Page 122 of Fortune's Control
I ignored him. “Thank you for driving.” It galled me to admit that I couldn’t. Fear for Lilah and a desperate desire to get her back combined to place me in a slow-moving hell. My hands shook, and my leg burned with fire.
“We’ll get her back. Damn, I almost feel sorry for the asshole you’re about to kill,” Jack said to distract me.
“I said nothing illegal,” Moore insisted.
“I told her I loved her, Jack, and I want to give her a ceremony, a proper one this time, like she deserves.”
“You’ll do all that. Aiden did us all a favor with his joke, not just you.”
I didn’t ask what he meant. “Drive faster.”
“What’s the plan for when we get there?” Jack asked.
A plan didn’t matter if we didn’t get to her in time. They didn’t shoot her like they did Aiden, which meant they wanted her alive, and not much time had passed. Lilah would talk and delay. She’d fight. “You remember the time we all skipped school, and we snuck up on the twins?”
*****
I positioned the detective between two trees, halfway between the truck and the first cabin. “I won’t ask you to do anything illegal. You’re a man of the law, and I respect that, but I am asking you to make a choice. Stay here, andpretend you hear nothing. If you hear a couple of gunshots, look the other way because you didn’t hear them. Do you get that? Only one whistle, and you pretend it didn’t happen, either. Can you do that?”
Moore stiffened, and I thought he might protest, but he said, “I get it. Gunshots. Give me a reason. Do you get what I’m saying?”
“Two whistles, and it’s your chance to play the hero. Today’s glory is all yours. You’ll catch some bad guys, detective, just as soon as I get my wife back. Stay here.”
“Two whistles? Why two whistles?” he asked.
I lifted a hand to signal Jack.
Please let her be safe. Please let me not be too late.
I approached the cabin’s front door and noted the closed blinds on the windows, as well as the pale gray sedan. We left the blinds open after our previous visit. I pressed my ear against the door and heard two distinct voices, but their deeper tone didn’t match Lilah’s. Looping twine around my phone, I tied a hasty knot and started a new video.
The cabin needed a pair of new doors. Years of neglected maintenance and harsh storms caused the bottoms to rot and wear, so they no longer reached the floor. With an apology to my left leg, I stooped to check the exposed gap, ensuring my phone could fit through it. With a sigh, I shoved my phone through the narrow gap and waited.
The muffled yells continued as I drew out my phone and checked the video. It confirmed the two men arguing. There was no sign of Lilah.
The fighting stopped, and a crash sounded as I whistled, opened the door, and aimed.
*****
Terror gripped me.
Lilah lay on her stomach, whimpering with pain. The man straddling her hips held a knife to her neck.
The rushed activity hid Jack’s silent entry through the back door. He aimed a shotgun at Davis’s back while the detective pointed his revolver at me.
“Tell your man to let her go, or you’re dead,” I ordered.
“That won’t happen. Put down your gun, or Nelson slits her throat. If you’re banking on him choosing me, she’s dead. He won’t do that. Nelson always wants the kill.”
Nelson, the presumed younger brother, tightened his grip on Lilah’s hair until she cried in pain.
I tried again, louder, to hide Jack’s presence. “I can’t do that. Lilah, are you hurt?”
She came at me with a question of her own rather than an answer. “Did you find Aiden? He’s hurt. They shot him.” The fear in her voice tore through me, but so did her bravery. A knife at her neck, and she worried about our friend first.
“He’s dead. He sent me here before bleeding out. No one knows we’re here.” I yelled to keep the three sets of eyes focused on me.
I stepped closer, adjusting my aim. Nelson, or whoever he was, sat over her, limiting my ability to attack. Any movement from me or a surprise gunshot would only result in him attacking Lilah.
