Tell Me No Lies

by Branton, Rachel

  I shrugged. “Probably covering up. If it came down to her or Charlie, I bet she’d throw him to the wolves.”

  Gage gave a quick nod, as though coming to a decision. Turning, he started across the small room, keeping one hand around mine as though he was never letting go. Bailey and Charlie were waiting, fear and defiance in their eyes. Bailey had regained some of her backbone, and her eyes met mine without flinching.

  “You both claim to have nothing to do with Skeet’s murder,” Gage said, “yet your father was killed with the same weapon.”

  “The same kind of weapon,” Bailey corrected. “Charlie says he didn’t do it.”

  “I thought Bailey did it,” Charlie added.

  Bailey flinched. “I wasn’t even there.” A shudder went through her as she stared at Gage. “You did it after all—didn’t you?”

  My flesh broke out in goose bumps, and I felt like screaming. Gage couldn’t be guilty, could he? Yet Bailey and Charlie seemed sincere.

  Gage regarded Bailey for several long seconds without speaking. “I did not kill Skeet. If neither of you did it, and Mia didn’t, who did?”

  “Maybe Mia did,” Charlie said. “She’s fierce enough.”

  Gage’s growl caused Charlie to jerk back several paces. “Not after what happened, she wasn’t.”

  “Stop,” I said to Charlie, encompassing Bailey in my glare as well. “Let’s look at this from another direction. I don’t believe in coincidences, so the question should be, if you two didn’t do it, who else knew about your dad being killed with a poker?”

  Silence fell as the two siblings stared at one another. I couldn’t tell if they were about to burst into another round of blaming each other or finally say something useful.

  When neither ended up speaking, I turned to Gage. “I think I should go find Dylan. He might not be hiding where he can hear us. He’ll be scared, and Mia’s probably out of her mind about him. The sooner we find him and call her, the better. This can wait.”

  Gage nodded. “I’ll help.” Was that because he didn’t want to let me out of his sight? That was how I felt about him.

  “I suppose anyone could have read the newspaper account if they wanted,” Bailey said before we could leave. “But no one here ever mentioned it to me. Charlie and I never advertised the fact that our father was dead.”

  “We ain’t stupid,” Charlie muttered.

  Bailey went on as if he hadn’t spoken. “There was only one person I ever told about what happened to our father, but I didn’t tell him about the poker or about the blackmail. Anyway, he wouldn’t have killed Skeet. He’s not like that.” Her face blanched. “Wait a minute, I think I know how he could have found out about the poker.”

  Gage stopped moving and faced her. “Who was it?”

  “It was after his sister died. She was raped, you know—a few years before we moved here. She never was the same after. They took her to a lot of doctors, but she was mentally unstable and ended up taking her own life. Pills, I think. He was devastated. I was a mess, too, back then, and one day I told him about my dad. What he did. What I did. He didn’t blame me. Not after what happened to his sister. He understood that my father was a monster.”

  The sound of a car drew my attention. I wondered who it was now. Ridge finally catching up with us? Mia? Or maybe even Aiden? Mia had said he was trying to come home early. What if he was somehow involved? He’d been around at the time of the murder, too.

  Charlie peered out the window. “Police car,” he announced.

  “Must be Ridge.” I was relieved that it wasn’t Aiden or Mia. “I called him before I went to Bailey’s.” He was too late to do much good, but there was no time like the present to start pressing kidnapping charges against the Norrises.

  “I called him, too,” Gage said. “After I found the blood and the rope at Bailey’s.”

  Bailey gasped. “We need to leave.” Her fingers grasped at the sleeve of her brother’s shirt.

  Gage reached out and took her arm. “No more running, Bailey. I told you there’d be consequences. You need to face up to what you did.”

  “But it was him,” she hissed. “He’s the one I told about my father.”

  She’d told Ridge. Ridge, whose father had been the officer who closed the investigation into the death of Bailey’s father, deciding the Norrises weren’t guilty after all. Or maybe, influenced by his daughter’s suicide, he’d decided they’d been justified. He would have known about the poker, and he could have told Ridge.

  “Not Ridge.” Gage was shaking his head. “I’ve known him forever. He’s our friend, and he helped more than you can imagine with Mia that night.”

  “Then who else?” I demanded from them all. No one had an answer. I wanted to disappear and hide like Dylan, but I didn’t want to leave Gage.

  Ridge opened the door, the moonlight reflecting off the skin I could see through his cropped hair. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” Bailey said. Even I could see her smile was forced.

  “She kidnapped me,” I countered. “I want to file charges.”

  Bailey glared at me, but Gage nodded agreement. “You have to face it before you can put it behind you, Bailey.”

  “Kidnapping? Surely, that’s a mistake.” Ridge stepped up into the house, using his hands on the door frame to pull himself up from the broken step. His voice was casual, but as with Gage, I sensed something beneath the calm. I didn’t know him well enough to decipher what.

  “No mistake. She was planning to set fire to this house with me and Dylan in it.” I held up my bloody wrists. “We were tied up in the bedroom here.”

  Bailey stepped closer to Ridge. “She was going to blame Skeet’s death on Charlie! You know what reopening that investigation will mean.” She looked pleadingly at Ridge, who seemed to melt under her gaze. He put an arm around her, and she sagged against him. But it was all an act. I couldn’t miss the brief look of fear she gave him when he glanced away.

  “It’s all over now,” Gage soothed. “Look, we’re about to get Dylan and leave. Why don’t you escort Bailey and Charlie to the police station, and we’ll meet you there?”

  “I didn’t kill him,” Charlie said. “Skeet or my father. And I’ve only been doing what Bailey told me to tonight. I don’t want to go to the police station. They’ll give me a drug test.”

  I rolled my eyes. Leave it to Charlie to worry about his drugs.

  “No one thinks you killed Skeet,” Ridge said. “I believe it was because of the drug money he was carrying. If I’d had more experience then, I would have been able to convince the lead detective of that. Many people would kill for a lot less than five thousand dollars.”

  “It was ours,” retorted Charlie. “That’s why I took it back.” He paused a minute before adding, “How’d you know it was five thousand, anyway? Did Bailey tell you?”

  “Shut up, you idiot!” Bailey ordered.

  Everyone else had gone perfectly still.

  “Mia told us Skeet had money,” Ridge said. “And Tessa reminded me tonight when she left her message.”

  Gage took a step toward Ridge. “Mia never knew how much money. Skeet just waved it under her nose. There’s only one way you could have known—you were there.” He reached for the gun in his pocket, but Ridge beat him to it, drawing out his police revolver.

  “Don’t,” Ridge warned.

  “It was you,” Gage said. “You killed him. Why?”

  Ridge didn’t answer. “Slowly take out your gun and set it on the floor. Push it to me with your foot.” When Gage didn’t comply, he shifted the gun to my head, keeping his eyes on Gage. “Do it.”

  I began trembling. I’d never had a loaded gun pointed directly at me before. It was probably twice the size of Bailey’s smaller pistol.

  Gage did as he was told, the awkward movement of his body advertising his reluctance. Ridge bent down to retrieve the gun and tucked it into his pocket.

  “I couldn’t let Skeet get away with what he did to
Mia,” Ridge said. “I saw how much pain my sister endured after she was raped. Even with Aiden around, I knew Mia’s life would be hell. I had to do something for them—and for Bailey, too. She’d suffered enough without that creep blackmailing her anymore.”

  “You sent Gage to prison.” This from Bailey, who had taken a step away from him. “You took him away from me!”

  “I didn’t see you fighting for him,” Ridge retorted.

  “I had to protect Charlie.”

  Ridge shook his head. “You mean yourself.”

  Ah, so he’d reached the same conclusion I had.

  “When I confronted Skeet about Mia,” Ridge continued, “he accused me of being a hypocrite, of protecting a murderer. You, Bailey. But I knew you were the victim. I didn’t mean to actually kill Skeet, not at first. I just wanted to teach him a lesson before taking him in and booking him, but I realized he’d end up walking like too many others, and I got angry. Especially when he boasted about what he’d done to Mia. I hit him with that poker, the one I’d found earlier in his car. I did it for you, Bailey. For Mia and Aiden and my sister, Chloe. Even for Dylan. It was justice.” He smiled, shifting his eyes to Gage. “I thought you’d wake up and run away, and that because of the money his death would be attributed to drugs. I didn’t know Charlie would take the money or that you’d stay and call the police.”

  “Baloney,” I scoffed. “You wanted Gage to go to prison. You wanted Bailey for yourself.” As his eyes narrowed, I mentally slapped myself. Scoffing at a man who was pointing a gun at you is not exactly the wisest course of action. I needed to control myself, no matter how angry I was in Gage’s behalf.

  “Maybe,” Ridge said a little sadly. “Not that I ever had a chance with her. But tell me this, how can a lifetime of doing good, of helping those who are too weak to help themselves, be destroyed in a single moment, especially by scum like Skeet? I know what I did was wrong, but I also know he deserved what he got.”

  “Did Gage deserve to spend six years in prison for something he didn’t do?” I asked, my tone slightly subdued.

  Gage gave me a look that clearly ordered me to shut up. “You can make this right,” he told Ridge, taking a step and diverting Ridge’s attention from me. The gun now aimed at Gage’s chest.

  “The one and only thing I did in my entire life that was wrong,” Ridge continued as if we hadn’t spoken. “Back in high school I got my dad to back off Bailey and Charlie. Since becoming an officer, I’ve caught every rapist who ever committed a reported rape in my city. I made sure their arrests were solid. I’ve risked my life on too many drug cases to count. I’ve helped dozens of women free themselves from domestic violence. I’ve tracked drunk drivers to make sure they stay sober while they drive. I’ve gotten stupid cats down from trees, and once a child. All that has to say something about me, about who I really am. It can’t all mean nothing because of one stupid mistake.” I expected him to become emotional with this outburst, but all the words were calm. Premeditated. He’d planned what he’d say, perhaps for years.

  Gage took another step away from me. “Of course not, Ridge. You’ve done a lifetime of good. Don’t let that end tonight.”

  “I won’t.” Ridge gave us a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I want to continue to help people. That’s why I have to do this. I tried to warn Mia with the note, but she didn’t listen. This is her fault, really, if you want to blame someone.” He glanced at Charlie. “Take us to where you had Tessa tied up. Everyone, go in front of me, or I will start shooting.”

  He would kill us so he could continue doing good? He was insane—that was the only explanation for his behavior. Perhaps instability that had prevented his sister from recovering from her attack was genetic.

  Gage and I had no choice but to follow Charlie and Bailey back to the tiny bedroom. At least I hadn’t found Dylan. For now, he was still safe. Somewhere.

  “Charlie, tie up Tessa and Bailey.”

  “No,” Bailey whimpered. “Please, Ridge.”

  “I’m sorry, Bailey, but you’re the price I have to pay for my sins. Losing you will atone for it, and it will end your suffering. He will never love you like I do.” There was the slightest crack in Ridge’s voice, but beyond that, he remained calm.

  “He forgave me!” Bailey said, tears sliding down her cheeks.

  Ridge shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. You’re a murderer, and you aren’t capable of loving anyone but yourself. I should have understood that years ago. Fortunately, we will right that wrong tonight. You and Charlie will both pay.”

  “Whatcha talkin’ about?” Charlie growled. “I didn’t do nothin’.”

  “Shut up and tie them.”

  The cuts on my wrists burned as Charlie retied my rope. I felt more than saw Gage start to move, but the gun shifted to me again and stopped him in mid stride. Ridge checked my rope and was satisfied, but he made Charlie retie Bailey’s.

  “You shouldn’t have done that, Charlie. I can’t have her getting away before the fire, can I? And now it seems we have a problem. What to do about you and Gage? After all, there are no more ropes.” In a rapid movement, Ridge slammed his gun down on Charlie’s head with a sickening crack.

  Charlie crumpled without a sound. Bailey let out a sob.

  With a guttural roar, Gage launched himself at Ridge. They stumbled back, grappling for the gun. Gage was stronger, but Ridge was police trained. Plus, he was insane, which seemed not only to make him oblivious to pain but to give him additional strength. He brought up his knee, aiming for Gage’s groin. Gage punched him hard in the face. They slammed into the wall near the door, and the flimsy structure collapsed under the impact. The gun fell from Ridge’s hand and clattered out of reach.

  I prayed. There was nothing else I could do, as the men rolled around on the ground, fists pounding. I went to the end of the rope, almost able to see the entire living room now that much of the wall was missing.

  Ridge was on top, one fist aiming a blow. Gage arched and twisted, slithering out from under him and leaping to his feet. Ridge met him halfway, the two appearing locked in a strangely graceful dance as they exchanged powerful blows. Ridge stumbled back toward the outside door, breathing hard. Gage stepped toward him, every movement full of rage. Ridge took another step back. Was he going to run? Gage would never let him go.

  I started to breathe again.

  “You’ve learned a thing or two since we wrestled in high school,” Ridge said, a note of admiration in his voice.

  “You learn a lot in prison,” Gage spat.

  “Not enough, apparently.” Ridge brought out Bailey’s gun that he’d taken from Gage earlier.

  My heart sank.

  Gage lunged, and Ridge fired. Gage’s body jerked.

  “No!” I cried.

  I couldn’t see where the bullet had entered or how much damage had been done, but Gage was still in motion, hammering into Ridge with his fists and body. Ridge fell to the ground, his head making a solid popping sound as it collided with the old hardwood floor. The gun skittered away from them. Gage fell on top of Ridge, and I couldn’t tell if it was on purpose or it he’d collapsed. The light was too dim for me see if there was much blood.

  Gage raised his fist, and it slammed again into Ridge’s face.

  “You’ll all go with me!” Ridge reached up his hand and jerked the chair holding the kerosene lamp. It fell to the ground. For a second nothing happened, and then flames burst out on the old curtains. I heard a light whooshing sound as the fire eagerly rushed up the ready tinder. Just the beginning. The whole place would be devoured within minutes.

  Gage punched Ridge again, and his body went slack.

  The fire crackled as Gage pushed himself to his feet. He took two steps toward me and stopped. With effort, he lifted his foot again, teetering.

  He fell.

  “Gage!” I screamed.

  No answer.

  Fire licked across the ceiling.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN


  I had to do something or we would all die. I looked around me, searching for an answer. Bailey was kneeling next to Charlie, patting his cheek. “Charlie, Charlie. Wake up.” She repeated the pitiful request like a litany.

  I thought about helping her. If we could get him up, he might free us.

  Or he might free Bailey and leave the rest of us to feed the fire.

  Better to find another plan, though what I could do in my tied-up, wounded condition escaped me.

  Wounded.

  That’s when I remembered the glass falling from the window and cutting my leg. Collapsing to my knees, I dived under the bed where I’d shoved it with my foot, cutting my fingers as I lifted it. Apparently sharp enough. I wedged it under the rope on my wrist, and something warm dripped down into my left hand. My brain registered pain, but I had to keep pushing.

  Beside me, Bailey was sobbing. Not so fun when you’re the captive, is it? I wanted to taunt, but my wrist hurt too much, and I was too worried about Gage. And Dylan. If he’d hidden upstairs, I might not free myself in time.

  Besides, if I said anything to Bailey, I might lose all my nerve and collapse in a shivering lump of fear.

  The rope parted at last, and I dropped the glass before I did more damage. My entire hand was running with blood, but I wrapped it in the bottom of my T-shirt and pressed it against my stomach.

  “Don’t leave me here,” Bailey whined. “Please.”

  I had no choice but to pick up the glass again and work on her ropes. No choice because I wasn’t a monster, and I didn’t want to be the cause of her death. I sliced her ropes more cleanly than I had my own, not even scratching her with the glass.

  “You have to help me with Gage,” I told her. “I’ve hurt my wrist, and I don’t know if I can carry him alone. Once we get him out, you come back for Charlie while I search for Dylan. He’s hiding in the house somewhere.”

  I didn’t wait for her reply but hurried to where Gage had fallen. The sound of the fire was louder here, crackling merrily as if happy to be freed from its long prison. My face grew instantly hot. Near the window, only feet away from Gage, Ridge’s body was aflame. My stomach twisted at the terrible sight, but there was nothing I could do for him.