by B. B. Hamel
“Please,” I say. “They’re very important papers.”
“Well, now,” he says, taking the cash. He counts it right in front of me with a small smile. “Must be real important, trying to bribe me.” He puts the cash into his pocket. “But I already said no.”
I gape at him. “But, hey, my money.”
“Bribe’s a bribe, even when it don’t work.” He leans against the wall, crossing his arm. “Besides, I suppose you wouldn’t want me telling the cops you tried to bribe me into seeing that truck.”
My heart starts hammering in my chest. I’m on the verge of freaking out and I don’t know what to do.
“Please,” I say. “Don’t do that.”
“I might not.”
“Listen, the truth is, I need something from there. It’s about the Carters. They might be involved in this, and we’re afraid they can bury it, cover it all up, and if I don’t get in that truck, it all might blow up in our faces, and I’m scared. He almost died because of me, and—“
Roy holds his hands up, interrupting my word vomit. I don’t know what the hell I’m thinking telling him the truth like that. For all I know, he’s on the Carters’ payroll, and I just screwed us even worse.
He looks at me as I stand there, sweating and feeling like an idiot. I’m not built for this kind of thing. I’m a nice girl, not the kind of person who has to regularly bribe junkyard owners into seeing a wrecked truck. I have no clue what I’m doing. If he rats me out to the cops, or tells the Carters, I just made things so much worse for Lucas and we’re both screwed.
“Did you say the Carters?” he asks me, lowering his glasses.
“I, uh, I don’t know, I just—“
“You did,” he says. “This is about those bastards, huh?”
I pause, surprised, eyes wide. “Yes,” I say. “It is.”
He leans toward me, a little smile on his face. “Is this going to embarrass them?”
Hope blossoms in my chest. “Yes,” I say. “It really is.”
“Good.” He grins at me. “I hate those fucking rich snooty assholes. Go ahead, go around back. Truck’s in the second row on the right, just up front. Should be open.”
I want to scream with joy. “Thank you so, so much.”
“I’ll be in my office, playing music real loud. We never met or talked. Got it?”
“I got it.”
“Seriously,” he says, looking at me hard. “You never saw me. I’ve been in my office for hours, music real loud.”
“Got it. Never saw you.”
He nods. “Get on with it.” He turns and heads into the back room.
“Thank you!” I call out as I run back out the front door, pulse pounding in my chest. I hurry around the side, slipping through the gate, and go around. I count the rows and easily spot Lucas’s truck sitting at the end, right in the open.
I gasp when I see it. I can’t believe how wrecked it is. I have no clue how he could have survived that. I walk over and manage to pull the door open. The truck is a mess of twisted metal and broken glass, and I have to be careful.
The camera isn’t on the dash. That doesn’t surprise me, I figure the cops would have grabbed it if it were. I start looking around under the seats, but there’s broken glass all over.
I brush it aside and check under the driver’s seat then the passenger’s seat. I nearly scream when I see it lodged underneath the passenger side, covered by some debris, but definitely there. I reach in and grab it, cutting my hand on some glass, but it’s worth it.
I pull the camera out. It looks like it’s still in decent shape. Scratched up and the base is broken, but the main head looks like it’s in one piece, though the lens is cracked. I shove it into my bag and quickly leave the junkyard. I get into my car and drive fast.
I shouldn’t be surprised that Roy hates the Carters. Everyone in this town hates those assholes. I’m just lucky as hell that it worked out.
I drive as fast as I can back to the hospital. I have my laptop and some cables handy. I park and carry it all in my bag, heart beating fast in my chest. When I get to Lucas’s room, I find him awake and smiling, holding Noah in his arms, with Alice looking on.
“Mia!” Alice says, getting up. “Look at him. He seems totally fine.” I hug Alice and grin at Lucas.
“He sure does,” I say. “He says he’s had worse.”
“I have,” he grumbles. “Don’t know what all the fuss is about.”
“You almost died,” Alice chides him. “This is serious.”
He grumbles then goes back to playing with Noah. I catch his eye and give him a nod and a smile, which he seems to understand immediately. He looks over at Alice.
“Hey, would you mind taking Noah for a second?” he asks.
“Of course.” She takes him.
“And could you two, uh, get me a soda, maybe?” He grins at her a little.
She looks between the two of us and smiles. “Of course. We’ll be back in ten minutes.” She leaves, giving me a wink.
I blush and give him a look. “You could have been a little more subtle.”
“Nah. Better she thinks we’re being dirty in here.”
“Dirty?” I sigh, shaking my head as I get out my laptop and the camera. “You can barely move.”
“Please. I can still make you moan.”
I bite my lip a little and can’t help but smile. “Maybe later. Let’s do this first.” I put the laptop in his lap. He adjusts his bed, sitting up some more, and takes the cables and the dashcam.
“Let’s see here,” he says to himself as he plugs it all in. I unlock the laptop for him and he does the rest, uploading the video in maybe two minutes tops.
“That’s it?” I ask him.
“That’s it,” he confirms. “Now, let’s watch.” He opens the video files for that night and we skip through as he’s driving back home from my house. Most of the video is of the road, his headlights shining.
He slows down as he starts to drive more erratically, taking turns very fast. Suddenly, another pair of headlights appears right next to his.
“I remember this,” he says softly. “I think I remember. He pulled up next to me.” Lucas scrunches his face. “But I can’t remember who it is.”
“Was it Caleb?” I ask him. “Did you see Caleb?”
He shakes his head slowly. “Not Caleb’s car.”
We keep watching. The two trucks drive next to each other and hit a sharp curve. Suddenly, Lucas’s truck loses control, skids out, spinning. The video goes wild at this point, but it’s clear that by the end, the truck smashes against a tree and comes to a stop. At that point, the video cuts off, because the camera must get thrown from the dash and ends up under the seat.
Lucas frowns at the screen.
“That’s it?” I ask him.
“No. That can’t be it.” He rewinds it and we watch again.
He goes through it twice, each time slower than the next. As we watch, he goes frame by frame during the point that the truck is spinning toward the tree. Suddenly, he stops it and points.
“There,” he says. “Look.”
I squint. The frame is blurry, but there’s what looks like the back of a truck driving away. He zooms in on the image and takes a screen shot.
“Do you have Photoshop?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I say. “Right there.” I point at the icon.
He opens the image in Photoshop and starts to mess around with it. After a few minutes, we’re both staring at what’s clearly a license plate, and the numbers are legible.
“Where’d you learn that?” I ask him.
“Lots of down time when I was in the military. Used to mess around a lot in Photoshop.” He shrugs.
“So this is the person who did this to you.”
“Yep,” he says. “And I bet that if we go to the Carter house right now, we’ll find this truck parked in their driveway.”
I laugh a little bit and kiss him on the lips. He pulls me closer, holding me tight, kis
sing me deeply.
It’s at that point that Alice decides to come back in.
“Oh, sorry, didn’t know you two wouldn’t be done,” she says.
I blush like mad but Lucas just laughs. He saves the image file and shuts the laptop lid before Alice can see what it is. I take it from him and put it all back in my bag as Alice hands Noah back to Lucas.
We don’t talk about the license plate with Alice and Noah around, but we both know what we need to do next. When he’s ready, we’re going to get out of this hospital, and we’re going to prove that it was the Carters. Maybe it was Caleb or maybe it was Dylan, but it was one of the brothers that drove Lucas off the road. All we need to do is find the matching plate, and we’ll have all the proof we’ll need.
I just have to trust Lucas. No more going back to the Carters, no more keeping him at arm’s length. He almost died because of me, and now I’m going to trust him to take care of me. I’m his girl, and that’s all that matters to me.
I feel good sitting there with Alice and Noah and Lucas. I actually feel like this is almost normal, like we’re a happy little family. I hold Noah when Lucas gets tired, and we spend the afternoon laughing and being happy.
A weight feels like it lifts from my chest. He’s going to survive and maybe, if we’re lucky, we can beat this. We can get the Carters off our backs and move on with our lives. Maybe we can even save the nature preserve.
I feel hope for the first time in a long time, all because of Lucas. I just need to trust him. I just need to let myself feel what I’m feeling. He’s going to take care of me, and I’m going to finally get what I need.
27
Lucas
Three Weeks Later
I squeeze Mia’s hand in mine as we stand side by side outside of the Brokerage Inc. headquarters. It’s set back in a small strip mall in the center of town. The front looks pretty rundown, surprisingly for what’s supposed to be the center of the Carter family empire.
“You ready?” I ask Mia.
She nods her head once. “I guess so.”
“Good.” I grin at her and turn back to the door.
I’ve been out of the hospital for a week now. I’m not fully healed, not even close, and my body is still a patchwork for bruises and scars, and my arm is still in a sling. But none of that matters. I’m free and alive and that’s very bad news for the Carter family.
I push through the front door and step into the office. It looks like a normal reception area. The secretary sitting out front is an older woman, maybe in her late fifties, with thick blonde hair and a face splattered with makeup. Mia follows me inside, standing close.
I can feel her nerves, but that’s okay. She has every right to be nervous. We’re going up against the Carter family, and this moment will make or break us.
The secretary smiles as I approach.
“Afternoon,” I say to her. “I’m here to see Mr. Carter.”
She frowns slightly. “Do you have an appointment?”
“I don’t,” I say. “My name is Lucas Baker and I’m here with Mia Hayes. He’s going to want to see us, I think.”
She does her best to give us both a smile. The names don’t ring a bell, but I wouldn’t expect them to. She doesn’t have anything to do with the Carters and their shitty business dealings, I’m sure.
“One moment,” she says before standing and heading into the back.
I look at Mia and she tries to smile. “What if he doesn’t want to see us?” she asks.
“We’ll go back anyway.”
She bits her lip. “What if this doesn’t work?”
“It will work.” I squeeze her hand just as the secretary comes back.
She gives me a confused little smile but doesn’t sit down. “Okay, head on back,” she says.
I grin at Mia and we follow the secretary into the halls of Brokerage Inc. In theory, this is supposed to be a money lending operation, though it’s pretty empty. I spot maybe three other employees. I have my suspicions about this place, but that’s not why we’re here. Frankly, I don’t care about his shady business dealings. I only care about Mia.
The secretary knocks on a door then steps back. The door opens a second later, and Mr. Carter himself ushers us into his office.
He shuts the door behind us and gestures at the chairs in front of his desk. “Have a seat,” he says. We all sit down in our spots and he leans back in his chair, eyeing us. “I have to say, I’m surprised to see you two here.”
“I’m sure you are,” I say.
He gives me a look. “What can I do for you guys?”
He’s still trying to play the genial businessman, with a fake smile and an open demeanor. He probably thinks that letting us back here was a good move on his part, a way to keep pretending to be a good guy.
But that’s his first mistake, because we know better.
“We’re here for a simple reason,” I say. “I want you to get your sons to leave us alone. And Mia wants you to back off of the nature preserve.”
He smiles slightly wider. “I don’t have any control over my sons,” he says. “And Mia knows I can’t do any such thing.”
“Actually, Mr. Carter, you have a lot of control over your sons.” I lean toward him, staring into his eyes. “But we’re not requesting. We’re demanding.”
He laughs softly, arching his fingers together. “Interesting. Why do you think you can order me around, Lucas Baker? You’re just some washed up military guy, home to raise a motherless child.”
I look at Mia. “Show him,” I say.
She nods, looking nervous.
Mr. Carter looks amused. “Mia, dear, you shouldn’t be here. We gave you plenty of chances.”
“I think you’ll want to see this,” I say to him.
Mia pulls a folder from her bag and passes it across the desk to Mr. Carter. He gives us a bemused look before opening the folder. “Okay, what am I looking at?” he asks.
“That first image is a raw still from the video my dashcam grabbed of the accident I was in. Did you know I was in a car accident, Mr. Carter?”
The smile on his face is slowly fading. “I heard something about that,” he says.
“I’m sure. If you flip that image over, you’ll see a touched up version.” Mr. Carter flips, and the smile is gone from his face. “As you can see, it’s clearly a truck, and the license plate is very visible.”
“I don’t know what you’re getting at,” he says, but I can tell he knows exactly what I’m saying.
“One more picture,” I say. “Go ahead and flip.”
He turns it over and grimaces. The third photograph is of a truck parked in his driveway. It’s the truck from the first two photographs.
“Bullshit,” he says, shutting the folder. “This is garbage. That second picture is doctored. And how do I know that it’s even from the accident? It could be another truck entirely.”
I grin at him. “We both know the truth here, Dan,” I say, using his first name. That pisses him off, but he doesn’t say anything about it.
“I think you’re just trying to blackmail me,” he says. “And I don’t respond well to that sort of thing.”
“Strange. I thought you’d be very comfortable with it,” Mia says suddenly.
I grin at her before turning back to Dan Carter. “Look, we don’t have any proof of who was driving that truck. But we do have proof that it was one of your vehicles, and someone in your family was driving it. I bet that if the police do some investigating, they’ll figure it out.” I lean toward him, grinning huge. “Especially if I suddenly get my memory of that accident back.”
Dan’s eyes narrow. “You bastard.”
“Sure, I’m a bastard. But one of your sons tried to kill me, and based on the repairs you guys did to that truck, I suspect you’re helping to cover it up. Even with the cops in your pocket, I doubt you could squash this.”
He takes a deep breath and lets it out. I know that I have him, but I’m not sure if he can see it yet. H
e stands up and turns his back on us, looking out the window.
He’s silent for an uncomfortable length of time. Mia looks at me, a little worried, but I squeeze her hand again to calm her. We sit there and wait.
“What do you want?” he asks finally.
“Back off the preserve. And stay away from me, Mia, and our families.”
“In exchange, you will give me everything.” He turns and looks at us. “Absolutely every shred of evidence.”
“I don’t think so,” I say. “Because I need something to hold over your head. No, the deal is that you do what we say, and we won’t ruin your family.”
He stares at me, rage passing over his face, before turning to look out the window. “My boys are trouble,” he says. “Always have been. I was too soft on them, spoiled them, made them into monsters. Dylan especially. The boy doesn’t know how far is too far. When he came home and the truck was a mess, I knew what he did. Especially when I heard about what happened to you.” Dan Carter sighs and turns back around, sitting back down.
“I don’t care what your excuses are,” I say to him. “Take care of it. And we’ll be even.”
He nods once. “Consider it done. You’ll be left alone, and I won’t purchase the preserve.”
“Thank you,” Mia says.
Dan looks at her for a second. “You made the right choice, Mia Hayes,” he says. “My son is a monster.”
I stand and Mia follows. “We know he is,” I say. “And so are you. Keep your word.” I turn and leave, Mia in tow. We walk quickly out of his office and into the beautiful afternoon sunlight.
Once we get to Mia’s car, she turns and throws her arms around me, hugging me tight.
I grimace. “Careful,” I say.
“Shit, sorry,” she says, laughing. “I just can’t believe that worked.”
“Well, we’ll see.”
“You think he’ll back out?”