out to go fishing with him that afternoon. We fished together a lot last year. He was talking about the gold. How he wrote you a letter and was sure you’d come home.
How he was going to give it all to you. And I told him that a daughter who couldn’t even visit after Donnie died didn’t deserve a thing. ”
Except I didn’t know about Donnie. Dad had never told me. Dad had rarely spoken to me.
“What did you do?” Cosi asked.
Trick’s eyes were full of tears when he turned away from the lake. “It was an accident. I didn’t mean to push him so hard.”
My heart stopped. “You killed him.”
The whisper was too quiet for Trick to hear but the guilt on his face was confirmation enough.
“Out and on your knees, Trick. Nice and easy.”
He only shook his head, reaching for the key in the ignition. “I’m sorry, Raynes.”
“Patrick.”
“You’ll have to shoot me.” Trick turned the key, the truck roaring to life.
He was going to force Cosi to shoot him. To end his life or let him drive off.
“Cosi, don’t.”
Maybe Trick would get away today, but I couldn’t let Cosi live with Trick’s death. It would haunt him for the rest of his days.
Cosi’s jaw clenched, and before I knew what was happening, he shot out Trick’s other front tire.
But it was too late. With the door still open, Trick threw the truck in drive and stomped on the gas. It lurched forward, on flat tires, over the shoreline and onto the frozen lake.
Cosi opened fire on the back, bullet holes littering the tailgate.
But Trick kept driving, swerving and sliding, the door slamming closed and the rubber loosening on both his front tires.
Cosi lowered his gun, running toward the shore.
I leapt out of the Bronco, hurrying to his side.
Together, we watched in horror as the metal rims of Trick’s wheels began cutting into the ice, sending white flakes spraying up behind him as he drove.
He would never make it out on the other side of the lake. If he doubled back, Cosi would stop him. Trick had nowhere to go.
Except into the water.
Trick wasn’t going to leave this lake alive. He knew what would happen if he drove out there. He’d made his choice.
The ice cracked. One moment, the green truck was skidding over the surface. The next, the front end dropped, followed shortly by the back.
Then Cotters Lake swallowed Trick Dougan.