Chapter Twenty-One
Lana was fast. Even with an arm in a sling, an obvious head injury and a limp, she had her and Eve in a car and out to the steel mill’s back entrance within what felt like the blink of an eye.
“This is where your friend shot us last time,” Eve had to point out as they started walking to the residence halls. Caution tape could be seen across the porch of the men’s building. Lana directed them toward the women’s building on the other side.
“He wasn’t supposed to shoot you,” she said nonchalantly. “And he wasn’t my friend.”
Eve knew she shouldn’t have followed Lana. She shouldn’t have gotten into the car with her. She shouldn’t have willingly come to a place no one would think to look for her. Yet, when Lana pushed open the front door and disappeared inside, Eve easily followed in step.
Like something had shifted between Eve and Darius, she could tell something had shifted behind the scenes for the criminals.
And whatever that was, it had pissed off Lana and created her own shift.
Though, Eve wasn’t sure why the woman had come to her.
She decided asking directly was the best way to deal with the woman who had wanted to kill her less than twenty-four hours ago.
“Why are you helping me? Helping Darius and Winnie and Price?”
Lana flipped on the lights. The inside of the women’s residence hall wasn’t as derelict as the men’s had been.
Still, Eve took care to keep closer to the wall and avoid the middle of the room until they were at a bunk bed with a mattress still intact.
There was a laptop on its top, connected to a phone.
Lana sat heavily. Blood ran into her eye, and she cussed as she tried to wipe it out with her hand. The marker on her palm with her plea to Eve was a sharp contrast to the red.
“Because men are idiots,” Lana ground out.
“And instead of listening to the only smart one of them, they just keep calling in more men to be idiots.” She blinked several times, her eye red from the irritation.
Eve could now clearly see that her clothes were also torn and dirtied.
She had definitely been through something since her stay at the hospital.
Eve had so many questions she wasn’t sure which one to ask first. She decided to start with the odd choice of location.
“Why are we here, then? Why not just run if you’re breaking your contract?”
Lana snorted.
“Scott Keys might be an idiot, but he’s one with deep pockets and a right-hand who can control the rest of them just by snapping. I could disappear if I wanted, but there’s someone I care about around here, and I don’t want to spend the rest of my life running in the opposite direction.”
Eve’s adrenaline spiked for the second time that day.
“So Scott really is behind these attacks.”
Lana nodded.
“Sanderson hired me, but it was heavily implied that Scott was funding my contract.”
“That contract being…”
Lana reached down to a bag next to the bunk bed. For a moment, Eve felt foolish for trusting the woman. Now she was sure she was going to pay for being impulsive enough to follow the villain into the unknown.
However, all Lana pulled out was a small tin pack.
A first-aid symbol was on it.
She fumbled with the clasp, cussing lightly before responding.
“Technically, Scott wanted Mitchell dead, and you were just a piece of the story that made it all make sense. Woman tries to kill new husband for insurance money, but he kills her in self-defense before he succumbs to his injuries. Something that would be more believable after that family-lawyer guy was killed. Though, still not sure how he ended up at the wedding.” Lana shook her head lightly.
The first-aid kit finally opened. She pulled out a bundle of different-sized Band-Aids and set them on her lap.
“But then that detective of yours kept showing up, and the rumors of you two having an affair started.”
“Which is why you needed Mitchell to kill me and Darius,” Eve realized.
Lana nodded.
“No matter who shot who first, the general public would have bought it,” she said. “A jilted fiancé, a woman having an affair and a beloved local detective. Even if Mitchell or you survived somehow, the law around here would have come for your heads.”
Lana continued to try and sort through the different-sized bandages.
“Scott already knew that Mitchell and I found evidence against him,” Eve said. “That’s why he pushed us to get married before we could get everything we needed. He needed it to look like I wanted the life insurance.”
Lana surprised her. She didn’t snort. She laughed.
“This is where I prove I’m a whole lot smarter than these men.
” Lana pointed to Eve, an unopened Band-Aid wrapper in her hand.
“Scott never gave one thought to you, Miss Myers. He said Mitchell was the mastermind and that he only started dating you to gain access to Scott’s day-to-day because of your job position.
Scott and Sanderson? Not even for a second did they think you were important. ”
Eve instantly remembered what Lana had said the night before, after they had subdued her in the kitchen.
“But you realized last night that I wasn’t just there,” she offered.
Lana nodded.
“Mitchell killed a man to save you and Darius. Up until then I was under the impression that Mitchell was using you. Then I noticed that we had it backward. You were the one everyone kept looking at. You were in charge, even with the detective.” She laughed again.
“Men like Scott Keys rarely see women as anything other than pawns. Which is ironic, if you ask me.”
The Band-Aid wrapper still wasn’t open, and the blood along Lana’s face kept dripping.
Eve sighed in frustration.
She grabbed the wrapper from the woman’s hand and opened it.
“Does it really matter who found what, though?” she asked, taking the bandage out. “If Scott wants us all dead, then who cares who found the evidence? Evidence that I only have copies of, at that.”
Lana’s eyes widened as she pushed her hair out of the way. Eve placed the Band-Aid on the woman’s skin.
She answered regardless of any surprise after the deed was done.
“It matters because they’ve been underestimating you,” Lana said. “You’re just some little pawn they want to move around to make the story of two guys fighting good.”
Eve didn’t like that. She patted the Band-Aid lightly to make sure it stuck. When she stepped back Lana was staring up at her with a new ferocity.
“To be underestimated is to be overlooked, and that’s why they won’t see you coming until it’s too late.”
“You want to—what?—ambush Scott? I won’t help you kill anyone,” Eve cautioned. “Even if it’s him.”
Lana waved the thought off.
“Scott, as far as I can tell, is untouchable for the simple fact that I’m not sure who all he’s hired around here—around him,” she defended.
“As far as I can tell right now, you, the detective, Mitchell and that kid I beat up last night are the only ones who seem to want Scott and the rest of us behind bars. But since this new guy just appeared on the board, the only piece I could grab without getting myself tangled up was you. Everyone else is either missing or with him.”
“You mean Winnie and Price Collins.”
Lana nodded.
“Before this scar guy tried to kill me, he fished for some info, and I fished right on back,” she said.
“He took the girl, and the dad followed, and now they’re somewhere in town as leverage for the detective.
The detective is supposed to be leverage for you, and then you are supposed to be the leverage for Mitchell.
Who, by the way, has really gone to ground.
I don’t even think Scott knows where his brother is. ”
Relief went through Eve at that. At least she knew Mitchell was most likely safe with Deputy Gavin. She hoped he could stay that way until everything was said and done.
Said and done with everyone she loved safe.
“But you knew I was with Darius,” Eve said instead. “And this new guy didn’t.”
Lana laughed again.
“I noticed a pattern with the two of you,” she said. “Wherever one of you is, the other is too. Something else these guys hadn’t picked up on.”
The relief Eve felt because of Mitchell turned to a clamp around her heart.
“We could call the sheriff,” Eve tried. “Darius trusts him, and I trust Darius.”
Lana didn’t say no, but her skepticism was loud.
“What if Scott has someone in the sheriff’s department?
Or, what if there are more people like me out there, following law enforcement and reporting back?
” She shook her head. “I don’t know where your detective is, but I can guarantee that if Scott thinks his plan isn’t working, he’ll let that new boy of his kill Detective Williams quick. ”
Eve didn’t like that.
Not one bit.
Still, she didn’t understand what Lana was thinking.
“What are we supposed to do, then?” Eve asked. “Find Darius and then—what?—storm in, guns blazing? You might be good with a gun, but I’ve only ever shot at you.”
Lana finally motioned to the laptop open next to her.
“The guy who got me out of the deputy’s cruiser had this in his truck.
Before I realized he was going to try and off me, I grabbed it and came here.
When I saw the files pulled up on the screen, that’s when I realized this must have been what had Scott and Sanderson all up in arms.” She handed the laptop over to Eve.
“So you tell me. How do we use five flight-plan records to push a king like Scott Keys off his throne?”
“Flight plans? There are copies on here?”
Eve was so curious she sat down next to the woman who had been her biggest enemy the night before.
“They look like they came straight from some private airfield’s cataloging system, but past that I don’t know what it is that’s so special about them.”
Lana was right.
Eve took a moment to look through the first one.