Page 26 of Hacker Identified

We were only halfway down the stairs. If I stumbled again, I needed to shove her in front of me this time. I took a couple of breaths, gripped the railing, and moved my hand behind her. My fingers brushed against her silky blouse.

“Did a quick check. No other people are in the house. We need to leave before Zack gets back from his run though,” Douglas said.

My hand halted at the sound of a man’s voice. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and glared up at us. I’d seen him on television standing next to Angie. When I tried to reach out to Zack during his presidency, I’d sent Douglas a few emails. The only problem is the man holding the gun wasn’t Douglas Vaughn. His hair was no longer blond, he’d grown a few more inches and added muscles, plus he had a full beard. The nasally voice catapulted me back to my childhood when Devan would join us for dinner.

He’d always boasted how he would lead the Crimson Creed one day. Father had trained him, because he was supposed to be Hazel’s husband. But dad decided after Hazel’s betrayal, he couldn’t trust me either.

Now I understood why Douglas had worked so hard to push the zoning, though. He helped plan what the cult wanted. It still surprised me he hadn’t investigated me over the years especially with all of my letters to have the land marked the way it was.

Angie shoved me harder when I stopped moving. “Come on, bitch. It’s time to end your worthless life. Then, we can collect the bounty your father placed on your head.”

I glared at Douglas. “I highly doubt Father would let you collect the bounty, or did you not get the promotion you bragged about for years?”

Angie grunted. “I don’t know what you are talking about. We will get the reward for you, dead or alive. It’s on the dark web.”

Douglas wrapped his hand around my bicep when I reached the bottom of the stairs. “Shut the fuck up before I kill you.”

His black eyes bored into mine. I planned to fight until my last breath, and expose a weakness between them. “She blabbed the plan about how you're going to kill me. I’m more shocked that you two planned to kill together, but you’re keeping secrets from each other.”

The back of Douglas’ hand cracked against my cheek, and my head flung backward. A drop of blood from my lip reached my tongue. I blinked twice to keep the tears from threatening to pour at bay. “I see you learned one thing from my father, Douglas. He did always like to hit women. So, when did you change your name from Devan? Or is that another lie you kept from your wife?”

The gun left my side. Angie had her full attention on Douglas. “What the hell is going on?”

Douglas growled. “She’s making shit up and trying to divide us. I have no clue what the hell she is talking about. Let’s kill the bitch right here.”

Angie waved her gun around in the air.

“That won’t work. We need to make it look like an accident for the public. Zack needs to be back in the office. He’ll have to pay me more to run his campaign this time around. We can easily siphon money from the contributions, way more than he’s paying either of us now. Plus, you saw the reward for her. We need to capitalize on that as well.” Angie said.

“I vote for not killing,” I commented. “As for your dickhead of a husband, I know he has two letter Cs burned into his right shoulder, and on his right wrist, he has an ‘H.’ Did you know he did that for my sister? The ‘H’ is for Hazel.”

“You told me the mark on your wrist was from an accident as a kid,” Angie shot back.

Douglas went pale.

He reached out for Angie, but she shifted away to the side.

“Don’t move away from me, babe,” Douglas said. “She’s trying to put a wedge between us. My past doesn’t matter, only our future does.”

The sliver of doubt had crept in, dividing them. I had to use this opportunity to pull them farther apart. “Does she know your plan to take over for my father one day? I can’t see Angie agreeing to be one of the wives passed around. Remind me how many times you used to brag about how all the women would belong to you,” I said. Time felt like it had stopped and sped up at the same time. How had reinforcements not arrived yet?

“Stop listening to the shit she is spewing. Have I ever given you any reason not to trust me? Don’t you think I would have to check in if I were in a cult?” Douglas asked.

I rolled my eyes. “Dad plays the long game, always has. Have you met his parents? Where did he say his family is from?”

“His family is dead.” Angie’s eyes flared as though she’d turned her anger back toward me.

Douglas nodded. “That’s right, baby. You’re the only family I need, and once we get the money for her, we can enjoy the rest of our lives.”

I took a deep breath and shifted to the left as the two stared at each other. The front door swung open, and Zack stepped into the foyer, almost tripping over Art’s body. I used the distraction and pivoted toward the back door. Except I ran smack into another large body and Antonio shoved me behind his back.

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding, Zack. I was coming to talk to you about the land permit we got passed, and this woman killed Art.” The lie rolled off Angie’s tongue.

I took a deep breath. No way did I plan to let this woman spin the truth. “She’s lying.”

Zack’s voice turned icy cold. “I pulled up the security cameras on my way back over here. The sheriff is on his way, and I plan to push him to charge you with everything we can find. You’ll be lucky if either of you ever smell the outside air again.”

At the mention of the sheriff, Douglas’ shoulders relaxed. The slight movement was enough for the alarm bells in my brain to sound. Dad had slipped money to the police over the years, so they would look the other way. Zack already had his phone in hand.

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