Secrets Gone South (Crimson Romance)

by Pace, Alicia Hunter

  “Hush.” A strong hand snaked though her comfort wall to land on her shoulder. “I know,” Brantley said. “I know every inch of that building.”

  As Brantley sketched out how the back door led to the lumber curing room, more vehicles arrived. Dr. Vines, Father Gregory from church, Kelly, and so many others—all because they cared for Will, and maybe for her a little, too. There were two fire trucks, an ambulance, and the TV crew Aspen had demanded. Lou Anne drove up in the diner van. She had picked up Sandy and they set up a table with drinks and food.

  “And, Brantley, you say that the door from the curing room to the rest of the workshop is always closed? Are you sure?”

  Brantley nodded. “And locked from the inside, so somebody can’t just walk in and mess with his lumber. It takes years to cure because Will does it the old-fashioned way, without a kiln. That’s because—” Then Brantley closed his eyes and shook his head. “Never mind. You don’t need to know all that. The door will be locked from the shop, though Will has a key. But once you’re in the curing room, you won’t need a key to get to where they are. It’s not a deadbolt.”

  Rayford nodded. “The layout is to our advantage, assuming they haven’t gone in the curing room. I hope that back door lock is easy to pick.”

  “Wait,” Arabelle said. Maybe she could be of some help. “There’s an extra set of keys in the house.” She had not given her house key back to Will, thank goodness. She pulled her key ring out of her pocket and handed it to Rayford. “There’s a keyboard in the pantry off the kitchen. You’ll see it. It’s labeled.”

  “What now?” Luke asked as he ran his hands up and down Lanie’s arms.

  “Sit tight,” Rayford said as he turned to walk away. “She said she’d call when things are like they’re supposed to be. Whatever that means.”

  Arms tightened; husbands begged wives to leave; wives refused. Doors slammed. A reporter tried to interview Arabelle but was chased away by Nathan.

  Time crept and her terror escalated. Without the arms around her, she might not have been able to stand. Will didn’t even know he held her heart, didn’t even know how she felt.

  This was taking an eternity. “I can’t stand this,” Arabelle said to no one in particular.

  “I know,” Lanie said with more compassion than she would ever deserve.

  “Rayford knows what he’s doing,” Tolly said.

  “Just hang on. We’ll help you stand it,” Lucy promised.

  “You’ll stand it because you have to!” Missy said without a lot of kindness. “Standing it is the only choice. Got that?”

  She had a point. “Yes.”

  “Now,” Missy said, “is it safe to assume after all this foolishness is over, you’re going to patch things up with Will?”

  “If he’ll have me.” And that wasn’t a given, was it?

  “Arabelle!” Lanie said. “Here comes Rayford and he’s on the phone!”

  Rayford waved them quiet. “A bullhorn? Sure. We’ve already put one right outside the door for you. No. There isn’t anyone near the door. Okay. I’ll tell them. But I don’t see why we can’t just talk on the phone.”

  Then Rayford looked at his phone and turned it off. “She doesn’t want to talk on the phone. They use bullhorns in the movies.” He raised his own bullhorn to his mouth. “Everyone back away from the shop. No closer than thirty feet.”

  “There is no one closer than thirty feet,” Nathan said.

  Rayford shrugged. The door opened just a crack, a hand darted out, captured the bullhorn, and disappeared back inside.

  “How does she intend to make herself heard without coming outside?” Luke asked.

  “She’ll probably break a window,” Harris said. “That’s what they’d do in the movies.”

  There was a crash and the bullhorn appeared in the window.

  “Told you,” Harris said.

  “Bet that pissed Will off,” Brantley said. “He does not like his stuff messed up.”

  “It’d be art if Avery broke it. Somehow, he’d get it in a museum somewhere,” Lucy said. “Study in Shatters by Avery Garrett, child prodigy.”

  But would Will ever see Avery again? How would Arabelle ever make Avery understand? Her knees began to give way and Missy grabbed her by the waist. “Not now, Arabelle. Later. When it’s over. And it will be over. And Will is going to walk out of there. I say so.”

  “Rayford!” Aspen’s voice resonated. “Testing one, two, three. Can you hear me?”

  “I can, Aspen. Loud and clear. Can you hear me?”

  “Sure! You sound great! How are you?”

  “I’m a little busy here. Are y’all okay in there?”

  “Oh, yes. My Will and I are cozy as can be. Is my helicopter here?”

  “Not yet,” Rayford said. “It’s on its way. You know we don’t have helicopters in Merritt. We had to send for it. Now, Aspen, you know how this works in the movies. We got your crowd, your TV cameras, and all the rest. Now you have to give us something.”

  “I can’t send out a hostage, Rayford. I only have one. Then where would I be? Also, I’m not trading him for you or anyone else. I’m going to keep him.”

  “I understand. But we still need something. We need to see him. We need to know he’s okay.”

  “He’s okay,” she said.

  “I’m sure he is. Just let him stand in the door so we can see. Give him the bullhorn. Let him speak to us.”

  “I don’t know. What if he runs?”

  “You can shoot him,” Rayford said, “and we can all go home.”

  What? “Rayford!” Arabelle said. “Are you as crazy as she is?”

  Rayford covered his bullhorn. “Not even close.”

  “I don’t like this game,” Aspen said. “You need to send me some more hostages before I let you see Will.”

  “Not how it works, Aspen. You know that. You’ve gotten everything you’ve asked for. Did you see the nice table Lou Anne and Sandy have out here? With coffee, sandwiches, and cookies for everyone? Let me see Will or I’m turning that helicopter around. You’ve got thirty seconds.”

  Aspen didn’t reply but the door opened and Will appeared—with Aspen’s gun held to Will’s head. Knowing it and seeing it were two different things.

  You will not faint! You did not faint when Carrie and Jake died. You did not faint when you handed over your baby. You did not even faint when you thought Avery had died on that plane with Sheridan and David and you will not faint now! He hasn’t been shot yet. Remember that.

  “Are you hurt, Will?” Rayford asked. “Aspen, give him the bullhorn.”

  “We could probably hear him without it,” Brantley said.

  “You dumbass,” Harris said. “Haven’t you figured it out yet? It’s got to be like a movie.”

  A little anger went through Arabelle. Did they think this was a joke? Then she remembered they, particularly Brantley, were Will’s friends. Maybe this was their way of coping.

  Aspen handed Will the bullhorn. “I’m fine,” Will said. “I’m just enjoying my time here with Aspen. Waiting on the helicopter so we can go to Ottawa.”

  Will’s voice had a calming effect on Arabelle, bought her maybe eleven more minutes of sanity, maybe nine.

  Aspen jerked the bullhorn from him. “Will! You aren’t supposed to tell where we’re going. Now we have to change!” And they disappeared back inside.

  “Look!” Missy whispered and pointed.

  A group of policemen were going into the woods. They were a far distance from the shop but that must mean they had the key and were cutting a wide circle to get to the back of the shop. So it would start soon. Arabelle didn’t think her heart could beat any faster.

  The bullhorn appeared in the window again. “Just so you know. Will and I have a new plan and it’s not Ottawa. It’s a secret. We’re only telling the pilot. Is my plane ready?”

  “Ready and waiting at the Birmingham airport,” Rayford said.

  “I’ve decided it’s time for you to
give me another hostage. And I know who it is. Send Arabelle in here. I want to talk to her.”

  Yes! “Let me go!” she said. If she could just get in there, she could get control.

  No one even bothered to answer her.

  “Not going to happen, Aspen. Arabelle is a state senator’s daughter. If I get her killed, I’ll lose my job. You’ll go to prison. Probably, I’ll go to prison. Not happening.”

  “I can go!” She tried to break away from her comforters and realized they were now her captors. The husbands moved in closer.

  “Don’t make me handcuff you to your brother and Harris Bragg,” Rayford said aside. He picked up the bullhorn again. “Aspen, you can talk to Arabelle from where you are. I’ll give her this bullhorn so you can hear her. It’ll give me a chance to check on the helicopter.”

  There was a moment of silence. Then Aspen answered. “Okay. I guess that would happen.”

  Rayford covered the bullhorn. “Okay, Arabelle. I need you to keep her talking, keep her at that window. My men are waiting on me. Remember, keep her talking. Can you do that?”

  She took the bullhorn. “I can do whatever I have to.” And in that moment she knew she could.

  “I’ve got Will in here,” Aspen said.

  “I know you do,” Arabelle answered. “I saw him earlier. Remember?”

  “I’ve got him now. I’ve got him back.”

  “You’re lucky. He’s a good man.”

  “He doesn’t want you and your little boy anymore. He wants me. We’re going to have our own baby.”

  Even knowing the mental state of this woman, that was hard to hear, hard to respond to. But she would because she had to keep her at the window.

  “I’m sure you’ll be a wonderful mother. I know he’ll be a good father. Avery could have had no better daddy for the time he had Will. But we understand. Will has to go with his heart. And Avery and I know that’s you.”

  “It is, Arabelle. It really is. But he used to want you. Back when we were together before, he’d say your name when he was asleep.” Could that be true? Or was it just more delusional talk? “I didn’t know who you were. I thought maybe Arabelle was some Disney Princess that I’d never heard of but then I thought that couldn’t be. I know all the Disney Princesses. There is no Arabelle.”

  “Uh. No. No.” What was there to say to that? Think! “I was named for my Great Aunt Arabelle. She was my mother’s favorite aunt. She believed that all children should go to school together and have the same opportunities when not very many people believed that. I’m proud to be named for her.”

  “I’m named for a city,” she said with a sigh. “Where it snows. On account of my last name is Snow. People make fun of my name.”

  “That’s very mean. People shouldn’t make fun of your name or anything about you. You have a lovely name, a lovely smile, and beautiful hair and eyes.” To her surprise, Arabelle meant those things and she felt the tears come. For someone who hadn’t been able to cry, she was making up for lost time. “And you know what else, Aspen? You are a very good judge of character. You’ve chosen to love the very best man I’ve ever known. And that’s saying a lot because my brother and my daddy are really good men and I’ve known them a long time.”

  The arms around her dropped and she felt herself being enveloped in two other pairs of arms, the safe, sweet, familiar arms that she had not been able to trust lately but did again.

  Luke bent his head to hers. “You’re doing great. Really great.” Yet another wave of shame hit her. How could she have blamed him for making a new life, for loving Lanie?

  “Keep talking, sweetheart,” the senator whispered in her other ear. “Let’s get Will out of there.”

  Her mind went blank but that was okay because Aspen spoke again. “Do you know my cousins, Arabelle? Flint and Erie?”

  “I know Erie a little. I saw Flint.” Come to think of it, where were they?

  “They love me like you love your brother and daddy.”

  “I know they do.”

  “They didn’t want me to come here today. They thought it was a really bad idea.”

  Oh, no. Please, God. Don’t let her have done something terrible.

  “Aspen, where are your cousins?”

  “Well, see, that’s what I need some help from you for. I had to get away from them so I could come get my Will. So I tricked them into the room with the computer in it, the one without windows. Well, the room doesn’t have windows. The computer does.” She laughed at her own joke and Arabelle forced herself to join in, terrified of what the girl would say next.

  It seemed the whole crowd held a collective breath.

  “What did you do to get away, Aspen?” She dreaded the answer but they had to know.

  “Well,” she said with pride. “You’re going to think this is very smart of me. First I stole their phones. Then I closed the door and shoved a dresser in front of it. I had Flint’s nail gun ready so I could nail the door shut all the way around really fast. They’ll never get out without help. Ever. And before I left—I almost didn’t think of this part—I cut the cable outside so they couldn’t send any emails.”

  Relief set in, at least on some level. She hadn’t killed them.

  “That was very smart of you, Aspen. I don’t think I would have thought of that.”

  “And you’re real smart, being a doctor and all.”

  “Well, thank you, Aspen. What is it you want me to do about Flint and Erie?”

  “Can you go over and un-nail the door, once Will and I are gone?”

  “Sure. I’ll be happy to.”

  “That should be soon. I wonder where the helicopter is? Hey. Where’s Rayford?”

  Arabelle opened her mouth to say he was checking on it but there was a scream, a dropped bullhorn—and a gunshot.

  She began to run. No book club girl, book club husband, brother, or senator daddy could have stopped her.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Arabelle, no!” Luke was hot on her trail. “We don’t know what’s happened.”

  She didn’t care. She was going in that shop, even if she had to steal an axe from one of those fire trucks and chop down the door. She’d gnaw through the wood with her teeth or steal Rayford’s gun and shoot the lock.

  She stopped in front of the door and raised her fists to pummel it but, miraculously, it opened.

  And Will stepped out.

  She screamed a primal hysterical scream and began to run her hands over him.

  “Are you hurt? Did she shoot you? Let me see! There was a gunshot.”

  He caught her hands. “I’m fine, Arabelle. I’m okay. When they grabbed her, Aspen’s gun went off. The bullet landed right in the middle of a cross on a section of that altar I’ve been working on.”

  He was okay. He would live. “And Aspen?” she asked. “They didn’t hurt her? Please, don’t let them have hurt her.”

  “No,” Will said and took her in his arms. “The EMTs have got her. They’ll take care of her.”

  “I was so scared,” she said.

  “I know.” He started to move her toward the steps. “Let’s get you back to the farmhouse and into bed. I’ll call Dr. Vines to check on you.”

  And suddenly, she was calm again. “No.” And she knew what she had to do.

  Will looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

  “I have some things to say and I’m going to say them while I’ve got a bullhorn, a TV camera, and all these witnesses.”

  “Arabelle—”

  “No.” She continued to speak into the bullhorn. “You’re about to tell me it’s been a bad day and I don’t need to make any proclamations. Well, it has been a bad day but it’s been a bad few weeks, too. We had plenty of bad before but it’s been hell ever since you said you couldn’t forgive me and we had to separate.”

  “Arabelle, please don’t—”

  “Will Garrett, will you shut up and let me speak? I can remember a couple of times when you were bound to have your say so don�
�t interrupt me again.”

  His eyes scanned the silent, still crowd but then he looked back at her and nodded.

  “You are a sweet, forgiving man but you couldn’t forgive me for keeping your son from you. And I know why. You couldn’t forgive me because I wasn’t sorry.” A gasp when through the crowd and she turned to them. “That’s right. Avery is my biological child—mine and Will’s. While you all thought I was at Doctors Without Borders I was in Switzerland having Avery. I tried to tell Will once but I didn’t try hard enough. I gave my baby up for adoption because I thought it was best for him. Then something horrible happened and I got a second chance.”

  “Arabelle! Darling!” Her father was coming toward her with his arms open.

  “Hush, Daddy! Luke, stay back. Lanie, I love you. I do. You’re my sister. But I’m up here straightening out my life and I’ll get to you and that nosey book club later. That’s right.” She looked from Tolly to Lucy to Missy. “I’m one of you now so I can say rude things about you like you say about each other.”

  She turned back to Will. “You were right. After I got Avery back, got my second chance, I would have done anything to keep you from finding out. I was only sorry I got caught. But I’m sorry now. I was a fool. You’re the best father a boy could have.”

  Will shook his head. “I’m not sure—”

  “Be sure. Because it’s true. But there’s something you’re wrong about—it was about why I never wanted anyone to know Avery was mine. I never bothered to tell you the truth even though it’s something you would have understood. You think I wanted to keep the secret because I was afraid of what people would think about me having an illegitimate child. It was never that. I was afraid that if Avery ever found out that I’d thrown him away, he’d hate me.”

  “Oh, angel girl.” Will pulled her against him and she let him. “He could never hate you. And you didn’t throw him away. I’ve been doing some thinking. You were alone and scared. You did what you thought was best at the time. I’ve made mistakes too. I was way too hard on you about it.”

  “It was wrong. I can’t undo it but I can be sorry.”

  “I have things I wasn’t sorry for too but I am now. I knew you were grieving for your friends and your lost time with Avery but I never tried to help you at all. I thought I was the only one who’d lost anything.” He smiled that sweet dimpled smile. “I think we’ve both been too concerned with what we’ve lost to appreciate what we have.”