“Hayes is on his way,” Hadley called.
“That was so freaking cool!” Birdie yelled. “I want to do that.”
Calder shook his head. “Maybe next time, you take down the bad guy away from my hellraiser of a daughter?”
“Deal.”
I pinchedthe bridge of my nose as I leaned against Hayes’ SUV. The headache that had formed sometime over the past hour didn’t show any signs of abating. The call I’d had to place to my parents hadn’t made things better. My mom had broken down in tears, and my dad had said curse words I’d never before heard him utter.
Even though I told them not to come, Dad had already contacted his pilot. They’d be on their way first thing tomorrow. I just hoped Eli wouldn’t con his way out of this one with them, too.
Hayes strode towards me. “Hadley had to get to the fire station for her shift, and Calder needed to get the girls home, but I got enough of their statements for corroboration. Eli’s on his way to lockup.”
I nodded numbly, unable to get out any words.
“I talked to the detective in LA. Possession of a firearm and traveling across state lines gets his bail revoked. They’ll hold him until his trial. But now he’ll have an added charge of attempted kidnapping in the state of Oregon.”
This wasn’t something the news media and paparazzi would miss. The press would descend on Wolf Gap and follow me wherever I went. “This town is going to turn into a circus. I’m so damn sorry about that.”
“We’ll deal. None of us are pansies around here. We protect our own, and you’ve become one of them.”
His words meant more than I could express. I wanted to become part of the fabric of this place. To have this be my haven when the rest of the world got crazy. And I wanted to build that haven with Laiken.
I glanced down at my phone for the thirtieth time tonight. She still hadn’t called or texted me back, and it was after nine now.
“What’s wrong?” Hayes asked.
“Laiken isn’t answering my calls or texts. That’s not like her.”
“Where is she?”
“I dropped her at the Grangers’ for dinner. But that was over four hours ago.” She might’ve simply left her phone in her purse, but something didn’t feel right. I pushed off Hayes’ SUV. “I’m gonna drive out there and make sure everything’s okay.”
Hayes clapped me on the back. “We’ll drive out together. How about that?”
“Sure.” But the fact that he was offering made dread slide through me. Laiken was fine. Just caught up with reconnecting with Jase’s family. I told myself the same thing over and over as we drove. But with each passing moment, I believed it a little less.
43
Laiken
The echoof my heartbeat rattled my ribs with its force. “Gilly, don’t do this.”
Something that almost resembled sadness passed over her features. “I’ll miss you. I’ll shed tears at your funeral. But this is the way it has to be.”
Did Gilly honestly believe that she would get away with this? There were too many witnesses. Unless she killed everyone. But that didn’t fit with her plan to set them all free.
“It won’t work.” My gaze shifted to the side to see that the ropes around Isaac’s wrists were completely loose. He held them in a way that made it look as if they were still in place, but he needed the ones on his ankles off, too.
Gilly scoffed. “It’s worked perfectly at every turn. I left you in charge of The Gallery, but I’m not an idiot. We need a scapegoat.” She pointed her gun at Isaac. “He really has been depressed since Jase’s accident. Some might say unstable.”
Isaac stiffened on the other side of the couch.
“It’s such a shame how mental illness can take hold. It’s quite brutal. He’s picked off everyone, one by one. Showed up here tonight and terrorized us all, holding us hostage. Only I kept a small firearm on my person since these attacks started. Just in case. I’ll save us all.”
She turned to me, laughing. “Well,almostall of us. He’ll kill you first, Laiken. I’m sorry about that. I’ll make it clean, though. Headshot, nice and simple.”
“You fucking crazy bitch,” Isaac growled.