Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
It had rained the night before, and the ground was wet. Lucy tried to follow in Cormac’s silent footsteps, but she found herself tripping over roots and getting whacked in the face with stray branches. This was not glamorous work.
They wove through the wooded landscape, pausing intermittently so Cormac could scan the forest. Lucy’s heart thundered the whole time. Every twig snapping beneath her feet, every rustle in the bushes, every squirrel jumping from branch to branch made her stomach leap to her throat.
She wasn’t cut out for this—but she wasn’t going to let Cormac do it on his own.
That thought strengthened her resolve. Cormac had taken her in and coddled her, wrapping her in his bulletproof nanotubes, but she wasn’t useless. She wouldn’t crumble under pressure—not today.
These past weeks—especially the four days since the Wedding Expo—had taught Lucy a valuable lesson. Yes, she’d spiraled when she worked in sales, but that didn’t define her anymore. She was capable of selling her designs so well she earned the opportunity to pitch the team at Juniper and Sage. She’d faced a feverish Aaron Phillips and his two mean thugs and discovered a forgery scheme that she never could have imagined.
And now she was here, creeping around trees, seeing it through to the end.
Crumbling now would mean injury or death. It would mean harm for Cormac. It wasn’t an option. So Lucy wouldn’t crumble. She wouldn’t fail. She would bear the pressure on her shoulders and prove to herself that she was capable.
She cracked the lid on a well of inner strength she hadn’t known she possessed. With a few deep breaths, her pulse slowed, and she was able to keep her panic at bay.
She was here to help Cormac, just as he’d helped her. She’d gotten him into this mess, and she wasn’t going to let him face it alone.
Glancing at his profile, she took in his narrowed eyes, his coiled muscles. This was a man who was used to taking care of things on his own. He carried the world on his shoulders, not letting anyone share the burden. She knew that over the past week, he’d let her into an inner sanctum that was reserved for the very few important people in his life.
Lucy wouldn’t let him down.
She was here with him, and she’d stay. This was the man for her. With all his stubbornness, his overprotectiveness, his bossiness. As he motioned for her to crouch behind a bush and took the same position at her side, Lucy let certainty settle over her.
She was choosing Cormac. She wasn’t going to let him go.
“You and me,” she said quietly.
Cormac turned to meet her gaze, the same certainty reflected back at her. “You and me, Lucy.”
A smile stole across her lips. Cormac grinned, then tilted his head toward the bush. They rose slowly, peering over the top of the greenery, to the sight beyond.
The trees thinned, revealing the side of an old cabin. The weathered boards were gray with age, and the roof was covered in moss and leaves. The view through the grimy windows was blocked by dirty curtains, and a collection of rusting and dirty junk littered the porch that wrapped around the back and side of the building.
“There,” Cormac spoke, his voice barely a whisper. He nodded to the front of the building, where a familiar car was parked, its front bumper dented, the tan-colored hood scratched by all the glass that had shattered over it a couple of days prior, its wood paneling still intact down the side.
Meaty and Lanky’s Crown Vic station wagon. Lucy gritted her teeth. They’d found them.
Her pulse sped up as they scanned the hunting lodge, looking for movement. All was still.
Cormac moved slowly, slipping his backpack off and unzipping it. He pulled out the camera and the zip ties before motioning to one of the tall pine trees near the front corner of the house nearest them.
“I’m going to strap the camera to that tree,” he told her.
Lucy gripped his arm. “They’ll see you.”
“I’ll use the trees as cover, and I’ll be quick. I need you to keep watch. If anyone comes outside, signal me.”
“How?”
“Can you whistle?”
Lucy shook her head. “No.”
“Here.” Cormac picked up a stick from the forest floor. “Hit this against the trunk three times to warn me.”
Lucy took the stick from him, brows drawn. She regretted coming along at all, but that would mean Cormac would be here on his own. If she hadn’t come here, he’d have no one to watch his back. Steeling herself, she nodded. “I’ll keep watch.”
“Good.” He slipped back the way they came and circled through the trees, moving so smoothly that even Lucy had trouble keeping track of him. She turned back to the house and waited.
The stick in her hand was rough with bark and slightly damp. She sidled closer to the trunk that would be her drum, scanning the cabin.
Movement drew her gaze to the side window. Behind the dirty curtains, someone stood. Lucy’s breaths came in short gasps, and she tried to stay quiet. She stole a glance over to where Cormac had disappeared just in time to see him creeping out into sight near the tree he’d marked as the best location for the camera.
A bird twittered, and Lucy jumped. The bed of pine needles gave a soft landing for her knee as she fell over slightly, catching herself before she tumbled into the bushes. Glaring at the direction of the birdsong, she turned back to the cabin.
The person behind the window moved, and someone else followed. Lucy’s mouth was dry. She gripped her stick and angled it at the trunk, ready to whack. Cormac was about twenty feet away, in the open, struggling with zip ties.
“Hurry,” she mouthed to him, even though he couldn’t see or hear her, then turned back to the cabin.
If someone walked out the side door, they’d see Cormac right away. What then? What could Lucy do? All she had was a stick.
Cormac dropped something, and she thought she heard him hiss a curse. In the distance, an engine rumbled. Lucy’s heart hammered so hard she could hardly hear anything but her heartbeat, but she was sure the engine was getting closer.
Would they turn down the gravel road leading to the hunting lodge? Would they see Cormac? Friend or foe? Was it the police?
Sipping in little breaths, Lucy felt a dribble of sweat running down her spine. She wasn’t cut out for this. All she had to do was keep watch, and she was on the edge of panic.
The crunch of gravel told her the car was coming closer. Cormac’s movements became hurried, and Lucy held her stick, ready to whack the trunk. What was taking so long? Why wasn’t he moving faster?
The curtains twitched, and a figure moved past and appeared near the side door. She could see the shape of a very stout, meaty man behind the frosted glass.
Crack!
She hit the stick against the trunk.
Crack!
She did it again and wound back for a third hit, but the stick dangled limply, broken in two halves that clung to each other with a bit of damp bark.
Cormac lunged for the bushes, diving onto the forest floor. Lucy could see the edge of his shoulder, but she didn’t know if he was visible from the cabin.
Headlights lit up the back of the Crown Vic, and a second car drove in to park beside it. At the same time, the hunting cabin’s side door opened, and Meaty stepped out, closely followed by Lanky. Lucy might know his name now, but Paul Wendell would forever be Lanky in her mind, and his brother would forever be Meaty.
The driver’s door opened just as Cormac army-crawled beside Lucy. He nodded to her, then pushed aside a branch of the bush to get a look at the driver.
Meaty stood in the way, blocking their line of sight.
Lucy squinted, as if that would help her see through Meaty’s body to the driver. It had to be Aaron Phillips. Who else would it be?
But just as the thought crossed Lucy’s mind, a third person stepped out of the cabin. Aaron’s footsteps clomped on the side porch as he made his way toward the front of the house, descending the three wooden steps that brought him to ground level near the corner of the building.
“You made it,” he said. “Took you long enough.”
Lucy jerked when it was a woman who answered. “You should be grateful I’m here at all,” she said, and Meaty stepped aside.
It took Lucy a second to recognize her, but when she did, her whole body froze.
The woman had a wealth of dyed red hair, gathered up in a messy knot at the top of her head. Rhonda, the woman at the check-in desk at the Wedding Expo.
Beside her, Cormac sucked in a breath. He recognized her too.
“Here’s your cut,” Rhonda said, presenting Aaron with an envelope.
Aaron took the envelope and glanced inside. “This wasn’t the deal,” he hissed. “This is only half.”
Rhonda pasted a bright smile on her lips. Lucy’s blood turned to ice. She recognized that smile. When she’d seen it at the Wedding Expo booth, she’d thought it was friendly. Now, it reminded her of a very hungry shark. “The deal changed when you blew up that girl’s car. It’s too much trouble dealing with you. This is all you’re getting,” the woman said, cold-blooded.
Meaty glanced at Aaron, who shook his head. Aaron crossed his arms and faced the woman. “We won’t give you anything. You pay us what you promised, or you get nothing at all.”
“You think anyone’s going to want to touch your shit now that you’ve been exposed? This is the best deal you’re going to get.”
“No deal.”
Rhonda’s cheeks grew red. She snatched back the envelope and tossed it into her car. “The boss won’t be happy about this,” she said.
“The boss can pay what he owes. He should know how this works by now.”
Rhonda clicked her tongue. “I’ll be back tomorrow. Same time.” Then she got in her car and drove away.
Aaron vibrated with rage, his face red, his fists clenched. Meaty and Lanky took a few steps forward, following Rhonda’s car, but she reversed with expert precision and was soon out of sight.
Movement drew Lucy’s gaze to the side of the house. There was someone else inside. She gripped Cormac’s arm as he shifted, tilting her head to the cabin. He peered through the bushes and went still until the three men had clomped their way back up the steps, along the porch, and inside the side door. The frosted glass rattled as the door slammed, and silence descended on them.
Cormac waited long minutes before grabbing his pack and getting to his feet, body bent in a crouch. Lucy did the same, following the motion of his two fingers as he motioned back the way they came. Her heart remained in her throat for the entire harrowing journey. When a white-tail deer jumped out in front of them and crashed through the forest and out of sight, she let out an inelegant scream before clamping her lips shut and stumbling back.
The deer bounded away, more terrified than Lucy.
It wasn’t until they were in the car and halfway to Stirling that she was able to take a full breath. “Well,” she said, breaking the thick silence that had settled over them. “That was unexpected.”