Secrets 02 - Kill Me Again, page 18
He laughed, then sat there in the grass and watched her every move as she dressed. It made her feel pushed just beyond the limits of her comfort level, but she didn't turn away, and that was something of an unexpected rush.
When she finished dressing he got to his feet and quickly threw on his own clothes, then reached out to take her hand. Together, they walked to the payphone, and he dialed the number for the shuttle.
13
Back at the cabin, Aaron hit the shower, giving her the opportunity she'd been waiting for. As soon as she heard the water running, she dug the cell phone out of the bag he'd been carrying and started pressing buttons, cringing with every barely audible tone.
The automated phone-system voice answered, and she followed the prompts, keying in her home phone number and pass code, and then she paced the room in quick, agitated strides while she waited for the way-too-talkative robot to finish its spiel and let her listen to her messages. And then, finally...
"Olivia, it's Carrie. I'm worried to death. I haven't said anything about what we talked about, and I won't--unless it looks like I have no choice--but damn, girl, check in, would you? Be safe, okay?"
She deleted that message and went to the next.
"Professor Dupree, this is Dean Cranshaw. I understand there was a last-minute cancellation of this fundraiser with barely any explanation, and that from a third party."
She wondered who had phoned in to try to save her butt. Carrie? Bryan, maybe?
"Naturally I assume there is a good explanation, but I'm baffled by your failure to contact anyone to explain yourself. Please call me as soon as possible."
She deleted that one, as well, thanking her stars she had tenure and a damn good reason for bailing out on the university the way she had. Maybe she would still have a job, if she survived this. Then the third message played, and her body tensed when she heard Bryan's voice.
Would this give her the answers she was seeking? She glanced nervously toward the bathroom door. The shower was still running. Good.
"Olivia, it's Bryan. I can't tell you how I know this, but the man you are with is not Aaron Westhaven. I repeat, he's not Westhaven. And the serial number of the steel plate in his head traces back to a guy who died during Desert Storm. Probably we got one of the digits wrong, but, the point is, he's not Westhaven, and we don't know who he is, and you could be in danger. Whatever this is, Olivia, it's big. The FBI are involved. So just...watch your back, okay? Watch your back--and if you did take off with this joker, then ditch him and come home just as fast as you can. At this point, I don't think I can keep this under wraps much longer if I don't hear from you, and I'm not even sure if I should. Please, for God's sake, call me."
She deleted the message and sat there, staring at the phone in stunned silence. Only very gradually, as her mind expanded to include the space around her again, did she realize the shower had stopped running and Freddy was nuzzling her hand, trying to get her attention. God, how long had she been reeling in shock?
She went into the cell's call log and deleted the entry for the phone call she had just made, then turned off the phone and dashed across the room to cram it back into the depths of Aaron's bag.
She straightened just as the bathroom door opened, and struck a casual pose, pretending to study an imaginary chip in her fingernail.
"Liv?"
She looked up as if startled. "You can't be done already."
"No, but I need my shaving kit. There's a little bag inside the big one. Would you mind...?"
She turned quickly, her body between him and the bag, and moved her hand as if unzipping it, even though it was already unzipped. She found the shaving kit and left the bag open, so he wouldn't notice that it made a sound closing that it had not made when allegedly opening. Then she took the shaving kit to the bathroom door and handed it to him.
His eyes caressed her face.
She recalled the phone call and shivered in fear. Because she knew all too well that if he wasn't Aaron Westhaven, he could be anyone. Even someone sent to kill her. Why else would he have come to town, looking for her? And with her card in his pocket, the card she'd sent to the real Aaron.
God, she thought, the real Aaron had never arrived. Had this man done something to him? And if so, what?
She faked a smile, but he frowned in reply, as if he could see that something in her eyes had changed. She smiled harder and shoved the shaving kit at him. "Hurry up, will you? I miss you out here."
His worried expression relaxed. And the way he looked at her then made her heart hurt. God, she wanted to stop wondering about him. She wanted to know. She wanted the rest of this over with. Maybe there was a chance for that tonight, she realized, an idea taking shape in her mind.
"I won't be long," Aaron said, then backed inside and closed the door.
She leaned closer and called, "I'm going to take Freddy for a quick walk while you finish up."
"Okay."
She ran to the bag and grabbed the phone again. Dialing rapidly, even as she dashed through the cabin, she quietly opened the front door and stepped outside. She didn't even have to call Freddy. He romped out beside her, happy as could be. She pulled the door closed behind her.
It was dark outside--and it being the middle of summer, that meant it was late. She would have to face Tommy all too soon. God, she was nervous. And now she wasn't even sure about her only ally.
The phone at the other end rang and rang, but finally a familiar voice answered. "Kendall."
"Hey," she said. "It's me. Olivia. I got your message. You really think he's--"
"I don't know what he is. Are you with him? Please, tell me you're not with him."
"I am, but I'm fine. Look, there's something you don't know. A man broke into my house the other night, after I came to the hospital. He drugged Freddy--"
"No! Are you okay?"
"Yes, fine."
"And Fred? What about Fred?"
"Freddy's fine, too. But still, this guy was demanding something I took for insurance when I left Tommy. And at the very least, I don't think he cared if he had to hurt me, Bryan. But Aaron--I mean, whoever he is--showed up. He beat the guy up, disarmed him, probably saved my life."
"Yeah, ten to one it was the same guy who tried to kill him in the first place. Look, I know you don't want to think about this, but what if whoever sent your amnesiac also sent someone after him when he didn't do the job?"
"To kill him?"
"These guys play hardball, Olivia."
"Yeah, but to kill him? Besides, that theory doesn't hold any water at all. How could he have failed to do the job when he only arrived in town that day? He hadn't even met me yet. No, there's something more going on here."
"You need to come in, Olivia."
"I agree. I also need my life back. We're meeting Tommy tonight to trade the disks I stole from him sixteen years ago for his word that he won't come after me."
"That's insane, Olivia. To trust his word--"
"I don't trust his word."
"Why on earth are you going, then?"
"Because I want to end this. Listen, here's what I'm thinking. Tommy will have weapons, and he will try to hurt me. I know he will. So I want you to show up before us, set up an ambush."
"Tommy's a two-time loser," Bryan said slowly.
"That's right, and this will be his third strike. Automatic life sentence. And then I'll never have to worry about him again."
"I think you're brilliant, Professor."
"Well, that's sort of my job, isn't it?"
"You realize I'll have to take your...friend in, too."
"He's done nothing illegal, Bryan."
"Nothing we know of."
"You can't arrest a man for doing something you don't know of."
He sighed. "He's wanted by the Feds, Olivia. I don't have any say in the matter. It's out of my hands."
"Not if you don't tell them what we're doing. Look, if you want to talk to him, talk to him. But don't hand him over to anyone else. Or the deal's off."
He was silent for a long moment. "I'll talk to him first. And I'll do the best I can about the rest. I promise. Now when and where is this meeting taking place?"
"Midnight, tonight. The old Campbell farm."
"We'll be there. You be safe in the meantime, Olivia."
"I will. Thanks, Bryan. And...look, I like this man. I think he's a good man. And whatever he was before, well, maybe that gunshot changed him somehow."
"You can't know what will happen when his memory returns, though."
"I know. I know. I just... Go easy with him, okay?"
"Olivia? You're not--"
"Gotta go before he gets suspicious. Thanks, Bryan." She disconnected quickly, before Bryan could ask the question he was clearly about to.
And she didn't want to think about it any further, nor about how she would have answered.
Instead, she headed back into the cabin, deleted the number from the call log and replaced the phone, zipping the bag closed this time.
She felt terribly guilty for betraying the man she'd just made love with, but she knew--too well--what happened when you trusted a violent man. A ruthless man. An unethical man.
It had nearly cost her her life once. And while she didn't want to think Aaron--or whatever his name was--was a man who deserved any of those labels, she had to take precautions when it came to her own life. She'd fought too hard for it to do otherwise.
They arrived early, and Olivia was stunned to find that the place she had chosen was not as abandoned as she had expected. Instead, there were several cars parked in an untended field, one with music blasting from its sound system. A bonfire was visible in the distance, and a dozen or so partying teenagers stood around it.
The place had been a dairy farm years ago. But the house was long gone, taken out by a freak twister in '95. The family had left, never to return. The farm had been claimed by the county for back taxes a few years later. The barn and outbuildings were sagging as the elements worked steadily, slowly, patiently to reclaim what was left of them. You could almost see it happening, as the vines and bushes rose up along the walls, their fingers reaching out to embrace the wood and creep even onto the rusted metal rooftops, as the moss crept up behind.
There were no longer any driveways, but you could tell where they had once been, because the grass and weeds grew thinner in those areas. One path curved inward toward the largest of the barns, then looped back out again. Another path forked off from it and went around to the side, to where the barn bridge, a now crumbling, earthen ramp, led to the hayloft above. Another ghost of a driveway showed in front of the house, and still another took a twisting course through the field to the pond a few hundred feet from the main road and the foundation that showed where a house had once stood. The kids and their bonfire were out near the pond.
The meeting with Tommy was to take place closer to the road, near the barn.
Olivia hoped the kids were far enough away to be safe. Tommy wouldn't miss their presence and might think it was some kind of a trap. The bonfire was leaping high as its flames reached for the night sky. Their reflection danced on the surface of the water, like some kind of eerie optical illusion. The whole scene looked surreal. "Aaron" parked the SUV at the edge of the path nearest the road, farthest from the pond and the party, and sat there taking it all in. Then he looked at her and nodded. "I thought you said no one would be here? Or did you actually pick this spot because there would be people here? Witnesses."
"No. God, I'd never put kids at risk like that. It's a weeknight, for heaven's sake. I had no idea they'd be here."
"It's still summer vacation," he reminded her. "Weeknights no longer apply."
"I should have thought of that." She was tense, worried, and already regretting her choice to tip off Bryan about this meeting. But Bryan was her friend. Or, like Carrie, as close to a friend as anyone in Shadow Falls was to her. He was a good man and a great cop. Nothing bad would happen to Aaron. Not unless he really was some kind of a criminal and had it coming to him. Still, this was going to be hard. He would be hurt when he learned she'd talked to Bryan behind his back.
Olivia lifted her chin. She had to look out for herself first. She couldn't put her life at risk just because she was falling for this man.
God, she was, wasn't she? She was falling for him--falling for a man she didn't even know, despite the fact that it felt as if she knew him better than anyone ever could. The truth was, she didn't even know his name.
Then why does keeping things from him feel so wrong?
"Do you think the kids will be at risk?" she whispered.
He nodded. "Your risk goes down by them being here. Theirs goes up. It's a trade-off."
"Forget it, then. Let's leave, let's call Tommy and--"
He put a hand on her thigh. "Easy, babe."
Babe? Lord, he was reading a lot into the sex they'd had, wasn't he? Could he really be starting to have...feelings for her, too?
"He's not likely to try anything with that many witnesses," he said, keeping his voice low. "He couldn't kill them all, and that's what he would have to do to make it worth his while to kill any of them, or either of us. You made a good call, choosing this spot. Come on."
"What?"
"Time to get you out of sight."
"Already? It's still early--"
"Trust me, it's time."
"But I told you--he has to know I would insist on coming."
"Yeah, and I'm going to tell him I refused to bring you and see if he'll make the deal anyway. You can get what you wanted. You can see his face--but from some safe vantage point."
She shook her head slowly as she opened the passenger door. "He'll never go for it. And he'll know I'm here."
"Then you'll come out and face him. But only if there's no other choice. Agreed?"
She nodded. "God, my stomach is churning. It feels like an acid factory in there."
"It'll be over soon." He opened his door and got out. She got out, as well, then leaned back in and stroked Freddy. "I'm sorry, boy. It might not be safe. Will you be okay?"
He pawed at the door and whined.
She kissed his nose and put the window down about halfway. Too small an opening for Freddy to get through, but plenty wide enough for him to stick his head out and fresh air to go wafting in for him. "We won't be long, I promise." She took a deep, steadying breath. "I hope."
She took the disks out of the glove compartment, where they were stored in a plastic zipper bag, then straightened, closed the car door and handed them to her mystery lover. "You'll need these."
He took them and nodded toward the barn, which was about halfway between the Expedition and the pond, where the partying kids were beginning to send curious looks in their direction. "Hide just inside the barn, but be careful. It looks like it could come down any minute. Just get out of sight. Don't poke around in there."
"Okay."
She held his eyes and hesitated. God, she felt bad. Had she made a terrible mistake in talking to Bryan?
"Go on. He could be here any minute."
"Okay." Impulsively, she leaned up and pressed her mouth to his. He was stiff at first, barely reacting, but then, just as she started to pull away, his arms snapped around her waist and he bent over her, deepening the kiss, turning it into something...incredible. Something that belonged at the end of a Bogie and Bacall flick.
When he lifted his head, she was breathless, her heart was racing, and her eyes were filling with hot tears. Dammit.
He slid the gun he'd taken from her purse into the back of her jeans. He already had his own in the same spot.
Turning, she ran to the crumbling barn and found a suitable hiding place just beyond its broken door. She ducked inside and was immediately startled by motion. Silent flight--something huge. She crouched low as it soared over her head, her mind imagining a giant vampire bat or something equally awful, but it landed on a beam, and she peered up at it. The ghost-face of a barn owl blinked back at her, startlingly creepy-looking, but in truth, perfectly harmless.
She sighed in relief and crouched near the door again, peering outside into the night. She had a perfect view of Aaron--she had to stop thinking of him by that name, dammit. She wondered if she should tell him that he wasn't Aaron Westhaven. He had a right to know.
But she had a feeling he already did. He'd been saying so from the start, hadn't he?
He'd walked away from the SUV and was sitting on a tree stump a few yards off the trail toward the barn. By going to the other wall and ducking down to look out through a gap between the boards, she could also see the party going on several hundred feet to the left.
A few minutes later a black Lincoln Navigator pulled in from the road. It bumped over the path and stopped right beside the barn. All four of its doors opened, and men spilled out. She held her breath as she counted them. Four, including Tommy. They were almost an hour early. And at least three of them had guns.
"Holy shit!"
She jumped and ran to the side wall, bending to look out through the broken boards. She saw two teenagers hunkered down behind a gnarled apple tree whose limbs curved upward and then bowed nearly to the ground, partially concealing them. It was heavy with tiny green apples and thick with leaves. Good cover as they hid from the men outside, but her oughtview of them was unobstructed. And she knew one of them.
Sam Overton, Carrie's son. And his companion was Kyle, the same boy who'd been joyriding with him that fateful day in Professor Mallory's SUV.
"They have guns," she heard Sam say.
"Yeah, and that other car, that's old man Mallory's! Didn't your mom have Prof Dupree take it to her place?"
"Mmm-hmm, and I heard she's been sorta missing ever since. So's that dude we found in the ditch. Mom's worried. The cops are, too."
"Yeah, well, I don't see her. But I think that's the guy right there."
"Yeah, that's him, all right," Sam confirmed. "But who are those other guys?"
"Looks like the freakin' Mafia."
"Something's going down here, dude."
"Think we oughtta call the cops?" Kyle asked.
"Again? My mother's going to have a stroke this time." Sam lowered his head, shook it. "Let's get a closer look."
