Dirty Truths (22 page)

CHAPTER 28

Cadence’s soft snore against her chest forced a smile from Kristina, although she had little to smile about. Her father told her Wade had been arrested. They’d heard it on their way home from the cottage. That had been two days ago and she’d heard nothing more about him or the box. She wondered if they had arrested him anyway, despite what she’d told them, and considered the possibility they let him believe she ratted him out. Would he believe it? She hoped she was wrong but her instinct told her not to hope for too much.

Standing, she picked Cadence up, tiptoed from the couch to the stairs and then up to Cadence’s room. Since returning from the cottage her daughter refused to let Kristina out of her sight, and the only way to get her to sleep was to let her lay with her. Although glad she was missed, Kristina hoped she got over it soon. She couldn’t get much done when she had to sit for an hour waiting for her to drift off.

After laying Cadence in her crib and waiting a moment to make sure she’d stay asleep, Kristina crept downstairs to tidy up. She’d have to go back to work soon, but not to the bar. She couldn’t bear working there without Wade. She would go see John and ask for her old job back at Mac’s. She hoped he hadn’t filled it.

The phone startled her. She paused, one hand over her heart. The damn thing hadn’t rang all day. Rushing to pick it up she murmured a quick hello, listening with her other ear for Cadence’s cry.

“Kris?”

Wade. Her heart skipped and she almost sank to the floor when her knees weakened in relief. “Where are you?”

“Jail.”

“Oh.”

“I’m okay. It’s not the first time I’ve been a guest of this fine establishment. It’s not exactly five star—not even one star—but I’ll make do. I just wanted to check on you. My lawyer told me the police questioned you.”

“Yes but I—”

“I don’t have time much time. I just wanted to tell you I’m okay. I heard you had some trouble and wanted to make sure you didn’t pack everything up and move away.”

“I—no I’m still here,” she realized what he was doing and tried to think of an answer that would tell him everything and absolutely nothing to the people listening. “The police were just doing their job. Amy told them I had something that belonged to you, but I told them she was mistaken. It was Daniel’s. I had to tell them about her and Daniel and what he’d done.”

“Oh honey, I’m so sorry. I know you didn’t want to anger him, but you’re better off with him locked away.”

She heard the smile in his voice.

“I think so. He won’t bother me anymore now that the police know everything. It’s nice not being scared all the time. And I’ve met someone special.”

“You have?”

“Yes, he’s quite a catch. Seems everyone wants to keep him away from me, though.”

“People should leave you two alone.”

“I miss him.”

“I’m sure he misses you too.”

Tears burned her eyes, and despite her
happiness, despair clutched her heart. “I don’t care how long it takes; I’ll be here waiting for him.”

“He’s a lucky man.”

A murmured voice in the background.

“Hey kid, I gotta go. Chin up, okay. If the guy’s smart, he’ll do whatever it takes to see you again.”

“I know. Thank you, Wade.”

The line went silent and Kristina set the phone on its base.

She didn’t have time to mull over her mixed emotions as Cadence’s cries erupted from upstairs. Sighing she rushed up to get her. Cadence stood in her crib, screaming into the darkness. She paused when Kristina stepped inside the room but only for a moment.

“Okay, I get it.” Kristina picked her up and turned to go downstairs.

A knock at the door and she froze. Part of her dreaded answering it; the thought of Daniel confronting her was more than she could bear. But he’d just break the door down if she didn’t answer.

Bracing herself for the worst, Kristina rushed down the stairs and to the door. She slid the deadbolt opened it and came face to face with the stranger.

“Mind if I come in?” he asked, pushing past her.

Kristina didn’t know who this man was, but he terrified and fascinated her at once. His presence brought tension into the room. He emanated a quiet power, one that anyone with a brain in their head wouldn’t cross.

Cadence had stopped crying, her eyes widened at the interesting stranger.

He turned and held his arms out; a frisson of fear ran down Kristina’s back as her daughter happily leaned toward him. She pulled back but he took Cadence from her arms as though it were the most natural thing in the world for him to do.

“Please put her down. I want you to leave,” she said stepping toward him.

“Going to call the cops?” he asked, stroking Cadence’s brown curls.

Her daughter gazed up at him, raising a tiny hand to trace the lines on his neck.

Kristina stood close enough to see the tattoo clearly. The scales of justice wrapped around his neck, black ink depicted a feather on one side of the scale, a smoking gun on the other. She frowned, unable to decipher its meaning. Although clearly it was related to justice, the feather made little sense to her.

“You like it?” he asked and chuckled when she didn’t reply. “The scales stand for justice, the legal kind anyway, and the gun is obviously the proper way to see justice served. Street Justice, if you will. Of course, that’s just my humble opinion. I do believe in an eye for an eye. Too cliché?”

“And the feather?” Kristina couldn’t help herself. Curiosity overwhelmed her desire for him to leave.

“Ah, the feather. Are you familiar with Egyptian mythology? No? I am well versed in it. As a young woman, my grandmother came to Canada from Egypt. She told me many tales. This one is my favorite though. The feather is the symbol of the Egyptian Goddess, Maat. The Feather of Truth and Justice. It’s a long history, changed over the centuries, adapted to fit the times, but I’ll give you the condensed version.

“Maat stands at the entrance to the Halls of Two Truths—that’s in the underworld—ready to place her feather on the scales. If it were you standing there, you would wait with bated breath to see what happened as she placed your heart on the other side. If your heart balanced with the feather, you would have eternal life. If not...” He smiled, pausing to touch her chest briefly.

Her heart pounded and she knew he felt it. The light in his dark gaze sent a tremor down Kristina’s spine.

“The waiting monster, Amemait, would eat your heart and your life; your soul would be gone.”

Speechless she stared up at him.

Cadence squealed in his arms.

Kristina’s gaze dropped to her daughter who played with the collar of his leather jacket. She longed to rip her from his arms, but something in his eyes told her it would be a stupid move. The way to deal with this man was to remain calm. He wouldn’t strike unless she gave him reason.

“Know who Amemait is?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“She is known by many names; ‘The Bone Eater,’ ‘she who destroys the wicked,’ or simply ‘The Devourer’. Part lioness, part hippopotamus, and part crocodile; she is not a pretty creature. Her function is to devour the hearts of the dead who did not pass judgment, thus destroying their soul or extinguishing their ‘light’. Tell me, would your heart balance? Have you led a life that has been true and just?”

“If you don’t leave, I’ll go straight to the police.”

His words troubled her, but not because she believed them. Myths were silly nonsense made up by old people to scare small children into behaving. It was the way he said them, as though he knew the turmoil raging in her heart over what she’d done to keep Wade.

He set Cadence on the floor, and then gave her a couple of blocks from the toy box next to the wall. Kristina stiffened as he straightened and then walked toward her. He stopped inches from her face.

“I know what you’ve done. You’re lucky Wade is so taken by you, or I’d have exacted the punishment any other rat would receive. I’m not fooled by a pretty face, and he’ll realize the truth before long.”

The hairs on her neck stood on end but Kristina raised her chin and met his gaze. His dark eyes gave her chills, so dead and cold, but she would not be intimidated, she’d done nothing wrong. “I asked you to leave.”

He smiled and leaned forward, his lips pressed against her ear. She resisted the urge to pull away, clenching her fists at her sides in order to stand her ground.

“I’ll be watching. No one crosses me. But Wade has made it clear you are not to be touched, for now. If his arrest opens a can of worms for the rest of us though, it won’t matter how much he begs; you will pay.”

“I didn’t do anything. You should be visiting his wife. I’ve talked to the cops and they aren’t looking at Wade for anything but what they found at his house. Maybe you should talk to him before you go around making threats.”

“Maybe I will,” he said brushed past her and out to the door. He opened it without looking back and walked down the steps.

She rushed to close it.

Outside, a black car pulled up and the man climb inside. He disappeared behind its tinted windows and the car sped away.

CHAPTER 29

The sky darkened as dusk approached, casting a grey pall over the town. Amy pulled out of the parking lot of the bar, pleased with herself for orchestrating Wade’s arrest. Wade probably figured he’d get a slap on the wrist from law enforcement, get away with a two-year-sentence and be out in half the time for good behavior. Not when they had the box. He’d go away forever once the police pulled that little bomb out. Amy snorted, reaching down to turn up the air. Christ it was humid.

The questions they’d peppered her with after Wade’s arrest left her a little disappointed. They hadn’t once mentioned the box and she didn’t want to bring it up in case he’d managed to turn it around. She didn’t trust him. But really, how could he turn this around? Amy had peeked inside the box and its contents would put him away for a long time. That it implicated Thomas only made it sweeter. Thomas couldn’t let Wade hang around for too long, not when he might slip and mention the Brotherhood. The cops could be very convincing and although Amy doubted Wade would rat, they couldn’t be sure the pressure wouldn’t get to him. Amy smiled as she stared out at the empty highway. Wade might last a week, perhaps even a month before the Brotherhood took care of him.

She’d already cleaned out the safe at the bar and their bank accounts, and wouldn’t stick around much longer. Amy wasn’t stupid. The Brotherhood would be after her once they put the puzzle together. When she arrived home, she’d grab her jewelry, all the pretty little trinkets Wade had given her over the years to shut her up. God, he was stupid. She’d watched him set a few items in his safe in the den as well. She’d been careful not to tell the cops about those. She’d be able to disappear with her small fortune.

Pressing down on the accelerator as she left town, Amy sped past the few cars meandering down the main street. She drove past Tim Horton’s and onto the highway, her heart racing in anticipation. The prosecutor would definitely want to speak to her. When he did, she would tell him a whole ream of stories. She’d bury Wade and his spineless little bitch. A real woman would have known how to protect her man. If it were Amy, and if she gave a shit about Wade, she’d have taken the box and tossed it into the deepest darkest hole she could find. But Miss Pathetic couldn’t handle the pressure. As soon as Wade put the damn thing in her hands, she’d sung like a fucking canary. Amy almost felt sorry for Kristina—almost, but not quite. She deserved everything she had coming to her.

Approaching the junction where the main highway ended and the road leading to her home began Amy stepped on the brake and frowned. It felt stiff. She slammed her foot down to get the car to slow. “Fucking idiots,” she muttered.

She’d taken the car in to the mechanic’s the day before to make sure everything was in working order; not dumb enough to trust Wade’s friends before leaving town. It would be just like them to mess with her car or something. Everything was fine, “in perfect condition,” the guy said. He even filled the tank for her. Fuck, he probably hoped she’d be so pleased not to have to pump gas that she wouldn’t notice he didn’t know how to replace brake pads.

The highway was empty, not a car in either direction. Amy turned left, the address of the safe house the cops had arranged clear in her mind. She could hardly wait. Once Wade was convicted, Carl had arranged a condo in Key West and would join her there within the month to celebrate her freedom. He made excuses about why he couldn’t leave his douchebag wife, but Amy no longer cared. Once she got out of this shit hole, she’d be getting rid of Carl too. She had enough of Wade’s money, besides her private stash, to keep her until she found someone else. Carl was small potatoes; a pain in the ass really, with his over inflated ego and his loser wife. She could do better than Carl.

The sky had darkened to a deep inky blue. Amy couldn’t see the moon if there was one, but stars dotted the dark expanse. Her mind filled with the fireflies she used to chase while camping as a child. A sense of triumph filled Amy’s chest. She’d beaten him. Finally, after all the time she’d spent building up to this moment, she had ruined Wade. All he had, all he’d lied, cheated and killed for, was hers. Men were idiots.

Ahead, the road traced a slight bend, a section she hated because of the high jagged rock cuts along either side of it. She pressed the brake, her foot meeting some resistance before recalling the damn thing was stiff. Not that she had much to worry about; there was no one else on the road. She shifted her foot back to the gas pedal and absently tapped her finger on the steering wheel.

As she turned into the bend Amy eased off the gas just a little, but the car didn’t slow. “Fucking pricks. What the hell?”

Amy muttered curses against inept mechanics and shifted her foot onto the brake pedal one more time. It resisted. Panic bubbled in her chest. She pumped the brake pedal, relief washing over her as the car finally slowed a fraction. To her right, the wall of rock loomed close. Amy jerked the wheel and drew in a deep breath when the car eased away from it. That was better.

Her gaze back to the road, she blinked to blinding lights directly in her path. She was on the right side, wasn’t she? Suddenly disoriented, Amy did nothing to move from the incoming car’s path. He had to see her, obviously. If she saw him, he’d see her and move over. She couldn’t go anywhere, not with the rocks.

She contemplated waiting him out but her gut took over. As the last section of rock disappeared, her hands tightened on the wheel, swerving to the right and away from the lights.

Closing her eyes for a moment, Amy breathed a sigh of relief. She opened her eyes to peer in the rearview and frowned. Behind her, the car had pulled off the road. Why did he stop? Did he think she was going to pull over for a chat? He was fucking crazy, obviously. No woman in her right mind would pull over to talk to a strange man, a jackass who couldn’t keep to his side of the road, although she’d have loved to give him a piece of her mind.

A bump sent her against the wheel. Amy grimaced, lowering her gaze to the road. A large tree loomed ahead.

“Shit,” she breathed.

Amy braked, or she thought she did, but the tree kept coming. The car careened into the ditch toward the giant oak tree and Amy braced herself for the impact. The rocks and the fucking car lights had caused her to panic and lose control. All along, she should have worried about staying on the road. Everything moved as if in slow motion, even her thoughts. The car kissed the tree, glass shattered, and then everything went dark.

***

Thomas watched the impact and got out to lean against the hood of his car. The plan had been to run her off the road, but as he passed her and turned his car around, he realized she’d do the job for him.

When Amy’s car bumped over the edge of the ditch, his pulse skyrocketed and his hands clenched. The screeching sound of metal folding against wood echoed in the still night, and a flash lit up the embankment.

Billy worried that if the plan didn’t work, they’d have to pay Wade’s wife a visit, but Thomas knew he could pull it off. Normally he’d give a job like this to a subordinate, but with so much riding on it being done right, he chose to do it himself. God, he missed this feeling. Blood pounded in his veins and his legs trembled just a little as adrenaline rushed through his body. From the moment Wade introduced her, he’d wanted to wring the skinny bitch’s neck. Thomas knew a piece of shit when he saw one and could smell a liar a mile away. Amy was both.

He waited, his eyes on the road as he lit a cigarette and inhaled before blowing small rings into the air. Nothing moved at the site of the crash, but then he didn’t expect anything to.

He hoped the front end hadn’t crumpled too badly else it would be rather difficult to remove the strip of rubber his man had placed under her brake pedal. Wade said she’d keep driving. She did. The rubber caused just enough of a malfunction to make her panic. Again, as Wade said she would. Even if they couldn’t remove it, Thomas wouldn’t worry. His guy was long gone. If the cops discovered a piece of charred rubber they might question the shop, to find they got nowhere fast. Wade sat in jail, so his alibi would be solid.

The road remained silent, empty. Thomas tossed his cigarette away and pushed off the hood of his car. Time to fix the scene. He fished his keys from his pocket and pushed the button on the black remote. The trunk opened with a soft click. Thomas rounded the back of the vehicle and peered inside. After removing his gloves and cell phone from a black duffel bag, he paused to scan the road once more. It was as though Lady Justice were looking out for them, giving him ample time to ensure Amy kept her meeting with Maat. Smiling at the thought, Thomas walked to the crash site. Unhurried, he whistled as he approached. The car smoked, but only a small flame flickered beneath, near the driver’s seat.

Mrs. Bowen never remembered to fill her tank but tonight the mechanic had gone to the station and filled it to the brim before she picked it up. Shame. Had she done her usual shit and left it for others to fill, she might have lived long enough for the ambulance to arrive. Her husband was in jail, thanks to her big mouth, but Karma was a funny thing.

He stopped next to the car and peered inside. The front had crumpled into nothing against the tree and the dash looked at least a good six inches too far back. Amy’s head lay against the seat, a mess of blood and shards of glass.

He let out a low whistle. That wouldn’t heal well. No, not at all. Far better to end it than to continue her life as a disfigured freak. Amy wouldn’t like that. Her chest rose and fell in shallow breaths as though she had trouble getting air. The air bag had deployed, probably broken some ribs, and definitely her nose.

Thomas slipped his hands into the supple leather, his favorite pair of gloves worn smooth from years of use, then he knelt down to inspect the damage. Clear fluid trickled to the ground below, he wouldn’t have to puncture the tank.

Eying the small flame at the front of the car, he frowned. He couldn’t be sure the damn thing wouldn’t blow before he finished. He didn’t know where the small fire came from. Thomas moved to the front to check his friend’s wife. Her eyelids flickered and his groin tightened. He hadn’t counted on being able to speak to her.

This just gets better and better.

Thomas pulled at the door. It creaked on its bent hinges, opening just enough for him to lean over Amy’s inert body and reach for the gas pedal. It was a bit of a struggle, but he managed to shift her foot and slip his hand under the brake pedal. When his fingers touched the edge of the rubber—a dangling strip left by his guy so it would be easy to pull off—he yanked. Thomas grunted in satisfaction as it pulled away. Straightening, he stepped back and closed the door. Amy stirred. Tucking the rubber into his pocket, he grinned down at her.

“Shit,” she slurred.

He could tell by the sibilance in her voice that the poor girl no longer had most of her teeth. Part of him was tempted to let her live, to face the horror that was her once beautiful face, but no, Maat shouldn’t be kept waiting.

“Can you move?” he asked, touching her shoulder.

“My legs…stuck.” She didn’t open her eyes.

He leaned closer so she could see him
clearly when she did. “Look at me?”

Amy’s eyes fluttered and she gazed around her for a moment, unfocused. She turned her head toward him, wincing in pain. “Help, please. Can’t move my legs.”

“I’d like to help you, Amy, but I can’t.” he smiled as her eyes focused on his face, lowering to his neck.

Recognition froze her features. “Thomas,” she breathed.

“Yes, I hoped we’d get to say farewell, but I hadn’t counted on being so lucky. You remember the last time we spoke, don’t you?”

She gazed up at him, her mouth open but silent. Yes, she remembered, he could tell by the way her jaw clenched when she pressed her lips together. Thomas would never forget the last time he’d been so close to Amy Bowen. She’d just ruined his life, her big mouth taking apart all he’d built that was good and real.

“I remember,” he said running a gloved finger down her cheek. “Diane left me the same day. Took my daughter and everything that meant anything to me and left. I was devastated.”

“You lied.”

“For her own good, but you didn’t care about that, did you? No, you wanted to see me suffer because I wouldn’t play your games. Wade just didn’t see what you were. I did. When I told him he was pissed, wasn’t he? Oh, I remember the way he’d lost it, actually punched me in the mouth for my kind words of warning.”

“Fuck you.” Amy’s chin trembled.

For all her bravado she was scared. Thomas loved it.

“You wanted to, didn’t you? Too bad my wife meant more to me than that. So did my friendship with Wade.”

“A real man wouldn’t have let her go.”

“Really? I beg to differ. When you love something enough, you’re willing to let it spread its wings. Diane is a good person, the most beautiful soul anyone will ever meet, and you were jealous of that. She couldn’t live with what I was and I knew she couldn’t. Forcing her to stay would have broken her soul and I loved her too much to do that. You know nothing about such things, given the black hole you have inside.”

“This is stupid. Someone will see you.” Amy shifted in the seat and gasped. “Please, I won’t tell anyone.”

“I’m supposed to believe that from you? I don’t think so.”

Thomas leaned forward and brushed his lips over hers, tasting her blood and smiling at the shiver that coursed through her and vibrated against his mouth.