скачать книгу бесплатно
Aiden hadn’t been very nice to her the next morning what with his hangover and regret. That was where the likes of you comment had come into play. Because he’d wanted to leave immediately, find a big rock and hit himself in the head with it. But maybe Kendall thought she was a woman scorned, and paired with her obsession to clear her sister’s name, perhaps the desperation had spilled over to this.
“Get out,” Aiden ordered them, and he reached down to pick up his gun.
Aiden didn’t get far before the shot blasted through the room and sent his ears ringing. The bullet hadn’t been aimed at him.
But rather at Kendall.
She screamed out in pain. Not a whimper, but a full-fledged, blood-chilling scream. For a good reason, too. The bullet had gone into her arm, tearing through her jacket sleeve and into her flesh.
Almost immediately, a bright red patch of blood started to spread over the fabric. She struggled, trying to clamp her hand over it, but he realized then that her wrists had been bound behind her back with plastic cuffs.
Aiden’s instincts were to rush to her, to make sure she was okay. He would have done that for anyone. But when he started toward her, the guy on the left shifted his gun to Aiden.
“Move and she gets another bullet in the other arm,” the man warned him.
Okay. So maybe this wasn’t fake after all.
“You’ve got my attention,” Aiden said. “But let’s hurry along this little chat so I can get an ambulance out here for Kendall.”
The talking guy shook his head. “Her injury isn’t serious. Just a flesh wound. That doesn’t mean the next one will be, though. We need her alive but not necessarily in one piece.”
Aiden’s heartbeat hadn’t settled down since he first saw Kendall kneeling on the floor, and that didn’t do much to slow it to normal.
“What do you want?” Aiden repeated.
“For you to destroy evidence lot BR6847-23.” The guy didn’t hesitate.
Normally, Aiden wouldn’t have known what evidence that was. But he did in this case. It was recently found bone fragments.
His father’s bone fragments.
And it was key evidence in the murder case against Jewell.
“So this is about your sister,” he said to Kendall. Even though he no longer believed Kendall had orchestrated it. Not after taking that bullet.
She moaned, the sound of raw pain, and clamped her teeth over her bottom lip for a moment. “I don’t know who hired these men,” Kendall said, her voice shaking. “I was leaving work late, and they grabbed me in the parking lot. They brought me here.”
Even though there weren’t a lot of details in that, Aiden could almost see it, and it turned his stomach a little. Kendall wasn’t a large woman, and these two goons towered over her. She had to have been terrified.
Still was.
No one was that good an actor.
“Jewell’s daughters could be behind this,” Aiden said just to see what kind of reaction he’d get from them. No one argued. But then, he didn’t see anything in their body language that he’d hit a home run, either.
Of course, who else would it be?
Jewell had abandoned her husband and three sons all those years ago when she left town under the cloud of suspicion of murdering Aiden’s father. The suspicion had finally been confirmed when the case was reopened, and those bone fragments had been discovered. Jewell was finally where she belonged.
In jail.
And she hadn’t exactly mended fences with her own sons and ex-husband.
Still, she had two daughters, a stepson and a now-shot half sister on her side. Once Kendall was safe, Aiden would go to Jewell’s spawn and step-spawn and demand answers.
First, though, he had to get Kendall out of this.
“I guess you’ll hold her until I destroy the evidence?” Aiden asked.
The talker nodded. “The sooner you do it, the sooner you can have her back.”
Not likely.
Except that didn’t make sense, either. Jewell’s kids knew she loved her much younger half sister. In fact, word was that Jewell thought of Kendall more like a daughter than a half sister.
So why would Jewell’s kids have put Kendall at risk like this?
“Why?” Aiden repeated out loud and shook his head. “And that why covers a lot of territory. There’s plenty about this that doesn’t make sense.”
Kendall opened her mouth. Closed it. Then swallowed hard. “I thought Laine might have said something.”
Aiden shook his head. “My sister? What does she have to do with this?”
“Laine saw me coming out of the doctor’s office. I swear, Aiden, I was going to leave town next week. I wasn’t going to put any of this on you. I know how you and your family feel about me.”
There was a gun trained on him, but Aiden went some steps closer so he could look Kendall straight in the eye. “What the heck are you talking about?”
She made a sound. Sort of a helpless moan that came from deep within her chest. “They took me because I’m pregnant. Because they knew they could use that for leverage.”
Kendall’s breath shuddered. “Aiden, the baby I’m carrying is yours.”
Chapter Two (#ulink_7d5d5402-381a-566b-9366-b136030e4f07)
It was hard to think through the pain, but Kendall braced herself for Aiden’s reaction. She expected him to curse or yell. To ask what she’d already asked herself—how could this have happened? But other than a few moments of silence, that was it.
Those moments of silence were his only physical response to the baby.
Unlike her.
She was sweating now. Not because it was hot but because her arm was throbbing. Yes, it was just a flesh wound, but she was bleeding, and she needed the wound cleaned and tended. Later, if there was a later, she’d deal with Aiden’s reaction.
Heaven knew what that would be.
“How do you think this is going to work?” Aiden’s attention shifted from her to the gunman who’d been doing all the talking.
“You’ll leave now. Go to the evidence storage room. You shouldn’t have any trouble getting in there, since you’re the county sheriff. Tell them you need to look at something else that involves another case. And once you’re inside, destroy the evidence.”
Aiden shook his head. “It won’t be that simple. There are surveillance cameras.”
“Then figure out a way around them,” the gunman snapped. “After all, your kid’s life depends on it.”
Now Aiden cursed, but it was under his breath. “And what about Kendall? You shot her. It can’t be good for my kid to have his or her mother injured like that.”
“Don’t worry about her. We’ll get her to a doctor. The only thing you have to worry about is doing what you’ve been told.” The man took something from his shirt pocket and tossed it to Aiden.
A cell phone.
“It’ll take videos,” he explained. “Film yourself destroying the evidence and send it to the number already programmed into the phone.”
“And then you’ll let Kendall go?” Aiden asked with plenty of skepticism in his tone.
“Eventually. In a day or two. We got no reason to keep her, and truth is, she’s a pain in the butt. I, for one, will be glad to give her back to you. She bit me,” he growled, glancing down at his wrist.
She had indeed resorted to biting and clawing. She’d done everything to try to escape. But when he threatened to hurt the baby, Kendall knew she had no choice but to stop fighting and look for a better way out of this.
So far, she hadn’t come up with one.
This definitely didn’t qualify as better.
“Hate to burst your bubble,” Aiden said, “but if you hold Kendall for a day or two, someone will report her missing. And people will look for her. You really want to raise those kinds of red flags, since half of her kin are lawmen?”
Kendall groaned softly. “I’ve already told my friends, Jewell and the rest of my family that I’d be leaving town tomorrow morning. I said I needed some downtime and for them not to be surprised if they didn’t hear from me for a while.”
The gunman laughed. “She tied it up in a pretty little bow for us, didn’t she?”
Yes, she did, but Kendall intended to shove that proverbial bow down his throat the first chance she got. She wasn’t in any position to win a physical fight with him, but sooner or later, he’d let down his guard.
She hoped.
Aiden’s gaze came back to her. “I’m figuring you didn’t ask to be here, but I know you won’t shed any tears over this evidence being destroyed.”
“You’re wrong,” she let him know after she choked back another wave of pain. “I don’t want my sister convicted of murder, but I don’t want her free like this, either. And neither would Jewell.”
The corner of Aiden’s mouth lifted in an expression she knew all too well. The Braddock smirk. As an O’Neal and Jewell’s sister, she’d been on the receiving end of it a lot since their families were at odds for twenty-three years.
“Time for you to leave,” the gunman said to Aiden. “Oh, and don’t bother to pull some kind of stunt like pretending to leave so you can double back and rescue her. Kendall will be tucked away someplace safe, where you can’t find her.”
There was no telling what they’d consider someplace safe, but she seriously doubted these snakes had her safety in mind beyond using her to try to prod Aiden into committing a felony.
Aiden stood there, his glare shifting among them, and he cursed again. “Give me at least two hours, and you’ll have your video of me destroying the bone fragments.”
Oh, mercy. He was going to do it.
Kendall had thought he’d be able to negotiate his way out of this. Or else fight his way out of it. She figured the last thing on earth Aiden would do was destroy evidence to protect her.
Except it was not just her.
Even though they were enemies, she knew that Aiden was an honorable man. He wouldn’t risk an unborn child’s life.
Any unborn child.
Still, honor aside, he’d have a heck of a time dealing with the consequences. And worse. Kendall was terrified that destroying the evidence wouldn’t even help the baby and her. She hadn’t seen either of the men’s faces. Had no idea who they were. But they might not let her live anyway.
The thought of it broke her heart.
Not for her own life but for the baby’s. This child hadn’t been planned. Heck, it hadn’t even been on her personal radar. But she’d loved the baby from the moment that she’d known she was carrying it. However, she never expected Aiden would feel the same.
Ever.
“Get her to the doctor,” Aiden growled. “Now.” And he reached for his gun.
“Nope,” the man said while Aiden was in mid-reach. “I’m sure you’ll have no trouble coming up with another one. We’ll keep this one for now.”
Kendall’s imagination started to run wild. Once Aiden had destroyed the evidence, they wouldn’t have a reason to keep her alive. They could use Aiden’s gun to kill her and then somehow set him up to take the blame for the crime.
The baby would be motive.
Because an autopsy would reveal the pregnancy, and a DNA test would prove he was the child’s father. These men could make it look as if Aiden had completely lost it when he learned of the baby and killed her in cold blood.
“Oh, and, Braddock?” the man said to Aiden. “We’ll know if you call your buddies at the county sheriff’s office. Or any other law enforcement agency in the area for that matter. Because we’ve got ears in all those places.”
That was probably a bluff. Unless, of course, these guys had managed to plant some listening devices.
“Aiden,” she said before she could stop herself. Kendall hated to beg for his help, but she would. To save the baby, she’d do anything.
A flash of something went through his eyes, but Kendall had no idea what it meant. Aiden gave the men, and her, one last look before he strolled out.
Kendall tried to tamp down the panic. They wouldn’t kill her until they were sure Aiden had destroyed the evidence, and he’d said that would take about two hours. Not much time. But during those two hours, she had to find a way to escape.
One of the men stayed next to her, the gun still pointed at her head, and the other went to the window and peered out. Watching Aiden, no doubt.
Another sound only spiked the panic building inside her.
Aiden’s truck engine.
She heard it start, and then he pulled away from the house.
His place wasn’t that large by Texas standards, just a couple of acres of pasture for his horses, a barn and the house. From the man’s vantage point at the window, he would be able not only to see Aiden leave, but also to see him drive out onto the road.
“He’s out of sight,” the man said a moment later.
Still, they didn’t move. The time seemed to crawl by, and her throbbing arm and building panic didn’t help. Finally, the one who’d been silent latched on to her shoulder and hauled her to her feet.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” the other one snarled, “or you’ll get another bullet.”
Kendall was positive that wasn’t a bluff, but before this ordeal was over, she would almost certainly have to do something stupid. Or at least risky.
As soon as they started moving, she tried to work the plastic cuffs that bound her wrists behind her back. They were loose, but strong for mere plastic, and they seemed to tighten with each tug.
