“I still want to make it work.”
She snickered with sarcasm. “Is that why you kept leaving the Post-It notes? Was that your sign of wanting to make it work? Because it only confused me more. It only hurt me more.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The Post-It notes. The ones you left every week on my bedroom window for the past five months with your initials. The same notes we used to write to each other.”
My eyes narrowed. “Lizzie, I didn’t leave you any messages.”
“Stop with the mind games.”
“No, seriously. I haven’t been back to town until today.”
She looked at me as if she hadn’t a clue who I was. I stepped near her, and she moved back. “Stop. Just—I don’t want to play anymore, Tristan. I don’t want to play your games anymore. Maybe if you had shown up two months ago, I would’ve forgiven you. Or maybe one month ago, but not today. Stop with the notes, and stop playing with my heart, with my daughter’s heart.” She turned and left the store, leaving me extremely confused. When I stepped outside, she was already walking back into the café across the street.
My stomach was in knots as I walked back into Needful Things. When the bell above the door rang, my body whipped around, hoping to see Elizabeth staring my way. Instead, I turned and saw Tanner standing in my doorway. “What are you doing back here?” he asked, urgency in his voice.
“Not now, Tanner. I’m really not in the mood.”
“No, no, no. You can’t be here. You can’t be back here.” He started pacing back and forth, rubbing his hands against the back of his neck. “You’re going to ruin everything. She was coming back to me. She was warming up to me again.”
“What?” The look on his face made my stomach turn. “What did you do?”
He huffed. “It’s really kind of ridiculous. I mean, you storm off, leaving her for months and months, and the second you come back, she’s already falling all over you. Kissing you as if you’re her fucking Prince Charming. Well, hell, congratulations.” He rolled his eyes and turned to leave. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” he muttered to himself as I followed him out of the store and across the street to his auto shop.
“Have you been leaving notes at Elizabeth’s house?”
“What, I’m sorry, were you the only one allowed to do that?”
“You signed my initials.”
“Come on, Sherlock. You can’t really think that you are the only one with T and C as their initials.” He went to one of the cars, opened the hood, and started tinkering with things.
“But you knew she would think they were from me. How did you even know that we gave each other notes?”
“Take it easy. It’s not like I had little cameras spying on the two of you.” He looked up toward me with an unsettling grin.
I charged toward him, gripping his shirt and slamming him against the car. “Are you fucking psycho? What the hell is wrong with you?!”
“What’s wrong with me?!” he shouted. “What’s wrong with me?! I won the coin toss!” he hissed. “And he took her from me! I called heads, he called tails, and the coin said heads! But he thought he could just take her and make her love him. He messed up our lives. She was mine. And he mocked me over and over again about it for years. Asking me to be his best man. Begging for me to be the godfather to their kid. Years and years of throwing it in my face when Elizabeth should’ve been mine. So I handled it.”
“What?” I said, loosening my grip on his shirt. His eyes were wide, crazed, and he couldn’t stop smiling. “Handled what?”
“He said his car was acting up. He asked me to check under the hood because he and Emma were going on a trip out of town for the day. I knew him coming to me that day was a sign—he wanted me to do it.”
“Do what?”
“Cut the brake cord under his hood. He was giving Elizabeth back to me. Because I won the coin toss. And everything went great, except when he took the car onto the freeway, Emma wasn’t in the backseat. She was home sick.”
I couldn’t comprehend his words. I couldn’t believe what he was saying. “You tried to kill them? You rigged his car?”
“I WON THE COIN TOSS!” he cried, as if he were actually making sense.
“You’re a lunatic.”
He released a breath of air. “I’m a lunatic? You’re sitting here in love with a woman whose husband killed your family!”
“He didn’t kill them. You did. You killed my family.”
He waved his finger back and forth. “No, Steven was behind the wheel driving the car. He was the one driving. I was just the mere mechanic under the hood.”
I slammed him against the car over and over again. “This isn’t some kind of game, Tanner. These are people’s lives you’re playing with!”
“Life is a game, Tristan. And I advise you to back off. Because I won her. It’s now time for me to collect my prize, and the last thing I need is someone else to get in my way.”
“You’re sick,” I said, walking away from him. “And if you come anywhere near Elizabeth I will kill you myself.”
Tanner laughed again. “Come on, buddy. You would kill me? When it comes to killing, I’m pretty sure I have you beat three times over. Four if you count later tonight.”
“What?”
“Come on. You didn’t think I could have Elizabeth with a little girl always reminding her of her dead husband, did you?”
“If you touch Emma,” I warned, seconds away from slamming my fist into his face.
“What? What are you going to do? Kill me?”
I didn’t even remember hitting him.
But I did remember him collapsing to the ground.
“Lizzie!” I shouted, entering the café. “We need to talk.”
She hardly glanced my way, giving me the cold shoulder. “Tristan, I’m working. And I’m pretty sure we’ve already spoken enough.”
I wrapped my hand around her forearm and slightly pulled her. “Lizzie, seriously.”
“Let her go,” Faye said, marching in front of us. “Now!”
“Faye, you don’t understand. Lizzie, it was Tanner. All of this was him. He was behind the notes, the accident, he was behind all of it.”
“What are you talking about?” Elizabeth asked, confusion floating in her eyes.
“I’ll explain it all later, but for now I need to know where Emma is. She’s in trouble, Lizzie.”
“What?”
Faye gasped lightly. “What did you do to Tanner?” she asked, staring across the street. Two police officers were talking to him, and Tanner was pointing my way. Fuck.
“He’s insane. He said he was going to hurt Emma.”
Elizabeth was shaking, nerves taking her over. “Why would you say such a thing? I know Tanner has his moments, but he would never…”
She was interrupted as the cops came into the café. “Tristan Cole, you are under arrest for the attack on Tanner Chase.”
“What?” Elizabeth gasped, running her hands through her hair, confusion in her eyes. “What’s going on?”
The cop kept speaking as they went to handcuff me. “It turns out this guy was caught on Tanner Chase’s auto shop security cameras attacking him.” He began to speak to me. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney and if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you.”
They dragged me out of the shop, and Elizabeth hurried outside to follow us. “Wait, this is a misunderstanding. Tristan, tell them. Tell them it’s a mistake,” she begged.
“Lizzie. Check on Emma. Okay? Just make sure she’s okay.” I really hoped she would believe me. I really hoped she would make sure Emma was all right.
“I leave the shop with you for three hours and come back to find you locked behind bars,” Mr. Henson joked.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, confused.
He cocked an eyebrow as a cop unlocked my cell
door. “I think I’m paying your bail.”
“How did you know I was in here?”
“Oh. I did a tarot card reading.” I narrowed my eyes and he laughed. “Tristan, this is the most gossiping town of all towns. I overheard people talking about it. Plus,” he said as we rounded the corner of the hallway. “This little birdie dropped me a line.”
Elizabeth stood up from the bench in the front lobby and rushed over to me. “Tristan, what’s going on?”
“Is Emma safe?”
She nodded. “She’s with her grandparents.”
“Did you tell them what’s going on?”
“Not yet, I just asked them to watch her. I honestly don’t even know what’s happening, Tristan.”
“Tanner did this, Lizzie. All of this is Tanner. He left you the notes these past five months, not me. He’s the one who caused the accident with Steven’s car. He told me it was him, Lizzie. You have to believe me. He thinks all of this is some kind of sick game, and I’m certain he’s not going to stop until he gets the prize.”
“What’s the prize?”
“You are.”
She swallowed hard. “What do we do? How do we prove that he’s behind all of this?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what the next step is, but we need to talk to Sam and get a few cops over to your place.”
“What? Why?”
“Tanner said something about cameras. I think he might have put some around your house.” Her hands started trembling, and I took hold of her. “It’s okay. We’re going to figure this out. Everything is going to be okay.”
42
Elizabeth
A team of cops came over to my house along with Sam and his father, and they searched the whole house for cameras.
Eight were found, including the final one, which was placed inside of my jeep.
I’m going to be sick.
They were the same tiny cameras Sam had told me about when he’d first changed the locks in my house. “I can’t believe this. God dammit, Elizabeth, I’m so sorry,” Sam said, rubbing his brow. “Tanner was the only person in town we sold these new cameras to.”
“How many did you sell him?”
He swallowed hard. “Eight.”
“How could he do this? How could he get the cameras in here? He’s been watching us this whole time?” I asked the cops, who were collecting the cameras.
“It’s hard to say how long he’s been doing this, but we will find an answer. We’ll run his fingerprints and see if anything comes up. We’ll figure this out, ma’am.”
After everyone headed out, Tristan wrapped his arms around me. “We should go get Emma. You should be with her.”
I nodded. “Yeah, we should.”
Tristan put his finger under my chin and tilted my head up so I could stare into his eyes. “We’re going to figure all of this out, Lizzie. I promise you.”
For the whole ride over to Kathy and Lincoln’s house, I prayed that we would figure it all out.
“Liz, what are you doing here?” Lincoln asked, opening the front door. Tristan waited in his car for me.
“I know Emma’s supposed to stay the night, but I would really feel more comfortable if she was home with me tonight.”
Lincoln raised an eyebrow as Kathy walked over to greet me. “Liz, what’s going on?”
“Just picking up Emma.” I smiled. “I’ll explain everything later, I promise.”
“But Tanner just stopped by to pick her up. He said you were having car trouble and wanted him to drop her off at your house.”
Oh my God.
I turned to look at Tristan. The worry in my eyes must have been clear as day because he pumped his fist against his mouth as I hurried back over to him. “Tanner has her.”
“Call 911,” he ordered as I hopped into the car and he drove off. I spoke with the cops and they said they were on their way to my house to meet us.
I couldn’t stop shaking. My mind was shutting down on me and I couldn’t see through my tears. My head was growing more and more dizzy as each second passed. I was going to faint. I was going to pass out. I was going to—
“Lizzie,” Tristan said sternly as he gripped my hand in his. “Lizzie! Look at me. Now!” he ordered. I sobbed, unable to stop as I turned his way. “I need you to take a breath for me. Okay? I need you to breathe.”
I inhaled deep.
But I wasn’t certain that an exhale followed.
“Can you think of any place he might have taken her?” a police officer questioned me.
“No. No.” His partner stood by side him, taking notes. The process of everything was slow, and I didn’t understand why they were taking their sweet time when they could’ve been out there searching. “I’m sorry, when are you going to actually start looking for her?”
Tristan handled calling everyone. He made sure everyone was up to date with all the information, and it wasn’t long before Faye, Sam, Kathy, and Lincoln were standing in my living room, and Mama had already hit the road with Mike to be there soon.
“Ma’am, I know you’re worried, but there is a process we have to go through when a child is missing. We’ll need the most updated photos you have of her, and we’ll need to know more details about her—hair color, eye color. Did she have any reason that maybe she ran away from home?”
“Are you kidding me?” I huffed, unable to believe the words that had just left his mouth. “We just found cameras hidden in my house, and then you have the nerve to question if maybe just maybe my daughter ran away instead of being kidnapped? Tanner Chase has my baby, so how about you just do your damn job and find her!” I screamed at them, not meaning to take it out on the officers, but having no one else to blame. I felt so helpless. I did this. This is my fault. My baby could be hurt, or even worse…
“Lizzie, it’s okay. We’ll find her,” Tristan whispered against my ear. “It’s okay.”
But we didn’t find her that night. The search went on and on, and we checked every inch of town, every inch of the wooded forest, but there was nothing to be found. Nothing at all. Mama and Mike showed up, but weren’t exactly sure what to say other than, ‘They will find her.’
I wished the words brought more comfort, but they didn’t. Everyone seemed just as terrified as I was.
I told everyone to go home, but they all refused and fell asleep in the living room. When I finally made it to my bedroom, Tristan was there to hold me. “I’m so sorry, Lizzie.”
“She’s just a baby… Why would he hurt her? She’s my world.”
He held me for a few minutes longer before we heard a tapping on my bedroom window. When we turned to look, there was a Post-It note sitting against it.
So many books in this shed. I wonder what Emma would want to read? –TC
“Oh my God,” I muttered.
“We have to call the cops,” Tristan said, reaching for his phone. I looked out of the window and saw Bubba sitting on the ground.
“No, Tristan. We can’t.” I opened the window and climbed out. “He said just us.”
He followed after me and picked up the stuffed animal that had another Post-It note.
Libraries and sheds are a weird mix. Sheds seem better for cars if you ask me. –TC
“He’s by your shed,” I said to Tristan, who placed his hand in front of me, refusing to let me go first.
“Stay behind me,” he ordered as we walked toward his backyard.
“What a hero you are, Tristan.” Tanner laughed, looking our way. His body looked like a shadow until he stepped closer to the light from the shed. “Taking care of Elizabeth.”
“Tanner, what’s going on?” I asked, confused and terrified.
“Do you hear that?” Tristan whispered to me. I stopped to listen, hearing the sound of a running car inside the shed.
“Emma’s in there, isn’t she?” I asked Tanner.
“You always were smart. That’s why I loved you. Aloof as fuck, but still, smart.”
“You have to let
her out, Tanner. The chemicals from the car will hurt her. They could kill her.”
“Why did you choose him?” he asked, leaning against Tristan’s table saw. “I just don’t understand.”
“I didn’t choose Tristan, Tanner. It just happened.”
Tristan edged closer to the shed and Tanner hissed. “No, no, no. Stop right there, Casanova. Or I’ll shoot.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a gun. Oh my God.
“What do you want from us?” I cried. My eyes moved to the shed where the car was still running. My baby… “Tanner, please let her out.”
“I just wanted you,” he said, waving the gun around. “From day one, I wanted you. And then Steven took you. I saw you first, and he didn’t care. I won the coin toss, and he still took you away from me. And then he died, and I gave you time to mourn him. To miss him. I was here waiting for you, and out of nowhere, this guy shows up and steals you!” Tanner wiped his hands over his emotion filled eyes. “Why didn’t you pick me, Liz? Why didn’t you come back for me? Why haven’t you ever seen me?”
“Tanner,” I said, walking cautiously toward him. “I do see you.”
He shook his head. “No. You’re just scared. I’m not stupid, Liz. I’m not stupid.”
I stared into his panicked eyes and kept walking. It took everything in me to hold my fear inside my body. It took everything in me to seem somewhat calm. “I’m not scared of you, Tanner Michael Chase. I’m not.” I stepped closer to him and lay my hand against his cheek. His eyes dilated, and his breaths became heavy. “I see you.”
He closed his eyes, running his face against my hand. “Jesus, Liz. You’re all I wanted.”
My mouth hovered over his and I felt his hot breath against me. “I’m yours. I’m yours. We can run away with each other,” I said, my hands falling to his chest. “We can start all over.”
“Just us?” he whispered.
My forehead fell to his. “Just us.”
The Elements Series Complete Box Set Page 24
