Episode 163
EPISODE 163
UNDER THE RADAR
River
Twenty years ago, I was in a different place compared to the rest of the guys. My parents weren’t rolling in it or anything, but they owned a ranch. Raised beef, pork, chickens. We employed a few hands who boarded in a small bunkhouse.
Even after Dad’s accident, we always had food on the table. Mom and Uncle Bobby saw to that. I never went hungry—not like Seb and Jake did sometimes. Except they didn’t, because they knew they could always come to our place to fill their empty bellies. We had good grass-fed meat, fresh eggs, and tons of fruit and vegetables as Mom was an avid gardener and loved preserving food for the winter.
Brett and Alex both lived in town and did odd jobs to pad their wallets, but at least they never lacked food. Seb and Jake both lived with single mothers. Seb’s mom was a drunk, and Jake’s? He never said anything, but she was “between jobs” a lot, and we all had ideas about how Lisa Patterson made ends meet when she got desperate .
Knowing now about Misty, I wonder if she was some kind of surrogate for the Holmeses. Carrying a kid for the hotel magnate would pay a pretty penny. Then again, why would they want a working-class woman from a tiny town in Montana when they could hire the best surrogate in the business?
So much I don’t know.
So much I hope to find out during this quick trip.
I look down at the clouds as the chartered plane flies, bumping with a touch of turbulence every now and then. I take a sip of my bourbon.
And I remember.
Twenty years earlier...
“I’ve got to go back,” Jake says. “I know Marnie followed us there. And now...” He rubs at his forehead. Goosebumps erupt on his arms.
He’s nervous. Well, hell, aren’t we all? We just robbed Old Man Larson. We’ve got to lie low. Seb and I have got to talk some sense into him. We can’t go running back to Larson’s property.
“I’m going,” Jake says again.
“Have you gone completely mad?” Sebastian says. “You’ll fuck this up for all of us. Marnie is fine. She probably went?—”
“I’ve told you that she didn’t go home. Riv and I already went over there.”
Nope, she wasn’t home.
Jake came to me this morning. To me, because he was hungry. I gave him breakfast, but he hardly nibbled at it .
Worry still etches his features.
Damn. Is it possible that Marnie did follow us?
Jake walks toward the front door.
His jaw clenched, Sebastian grabs Jake’s arm and yanks him back. “Don’t you fucking dare, Jake. Don’t you fucking dare.”
Jake wrangles himself free of Seb’s grasp. “Fuck off, Seb. You know what’s at stake. She’s pregnant! I have to find her.”
“Then go find her,” Seb grits out, “but stay the hell away from Larson’s.”
I’m about to open my mouth to agree with Seb when his mother appears behind us, her hair a mass of tangles. She wears an old flannel robe. Her eyes are bloodshot and puffy.
“Sebastian?” she says.
“Shit,” Seb says under his breath as he turns. “What do you need, Mom?”
“Do we have any more vodka?”
“Nope. It’s all gone. How about a nice cup of coffee?”
She shakes her head and shuffles back to her bedroom.
“You need to take care of her?” I ask Seb.
“Are you kidding? I can’t force her to drink a cup of coffee. Believe me. I’ve tried. She’s fine.”
“Yeah, but she’s awake. She can hear us.” I nod toward the door.
The three of us leave Seb’s house and step out into the front yard. The grass is riddled with weeds.
“Come on.” Seb leads us around to the back. “Better if no one sees us out here talking this early.”
We walk through the chain-link gate and into Seb’s backyard.
“Now you listen to me, Jake. You’re not fucking this up. You said you didn’t count the money, and Riv, you didn’t carry any. Well, I counted mine. It’s over four hundred grand, almost five.”
My jaw drops. Seriously? I had no idea it would be that much. “Fuck,” I say.
Even Jake’s eyebrows nearly fly off his forehead. “That means...”
“That means two million dollars, Jake, give or take. That’s around four hundred grand for each of us. But not if you go lurking around Larson’s property. He’ll catch you.”
“I’m not a moron,” Jake says. “I won’t get caught.”
“It’s the light of day, man,” Seb argues. “Larson’s drugs have worn off by now. You’ll ruin it for all of us if you go there.”
I draw in a breath. “Seb is right, Jake. And you know it.”
Jake starts to speak, but?—
Crash!
The loud noise comes from inside Seb’s house. From his mother’s room. Her window is open.
“Christ,” Seb mutters. “I need to go see what she broke. It sounds like glass, and if it is, she’ll walk on it and cut herself.”
“Go ahead,” I say. “I got this.”
“You sure?”
I nod.
Seb leans toward me. “Keep him on a fucking leash,” he murmurs and then walks into his house through the back door.
Jake kicks a rock on the concrete patio. His hands are shoved in his pockets, and his jaw is rigid.
I close the short distance between us. “Come on. Let’s go find her.”
“She’s not at my place, and she’s not at her house.” Jake shakes his head. “There’s only one other place she could be. ”
“Jake, there are about a hundred other places she could be.”
“At this hour? It’s morning, Riv. And she hasn’t been feeling very good. She gets sick.”
“Maybe she went over to Doc Potter’s.”
Jake sighs. “You and I both know where she went, River. Something must have happened to her.”
“She’ll turn up, Jake. You need to chill. If this is going to work, we need to stay under the radar for the next few days. If Larson realizes he was robbed, the cops will be everywhere. If he doesn’t, we still need to lie low. Let time pass.”
I look Jake up and down from his mass of unruly blond hair to his work boots.
Something is off.
Right around his ankle. His jeans aren’t hanging right.
My heart plummets to my stomach. “Jake, what the fuck is that?” I point to his ankle.
“I think you already know,” he says, his voice robotic. “I’m going after Marnie, River. And I’m going now.”