Chapter Fourteen
Gerard Apartment
Her cell phone vibrating across the bedside tabletop woke Leah.
She was alone in the bed.
The distant scent of fresh-brewed coffee told her why. Owen was up, had probably been up for a while, making coffee and doing the job of keeping her safe.
She smiled. She’d really enjoyed the gentle way he’d made her feel all sorts of things last night. Safe. Warm. And utterly fulfilled. She couldn’t think of any way she would rather spend her nights.
Her smile fell. But what would she do when this was over?
Would he go back to his life and forget about her?
She’d wanted to ask. While snug in his arms last night, the question had pounded in her brain.
Then she’d decided that she would rather just not think about it until she had no choice.
Enjoying the moment and the time they had together was more important.
Well, and finding the answers to who had tried to frame her up for murder—and tried to set her on fire, to boot.
Her phone started its insistent vibrating again.
It was probably her boss at the library, letting her know she was fired. She couldn’t blame her if she did. She’d brought serious trouble to the library doors.
Her life was basically all trouble right now…except for Owen.
She checked the screen—unknown number—then cleared her throat and tapped the accept button. “Hello?”
Ignoring any call was out of the question right now.
“Leah.”
“Isl—Alyssa.” She frowned at the sound of her former roommate’s breathing—too rapid, as if she’d been running. “Are you okay? Why are you calling?”
“I’m at the lake house,” she whispered. “Someone’s here… I need your help. Please.”
Leah scrambled out from beneath the covers. The room spun with the sudden movement. “I’ll get there as fast as I can. Is there a place you can hide? In the woods? Somewhere?”
She staggered to her closet. Grabbed a pair of jeans from the closet, then a tee. No time for a bra.
“I think so. Hurry, Leah.”
The call ended. Leah threw the phone down and quickly dressed. “Owen!” She stuffed her feet into a pair of slides and rushed out of her room.
Owen was headed to her door.
“We have to go. Alyssa is at the lake house and someone’s there. She’s afraid and hiding.”
He nodded. “Let’s go.”
Leah had started to panic by the time they were in the car. The idea that it would take them at least fifty minutes to get to the lake house had her nerves tattered.
“The police would get there more quickly,” Owen said, reading her mind.
Leah hated the idea of feeling as if she had given up her friend to the police. No, Alyssa—Isla, whatever she called herself—was not really her friend. Leah should know that by now.
“You’re right. Should we call Detective Lambert?”
“I’ll call him,” he said, understanding her hesitancy.
At the next traffic signal, he made the call. When he’d hung up, he glanced at Leah. “Someone will be there in the next ten minutes.”
Leah breathed a sigh of relief. No matter what happened, that call was the right thing to do if her former friend’s life was truly in danger.
“There’s something else.”
She turned to him, her heart nearly stalling with worry. “I’m listening.”
“The black sedan leased to Douglas’s company that has been following you,” he said.
“The one with the driver who could be the same person who tried to set me on fire?”
“Considering what they found in the car,” Owen said, “I would say so.”
“Did they catch him?” She mentally crossed her fingers. Maybe he could provide some answers about who hired him or who else was involved.
“They found the car. He was inside. Dead.”
Her hopes sank. “Who was he?”
“They’re trying to run that down right now. There was no ID on him. His wallet was missing. The registration in the glove box shows After Dark.”
“How do we know he was the one in the library?”
She wasn’t sure she would ever feel completely safe again until he was found.
“His prints. He wasn’t in the system until the incident at the library, and since he didn’t wear gloves, his prints were on the container of lighter fluid and on the lighter. They matched the ones they took from the dead man. Those same prints were all over the car.”
Having anyone be murdered was not something she would ever want…but the idea that she no longer had to worry about that threat was a relief.
But what about who hired him?
Morris Lake House
Fox Lake, 8:15 a.m.
THREE POLICE CRUISERS were in the driveway. Owen parked behind them. One uniform waited at the house, and five others were combing the woods and knocking on neighbors’ doors.
Detective Lambert was there too. Leah spotted him getting out of his car.
“I think I’ll stay in the car, if that’s okay.” She didn’t want to answer the questions he would have. She didn’t want to see her former roommate’s body if they’d found it. Leah just needed to stay back for a bit.
Owen glanced toward the back entrance of the house and the officer standing there with Lambert. “I’ll leave the car running for the air-conditioning but lock the doors when I get out.”
She nodded. “Sure.”
Her stomach was tied in knots. This just kept going and going, and she was so, so tired of it all.
She released her seat belt and closed her eyes.
It was probably the concussion making her feel so weary and irritable.
She’d forgotten all about that last night, but this morning had brought the whole nightmare back.
A rap on the glass of the driver’s-side door made her eyes snap open. She turned, expecting to see Owen at the door already—not Owen.
Alyssa stared at her through the window, eyes wide. She tugged at the door handle. “Please,” she murmured.
Without thinking, Leah hit the unlock button. A glance forward showed Owen and Lambert looking at something on the uniformed officer’s cell phone.
Alyssa dropped into the driver’s seat, hunkering down as if she feared being seen. “Thank God you came.”
Leah sat up straighter. “What’s going on?” She looked forward. “I should get Owen. Everyone’s looking for you.”
“No!” She grabbed Leah’s arm. “Please, just listen to me first.”
Leah relaxed a tiny fraction. “All right, but I need to know what’s really going on. Right now.”
Alyssa glanced forward. “If they see me…” Rather than finish the statement, she shoved the gear shift into reverse and barreled out of the driveway.
Leah reached for her door.
“Don’t.”
She glanced at the woman behind the wheel. There was a gun in her hand, and it was pointed at Leah.
She spun onto the road. “Just relax,” she ordered, struggling to control the car with her one free hand.
The beeping sound warned them that the car’s fob was with Owen. How far would the vehicle go without it? The warning signal for the fact that neither she nor the driver were wearing seat belts grew louder as well, creating a building staccato.
“What are you doing?” Leah demanded. “Stop the car now. Owen and I are trying to help you.”
Her former roommate laughed. “I swear.” She whipped the car left, heading down a side road.
Leah slammed against the door, grimaced at the ache in her head, then righted herself.
Alyssa hit the brakes then, and Leah almost slammed into the dash but caught herself. Her aching head screamed in protest. “What the hell are you doing?”
The sound of the door locks disengaging had Leah reaching for her door again. Alyssa nudged her with the gun. “Do not even think about it.”
The back door behind Leah opened, and someone got in. Leah turned to see and gaped.
Louise Douglas.
“What is going on?” Leah demanded of the woman behind the wheel.
Alyssa handed the gun to Louise. “Better buckle up.”
She slammed on the accelerator. Leah braced herself, hands against the dash, rather than bothering with the seat belt.
“Did you send that man to kill me?” Leah demanded, turning to look over her shoulder at the woman now sitting in the middle of the back seat.
“I did.” She grinned. “Too bad he failed. I never could tolerate a man who failed on the follow-through.”
The two of them, Louise and Alyssa, laughed.
“Did you kill Raymond too?” Leah asked, fury pounding inside her. She should have been afraid, but instead she was furious. Her head didn’t even hurt anymore, or maybe she just couldn’t feel it.
“No,” the driver said, “that was me.” She grinned at Leah. “Don’t feel bad for him. He deserved it. He was a womanizing pig.”
Leah suddenly realized one thing with complete certainty: they weren’t sharing all this information to build comradery…they intended to kill her.
“They’ll know it was you.” She looked from her former friend to the woman in the back seat.
“Not me,” Louise said. She showed off her gloved hands, the gun in one of them. “I was never even here.”
Alyssa slowed to look back at her accomplice. “What does that mean?”
Leah took the opportunity to open the door and launch herself out. The jump might gravely injure her, but at least she’d have a shot at surviving. If she stayed in the vehicle, she was certain to end up dead.
She hit the ground hard, rolled to a stop. Then she scrambled to her feet and started to run. Her head was spinning, but she didn’t slow down.
Tires squealed as the car started to back up.
Leah had to find a way out of its path before—
Her thought was interrupted by the sound of a gunshot.
OWEN brAKED TO a stop. “They turned off somewhere?”
Lambert looked over the seat to stare out the rear window. “Back that way, on the left.”
Owen slammed into reverse, and the car rocketed backward. When they reached the turn off, he hit the brakes, then shoved into drive, lunging down the narrow road.
The first thing he saw was Leah diving for the ditch.
Then a bullet struck the windshield.
“Get down!” Lambert shouted.
Owen pushed into park and shot out of the car before it stopped rocking. He skirted around to the back of the vehicle for cover. Lambert did the same.
“Cover me.” Owen went for the ditch.
Lambert laid down fire to keep the shooter on the other side ducking.
The air didn’t fill Owen’s lungs again until Leah was within reach. “Keep down and move toward the car. I’ll be behind you.”
They headed for the car.
A round of shots hit the ground.
Owen was on top of Leah instantly. When Lambert started firing again, he moved, urging Leah forward. They scrambled up the bank and behind the car where Lambert was still spraying bullets toward the other vehicle.
Owen’s stolen car suddenly barreled forward.
Lambert stopped firing.
Owen raised his head above the trunk and watched as his car faded into the distance. But it was the woman left in the middle of the road, clambering to her feet, that held his attention. She shouted at the fleeing vehicle.
Lambert stepped away from the vehicle, his weapon aimed at the woman. “Put your hands up!” he shouted.
“Stay down,” Owen warned Leah. “Do not move unless you see my car coming from the other direction.”
She nodded, her face pale.
Owen stood and followed Lambert.
“She kidnapped me!” Louise Douglas stood in the middle of the road, hands up in surrender. “She was going to kill us both.”
Leah was suddenly next to Owen, swaying precariously. “She’s lying. She was going to kill me. The two of them are working together.”
Before Owen could grab her, Leah stormed up to the other woman. He was right behind her but didn’t catch up fast enough to prevent what happened next.
Leah punched the other woman in the face. Louise hit the ground.
“That’s for having that guy try to kill me.” She rubbed her fist.
“You got this?” Lambert asked, backing toward the car.
“Got it,” Owen assured him.
“I’ll send a patrol car for the woman, and the rest of us are going to find the one who got away.”
Owen helped Douglas to her feet. “If you resist,” he warned, “the next punch will be from me.”
In the five minutes that followed, a patrol car arrived and took custody of Louise Douglas. Another uniform offered to give them a ride; Owen declined and told the officer to help the others find his car and the fugitive driving it.
When the police were gone, he called the office and ordered a car to pick him and Leah up. Then he draped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. She looked ready to drop.
“You okay?”
“I guess so.” She leaned her head against him. “I guess I held out hope that Isla—Alyssa, whatever, was telling the truth. That the friendship we shared was real on some level.”
But it wasn’t. Owen understood how difficult that must be to accept.
“You up to walking for a few minutes?”
“Yeah. I just want to get out of here.”
“I can make that happen,” he promised. “In fact, I think we’re both due for a vacation.”
She peered up at him, the new bruise on her cheek making his gut clench. “A vacation sounds amazing.”
“Don’t you want to know where?” he asked, grinning at her eagerness.
“I don’t care where as long as I’m with you.”
“Same,” he murmured as he leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead.
They walked until their ride arrived, and then they relaxed and started to plan.