Larger Than Life

by Alison Kent

  Mick stood at Neva's shoulder and watched the dorm room come into view. "I cannot believe this," she whispered as the hole grew larger, wider. Then she growled harshly as Wagner peeked through and made a noise that sounded like an admonishing cluck of his tongue. "I swear, if I had my gun? I'd shoot that man right out of his ego."

  "The cleanest kill's right between the eyes," Mick said without thinking, catching himself in time to shrug and add, "Or so they tell me."

  "They being your fellow mule deer hunters?" she asked, not waiting for a response but turning back to watch Wagner follow the three officers into the room. "I guess this is it. The end of my road. I can't believe it. I wanted to take down Earnestine Township and go out in a blaze of glory—not through a stupid hole in the wall."

  She started forward but he stopped her, pulling her around and crushing her with his kiss. She gasped, and he bruised her, but she quickly caught up, pressing herself to him and pouring him full of her fear. Her body trembled, as did her mouth. He even felt the shudders in her tongue.

  He took it all, there in that musty, dirty, cobwebbed room, took her dread and her panic until he felt her strength rise, until he sensed her apprehension fade. When he pulled away, there were tears in her eyes. Soft ones that dug in and cut out his heart. She owned him, body and soul, and it wasn't what he'd expected.

  It was nice. Damn nice. And it only got better when she took his face in her hands and told him, "I love you, Mick Savin."

  He didn't have a chance to respond. She slipped away and into the safe room. He followed, pulling up the rear. Once inside where they joined the others, Munroe glanced back. The sheriff ordered them to wait with Wagner by the room's newly made entrance and not to touch a thing.

  Mick didn't take orders well and touched Neva, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and keeping her close, telling her physically what he couldn't say in the middle of this crowd. He felt strangely impotent anyway, as if holding her was nothing compared to what she'd given him. But it was the best nothing at the moment he could manage to do.

  They watched the three lawmen make their way through all three rooms, searching beneath furniture, through cabinets, behind appliances, above, underneath, and inside every nook and cranny in the place. It didn't take long. The rooms were fairly spartan. There wasn't much that couldn't be seen by just standing and looking around.

  "There's nothing here, boss," Jason was the first to admit, coming back from the sitting room through the kitchen and into the dormitory where Mick and Neva waited. Where Wagner had pushed away from the same wall where they leaned, as if drawn toward Liberty's bed.

  "Don't be so quick to give up, Deputy," the attorney advised, staring down to where a thin gold chain lay half-hidden beneath the pillow. Holden lifted it away, lovingly retrieved the necklace, and dangled it over his palm. "I gave this gift to my fiancee three days ago. On Friday night. After we left the barn."

  Sheriff Munroe was halfway across the room when Levi called out, "Hey, Sheriff! I think you'd better see this." Munroe stopped, looked at the necklace Holden held, ordered Jason to collect the evidence, and returned to the sitting room as if all hell was breaking loose in there.

  Neva followed, and Mick was right behind, arriving to find the sheriff standing and staring at the sliding panel above the desk and the wall beside it. Both had been opened. The lawman glanced toward Neva and asked, "What's at the bottom of the staircase?"

  She brought the backs of her fingers up to scratch beneath her chin. "It goes into the shop. This is an apartment, Sheriff. Like Candy's. The cameras let me keep an eye on the house if I work up here during the day. I just don't like everyone knowing it exists."

  Munroe didn't bite at the bait of her explanation. He pointed at both deputies. "Search Ms. Roman's place. Now. And go through the barn again. If the Mitchell girl was hiding up here, she could be anywhere."

  "Sheriff, please—"

  "And confiscate the computer equipment," he said, cutting her off, glancing over, lifting his handcuffs from his belt. Then, as she gasped, he said, "Neva, I'm afraid you're going to have to come with me. I'm placing you under arrest."

  Neva stood facing Mick, the bars of her county jail cell between them, the smell of wet concrete and pine cleaner hanging in the air. Being here did not make her happy, but at least she had the place to herself. One of the only advantages to being arrested in a county with very little crime because of so few able to pay.

  Right now, the crime on her mind was her own, involving Liberty Mitchell. Moving closer to her visitor, who Yancey had allowed in out of consideration to his wife's good friend, Neva curled her fingers around the cold hard metal and whispered, "Please tell me she's safe."

  Mick blinked. That was all. No verbal assurance. No nod. She didn't need anything more. She blew out a heavy breath, dropped her forehead to her hands, relief rushing like rain from her pores. Dear Lord, how had he anticipated what she hadn't seen coming?

  Why hadn't she thought to move Liberty out of the Barn instead of leaving the girl there like a sitting duck? If Mick hadn't had the foresight. .. Her head came up. "What are they going to find on my computer?"

  He cocked a brow. "Not a bloody thing."

  This time she couldn't take the deep breath she wanted. Her throat and chest constricted. Tears filled her eyes. "You did that, right? Blew it up somehow while we were walking to the Barn?"

  Folding his fingers over hers, he nodded, his eyes glittering in the dim light from the bulb overhead.

  Air whooshed from her lungs. "How did you manage—"

  He cut her off. "It's what I do."

  "Have I ever told you how much I like what you do?" she asked, wishing the light was brighter, wishing they were in some other place so that telling him again that she loved him didn't seem like a desperate claim.

  He was too distracted; she was well aware of his clipped answers, concise replies. But she was able to catch a glimpse of the smile that flashed quickly over his face. "I seem to remember hearing something about what you liked when you were talking in your sleep."

  "I do not talk in my sleep," she said, trying to tease, failing miserably, ending with a sigh. "How long do you think this will take?"

  "Until they figure out they don't have squat on you? Till about now," he answered, his confidence comforting. He reached back, rubbed his hand over his nape. "How long till they let you out of here? You're the lawyer. You know what they can do legally."

  "Legally, yeah." She released the bars, tucked her hands behind her, and turned to lean against the institutional-yellow cinderblock wall. "It's what they might do illegally that I'm not too happy about."

  "I missed the necklace. I'm sorry."

  Surely not. . . She frowned. "You don't think that's the only reason I'm here, do you?"

  He wasn't ready to forgive himself. She saw it in the harsh set of his mouth. "It's the only thing connecting you to this case."

  She pushed off the wall, schooled her expression carefully, gestured as she paced. "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. The fact that I employed Ms. Mitchell for a week guaranteed her full access to my property. It requires no stretch of the imagination to then conclude that she returned of her own accord to where she felt safe and hid in my private apartment without my knowledge."

  "Nice," Mick said, nodding and applauding softly.

  "Don't worry." She closed the distance between them. "Once I'm out, nothing's going to stick."

  His gaze softened. "I have to worry."

  "I know, Mick." She wanted to break through the bars and hold him, to feel his arms, his chest, his heat. "It's part of what you do."

  This time he had a harder time meeting her eyes. "I also have to go."

  That one took a bit longer to swallow. But she did. "I know that, too." Her breathing steady, she smiled. "You have mule deer calling your name."

  He grunted. "I've also got a rabbit."

  She frowned. "What?"

  "Never mind. I'll explain later." He stepped
back, his stance wide, his arms crossed over his chest. "I won't be gone any longer than I have to. I'll swing by when I get back and spring you if you're still here."

  She wanted to ask where he was going to go, how he was healing, but she didn't ask him a thing. "Candy or Ed can pick me up. I'd ask Jeanne but I'd rather not put her in the hot seat between her husband and his prisoner. Besides, you might be gone longer than you think. I figure you have a girl in every port."

  "Just one down the road a bit," he admitted with a wink. "I'm going to talk her into keeping my dog for a day or so."

  Liberty. It had to be. Thank God. "Okay then. Be safe."

  He lifted a hand and waved, and then he was gone.

  Sixteen

  It was the next morning when Yancey released her. He wasn't pleased to find her hard drive wiped. Neither did he like admitting to the fact that by itself, especially lacking proof she'd hidden away Liberty or any other girls, the safe room wasn't evidence enough with which to charge her. But it wasn't until she made her argument about the necklace, the same one she'd made to Mick, that he finally let her go.

  First, she called Candy, who hadn't answered, requiring Neva to leave a message telling the other woman she'd go ahead and call Ed. He was closer, she didn't want to wait, and she could probably get him to stop at the grocery store before bringing her home.

  Turned out Ed was just coming out of surgery; he rang her back while Yancey was asking one of the deputies to drive her home. Candy had called right after to complete the game of phone tag. Of course, the day would've started out a lot nicer if it had been Mick instead of the doctor picking her up. She missed her Mr. Savin already.

  Climbing up into the crew cab's front seat, she sighed and flopped back. "Thanks. I really appreciate it."

  "Not a problem." Ed said, putting the truck into gear. "Yesterday must've been a hell of a day. You should've called me when the sheriff got there. You didn't need to go through that alone."

  She wanted to roll her eyes but didn't. "There wasn't time. And truly, there wasn't anything you could have done. Besides, I wasn't alone." She took a deep breath. "Mick was there."

  Ed pulled up to Pit Stop's one red light and they sat and idled in silence. A silence that was tense and uncomfortable, but one with which she could deal. After all, she'd just spent the night in a jail cell. There wasn't much that could get to her today.

  The light changed and Ed accelerated. "I guess that was it then, wasn't it? The end of the Big Brown Barn."

  "In its current incarnation?" She shrugged, laced her fingers, propped her hands in her lap. "Maybe. We've always known it could happen. But no. We're not done. At least not permanently."

  "Ah, now that's better," he said, reaching for the AC's temperature control and notching it up. "More like the woman with a cause that I know."

  Please don't say it. Please don't say it. She couldn't take it if he added "love." "Listen, do you mind taking me by the market?" she asked. "I never did get my groceries bought yesterday."

  He glanced over. "What? You couldn't find time for shopping between all your criminal activities?"

  "Something like that," she answered, humoring him when he wasn't very funny at all.

  "Sure. But are you in a big hurry?" he asked. "I wanted to show you something. It's a bit of a drive."

  She was dying to spend about an hour in the shower. But she wasn't the least bit anxious to see what sort of mess she'd be returning to clean up. And Mick wasn't there, so indulging Ed now would be more palatable than putting him off later. "I guess there's no rush. What is it?"

  "A piece of property I'm considering buying," he said, making the turn onto the state road that led out of town.

  Interesting. She wondered where that had come from. "And you just decided this today?"

  He shook his head. "I've been thinking about it for awhile. But I thought with the Barn being compromised, this might be the perfect time to jump. I could eventually move the clinic. We could build another shelter."

  It was something to consider, getting right back to work. On the other hand, if she told Ed she was taking a break, putting some time between this incident and what she decided to do in the future, she might find a way to weed him out of the operation.

  Giving up the work she and Candy had come here to do wasn't an option. The hiatus, however, was. The reorganization was. They could make their way further underground. Tighten the network. Get rid of the control freak at her side.

  She stared out the window as Ed drove, realizing what an opportunity she'd just been presented. And if she and Candy weren't the mothers of all invention when it came to turning bad into good . . .

  Several minutes later, Neva found herself frowning as Ed put on his blinker, felt a strange rush of adrenaline as he slowed and made the turn. "Ed. This is Holden Wagner's property."

  "I know." Ed chuckled beneath his breath. "He's thinking of selling it. Seemed like poetic justice to be the one to snap it up."

  He'd heard Holden was selling? Since when? "That's strange. I'd heard he was thinking of building on it. He had huge plans for a house."

  "He thought he'd be marrying Liberty." The truck bounced over the property's cattle guard. "A man's plans change when he doesn't get what he wants."

  Something wasn't right here. Obviously Ed knew about Liberty's disappearance. That was the reason Neva had been in jail.

  She brought her fingers up to rub beneath her chin. A frisson of unpleasant anticipation buzzed along her skin. "I didn't know his plans to marry Liberty had changed. I'm sure she'll be found soon enough."

  "Maybe," he said, his tone indifferent, flat, then distracted. "But it will still be too late for Wagner."

  Neva grabbed for the armrest as the truck bumped along the rutted drive, her pulse pounding from more than the shock of the ride. "Ed, what's going on here?"

  "Tell me something, Nevada." He swerved off the dirt road and into the rocky pasture, sending her sprawling into the door. "What do you see in Mick Savin that you don't see in me?"

  Okay. Now she knew something wasn't right here. In fact, it was very, very wrong. She pushed up slowly, one hand hovering near the door handle, the other settling on the button of her seat belt release.

  "What are you talking about?" she asked, her heart bouncing between her chest- and her throat. "What does Mick have to do with anything?"

  "Nothing, really. I'm just curious." He adjusted the AC's temperature again. She saw the sheen of sweat on his forearm and the back of his hand. "I've been working for over a year to figure out why you stopped sleeping with me. And then he shows up out of nowhere. He sticks around for no obvious reason. It's got to be about getting in your pants."

  She'd had enough. This was getting weird and scary, and she didn't like weird and scary when she didn't have her gun. "Ed, take me home. I've seen Holden's property. And I'll pick up my groceries later. I've just spent the night in jail, for God's sake. I need sleep. I need food. I need a shower. I don't have time for your games."

  "You have time, Nevada. Your boyfriend left town yesterday and your girlfriend knows you're safe with me. You don't have anywhere you need to be. Besides, there's more to the property than what you can see from here."

  What did he mean, she didn't have anywhere to be? And how did he know about Mick and Candy? He was so perfectly stoic, so strangely calm . . . "Ed, what are you—"

  "Goddamn, Nevada. Would you shut the hell up?" he erupted then, reaching beneath his seat and pulling out a handgun he brandished in her direction. "I don't know why you have such a hard time letting someone else call the shots. I have something to show you. And I'm taking you to see it whether you like it or not."

  Don't panic. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. God, what was happening here? "You're kidnapping me because I broke off our relationship?"

  He laughed, a flat, cool sound. "Oh, no. This isn't a kidnapping. It's retribution, and it's been a year in the making."

  Now she was panicked. Her ga
ze darted from the gun to the door handle to the rocky terrain ahead. "Ed. What have you done?"

  "It's the oldest cliche in the book, Nevada." He spun the wheel, brought the truck to a stop. "I've made sure since I can't have you, no man can."

  He shut off the engine and ordered her out. Since he had a gun, she didn't argue. She shaded her eyes and crossed the rocky ground he indicated, climbing up a small incline, stumbling, catching herself on her knees and both hands, damning herself for not paying more attention to where she was going. And for getting in the truck with him at all.

  It was on the downside of the rise that she saw the opening in the ground. A small limestone cave, not at all uncommon in this area, carved out over time by the trickle of water through the cap rock above. One she was quite sure she wasn't going to like being forced into.

  Because that's exactly what happened. Ed took hold of her arm and urged her inside. She ducked her head, straightened once they'd made their way around the curve of the entrance tunnel. The main chamber was dry and dark.

  Ed pulled a flashlight from his back pocket, switched it on, and tossed an arc of light over the room. Neva cried out. Lying bloodied and beaten on the other side was Holden Wagner.

  And behind him, in the corner, three sets of human remains.

  Holden Wagner looked like hell. He sat leaning against the opposite wall, his wrists and ankles tied together, as were hers, his body bound with ropes to a rocky outcropping, as was hers. His eyes were bloodshot, his cheek bruised, his mouth crusted with dried blood.

  The face of his expensive watch had cracked in a star-burst pattern. His shirt and pants had both been ripped in more than one place. But it was the expression on his face, the eerie acceptance of his fate at Ed's hands, that frightened her the most. He was beaten. He'd given up. He'd lost his fight and his will. He was just as numb as she was.

  And how could she be anything else after listening earlier to Ed tell his story? How the first time she'd blown him off, he'd taken it in stride. How the second time was a bigger knock to his ego. How the third time left him crushed, the fourth fumbling for answers.