Chapter 42
Tucker
I’m hyperalert to Autumn. More than I want to be. So when she freezes, I catch the motion—or lack of it—in my peripheral vision.
She all but drops her hammer and hurries toward one of the kitchen doors.
Where the hell is she going?
I set my handful of flowers on the ground and follow.
At the last moment, some buried instinct prompts me to hold back, not to shove through the door and demand answers. I crack the kitchen door enough to see in. She’s in there, but she’s not alone.
Sienna Calder is there, too.
What the…?
“You work for Five Rivers?” Autumn says to Sienna.
Sienna shakes her head and smiles. There’s something familiar about that smile. I’ve seen it today on another face.
Recognition clicks as Sienna says, “I co-own Five Rivers. With my sister. Rena.”
Right. Of course. That’s where I saw her smile earlier today. On her sister’s face.
Holy shit. How did we miss that?
As if Autumn has asked that exact question, Sienna shrugs and says, “She’s the public-facing one. I’m behind the scenes.”
“Is that why you were at Hott Springs lodge that day? Spying for Five Rivers?” Realization plays over Autumn’s face. The same realization currently landing in my own chest.
If Five Rivers has been spying on us, maybe they’ve also been sabotaging us.
Not Blue Iron. Which is why there wasn’t an iota of evidence or motive, no matter how deep I dug.
Five Rivers.
When you’re sure you know who the villain is, it’s easy for someone else to get away with…well, sabotage and arson.
We didn’t try to connect Sienna with Five Rivers because I was fixated on the idea that she had something to do with Blue Iron. We didn’t see Five Rivers as a possible source of sabotage because I thought I knew where the sabotage had to be coming from.
It’s so easy to be your own worst enemy.
“Did you set the fire?”
Part of me is marveling at Autumn’s complete fearlessness. And the rest of me is screaming silently at her not to provoke Sienna. Because if Sienna’s responsible for an act of first-degree arson, she stands to go to prison for up to twenty years. And that would make her desperate.
Desperate people are capable of anything.
“What fire?” Sienna asks.
“The fire in the barn at Hott Springs Eternal.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” says a voice from the other side of the kitchen.
Rena.
“It’s not ridiculous at all,” Autumn says.
Stop! Stop provoking them!
I almost step forward. But I don’t because something tells me Autumn is on the right track. And if she is…
She’ll need my help. And I’m more helpful to her if no one expects me to appear.
“If Hott Springs Eternal has a series of mishaps—say, mouse infestation and fire in its barn—and Five Rivers comes to its rescue, that looks damn good for you two, right? What better publicity could you ask for?”
Rena’s fake smile is slowly flattening. “That’s a huge accusation,” she says. “You might want to stop yourself before you open yourself up to a lawsuit.”
But Autumn, apparently, is not interested in stopping herself.
“And more to the point, it’s more or less public knowledge that if you keep the Hott brothers from complying with the terms of the will, their land—and Hott Springs Eternal—will become the property of Blue Iron mining…which would eliminate your biggest and most successful competitor.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rena says.
Autumn is reaching for something. Her pocket. Her phone. She pulls it out.
“I rewatched this video,” she says. “The one I took the night of the fire in the barn.” She holds up her phone. “You’re in it.”
Rena lunges toward Autumn and snatches the phone out of her hand. Autumn starts toward her, then goes as still as rock.
That’s when I see the gun. My blood freezes, ice cold. I start forward, then stop. Years of training.
I need to maintain the element of surprise.
“Let’s take a walk,” Rena says. “Down to the river.”
“Are you going to shoot me?” Autumn asks.
I’m shocked to hear how steady her voice is.
I’ve seen a lot of people in a lot of dangerous situations, and most of them don’t hold up as well as you would have guessed.
Autumn’s the opposite. Cool as winter in the mountains.
“Because when I go missing, Tucker’s going to burn the world down to figure out what happened to me.
And when he does, he’s going to figure out you were responsible, and you’re going to rot in prison for the rest of your life. ”
I almost don’t hear how the sentence ends because I’m stuck on those words, lancing through the ice of in my veins: Tucker’s going to burn the world down to figure out what happened to me.
But before I can wrap my mind around what she’s said, Rena, the gun pressed against Autumn’s back, marches her away from me, toward the river, Sienna following.
My mind calculates angles and strategies, and before I can second-guess myself, I back away from the door and run out through the rear doorway of the main entryway, covering a huge half circle of ground. If I cut them off…
I don’t know what. I don’t have a gun, haven’t carried one at all on this job.
I know every disarming technique in the book, and I’ve used quite a few of them, but what that mostly means is that I know the odds against them working.
Most of the time, attempts at disarming result in someone getting shot.
But I have to try. I don’t give a crap about collateral damage to Rena and Sienna. I’m willing to take a bullet for Autumn. What I’m not willing to do is stand by and let these two murder her in cold blood.
The three of them are approaching the tree I’ve slipped behind. Thank you, Oregon forests, for your remnants of old growth, big enough to hide an adult human man.
I let them pass, then leap out and wrap my hand around Sienna’s mouth and my arm around her body.
The muffled sound she makes stops Rena in her tracks. She turns slowly, keeping the gun pressed to Autumn’s back.
“I’ve killed several people with my bare hands,” I say.
It’s a lie. I’m only responsible for one death in my life, and that was Elizabeth’s. But given the things I’m willing to do to ensure that Autumn’s okay, lying is minor.
Rena’s eyes move over the two of us. The arm with the gun wobbles.
If she were a crack shot, she’d shoot Autumn and then come after me, gambling on the fact that she could kill me before I could kill her sister.
That tells me she’s not totally confident of her target skills. I tighten my grip on Sienna’s throat.
The gun swings around toward me.
It’s barely left Autumn’s back before she spins around and kicks up under Rena’s arm. The gun jumps out of the woman’s hand, firing harmlessly at the sky. Autumn dives for it and comes up with it, aiming it at Rena’s torso with a steadiness that I don’t think I could have achieved in her shoes.
“Put your fucking hands up,” she says. “I don’t have all day. I have a wedding to go to.”