Clicking the phone closed, Amanda decided somebody really needed to write a book on how to be a good criminal. It was a lot harder than it appeared. Though, of course, somebody probably had written one. The problem was by the time a person needed it, they didn’t have the time to go read a damn book.
Either way, she figured it must be good to be ahead of schedule. Except now came phase three, requiring a lot more guts than Amanda had. The first part was easy. With Braden’s truck backed into a corner spot, nobody would notice its license tag had gone missing.
The hard part came into walking right into the hornets’ nest by heading for the fire department. Right next to the police station, Amanda could see Tanner Briggs’ truck parked in the shared lot. He owned the identical Chevy as Braden, right down to the chrome package. Now all she had to do was wiggle through the bushes, creep along the edges and swap the plates.
This is absolute insanity, and didn’t she know it. Oh, well, if God didn’t like her plan then He’d get her caught. As if to challenge her for daring Him, the little cell Amanda had bought started belting out a horrid ring. The high pitched wail cut through the still, evening air, making Amanda about jump out of her skin.
In a mad rush to stop the noise, she fumbled with the phone as she shrank back into the deep shadows of the alley way. “What?”
“Amanda?”
“Will, oh thank God.” Panting out her relief, Amanda slouched against the wall of the bank. “Thank you so much for calling me back.”
A strange silence greeted her comment. Not the normal Will snootiness, making fun of her drama queen like behavior. The striking change really rammed home how much of life was coming to an end. Straightening up with her sobering thought, Amanda spoke into the void.
“We don’t have time to talk and really none is needed, but I do need money.”
“Why?”
“Why do you think?” Amanda snapped. “To get the hell out of Kansas, to not be Amanda Johnson anymore.”
“I don’t think—”
“It’s not your call,” she cut him off. “Just like having somebody run over my car with me in it wasn’t mine. I know you have the money. I just need enough to escape.”
Silence again, but this time Amanda didn’t press Will. She knew he’d fall her way, and with a sigh, he did. “Okay. Where are you?”
“Don’t worry about where I am and don’t tell me where you are. Just tell me how long it will take you to leave a package at the old fort.”
“I can meet you—”
“No,” Amanda cut in panicked by his very suggestion. “I can’t assure you nobody is following me. Just leave the money there and get as far away as you can.”
Again Will hesitated, but finally gave her a, “Give me two hours.”
“Will?” Amanda could sense him about to hang up.
“Yeah.”
She swallowed, not knowing what these final words should really be. They might be her last to Will. “I’m not mad.”
“But I am sorry.”
The line went dead after that and Amanda stared down at the phone. One of them would die, perhaps both. Oh, well, never really saw myself as old and wrinkled anyway. At least phase four had been a success.
Now she just had to finish phase three. The call had bought her a few more minutes and just as many more inches of shadows. Bucking up her nerve, Amanda told herself twelve year-olds did this all the time, so she should be able to.
Still, five nerve wracking minutes later with Tanner’s license plate in her hands and Braden’s secured to his truck, Amanda couldn’t believe she’d done it. Now all she had to was get away with it. So obsessed with keeping her eyes pinned on the station house, Amanda didn’t even notice the man waiting in the alley as she slid back through the thin line of shrubs and around its corner.
“Well, look at you.” The sound of Davey’s voice had her jumping, turning, the license plate clanking to the ground. Sitting on his Hog, her daddy shook his head at her. “Not so innocent after all.”
* * * *
Jace stared down the road and couldn’t believe he’d let Cody talk him into this. Of all the stupid stunts they’d ever pulled, nothing compared to the hair-brained scheme Cody came up with to get past the deputy stationed inside Tony’s house.
It had been an insane day. Having a hung-over Knox and a sexed-up Cody with equal voting rights had turned into a disaster when they’d gathered around the kitchen table. Jace had tried all he could to bring reason into the discussion.
He’d failed. In the next minute, they would cause such a scene it eclipsed the gossip swirling around Humble. The only reason they hadn’t come to this moment earlier is because Knox and Cody had gotten sidetracked in arguing over the details.
Knox had finally convinced Cody there would be no way the sheriff would let them stay at his place, working together to stand guard with the sheriff’s deputies. Unfortunately, Cody had convinced Knox they could snatch Amanda out of Tony’s house. Yeah, it would land them all in jail, but Knox and Cody were both convinced it would give the time alone they needed with Amanda to convince her to come home and let them take care of her.
Jace didn’t agree. He’d expected his brothers to be difficult, but they’d gone well beyond that stage. It came down to two against one, and he’d been out voted. Sighing over his fate, Jace turned and caught Knox’s grin.
“I can’t believe you’re smiling now.”
“Relax, Jace.” Knox shot him an unearned smug look. “Look at it this way, Amanda can’t possibly get more pissed at us than she already is.”
“Wanna bet?”
“Trust me,” Knox assured him. “This is just the kind of romantic gesture she’ll appreciate.”
With that, Knox popped the break and hit the gas. Jace barely had time to duck down into the floorboard as the street roared past. The breaks squealed and he felt the tires lift up as Knox cranked the truck to a hard right and banged into Amanda’s drive. Jace smacked his head into the dashboard as Knox kicked down the hand break and flew out the door.
“Amanda!”
Jace listened to Knox roaring for the door, waiting for the second the deputy’s voice added itself to the mix. That would have been his cue to slip from the door Knox had left open. Knox would lure the deputy into the yard, letting Jace dart around and go through the front door.
A well laid plan according to Knox and Cody. It had sounded more like a cartoon plot to Jace, but still of all the failures he’d seen, Jace hadn’t anticipated no response from the deputy. For all his shouting and pounding that’s just what Knox was getting.
Maybe he caught Cody out back, Jace wondered as he peeked up to chance a glance out the window. He saw Knox doing the same thing through the sheriff’s front window.
Whatever he saw, it caused Knox to wig out instantly. Hollering for Jace, Knox had the gall to actually start kicking at the sheriff’s front door. The sight of which had Jace throwing open his door and rushing off to find out what had made Knox lose his ever-loving mind.
Jace hadn’t even made the front steps when Knox battered in the door on his second kick. By the time the first wooden step creaked beneath Jace’s boot, Knox had disappeared into the house, yelling for Jace to call 911.
The very words left Jace incapable of obeying. They struck fear so far into his heart, Jace almost tripped over the last step. Stumbling through the door he found his ability to breathe restored when he saw Knox kneeling by the deputy, feeling for his pulse and not Amanda’s.
“Call 911!” Knox barked. “He’s not waking up.”
Jace heard and ignored. Instead he tore off in a mad rush, screaming, “Amanda!”
Whoever called 911 for Knox, Jace didn’t know. It took him only five minutes to tear through Tony’s entire house. From basement all the way to the attic, he didn’t find a sign of Amanda. It only added to his panic when the sirens started to wail into hearing. The sound of disaster, it brought home that this was no overreaction.
Jace could hear the same desperation he felt in Cody’s voice as he collided with his brother at the base of the attic steps. “Did you find her?”
“No.”
Not sparing more breath than that for Cody, Jace shoved past him and stormed off toward the living room. Knox lifted worried eyes from the deputy to Jace, but all he could give his brother was a shake of his head.
Shifting his gaze back to the big man laid out like the dead on the couch, Knox matched Jace’s head shake. “I didn’t believe you.”
Whispered out, Jace almost didn’t hear Knox’s words over the piercing wail of the sirens sliding into the drive. “I didn’t either.”
Not until Tony charged in and got slammed back against the wall by their baby brother. Roaring up at the sheriff, Cody held him pinned there. “Where the hell is she?”
Tony’s answer came in the form of a shove, sending Cody reeling back to crash into one of the end tables. “Get your hands off me, boy, unless you want to spend more than a night in jail.”
“You aren’t going to be putting us in jail, Tony.” Knox rose up from beside the couch as deputies and paramedics swarmed in. Not paying the horde any mind, Knox closed in on the sheriff. “But I will be putting you in the ground if I have to lay Amanda there.”
“You threatening me?” Tony didn’t retreat from Knox, but stepped up to meet his challenge.
“Yes.”
“What gives you the right?”
“I do.”
“We do.” Jace flanked Tony, knowing Cody took up the other side. “You might not like us, sheriff, but Amanda loves us and we love her. That gives us all the rights in the world.”
“You hurt her.” Tony’s hard gaze cut to Jace’s. “And she’s my friend. That gives me some rights.”
“You want to stand here picking this fight instead of finding Amanda, I’d say you’re not much of a friend.”
Cody drew Tony’s gaze to him with that, but Jace saw the sheriff’s chin lift a slight bit, his body stiffening. Tilting his head to glance in the same direction, Jace watched as an all black SUV pulled to a stop.
“Are those federal agents?” Jace had never seen an FBI agent in real life, but these guys had the look of power as they stepped out of their vehicle.
“Worse, DEA.” Sighing, Tony tossed Jace an annoyed look. “Same authority, but a hell of a lot worse attitude. You guys might want to step back right about now.”
“We’re not leaving,” Knox retorted as Tony brushed past Cody.
“No. I didn’t think you were.”
Watching Tony trudge off to intercept the agents, all three brothers scooted to the side to watch as the paramedics and deputies went to work. It didn’t take a minute to catch up on the chaos ascending over the house. Somebody had poisoned the deputy with sleeping pills, Amanda’s pills.
“This isn’t right.” Turning his back to the mess, Jace leaned into whisper to Knox.
“Don’t I know it,” Knox muttered. “She should have been at home with us.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“What are you two murmuring about?” Cody squeezed around Knox to worm his way into the conversation.
“I’m just saying, I don’t know much about drug dealers, but poisoning a deputy? Leaving him alive? I thought those boys just shot everything in their path.” At least they did in every movie Jace had seen.
“What are you thinking?” Knox scowled. “Amanda did this?”
“Or her daddy.” Cody’s soft comment drew both older brothers’ gazes to him, as they all shared a moment.
Jace hadn’t lied to Amanda. They’d had her daddy investigated, knew just what kind of man he was. Amanda’s fate wouldn’t be any better with her daddy than the drug dealers.
“If he took her, he won’t take her to the motel.” The tremor in Knox’s voice betrayed the fear his oldest brother barely managed to hold in check.
“Thomas said he still owned a piece of land toward the north.”
* * * *
Amanda gazed up at the old house as Davey brought his bike to a stop in front of it. Her father had offered her only two choices, go with him or get knocked out and he’d just take her. Being a believer in avoiding pain, she’d opted for option one.
Now, though, as she stared at the weathered and abandoned structure, Amanda wondered if she just shouldn’t have run when she had the chance. Then her daddy could have shot her in the back. It felt more poetic than being killed out here in this dump.
“Go on in, girl.” Davey nodded toward the house. “I got to make a call.”
He spoke like she was a willing guest instead of a hostage, but then again Davey didn’t know she had Braden’s nine millimeter tucked into her purse. It gave her a sense of power, letting her indulge the time to find out just how much her father actually hated her.
Stepping onto the old porch, Amanda moved cautiously through the opening where the front door once hung. With each step, the wood beneath her feet groaned, warning it might give way under her weight. Amanda took the threat seriously as she felt her way into the single room structure.
There used to be interior walls, but now only some of the old studs remained. Weeds grew up between the walls, winding out busted out windows and toward the roof where sunken patches had fallen to holes at some point. The gaps let the moon’s pale light shine into the house, illuminating not much more than decay and shadows.
Two things that kept Amanda’s head pointed down as she looked for rodents and bugs. Even as she gravitated to the darkest shadows, Amanda pulled Braden’s gun from her purse and clicked off the safety before tucking it into the waistband of her jeans.
She would use it. She’d kill her dad. Then why hadn’t she? Given everything she’d already done, taking Davey out should have been easy. Despite what Amanda knew of Davey, this was about her.
Foolish as she might be, Amanda had held onto her childhood dreams of the father she’d always wanted. Dreams of having the type of father who danced at weddings and held court over the Christmas dinner table, of a father who showed up every day to ask her how school was and tuck her into bed at night, all of it had become too costly to believe in now.
“They’re on their way.”
Those times had passed and the hope with them. Amanda turned to face her father standing in the door and the reality she would have to pull the trigger and kill the last shred of hope in her heart.
“Who?”
“Ah, your buddy, Will’s friends.” She could see Davey’s smirk in the moonlight. A cold, cynical twist, her father never truly smiled. “They’re quite interested in meeting you.”
“I bet.”
“Though I really got to ask.” Davey shoved off the doorframe to stroll deeper into the house. He did not look down. “What made you bolt today? I’ve been sitting on the sheriff’s house for near two weeks, waiting for you to recover enough to take. Never expected you to run on your own, so why?”
Amanda tracked Davey’s movement, making sure he stayed a good ways from her, more than enough room to give her the time to pull her gun. “Because you would have shot Braden.”
“Braden?” Davey cast her a strange look. “The deputy?”
“Yeah.”
Considering it for a moment, Davey shrugged. “Probably would have, though I’d have liked to shoot Tony instead.”
“Nobody’s dying for me.”
“Well isn’t that just too noble of you, girl. Nobel and stupid.” Davey snorted. “Never did figure out why so called intelligent people don’t realize what a handicap honor actually is because you might not want anybody to die for you, but you will be dying for somebody else.”
Amanda’s chin lifted. “That’s my choice.”
“Not really,” Davey disagreed. “Will made that choice for you and you’d do well to remember that.”
Amanda stared at Davey in disbelief. “Was that fatherly advice?”
Davey shot her a dirty look for even the suggestion. “Not hardly, but you are
my kid. These boys coming, they’re going to kill you no matter what. The only question is how long it takes and how bad it hurts.”
“That’s not what you want?” Amanda asked.
“Nah.” Davey shook his head. “I just want you dead.”
“Then why…” Amanda gestured toward the door.
“This?” There came Davey’s smirk again. “Well, it’s a double bang, really. They pay me for you, then when your body’s found I get a second payment from the life insurance. All told, I’m walking out 200 large on this deal.”
“That’s what I’m worth to you?”
“Don’t wet yourself, girl. You ain’t worth even that to me, but on the market, you’re not doing too bad.”
“On the market?” Amanda laughed, her head dipping with the motion. Why had she even waited? What had she ever expected of her father?
“Hell, my biggest worry right now is after them boys break you in, they might decide to resell you themselves to some whore house down south and screw me out of my insurance.”
Davey snorted as he rubbed his gut, his thoughtful gesture. Amanda watched him from lowered lashes as he continued on, talking more to himself than her.
“Shit, with your pig-ass face and that mountain of a butt you got it shouldn’t really be an issue, but then again you got them Reese brothers all wrapped around your finger so I figure you must fuck pretty good. Got some of your mom in you after all. Now there was a pussy who—”
The deafening blast of Braden’s gun ripped through Davey’s words a millisecond before the bullet tore through his chest. Amanda hadn’t thought it would be so easy. Just press down on the trigger and…bang, bang, bang, a bullet for each step.
It wasn’t like on the TV though. The air thickened with the foul stench of the burned gunpowder. Her arm burned where a hot casing had skipped across her skin. Clinking to the floor, it fell as Amanda lowered her gun and stared at her father.
Death didn’t come easy or in an instant for him, despite the three massive holes blooming with blood over his chest. His hands went there, covering them as if he could save himself. There would be no salvation for Davey Johnson, not tonight. His eyes widened with the knowledge as he stumbled backward.
Kansas Heat Page 49