“Mrs. Monroe,” Elle said, offering her a tentative smile. “I have a cab waiting. Do you have your things together?”
Janice Monroe opened the door a little wider. “I can’t leave here without my children.”
Elle fidgeted, ready to be gone. “Mrs. Monroe, Sandra is with your husband. We can’t wait for her to return. But we can take the others. Where are they?”
The woman’s chin trembled. “Gone. Except for my youngest. He took Jeremy as well.”
Elle gave her a wary look. “Mrs. Monroe, Jeb can’t find me here. You know that. If you and your youngest child come with me, I promise, we’ll talk to the police and do what we can to keep the others safe.”
She shook her head slowly, tears spilling onto her cheeks. “He’ll kill them. He told me so. He told me if I betrayed him again, he’d kill my sweet babies. I’ve lost enough. I won’t lose any more.”
Elle sent another anxious glance over her shoulder, toward the road. “Mrs. Monroe, do you still want my help? If not, I’ll leave. But I’d really like you to come with me—for your own safety.”
The woman’s face twisted in anguish. “I’m so sorry. God forgive me.”
The porch steps suddenly creaked behind Elle, bringing goose bumps to her flesh. She spun around on a gasp, her heart leaping into her throat when she saw the barrel of a shotgun leveled at her chest.
“Now, don’t you do anything stupid,” the man holding it drawled. Some flicker of recognition passed through Elle’s mind. She knew him. Had seen him somewhere before. But she couldn’t quite place him. “I’m not supposed to kill you before Jeb gets back.”
“I’m so sorry!” Janice Monroe sobbed behind her. “He made me call you. I’m so sorry!”
A commotion over the man’s shoulder brought Elle’s eyes up in time to see another man dragging the cabbie out of his car and shoving him to the ground. Too late she realized what was happening. Her eyes went wide and a scream tore from her throat just as the man fired a bullet into the cabbie.
“Get rid of the body,” the man with the gun on her called over his shoulder. “And the car. Don’t want anyone finding that here.” He glanced at Mrs. Monroe. “Take her phone, Janice.” He then motioned with the barrel of the gun for Elle to go inside.
Shaking, she sent one last glance toward the car where her purse sat on the floorboards of the backseat. As soon as someone realized she was missing—
Her heart sank as she backed slowly through the front door, keeping her eyes on the gun still aimed at her chest. Gabe would probably just think she was avoiding him. Her aunt would probably think she was patching things up with Gabe. Hell, it might be that evening when she didn’t show up at Kyle and Abby’s before anyone even realized she was missing. Based on what the man with the gun had said, she might not have that long…
“Back there,” the man prompted, motioning toward a hallway off of the living room.
“People know where I am,” she lied, turning to walk down the hall. Abby knew Elle was keeping tabs on Monroe, but she hadn’t told her why. “They’re going to come looking for me.”
“That’s the plan,” the man said with a little laugh. “Kill two birds with one stone.”
Elle’s breath caught in her lungs. Gabe. They were planning to use her to get to him. “You bastards,” she hissed. “Killing one cop isn’t enough for you?”
The man nudged her in the back with the gun, forcing her to stumble into what looked like a little girl’s bedroom. When she turned to glare at him in outrage, he just grinned. “Every revolution has casualties. This is just the beginning.”
“Do you seriously think you’re going to start a revolution?” she spat. “Jeb Monroe is insane! He’s just a man with a chip on his shoulder, not the brilliant leader you seem to think he is.”
The man shook his head. “Don’t underestimate my brother. You think this is just some whim? We’ve been planning for this for years. The Dawsons aren’t the only ones got family connections. Our cousin in the courthouse has been getting us whatever we need.”
Elle’s stomach twisted into knots. “You’re Dave Monroe,” she deduced. “I remember you now from the courtroom. You were there during Derrick’s trial. And the other man outside—he’s also your brother…” She grasped for a name, trying to identify with the man, keep him talking in the hopes he’d reveal something she could use to possibly save her life and Gabe’s.
“James,” he barked. “James Monroe. You oughta remember his name—you’re the same whore who talked his wife into leaving him after he smacked her around a bit.”
Elle’s breath left her on a gasp. Dear God—that was one of her first counseling cases at the foundation. The woman had been horribly brutalized. “Smacked around” was an understatement. She’d had to have her jaw wired shut. But she’d been too afraid to press charges. That time. Elle had been glad to hear when the woman had at last left him and moved on—hopefully to a better situation.
“And the cleaning lady in your office?” he sneered. “That’s my wife. I’ll bet you never even knew my Terri’s last name. But she certainly knew everything about you. You really shouldn’t leave so many personal notes to yourself lying around on top of your desk. We could tell you when you last saw your gynecologist, what you ate for lunch, how your boyfriend screwed you in your office just last night…”
Elle felt her knees grow weak and had to force herself to remain standing. There was no way in hell she was going to let this asshole know he was getting to her, that the knowledge of having her most intimate secrets known to these bastards made her want to hurl in revulsion.
She settled for glaring at him, her lips pressed together in angry silence.
He chuckled and backed out of the room. “You think on that,” he told her. “And then when Jeb gets home, you tell him he’s not the brilliant leader we think he is.”
The man closed the door behind him and Elle heard him put a key in the door to lock it. As if that wasn’t enough, it sounded like there was also some kind of latch sliding into place. The second his footsteps receded, she pivoted and went to the bedroom window, but the heavy, double-paned window was nailed shut. She looked around for something to use to smash it, but her eyes went wide as she realized she was standing in a debris field.
