“Um, isn’t that a little too late due to the fact I’m engaged to the man who was going to supposedly kill you? Plus everyone is going to find out you’re alive.”
Carter cringed at the sight of the engagement ring but quickly calmed when seeing the strand of pearls grace her ivory neck.
“You need to keep quiet,” he demanded.
“Adam will figure out what is going on. He isn’t stupid,” Anne contradicted.
“I know but in the mean time you need to play it off like everything is perfect.”
Anne threw her hands up in the air. Was he serious?
“I am so pissed at the both of you. This is something out of the The Sopranos. This kind of stuff doesn’t happen here.”
“You’d be surprised, and these people are dangerous. They will come after you, so let it be.”
She picked up his cap that was lying on the ground next to her feet and flung it at him with such force he flinched at her aggressive actions.
“Let it be! Are you joking? To be honest with you, Carter, I don’t know what to believe or who to trust. How do I know that you aren’t lying to me? Looking me right in the eye and lying—it seems to come so naturally!”
Carter’s face flooded with anger. His movements toward her were swift and forceful.
“How could you say that to me? You know me better than anyone. I’m risking everything being here right now!”
“I’m so done with this!” she barked.
Anne’s attempt to walk away was unsuccessful as Carter grabbed her by the arm and jerked her back.
“I’m not playing with you! Your impulsive behavior is going to get us killed!”
Anne yanked her arm away, feeling his grip reluctantly release.
“My impulsive behavior? You lurk around in the dead of night. You have your best friend do your dirty work for you and stalk me. Who the hell does that?” She looked him and down. “I don’t know this Carter and I didn’t know that one either, I guess. Everything that I once believed in is gone. How can I trust you? When it all fell apart you left me. You handed me right on over to Adam. You did that.”
The veins in his neck were roaring with venom but he knew the words she spoke were true. Anne had nothing more to say as her heart crumbled inside her chest. Turning her back to him, she hurried out of the barn. Her senses were ablaze but yet she felt so defenseless. No amount of medication would correct what she was feeling at this moment.
“Anneliese!”
She could hear that Carter was running by the pounding of his footsteps on the thawing earth. She hesitantly turned to face him.
“Please, Carter, I need to go.”
“Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.”
Anne turned her gaze to the bare cornfield off to the other side of the road, seeing exposed dirt fighting the elements of the unforgiving season—oh, how she could relate. He was exposing her to a corrupt world she was unaware existed here. Carter’s quote from Pride & Prejudice did not move her emotionally or otherwise. In fact, she felt insulted, as if one charming quote would entice her back in to his arms. At one time it would have, but things were now different.
“How can I let them bring me pleasure if they were nothing but fallacies?” She opened her car door. “And that is directly from me.”
Carter stood there in defeat with his hands tucked inside the pockets of his jeans. Taking one last look in her rear view mirror, the scene of their rendezvous became smaller in dimension and then was no longer visible. Her mind was on auto pilot. She reached the cabin in what seemed to be mere seconds.
Anne wandered down the marked stone path that lay silent on the side of the cabin fortress and opened up to the cobbled beach. The bitter wind pushed the ungracious waves toward her. Guilt ran over her like the waves did the tiny stones beneath her feet; slowly eroding away her entire being. She grabbed a handful and tossed them into the gray waters, watching the peppered ripples. She unleashed an un-earthly scream that had lain dormant since late last night.
If Carter thought she was going to sit idly by and let her future be determined by lies and deceit, he was sadly mistaken. They were strangers to one another; it was not the reunion she had dreamt about so many times before. Becoming eerily aware of being stalked, she looked down the beach, assuming Carter was nearby, watching her. Walking back to the cabin, she went inside and secured all the doors and windows.
***
It was mid-afternoon; the winds brought thick dreary clouds that skirted deep in the sky. Anne sat in the club chair next to the fireplace with both legs draped over the arm, staring out into the colorless atmosphere. She knew confronting Adam would be haphazard, but what other options did she have. Taking off the diamond ring, she looked at it as a small smile brushed across her mouth. Adam’s proposal was so beautiful; how could it all have been a lie?
On one knee he had knelt down, taking her hand in his. The room was aglow with candlelight and the scent of fresh roses filled the air around them.
“Anne Corinne Jamison, I have loved you from the second I saw you in that ballroom. You opened your mouth and a symphony poured from your lips. I will spend the rest of my days on this earth bringing you nothing but happiness and love—that is, if you will let me. Anne, will you marry me?”
“Yes!” Without hesitation, she had accepted his proposal.
Sorrow crept in once the memory faded. She placed the ring on the side table next to the chair. How could she continue to wear a ring that promises love and devotion when she didn’t know if his heart had been in it at all? Was she just a pawn in this lethal chess game?
Anne heard the lock to the front door unlatch. Adam was home. She watched him walk into the foyer and place his brown leather briefcase on the floor. Her hands fidgeted.
“Hey there…what’s going on?” He asked placing his black knit scarf around the base of the railing, feeling the intensity surround them.
“We have to talk. Please, come sit down.”
His steps were slow and curious. He sat down on the couch across from her and noticed the ring sitting on the table.
“Why is your ring off?” Adam asked with urgency.
“Why are you with me?”
“What’s this about?”
“Answer the question, Adam. Why are you with me?”
“Because I love you. Did something happen today?”
His expressions continued to change but hers remained stagnant. Her head was slightly lowered, her eyes hooded.
“Do you have alternative motives for being with me? Are you truly in love with me and want to marry me or was there some other reason?”
Adam cleared his throat, obviously feeling uncomfortable with where the conversation was heading.
“Are you truly in love with me? Let’s be honest here, I compete against a ghost every day. So, Anne, are you?”
Anne promptly realized the tables were being turned. Damn him, she thought.
“You quickly forget that I’m the psychologist. I take pleasure in mind games.”
He stood up, loosening his navy tie and rolling the sleeves of his crisp snowy shirt. He crossed the room to the rustic bar.
“How quickly you forget, I’m the lawyer. I take pleasure in arguing my way out of tight situations.”
Pouring himself a brandy, he had a satisfied look on his face. He was pleased with his brilliant rebuttal.
“I was just thinking if we’re going to enter into a union of forever, don’t you think we should lay it all out on the table? Honesty is such a lost art these days,” Anne countered, jumping right in to the game.
Adam finished off the amber liquid, placing the glass down with a thud.
“Something has apparently riled your opinion regarding my feelings toward you, so if we’re going to talk about honesty, let’s start with that. What happened?”
Anne began to open her mouth but was startled by her ringing phone.
“Saved by the bell,” Adam said, motioning for
her to answer it.
“Casey?”
“Anne! You need to come back to the Cities!” Casey spoke frantically on the other end.
“Why?”
“It’s your patient, Stella McGuire. She’s in the hospital with self-inflicted wounds.”
“Oh my god, yeah, I’ll leave right now. What hospital?”
Anne dashed the length of the living room then up the stairs to the bedroom.
“Regions Hospital in St. Paul. I’ll stay here with her mother until you arrive.”
“Thanks, Casey, I’ll hurry as fast as I can.”
Hanging up her phone she threw it on the king-size bed. Poor little Stella, so traumatized, so fragile.
“What was that about?” Adam asked, trailing behind her.
“One of my patients attempted suicide. I have to go.”
She wasn’t worried about folding or nicely placing her items in the suitcases. She just wanted to get to Stella.
“I’m sorry to hear that. Should you be driving?”
“I’m fine,” Anne replied, trying to dodge his body that seemed to continuously get in her way.
“We need to finish this conversation. Maybe I should drive back with you and we can talk in the car.”
There was no way she was going to be trapped in a moving vehicle with him for four hours with the possibility of him dumping her body out on the side of the interstate after she told him the week’s past events.
“Not right now. I want to be alone. It’ll give me time to clear my head.”
He finally trapped her in the closet after all her efforts of dodging and weaving him.
“The truth is this. I love you. I’m in love with you and I don’t know who’s been whispering in your ear but usually the one accusing is the one who is being dishonest.”
His face was ashen and his hazel eyes had lost all vivacity.
“Usually the one being accused only becomes defensive when they have something to hide,” Anne countered.
They could have gone several more rounds but Anne needed to leave this conversation for later. Before heading out the front door, Adam requested that she at least text him when she arrived at the hospital so he knew she was safe; she agreed as she got into her Jetta. Adam rested his body against the frame of the front door, watching her car vanish behind the black evergreens.
He took out the engagement ring out of his pocket and placed it on the center point of his open palm. He watched the rainbow of colors dance on his hand like little orbs of light. Closing it into an impervious fist, he squeezed until he winced at the pinching pain of the diamond. He gave one last glance to the empty gravel driveway, turned around and firmly closed the cabin door.
Chapter 8
Ten-year-old Stella McGuire had been sedated and brought to the pediatric wing of the hospital. Her arms had been bandaged up with white gauze and an IV was running fluids into her delicate body.
Stella’s mother had been in the kitchen preparing dinner. She had just cut up the vegetables for the beef stew when she turned around and saw her petite daughter standing beside the cutting board holding the knife her mother had just used. Mrs. McGuire was paralyzed with horror and as she started to step toward her daughter she held up the knife and gouged it right into her exposed arms seven times. Mrs. McGuire received minor cuts to her hand in her attempts to retrieve the knife from Stella’s flailing hands.
“Mrs. McGuire, we need to discuss moving Stella in to a pediatric mental health facility.” Anne spoke in a low calming voice as she sat next to the grief-stricken mother in the waiting room. “She can’t go home with you. She is unstable and needs professional supervision twenty-four-seven.”
Mrs. McGuire looked up at Anne with such hopelessness. Her hair was in a matted bun, her eyes red-rimmed and swollen from the constant flow of tears and her hands wrapped in flesh-colored dressings, a constant reminder of the violence displayed by her one and only child.
“Right now, Stella needs to sleep and so do you. I’ll come back tomorrow morning before rounds and speak with her but you need to get some rest. She needs you to be strong, okay?”
Mrs. McGuire nodded in agreement.
Casey and Anne walked through the corridors that led to the main bank of elevators. It was close to midnight so the only people roaming around were the overnight medical staff.
“I’m going to have to make some phone calls tomorrow morning and find a facility close to their home that has room for a ten-year-old.”
“How sad for a single mother. Where is the father anyway?” Casey asked, fiddling with her loose hair.
“In Indiana with his brand-new shiny family.”
“I see. Let me guess, the new step-mommy is a nice perky early twenty-something year-old with a forty triple-D chest but a brain the size of my pinkie finger.” Casey held up her finger.
“You got it. Love it how they all want the newest upgrades once they hit that mid-life crisis age.”
They exited the hospital to the front parking lot. Anne texted Adam when she had arrived. He thanked her and wanted to be clear that they needed to finish their conversation. Anne desperately wanted to tell Casey about her newest revelation; she needed to confide in someone.
“Are you heading back up to the cabin?” Casey asked.
“No,” she replied, swallowing her hysterics.
Anne’s hand suddenly ceased in motion as her body kept moving forward, throwing her off balance.
“Wait one minute! Where’s your ring?”
Casey latched on to her hand like a lobster claw.
“I left it at the cabin.”
It wasn’t a lie; she had left it up there but not by accident. Casey arched her thin, manicured eyebrow.
“All right, spill it; I know something’s going on. I could tell the second you arrived.”
“It’s a really, really long story and I would rather not tell you out here.”
Anne scanned the parking lot as if she were in some covert mission.
“Wait, should I have a martini in my system first?”
Anne couldn’t help but laugh.
“Probably wouldn’t hurt.”
“Let’s go to Nicollet’s,” Casey said.
Anne agreed and they both returned to their cars to head back to downtown Minneapolis.
Nicollet’s décor was an inspired loft theme. It had an open concept with exposed brick and duct work but the furnishings were glamorous and sophisticated. Each section consisted of ivory-covered seats with a small round black wooden table and rectangular ivory sheaths that hung from the ceiling, creating a provocative partition. The ambiance was thick with conversation and excitement, even though it was nearing closing time. Anne and Casey found an empty table and sat down. A thin blonde waitress approached them.
“Two dirty martinis.” Casey had to raise her voice over the parade of laughter surrounding them. The waitress nodded and scampered over to the bar.
Casey continued. “I want all the details. Leave nothing out.”
Anne took a deep breath. “Carter is alive; he had Sam deliver the note. Adam was hired to play my doting boyfriend. Carter’s father owes a whole lot of money to a powerful and dangerous family and now they want Carter dead, again,” Anne blurted out.
In the midst of Anne’s confession the waitress brought over their martinis.
“I swear, Anne—only you.”
Anne also gulped the warm clear alcohol, letting it fill her veins. She continued with her story, reliving each moment. Her attempt to seduce her fiancé, her perfectly quiet stroll onto the deck, her once-deceased boyfriend having a Candid Camera moment—“I was joking, I haven’t been dead. Surprise honey!” Casey sat there, speechless, which was a rare occurrence.
“Oh, wait, I haven’t told you the best part yet. Adam is affiliated with the Montgomery family.”
Casey slapped her hand on the table.
“The Montgomerys! Holy shit! Both Adam and Carter are mixed up with them?”
“Appare
ntly, Carter’s father took out a ‘loan’ with them but obviously there were more dirty dealings going on because Carter threatened to turn them all in.”
“So, Carter thought if he faked his own death then he would be in the clear?” Casey asked.
“That’s why there has to be more to it. His father showed them his death certificate but for some reason they weren’t taking the bait, so they sent Adam my way to baby-sit me. Their hope was they would be able to lure Carter out of hiding eventually, then Adam could take Carter out just like they had planned.”
Anne could feel the warmth of the gin spreading through her blood vessels, erupting just below her fair skin.
“Absolutely, there’s more to the story than that. I mean, we are talking three years in the making. Did you confront Adam about it?”
Anne stroked the base of her ring finger where the diamond once sat.
“In a roundabout way I did. Oh, and I told Carter about the baby.”
Casey choked on her drink; a cough erupted from her mouth.
“What? Wow, how’d that go?”
“I wanted to punch him the face. I’m so confused.”
Anne placed her head in her hands.
“Remind me to never go on a getaway with you.”
Casey’s attempt to get Anne to laugh was successful. Anne finished off her second martini. As the last drop hit her tongue, the overwhelming feeling of the alcohol raced through her insides.
“I want them to tell me the truth, stop sending me creepy notes and stop prowling around like a lion stalking its prey.”
“I guess, my dear, you are going to have to go get it yourself since neither one of them are up for the most upstanding citizen award. You’re going to have to play both sides of the fence until you get your answers.”
“That’s one dangerous fence to be straddling,” Anne replied.
Even though playing private detective could jeopardize everything and possibly reveal information she wasn’t quite ready to acknowledge, she had to and Casey was right. She was going to mollify both of them to get what she wanted and that was the truth.
Her entire life always seemed to be wrapped up in lies. Her mother was never forthcoming about her mental illness. When Anne figured out its severity, it was too late. Was one of these men worth saving? If the answer was yes, then which one?
Deadly Deception (Deadly Series) Page 6