Page 49 of Engaging the Deputy

Cody froze for a moment. He drew back his hand and turned again to look at her. “He thought I didn’t know. It wasn’t so much that I could have let it slide. He was my best earner. He took the most risk, driving up to the border with the furniture he helped Angie redo so we could hide the drugs inside.”

He looked out into the darkness. She wondered if he was seeing this Starling or the one from Halloween night. “It was all too perfect, things were going too well.” He shook his head. “As my old man often says, best not to make waves when you’re all in the same boat.”

“I don’t understand,” she said. “I left you down in the root cellar.”

He smiled over at her. “It wasn’t that deep that I couldn’t get out using some of the shelving. I had to move quickly. I knew you’d be back soon, and I was going to need an alibi. I saw Rob. He’d survived the tornado, the bastard. He was going to get away with all of it, ripping me off and, worse, taking Angie with him. The fool woman had fallen for another loser.”

“Rob and Angie?” she asked in surprise.

“They worked together every day in that old building she’d bought.” His shrug said that there was no accounting for taste. “She was skimming money too. She just wasn’t as greedy as Rob. They were running away together. Rob thought I didn’t know.”

“He was killed when a wall fell on him,” she said, still trying to buy herself time.

“That was a stroke of luck—just like the tornado. I was counting on getting my chance that night before midnight. I knew Rob was planning to take off at midnight. Take off with a lot of my money. I’d planned to pick up something I could use as a weapon. As it was, I caught him next to that rock foundation wall. I got lucky.”

“But you must have had to move quickly to get back into the root cellar before I came back with the rescue workers.” She realized that she didn’t have to encourage him to talk about it. He seemed to relish finally being able to tell someone how smart he was.

“I wasn’t even sure that the wall killed him. But I didn’t have time to stick around to find out. I had to get back before you returned. Anyone could have seen me, but no one did. I hurriedly scrambled back down into the hole, but as I did, some of the dirt caved in.” He let out a laugh. “For a minute there, I thought I’d be buried alive. Got to see the irony in that, huh? Especially after we’d found those bones.”

“But when I came back, you’d been injured.”

He nodded, chuckling. “I heard you coming back. I decided to make it look good. The cave-in had uncovered a large rock stuck in the dirt wall of the root cellar. I reached up and managed to dislodge it, thinking that I would move away before it came down. Got my feet tangled up. That was the last thing I remembered until I woke up in the hospital.”

“You didn’t have amnesia, did you?”

“Nope, I rememberedeverything.” There was a sharpness back in his voice. “That night, you had pretty much spelled out how you felt about me. I was never good enough for you.”

“That’s not true. You were my best friend.”

“Wereyour best friend,” he repeated and opened his door.

* * *

Back out inthe alley, Jaden’s mind raced. Cody was a loose cannon on the run, and he had Livie. Where would he take her? He could feel the clock ticking. He had to find her before it was too late. If it wasn’t already too late.

The moment the first law-enforcement vehicle pulled up, Jaden rushed to it. He told the officer everything he knew, including that Cody Ryan had Olivia Brooks. Leaving the officer to secure and wait for a team to come in to process the scene, he got behind the wheel of his patrol SUV.

For a moment, he didn’t know where to go or what to do. Like Olivia, Cody had been born and raised here. He knew the country. He would know where to go to get rid of Livie’s body, and that place could be anywhere.

The realization came to him like a bolt of lightning out of the blue. The moment the thought surfaced, he knew where Cody had taken her.

Starling.

* * *

Cody came aroundto Olivia’s side of the pickup and opened the door. As long as her wrists were still bound and tied to the grab bar over her head, she couldn’t try to get away. She reminded herself to wait until she had the advantage—if Cody ever gave her that.

He knew her, so he also knew how determined she could be. Backed in a corner, she would come out fighting. That meant he would also be waiting for her to try something.

“I don’t understand why you’re doing this,” she said as he untied her from the grab bar and dragged her out into the darkness. “You got away with it. You fooled everyone!”

“Not everyone,” he said under his breath. “Your boyfriend. He’s coming for me.”

“But what does that have to do with me?” she demanded.

“You’re just collateral damage. You shouldn’t have stopped by the hardware store tonight,” he said with a shake of his head. “You caught me finishing up before I was skipping town. You and your damn crab apple jelly. I hate that crap and now it’s all over the hallway at the shop. I couldn’t leave you behind so you could tell the deputy what you’d overheard in the alley.”

“I didn’t hear anything,” she cried as he dragged her by her tied wrists up the hillside.

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