“Shit,” I mumbled, trying to balance the phone between my ear and shoulder so I could unlock the door. I was jumping into the driver’s seat when the message beeped. “Please don’t be angry, but I’m going to the diner.” The words were a ramble.
I threw my SUV in reverse and backed out, quick to shift into drive. “It’s probably just a hunch, and God, the last thing I want to do is distract you, but I can’t ignore this. I need to make sure Janel isn’t there. I just . . . have this feeling, and I have to act on it. I’ll let you know if anything seems off.”
I ended the call, tossed my phone to the passenger seat, and flew. Flew through the neighborhood and onto the main street. Streetlamps blurred past, streaked in my eyes and sent my heart into overdrive. I took the three turns required to get me into the middle of town faster than I should, until I finally made the last left onto Fairview.
The entire street was shut down for the night except for the single bar on the end, and only a few exterior lights shined from the awnings of the rest of the businesses that had been closed for hours.
I slowed when I reached Pepper’s and swung into a parking spot. My headlights sprayed across the long pane of darkened windows. Glinting, blinding light reflected back.
I killed the engine, cracked the door, and stepped out. The construction site directly across from the restaurant was dark.
Vacant.
The only movement on the whole street was a foreboding breeze that blew through.
I was scared.
Terrified, really. I’d walked in this diner a million times, and never before had it evoked this type of reaction in me. But I couldn’t ignore what was screaming out from inside.
I grabbed my phone, 9-1-1 already programmed to dial, my footsteps slow and cautious as I edged around the front of my SUV and along the sidewalk that ran in front of the restaurant. Holding my breath, I slid the key into the lock and quietly nudged open the door.
Silence rained down.
Ominous and thick.
Too thick.
So thick, dread flashed across my flesh. It sent a tumble of goose bumps across my arms and tingling in my hands, awareness a prickle of needles across my neck.
I inched inside, each footstep measured as I tried to keep completely silent. I eased through the dining room, my breaths shallow and panted as I wound around the long counter and pushed open the shiny metal swinging door.
I inched forward, vigilant as I stepped into the kitchen.
A footstep crunched. A reverberation through the dense, dim air.
A footstep that wasn’t mine.
Every cell in my body seized in fear. Slowly, I attempted to slide my finger across my phone.
A swish of blonde hair flashed at the corner of my eye. Fear sped and my finger fumbled. I sucked in a breath when I heard the whoosh, felt the shift in the air, before something metal cracked against the back of my head.
Pain. So much pain. I tried to hold on to consciousness. I needed to fight. Fight for Frankie. But I could feel darkness pressing in, taking over, and everything went black.
40
Corinne Dayne – Three years ago
Anger burned through my old, brittle bones. Apprehension sank into the pit of my stomach, my veins drumming with sluggish, burdened blood, a shrinking fear that vibrated out to take hold of my already shaky, weathered hands.
I should have realized it a long time ago. There’d always been something off about that girl. But I’d been the fool that’d ignored it, thinking people were different and I didn’t have any right to make judgments about them.
But this?
I did.
When her car pulled in across the street, I moved out the door and onto my porch. For the first time in a long time, I wished I were younger. Stronger. That I didn’t do it with a limp and my body didn’t protest every step.
She pulled that sweet baby girl from the backseat and kissed the side of her head as if she weren’t wretched all the way through.
The sky had darkened to a dusky blue, the horizon holding the last vestiges of oranges and pinks as the day fully melted away. Ambling across the street, I held the evidence tight against my chest, voice shaking, no longer able to hold back the accusation. “What did you do?”
Janel’s head whipped my way. She huffed out a breath. “Corinne, I don’t have time for your nonsense ramblings today. It’s been real rough around here, with all that’s been going on at Rex’s company. Need to make him supper. He’ll be home shortly.” She turned her back on me, Frankie Leigh hooked to her hip, and started for their porch steps.
“That’s awfully convenient, isn’t it, fact that Aaron boy you were always so chummy with growing up is getting sent off to prison for doing your husband wrong? Stealing all that money. What a shame. And here you are, playing the innocent card. Guess that’s the way it’s always been, hasn’t it? Playing us for fools while you ran around manipulating everything to get your way?”
Regret slithered through my spirit. Should have known it back then, in the days when my Rynna had run away. Oh, how my girl had pined after that Aaron boy, eyes always dreamy anytime he wandered in for a piece of pie, her whole world made when she’d finally caught his eye.
Wasn’t until I was watching this video that I realized those two were to blame for her running.
Janel and Aaron.
Same as they both were to blame for what was happening to Rex.
This time I wasn’t about to turn a blind eye.
Janel froze at the door that she was pulling open. Slowly, she edged around to face me, her voice going dim. “What did you just say? Because it sounded to me like you were accusing me of something you shouldn’t be.”
The videotape felt heavy in my hands. An overbearing weight. “You know . . . all these years the register has been coming up short. So many times that I thought I was goin’ crazy or maybe I just couldn’t count. But I figured I needed proof that it was time to shut the place down and retire if I couldn’t handle running the day-to-day. Imagine my surprise when I sat watching the video from last night.”
Janel blanched. White as a ghost.
She knew as well as I did what was on this video. Had considered telling her about the new cameras going in, but thought better of it, figuring I was either going senile or somebody was stealing right from under my nose.
Just had no idea of the enormity of the stealing that’d been going on.
The blip of video had been caught in the middle of the night in the back office, Janel and Aaron arguing about the fact Aaron was going away for embezzling from RG Construction.
“You’re the idiot who went and got yourself caught,” Janel seethed.
“And you’re the one who put me up to it. You’re the one who has the money, and I’m the one who’s gonna land in jail? I don’t think so, Janel. This was all your idea, and you’re gonna tell him. You’ve been controlling things for years. It’s about time it stopped.”
“The hell I am. Rex doesn’t know shit, and it’s going to stay that way. You do what you’re supposed to do. Follow through, like a man, because from where I’m standing, you don’t look like anything but a pussy.”
She edged closer to him, slid a hand up his chest. “Besides, it won’t do either of us any good if we’re both behind bars. We still have all that money they never accounted for. I’ll hide it, and when you’re out, we’ll pick back up right where we left off. Now that you’re out of the office, Rex is gonna need someone to take over. Who better than his loving wife?”
Then they’d been kissing—along with other unsavory things that’d made my skin crawl. I’d been flooded with sympathy for that poor man who’d not done anything but work himself to the bone to take care of his family, Rex having no clue he was being betrayed.
Janel set Frankie on her feet. The cute thing toddled forward, barely keeping balance as she blabbered around the two fingers she had stuffed in her mouth. Janel rolled back her shoulders. “Messing with me would be a mis
take, old lady.”
Probably so, but I couldn’t regret it. Not when that little girl squealed, innocent joy. Not when I knew the woman standing over her was nothing but poison. The only thing Janel was good for was destruction, and I wasn’t gonna stand aside and watch her ruin anyone else.
“Seems I’m holding all the cards this time, now, doesn’t it?”
In a flash, Janel came blazing down the steps and rushing my direction. I rasped out in surprise when her fingernails dug into the skin of my wrist. “Give it to me.”
Even though she was hurting me, mocking laughter rolled from my tongue. Anger for my Rynna. Anger for Rex. Anger for any other person she’d done wrong, because I was betting these two weren’t her only victims. “Take it. Plenty more where that came from. All set up and ready to go straight to the police.”
She stumbled back a step. “I think you’re bluffing, Corinne Dayne, because if you had anything on me, you would have already run and snitched to the cops, just like your prissy granddaughter did when she went tattling to my mom. Two of you are just alike. What is it you think you want from me?”
But that was where she was wrong. I wasn’t bluffing. I just wasn’t taking the chance that the cops would disregard the video or deem it inconclusive. Wasn’t taking the chance this schemer might go and convince that trusting man that I’d construed it all wrong. Take her back or give her another chance.
I just wanted her gone.
“What I want is for you to go. Go pack your things before Rex gets home and get out of town. Don’t ever come back.”
Her blue eyes flamed with hate. Ice cold. “Are you insane? I’m not doing a thing you say.”
“Then I’ll gladly forward this along. And if something happens to me, who knows where one of these videos is going to pop up.”
Steam might as well have been rolling from her ears, her jaw sharp and clenched, hate pouring out. “You bitch, just like your snot of a granddaughter.”
“Maybe, but it sure beats being a thief and liar and a cheat. I’m thinking your husband might agree.”
She paled, as if she were only just then realizing I was serious. The words were choppy when she released them from her vile mouth.
“You’re asking me to leave?”
“Oh, I’m not askin’ anything. I’m tellin’ you.”
“So what . . . I get out of town, don’t come back, and that video isn’t ever gonna appear? You’re saying those are your terms? You aren’t angling for anything more?”
Leave it to the thief to think I was aiming to steal from her.
“That’s it. Just go.”
She laughed a sour, hostile laugh, before she squared up, lifted her chin as if it didn’t hurt her none. “Fine.”
She spun around and flew back up the steps, door banging as she rushed inside. Rex’s dog, Missy, yelped when she slid out the door, door catching her tail before she went to stand guard at Frankie’s side. Frankie giggled and pushed her fingers through the dog’s hair. I took a couple steps into the driveway, figuring I best be guarding, too.
Ten minutes later, Janel came barreling back out, wrangling a big suitcase in both hands. She fumbled down the steps and heaved them into her trunk before she went running back up the stairs.
She scooped Frankie Leigh off her feet and raced back with her to the car. Missy scrambled down at their sides, whining, sensing that something was wrong.
Panic just about squeezed my heart into a million pieces, and I rushed that direction just as Janel was shoving Frankie into the backseat. She slammed the door shut and rushed to get into the driver’s seat before I could get there. Gunning it in reverse, she started to peel out of the drive.
I barely caught onto the back handle and jerked open the door. Hating the idea of putting Frankie in danger, but I couldn’t allow her to drive off with her.
The car screeched to a stop as I was hauling Frankie into my arms. Janel’s door flew open, fury on her face when she jumped out. “You might want me gone, but I’m not leaving without my daughter.”
She tore at my arms, skin breaking under the claw of her nails. Frankie started crying. Crying and crying. A jumble of confusion and fear. A baby who deserved none of this.
I fought her, backing down the driveway and holding Frankie protectively against my chest. “You’re not taking her, Janel. You are the devil and I’m not gonna allow you to taint this child. Leave her or I’ll gladly die showing Rex exactly who you are.”
Missy jumped around us. Yipping and barking. Not sure who she was supposed to be fighting and who she was supposed to be protecting. Janel continued to try to rip Frankie from my arms, two of us scuffling closer to the road.
And I tried to hold on. Not to let Frankie go. But Janel was stronger than I was. She finally tore her free, a sneer of victory on her face. That was right when we heard the loud rumble of the ever-distinguishable truck, the powerful engine rumbling as it turned onto the far neighborhood street.
For a second, Janel froze. I took the opportunity to lunge for her, grasping for Frankie, arm locking around her waist. I dislodged her from Janel’s hold just before Janel shoved me just as hard as she could. Both Frankie and I tumbled to the ground.
A wail of a cry rose from Frankie, and she climbed to her feet, wobbling at the back of the car. I skidded across the gravel, coming to a stop just to the side.
That engine roared in the distance. Coming closer and closer.
Panicked, Janel jumped back into the front seat and threw her car in reverse. Caring about nothing but setting herself free.
I screamed, “No!”
Tires screeched and dust billowed. It was so loud, the engine and my screams and Frankie’s cries, and I couldn’t make sense of the picture, nothing except her car hitting the street, shifting into drive, and then tearing down the road in the opposite direction of Rex’s truck.
No. Frankie Leigh, oh God, no.
It was a prayer from my soul. A cry from my lips.
A strangled sound of relief left my throat when my eyes landed on Frankie. She was crying, sprawled face-down on the dirt where she’d been thrown.
My eyes drifted back, and horror took to my throat.
Missy was dead in her place.
A heap at the side of the road.
Missy had saved her. Pushed her out of the way.
Rex’s truck jerked to a stop in the middle of the road, and he stumbled out, the glare of headlights cutting into the descending night. A cry wrenched from his mouth. “Missy. Oh . . . no . . . oh God . . . what . . .Frankie!” Second he saw his daughter, he went rushing her way. Stunned, he looked over his shoulder to the taillights disappearing in the distance, his expression shattered when he turned back to the scene.
But that was the thing. This loyal man had no clue just how much worse it could have been.
41
Rynna
Pain throbbed at the back of my head. Blinding. Excruciating. I fought it, swallowed the nausea and forced myself to climb to my knees. My hands fumbled around, searching the floor for my phone.
Gone.
It was gone.
Mumbled voices echoed from the depths of the kitchen. They were coming from the old break room and office.
Fighting the terror lining my veins, I pushed myself to standing and squinted through the darkness. I pressed my back against the commercial ovens just inside the kitchen. I fought to stay as small and quiet as possible.
Slowly, I edged toward the voices.
Sinks lined the far back wall. A huge dry storage pantry was to the right of them and the old office was down a short hall to the left.
Keeping myself plastered against the metal, I shifted so I could peek into the murky depths.
A flashlight and the flickering flame of a candle cast the small room in leaping shadows. Two people were inside, their silhouettes striking against the wall as they moved.
Where was Frankie?
A cold sweat broke out across my nape, and I squeezed my eyes agai
n, gathering courage, calculating whether I could make it to the phone that rested on the old desk that sat right inside the office.
I eased down the short hall, those voices coming clearer with each step I took. Panicked whispers, frantic as they searched.
“Where is it?”
“The question is, where the fuck did you hide it?”
“It has to be here . . . I . . . it’s been a lot of years. I’m not leaving without that money. That money and my daughter and that goddamned tape.”
“You think they aren’t already going to be looking for you since you took that kid? That was so stupid, Janel. I warned you that was the dumbest thing you could do. Going back to his house. What were you thinking?”
“I’m not leaving my baby behind. Not again. It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this.”
“Yeah, and what’d you expect? Me just to sit on the sidelines while you cozied up with that arrogant asshole again? Taking what’s mine? You’re insane if you thought I was going to let you stay there.”
“Just shut up and help me find it. None of that matters anymore.”
I kept edging closer, footsteps subdued, my heart threatening to pound right out of my chest.
“Yes! Here it is . . . it’s here!” Janel suddenly shrieked, coming into view when she jumped to her feet with a box in her hands. A box she had to have found beneath the floorboards.
I knew I didn’t have any more time. I rushed for the phone that was four steps away. I grabbed the receiver, fumbling to hit those three simple numbers.
I made it. I made it. One second before the receiver was yanked out of my hand. I started to spin around, caught off guard when I was shoved in the side.
Hard.
My feet flew out from under me.
I slammed against the wall. But this time, I was ready. Ready for this fight. A fight that’d been coming for years. For what felt like forever. I was fighting for Rex. For Frankie. I was fighting for me. “You coward, taking a little girl.”
I charged her. Rammed my shoulder into her chest as hard as I could.
Fight for Me: The Complete Collection Page 30
