Silencing Memories

by Desiree Holt

  Nick grabbed the phone, read the message, and cursed loudly. Then he stood up and cleared their plates. “Okay. I think time just ran out on us.”

  “How did she find us? I thought you said Reno had people on her.”

  “I said they were looking for her. This woman has a history of being able to disappear. This remote island is probably not safe any longer. We’re getting out of here tonight.” He pulled her up from the chair. “Come on. Let’s pack and spend the night in Bangor. If we hurry, we can catch the last ferry to the mainland.”

  “I…I…”

  “Come on, Lindsey.” His voice was soft and coaxing. “It’s okay.”

  “I…can’t…I…don’t…” She couldn’t seem to make herself say anything that made sense.

  Nick eased her back down in the chair, then brushed a kiss over her lips. She didn’t even try to turn away from him.

  “No problem. Just wait here. I’ll do the packing and call the ferry office to make sure they don’t leave without us.”

  “How did she find us, Nick?” Oh, God. This was as bad as her nightmares. Worse, even. “How did she know where we were? We were so careful.”

  “We don’t know that she did. This call could be coming from anywhere, designed to make you think exactly what you did. Right now, I just want us to get out of here. I’m going to call Reno and update him, then get our things. Wait right here for me.”

  Nick was still in the bedroom when Lindsey thought she heard the crunching of tires on the gravel outside. Who could be coming here? Surely not her. Not here. She went to the back door and peered through a slit in the curtains but couldn’t see anything outside.

  Stay away from the door. You don’t know who it is. Get Nick.

  She hurried back into the kitchen where she could hear Nick moving around in other parts of the house, shuffling their bags, checking the fireplace. “Nick? Where are you?”

  A sudden scratching noise seemed to be just one more sound until she heard the back door open. An intruder burst in, dressed in heavy jacket and jeans with a scarf wound around her head. In seconds, she had the barrel of a gun pressed against Lindsey’s head.

  “Go ahead. Get him in here. We need to invite him to the party, anyway.” She pressed the barrel harder. “Go on, bitch. Do it. Now.”

  Lindsey froze in place. Brianna James’ familiar voice was the last thing she expected to hear. No, it had to be a mistake. This had to be wrong. Oh, God, was someone playing a horrible joke on her?

  “Bri?” She could barely get the word out.

  “Yes, it’s me,” Brianna sneered and yanked off the scarf. “Take a good look. I want you to know who I am. Who I really am. The child everyone wanted to get rid of.”

  Lindsey didn’t think she could move. This had to be a nightmare. Any minute, she’d wake up.

  Brianna took a small step backward, the gun still pointed directly at Lindsey’s forehead. Her friendly, open expression was replaced by a vicious smirk. “Good, good. No more secrets. Now call for Nick to come out here. Right now.”

  No. She wasn’t going to call him into danger. She needed to send him some kind of signal.

  “You’ve got two seconds, bitch, before I start making little holes in you. Get him in here right now.”

  Lindsey drew a breath and tried to shout. “No. I won’t do it. If you’re going to shoot me, go ahead. He’ll just kill you.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so.” She wrapped her hands around Lindsey’s hair and gave it a vicious yank.

  Lindsey screamed in pain.

  ****

  A chill ran down Nick’s spine. Something was definitely wrong. Lindsey sounded scared out of her mind. Pulling his gun from his holster, he flattened against the wall and inched toward the kitchen.

  “Lindsey?” He called out her name.

  When he peered around the edge of the doorway to the kitchen, his blood turned to ice. He wasn’t surprised to see Brianna James holding a gun to Lindsey’s head. With the latest information, he’d been half-expecting her to be the stalker. And the look of hate on her face told him she wasn’t about to be reasoned with.

  “Come out, come out, wherever you are.” Her sing-song voice had a vicious edge to it. “Come on out and play before I blow this bitch’s head off.”

  Nick tucked his gun into the small of his back and moved through the open doorway into the kitchen. The look of stark terror on Lindsey’s face cut straight to his heart. He’d promised to keep her safe. Instead, he’d left her right in harm’s way. But he had no way of knowing they’d stayed there one day too long. The information had only now come to light.

  “I’m here,” he said as calmly as he could. “It’s all right, Lindsey. Just do whatever she says.”

  “Good idea,” Brianna said. “Smart thinking. Get your hands up. Up!” she repeated when he hesitated.

  He opened his jacket to show her his holster was empty, hoping she’d fall for it. “No gun, Brianna.”

  “What do you want?” Lindsey’s voice had a tremor in it.

  Brianna spared a glance for Nick. “You know, don’t you, Mr. Private Security? Yeah, you know all about it. Go ahead and tell her.”

  Lindsey’s eyes darted toward him. “Nick? Is she really who you told me she was?”

  He nodded. “Meet your sister. Barbara Jean Dolman.”

  If possible, Lindsey turned even whiter. “My…sister?”

  “Yes, but we’re not having old home week here, bitch. Too bad I didn’t punch Mommy Dearest in the belly and make her lose you. Save me a lot of trouble.”

  “Guardian is good at digging up facts, no matter how deep they are buried.”

  He shifted on his feet, and Brianna sneered at him. “Go ahead. Make a move. I’d love it. I’ll blow a hole in her head big enough to drive a car through.”

  “I’m not moving,” he told her. “Just talking. I think your parents faked their deaths for a very specific reason. And I think it had to do with you and your baby brother. Maybe even something you did to him. We found letters your grandmothers wrote to each other in their distress and worry. It seems you weren’t a very nice little girl, were you?”

  She shrugged. “All speculation. Nothing more.”

  “I think they sent you off with the housekeeper and her husband,” he went on, “and settled them financially to raise you, as long as you never had any contact with them. How am I doing so far?”

  Hate glittered in her eyes. “That rotten little baby. He spoiled everything. I thought with him gone it would be just me. I’d be the special one.”

  “Didn’t quite work out that way, did it?”

  The woman let loose a string of curse words that made even Nick stare.

  “They went off to a new life and left me with those weird old people. Do you know what they told me? That my parents were dead and they would take good care of me. That’s a laugh. They even made me take their stupid name.”

  “I understand the Littmans were good people,” Nick told her, wanting to keep her talking until he could make a move.

  Lindsey, I’m going to save you. I hope you can hear what I’m thinking it. Feel it.

  “Good for nothing,” Brianna said in that same voice. “Never letting me do anything. Punishing me. And hating me. Oh yes, I knew how they hated me. The devil’s child, they called me, when they didn’t think I could hear them. They considered it their duty to chase the evil out of me. But I showed them. I had fun in spite of them. When I finally ran away, they didn’t even try to find me. I’m sure they said good riddance. I wonder what my dear darling parents would have thought of that.”

  “I’m curious. How did you find out about Lindsey?”

  She laughed, a sound tinged with a hint of madness. “I finally went home about two years ago, a little down on my luck and needing a new stake. When the Littmans weren’t around, I snuck in their bedroom and dug around for money. I found a locked box in the closet. I picked the lock—one of my acquired skills—and guess what I found?”
<
br />   “Information about the accident.”

  “Bingo. All the newspaper clippings as well as letters from Texas. Thanking the Littmans for helping them get away. Anguishing over that damned baby. Stupidly telling the Littmans where they were. Idiots, both of them.” She laughed again. “What dummies they were. They even sent a picture of the ranch and this bitch, Lindsey. Dear mama was pregnant when everything happened, which was the reason for the entire charade.”

  “To save the baby from you.” Nick’s voice was soft, with a dangerous edge to it that Brianna didn’t seem to notice. “So that’s how you traced her, through their new name?”

  “I did some research of my own. With the Internet, it’s not too hard these days.” She glared at Nick. “When I found out what the estate had been worth, I was determined to get it. All of it. It should have been mine to begin with. I had nothing, and the little princess got everything.”

  “Bad luck for Lindsey she ran the employment ad at exactly that time,” Nick muttered.

  “Bad luck for her, good luck for me. She was only too happy to hire me.” She smirked. “And didn’t I just play the role of the efficient assistant to the hilt?”

  “Lindsey would have gladly shared with you,” Nick said. “You didn’t have to go after her the way you did.”

  “Didn’t you hear me? I said I wanted it all.” She raised her voice, nearly shouting now. “I deserved it. She had everything all those years.”

  “The Dolmans shelled out a million bucks for your care,” Nick pointed out. “That’s not peanuts.”

  “One million?” She snorted. “It’s nothing compared to what they were really worth. Anyway, it wasn’t for me, it was to bribe those two idiots to take me off their hands.”

  “I suppose stalking Lindsey was somehow part of your big plan?” Keep her talking. Keep her distracted.

  “I thought it was a brilliant idea,” she bragged. “I needed someone to blame her death on when I finally did away with her. You could be looking for the phantom stalker forever while I’d be home free with the money. Besides, I had fun with her.”

  “You sent all those faxes and photos and text messages.”

  “Yes.” That nasty grin was back. “It was so easy to frighten her. I did everything on my lunch hour or right after I left at night. It’s amazing what you can do without people asking any questions. Like renting a room in a hotel with no luggage.”

  “You’re the one who insisted she call the police. Weren’t you afraid they’d get onto you?”

  “No way.” She shook her head arrogantly. “I didn’t leave any kind of a trail. I used public faxes in crowded places and disposable cell phones. And she may have become suspicious if I hadn’t suggested it.”

  “Quite a plan. And then what? You figured you’d just step in with your birth certificate and all those other documents and claim everything as yours?”

  “Of course. It would be easy.” She flicked her hand in the air. “I got a copy of the will from the court. It states that when both parents are dead the estate is left in trust to the offspring of Andrew and Elizabeth Ferrell. Well, they can change their names, but they’re still my parents. And I’m still their offspring. And I have the documents to prove it.”

  “What exactly happened with your baby brother all those years ago to put all this in motion? The one who seems to have disappeared?”

  “You haven’t figured that out yet? I thought those old bags had written it in their letters to each other. Why, I killed him, of course.”

  Nick tried to keep the shock from his face. “Killed?”

  Brianna snorted. “Snuffed him out like a marshmallow. Just like I’m going to do with your girl here. Only I plan to have a little fun with her first.”

  “Wait.” Lindsey held up a hand. “What happened to his body?”

  “Buried in secret someplace. I think in Bangor. I heard the Littmans talk about it once. Lucky for me, they didn’t call the police. They’d have turned me over to the asshole juvenile authorities and then where would I be?”

  “You can’t hold both of us with that gun,” he pointed out.

  “I only have to hold her. You make a move, and it’s all over.”

  Nick stole a glance at Lindsey and saw tears rolling down her cheeks.

  “You think I’m any happier about this than you are?” she demanded of Brianna. “I lost a brother I never knew, a sister I never got to know who might have been helped by the right doctors—”

  “Doctors?” Brianna snorted. “You mean shrinks who would lock me up and throw away the key?”

  “I mean who would have helped you. Our parents were wrong to do what they did.”

  “You mean selling me off to get me out of their hair?” She glared at Lindsey. “No shit. Too late for that now, though.”

  “It’s never too late,” Lindsey said. “I’ll share with you All of it. Everything you should have had. Truly.”

  Good, Lindsey. Make her feel you sympathize with her. Distract her.

  “You think I believe that?” Brianna’s face turned red. “Not on your worthless life. Besides, this way, when you’re dead, I can claim the whole thing. I’ve got all the birth documents.”

  Nick cleared his throat drawing her attention back to him. “How’d you find out we were coming to Maine?”

  She shrugged. “I guessed. I knew you were getting close so it seemed obvious. I had done a complete search on Guardian and knew about the plane. After that, it was simple. I wasn’t far behind you.”

  “So here you are.” Nick stood calmly, hoping Lindsey would pick up on his signals not to freak or do anything to provoke this woman.

  “Here I am,” she drawled. “It’s time the game was over anyway.”

  Her eyes burned with rage. She moved the gun slightly. With her hands still fisted in Lindsey’s hair, she raked the gun barrel across her cheek, leaving a thin line of blood.

  Lindsey gasped, her eyes wild with panic, her cheeks wet with tears.

  Nick’s gut tightened. “You don’t need to do that,” he said.

  “Oh, but I do.” The smile Brianna gave him came from the devil himself. “I want to make her suffer. To feel pain. Before I’m finished, I’m going to damage her in a hundred ways and let you watch her bleed and scream.”

  “Exactly what do you think that will accomplish?” Nick made his voice sound a lot calmer than he felt. This woman was really crazy.

  “I had all those years of hell,” she shouted. “Why should she get off scot free? And with all the damn money.”

  “You can have the money,” Lindsey told her, blinking back tears. “You can have anything you want if you’ll just let us go.”

  “Too late. Now I want the money and my pound of flesh.” She raked the barrel of the gun down Lindsey’s cheek again, new blood welling up to mingle with the other. “Getting your—our—mother wasn’t near as much fun as I thought it would be.”

  “Getting our mother?” Lindsey had a wild look about her now. “What are you talking about?”

  “I went to see her, you know. In the nursing home. I wanted to see the bitch that threw me away. I told her who I was and guess what? She had a heart attack! Right then and there.” She threw her head back and laughed, a sound that was pure evil. “Too bad,” she went on. “I wanted to cause her as much misery as she’d given me, but she died on me before I could do anything more.”

  Nick calculated how fast he could get his gun out and cursed the fact that he’d stuck it in the small of his back instead of his pocket. He looked at Lindsey, willing her to look at him.

  When she did, he dropped his gaze to the floor, then back up again, hoping she’d get the signal. Brianna was busy concentrating on her gun. If Lindsey had just understood what he meant…

  He let his arms hang loosely at his sides, shifting his weight to the balls of his feet. Brianna released the pressure of the gun slightly as she shifted it to a different position and that was all it took. Lindsey closed her eyes, went limp, and cru
mpled to the floor.

  Nick dived for Brianna, grabbing for the gun, but she turned and fired before he could tackle her. He managed to grip her wrist and knock the gun out of her hand, then pressed her to the floor with his weight.

  “You’re done now,” he told her, grasping both of her wrists. “We’ll see exactly who’s the bitch.”

  He could have killed her with his bare hands, but that would just put him on her level and that wasn’t who he was. Besides, it was more important for her to pay for everything she’d done.

  “Lindsey, honey, let me take care of this wild woman, and we’ll check your cheek.”

  After flipping Brianna over and securing her with his belt, he looked around for Lindsey. When he saw her, his heart nearly stopped. She lay on the floor where she’d fallen, unconscious, a pool of blood spreading out on the floor around her body.

  “Oh, Jesus God,” he whispered under his breath.

  Quickly binding Brianna’s feet with his tie, he knelt beside Lindsey, checking the source of the bleeding. It welled in great bubbles from a nasty looking wound in her abdomen.

  “Don’t die, don’t die, don’t die,” he prayed as he grabbed his cell and dialed 9-1-1.

  The closest police were in Bar Harbor. They’d need to cross by boat to get to him, but maybe they also had access to a medivac chopper. Someone needed to get to Lindsey now. Assured that a chopper would leave immediately, Nick snapped his phone shut. Hands trembling, he did his best to stop the bleeding.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Time was a blur for Lindsey. People surrounded her, vague figures coming and going. Someone was screaming, but she didn’t know who. Loud voices shouted to each other. And an unfamiliar sound intruded into her consciousness. Then she felt herself being lifted, moved around, placed on a hard flat surface, and a heavy bandage was pressed to her side.

  She felt the prick of a needle and heard, “We’ve got the IV started.”

  “I know you hurt, Lindsey, but we can’t give you anything until we get you to the hospital and you’re evaluated,” someone said, unfamiliar but soothing. “Can you hold on for a little bit? Here. Your boyfriend wants to hold your hand. I think he’s going to shoot me unless I let him.”