Change of Heart (14 page)

“Right. Whatever. Wait until you hear the answer to your question before you decide.”

“What question?”

“How I got your wallet.”

I narrow my eyes. “How?”

He takes a deep breath. “I didn’t get it from Victor. Or from Tam. Or from the bar. The truth is: I’ve always had it.”

“You…
what
?”

Rich laughs again. Humorlessly. “You see? Don’t be so quick to say you’ll come back. Remember when you woke up in the middle of the night with me to find someone banging on the door?”

“Yes,” I say slowly. “That was what started this whole thing.”

“Nope. That had been an act. To…” he takes a deep breath. “To dupe you into coming with me.”

“Coming with you? Where?”

“Away.”

“No.” I shake my head. I don’t know if I can believe my ears. I
don’t
believe my ears. The room starts to spin. “I saw those men breaking down the door. I
saw
what they did to your apartment. No. That couldn’t have been an act.”

“It could, and it was. All of it was just a ruse to get you to come with me.”

“A ruse? Why?” The spinning gets worse. I put a hand against the wall to steady myself. “Rich, you’ve been drinking. You’re still drunk. You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“My mind is as clear as day.” He snorts. “You think I’d make something like this up now? Why would I do that? The men who broke into my apartment were not thugs hired by loan sharks. They were two of my friends.” He exhales again. “We had this thing planned for a long time. We were just waiting for the right girl.” He motions in my direction. “For you.”

I have to sit down. I make my way to the bed on unsteady feet, and lower myself directly in front of Rich. I don’t know how to react to what I’m hearing. “What do you mean?” I ask slowly.

Rich growls. “Think, Penny! Think about everything that’s happened to you! I needed to find someone—a girl—who looked like you. Light skin. Dark, curly hair. Short. Slender body. I’d been hunting for weeks. When I saw you at
Barren
that night, I knew you were the one.”

I already know the answer to my next question, but I need to hear it from him. “The one for what?”

“The one I could pass off to Tam and Victor as my sister!” Rich shouts
.

My stomach knots. Suddenly, everything makes sense. Rich’s persistence the night we met. Slowing down the car to give Tam a look at my face. Driving me to a remote gas station and drugging me there. All the times Victor referred to me as “the sister.”

I don’t know what to say, so I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. “But why would you have my wallet?”

Rich sneers. “Come on! Isn’t it obvious? So that you would be forced to go with me. If I could make you believe you were in danger… that the loan sharks knew who you were… I could get you out of town. I could get you somewhere far away, slip something in your drink, and hand you over to Tam and Victor. Just like I did.”

“I… I still don’t get it. Why would you ever give up your sister?”

“I wouldn’t. Dammit, Penny, that’s the point! But Tam and Victor don’t know that. That’s why I had to find someone who looked like her. Someone like you. To keep my sister safe.”

“That’s horrible!”

“I know. You still sure you want to come back? Still sure you don’t want to go to the cops?” He directs a grin at me that doesn’t touch his eyes. “The phone’s right there.” He nods in the direction of the desk phone.

I don’t move. “Why do they want your sister?” I ask quietly.

Rich shakes his head. “I don’t believe you, Penny. I told you that I lied to you, drugged you, and abandoned you to the worst type of people. And you’re
still
not running away?”

“You came back for me.”

He gives me a dark look. “I almost didn’t, you know. I knew if I did, my sister would be in even greater danger. So would I.”

“Is that what you meant when you told me that risking your life wasn’t the worst thing you were doing?”

Rich nods grimly. “Now you’re using your brain.”

“But you did come back, Rich. You came back, and you risked your life for me. I’m not going to call the cops—not if you tell me
why
you did it.”

“Why?” Rich laughs. “Why not? You were supposed to be just some random girl. You were never supposed to be in real danger. Once Tam and Victor—and the men who pay them—found out who you really were, they’d let you go. Their employers aren’t morons. They’re all professionals..”

“Then why come back?”

“Because I was still worried, that’s why! I know what Victor is like. You saw. Tam is even worse. They could still hurt you without killing you. Hell, they could do it without leaving any marks.” He looks at me pointedly. I shift a little under the intense gaze. “You know what I mean.”

“But—”

“I couldn’t let that happen to you,” he continues over top of me. “I was never supposed to care. Not when we came up with the plan. But I did, dammit. And I still do, all right? Every mile that brought us closer to that gas station filled me with more and more apprehension. More and more dread. There was something about you, Penny… something that
stuck
. I was never supposed to care what happened to the girl I passed off as my sister. But, I did. And now, that screwed everything up.”

He laughs bitterly. “There you go. You’ve coaxed the truth from me. Isn’t that what you wanted? Now you have it.” He swings his hand through the air and points at the door. “Now, go! Take the money I gave you. Take my Ford. Take it, and go.”

“Rich, I…” I shake my head. “I don’t want to go. Not yet.”

He stares at me in disbelief. “Not yet? Not after what I told you? Not after everything I did? Don’t you feel… betrayed?”

“Of course.” I smile. “But I already know I can’t trust you.”

“Hah!” Rich claps his hands together and grins at me. “You’re definitely something, Penny. You had no idea who you got yourself involved with at
Barren
. But it turns out, neither did I.”

“I tend to be more resilient than people give me credit for,” I note. I walk over to Rich, and make a point of taking all the bills from my wallet. I set all of them down beside him, except for two. “You can have those back,” I say. “But I’m going to need to keep two for the drug store.”

***

When I return, hauling two plastic bags full of bandages and disinfectants and pain pills with me, I find Rich fast asleep on the couch. His hand has fallen away from the towels on his leg, but to my relief, the wound’s not bleeding.

It seems like a shame to wake him. I close the door as gently as I can and turn out the lights. I tip-toe to my bed. But instead of crawling in, I pull the blanket off, and walk over to lower it over Rich’s body.

The light from the streetlamp outside lets me see his face. Asleep, he looks so peaceful. His chest rises and falls with the deep rhythm of an exhausted sleep. I smile, and allow myself to reach out to brush away some of the hair from his forehead. He shifts as soon as my fingers touch him.

I freeze. My heart starts pounding. Did I wake him?

Rich lets out a deep breath, and turns to the side to settle more comfortably on the couch. I relax. I tuck the blanket up to his neck, making sure he’ll stay warm. Walking over to the closet, I take out the extra fleece cover from the top shelf, remove my shoes, and lie down on the bed.

“Goodnight, Rich,” I whisper. I snuggle up beneath the thin fleece. Just before I close my eyes, I notice a glimmer of light reflecting from Rich’s pupils.

That’s when I realize he’s been awake this entire time, watching me silently, his beautiful blue-grey eyes glowing in the dark.

Chapter Seven

“Rise and shine, sleeping beauty!”

Rich’s overly enthusiastic voice pulls me from my sleep. “Ugh…” I groan. “I was having the most pleasant dream.”

“Really? Was it about me?”

I swat at him blindly. Rich laughs and jumps away. “Leave me alone,” I complain, digging my head deeper into the stack of pillows. “It’s too early to wake up.”

“Early?” Rich sounds amused. “Unless you’ve gone nocturnal on me, Penny, it’s not early at all. In fact—” he stops for a dramatic pause, “—it’s already half past three.”

“It… what?” I jolt upright. The sun shining brightly through the window makes me squint and turn away. The blanket is tangled around my legs. “How can it be three thirty already?”

“Well, time has this curious tendency to pass even if you’re asleep,” Rich notes. “I assume that’s what happened here.”

I make a face at him. “You know what I mean. And you’re awfully cheerful this morning. What gives?”

“This
afternoon
,” Rich corrects. “What’s wrong with being cheery? I wake up to find you still here, the key to my truck on the counter, and a bag of bandages and antiseptic beside me.” He makes a grand show of lifting up his leg and bending it back and forth in the air. “I showered, wrapped it up, and now it feels as good as new. Also, to my great surprise, I’m not the least bit hung-over.”

“That’s amazing,” I mumble, still wishing I was asleep. “What else?”

“I cooked us breakfast.”

“You did?” I note the scent of eggs and bacon in the air. “I didn’t expect you to know how to cook.”

“Actually, you’re right,” he admits. “I brought the food up from the buffet while you were sleeping. It’s not laced with anything this time, I promise.”

I tilt my head at him.

“What, don’t you trust me?” Rich grins. “I’ll even take the first bite.”

***

Half an hour later, after a long, hot shower, I find myself sitting across from Rich at the little round table. I have a towel wrapped around my head because the motel did not provide a functioning blow dryer.

The microwave beeps, and Rich darts up. He carries back two plates of steaming scrambled eggs with bits of bacon on top. He sets one down in front of me, the other in front of him.

Then, he laughs, shakes his head, and switches our plates. He looks confused for a moment. He mutters something under his breath, looks at me, says, “No, that’s not right,” and swaps the plates again.

I watch the proceedings with a blank expression on my face. “If you’re quite done…?”

Rich’s eyebrows shoot up, as if he just remembered something. He runs to the kitchen again. He comes back carrying two cups of a dark liquid.

“Let’s see then,” he says, “that’s a cool, refreshing Pepsi for you, and a hot, black coffee for me, hmm?” Before I can start to groan, he takes a sip from both cups, then pops a bit of scrambled egg from each plate into his mouth. “Just to prove it’s safe,” he winks.

“I
know
it’s safe, stupid,” I tell him as he settles down across the table from me. “I don’t think you’d be dumb enough to drug me twice.”

“And I don’t think you’d be dumb enough to still be here,” he teases. “You can see where that line of thinking has gotten me.”

“Ha-ha, very funny,” I note dryly. Rich’s smile does not leave his face. “Geez, I’ve never seen you this happy. Like, ever. What’s going on?”

“A few things, actually.” Rich sticks one finger in the air. “One, you’re still here. That alone is enough to make me happy.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” I say. I bring the mug to my lips to hide my smile. “I’m here for my own reasons. Not for you.”

My comment doesn’t throw Rich off. He continues as if I hadn’t spoken. “Two—” he raises a second finger, “—all the things I told you when you were waking up. But, perhaps most important of all—” a third finger joins the troupe, “—I figured out exactly what we have to do next.”

“Oh?” I look up at him. “And what’s that?”

“We’re going to continue on the same way we were going before. Before the…” he clears his throat, “…gas station incident.”

“You mean to your friend’s place? He’s
real
?” After what Rich had told me last night, I assumed that driving to his “friend’s” place had just been an excuse to get me out of town
.

“Yes,” Rich nods. “And it’s a she.”

My eyebrows come up. “A woman?”

“Right. I haven’t seen her for a few years, but she’s always been reliable. Tam and Victor won’t know to look for us there.”

“Okay. How far away does she live?”

“Maybe another two hour’s drive. I told you the truth before. She lives somewhere pretty remote. There’s not a straight road that leads to town.” He leans back in his chair. “We have a ways to go, but it’s not
that
far. That’s why I let you sleep in today. We have enough time to get there by nightfall.” Something changes in his eyes for a hundredth of a second. A flash of deep intensity. “The rest did you good. You look much better today.”