That act last night wasn’t an act. Addison was genuinely scared and trying to warn me off. And I didn’t trust in it, or her.
Some of the puzzle pieces start slotting into place. My eyes scan my surroundings as my mind churns the connotations. Lighting is dim, courtesy of four candles, flickering softly behind glass covers. We appear to be in a small log cabin of sorts. Rustic, thick timber log walls rise to meet a tongue-and-groove triangular-shaped roof. The wooden floor under my feet is scuffed and dirty and littered with withered old leaves and other natural debris. A discolored, patterned rug lines the floor directly in front of the door. To my left is an open stone fireplace. Cold, blackened cinders fill the hearth. A stack of logs is piled up to one side, facing a lumpy looking red and gray colored couch. Over the other side of the cabin is a small kitchen area. I count eight presses, four on the bottom and four on the top, fronting a small, rectangular wooden table and chairs.
“Like what you see?” Courtney asks, dragging a chair over. She sits down facing me, tipping my chin up with the barrel of her gun.
I gulp. “Where am I?”
She laughs. “One stupid question after another.” She shakes her head. “Do you really expect me to answer that?” Her eyes shimmer with excitement as Addison yawns, pretending to be bored.
My eyes flick to Addison, and she subtly shakes her head. I focus solely on Courtney, trying to ignore the growing trembling taking hold of my body. I’ve got to keep her talking. “I know it was you,” I tell her. “You killed Doug Grant and framed Ky.”
She leans back in her chair with a smug grin on her face. “Finally! Maybe there is hope for you yet.”
“You two were working together,” I add, jerking my chin at Addison.
Addison looks glum, while Courtney purses her lips. “I wouldn’t quite call it that. I’m in charge of this show, and Addison does what I tell her to do.”
Addison harrumphs. “Oh, come on, Court, you know you never would’ve gotten this far if it wasn’t for me. Don’t you dare downplay my role. I was the one who got you the evidence you needed to blackmail James and Alex. You wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without that.”
Courtney purses her lips unhappily. “It was still my plan, and I sent you up to his office that night with the safe code to retrieve it.”
Alarm bells ping in my head. “That night we caught you in James’s study, when you said you were looking for the tape of you and Ky? That’s really what you were doing?”
Addison nods, looking pleased as punch, and I can’t tell if she’s genuinely proud of herself or if this performance is for Courtney’s benefit. “Yeah. I had it stuffed up my shirt if any of you had even thought to search me.” She snickers. “But you were too busy trying to get me away from Ky to care.”
“And what about all the recordings? Screwing Brad and sending the evidence to Ky. Screwing Kal and showing the evidence to Lana. What was that about?”
“That was all part of my plan to get him to commit to me for life. I wasn’t lying when I told you I love him. I’ve always loved him. He was meant to be mine!”
If I wasn’t already forcibly sitting down, I’m sure I would’ve just fallen off my chair. “How the hell do you figure that one out?”
She pushes off the door and walks over to the fireplace, supporting her butt on the edge of the ledge. “It was Court’s idea.” She glares at Courtney. “She said I had to break him. To separate him from everyone he loved, and then I’d be there to build him back up. He’d see that I was the only one he could count on, and I’d get him back. Get that ring on my finger that I’ve dreamed of for years. That’s why I did all that stuff. I was doing it for Ky. He belongs with me.”
I’m not sure who is the more delusional of the two. Courtney for even suggesting such a crackpot scheme or Addison for believing in it. And how did Addison and Courtney even join forces? What could ha—
I gasp out loud as it comes to me.
“You’re half-sisters.” I stare at Courtney as it all starts to come together. “Wendy is your mum, too. You’re the baby she gave up when she was in high school.”
Courtney claps loudly. “Okay, maybe you’re not as dumb as you look. And I see you’ve been doing some homework of your own.” Her eyes narrow, and she shunts forward in her seat, pinching my knee. “How do you know that?”
She can’t know about Keven or that anyone else knows about this. I decide to share some of the truth. “I wanted to get Addison away from Ky, so I snuck over to her house one night, and I heard a conversation between her adopted mum and her birth mum, and it didn’t take much to figure it out.”
Addison gets up. “You spied on me?” she shrieks. Courtney sends a warning look her way.
“You can hardly get mad at me considering all you did. And you expect me to believe you did it as part of some warped plan to get Ky back? To make him reliant on you? I’m calling bullshit on that.”
Courtney grins. “I think she just challenged you.” She winks at Addison.
Addison’s mouth twists into an ugly grimace. “That was the main reason, but I also wanted financial independence. I want away from my family. They have tried their best to ruin my life, and I wanted to take back control. Wendy only told me she was my mother because she was hoping to get more cash from my dad. The woman I thought was my mother has lied to my face for seventeen years, and my dad is a cheating skeeze who fucked his wife’s sister and got her pregnant.”
She flaps her hands about, pacing in front of the fireplace. “I’m irrelevant in the midst of all that. I’m just some possession they enjoy arguing over. My life is completely fucked up, and I just wanted to take something for myself. Court understands that, and if her plan had succeeded, she would have married James, controlled Kennedy Apparel, and we both would’ve had more money than we knew what to do with. And I would have Ky by my side which is all I’ve ever wanted. No one else I’ve been with comes even close to him.”
Well, on that we can agree. Not that I’m admitting that out loud.
She stabs Courtney with a heavy hostile look. “But I’ve lost him now, thanks to you!”
Courtney’s eyes narrow to slits, and a new layer of tension filters through the air. Her eyes focus on my chest, and a conniving look slips over her face. Reaching out, she yanks the pendant from my neck with one sharp tug. Pain rips across the back of my neck, and I bite on the inside of my cheek to avoid crying out.
I won’t give her the satisfaction.
She turns it over in her hand, inspecting the engraving with a growing smile. Her head whips around, and she fixes her evil eye on Addison. She holds up the pendant, letting it dangle from the tips of her fingers. “He never gave you anything like this, did he?” She separates the hearts and points at the inscription. “He loves her in a way he obviously never loved you.” Her eyes narrow as she moves in for the kill. “Him not loving you anymore has nothing to do with me. You lost him all on your own.”
Addison’s eyes narrow, and a red flush sweeps up her neck and over her cheeks. Her chest heaves as she stands there fuming. Ignoring her sister, she turns a scathing look on me. “That’s the truth. Happy now?” she screams at me, although I sense she’s more furious at herself.
Courtney jumps up, racing toward Addison and smacking her hard across the face. “Keep your fucking voice down.”
Addison pushes her sister away. “Fuck you, Court. And no one can hear us here. You made sure of that.”
Courtney puts her face right up in Addison’s. “I don’t much like the way you’re talking to me. And I don’t much like what you were trying to do last night.”
“What?” Addison frowns, looking surreptitiously at me out of the corner of her eye. Her gaze is pleading.
“You went out to meet with her without telling me.” She points at me. “If I wasn’t tapping your cell phone, I would never have known. And the way it looked to me,
you were trying to warn her off. Do you need a little reminder of what’s at stake here, sister darling?” She runs the tip of the gun down Addison’s body in a deliberately slow fashion.
Addison pales, and her limbs start visibly trembling. “No.” Her voice is shaky.
“You sure about that?” Courtney circles her body, trailing the gun up and down her torso with intent. Addison swings clear but panicked eyes on me. As our gazes connect, an unspoken communication passes between us. I discreetly nod my head.
“Why?” I shout out, attempting to reclaim Courtney’s attention. “That’s what I don’t understand, Courtney. Why the Kennedys? There are tons of rich people in Wellesley, so why did you target my family? Is this something to do with Alex?”
The mere mention of my aunt has Courtney’s blood boiling. She stalks over to me and grips my shoulders painfully. “That bitch will pay.” Her voice lowers, and she talks in a chilled manner that sends shivers up my spine. “She thinks she’s seen the last of me, but this isn’t over until she is.”
“You hate her that much?”
“Yes,” she roars, losing some of her composure.
I quirk an amused brow. I can’t help it. Courtney slams the butt of her gun into my other temple, and I yelp in pain. Black stars blur my vision, and my head starts slanting. She grips my chin firmly, slapping me a few times across the cheeks. “No, you don’t. You are going to stay conscious for this. I want you to feel everything I’m going to do to you.”
“Do your worst, bitch,” I spit out, and she punches me in the face with the back end of the gun. Blood spurts out of my nose and mouth.
“Jesus, Court.”
“Stay out of this, Addison. What did you think was going to happen here?”
Fighting my dizziness, I try to focus on the two fuzzy figures in front of me.
“What do you mean?” Addison’s voice is barely above a whisper.
“You know she can’t live. Not now she knows the truth.”
“I didn’t sign up for murder!” Addison shrills. “I didn’t sign up for this.” She waves her hands around in a panic, and I silently urge her to stick with the program. Courtney needs to believe she’s still on the team.
I blink my eyes repeatedly, willing my body to fight the slumber. A sharp slapping sound resonates in the room.
“Stop hitting ME!” Addison yells. “Or so help me God, I’ll leave you to handle this on your own.”
“Don’t you dare threaten me. I can bury you, Addison. And don’t think I haven’t taken precautions because I have. If anything happens to me, a file will be sent to the police commissioner with evidence linking you to all the stuff you’ve done.”
I hear Addison’s sharp intake of breath as I shake the last vestiges of sleep off. I lift my head up and look over at the warring sisters. Blood is dripping down my chin, and onto my jeans, and a mad wave of déjà vu comes over me. I shutter my eyes as images of David pinning me down, his hands wrapped around my neck, threaten to overwhelm me. In my head, I count to ten and try to regulate my breathing. My survival depends on me staying alert and not panicking. I’m not sure what the chances are of surviving two life-threatening situations in one lifetime, but I’m determined to buck the odds.
I open my eyes, finding keen green eyes examining me.
“I may have misjudged you, Faye. You’re smarter than I gave you credit for, so, I’m going to level with you. You’re not getting out of here alive.” She pokes the barrel of the gun in the fleshy skin on my cheek. “You know too much. Besides, your death will devastate them all, and it will send a direct warning. They’ll hear about the cops I shot dead in the cruiser after we left your house, and when your mangled corpse is discovered, they’ll know I’m responsible for your death too. They’ll be living in fear, and they are right to be afraid. I won’t stop until I’ve taken everything and everyone she loves from her.”
From my peripheral vision, I watch Addison edge quietly and carefully toward the stack of piled logs. “If I’m going to die, then you might as well tell me why. What did Alex ever do to you?”
“She stole my whole life!” Courtney roars. “She has the life I should have, and she’s going to pay.”
Addison chooses that moment—when Courtney is distracted by her rage—to strike. Accosting her from behind, she brings the log down on top of Courtney’s head with force. Courtney didn’t even see her coming. Addison swings the log a second time for good measure, and I watch as Courtney’s eyes fade in and out. She falls off the chair, collapsing on the floor, unconscious.
“Hurry, Addison. Get me untied before she wakes.”
Addison races to the kitchen, yanking drawers open. “Fuck!” she screams. “They’re all empty.”
“Here!” I yell, trying to lift my leg. “I have a knife strapped to my ankle. I can still feel it there.” It’s a miracle Courtney didn’t find it when she was tying me up.
Addison sinks to her knees in front of me, pushing my jeans up and unstrapping the knife. She quickly sets about removing my restraints while I keep my eyes trained on the inert body on the floor. “Hurry the fuck up, Addison.” My entire body is pumped full of adrenaline and I’m shaking all over. Her hands are shaking too as she fumbles with the bindings.
“For the record,” she says, not looking up at me as she works to cut the last few ropes. “I’m not doing this for you. I still loathe you, and I want him back, but I can’t fight for him if I’m languishing in a cell jail as an accessory to murder.” She looks up, her gaze full of determination. “This is self-preservation, pure and simple. I draw the line at murder, and I sure as hell didn’t want to see Ky framed for something he didn’t do. She did all that on her own.” She pierces me with a worried look. “She’s totally flipped. Like psycho crazy, and after you came to me last night, I was going to go to the cops and confess everything. I swear. I know you love him, but I love him too, and I would never have let him go to prison.”
The last bind snaps, and I’m free. I push off the chair with my hands, swaying as I struggle to my feet. My head pounds and my vision is unfocused again. Every part of my body throbs. Addison slides her arm around my waist and starts hauling me toward the door.
“For the record,” I say, “I believe you.” We share a look.
“Aw, you two have bonded. How cute,” Courtney drawls, and I shriek when I hear the click of the gun.
Addison’s eyes contort in panic as a wild, fluttery sensation kicks off in my chest. “Run!!” I yell the same time Addison screams.
Fireworks explode in my eardrums as the gun goes off.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Kyler
“Oh, fuck. That was a gunshot!” I turn panicked eyes on Brad. “Hurry the fuck up, man.” I check the app on my cell, and our destination should be around the next bend. Brad does his best to floor the engine, but it’s difficult on this narrow dirt track. If we’d had time, we could’ve taken Kade’s truck, but I didn’t want to waste a single second when I got back to the house and Brad told me Faye was missing. He showed me her note, and we’d headed straight to the Sinclair house. We had woken Addison’s parents up and made them go up to her room. Predictably, she was missing too.
Now I know she has my baby, and I swear to God, I’ll kill Addy if she has harmed a hair on Faye’s head.
This is exactly what I was afraid of.
It’s why I told the cops their little proposed setup was too much of a gamble. I won’t ever willingly place Faye in harm’s way.
Kev called when we were on the highway here, confirming the news that Courtney was the baby Addison’s birth mom gave up when she was still in high school. Everything clicked into place then except I don’t know who the ringleader is. Whether it’s Addison or Courtney calling the shots.
Keven implored us to pull over. To wait for help. He thinks it’s too dangerous to head in there on our own, but he doe
sn’t get it. He’s never loved any girl the way I love Faye. I’ll die before I’ll let anything happen to her again. I wasn’t there for her when David almost took her life, and I’m fucked if I’m going to walk away now. I’ve seen enough crime shows to know that things can quickly get out of hand when the authorities are notified and that the hostage doesn’t always make it out alive. I’m not prepared to risk Faye’s life by notifying the authorities.
I’m going in there myself to save my baby, no matter what.
I’m pretty sure he’s called Mom and Dad and the cops by now, but there’s no way they’ll get here before us. This place is too far off the beaten track, and the nearest cop station is miles away.
A second gunshot goes off as we round the bend, and a small decrepit wooden cabin comes into view. I curse. So much for stealth mode. We should’ve parked back there and made the rest of the trip on foot. The cabin is nestled on top of this godforsaken mountain, surrounded by a dense forest, and we would never have discovered it if Faye’s cell had been discarded. Although we’ve been driving most of the night, and neither of us has had a lick of sleep, I’m wired tight and ready to pound someone into oblivion.
“Shit!” Brad exclaims. “How do you want to play this?”
“We’re out of time, and there’s no other option now but to bust our way in the front door. There’s no way they didn’t see us pull up.” I remove Dad’s gun from my pocket and unlock the safety. “Let’s go.”
I jump out of Brad’s car the same time he does. He grips a baseball bat firmly between both hands as we race toward the cabin. I keep the gun in front of me as we approach the wooden structure. I bang on the door, and the wooden walls rattle. “We know you’re in there, Addison and Courtney. And we know you have Faye. We’re coming in, and I have a gun, so don’t try anything or I’ll shoot.”
I lift my leg, ready to kick the door down when it swings open.
I point the gun at Courtney’s forehead, desperately trying to conceal my fear. She has Faye in a vise-grip in front of her body. One arm is locked tight under Faye’s neck, and the other holds the gun shoved into her temple. Faye is clawing at Courtney’s arm, struggling to breathe. Her face is a bloody mess, and my protective instincts kick into overdrive. Rage is pummeling my insides, and in my head I’m screaming blue murder. If I get a hold of Courtney, nothing or no one will stop me from killing her. I’ll rip her from limb to limb with my bare hands, and still it won’t be enough. “Let her go or I’ll shoot you,” I demand.
Keeping Kyler (The Kennedy Boys Book 3) Page 29