Wyatt (Lane Brothers #1) (13 page)

Ellie

              Someone wants me dead. Not only are they still out there and well-hidden, but I’m not the only target.

George has gone off the deep end since hearing about Jerry’s near miss with death and has ordered all family members stay inside the house, all except the Lanes who aren’t in the state and Roman who’s unwilling to halt the investigation to cower behind closed doors.

Poor Jude had to cancel all engagements for the time being, including a meeting with the wedding planner she hired and decorators who’d been scheduled to come in next week.

              The one bright spot in all this is that I’ve finally met the two people who produced that sack of excrement, Bolton, and I’m surprised to say that I actually like them. A lot.

Lynn is a little wacky and talks a mile a minute as if she’s afraid she won’t get a word in, and Jerry is a trip.

He’s pompous and rude and so ornery that I can hardly keep myself from laughing out loud most of the time. I like him, though, because I see some good in the guy and ignore his shit because I can tell how insecure he is around the Lanes.

I won’t lie and say we’re playing happy families or anything, that would be impossible with the way George and Jerry keep glaring at each other and throwing around insults, not to mention Wyatt’s rage that Jerry won’t say a word about what the hell is going on and why he hired someone to shadow me.

I don’t much care about any of it, really, since my main focus now is getting Wyatt to stop acting as if I’m about to shatter and have a nervous breakdown at any moment.

On top of all this, my period is late by two days. If it is what I think it is, I’m going to have something else to worry about besides myself and some maniac targeting the Lanes and me.

“You okay, Ellie?”

I look up from the book I’ve been pretending to read and see Jared sitting beside me, his blue eyes way too observant for my liking. Part of me avoids him no matter how much I love the man, because he just seems to know things.

It’s creepy and discomforting when you’re trying to keep a secret like the one I’m holding on to. And no, I’m not freaking out about it or anything. I want a family.

I’m just not ready to be on bedrest for a full nine months with Mr. Guilty Pants babying me to death. I think I’ll tell him just before I pop if his behavior doesn’t improve soon.

The man tries to cut my food, for God’s sake! You try living with that level of crazy and see how you like it.

“Fine, I guess. Just wondering if we’ll ever be free of this stuff. I want to go out and explore and go to those cooking workshops Jude and I scheduled. And I want your brother to stop hovering like I’m at death’s door or something,” I huff, making him laugh.

“Not gonna happen, even if we crack this thing and stuff goes back to normal. If you want any sort of peace, I’d suggest you keep your secret a little longer, or he’s likely to lose his fool mind and actually wrap you up in cotton wool, honey,” he warns.

“How did you know?”

Seriously, is there nothing I can keep to myself with these Lane men? It seems not when he grins and winks before answering me.

“Ellie, I watched you for months and reported back to Wyatt. There’s not a thing, and I mean not a
thing
I don’t know about you, sweetheart, and that includes keeping track of your cycle,” he admits, making me blush so red, I feel my face go hot as a flame.

Did he just admit to knowing when I get my period?

“You and your brothers had better keep a wide berth from me if you all want to live,” I growl, narrowing my eyes at him and his smirking face.

“El, it’s a natural part of life and not something a real man should shy away from, so stop feeling embarrassed. Besides, how else was I supposed to be the first one to know your secret if I wasn’t looking for the signs?”

“Fine, whatever, just don’t open your fat trap, idiot. I’m not sure it’s true yet, so I’d really like to at least know before he goes mental and refuses to let me walk anywhere.”

“Deal. Now then, let’s go start lunch and leave Ma and Lynn to talk while Jerry drives Pop crazy,” he says, pulling me up and behind him to the kitchen.

“Where’s Wyatt and Miah?”

That gets me a scowl and I start laughing so hard, I choke on my spit.

“Oh God, you are Miah, aren’t you?”

I’m still laughing when he gets me in a headlock and gives me a playful noogie.

“You think Jared would be this comfortable discussing a woman’s cycle? The fool almost had a fit when Pop gave us the talk and he found out that woman bleed. Swear to God, any poor female who gets stuck with him will have to be a paragon of saintliness or some shit.”

“Sorry.”

“No worries. At least you didn’t mistake me for Jace this time.” He chuckles.

“That was one time! And my eyes were still blurry because I just woke up!”

One time I make that mistake, and no one will let me live it down.

***

I’m not pregnant. I discover later that night when I stand up to get out of the bath. To say that the disappointment is crushing is putting it mildly.

I clean up and dress before sitting on the toilet seat and crying my eyes out.

Don’t be a fool, Ellie, it’s not the end of the world.

No, but it’s one less guarantee that everything will be okay and I hate it. Poor Miah is going to be so disappointed.

“Ellie?              Baby, why are you crying?” Wyatt demands, coming down at my feet and taking me into his arms.

I cry harder because he’s trying to comfort me for something that I shouldn’t even be crying about. Besides, it’s just plain stupid to want a baby so early on in a relationship, and especially when we’re not even married yet.

Stupid love. It’s turned me into an illogical ninny with nothing better to do than focus on things I shouldn’t even be thinking about right now.

“Baby. Talk to me. Please. Is this about the stalker and—”

“No. No,” I rush to say, hugging him closer and taking in his scent.

It comforts me so much that the tears stop, leaving me with the odd hiccup as I try to catch my breath.

“I-I missed my period, and I thought…but I just got it, so I’m not, and I guess I got a little too excited, and now…”

“Oh, Ellie, we have all the time in the world to have babies and do and see everything you want. This isn’t the time, no matter how much I wish it were, and we both know it. Now dry your eyes and come on. Let me give you a back rub and go get some of Ma’s special tea.”

He’s being so sweet and supportive, trying to care for me and assure me that it’s no big deal. But I see the fleeting regret there when he accepts that the bond he was banking on isn’t there yet.

              Wyatt is a thinker as much as a doer, so you know that he’d never do anything without planning it first, and that includes taking me without protection.

“Here, baby, drink this while I go get some lotion to rub your back with.”

“I love you,” I say for only the second time since I let it slip four days ago.

He stops mid-walk to the bathroom and all but leaps at me, his mouth fusing to mine in a kiss that leaves me tingling below the belt.

“Say it again, sweet Ellie. Please,” he begs, breathing harshly against my lips.

I obey and smile through the next kiss.

I don’t get that back rub he promised. Instead, he finally lets me have a go at him and I learn that penetration is not the only, or necessarily the best kind of sex to be had.

By the time I pull my mouth off of him hours later and lick my lips at his taste, he’s collapsed from pleasure and drowning in smiles.

***

“Oh, Ellie, dearest, would you care to join me for a walk?”

I look up from the puzzle that Jude and I are building when Lynn joins me at the table, her blue eyes so sad and yet smiling down at me.

I usually avoid her at all costs, because her sadness makes me uncomfortable to the extreme.

But rudeness is not my thing, so I try to deflect.

“Er, uh, Wyatt said I’m not allowed outside unless he or one of the brothers goes with me.”

Not that I usually listen. I’m not afraid with all the guards crawling around the grounds, but she doesn’t need to know that. I at Jude in desperation when the other woman pouts and looks away sadly.

“You don’t like me. Who can blame you, dear? I am after all the mother of…”

“Er, no. No, that’s not true, Lynn. I like you a lot. It’s just that I…oh, what the hell. What Wyatt doesn’t know won’t kill him,” I mutter.

              We walk in silence as I struggle to find something to say. What can I say?

“So, I’ve never had the chance to really talk to you after…that unpleasant business with my Bolton.”

Huh.

“Um, well it’s not like I was expecting you to visit me in the hospital or anything, Lynn. I know that that was hard for you, especially after he…died. And, well, this is weird enough as it is, even four years later,” I point out.

She laughs, a sound of humorless mirth that makes my skin crawl.

“That’s an understatement, Ellie. To say that I was inconsolable at the time…well, Jerry brought in a doctor and sedated me. I couldn’t even go to the funeral,” she laments.

Like I care, as ungracious as the thought may be. Part of me is glad that his faux funeral was attended by only a father who hated him and a preacher who was paid to be there.

“I’m sorry. That must have been painful for you.”

“You have no idea. Why, I’d just lost my only child, and then to hear that he’d done such awful things….it was so difficult to get over that and remain on speaking terms with poor Georgie.”

We’ve walked a good distance from the house by this time, and my knees are trembling. I feel lightheaded and so nauseated that we’re forced to stop so I can catch my breath.

“Oh dear, Ellie, are you alright?” she asks, her eyes filled with worry when my knees give out and send me crashing to the grass.

“Wyatt.”

My head feels like a throbbing mass of cotton wool, and the only movement I can get my body to make is the tremors running though my muscles like an electric shock.

I feel worse than I have before, even worse than I felt when Bolton starved me and I was so weak I couldn’t lift my head.

“Oh God. Ellie, what’s wrong?”

Lynn is most definitely panicking by now and wringing her hands hard enough to make me worried about the state of her hands if she doesn’t quit it.

“Wyatt. Get Wyatt,” I rasp, my vision blinking in and out.

The last thing I see before I pass out is Jerry Conrad running our way, a gun held firmly in his right hand.

“Oh Jerry, what are you doing?” she yells, the sound echoing in my head in a series of waves that amps up my delirium.

“Ending this once and for all.”

I hear a shot, and then the darkness takes me.

Wyatt

“Where are they?!”

My pulse is pounding after an hour of searching the house, only to find that my Ellie is nowhere to be found and that Aunt Lynn and Jerry are missing, as well.

I’d left earlier to rush to a meeting, a last-minute urgent call from one of my execs, only to get home and discover that Ellie is missing.

That can only mean one thing, and the thought of something happening to her because I fell for Jerry’s bullshit and let him into our home…

“Son, calm down now. Let’s go look at the security tapes and then we’ll figure out what’s going on,” Pop says quietly, his hand squeezing my shoulder when I threaten to start tearing the place apart brick by brick.

“Bro, do not lose it now. Your woman needs you, not an out-of-control lunatic. Pull yourself together. We will find her and that jackass Jerry.”

“If he’s hurt her, I swear to God I’ll tear him apart with my bare hands,” I snarl, regretting my words when I hear Ma gasp.

“It’s not him!”

Roman runs in, breathless and looking like he hasn’t slept in days, his hair and clothes dishevelled and unkempt.

“What the fuck, Roman? Of course it’s him. I should have never—”

“No, Wyatt, look at the tapes and I’d bet my next paycheck the culprit is Lynn. I just cracked that e-mail that was sent to Charlie Pyle and it came from a dummy e-mail address that led me to her IP. It’s been Lynn all along.”

The silence that descends is deafening, and I hear Dad’s uneven breaths wheezing in and out a minute before he goes pale and clutches at his chest.

“George!”

We’re all on him in a heartbeat as he grimaces and his face turns a mottled shade of red.

“He’s having a heart attack! Jace, call 9-1-1! Jude, move back. Goddammit, Jared, hold your mom while I take a look at him. Wyatt, snap out of it, asshole, and go look at the tapes. Miah, go with him and find Ellie.”

I’m numb when my brother pulls me away and starts moving me toward the security room. I’m not seeing a thing when Miah finally pulls up security footage and starts running through it.

I finally come to when he slaps me across the face and starts yelling curses at me, and then I see it. Ellie walking with Lynn, collapsing. Jerry running toward them where she fell at the tree line.

There is a scuffle that Lynn wins, as shocking as it seems, and then she aims the gun at him and shoots before two armed men come tearing her way. One grabs my unconscious Ellie, while the other starts dragging Jerry into the woods and dumping him there.

“Come on!”

We’re running and in the trees in under two minutes where we find Jerry, unconscious and barely breathing. There is no sign of Lynn or Ellie.

I want to say that I’m the hero that tears off into the trees and magically finds Ellie, but I can’t. Instead, I help Miah carry poor Jerry back to the house where the ambulance EMTs are working on Dad while Roman tries to stop the bleeding from the bullet my uncle took to the shoulder.

“What the hell?”

“She shot him. She had two guys who came out of the woods and grabbed Ellie. She must have drugged her…Goddammit, Ellie can’t take sedatives of any kind.”

I remember how sick she was all through that first night after I drugged her and took her to Gardner’s house. She’d puked and shivered as if fighting off a raging fever before the drugs had left her system, and that had only been a light dose.

What if Lynn gave her too much?

Stop, Wyatt, just stop thinking that way and focus.

“They have Ellie.”

Roman finally ties off Jerry’s wound and lets the EMT take care of him before rising to his feet.

“We need to find her, man. I broke into her shrink’s office and read her file, and that woman has got some really negative thoughts about Ellie. Why the shrink didn’t report her as dangerous is beyond me, but I’d lay odds that she’s in mortal danger with that woman. Lynn will kill her, Wyatt.”

My blood runs cold and my knees threaten to give out again, but I keep it together by sheer force of will and turn to Jared.

“There’s only one place I can think of that she’d take her, bro, God willing I’m right and we’re not going on a wild goose chase.”

“I agree. I’ll call Case and have him get the jet ready. Miah, stay with Ma. Jace, Roman, you ready?”

I do the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life and leave my parents unprotected and my father at death’s door to go and find Ellie before that wolf in sheep’s clothing can end my life as I know it.

Never in a million years would I have ever suspected my sweet aunt Lynn.

Poor Pop, this must be killing him to know that his only surviving sister is an evil, coldblooded killer.

“You okay to do what needs to be done if it comes to it?” Roman asks when we settle into our seats and prepare for takeoff.

I know what he’s asking and I can’t blame the man. I’d hesitated to kill family before because I’d been too weak to do something I know I’d never forgive myself for. All bets are off now, because not only did the woman shoot her own husband and prove that she’s capable of killing, but she’s responsible for Pop’s heart attack.

“I’m ready. Just get us there as soon as possible, man.”

***

Ellie

I wake to a nightmare and feel my blood chill when the familiar smell of dirt and grease hit my nose. I know this stench like I know my own mind, and I’d lay odds on the fact that we’re back in the little shack out in the middle of nowhere.

My first instinct is to panic and try to escape, because just being here is frightening enough to cripple me with fear. I swore a long time ago that I would never return to this hovel, or experience the same bone-chilling fear I’d felt at the hands of that madman.

And yet here I am, in the same situation, only this time the monster is bigger and meaner and—

“Wake up, bitch.”

Lynn?

I crack my lids and feel my heart sink when I’m proved right. There’s the iron tub still sitting off to the right. The cot beneath me is still as filthy and smells worse than I remember it smelling. And yes, I’m wearing the same shackles that once rubbed the skin clear of my wrists so long ago.

The only difference this time is that I’m not staring at a man who’s crazy and intent on hurting me. I’m staring into the manic eyes of a mother who hates me enough to kill me rather than listen to a word of reasoning.

“Why are you doing this?”

That’s it, Ellie, stay calm and don’t show your fear.

“Why? Why! Because you killed my baby, that’s why, you stupid whore!” she yells, shooting spittle over my right cheek as she hisses the words at me, and slapping me so hard that my head starts ringing.

“I didn’t. He hurt me!”

“So what? You were nothing, just a stupid little girl who rejected him and then looked at that worthless cousin of his. He deserved better than to be second best all the time.”

“Listen, I never even met Wyatt before you started all this, Lynn. I have never seen the man before he took me.”

“Liar! My Bolton told me everything. He asked you out and you rebuffed him, and then he saw you staring at Wyatt that day….and it hurt my poor baby so bad…he had to punish you for that. He had to show Wyatt that he was better, that he finally won.”

And to think, I was blaming poor Jerry for this when obviously it’s been this infected pustule who turned Bolton into a raving lunatic. Oh how we deceive ourselves.

              “He died coming back here to you, you bitch, and now I’ll kill you to repay the blood debt.”

Her voice has changed I notice, from that harsh grate to an almost singsong quality that gives me the creeps because I’ve heard it before and nothing good ever came from it.

Think, Ellie. Find a way to stop this.

“What if I told you that Bolton isn’t dead?”

Wyatt isn’t gonna like me spilling that can of beans all over the table, but he’ll have to deal and accept it, because right now I’m about a second away from her shooting me in the face with that gun she took off Jerry.

“Liar. He died. My poor baby died all alone and I couldn’t even go to his funeral. That weakling Jerry drugged me and kept me locked up for days because I wanted to kill them all for this. What, you think I don’t know that your precious Wyatt had something to do with my boy’s death? I know. I know that they always hated him and—”

“Oh for God’s sake! Melodramatic much! I just told you that Bolton isn’t dead. Wyatt could never kill his own blood and you know it, so he locked him up where he can’t hurt anyone else.”

That little outburst earns me a gun to the temple and I quake, swallowing reflexively against the need to puke all over her and myself.

I have no doubt that if I push her a little further right now, she’d empty that gun into my head and laugh her ass off all the way. But I have no intention of dying and leaving Wyatt to suffer the guilt of my death.

Plus, I really want those babies I’ve been thinking about all week.

“You’re lying. Jerry told me he saw the body.”

“Oh please, far as I know, that corpse was too deep fried to tell any stories. Jerry told you what he wanted to believe, poor guy. It must have killed him to realize his kid was such a maniac. And speaking of poor Jer, where is he?”

My cheek explodes when she backhands me with the butt of her gun before laughing so hysterically, all I can do is blink in horror.

“Jerry? Oh poor Jerry! I killed him, of course. I couldn’t have him trying to get his hands on you again. So weak. So, so weak and nothing like the son I raised. Do you know, he actually tried to tell Georgie what I was doing before I threatened to kill his mistress and their mewling brat? That shut him up real quick, so don’t go thinking poor Jerry deserves your sympathy. He was all too willing to throw you under the bus to protect the little family he was hiding from us all.”

              “Did you hear what I said? Let me repeat,” I snarl, spying a shadow flitting past the window.

It can’t be the two goons she’d had carry me out of the woods. I’d been conscious enough to see them and to hear when they dumped me on the plane and took leave of the whole mess.

Who’s outside? Friend or foe?

“Bolton. Is. Not. Dead.”

I want to say that it gets through to her, that maybe it’s enough of a distraction to keep her from just killing me outright, but this chick is totally gone.

I suspect that no matter what I say or do, she’s going to kill me because she wants to. I can see the malice in her eyes and practically smell the crazy coming off her.

“I don’t believe you. He would have found a way home to me by now,” she screams, giving me another spit bath.

“Jesus, lady, cool it with the spitting already, my stomach is still iffy from whatever you put in my tea.”

              “It almost killed you, I think, you were shaking so much on the plane. Pity for you that you didn’t just succumb, because now I plan to make you suffer the way my poor baby did. He burned to death in that car, you know. Jerry told me.”

“No. Please no.”

I’m begging and trying to rip my wrists apart to get out of my restraints when she lifts a gas can and comes closer, her eyes shining so brightly, I feel my skin shrink in fear.

“Oh yes. An eye for an eye, after all, Ellie. My baby hurt, now you will hurt. Simple.”

“And then what, huh? You gonna go home and pretend none of this ever happened? George will never forgive you if you do this.”

“He won’t know, Ellie. I covered my tracks too well, dear,” she coos, tipping the can.

I’m sputtering and gasp as the acrid liquid hits me, soaking into my clothes, my skin, burning my lungs when the fumes penetrate my airways and leave me choking for breath.

She’s thorough in her work and ensures that every inch of me is drenched in the gasoline before standing back to admire her handiwork.

“There are cameras,” I choke out. “George had Miah and Jared beef up the security last week and they added cameras to that section. I know. I helped them, and they showed me how to install a motion sensor, too.”

That gives her pause before the madness returns.

“No. There can’t be. They can never know.”

“They will. They’ll find Jerry’s body and they’ll look at the tapes, Lynn. You have to see that if you do this, and they find me, George will kill you.”

Please, Jesus, do not strike that match
, I beg silently when her hand settles on the little booklet on the dresser. This is so much worse than the snakes, and if she asked me right now what I’d choose, I’d have to go for a straight bullet.

“No. George loves me. He’d never choose you over family.”

              “Pop would never choose an outsider over family, Lynn, but Ellie is family and you know it. Step way.”

I almost cry when I see Wyatt standing in the doorway, his gun trained on Lynn, his grip steady as he looks over at me quickly before eyeballing his aunt again.

I pray in that moment. Not for me. Not for Lynn. For Wyatt, because she’s already reaching for the matches and I know that he’ll kill her before letting her harm me.