“I’ll try.”
“No,” Lorraine snapped, tone steely. “You’ll do better than try. Even if you have to put her on the plane yourself, you’re going to make it happen. Promise, or I don’t tell you a thing.” Her fingers were twisted together, jaw tight.
Mackenzie looked at her. “Lorraine, I promise I will make sure your mother gets to Jamaica.”
“How do I know you’ll do it?”
What could she say to vouch for her integrity? “My brother’s gone. That’s why I’m here. That’s why I got myself arrested. There is nothing else in this world I want more than to bury Bullseye in a prison cell and shut down his drug dealing permanently.”
Lorraine went still, thinking.
Mackenzie’s whole mission hung on Lorraine’s decision. What if she was right about Bullseye’s reach? That even now the drug lord might know exactly where they were. How would he choose to deal with his two betrayers?
She held her breath and waited as the police van rolled on through the pummeling rain.
Two
The officer hadtakenGideon’s statement about the “robbery.” He’d tried to explain that it must be some kind of prank, but even as she was led away, Mackenzie was loudly proclaiming she’d needed money to pay some bills and Gideon was a handy mark since she knew where to find him and he’d trust her.
Like a sap.
Two cups of bad police station coffee later, he’d finished giving his statement. “I don’t want to press charges.”
The weary cop in charge had looked at him, fingers still poised to hunt and peck on his keyboard. “You don’t mind some lady mugging you?”
Oh, he minded all right, but that was between him and Mackenzie. “I’m leaving. I’d like to forget the whole thing. I got my wallet back, so ...”
“Uh-huh. Well, the DA isn’t a fan of crime in our little hamlet, so Ms. Bardine is going to be charged anyway.”
“She’s not a threat.”
The officer simply stared at Gideon, who realized he sounded like he was off his rocker.
“Mr. Landry, if we hadn’t been right there, she might have injured you or worse.”
Been right there.And that was the fact he couldn’t dislodge. She’d chosen to pull her little stunt at the coffee shop, knowing there was a cop inside. Sheknewshe’d be arrested quickly, and he had a lousy feeling he understood the timing.
The cop stretched his neck as if he had a kink in it. “Look, sir. It’s a bad time to be in Oakleaf. Place is flooding inch by inch, and we may be issuing evac notices anytime now because of the dam. You go on home and let us handle this, okay? The less people in town, the better.”
At that point another officer poked his head in. “Sarge, update. Back lot’s flooding and the river’s gonna crest by nightfall. Fire chief is starting voluntary evacuations of the east side in thirty minutes, which includes us. County’s making room at the jail in Clover for us to transport the detainees. We gotta get out now ahead of the evacuees.”
Gideon had been hustled from the chair and out of the building. He should have left right then. Hit the gas and not looked back, but instead he’d waited in his Jeep in the coffee shop parking lot next door until the prison van departed in the pouring rain. He’d watched the loading of the prisoners, the first, slender, with her head ducked against the deluge.
How’s your plan looking now, Zee?
For some inexplicable reason, after the van rolled slowly away, he was still there in his Jeep, staring out the front windshield, thoughts raging like a tempest. He grabbed the last bag of peanuts from his supply and chewed them thoughtfully as he considered. The truth of Mackenzie’squestion was like a poison dart. Hehadknown something was off when fear began to creep into Aaron’s devil-may-care persona, when the communication between them had ceased.
He and Aaron had been inseparable since sixth grade all the way until their senior year of high school when it had all gone catastrophically wrong. In spite of the wreckage, they’d both decided enlisting in the Air Force was the answer after graduation. They’d pieced their relationship back together, the years of friendship cementing the cracks. Mostly.
The discharge for drinking deposited Aaron stateside, but the texts continued between them in spite of it all, even while Gideon completed the training pipeline that carried him all the way to airborne school in Georgia. And Aaron? He’d rallied, started a successful computer software company that afforded him a tidy condo and a nice set of wheels. He’d made the best of it. Hadn’t he?
But the reality of it was that Gideonhadnoticed Aaron’s trepidation.
“I’m good, Gid,”Aaron had said.“You don’t need to keep asking me like you’re my parole officer.”
But Gideon knew deep in his gut that all was not well during that final family dinner, where jazz played in the background and Mrs. Bardine’s roasted chicken graced the table.
He’d actually decided to follow Aaron that night, but he dallied a moment to answer a question from Aaron’s father, and by the time he made his way to the car, Aaron was gone.
