Aftershocks (21 page)

She’d looked at him with haunted eyes. “It wasn’t who I wanted to be,” she’d finally said, but Kell knew it was more than that. It wasn’t who she wanted him to see. To her, the Zoe Ardmore who ran a successful business and charmed high society at charity balls was completely different from the Zoe Smith who’d been abducted and held for a year. She hadn’t said it, not like that, but he could see it. Hear it in her tone when she talked about the past. As far as he could tell, she didn’t hold back details of what had happened. But she did hold herself apart from it, and from him.

The fear of losing her—really losing her this time—kept him awake almost all night.

Everything he knew was different now. Last week, he’d walked into her company and introduced himself, sending a shockwave through the room. Every person there knew who he was. But not a single one of them approached him about Zoe. Though he sensed the grapevine humming after the initial meeting, he didn’t think any of them were in contact with her. There’d been a definite division between employer and employees.

It made him sad, because he realized all Zoe’s friends were their friends jointly. James and Sonya. People from the social circuit, or his law firm. If she had friends from college, she didn’t stay in touch with them, or at least, he didn’t know about it. That all fit now, with the deep chasm she imagined between her past and present. A chasm she’d been pulled back across, leaving him—and everyone else in her life—on the other side.

As much as it had sent him reeling, he could have gotten over it. Could have convinced her to come back to him. It would take time to rebuild their relationship. He had to get over the feeling that he didn’t really know her. Everything she said or did, he couldn’t take at face value. But eventually, it would have worked out.

Except for Olivia.

He’d called his sister while Zoe was in the shower last night. She sounded fine. Happy and chatty, as usual. She’d asked him if he’d heard from Zoe, and he lied and told her no.
Lied
to his baby sister for the first time in his life. Zoe had done that. But she’d also, through her silence, put Liv in danger. It just made no sense. If he’d known about Zoe’s past from the beginning, none of this would be happening now. Even if she’d told him a few weeks ago, when she learned her abductors were out on parole, they could have taken steps to protect both of them. He would have hired someone to search for the totems so they could have stayed safely in Boston.

How had Zoe trusted him
so
little? And how could he have been so oblivious to all of it? He couldn’t love someone he didn’t know. Couldn’t marry someone he didn’t trust. But none of that kept him from longing to be next to her. Touching her. Dragging her away from Grant’s side.

He’d also done some digging on Grant last night. If the men he’d asked to watch Olivia were as good at their jobs as Grant appeared to be at his, then Kell would try not to worry about her. And there was logic to Zoe’s plan, even if it was far from the path he would have chosen.

So last night had been tense and awkward. Zoe had gotten into the bed closest to the door, as if she was still trying to protect him. She’d turned her back to him, but hadn’t slept. Not until well into the dark hours of the morning. He knew, because he’d lain there listening to her stillness, unable to get over the shock of what they’d become.

And trying not to think about how Grant Neely fit into it all.

Kell dragged himself back to the conversation. Rudy was answering something Grant had asked.

“Sure, sure, we had a tradition, even. Once a month, at the Salty Chicken, we’d get together and do a trade.” Rudy pushed himself out of his ratty armchair and walked to a set of dusty shelves on one wall. “Got some of it here.” He lifted an Alabama license plate that said 4TI2DE. “One of the guys on the overnight found this stuck to an engine. Weren’t any reports of crashes on that line, so it must’ve gotten kicked up off the tracks somehow.” He pondered the plate for a minute, then set it back on the shelf. “I got ’bout fifty a those, out in the barn. That’s what I collect. Stuff with state markings. Few keychains, mugs, clothes. Don’t wear the clothes, of course.” He chuckled and sat back down. “Never been outta Utah, if you can believe it. That’s why I like getting stuff that has.”

“So does everyone specialize?” Zoe asked. “Like, when you find stuff, do you know who might collect that kind of thing?”

Rudy narrowed his eyes at her. “You’re gettin’ at something specific.”

She opened her mouth, half closed it, then leaned forward, clearly unsure what to say.

Kell jumped in. This was his forte. “Did any of your colleagues collect curios? Dustcatchers. Statues and figurines and stuff like that.”

“Oh, yeah, that’d be Ozzie.” He turned his shrewd gaze on Kell now. “He was the sucker of the group. Liked that stuff so much he’d give ya anything for it, ’specially if it was unusual. One time, he gave me three plates and a hubcap with a Texas star on it just for a coupla hunks of brass.” He chuckled and shook his head. “Worth at least a one-for-one trade, but you know, how much you want something’s always going to dictate how much you pay for it. Ain’t always about value.”

Rudy was right. At some point, it always came to money. Kell was prepared to pay whatever he needed to, to get Zoe out of this and back home with him. But Rudy didn’t have to know that. He could guess, but Kell would never let him be sure.

“So?” Rudy barked. “What is it you’re lookin’ for?”

Grant described the totems in basic terms. Rudy’s eyebrows puckered, rose, fell, and scrunched together. Finally, he said, “Don’t ring a bell. But definitely, Ozzie’d want something like that. He’d have bartered for ’em.”

“Do you know how we can reach him?” Grant asked, pulling out a small pad and pen. Kell discreetly typed the phone number Rudy rattled off into his phone, then, while Zoe asked Rudy again if there’d been anything in the rail car he owned, he pulled up the number on the Internet, found the corresponding address, and mapped the quickest route to get there.

“Sorry, sweetheart, the thing was empty as my stomach at supper time. Speaking of.” He looked at his watch. “I’ve got to get goin’ if I’m gonna make my meeting.”

Zoe and Grant rose from the sofa they’d been sitting on and thanked Rudy, Zoe going so far as to give him a kiss on the cheek. Kell slipped his phone back into its holder on his belt and stepped forward to shake Rudy’s hand.

“We appreciate your time.”

“Hell, it goes both ways.” They made their way to the front door. “Old men like me always like having someone new to tell stories to, you know.” He clapped Kell on the shoulder and nudged him through the screen door. “You kids good luck findin’ them things.”

He was kicking up dust, barreling down the long drive in his truck, before the three of them had finished getting into the SUV.

“So let’s call Ozzie,” Zoe said immediately, leaning forward between the seats again. “Find out where he lives.”

“I already know.” Kell showed them the GPS route on his phone. “We can be there in half an hour. But the question is, should we call ahead or just show up?”

“If someone else has already gotten to him,” Zoe said, “our call could spook him.”

Kell turned in the seat to see her better as Grant started the vehicle and put it in gear. “How would anyone have gotten to him? Rudy gave no sign he’s talked to anyone besides us.”

“No, but they could have talked to someone else, following the railroad connection. That’s kind of a no-brainer, isn’t it? I just don’t want to alert him. Or anyone.” She took a deep breath. “I feel like Pat’s people are on our tails, just waiting to do their damage.”

“You’re not wrong.”

“What?” Kell and Zoe said together, staring at Grant, who was frowning into the rearview mirror.

“We’ve got company.”

They craned their necks to look behind the truck.

“How can you tell?” Zoe asked. “That could be Rudy’s dust.”

In a few more seconds, however, it was clear the dust cloud was building toward them, not settling away. And it was moving fast.

“That’s a one-lane drive,” Kell reminded Grant.

“I know.” His jaw set, Grant stepped slowly on the gas, moving the truck at a crawl around the side of the house, stirring as little dust as possible.

“It might be no one,” Zoe said, but her tone was anxious.

“Might be.” Grant stopped the truck and surveyed the land in front of them. “Do you want to take that chance?”

The road was about a mile and a half straight ahead, but it was open ground. The SUV was built for off road, not just to look like it, but there was no cover. Their dust cloud would reveal them the same way it revealed whoever was approaching the house now. Kell looked over his shoulder, but the terrain was identical in all directions, and any roads back that way would be further than the one they’d come in on.

Still, they sat.

“What are we waiting for?” Zoe asked.

“Timing,” Grant bit out.

Kell touched Zoe’s hand where it rested on the center console. “Better sit back and buckle up,” he said in a low voice. “This won’t be smooth.”

“Damn right,” Grant muttered. His gaze burned straight ahead, his hands loose on the wheel but his arms tight with tension. He seemed to be counting in his head, probably trying to calculate when the car would be at the best point to give them an advantage.

“What if they know something that could help us?” Zoe suggested. “We could stay and find out.”

“They’re behind us, Zoe. We know more than they do.”

“She doesn’t want to run,” Kell told him. He could tell that Zoe was going to push, and Grant wasn’t the kind of guy who took well to pushing. He didn’t really care what kind of guy Grant was, but he was the one driving. “She hates being ruled by fear.”And now he understood why.

“I get that,” Grant responded. “But it’s tactical. She’s going to—”

“Stop talking about me!” Zoe yelled at them both. “It’s not about fear
or
running!”

“Good.” Grant slammed his foot down on the accelerator. The SUV bounded across the dry, not-so-flat ground. Zoe put her hand up to brace against the ceiling when she bounced.

“I told you to put—”

“Oh, shut up.” She tried to glare at Kell, but they were all moving around too much for it to be effective. After a struggle, she managed to click the seatbelt into place. It helped a little.

“So you got that address plugged in?” Grant asked Kell. “Would be helpful right about now.”

“Yeah.” He thumbed his phone on. It was recalibrating based on the direction they were going. “Hang on.”

“We’re hanging.”

“Literally.” Zoe clung to the handle over her door.

“See if you can see them behind us,” Grant ordered.

After a moment, she said, “I can’t tell. The dust cloud’s too thick.”

The GPS program was having difficulty plotting them. Kell tried to skim ahead on the three-D route, but it didn’t show which way to go.

“Left or right?” The racing engine slowed as a hard bounce took Grant’s foot off the accelerator. A few seconds later, they lurched forward again. “Left or right?” he said louder when Kell didn’t answer.

“I’m trying to figure that out!” He switched the view to overhead and zoomed out. “Left,” he managed just before they hit the road. Grant spun the wheel, the vehicle skidded in a quarter circle, and before it had settled, he was mashing down the accelerator again.

“Why are you in such a—” Zoe cut herself off when she looked ahead. They had to pass the entrance to Rudy’s property, and there was a monster pickup truck sitting there at the end of the drive. Their pursuers—assuming they’d been after them and not just visiting Rudy—hadn’t been stupid enough to try to follow them off road. They were just going to wait to see which way they went on the blacktop.

“What are they—” Again, she cut herself off, this time adding a curse.

“Brace yourselves.” Grant muttered something Kell couldn’t hear, his right knee rising but his foot not letting up on the gas. His gaze stayed fixed on the truck.

“Which pieces?” Zoe quipped.

Kell braced his feet against the floor, not sure what was coming, but knowing it was coming soon.

He didn’t know how Grant did it. How he anticipated so perfectly. How he even knew what the bastards were planning. But as they sped down the road, at the instant the waiting truck jumped forward to smash into them, Grant slammed on the brakes and cranked the wheel left. The truck whipped across the road in front of them, and Grant hit the gas again. Kell twisted to look out the side window and watched the truck spin, trying too soon to follow the SUV. They’d been going too fast, and the truck teetered on two wheels.

Then they were too far down the road for Kell to see any more.

“Everyone all right?” Grant asked.

“Yeah.” Kell spun back the other way to check Zoe. She was hanging over the back seat, trying to see through the rear window. “Zoe?”

“I don’t see them.” By the clarity of her voice, she was okay, too.

“They’re coming.” Grant was alternating between watching the flat road ahead of them and checking the rearview mirror.

“You see them?” Zoe asked.