Zoe stood in the doorway between the two with her hand on the gun.
“I got this,” she said again. “I can keep an eye on two thugs. Go.”
Alex ran.
* * *
Theresa’s hand brushed the doorknob of Josh’s family cottage. Mandy’s footprints led up to the threshold.
“Mandy?” Theresa called. She pulled the door open slowly and stepped inside. Her heart beat in her chest. The hallway was empty. The kitchen was, too.
“In here,” Mandy called.
Theresa followed the sound into a large, tidy living room. Mandy knelt on the floor. Theresa stepped toward her. “I realize you were scared and I don’t blame you. But you can’t just run off like that. It’s not safe.”
Mandy looked up at her. Books and knickknacks lay scattered on the floor around her. There was a tartan tablecloth in her hands.
“I found it,” Mandy said again. “I don’t know how many times I’ve been in here and didn’t even realize it was here.” She set the tablecloth down on the floor. “I’ve been wondering all this time what was going on and what Tanner was talking about. Now I get it.”
Theresa stepped around the table. Sunlight fell over the beautiful carved wooden box at her feet. Her heart leaped. It was her hope chest.
“This was about you all the time,” Mandy’s hands ran over the wood. “Tanner said you might be the only person who knew about the trunk, which is why I tried to lure you up here. Because it’s your box.”
Theresa stepped forward slowly as the box came into view. The trunk that people were ransacking cottages and killing over was her old hope chest? No wonder they’d seemed so convinced she’d know something about it.
“I had no idea,” Theresa said. “This never even crossed my mind. I guess they didn’t know the difference between a chest and a trunk. Plus I haven’t thought about this in ages.”
Mandy opened it slowly. There, on top of her trousseau, sat a large messenger bag. She reached for it. But Mandy picked it up and opened the clasp. Envelopes, big and small, filled the inside. Zoe had told her that people on the lake had left cards as a message of hope that she and Alex would one day find their way back to each other. But her happiness and unexpected gratitude over that clashed with the knowledge that people had been willing to hurt others, ransack and kill for them.
However much money was in these envelopes, it couldn’t be enough to kill for. The words she’d told Alex echoed back in her mind. People kill for all sorts of reasons—desperation, fear, love, jealousy, hate. Something dark flickered in Mandy’s eyes. Which one was this?
“Let me have those.” Theresa stretched her hand out and reached for it. “They’re mine and Alex’s, not yours.”
“No.” Mandy shoved the letters back into the messenger bag and stood. She clutched it to her chest. “Tanner told me about this. He told me to come up here and find it. He said it would give us what we needed to start a new life together.”
Sympathy lurched inside Theresa. But when she spoke, her voice was firm. “No, Mandy. I’m sorry. If you need help that’s something we can sit down and talk about. But those are not yours. And I’m not going to let you steal them.”
“Tanner wanted me to have it!” Mandy’s voice rose. And too late Theresa saw the kitchen knife in Mandy’s hand. “He told me that these would make us free of Castor, forever. I know you and Alex had to break up because of money. If you had the money you could’ve been together. Just like Tanner and I can be together now.”
Theresa’s heart ached. She stepped forward, feeling the compassion swelling in her heart overwhelm her fear. “No, Mandy, that isn’t true. Money isn’t what would’ve fixed my relationship with Alex. Just like it won’t fix your relationship with Tanner now. We weren’t ready to get married. We were too young, immature and unable to talk through our deeper problems. Sure, I thought it was about money.
“But the fact I never even knew my hope chest was here just proves it wasn’t. I wasn’t ready for Alex. I loved him with my whole heart, but I wasn’t ready to get married. And I never should’ve blamed it all on him.” She took a step closer. “If what you and Tanner have is real love, then you won’t need to steal somebody else’s wedding presents or threaten somebody with a knife to have the happily-ever-after you deserve. He wouldn’t want you to hurt somebody for him, would he? He wants better for you than that. Just like you want better than that for him.”
Mandy’s hand shook. The knife dropped to the floor. Tears filled Mandy’s eyes. Theresa hugged her closely.
“I’m sorry,” Mandy said. “I’m just really, really scared.”
“It’s okay,” Theresa said. Footsteps creaked behind her. A sigh of relief moved through her. Alex and Zoe had found them. “It’s going to be okay. I know it’s hard and scary now. But it’s going to be okay.”
She turned. A tall, menacing form in a dark ski jacket filled the doorway. His lip was still split and battered from where Theresa had head butted him in the Rhodeses’ cottage. Dark eyes glared at her through a ski mask. A hunting rifle was held steady in his hands.
It was Castor.
“You found the trunk!” He sounded almost surprised. “Excellent. Clearly I should’ve gotten you to help me from the start. Mandy, bring that bag to me and we’ll get going.”
Mandy’s head shook in fear. Theresa’s arm tightened around her.
“I know who you are, Castor, and I know what you’ve done,” Theresa said. “You shot up the Rhodeses’ cottage. You killed two men. Take whatever you want, but you’re not taking Mandy.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Castor said, chucking. “I haven’t killed anybody. That was my stupid brother. He’s the one who likes violence. I find the threat of terrible, hideous violence is usually enough. Of course she’s coming with me.”
He pulled off his mask. Theresa gasped.
It was Mandy’s brother Kyle.
SIXTEEN
Alex’s footsteps slowed as he reached the cottage. Three sets of footprints stopped at the door. He slipped around the side of the cottage and looked in the window. Prayers filled his heart as he saw the scene unfold before him. Theresa stood in front of a wooden chest, her arm around Mandy and her limbs shaking.
A man, the spitting image of the man Zoe was now watching in the back of his truck, stood in the doorway with a gun in his hand. Kyle Rhodes. Emmett’s brother? The politician? It didn’t make sense. Why would either of those two prominent and successful brothers kill for the contents of a wooden box? For now, he didn’t need to understand. All that mattered was it appeared one of them now had what he wanted and was going to kill Theresa.
He moved slowly around the cottage to the patio door.
“Mandy!” Kyle snapped. “Come here. Now.”
A soft cry escaped from Theresa’s lips as Mandy slipped from her grasp and ran to her brother. In one swift motion, Kyle grabbed his sister and pulled her hand to his side, pinning her there. Then he gestured the gun at Theresa.
“Hands up!”
“You’ve been dealing drugs all this time, haven’t you?” Theresa said. “You blackmailed Tanner into running your errands and doing your dirty work, because he loved your sister and thought that was the only way to be with her, right? But then his old friend, Corey Patterson, told him about something in this box that would free him from having to do your bidding. So Tanner came up to find it with Mandy, and you ran him off the road in the city and sent him to hospital.”
“That was Emmett.” Kyle grimaced. “He’d figured out what Tanner was after and thought if he could get to it first, he could blackmail me.”
Alex saw understanding dawn in Theresa’s eyes.
“Because you’re a respected politician with a lot to lose,” Theresa said. She faced the gunman down with a dignity and grace and courage that took Alex�
��s breath away. “This isn’t the first time your brother has blackmailed you, is it? When Mandy came up here again, with us, you panicked. You arrived with your lackeys, kidnapped me and made a big show of ransacking your parents’ cottage. But then, when you left, your twin brother showed up and actually shot up the cottage and killed Kenneth Brick. No wonder he didn’t search the cottage for me. He didn’t know I was there. Then he ran Blake Howler off the road, killing him, too. So you went to Emmett’s country house and tried to ambush him there. You just weren’t counting on Alex, were you? Here the two of you were fighting for something, and he got right in the way.”
Alex crept closer. There was one killer but two hostages. Whatever Alex did, there was a possibility one of them would get hurt. He could only save one. But which one? The client that his company had promised to protect? Or the woman for whom his dented heart was beginning to beat again? Lord, how do I pick who to save? He’d been forced to choose between his career path and Theresa once before, and now that decision was being thrown back at him again, on a much bigger scale, with the consequences of life or death.
“Shut up. Now!” Kyle barked. “Don’t you get it? If I kill you now everyone will think it was Emmett. Nobody is finding out about this. Ever.”
“No,” Theresa said. Her eyes flickered to the window for just a fraction of a second. Did she know he was there? Then, all too quickly, her eyes locked back on Kyle. “You need to hear what I have to say. Take the messenger bag, if that’s what you came for. Let Mandy and I go. It’s not too late for you. Think, Kyle. Whatever it is that’s in my wedding chest that caused all this trouble, it’s now yours.”
“Enough.” Kyle’s lips turned up in a snarl. “If I’d wanted to listen to a fussy, useless little princess yapping, I’d have taken you, instead of her. You think you’re going to trick me into letting you live? Get down on your knees. Now. And not another word.”
Theresa knelt. Sunlight fell over her limbs, and in that moment Alex saw suddenly what he’d been blind to for far too long. It wasn’t a question of one gunman and two hostages he needed to choose between. Because Theresa wasn’t a liability. She wasn’t a weakness. She was an asset. His strength. She was his friend and a partner in danger. He could trust her with his life.
He just prayed she trusted him. He grabbed a rock from the snowy ground. Held it high above his head.
“Theresa!” he bellowed. “Drop and roll forward, now!”
The briefest hesitation flickered in her eyes. Then she rolled forward, out of harm’s way while Alex tossed the rock through the window. Glass exploded into the room. Alex leaped through.
“Get Mandy out of here!” he called “Now!”
Mandy turned and ran out of the room. Theresa scrambled after her. But Kyle grabbed her by the hair and yanked her back, so hard Theresa screamed in pain.
“Take one more step and I’ll kill you both. You hear me?” Kyle snarled. Keeping a tight grip on Theresa’s long hair, he leveled Alex in his sights and raised the gun to fire. “I’ll shoot you first. Then I’ll take care of her.”
Alex looked at Theresa. His eyes met hers.
He took a deep breath, and let go of every doubt and fear that had held him back from admitting his feelings. He needed her help to get them out alive. He trusted her.
“Remember our conversation in the cottage?” he asked. “What I told you about the unexpected?”
She nodded.
“Now!” Alex shouted. She spun back, jabbing an elbow hard to Kyle’s jaw. He lost his grip on her. The gun shot wildly into the ceiling.
“Theresa!” Alex yelled. “Run!”
She ran for the hallway.
Kyle tried to fire again. The weapon jammed. Alex charged. They fell to the ground and rolled in a fury of jabs and blows. Twice now he’d battled a man this size. Twice now unrelenting fists had tried to pummel him into the floor. But this time he was tired and he was trapped down on the ground, unable to get up to his feet. Then a knife appeared in Kyle’s hands and Alex swerved and weaved as the two-edged blade flashed just inches away from his skin. Just one mistake, and he’d be slashed. One mistake and it would all be over.
“Alex! Catch!” Theresa’s voice rose above the chaos of the blows and the thundering pain. Instinctively his hand reached out into the air to grab what she threw him, and he felt the hard, smooth shaft of a ski pole land in his grasp.
He swung it around like a sword and knocked the blade from Kyle’s hand. Then he pushed it between himself and Kyle, pressing it up against his throat. With a grunt, Kyle rolled off him. Alex scrambled up, twisted his hands behind him and pinned him to the ground.
“Here,” Theresa said. He felt her push a roll of duct tape into his hands.
“Thanks.” He taped Kyle’s hands and mouth. Then he stood.
Theresa stood there beside him—her cheeks flushed, and her eyes and hair wild—in the shattered broken glass and chaos of the cottage. Alex quickly grabbed her hands. He pulled her into the hallway, away from the criminal and into the safety of his embrace.
His arms slid around her back. He pulled her to him. “You’re okay, right? Please tell me you’re okay.”
A smile brushed her lips and lit up her eyes. “I am.”
“Thank You, God!” For a moment, his eyes rose in prayer. Then he tightened his grip on her, brushing his lips over hers, kissing her tenderly and burying his face in her hair. “You were spectacular. You were so brave.” He pulled back. His eyes fell on her face. “You are incredible.”
I love you. I’ve always loved you, even when I wouldn’t admit it to myself. How am I ever going to be worthy of you?
“Alex! Theresa!” A voice sounded in the doorway. “Are you guys okay?”
Alex pulled back. He turned. He blinked. The tall, dark-haired form of his boss, Daniel Ash, was coming through the snow toward him, flanked by two uniformed police officers and another man in plainclothes.
“Absolutely.” A smile crossed his face. “You have no idea how good it is to see you.”
His boss smiled. “I have some idea. Zoe filled me in on the two men back at your cottage. Police now have them in custody.” He looked past him. “Looks like you also have a third. Can I safely assume that’s all the criminals you’re planning on rounding up here this weekend?”
“Definitely.” Alex chuckled. They stepped back as the officers passed him on their way into the living room. “What are you doing here?”
“I got a call at three in the morning from this young man, saying that you were in danger and that he wasn’t sure I should trust the local police up here to give me a straight answer, because they might be in the pocket of a corrupt politician.” Daniel stepped back and only then did Alex recognize the man standing beside him. It was Corey Patterson. “He was rather insistent and wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
Alex blinked. Instinctively, his hand reached out to shake Corey’s. “I don’t understand.”
“My daughter was talking to you on the radio and heard the trouble that was happening up here,” Corey said. His voice was gentle but his handshake was firm. “My dad tried to call the police, but he wasn’t taken seriously. Maybe because it’s a small community and everybody knows I have a record. But we suspect Kyle Rhodes pulled some strings with some dirty cops to look the other way about any calls reporting crime up at this lake. When the local police wouldn’t listen to me, either, I called Joshua’s father, who, to his credit, agreed to listen. Not every man would take a call from a man he didn’t like at two thirty in the morning.”
Alex nodded. Nor would he be willing to place such a call.
“But we sorted things out well enough,” Corey continued. “He seemed happy I’d gone straight and was raising my daughter. He called some police contacts of his and put the fear into them. He also gave me Daniel’s number. We met up and made our way he
re.”
“Please thank your daughter for us,” Theresa said. “She’s an extraordinary girl.”
“Well, I missed a bit of the beginning of her life.” Corey looked down at his feet. “She doesn’t have a mom, really. But we’ve had an opportunity to turn things around now. Hopefully, you guys will get to meet her soon.”
“I’d like that,” Theresa said. Then she glanced at Daniel. “What about Mandy?”
“We caught her running through the woods. She’s with Zoe now.” He pulled a lumpy brown envelope from his inside jacket pocket and handed it to Theresa. “She had this on her. It’s addressed to you.”
She took it and opened it slowly. Inside was a plain, unmarked videotape with a sticky note on it. It just said “Sorry, Theresa. Hope this helps.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It was your wedding present from me,” Corey said. “It’s a security videotape from your parents’ business the night of the fire. Emmett and Kyle broke in to steal some stuff and then set the fire to cover their tracks. Only the fire raged out of control. I was already caught up in selling drugs back then. So were they, but they were smarter about it than me and never used. I was supposed to steal the security tape for them and destroy it, only I kept it as insurance.” He sighed. “Look, I was a mess back then. I don’t even remember a lot. But when I heard your folks lost everything in the fire, I snuck it in as a wedding present, thinking it might help. Nobody was talking to me back then, so I did it anonymously, thinking if you knew it was from me, I’d get in more trouble. I forgot about it for years, until Tanner told me how Emmett was blackmailing him. I figured he’d go to the police with it. I never imagined all this would happen.”
“So Emmett and Kyle accidentally destroyed Theresa’s family business to get away with theft,” Alex said. “And then they were willing to ransack cottages and kill for the tape rather than letting evidence of a decade-old crime come to light.”
“My parents might even be able to use this to reopen their fight with the insurance company, by proving it was arson.” Theresa looked up at Corey. “Thank you for this.”
Rescue at Cedar Lake Page 16
