Secrets Gone South (Crimson Romance)

by Pace, Alicia Hunter

  “Only about seven times. I think I’m going to drive out to the woods. I’m afraid he might have hurt himself.” He didn’t use many power tools but hand tools could do damage too. They’d seen evidence of that. And, oh God! He’d been talking about harvesting an oak to cure before the weather got warm, something about the bark staying on. He would use a chain saw for that. What if he’d decided to do that and he was lying in the woods bleeding or crushed?

  Luke took her hand. “Arabelle, maybe he decided not to come.”

  “Not possible.” She shook her head.

  “Look. Will is living in misery. Even I can see that. Maybe he decided he just couldn’t take this today, with all these people around and the parents here. You know how they like him.”

  Her heart convulsed. To think she’d been jealous of the only parental love Will had ever known.

  “No, Luke. You don’t understand how important this birthday party is to Will. There’s nothing that would keep him away.”

  Luke considered this for a moment and then nodded. “Okay. Do you want me to go check on him?”

  “No. I need to go. Can you just help hold down the fort here? Ask Lanie and the book club girls to play hostess?”

  “Sure. Call me if you need me.”

  Arabelle half expected to meet Will on the road. At least that’s what she told herself. Deep down, she knew nothing short of disaster would have made him late for his son’s party.

  She didn’t know whether to be relieved or more alarmed when she saw his truck parked at the shop. Maybe he’d just gotten caught up in some project. Unlikely, but she wanted that to be true. Hmm. There was a car she didn’t recognize. Maybe it was a potential customer and he couldn’t get away—though it was hard to imagine Will letting that happen.

  Since someone was here, it was less likely he was hurt. Unless he’d called for help.

  She ran to the shop door and tried to open it. Locked. Why would he have locked the door if he was inside?

  “Will!” She banged on the door with her fist. “Will, are you in there? Open the door.”

  She could hear talking and footsteps. After an eternity, the door opened and he stood there, nonchalant and grim all at the same time.

  “Thank God!” It was all she could do to keep herself from throwing her arms around him but that needed to wait. There was too much that had to be said. “I thought something had happened to you!”

  “Why did you think that?” he asked but he didn’t step aside to let her in.

  What? “The party … ” she stammered. “You’re late … the puppet show. It’s already—”

  “I decided not to come,” he said.

  How was that possible? “But Avery—he’s asking for you.”

  Will put up a hand. “Quiet, Arabelle. You need to listen. Don’t talk anymore. Since we’re through with this marriage, I’ve decided I need to be through with Avery, too. It was a mistake from the start. I only married you because I was confused.”

  That’s when Arabelle saw her. Aspen Snow was standing hidden directly behind Will. Had she not peeped around his shoulder, she would have remained hidden.

  “Hello, Will’s doctor not-wife anymore,” she said in a sing-song voice.

  “Hello, Aspen.” Clearly, she’d flushed her meds again.

  Will said, “So, Arabelle, you need to go and right now. I’ve realized the true love of my life. The only baby I could be interested in would be my own, the one I will have with Aspen.”

  Cold fear went through her. “I see,” she said. She could see in Will’s eyes what it cost him—he who never lied—to say such a thing. She should have told him about Aspen, should have warned him. Even if it meant losing her license and going to jail. Just one more thing she couldn’t get back.

  “So you need to go,” Will repeated. “I don’t want to talk to you or see you again.” For a long second his eyes bored into hers. How could she leave him here with this mad woman? Did she have a gun? A bomb? What? “Really,” Will said softly. “It’s best that you go. Trust me.”

  She fled as fast as she could. She drove until she was sure she was out of sight and pulled off the road into the woods. Please answer your phone, Luke! Please remember you said to call if I needed you.

  And he did, on the first ring. “Arabelle? What is it?”

  “Something is very wrong out here. You need to call Rayford Stumps.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  In the time that they were together, Will had never seen Aspen like this—not even close.

  He knew he should have been afraid but, truthfully, it was hard to be scared when he just felt he’d ridden the Polar Express to Oz via Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Although he had been afraid, terrified, in fact, while Arabelle was here. He’d been afraid that Aspen would decide that Arabelle should come on in and join the party. And he’d been right.

  Arabelle had no more than pulled away in her car when Aspen said, “I should have made her come in here.” Like he would have let that happen. Aspen alternated between holding the gun on him and waving it around. He’d considered trying to take it from her but as sure as he did somebody was going it get shot, probably him. Aspen went on, “Will, get her back.”

  “I can’t,” he said patiently. “She’s already gone.”

  “Call her,” Aspen insisted.

  “I can’t,” Will said. “Even if you hadn’t taken my phone, I don’t know her number and you deleted it when she texted me earlier. Besides, why do you want her here?”

  She frowned. “That’s how it’s done. I’ve seen lots of movies where people like me are trying to get people like you to see the truth of something. There are always hostages.”

  Oh, yes. That’s how it’s done. That wasn’t the first time she’d said that today.

  “Aspen, you’ve already made me see the truth of things. I told you Arabelle and I are through. You heard me tell her to leave. Why do we still need that gun waving around?”

  She looked at the gun. “There’s always a gun.”

  “Yeah? Always? Who do you want to shoot here? Yourself? That’s no good. Me? You say you love me. We can’t be together if you shoot one of us.”

  She frowned. For a moment, he thought she might give the gun up. Then she brightened. “See, I don’t want to shoot you. I would never hurt my Will. But they don’t know that.” She pointed out the window.

  “Who? Who doesn’t know?”

  “Them. The people. If I don’t have a gun they won’t give us a helicopter.”

  “Why do we need a helicopter, Aspen?”

  “To take us to the airport.”

  “And why do we need to go to the airport?”

  “To get on the private plane they’re going to give us to make our escape.”

  “Why are we escaping, Aspen? You and I have decided we’re going to be together. Arabelle is gone. We can stay right here. We don’t need a helicopter.” She was waving that gun around again like it was a cheerleader’s pompom. “And we don’t need a gun.”

  “Yes, we do, Will.” She turned the gun on him again. “That’s how it’s done.”

  Holy Hannibal. Surreal didn’t begin to describe this. “Where are we escaping to, Aspen?”

  “Ottawa.” Good. She wasn’t holding the gun on him anymore. She was pointing to where she must have imagined was north. It was not.

  “You like Ottawa, do you?” Maybe if he kept her talking, he could get the gun. Doubtful, though. A turkey shoot champion did not give up her gun without a fight. Or a turkey. He wasn’t willing to have a fight and he was fresh out of turkeys. “Have you been to Ottawa?”

  She shrugged. “I saw it on the travel channel. It looked nice. Besides I like saying it. Ott-a-wa. Ott-a-wa.”

  “Are we staying in Ottawa, Aspen? Or are we ever coming back here?”

  She squinted her eyes in thought. “I don’t know. I can’t remember a movie that ever told that … ”

  Oops. Wrong path to lead her down. All he needed was for
her to remember that those movies always ended in an arrest or a couple of dead bodies. Or both.

  “Well, that doesn’t matter!” He clapped his hands together to match the false glee in his voice. “We can figure that out later. I’m pretty excited about going to Ottawa. In fact, I can’t wait.”

  That got a smile out of her. “Then let’s get moving! We need to tell them to get us that helicopter.” She gestured to the outdoors with her gun.

  “Who?” he had to ask. Please, God, don’t let her think that squirrels have cell phones and the power to call in a helicopter.

  “The people out there,” Aspen said patiently.

  “Aspen, there are no people out there. It’s just you and me. We’re the only ones here.”

  She flew to the window. “There are always people gathered around in a hostage situation!”

  Dear Lord. Why couldn’t he muster up anything but fascination and mild boredom? He should be petrified. She was probably going to shoot him soon, maybe on purpose, maybe by accident. Either way, he’d be just as dead. He’d probably die, still just fascinated and bored.

  Aspen spun around wild-eyed. “We’ve got to get some people! We need policemen and fire trucks. A bomb squad!”

  “Do you have a bomb?”

  She laughed. “Of course not! I would never bomb something. I don’t even know where to buy one. But they don’t know that.”

  He knew better than to ask her again who they were.

  She whipped her cell phone out of her pocket and hit a button. “911? This is Aspen Crystal Snow. I’ve got a hostage situation out here. I need to talk to the chief of police. Patch him through or I’m going to kill Will Garrett.”

  With that she pointed the gun at him, winked, and blew him a kiss. She put her hand over the phone and whispered, “Rayford Stumps will get me what I want! He loves me. I know because he bought me an ice cream cone one time when I was little.”

  Then she held the phone away from her ear and looked deep into Will’s eyes. She looked a little less manic and he thought that might be a good thing—until she spoke. “You know, Will, I wouldn’t really kill you—unless I found out you were lying about loving me. I know we’re fated to be together. If you deny that, you might as well be dead. I wouldn’t kill myself because I would want our love to keep living and that’s the only way it could. But I’d kill you. And I’d kill Arabelle, too.”

  And he was no longer fascinated or bored.

  • • •

  “Are you certain she had a gun, Arabelle?” Rayford Stumps asked.

  “No. I’m not certain but she was holding him there somehow.” She and Luke were sitting in Rayford’s squad car in the woods in the same spot where she’d parked her car.

  “I don’t want to insult you, Arabelle. Or Will. But you just told me y’all had separated and you’ve been married no time. Is there any possibility that what Will said is true? Maybe he does want to go back to Aspen. They dated a while back.”

  “I’m sure,” she said.

  “Rayford,” Luke said. “I can’t swear Will hasn’t gone back to his old girlfriend but I do know he wouldn’t have said such cruel things to my sister unless he was forced or trying to get her away from there to keep her safe.”

  “I tend to agree, Judge,” Rayford said. “It sure doesn’t sound like Will Garrett. But you can see the spot I’m in. I’ve got nothing here.”

  Luke nodded but Arabelle wanted to scream.

  “Can’t you just go knock on the door? Like you’ve dropped by to say hello?” Arabelle asked. “With your hand on your gun, of course.”

  “An excellent way to get Will shot, if she’s got a gun. Which she probably does.”

  “Then what?” Luke said.

  “I’m thinking,” Rayford said. A cell phone rang and all three of them jumped to answer. It was Rayford’s. “Okay.” He looked from Luke to Arabelle. “Aspen Snow, huh? Patch her through. Hello, Aspen.”

  Rayford only nodded, listened, and grunted an affirmative answer now and then. Why, oh, why did he not put it on speakerphone? Didn’t he know she was dying here?

  Finally he hung up. “Well, we’ve got something now. She’s threatened to kill Will and hinted that Arabelle might not be entirely safe. It’s hard to tell if she means it or if she’s pretending. Seems like she’s trying to re-enact a hostage situation like she’s seen in movies. She wants a big crowd, a helicopter, a fire truck, and a TV crew. Bullhorns, for St. Peter’s sake. Said it wasn’t a hostage situation without a bullhorn.” He closed his eyes. “And for some reason, she’s got to have someone serving coffee and food to the crowd.”

  “Sounds like we need an ambulance and a straitjacket,” Luke said.

  Rayford nodded and started pressing buttons on his phone.

  “You’re going home,” Luke said to Arabelle.

  “You’re right,” Arabelle said. “Unless you’re talking about the farmhouse. Then, not even close.”

  “All right, thanks,” Rayford said into the phone and hung up.

  “Are you going to do as she asked?” Arabelle asked.

  Rayford nodded. “Except the crowd. I can’t put innocent people at risk.”

  • • •

  The crowd came anyway. If there had been more police officers in Merritt, there might have been a roadblock to keep the citizens out but, as it was, every officer in the county was gathered around Rayford a little distance from where Luke and Arabelle were standing but within sight of Will’s shop. “Let’s give her what she wants to see,” he’d said.

  Word had spread and the first civilian vehicle to arrive was Senator Sanders Avery’s Cadillac Escalade. The senator was the first to emerge but he was closely followed by Harris Bragg, Brantley Kincaid, and Nathan Scott.

  Within seconds, the senator gathered Luke and her to him like he’d done when they were children.

  “Now.” He backed off and looked from Luke to Arabelle. “You mother has instructed me to send you both back to the farmhouse right now. She means it.”

  Arabelle shook her head.

  “I’ve tried,” Luke said. “She’s not going and neither am I.”

  By then Harris, Brantley, Nathan, and Rayford Stumps had stepped up.

  “Chief.” The senator offered his hand and the two men shook. “I’ve got a SWAT team on the way from Birmingham. They want you to wait until they get here to do anything.”

  “Thank you for that and we’ll be glad to have their help if we haven’t resolved this by the time they get here but—all due respect—my men and I are getting him out of there. I’ve been to police school. We know what we’re doing.”

  “I know you do, Rayford. Just delivering the message.”

  “Crap Almighty!” Nathan yelled as he looked off in the distance.

  “Hell and double hell!” Brantley joined in.

  Arabelle looked over her shoulder. Missy Bragg parked her SUV beside the Escalade at the top of the hill and she, Lanie, Tolly, and Lucy piled out and began to run.

  “Damn!” Harris said. “I told her to stay put! When is that woman ever going to do one thing I ask her to do?”

  “I’d like to know that, too,” Luke said his eyes bearing down on Lanie as she reached the bottom of the hill.

  “Never, son,” the senator said. “The only reason your mother isn’t here is because a passel of preschoolers couldn’t be left to make their own party. All those parents are on their way here, too. That girl wants to see a crowd, she’s getting one.”

  And suddenly Arabelle was enveloped in four sets of warm arms and the whispers of comfort started.

  “We’ve got you.”

  “We love you.”

  “It’ll be fine.”

  “We’re here to be strong for you.”

  “You shouldn’t be here,” Arabelle said. “It’s dangerous.”

  Missy drew back and met her eyes. “I can catch bullets in my teeth. It’s a pastime of mine.”

  Through her terror, Arabelle accepted the comfort and
the love. Would Carrie and Sheridan have stood with her like this? Without question. But they weren’t here anymore and it wasn’t wrong or disloyal to want this. She knew that now.

  “He has to be all right,” Arabelle said. “I can’t bury another piece of my heart.” It had been so long since she’d shared an emotion that she could scarcely believed the words had come out of her mouth. The arms tightened around her.

  “He’s going to be fine,” Lanie said. “I know it.”

  “Just in case we need a little extra insurance,” Tolly said, “I’m making a deal with the universe right now. When he walks away unscathed, we’re going to be a good book club. We’re going to read books. All of us, every month. And we’re going to discuss them before we start drinking. Agreed?”

  “Yes,” Lanie said.

  “I don’t see what it would hurt to drink while we discuss,” Missy said.

  “What do I care? I can’t drink right now anyway,” Lucy said.

  “Speaking of people who shouldn’t be here,” Rayford said.

  Arabelle looked up to see that the book club husbands had made a tight ring around their wives and her father was standing with Rayford in front of all of them.

  “Senator,” Rayford went on, “I’d really like to get you to a safe place. I’d prefer that you go back home. Failing that, I’d like to see you go sit in my squad car.”

  “Rayford, I’ve got four children here—two by birth and two by marriage. One can’t leave and the other three won’t. If a bullet comes in this direction, I’m going to do my damnedest to catch it. What would you do?”

  “What you’re set on doing, I reckon. I got no time to deal with stubborn people.” He turned to Arabelle. “There’s a door at the back of the shop. Tell me where it leads; give me a layout of the building.”

  She froze. She hadn’t even known there was another door. She’d only been in the shop one time to take Will a cup of coffee, not realizing he had a coffeemaker and refrigerator down there. She’d never gone again. She was no help! None. The one question that any wife should have been able to answer, she couldn’t.

  “Rayford, I don’t know! I should but I don’t! I can’t—”