Chapter 16 #2
“Hiding the rental car and sneaking back into the cabin the first night almost gave me away,” Margaux said. “If you’d have been there, you would have noticed. But Jennifer and Christine have always been too absorbed in their own little world to pay attention to those around them.”
Jennifer and Christine might not always be nice in the sense of surface level interactions but they were too kind to be real suspects.
Emma didn’t share that tidbit with Margaux.
Fighting to stay awake was difficult enough without wasting her energy on a pointless fight.
“What happened with Owen? Did he confront you?”
“No. Who knows if he ever would have had the guts. I wasn’t going to waste my chance to eliminate problems. I stumbled across him.
He was stalking you. Looking for a moment to pull you aside.
I tried to take a shot at you but got him instead.
I wasn’t too sad. I had a new plan. Get rid of both of you and slip out before the weekend really started.
You got in your vehicle and I raced to mine. Another accident would be so easy.”
“It wasn’t?” Emma asked.
“You swerved when I accelerated. I pulled out my back-up plan and turned around. But I hadn’t counted on Owen playing the savior.”
Emma could hardly force herself to listen to the casual description of the life-or-death struggles. Stalling for time was her only play. Control drifted from her grasp. “No one heard a gun. I thought I heard thunder.”
“Again, I am so blessed.”
Emma’s eyelids slid shut. She battled with every ounce of strength she had to lift the heavy lids. The light distorted in her cloudy vision. She fought to keep her eyes open. “And the hospital?” she croaked.
“Which time?” Margaux cackled. “Everyone lives in a digital world now. They forget about the analog options. Using a sheet on a cart. Pulling a cord from a wall. Shooting an electrical panel. It’s easy to get around high tech security when the power goes out.
Distract in one location and race to the other. ”
“You worked alone?” Emma asked.
“I’ve always been fast and—in my experience—people only see what they want to believe. No one pushes hard for the truth when lies are so much simpler.”
Emma hated how foolish she had been. A tear slipped from the corner of her eye, and she blinked. Again, her body urged her to succumb to oblivion and rest.
“Shh, shh,” Margaux cooed. “Drift to sleep. It’ll be so much easier for you if you do.
Trust me. Just like when I pulled a plug to lure the Thomases away from Owen’s bedside.
I look out for others at the end. I’ll help you, too.
Accidents happen all the time. Everyone will write this off, and you’ll be with your sister again. ”
With a jerk, Emma was shoved to the floor. Her shoulder hit first, absorbing the impact. She shut her eyes and sucked in a sharp breath. The pain rooted her in reality, a blessing in the midst of so much terror. Because Emma would fight for herself, her sister, and for Daniel.
Daniel didn’t dare blink. Crouching low, he stuck close behind the two newcomers.
If they moved or spoke, Daniel would know.
Chad promised his help. But what did that mean?
And how could he be reliable if he’d let his wife head out into the woods without security?
Had she told him about the threatening note?
Wouldn’t a caring spouse have interceded and offered more protection before she arrived?
If he showed up with a bodyguard, why had he let his wife travel alone?
Philip moved with silence, grace, and speed.
No twigs snapped under his boots or pine bough rustled as he brushed past. He had training to move with such stealth.
As a bodyguard, a certain set of skills were to be expected.
Daniel remained on edge around those with deadly force in their physical arsenal.
He didn’t know what set of rules regulating its use.
Not that the other man was a comfort for morality.
The enemy of my enemy is unreliable. Daniel wouldn’t put his trust in a smooth-talking politician.
Judging by the man’s tailored athletic clothes and high-tech mode of transport to the island, Chad threw money around when a smile wouldn’t get his way.
Each detail only added to Daniel’s unease, his instincts screaming at him.
Because for all Chad exuded power, he couldn’t control his wife.
Margaux was here unaccompanied.
Or was she unrestrained? If she had killed Liz all those years ago and came back to eliminate any other threat, she remained dangerous even after taking out Owen.
Her paranoia about loose ends would consume her.
Had she escaped whatever safeguards her family built around her to enclose her for everyone’s good?
“Is that it?” Chad asked.
Daniel nodded. He set the shovel down on the ground and squatted close to the wall of the shed. Once again, for the second time in twenty minutes, he strained to discern any signs of life. He didn’t move too close to the structure for fear he’d wobble the whole building and give himself away.
Voices filtered out through the gaps and cracks in the warped boards of the DIY outbuilding. He couldn’t make out words, just the furtive, desperate tone. If something happened to Emma because he stalled, how would he forgive himself? “Okay, what’s the plan?”
Chad and Philip exchanged a look.
Daniel frowned. He didn’t like the glance that they’d shared. Unspoken communication didn’t endear them to him. He’d overheard them mention a phone pinging. Had Margaux asked for help? Had she reached out to them?
“Go in there, and get my wife,” Chad said. He moved his hands in a shooing gesture.
Daniel raised a brow and looked to the bodyguard for his reaction. If Philip accepted such condescending treatment, that was his business. But Daniel never dealt well with people who imagined themselves superior.
Nothing showed on Philip’s face.
Noises from inside the building quieted.
Regardless of Daniel’s feelings about the politician’s behavior towards him, he had to act now.
“After you,” Chad murmured to Philip.