Sin on the Run

by Lucy Farago

  “I think it was Sarah who initiated the separation. She claims that trying to have a baby with all that’s been going on is stressful, and she needed time away to get healthy, so they could try again.”

  Rhonda felt bad for Colin, but maybe the time apart would show him he could survive without his wife.

  Lady Helen eyed Rhonda’s belly with longing. “We will survive whatever scandal you believe will befall us.”

  Rhonda wasn’t so sure and suspected Lady Helen’s need for a grandchild was clouding her judgment. “You want to feel?”

  “May I?” she said with such enthusiasm Rhonda laughed.

  “Sure.”

  Lady Helen stood and walked to her, then gently touched Rhonda’s stomach just as the baby kicked. Lady Helen gasped and her eyes watered. She was crying? Then without warning, Lady Helen hugged her.

  “Thank you. I never realized how important having a grandchild was to me until I found out you were pregnant. My mother’s insistence on an heir made me forget what was important. That’s part of my son inside you … and part of me too. Nothing else matters.”

  “You’re welcome,” Rhonda said, glad to make the woman happy.

  She pulled away, dabbing at pink cheeks and running mascara. “I’m sorry. May I use your toilet to freshen up?”

  “Of course. There’s one just behind the kitchen to your left.” Then she remembered the disaster she hadn’t gotten around to cleaning. “Please ignore the mess. I had rambunctious visitors last night. And the whip wasn’t my idea.”

  Lady Helen smiled and picked up her purse from the coffee table. “Sounds like fun.”

  Then she followed the directions to the bathroom.

  Had someone told her Blake’s mother would show up today, Rhonda would’ve asked what they’d been smoking. Had they said she’d try and convince Rhonda to marry her son, she’d have called for a straitjacket. This was too much to process and before she began to even try, the doorbell rang again. She stiffened. Blake’s mother knew where she was. Did Blake?

  Cautiously, she went to the door, hoping this time she’d find one of the women on the other side. If she’d been shocked before, she was stupefied now. Every instinct told her to slam the door in her face, but couldn’t justify being that rude. “Hello, Sarah. What are you doing here?”

  “We need to talk.”

  No they didn’t. And she didn’t want to. Had the stupid woman followed her motherin-law? What kind of crazy was that? She glanced outside for the cab, ready to tell her Grace to get her mink-covered ass back in it, but saw only a black sedan. She’d rented a car. Sarah used the opportunity to push past her and into the cabin.

  “What is it you want?” She considered leaving the door open, but it was too cold.

  “I can ask you the same thing,” Sarah said.

  “Me? I have everything I need.”

  She made a show of looking around the place. “Does that include, Blake? Pretty view,” she said, glancing out the patio doors.

  That wasn’t any of her business, but she doubted Sarah would see it that way. “I haven’t talked to him in months. Does that satisfy you?”

  She didn’t bother with a reply. “When he wants something, he doesn’t give up easily.” Her snotty smile implied she should know.

  The bitch was trying to insinuate their breakup years earlier hadn’t been Blake’s idea. Did the woman equate the word stripper with born yesterday? “If you say so,” she replied, refusing to be baited into an argument.

  “He and I have that in common.”

  Rhonda licked her lips. If she wasn’t pregnant …

  “Did you come all this way to tell me you and Blake have one thing in common?”

  “We share more than one commonality,” she argued. “Our families are embedded in Scottish history. Blake can trace his lineage back to the twelfth century, mine to the fourteenth.”

  She told herself to take a nice deep breath. Wiping that smug grin off Sarah’s face wasn’t a good idea, especially with Lady Helen in the bathroom. She’d come out soon and maybe she could deal with her daughter-in-law. “Only the fourteenth?”

  “I won’t allow a common whore to speak down to me,” she spat.

  “Then stop talking to yourself,” Rhonda replied with all the calmness she didn’t have. “Get to the point, Sarah. Why are you here?”

  “You do understand, don’t you?” she said, like she was talking to a two-year-old. “If you wait until that little bastard is born, you get nothing, even if it is a boy.”

  Rhonda grit her teeth. “Better a bastard than a gold-digging c—” She cut herself off, before it came out of her mouth. She hated that word, and even though it fit Sarah, Rhonda wouldn’t lower herself to use it. “Get out.”

  “Not before I make certain Blake doesn’t get it in his head to stain his blood line by marrying you.”

  “No, that would’ve happened if he’d married you.”

  Sarah’s face reddened and she looked like she was about to blow. It would be comical to watch her explode, but subjecting herself to this woman’s bullshit wasn’t on Rhonda’s to-do list. She intervened before Sarah opened her ugly mouth.

  “Blake and I aren’t getting married. We’re not together. You can still get your skanky little claws on the money. Now leave.”

  Sarah’s lip curled. “You’re calling me a skank? You? How many men have seen you naked?”

  “Plenty,” she said with all the confidence she could muster. “But I didn’t fuck any of them for their money. Can you say the same?” Sarah was the one with no morals, not Rhonda.

  If looks could kill … but they didn’t have to. Sarah dug a hand into her mink’s pocket and pulled out a gun. Instinctively, Rhonda stepped back. She didn’t just have a bitch on her hands—she had a crazy one.

  A weird calm settled over Rhonda. You’d think she’d be freaking out. But this wasn’t just her life being threatened. And while her heart did beat faster, her body knew she had to stay calm, so her brain could figure out how to get the psycho out of the cabin … and away from her baby. Nothing else mattered.

  “I’ll not have a filthy stripper ruin all my plans. Joe promised to get rid of Blake, and if it hadn’t been raining, I’d have had a clear shot at him myself. Then you fucked it up. And now you’re pregnant,” she all but squealed. “And I don’t have Joe anymore.”

  Joe Harris? What the hell?

  “All he had to do was shoot him. Instead they stood there and chatted like old chums. Honestly, killing that model was easier.”

  Rhonda felt the blood drain from her face.

  “What?” Sarah screeched. “The stupid twit had information linking me to Harris. I couldn’t let it get out. They’d put it all together,” she argued, as if that justified taking someone’s life. “All I wanted was the data stick. Joe claimed she was just another courier. But I had my suspicions. When I confronted her, she admitted to sleeping with him, and the next thing I knew she was dead.

  “Then I learned of Blake’s involvement and everything fell into place. Joe insisted that killing Blake would draw attention where he didn’t want any. All the years we’d been together and he couldn’t do me this one simple favor,” she huffed, like she wasn’t talking about killing someone. “I was going to broker the diamonds to my usual jeweler, but I let Joe believe Blake had the stones and the flash drive Madison had stolen.”

  For the first time, Rhonda noticed the resemblance between Sarah and the super model. Both blonde, both tall and beautiful, the only difference would have been age. But considering how stunning these women were, that could easily be overlooked. It had been Sarah selling the stones, not Madison. Had Joe Harris known that? Given what she’d overheard through the hole in the floor, she doubted it.

  Killing the model to cover up a simple affair was a tad extreme. Yes, if Colin left her, she’d never get her hands on the money, but she’d also be arrested for fencing stolen goods.

  No one had told Rhonda all the gruesome details, but ho
w Sarah had managed to amputate the woman’s legs in a fit of crazy was truly psychotic. If Rhonda had believed Sarah would spare her because she was pregnant, she was beginning to doubt it now. Blake had said her father had taken his own life. Mental disorders could run in families. Obviously they did in this one.

  “Have a seat.” Sarah waved the gun toward the couch. “I wouldn’t want you to exhaust yourself.” She glanced at her watch.

  Living here for months, Rhonda knew the room and tried to think of what she could use to defend herself. Could she make it to the kitchen for an empty wine bottle? Stupid. What good was a broken bottle against a gun? She needed to keep her talking long enough for something to pop. She was too far from the fire poker. “I’ll stand, thanks.”

  Sarah grinned. “I’m afraid I’ll have to insist.” She aimed her gun at Rhonda’s belly.

  She resisted the urge to wrap her arms around her baby. This whack job might get off on it. Given no choice, Rhonda sat. “What are you going to do?” Would she really be evil enough to kill her and her baby?

  “I was going to kill you. But then I came up with a better plan. That baby is my salvation. You however, are not. Joe wouldn’t help, but his friends will. I traded the diamonds … for a favor.”

  “What kind of favor?” Gone was her Zen calm, and in its place, nauseating dread.

  “They’ll see to it I get your baby.” She sneered, taking a quick peek at her watch for the second time.

  Too dumbfounded to reply, the first thing that popped into Rhonda’s head was how on earth this crazy bitch had lived with Blake’s family all these years and no one noticed Sarah was insane?

  “I mean, how hard can it be to fake a pregnancy? And if Colin has any doubts about the paternity, I’ll happily consent to a DNA test,” Sarah proclaimed, thinking she was so smart. “Twins’ DNA is almost indistinguishable. Any anomalies will be brushed off.”

  This was the reason Sarah had separated from Colin. To hide a belly she didn’t have. Now she had people coming for Rhonda. “You’re crazy.” They’d take her baby … then kill her. The baby kicked, making her flinch. Her child was feeling Rhonda’s anxiety.

  “I am not crazy.” Clearly she didn’t appreciate being referred to as a nutter. “And neither was my father,” she insisted. “They drove him to it. They ruined him. Joe told me.” Sarah started to rant, her eyes doing a wild, blinking thing. “He came to me after the funeral. He knew my father had papers that would clear him of any wrongdoing. They were going to publicly shame our family. My family, whose name could be linked to three kings.” A drop of sweat trickled down Sarah’s cheek. “Joe found the papers and stopped it. But my father was still dead. They made him take his own life. They gave him no choice.”

  What papers was she referring to? If they were linked to Joe Harris, it couldn’t be good. She had to keep Sarah talking. If Lady Helen hadn’t heard her shouting by now, she was in serious trouble. She prayed the police had been called, and Lady Helen was smart enough to stay out of sight. “They?”

  “Parliament, you fool. Aren’t you listening? They accused him of treason. Joe found the papers in my father’s office. He saved our family name. So when he asked me to deliver simple packages, I agreed. He was my hero,” she explained with loving eyes, and then did a complete one eighty. “And then he went and slept with that bitch. I knew something was off with him, so I opened one of the packages. Diamonds. The bastard had me smuggling diamonds and wasn’t giving me any. So I helped myself.”

  Sarah’s hand shook as another drop of sweat slid down her face. Mink might keep you warm outside, but inside this room it would be a sauna. Would Sarah’s palms be damp? She got her answer when Sarah switched the gun to her other hand as more perspiration sheened her forehead. If Rhonda was lucky, Sarah would remove her coat. That could be the opportunity she needed to get the gun from her before her friends showed up.

  “Hot?” Insane?

  “Why do you have the damn fire lit? It’s a bloody sauna in here.”

  “I’m actually cold.” Then Rhonda took a chance that she wouldn’t shoot her. Sarah wanted her baby alive and killing its mother wouldn’t be the way to go. Carefully, she stood and walked over to the fireplace, taking a seat on the stone hearth. As expected, Sarah stayed close behind her.

  “Don’t do that again,” she warned, her face turning a bright red. “I might need you alive, but I can shoot you in the leg if you try to move again.” She waved her gun, proving her point. She was armed and ready to use it.

  Rhonda didn’t care. She was only a few feet away from the fire poker now. Then she heard the familiar sound before Sarah had time to react. One minute she was holding a gun, the next it was going off. Sarah screamed like a banshee and clasped her wrist.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Blake had just parked the car and was getting out when he heard it. The gunshot echoed clear into the woods behind the cabin. Fuck. “Rhonda.” He whipped out his gun.

  He didn’t know how he made it up the short drive while his heart had stopped beating, but he did. A smart man might take the time to access the situation. But a man in love with a woman carrying his child didn’t give a shit. Not bothering to see if the door was locked, he kicked it in, readying himself for what he might find.

  A woman screamed—his mother, a hand held over her heart at seeing him. Sarah was bent over, cradling her wrist and bawling like her hand had been cut off.

  “Rhonda,” he shouted.

  “Over here.” Rhonda stood from behind one of the couches, a gun in her hand.

  Blake blew out a loud breath, dizzy from relief. He ran to her, tucking his own gun back into his waistband. “Are you hurt?” He quickly eyed her up and down for injuries.

  “No.” She shook her head. “I’m fine. Thanks to your badass mother and my whip. But we need to get out of here,” she said, far too panicked to be waving a handgun. “That bitch has friends coming to kidnap me.”

  “No she doesn’t,” he assured her, resisting the urge to smile like a ridiculous fool at how beautiful she looked pregnant and plump with his kid. God he missed her.

  “Yes she does. She’s been checking her watch the entire time she’s been here.”

  “Shouldn’t we tie her up?” His mother stood guard over Sarah, looking like she’d really enjoy doing it, or smacking her again with the whip she clutched in her hand. While unsettling, it did him proud to think his mother had helped save the woman he loved.

  “Just grab her by the hair so we can leave.”

  He had to calm Rhonda down. “No one is coming. I promise. The people Sarah paid aren’t holding to the bargain.” He extended his arm and opened his hand, thinking it was best to disarm her before he tried to hug her.

  “How do you know that?” she asked, hesitantly giving him the gun.

  He took it and released a long breath. “Because they’re the ones who sent me. I wouldn’t have known where to look for you otherwise. You sure you’re all right?” Her face looked flushed.

  “I’m fine,” she said, waving him off.

  It hurt to think she wasn’t happy to see him, but he pushed that aside for now.

  “I rang for the police a while ago. They should be here any minute.”

  “Mother.” He was relieved she was all right too.

  “Son,” she countered with an impish grin.

  His father was going to tear him a new one for getting his mother involved. “I’m glad you’re safe. I’m sorry. Had I known about Sarah, I never would have asked you to talk to Maggie.”

  “Not your fault. Go on now, I’ll watch this crazy hag while you give the mother of your child a proper greeting.” His mother then shoved Sarah onto the couch and stood over her. “Move, and I’ll happily yank every strand of hair out of that miserable head of yours.”

  There was one thing Blake needed before his mother did just that. He went over to the sofa and leaning over Sarah, opened her coat. Then he ripped the necklace with its diamond charm off her neck. “You
won’t be needing it where you’re going.”

  Sarah opened her mouth to argue, when out of nowhere his mother slapped her daughter-in-law hard enough to send her flying across the cushions.

  He thought to intervene but seeing the murderous scowl she was giving Sarah, he figured she had everything under control. Blake turned his attention back to Rhonda, whose mouth gaped open.

  “Never get my mom mad.” He approached her like he would a skittish cat. Time and time again, he’d put her life at risk. Who could blame her if she never wanted to see him again?

  “No shit,” she agreed, stunned by what his mother had done.

  “Rhonda, are you sure you’re okay?” He didn’t know the first thing about pregnant women. All he knew was that he wanted to hold her but was afraid she’d reject him. Whatever happened here, these two women had shown more balls than he could ever imagine.

  “Listen,” she said, the tension in her face relaxing as she smiled. “They’re playing our song.”

  Outside, police sirens wailed, becoming more shrill with each passing second.

  Anything he may have wanted to ask or say would have to wait as uniformed officers stormed the cabin. But she smiled. That had to be a good sign. He hoped.

  *

  “I don’t understand,” Rhonda said, after leaving his mother in her suite at Caesar’s Palace. Maggie had offered her the guesthouse. However, Lady Helen had insisted she stay at the hotel, claiming she might never get another chance to stay in Sin City and she was bloody well going to enjoy it. Rhonda was growing to love that woman. She’d thwacked Sarah with a whip. Rhonda would bet that if all of Scotland didn’t love her already, they would now.

  Blake escorted Rhonda through the golden rotunda and throng of tourists waiting to check in. “Sarah,” he explained, “used the data stick she’d pilfered off Madison and found Krupin’s contact information. Like she told you, she exchanged the diamonds for a favor. Only Krupin doesn’t take kindly to being used as a pawn. Then he figured out it was Sarah selling the stones, not Madison. He was sorely pissed.”