Chapter 45
Chapter Forty-Five
Lindley made Danica drive her car. “Pull in here.”
At the horizon, the sun had almost disappeared below the ocean. They hadn’t gone very far from Noah’s house. Danica recognized this driveway. This was the Larsons’ property. The neighbors who were gone all the time, who had the shortcut across their land.
“What are we doing here?”
“Just keep driving to the house.”
She’d tried asking Lindley all kinds of questions, careful to keep her voice calm so she wouldn’t agitate the woman too much. Lindley had kept the gun pointed at her, though always out of Danica’s reach. But so far, Lindley had refused to explain.
She steered the car along the driveway, and the house appeared. All the windows were dark.
“Park around the side,” Lindley instructed.
The gearshift pushed into park, and the engine switched off. Silence fell. All except the sound of Lindley’s rapid breathing. Danica was terrified, yet she was also keeping herself steady.
But Lindley seemed to be barely holding together. Which was a major problem. Because Lindley was the one with her finger on the trigger of a gun.
“What are we doing here?”
“We’ll have to wait.”
“Wait for what?”
“For the exchange.”
Exchange. Because Lindley was turning her over to the people behind the kidnapping plot.
Had Noah realized she was gone? Would he have any idea what was happening?
If there was some way she could get a message to him… Or get away from Lindley. She knew the way back to Noah’s house from here. She could run, even in the dark.
She just needed to wait for the right moment.
“What now?” Danica asked.
“Get out. But slowly. Don’t try to get away.”
A chilly breeze blew in as Danica opened the door, and she rubbed her arms.
Lindley got out on the other side, slamming the door. She rounded the car, keeping the barrel trained at all times.
“Who are we waiting for?”
“Your family’s a piece of work, you know that? If the world only knew the truth.” Lindley shook her head.
“So tell them. Tell the world our secrets. I don’t care. But you can’t let them manipulate you like this. It isn’t too late, Lindley. You can stop this.”
Lindley dug the fingers of her free hand into her hair, knocking strands loose from her clip. Her eyes were wild. “That’s what he told me last night. He said we were supposed to act like nothing had happened, not tell a soul. But I’m the one who’s exposed.”
“Who is he, Lindley?”
The gun kept pointing at Danica, but Lindley’s eyes had gone distant.
“When Tori contacted me at the gala, I thought she might be involved. That it was a way to get you separated from the crowd, somehow. Saved me the trouble of doing it. But then everything went wrong. And he acted like it was my fault. He’s going to pin this all on me, I know it.
And it’ll just be my word to protect me—if I even live long enough to tell it.
I’m not going to be the one to take the fall for this. ”
Headlights were coming toward them. The glare hit Danica’s eyes.
A dark sedan with tinted windows rolled smoothly to a stop. Danica didn’t recognize it, but that didn’t mean much. It was probably part of the fleet owned by Valoris Security.
But who was behind the wheel?
Lindley was moving. “Step forward,” she said to Danica. “Don’t make me ask twice.”
Danica went a few feet closer toward the sedan. It had parked at an angle, so she couldn’t see through the windshield. Part of her told her to run, to find any possible way to escape before this situation got even worse.
But now that this car had arrived, she couldn’t leave. She had to know.
Who was behind all this? Who had sent Jason Gerrig after her? Who had been terrorizing her for the past week?
The driver’s door opened.
And Blake Halston stepped out.