“Good to know, but we can’t risk Laney’s life on the chance that he’ll want to believe her, too.”
“No, but I think that there’s more than a chance. See, Mildred has spent the past couple of years convincing Chris that Laney was brainwashed into thinking she was a horrible mother. In Mildred’s stories, she tried her best to give Laney the life she deserved but was so abused herself, she couldn’t manage. Poor, weak-minded Laney didn’t stand a chance.”
Laney snorted.
“Obviously complete hogwash, but in Chris’s mind, you’re easily influenced, maybe a little confused, but still an innocent bystander in everything. We can use that to our advantage,” Stan continued gleefully.
“Maybe, but I’m no actress, and I don’t think I could convince Chris of anything. The most I could do is ask a few questions and hope he trips up answering them.” Laney frowned. She seemed disappointed. Logan wasn’t. He didn’t want her anywhere near Banks.
“You won’t have to convince him of anything. That’s the beauty of the thing. Chris already believes that Logan is scum, and he knows that you’re family. All you have to do is show up at his place in the middle of the night. He’s got a wife and kids. He’s not going to knock you off in front of them. Cry a few tears. Tell him that Logan abandoned you after he used you to escape. Say that you’re scared and you don’t want to go to jail. The last part is true, and maybe you could even get a few tears going if you think about it enough.”
“She’s not going to Green Bluff,” Logan cut in.
“Says who?” Laney’s eyes flashed green fire, her lips pressed together in a warning that Logan had no intention of heeding.
“Me.”
“It’s been a long time since I didn’t do something just because someone else said that I shouldn’t.”
“Let’s not bicker, kids. There’s a perfect solution to this problem.” Taryn sounded amused. That seemed to be her normal state of being, though Logan was sure there was something dark in her eyes. Secrets and hidden sorrows. They were in Laney’s, too, buried almost too deep to see.
“What’s your definition of perfect?” Logan washed his bowl and spun to face the group. He seemed to be the lone opposition to the plan.
His heart ruling his head.
He couldn’t shake the thought that he was doing exactly what Seth had accused him of. He also couldn’t make himself care.
“We do exactly what Stan suggested.”
“No way. I told you—”
“Hear me out, Logan.” Taryn cut him off, her voice sharp and hard-edged. Not as soft and smiley as she seemed to want people to think.
“We’ll get what we need to wire Laney up. We’ll be close enough that we can be there in seconds if she needs us. She won’t need us, though. She’ll be at Banks’s house, and she won’t leave there with him. Will you, Laney?”
“No,” Laney answered quickly, her voice shaking just a little.
“This isn’t a good idea. If Banks realizes she’s lying, he could kill her before we have a chance to move in,” Logan said.
“With his family in the house? I don’t think so. Besides, we’ll be stationed outside the house. It won’t take long to get to her. She can have a nice little chat with Banks, convince him that she wants you punished. Hopefully, that will be enough to get the arrogant jerk talking.”
“And if it isn’t, we’ve risked Laney’s life for nothing.”
“There’s not a whole lot of risk if Chris’s wife and kids are around. As long as Laney doesn’t leave with him, she’ll be fine. Besides, Chris won’t want to get his hands dirty.” Stan sounded confident, and if Laney had been anyone else, Logan might have been fully on board.
But she wasn’t anyone else, and he couldn’t stomach the thought of sending her into the lion’s den on the hope that the lion’s mouth would be sealed shut. He wanted to know it was sealed. He would have been happy to seal it himself.
“I still think it’s too risky.”
“Aren’t you the guy who told me that life without risks is—”
“I know what I told you,” he bit out, cutting Laney off because she was right. He knew it. Without risk, they’d accomplish nothing. He just didn’t want to risk her.
“I’ll agree there’s a slight risk,” Seth said. “But it’s not like she’s going to be alone. We’ll be right outside. If anything goes wrong, we’ll run in to save the day.”
“What if she’s dead before we manage to do that?”
“I won’t be.” Laney hoped. As eager as she was to prove Logan’s innocence, she really didn’t want to die.
And she really wasn’t a good actress.
As a matter of fact, she was a really bad one.
She’d auditioned for school plays every year because her mother had wanted her to. The most she’d ever gotten was a walk-on part, and that was just because the drama teacher felt sorry for her.
“It’s a good plan. If we were using anyone else as bait, you’d be all for it, Randal,” Stan said.
Laney wasn’t sure she liked the word “bait.” Especially not when it referred to her.
“You’re right. I’m not going to deny it.” Logan smoothed his hair and ran his hand down his jaw, his gaze fixed on her. She shivered, her mind going back to the moment when his lips had touched hers, when his hands had been warm and firm on her waist. The moment when she would have given anything to be able to stay right where she was forever.
She was scared, but she’d risk anything to give him his freedom.
“I’ll be fine,” she said because she knew he needed to hear it and because she needed to hear it, too.
“Well, that’s settled, so I think I’ll go get a few things together for our drive to Green Bluff. Never been there, but Mildred said it was nice.” Stan stood, his age-spotted hands pushing against the table.
“What kind of things do you need, Pops? Maybe, I can help you get them.” Seth stood and stretched. It seemed that the meeting had been adjourned, the decisions made.
Laney should be thrilled, but she was terrified.
“This’ll do.” Stan pulled a butcher knife out of a drawer. “I can sharpen this baby up real nice.”
He hurried from the room.
“That old man is going to get himself killed,” Seth muttered and followed.
“I’d better get a few things done, too. Darius needs to be updated on the plan. We’ll leave here around nine. That figures a four-hour drive back to Green Bluff, an hour or so of prep, and we should have Laney knocking on Banks’s door around two in the morning. That’ll throw him off his stride a little, and that’s exactly what we want.” Taryn collected all the pages from the table, her movements quick and easy. She didn’t look at all nervous about the plan.
Laney wished she had that kind of confidence. Not just in herself, but in God, in the people around her. In the idea that things would always work out for the best if she just had faith.
“You sure that you want to do this?” Logan asked as Taryn left the kitchen.
Was she?
All Laney knew was that she couldn’t spend the rest of her life believing that she could have helped Logan and hadn’t.
“Yes.”
“Then make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons, okay?” His hands skimmed up her arms and rested on her shoulders. She could feel every finger burning through her T-shirt. She could feel the weight of his palms, comforting and familiar.
She loved him.
The thought speared into her heart and took hold of the emptiness there.
She shoved it away because there were all kinds of love, and she only wanted to give Logan the kind she’d given him when they were kids.
“I am.”
“So, you’re not doing it for me? You don’t have some misguided not
ion about repaying me for what I did when you were a kid?”
“No.” Actually, she did have the notion, but it wasn’t misguided.
“Then what is your motivation, Laney? What are you going to get out of this?”
“Justice?” It sounded like a good answer, but she wasn’t sure she said it forcefully enough to be convincing.
“For me? Because if that’s the case—”
“This isn’t all about you anymore. Seth, Taryn and Stan need this to work, too. We all have our freedom riding on what happens tonight.” She sidestepped the question, and she knew that he noticed. His eyes narrowed and his lips pressed together in a firm line.
He looked dangerous and angry and more handsome than any man had a right to look.
Love.
She’d wanted it so desperately for so many years. She’d wanted it when she’d met William, but she’d wanted it on her terms. She had wanted it enough to risk something but not everything.
With Logan, she’d have to risk it all.
She stepped back, swallowing down words that she couldn’t allow herself to say. “It’s going to be a long night. I think I’d better lie down for a while.”
She didn’t wait for his response, just ran from the room like the coward she was beginning to realize that she was.
TWENTY-ONE
Two in the morning came way too soon.
At least in Laney’s mind it did. Everyone else seemed excited, the air in the truck charged with energy. Laney was terrified.
“Ready?” Logan squeezed her hand. She wanted to hold on tight. Refuse to get out when the truck pulled up at the end of Chris’s street.
“I think so.”
“You’d better know so, kid. This is no time to get nervous.” Stan patted her knee as they wound through Green Bluff’s ritziest neighborhood. The yards were large, two or three acres, and well lit by streetlights. People with money lived there. People who kept their yards perfect and their homes pristine. People who might notice Laney walking down the middle of the street and call the police.
She swallowed the acid at the back of her throat.
“She’d be a fool if she wasn’t nervous, Stan,” Taryn said easily as she pulled to the side of the road. “This is it, Laney. You, Logan and Seth get out here. Stan and I will park on the street behind this one. If you have any trouble, scream, and we’ll let the boys know. They’ll be there to help you in two shakes of a stick.”
Great. Except that Laney was pretty sure shaking a stick would take longer than firing a bullet. If Chris had a gun and decided to use it, she’d be dead before either of the men could get to her.
She kept the thought to herself and got out of the truck. Cold air bathed her face and seeped through her coat. The small microphone that Taryn had taped under her shirt felt cool and hard against her skin. It was a small comfort, but at least she had it.
Logan and Seth hopped out of the truck behind her.
“Let’s go.” Logan took her arm, leading her to a large pine tree that stood at the edge of an oversize yard. The house it belonged to was dark as pitch and shielded from the street by large shrubs. He stopped there, his eyes gleaming in the darkness.
“Stick to the plan, Laney. Go straight to Banks’s house. Don’t stop for anything on the way there. Seth and I will be close, but we need to stay out of sight. By the time you get to his house, we’ll be in the backyard,” Logan whispered, and the chill of his words made her heart thump painfully. Not only was she going to do this, but also she was basically doing it alone. Sure, she had backup close by, but all the acting? That was hers, and she really wasn’t sure she was going to be successful.
“Okay.” She wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans.
“Are you sure? Because there’s still time to back out if you don’t think you can do this.”
She wasn’t. Not by a long shot. But she had to do it. For herself and the team. Maybe even for redemption. She’d fled Green Bluff thirteen years ago and left Logan to clean up the mess her parents had made. It was her turn to do the cleaning, and she wasn’t going to run away from that. No matter how much she wanted to.
“I can do it.”
“All right. Let’s get moving.” He dropped a quick kiss to her lips and stepped away from the tree.
That was her cue to move, and her feet did what they were supposed to even as her mind screamed for her to stop and think things through a little more.
She’d memorized Chris’s address and had studied satellite photos of the property, but everything looked different in the darkness, the trees dark shapes against a deep gray sky, the houses hulking buildings without character or color.
She walked down the middle of the street just the way the team had planned, knowing that a dog could bark or a person might peer out a window and see her. Unlike Logan and Seth, she had no reason to stay hidden.
Four houses up to the left. Laney counted each one, her heart beating louder with every step. Could Taryn and Stan hear it pounding?
She stopped in front of a two-story Greek revival and read the street address on the mailbox even though she knew she was in the right place. Avoidance. Procrastination. She was pretty good at both those things, but she couldn’t put this off. She walked up the driveway, her feet padding on the pavement, the early-morning silence eerie.
Were Seth and Logan in place?
Were Taryn and Stan?
She hesitated at the front door, her hands still sweaty and her lips still tingling from the kiss Logan had pressed to them. If he were there, he’d already have rung the doorbell, would probably be inside the house questioning Chris.
Please, God, let this work.
Please.
She rang the doorbell, jumping a little as it pealed through the interior of the house. Not a subtle doorbell, that was for sure. She rang it again for good measure.
Light spilled out from a second-story window. More light splashed through the windows on either side of the door. Laney tensed, waiting for the door to fly open and trying to remember what she was supposed to say.
She’d gone over it dozens of times with Taryn and dozens more with Logan. Even Seth and Stan had drilled her. She knew the script. She hoped.
“Who’s there?” Someone called through the closed door.
Chris? She really hoped so. It would be a shame to have wasted all her nerves on the wrong house.
“Laney Jefferson.” She managed to get her name out and stepped back so that the speaker could see her through the peephole.
The door opened so suddenly, she nearly screamed.
“Laney? What are you doing here?” Chris’s hair stood on end, his flannel pajama top only half buttoned, a thick robe hanging limply from his tall frame.
She’d definitely woken him. That had been part of the plan. The next part was to get him talking.
“I’m in trouble.” The first line in the script came as easy as could be.
“I’ll say you are. The Green Bluff police have been all over town looking for you. The Seattle police and the state police are involved, too.” He stepped back, gesturing for her to enter.
She really didn’t want to. There was something about the way he kept looking up and down the road that made the hair on her nape stand on end.
“Maybe we should talk out here. I wouldn’t want to wake your wife and kids.”
Stick to the script! She could almost hear Logan whisper, but her gut was saying stay outside, and that’s exactly what she planned to do.
“They’re not home. I sent them to visit my wife’s parents when things went nuts this morning.”
“Things?”
Had Taryn and Stan heard that she and Chris were alone? Was the mike working? She clenched her fists to keep from touching it.
“I got home from
my business trip this morning and found the police sitting in my living room.”
“I’m sorry, Chris. I never meant to cause you any trouble.”
“I know you didn’t, and I’m not blaming you. But my wife and kids were upset, and I thought it would be better for them to get out of town for a while. Come on. Let’s go inside where it’s warmer.” He grabbed her arm, his grip just a little too tight, and pulled her inside.
The door closed with a quiet click, and he slid the lock home. “I guess you need my help?”
“I...” She fumbled for the next part of the script, then found it. “Logan contacted me, and I couldn’t make myself turn him away. I drove him to Seattle to visit my mother because he said she was the key to his troubles. He left me in the middle of the city. I’ve been trying to get back here since yesterday afternoon.”
“You didn’t call the police for help? That would have been the logical thing to do.”
“I didn’t want to be thrown in jail.”
“It may happen anyway. You know that, right? What you did was a crime, and you can’t expect the authorities to ignore that.”
“I know, and I know that I shouldn’t have helped Logan, but he’s an old friend, and he told me that he was innocent.” Her voice broke, and she didn’t even have to try to make it happen. She was so terrified that her body vibrated with it, but Chris didn’t seem to notice.
“Come into my office and have a seat. Let’s discuss things rationally and see what we come up with.”
She went because, short of screaming bloody murder and bringing Logan and Seth in before she’d learned anything helpful, she didn’t have a choice.
Chris led her through a living room, dining room and kitchen. A family room jutted off from there, a few toys lying on the floor. The whole house was as opulent as his office in Seattle had been. Gleaming wood floors and antique furniture. Oil paintings on the walls and handwoven throw rugs on the floor.
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