I have the power and the resources. Dea would have been easy, had I done it, but plotting your end would be a masterpiece. After the baby is born, of course.
His confidence increased my paranoia. If I went to the police, he would know. He owned them, or so he claimed. He would have me followed until I showed him where I kept the file or revealed the other people who might know about us. He would kill Irene, the woman who offered me a lifeline and a part-time job when I desperately needed both. He made it clear he would savor every move and every step he made to minimize the danger I posed.
I feared for the safety of everyone around me, including my unborn baby.
Blocking the lies, separating them out from all the threats about how he could lock me in his house until I had Jeremy and no one would know, I cut a deal I feared daily he’d renege on. He could bask in fatherhood joy from a distance. Not risk his reputation or worry about a wife number two sweeping in and taking even a cent of his money. I didn’t want a single thing from him except peace.
To survive the back-and-forth and all the games, I mentally downplayed Xavier’s comments about being able to watch me and see what I did when he wasn’t there and his threats about holding me hostage. I convinced myself he’d been flexing muscles. Desperate and lashing out. But had he?
You can’t hide from me. Hanna, do you understand what I’m saying? I can come and go at will and you can’t stop me. If I wanted Jeremy, I could take him. Hanna? Hanna...
“Hanna?”
I jumped at the sound of a soft voice. Not Xavier’s cold, vicious one in my head. The one in the room. Daniela. Her eyes were open. Her frail body sank into the crisp white sheets. The dark circles under her eyes, her tiny wrist. How limp her hand felt in mine.
“Daniela! I’m so sorry.” I said the words over and over, begging for her to believe me. “I didn’t know you were there. You shouldn’t have been in the café that late.” The comment sounded like I blamed her, but I only blamed myself.
Her hand squeezed mine or tried to. “Halloween. The busy time...”
Her words trailed off, but I heard them. “You worked long hours to help me?”
“I had to go back and get caught up.” She closed her eyes. “But Jeremy...”
“Do you know what happened to him?” Panic crested, forcing my voice higher and louder than I intended. A decent person would have let her rest but the dread swirling inside me demanded I at least try. “Did you see Jeremy in the café? Was he okay?”
The questions ran together. I had more. So many more.
Her eyes opened again, looking solemn and sad. “I heard his voice. Then a figure... and movement.” Her tears fell between clipped comments. “The room went dark. The smoke...”
Her agitation increased. Color moved into her cheeks and her heart monitor beeped faster.
She grabbed my sleeve. Her gaze searched mine. “I didn’t see her. The rest is hazy but definitely a woman. Did she hit him, too?”
She?
A nurse rushed in, but Daniela ignored her. “Jeremy?”
I couldn’t tell her. I couldn’t say anything. Rage, pulsing and fiery, rushed through me. Every nerve ending flashed to homicidal life.
The crescendo of noise building in my head blinked out. The ball of pain that rolled and grew and plowed over every part of me stopped. One word cleared everything else out of my head—she. “A woman hit you?”
I knew one woman who would want to hurt Jeremy. Aubrey.
I was going to fucking kill her.
Chapter Fifty-Six
Stella
In the world of bad ideas this might be the worst. Daniela waking up qualified as the best news in days. Her mentioning Jeremy gave Hanna hope. Daniela naming, or at least suggesting, Aubrey was behind it all confirmed what I already believed.
Being back at Aubrey’s house was the issue. Hanna didn’t trust the police. I didn’t want to involve them for Lukas’s sake. His dream of a judicial career balanced on the edge of a great abyss. My sole focus was in pulling him back and taking away any reason for the governor to hand that judicial seat to someone else. Naming Aubrey, then having the claim be a false lead, would only ratchet up the tension. Hanna’s solution to all the potential issues was to track down Jeremy ourselves.
Life was easier and a lot duller back when I pretended Hanna and Marni didn’t exist. This reluctant, tenuous new friendship had turned into a full-time job. My poor nanny was going to quit from being overworked. Then I’d be stuck with Mom for child care and as a roommate, and that could not happen.
“Tell me the plan again.” We didn’t really have one but maybe Hanna had dreamed up something on the drive over.
We walked around the outside of Victoria and Patrick’s old house with only flashlights showing the way. I’d previously slipped Mom’s key to the residence back in her stack and now couldn’t find it, which meant we needed to perform a break-in.
