Page 51 of Christmas Ransom

She guessed not and tried to clear the fog still drifting around in her head. “You’re the aide from the hospital.” Carla frowned as she tried to remember the name James had told her. “Debra.”

“You can call me Jesse,” she said with a smile.

“Jesse?”She felt her pulse jump. “The otherJ. Of course.”

“Jud and that stupid tattoo,” Jesse said with a rueful shake of her head. “He’s had his uses, I’ll give him that, but let’s face it—he’s a dim bulb.”

Carla gathered that Jud, the otherJ, wasn’t here with them. She supposed that was something. “Why have you brought me here?”

“Why?”Jesse laughed. “You don’t like the place? I grew up here.” She glanced around, all humor erased from her face. “I swore I’d never come back here.” Her gaze returned to Carla. “Because of you, here I am and here you are.” Her face hardened. “You shouldn’t have told the feds about the tattoo. I told you not to talk to them. You should have listened.”

“You wrote the note.” Her mind was taking its time clearing. Not that it helped. She had a cast on her leg and Jesse had a gun. The odds of getting out of here alive weren’t good.

Jesse rose and began to pace the small room. “I spent my life being disrespected because of my family, my perfect twin, everyone—” She spun to face her. “People just like you who thought they were better than me.”

“I don’t even know you.”

“You should have given Jud a loan.”

She blinked. “He never applied for one.” At least, not under the name Jud.

Jesse let out a rude sound. “Don’t pretend you would have given him one if he had.”

“I guess we’ll never know.” Carla looked around the room, afraid to ask what happened next. She had a bad feeling she already knew. But a small bubble of hope rose in her as she wondered why she was still alive. Jesse could have killed her back at the house. So why hadn’t she?

The thought of the house brought a heart-dropping memory. “The last I saw my friend Davy, he was chasing a man out the back door of my house. I assume it was Jud.” Since Jud wasn’t here, Carla hoped that meant that Davy had caught up to him and was fine. “Do you know what—”

“Happened? Your guess is as good as mine. They might both be dead.” Jesse shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”

It did to Carla. She felt her eyes burn with tears. Wasn’t this what she’d feared? That Davy would get injured or killed trying to protect her? But Jud could have gotten away, she realized. He could be headed up to this cabin right now. And Davy...? He had to be alive.

She realized Jesse was studying her intently, frowning as she did, as if surprised that she wasn’t more terrified. If the woman only knew. But Carla was doing her best not to panic. It was her nature to keep control over her emotions. Except for when she thought of Davy.

“What? You aren’t going to ask?” Jesse smiled as she sat back down on the edge of the recliner. Carla shook her head, pretending she didn’t know what it was the woman was getting at. “Come on, don’t you want to know what I’m going to do with you?”

“I would imagine you plan to kill me.”

Jesse smiled, then cocked her head as if to listen before sending a glance toward the window and the darkness outside.

Carla realized that she was expecting someone. Jud? Of course. Her heart sank. She was waiting for Jud before she killed her. Or was it Jud who would be pulling the trigger?

Listening, she didn’t hear anything. The deep snow was like thick cotton insulation, swallowing up sound. She was on her own with a gun-toting Jesse and possibly her even more dangerous boyfriend. If she had any hope of getting away from the Js, she had better come up with a plan.

She thought of Davy and her heart ached. Her life couldn’t end here in this cabin deep in the mountains. If he was alive, he would blame himself. She couldn’t bear the thought.

Over against the fireplace she saw an old branding iron that was apparently being used as a poker. How ironic, she thought, that the one weapon in the room other than Jesse’s gun was a branding iron.

ASDAVYRODESHOTGUN, Cora filled him in on what she knew about Jesse Watney and he told her what had happened back at the cabin. If Carla was in Jesse Watney’s hands, then she was in worse trouble than if she’d been taken by Jud. Jesse had threatened her at the hospital, but that was mild compared to the stories Cora told him about the woman.

He was wishing he didn’t know, fearing that he would be too late, that Carla was already dead. That is, if this woman named Jesse Watney had her.

When his cell rang, he quickly picked up, seeing that it was James.

“I just spoke with Agent Grover. What a... Where are you?”

“Probably on a wild-goose chase.” He heard Cora grunt in the driver’s seat. “Judson Bruckner was living with a woman named Jesse Watney. We’re on our way to Jesse’s family cabin in the mountains right now.”

“We’re?”

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