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“I’m getting him a puppy,” Dad promised. “You three willtake all the time you need. But he’s right. We do need a plan.”
Josh sat beside his brother and listened to his fathers.
ChapterFifteen
Nicole felt oddly calm as Abby handed her the glassof white wine. She was wrapped in a blanket, feeling warmer than she hadbefore.
Before she’d realized they’d lied to her. That they’d settheir dogs on her.
Kim entered the room, slipping her cell phone into herpocket. She’d been pacing on the balcony, talking animatedly to whoever was onthe other end of the line. “Okay, I’m fairly certain no one’s tipped off thepolice. I have a friend of mine monitoring their radio and communications.Don’t ask. He won’t get caught. He’s quite brilliant at what he does. I thinkthe Dawson brothers were telling us the truth.”
“Oh, Chase would never lie.” Abby sat down beside her. “Benmight, but Chase is a terrible liar. I hope Harlow’s okay. She looked soupset.”
“Is she in love with Josh?” Nicole had to ask.
Abby’s eyes widened. “No. They’ve never even hinted at that.They’ve always been in brother-sister mode.”
“She didn’t seem to like me.”
“She doesn’t know you, sweetie,” Abby said. “And she’s gotreasons to be on guard. Reasons her fathers seem tohave forgotten. Or rather they seem to have forgotten how to handle her withany delicacy.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Heather said, seeming to get down tobusiness. “What does is figuring out how to handle this case. The Holloways aregetting impatient with me. I talked to my husband and business partners, and wethink creating a false trail might be the best way to handle the situation forthe time being.”
“What do you mean?” She was in such a weird place. Abby hadbrought her up to this ridiculous suite and wrapped her in a blanket, fussingover her like she cared. Like she really was her kid and she loved her. NowHeath…Kim was acting like she worked for her and not her in-laws. She wouldhave believed she was dreaming, that this was a fond fantasy, if it hadn’t beenfor one thing.
Josh had betrayed her. Grim had gone along with it.
“I mean my team can create a false trail. You did a good jobof staying off the grid. I had to do serious legwork to catch up to you,” Kimadmitted. “It wasn’t your digital footprint I followed. I had to find peopleyou had connected with.”
“She means you were smart,” Abby said, giving her a pat.“You did a good job but people remembered you because of your kind heart. Ithink Kim wants to trick your in-laws into thinking you went places you didn’t.So when they inevitably hire someone else, they’ll start looking there.”
“Exactly,” Kim affirmed. “I’m going to lay a false trailthat has you disappearing into Mexico approximately two months ago. If I canget them to keep me on the case, I’ll send you further into Central America.”
“It can be dangerous for a woman to travel alone,” Abbymused. “It wouldn’t be surprising if you died. Do you think we could fake somerecords with the police down there? Money isn’t an object. I’ll write you acheck for a retainer.”
“That’s not necessary.” Kim waved her off. “I’m happy toscrew with the Holloways. They’re assholes. From what I can tell Micah marriedNicole because he knew he could do whatever he wanted with her. No one wipedhis socials after he died, and his DMs were full of shit I can’t unsee. No oneoutside of his family had a good impression of the man. Or rather no one whoknew him in a more than casual way. He apparently was good at pretending to notbe a violent shitbag of a human for a couple of months at a time.”
It was a good description of who her husband had been. “Ithink they only tolerated me because they wanted grandchildren. I know hemessed with my birth control pills. It’s why I went to Portland and got theshot instead.”
“That was smart of you, baby girl,” Abby praised. “You did agood job, but now you need to let us help you. Now you’re not alone. You have afamily around you, and everything is going to be okay.”
She was going to cry again. She’d thought she was all criedout. “Mrs. Barnes-Fleetwood, you need to think about this. They’re dangerous,and being associated with me could cause you problems in the community when itcomes out.”
Abby’s auburn hair shook. “You call me Abby for now, andsweet girl, I was the whore of Willow Fork when I was seventeen years old andhad only slept with one boy. I loved him but his family didn’t think I was goodenough. Do you honestly believe I give a damn what those people think of me? Idon’t. I care about what happens to you. They can go straight to hell, so putthat out of your mind. And I might be mad at Jack right now, but I do believehim when he says all he was going to do was talk to you.”
“He didn’t call the police and he could have,” Kim pointedout.
“He was never going to call the police. I’m going to admitI’ve been worried he would try something like this, hence me getting in thetruck with him when he said he needed a surprise trip to Austin,” Abbyadmitted. “My husband can be overly protective, and we all knew you were insome kind of trouble. He wasn’t patient. I told him to wait and you would tellus when you were ready.”
There was a lot of that going around. “Josh didn’t waiteither.”
“He’s a lot like his daddy. I’m afraid he’s more like Jackin that way than Sam and me. Josh can be as ruthless as his father.” Abbystudied her for a moment. “How did he handle it? Did he get mad? I know howJared handled it, but I’m worried Josh might let his temper flash. Jared had tolearn to control himself at a young age.”
“Grim asked me if I did it and when I said I didn’t, he saidokay.” Yep. There were the tears because that moment had been so sweet, and shecouldn’t trust it. She wasn’t sure she could trust this one. Being coddled bytwo older women felt too much like having moms who cared about her. It feltlike something she’d never once had. “Josh yelled at the twin brothers andasked me if they hurt me and talked about lawyers.”
Abby’s smile was completely satisfied. “That’s my boy.Jared’s been an excellent influence on him. They were on each other, really. Iwas worried he’d screwed this up, and you haven’t been with him long enough toforgive him.”
“He walked in and started talking like he was taking over,”Nicole complained.
