Chapter 29 #2
He followed her through the dense underbrush until they found the mostly overgrown path of his childhood adventures in these woods.
He didn’t ask any questions. She didn’t offer any information.
Something about coming here made him uneasy and, for the first time since the night his family was murdered, he felt afraid.
Baxter stopped suddenly. “Give me a minute.”
While he watched, she walked in circles scanning the ground with the aid of the flashlight. Eventually she appeared to find what she was looking for. Essentially, a spot like a hundred others.
Baxter dropped to her knees and brushed the leaves away. He crouched beside her. Using the shovel he’d brought along, she dug fiercely for a minute or so until he heard the sound of metal on metal. Then she pushed aside the dirt to uncover what she was looking for.
A Beanee Weenee can. What the hell?
She tossed the shovel aside, squeezed the end of the can open, then looked up at him. “Hold out your hands.”
A smart man would have declined, but instinct urged him to do as she said. He cupped his hands, and she poured the contents of the can into them.
It wasn’t until she aimed the beam of her flashlight on the items that he realized what he was holding.
Wedding bands.
Some instinct he wouldn’t name had him searching the inside of one for an inscription . . . Forever, Olivia.
The missing wedding bands . . . the symbols of his parents’ commitment to each other.
Stokes had been telling the truth . . . he wasn’t the one.
The drive back to Tanner’s childhood home was made in silence. Annette wanted to explain but she couldn’t find the words.
When he parked next to her rental, he finally spoke. “How did Dane come into possession of these items?”
“That I can’t answer. But I can tell you that once he’d realized what he’d done, trading the rings for drugs, he was frantic to get them back. He and Zac argued, and Zac ended up dead.” God, she was suddenly so tired. “You have to remember he was pretty messed up when I got to him.”
“So he told you nothing.”
She stared at him through the darkness of the car’s interior. “He kept mumbling something about keeping secrets too long. That it needed to be over.”
Tanner stared forward. “Go home. We’ll talk about this tomorrow.”
That icy monotone was back. She didn’t like it. “What’re you going to do?”
He turned to her then. “I honestly don’t know.”
She’d given him what she had in the hope of winning his support, but that was all she could do. The rest he had to come to terms with himself.
“You know what they’ll do to me if they find out what I’ve told you. Someone shot at you and trashed my Lexus. I’m reasonably sure we’re both already on someone’s kill list.” She didn’t mention Jazel or the black sedan.
“Go home,” he said without looking at her. “Stay there.”
Annette got out of the Cadillac and climbed into the Jaguar. Tomorrow. She had lived with this for days now. She’d done all she could. Running out on Paula was out of the question. There was only one choice: Trust Carson Tanner.
She drove away. Carson Tanner was a victim of the same people his family had been.
Whatever had happened, whoever had ultimately been responsible, she hoped he realized that he was now in the same dangerous situation she was.
The questions he wanted answers to had not changed.
But he did have physical evidence now. He could get to the truth.
Like her, it was going to cost him everything.
At this rate, she was dead anyway. If she could ensure Paula’s safety, maybe Annette could finish this without Tanner. She could go to the feds, spill her guts on Wainwright and the others. Could she trust the feds to protect her sister?
If she went that route, maybe Tanner could still salvage his life.
Her fingers tightened on the steering wheel. She had no business feeling sorry for him. Yet she did.
Was there even a way to stop this lunge toward disaster without additional risk to him?
She needed to think. There was one other route she could try.
One man powerful enough to end this. After all .
. . it began with him. But he wasn’t the kind of man to whom one could pay an unannounced visit.
She had to be absolutely certain she wanted to make this move.
It was a no-turning-back decision. Once she crossed that line it was done.
Frankly, it was the only feasible strategy she had left outside trusting the feds. Considering the feds were two-and-zero when it came to protecting their witnesses, that option would definitely be a last resort.
Annette dug around in her bag for her cell phone, then put through the call to the private line he used for business of this nature.
“We have to talk,” she said without preamble. He needed to understand she wasn’t taking no for an answer. “Face-to-face.”
“We have nothing to talk about.”
His response was exactly what she had anticipated.
“You know better than that,” she argued. He could pretend all he wanted, just not with her.
He then explained all the risks involved with such a meeting. Risks to her.
“I know the risks.” Did he think her a fool? “I also know the risk to you if you refuse to see me.” She paused for effect. “Is now a good time?”
Checkmate. She had threatened the most powerful man in Birmingham. The silence that followed warned that he was not pleased by her defiance.
All her past experience combined could not have prepared her for what he said next.
“It’s over. I know what you’ve done.”
What did she do now? She tossed the phone onto the passenger seat.
Fear tightened like a noose around her neck. If he knew what she’d done . . . there was little chance she or Tanner would survive the night, much less the day to come. Allowing the two of them to live with this knowledge, no matter how incomplete, would be too risky.
Did she dare go to the feds? If she confronted him in person, would it change things?
Headlights appeared in her rearview mirror, seizing her attention.
Her breath caught. Stay calm. Could be nobody, just another car on the road. She should have just gone home like Tanner said. Stayed there and waited for his decision.
Her fingers tightened on the steering wheel. Focus. Drive.
The twin beams behind her grew larger, loomed closer in the mirror.
Go faster. Her foot flexed, pressed harder on the accelerator. The Jaguar zoomed forward. She took the curves way faster than she should, struggled to keep the vehicle on the crooked road.
When she dared to glance in her mirror again the headlights were gone.
Her heart seemingly stilled in her chest.
Where . . . ?
Panic shot through her veins.
Right on her bumper. So close the headlights were no longer visible in her rearview mirror.
Her right foot rammed harder against the accelerator. Shit!
The first nudge against her rear bumper propelled her forward, sent the Jaguar careening into the other lane. Annette fought the momentum, wrestled the vehicle back under control and into the proper side of the yellow line.
She couldn’t risk taking a hand off the wheel to reach for her cell phone. Why the hell hadn’t she allowed her cell to connect with the damned car? Shit! She had to go faster. Had to lose him.
She thought of Jazel . . . was this what she’d . . .
Annette’s breath stalled in her lungs.
A second set of headlights appeared in her side mirror.
What the hell?
The car right on her bumper backed off, but not far.
The new arrival roared up right next to the car following her. Moved in so close she couldn’t believe the two didn’t collide.
Her attention snapped forward. Adrenaline burned through her limbs as she barely made the next dangerously sharp bend in the road. By the time she could breathe again and risk another lingering look in her rearview mirror the road behind her was black.
Both cars had disappeared.