And he was certain this SOB wanted something or Addie would have already been dead. The only reason to hold her like this was for some kind of leverage.
“What I want is some cooperation,” the man replied.
Judson cursed. He had no trouble recognizing the voice.
Elijah.
So, he was the killer. Maybe. Or he could be the accomplice. Still, even if he hadn’t killed yet, he could be willing to start now.
“What I want is fast cooperation so we can all get the hell out of here,” Elijah added a moment later.
The man didn’t sound scared or on the verge of panic. His hand wasn’t shaking, either, and that let Judson know he was dealing with a cold-blooded killer. And it wasn’t just Addie in danger. The babies were only a wall away from this snake.
“If you want fast, then spill why you’re doing this,” Judson snapped.
He stayed partially behind the doorframe so he could duck out of the line of fire if Elijah tried to shoot him. Which he was certain that Elijah would do—once he got what he wanted.
“Two things,” Elijah said, still sounding plenty calm despite jabbing the barrel of his gun even harder against Addie.
It caused her to muffle a sound of pain, and while it was barely audible, it made Judson want to tear Elijah limb from limb. Which was no doubt why the man had done it. He likely wanted Judson on the edge, maybe going off half-cocked. That would make him easier to kill.
“First, take out your phone and toss it on the floor toward me,” Elijah spelled out as he quickly yanked off the goggles. “I need to delete a picture.”
Of all the things Judson had thought a killer might demand, that hadn’t even been on his radar. “What picture?”
Elijah made ayeah, rightsound as if he wasn’t buying that Judson didn’t know what he was talking about. Still, the man explained it.
“The one you snapped of Yvette’s car as she was speeding away from the ranch. I was in the back seat with the brats, and I lifted my head just as I’m pretty sure you took that picture.”
Yeah, Judson had no trouble recalling the photo. Or thinking that maybe he’d caught a glimpse of someone in the car with Yvette. But that glimpse had come a split secondafterhe’d gotten the picture of the license plate. He had studied and restudied that photo, and there hadn’t been even a partial image of anyone other than the driver in the car.
“Do it now,” Elijah demanded, and he gave Addie another of those jabs to the temple.
Judson did take out his phone, and he considered hurling it at Elijah and trying to hit his hand. But it was too risky. It might distract him, yes. Might even cause him to drop the gun. But italso could cause him to accidently pull the trigger and kill Addie where she stood.
Instead, Judson leaned down, putting the phone on the floor on the other side of Bennie, and he shoved it in Elijah’s direction. Since Elijah was standing in the middle of the room, the phone stopped a good yard short of Addie’s feet.
Elijah cursed, and after calling Judson a crude name, he began to force Addie to move toward the phone. “I know the photo didn’t go to the lab. I checked. I’ve got some decent hacking skills,” he tacked on to that. “Of course, a county lab doesn’t have as much cybersecurity as it should. I saw what was logged in, and the photo wasn’t one of the items.”
Elijah was right about that. The photo hadn’t been sent in because the only thing of value on it was the license plate number. There’d been no glimpse of the back seat or anyone in it, only the trunk and the license plate.
Of course, Elijah wouldn’t have known that.
All he would have seen was Judson aiming his phone at Yvette’s car. If his image had indeed been captured, it was possible the lab techs could have cleaned up the image and used it to ID him.
So, yeah, in Elijah’s mind, getting that picture was critical.
But once he had it, there’d be no reason to keep any of them alive. In fact, just the opposite. He’d want them all dead. Maybe Etta Jean, too, once he discovered her in the bathroom and realized she could have overheard everything they were saying.
“You helped Yvette steal the babies,” Addie spat out. She was probably terrified, but she managed to sound more than ready and willing to make him pay for what he’d done.
“Helped?” Elijah laughed while he kept her moving. “Sugar, I did all the hard work by convincing that dimwit Yvette that the babies were in danger from some fake bogeyman I made up, and I made her believe that the only way to save them was for us tokidnap them. Yvette went right along with everything, including handing the brats off to the first person she saw on the road. Of course, she wanted to keep them, and I had to talk her out of that. Dimwit,” he repeated in a snarl.
“I’m sure the drugs you gave Yvette helped convince her,” Judson snarled. He wanted Elijah’s attention on him.
“Maybe,” Elijah muttered, and then amended that with, “Probably. They didn’t hurt, anyway. They made her more pliable.”
So, he’d been the one to give Yvette the drugs, which had made her more suspicious. What else had Elijah done?
