by Emily James
They’d won that case.
“Focus, Nicole.” My voice sounded muffled even to me, like the small space shrunk it somehow.
I strained against the zip ties. Numbness flooded my fingers.
Bad idea. Not only was I not going to be able to break out of them that way, but I might cut off my circulation.
I slithered my hands around, but Eddie had been careful. I was too tightly bound to wriggle a hand loose.
My purse was back in Skin Canvas…or more precisely, probably out in the dumpster behind Skin Canvas, along with my phone by now, since Eddie’s story was going to be that I’d left to take a call. If I’d had it, I might have been able to get out my fingernail cutters.
I moved my hands along as much of the trunk as I could. It was smooth to the touch. Nothing remotely sharp enough to cut through plastic. Trying to chew my way through would only break my teeth.
Tears pressed at the back of my throat and clogged my nose even more. This was both the right time for tears and the worst possible time.
Literally the only tool I had was my shoe laces. They seemed like they’d be better to tie something with than to cut something with, but they were nylon, like the leashes Mandy now had a vendetta against.
That might mean my nylon laces would also be abrasive enough to create the friction needed to snap the zip ties.
I squirmed around, bringing my knees up closer into my chest, and reached my fingers as far as they would go. They brushed the edge of a lace.
I strained further, every muscle in my body pleading with me to stop. I pinched one end between my pointer and middle finger and moved along until I had the other lace end trapped in my other hand. When I released the bow, I’d need to have hold of both ends.
The bow gave way.
My tongue felt thick in my mouth, and my shirt was so damp against my body that it felt like it was trying to smother me. The car around me seemed to be moving, swaying, even though I knew it was standing still. I didn’t have long before I’d pass out in the heat. I used to think freezing to death was the worst possible way to go. I’d been wrong. At least when I’d been close to hypothermia, I’d felt drowsy, not sick to my stomach and dizzy the way I did now.
Sirens carried faintly from a distance, coming closer. For the first time in my life, I wished telepathy was a real thing. Then I could mentally message the officers to come find me. I was here.
I let out a breath. I couldn’t let me mind wander.
I maneuvered one end of the shoelace up until I had it between my teeth. My fingers were so weak and numb I could barely tie the knot.
The driver’s door slammed, and I jerked. The lace slid through my fingers. Thankfully, I’d already completed the knot.
Eddie shouldn’t have been back, but no one else would be climbing into his car. Had he managed to convince Ahanti to come with him? He could have talked her into letting him drive her home while Lucas waited for the police.
I hadn’t heard voices.
Then again, I hadn’t heard him coming back at all.
The car engine roared to life.
My fingers trembled. This was bad. Really bad. Once Eddie got out onto the highway, there’d be no way I could jump from the car even if I got the trunk open. I’d be killed on impact, and that was assuming I managed to avoid being run over by the cars and semi-trucks behind him.
And if he had Ahanti with him, no one else would know he took her. He could take her anywhere. Out into the Virginian countryside even. That’s likely where he’d be heading to dispose of my body.
I had to get out before he hit the highway. I had to tell the police that Eddie was the guy they were looking for.
I tested the knot. If it let go, I wouldn’t get the laces back, not with how close the confines were.
It seemed tight.
My vision spun and tunneled. I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth, and sawed my feet up and down like I was riding the world’s tiniest bicycle.
The zip ties snapped.
Thank you, Lord!
My hands throbbed, but I wedged them over my head. The car was moving now.
My knuckles hit something that seemed out of place. I grabbed it, pulled, and the trunk popped. It bounced up and down with the motion of the car, threatening to crush anything that dared to get between its jaws.
I had no choice. It was either risk being battered by the trunk or face Eddie whenever he reached his destination, assuming I didn’t die of heat stroke first.
I braced my hands on the trunk lid and crawled to my knees, then into a squat.
I shoved the trunk and dove.
The pavement came up before I could tuck into a ball. Pain burned through so many parts of my body that it all flamed together into more than I could stand.
The last thing I heard before blacking out was more sirens.
21
The face leaning over me when I opened my eyes wasn’t Jesus or my Uncle Stan, so I knew I’d survived.
Oddly enough, it wasn’t my mom or Mark either. It wasn’t even Ahanti.
It was Geoff.
Which was unfortunate, since the fall seemed to have knocked my filter loose. The first thing out of my mouth was, “I’m getting really tired of hospitals.”
Geoff’s mouth lengthened in that expression people got when they weren’t sure whether what you’d said was meant to be funny or not. “Mark will be back any minute. I sent him to get us some coffee before he paced a hole in the floor.”
No mention of Ahanti.
My tongue went numb, making trying to speak like trying to talk around a mouthful of peanut butter. I hadn’t been conscious to tell anyone what I’d figured out. He might have grabbed her. She might have been in his car. Or he might be after her right now.
“It was Eddie.” I tried to sit up, and pain burned down my left arm and leg, stealing my breath. “You have to warn Ahanti and tell the detective.”
Geoff reached out both hands toward me and patted the air, like he was afraid to touch me for fear of hurting me but also afraid to let me keep flopping around like a suffocating fish. “We know. It’s okay. Ahanti’s with your mom, giving a statement to the police right now. She’ll be here as soon as she’s done.”
Giving a statement to the police? That meant I couldn’t have been unconscious long, but it seemed like I’d missed a lot regardless.
Mark came through the door with a cup of coffee in each hand. The relief that erased the lines in his face as soon as his gaze met mine worked better than whatever pain killer the hospital had me on.
“I’m sorry this wasn’t the vacation we planned,” I said.
Which was probably the last thing I needed to be thinking about at the moment, but everything still seemed to be garbled up in my head.
Mark handed Geoff one of the cups, and Geoff gave him the chair next to me.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
Half of me felt okay, but the other half felt like I’d been run down by a car rather than diving out of one. I didn’t want to know what was wrong with me until I found out what had happened, though. I was still breathing, so everything else would heal.
“Why is Ahanti giving a statement to Detective DeGoey? What happened?”
“The detective wants to talk to you to ask that very thing when he finishes with Ahanti.” Mark took my hand more gently than usual. “All we know is that you jumped from a moving car. A woman saw it happening when she was walking back to where she’d parked, and she called it in.”
If they didn’t know anything about what went on, that meant Eddie wasn’t talking. Or that they hadn’t caught him yet. “If you don’t know what happened, how did you know Eddie was Ahanti’s stalker?”
It was too bad Ahanti wasn’t here to see Geoff’s grin. It was the same one he got when she showed him an art-gallery worthy design. Terrance was wrong when he said Geoff wasn’t a good match for Ahanti because he didn’t want a tattoo of his own. He was a better match because he d
idn’t and yet he loved her for what she did despite not fully understanding it.
“Ahanti figured it out,” he said. “She was ordering the subs and realized that Eddie’s handwriting was close to the handwriting of her stalker. She called Detective DeGoey right away. He sent the police to Skin Canvas.”
That explained the sirens I’d heard. It also explained why Eddie came back to his car sooner than I expected. He must have figured out the sirens were for him. Maybe he thought someone saw him dump me in the trunk or that I’d managed to send a message for help before he grabbed me.
I told them what happened after Ahanti and Lucas left. “Have the police captured Eddie yet?”
Mark’s face went the color of spoiled milk. The expression on his face sent a shiver down into my core.
Mark set aside his coffee cup and cradled my hand in both of his. “Eddie tried to evade the police and lost control of his car. It flipped at least three times and hit a concrete barricade roof-first. He didn’t make it.”
Mark’s expression finally made sense. If I’d still been in the trunk, I’d be dead, too. The thought didn’t quite sink in, but I knew from experience that it eventually would. It’d become another thing that I had to work through with my therapist and my PTSD support group.
For now, I’d accept the numbness gratefully. “So how bad am I hurt?”
Mark smiled just enough for his dimples to peek out. “Not as bad as it could have been. You lost a layer of skin on your arm and thigh, and the doctor thinks you have a bone bruise on your knee. You’ll be on crutches for a few weeks, and you might need some physio, but…”
But given how bad it could have been, physio and crutches were a small price to pay.
There was one thing about it all that still worried me though. “Does this mean we’re going to have to miss our flight?”
We did end up having to delay our return home. Since we didn’t have travel insurance, the airline refused to refund our money or change our flights until we let my dad talk to them. Even airline bigwigs were no match for him.
The extra couple of days in DC turned out to be a benefit. After everything that happened, Ahanti and Geoff eloped after all. Ahanti decided that a big wedding wasn’t as important as being married to Geoff, and Geoff decided that leaving most of his stuff in storage until they could find a bigger place was a small sacrifice to make to be with Ahanti.
And Terrance was even well enough to attend, albeit in a wheelchair. Mark and I picked him up for the ceremony, which also gave me my chance to apologize.
Terrance, back to his old self, barely seemed to pay attention to it.
He and Ahanti had already had a long talk as soon as he was allowed visitors. Ahanti agreed to give him another chance, but she wouldn’t be loaning him any more money. If Terrance so much as asked, he’d be finding himself a new place to work.
Because my crutches made returning the rental car and then catching a shuttle to Dulles almost impossible, my dad actually offered to drive us.
Mark went inside to get a wheelchair for me, leaving my dad and me alone for the first time since I’d moved to Fair Haven.
My dad had never been a man who tolerated small talk, and I knew better than to ask if he and Mom would be up to Fair Haven before the wedding. My mom had already taken too much time off to visit in May, and my dad got twitchy with the day or two he’d taken off for our truncated sailing expedition. They’d be there for the wedding, but not much more.
I still didn’t know where our relationship stood. My engagement to Mark seemed to have mellowed him enough that he was talking to me again at least, but things still weren’t the way I wanted them to be.
I’d been brave enough to talk to my mom, and it’d made things better between us than they’d ever been before. Things with my dad couldn’t get much worse, so I really didn’t have anything to lose.
“If Mark and I decide not to move to DC, will we go back to you giving me the silent treatment? It’s not going to affect my decision. I’d just like to know what to expect.”
It came out a lot more confrontationally than I’d intended. I cringed internally, but kept my body perfectly still.
But my dad actually smiled. And it almost looked proud.
It was like I was Dorothy in the old Wizard of Oz movie. I stepped out of the black and white and into technicolor and saw things the way they truly were for the first time.
My dad had been angry because he saw me as weak and foolish. In standing up to him during this visit, I’d finally earned the respect that I could never get by trying to do everything his way or by avoiding a confrontation with him. Those things had only reinforced his opinion of me as someone who couldn’t think for herself enough to be trusted to make good decisions.
He reached down beside his seat and handed me a manila envelope. “This should help you along toward making the right decision.”
He jutted his chin toward the envelope in the universal sign for go ahead.
I pulled open the flap. Inside was an official offer for a job, written up in the same way that my parents would present it to any new prospective employee. Only this time, it was for me. When I’d graduated and passed the bar, there’d never been an official offer. It was assumed I’d work for my parents, and that’s what I did. I didn’t look for other jobs. I never considered negotiating over what my dad stated they’d pay me.
This offer made my previous salary look paltry. Mark and I would easily be able to afford a house with a yard for the dogs if I accepted. It also included the promise of a partnership after two years—a carrot making it more palatable for me to return to being a defense attorney. Once I was a partner, I’d have more control over what cases I worked on and the role I played in them.
My dad tapped a finger on the edge of the papers. “Your mother also insisted I include the person you should contact if you’d rather work longer hours for less money.”
His tone of voice let me know clearly what he thought about that idea, but he kept it to himself otherwise.
I flipped to the last page. My mom had written down a name, phone number, and short message. Assistant DA is moving to another state in six months. They’ll be looking to replace him.
I tucked the papers back into the envelope and threw my arms around my dad. I didn’t care that hugging wasn’t what we did.
Because I finally saw those offers for what they were. They weren’t my parents trying to control me. They’re weren’t my parents meddling.
They were my parents saying, in the only way they could, that they loved me and wanted me to come back home. Now the challenge was that Mark and I needed to decide if we wanted to stay in Fair Haven or return to DC.
BONUS RECIPE: Traveler’s Maple Syrup Cheesecake
INGREDIENTS:
½ cup unsalted butter
3½ cups graham cracker crumbs (this makes a thick crust, so you can use less if you like a thinner crust)
1½ cups maple syrup, plus some for drizzling
32 ounces of cream cheese
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ cup whipping cream
TOOLS:
2 large bowls
1 small microwave-safe bowl
10-inch springform pan
aluminum foil
electric mixer
whatever utensils you like for stirring
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Melt butter in the microwave. A great tip to keep your butter from burning or turning grainy is to heat it until only about half the butter is melted. Take it out and stir. The heat from the melted butter will melt the rest.
In a large bowl, mix together the melted butter, graham cracker crumbs, and a half cup of the maple syrup.
Press crumb mixture into the bottom and up the sides of your springform pan. Wrap a layer or two of aluminum foil around the pan. (It helps keep the cheesecake filling from leaking out while it’s cooking.)
In another large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the maple syrup and beat again until combined.
Add the eggs one at a time. Beat well after each egg.
Add vanilla and whipping cream and beat a final time until they’re just combined.
Pour the filling into the pan. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for around an hour. (Cheesecake should be set on the edges and a little jiggly in the center.)
Cool the cheesecake completely in the pan on a cooling rack.
Cover the top of the cheesecake with a layer of plastic wrap and chill for at least 8 hours. Two days is better.
To serve, remove the side of the pan, cut into wedges, and drizzle each wedge with maple syrup.
SERVES: 8
Travel Tip: If you want to bring this cheesecake with you on a long-distance trip, transfer it to a cardboard round after it’s completely chilled, then wrap it in three layers—parchment paper, then plastic wrap, and finally aluminum foil. Freeze it completely and package it in a tight box. Carry it on the plane with you and store it under your seat. (This only works if you make the full-fat version above. Don’t freeze the lightened version because the light cream cheese doesn’t survive the freezer well.)
Tip for a Lighter Version: If you’re trying to watch your weight because you happen to have a fancy dress you’ll need to fit in soon (or simply because you want to be able to zip up your pants), you can make a couple changes to the recipe. Use light cream cheese, swap half the eggs for egg replacement, and use buttermilk instead of whipping cream. You can also cut the recipe in half for a smaller cheesecake and bake it in a 7-inch springform pan instead.
Tapped Out: Maple Syrup Mysteries Book 7
No one is exactly what they seem…
Former lawyer Nicole Fitzhenry-Dawes should be focusing on planning her wedding and a friend’s baby shower, as well as running her maple syrup farm.