No One Knows Part 38

Realized rain was pouring down. Good, that would wash him clean.

He managed to get to the bathroom, removed the emergency kit. Took a flashlight, and got out of there. He knew he didn't have much time. He took the bath towel and pressed it to the wound in his arm. Despite the tourniquet, it hadn't stopped bleeding entirely, and he was feeling sick and dizzy. He set to work. It took almost twenty excruciating minutes to sew up the knife wound.

Glanced in the kitchen-it certainly looked like he'd lost his life's blood in there.

Aubrey. I'm so sorry.

He bandaged himself up, took a last look at his life, grabbed a blue backpack from the hall closet, made his way across the street. Crawled under the porch. Emptied the contents of the briefcase into the backpack. Dug a hole one-handed and put the leather into the ground. Covered it back up with the dirt and set the old hose reel box, the one he knew they hadn't touched in years, back on top of the spot. No one would be able to see it. No one would suspect.

Pulled the backpack over his shoulder. The bleeding was under control. He hurt so badly it took his breath away. He dumped a pain pill in his hand and dry swallowed it. He needed to get away, now.

He just wasn't thinking. He was acting on instinct. Fight or flight. And flight was the only course of action he could see before him.

The path across to Dragon Park was even darker than before. He didn't know how he was going to get to Aubrey. They'd be watching. He was sure of it. The realization hit him and he had to stop and suck in his breath. There would be no recourse. They were going to hunt him down. He'd shot a man, for Christ's sake. If the police weren't already after him, Allen's crew would be soon, and the dealer's crew, too.

Tears pricked at his eyes. He blamed it on the Vicodin. He was well and truly fucked, and didn't know how to get himself out of it.

You did this to yourself, Hamilton. You deserve every bad thing that's going to happen from here on out.

He only had one option now. He had to disappear.

A moment later, his phone buzzed with a new text.

Utterly bored. Come meet me for a drink? I'm in the Jack Daniel's Lounge.

Aubrey.

This time Josh did start to cry, hiccupping tears coupled with maniacal laughter that made his arm scream in pain with each inhalation. She couldn't know.

She could not know.

It was the only way to keep her safe.

He didn't allow the thought to form: No, Josh. It's what's best for you.

Using a burner phone, one of two he'd bought and stashed in the backpack, he Googled the Jack Daniel's Lounge at Opryland. Hit the Call button. The phone rang about fifteen times. A hurried voice answered. "Jack Daniel's."

"Hi there. I have a friend who's waiting for me. Pretty girl, curly blond hair. Bandage on her lip. Will you make her a gin and tonic, Tanqueray, with a thin slice of lime? I'd like to surprise her."

"Yeah, I see her. Sure thing, dude. Hope it works."

The man hung up.

Hope it works indeed.

Josh needed some time. Time to get away, to get on the road, to get the hell out of Dodge.

He broke down the burner phone. Took out the battery, buried it in the weeds. Took out the SIM card, crushed it under his heel against a rock, put it in his pocket. Repeated the process with his own phone, destroying it completely.

Started off, in the dark.

He knew exactly where he needed to go.

CHAPTER 66.

Josh Today Josh watched his wife's reaction as he told her the story. She winced a few times but stayed silent and still, listening without interrupting.

She was quiet and reserved, holding back. This was not going the way he wanted. He'd expected a few flashes of anger, but he'd truly thought Aubrey would be so happy to see him that she'd rush into his arms and never want to let go again. She wasn't jumping in his arms. Instead, she was keeping her distance, on guard and afraid.

God, she looked just like she did when she was ten, and he was twelve, and he made her that valentine. She'd looked at it with the wariness of a cat about to bolt before its tail was pulled.

"Did you know about the investigation? The trial? They arrested me, Josh."

"Not at the time. I made it to Nags Head. Kevin and Janie's place. They went to Barbados on their honeymoon, I knew it would be deserted. And I knew where they left the key. I hid out there, and healed. The cut was worse than I intended. I got a fever. I nearly died."

That wasn't the whole truth. He had been aware, of everything. He'd been worried sick when she was arrested, but he knew she couldn't be found guilty. He'd been so careful. He just couldn't return to Nashville unless it was absolutely necessary. If she'd been found guilty, he would have turned himself in. But she hadn't. So he didn't. But he didn't think telling her that was going to make much of a difference. He hadn't played the hero. He wasn't sure why not.

"You shot Allen. You thought you killed him?"

"I had no choice."

"How much money did you get away with?"

"Almost two million dollars. I knew it would buy me some time."

"So how did you get to Nags Head?"

"Walked and hitched. Guy in an eighteen-wheeler picked me up outside of town. I was lucky he never came forward. Everything was predicated on luck. It could have fallen apart anytime."

"Right." She was quiet for a minute. "How'd you get the phone into my house? The police had me under surveillance."

"Loose surveillance. They followed Tyler when he left yesterday. I snuck in."

"Huh. Why didn't you just take the bag with you?"

"I heard your car. I panicked. I should have stayed, should have shown myself. I went out the window before the cops got back. I wanted you to leave with me then, but Chase . . ." He spit out his brother's name.

She laughed a little. "All this time, Josh. You could have reached out. You could have told me. You could have trusted me. I'm the only one you could truly trust."

"I do trust you. That's why I'm telling you now, Aubrey. The whole night went wrong, from the very beginning. Nothing went according to plan. This is not what I wanted. This is not what I'd planned on."

"You seem to have made the best of it." Aubrey swept her arm out. "Living in style, plastic surgeries."

"I've been working on how to get us out of this mess, Aubrey."

"Oh. Okay." She stared out to sea for a few moments. When she looked at him again, her face was shadowed. "Why exactly did you come back, Josh?"

He reached for her hand. She didn't resist. "I came back for you, Aubrey. Now that I've been declared legally dead, we can start over. Fresh. You have the insurance settlement. We'll pull the money from the account the moment it hits, transfer it to mine. I know how to do it so no one will know-that's part of what I've been working on. With that money, and what I've got left, we have enough to last us the rest of our lives. You don't have to work, ever again. We can move to South America, live in paradise, swim, make love, read, dance. Have babies. Anything we want to do."

"So long as we don't ever come back."

"Well, travel isn't completely out of the question, though it's dangerous. We'd have to get you some work done, and-"

"Did you know about Chase being your brother?"

Her tone made him wince. "I didn't until Meghan found the birth certificate."

"You were watching her, too?"

"I've been watching all of you. I've seen it all." He couldn't contain the anger in his voice, the hurt. He'd promised himself he wouldn't, couldn't blame her. But he did; it poured out. "I know all about you and Chase. How you fucked him that night. You'd just met him, Aubrey. You didn't know him at all."

She looked at him sadly. "You're one to talk, Josh. I didn't know you at all, either."

His phone rang, interrupting their argument. Once. Then silence.

That meant only one thing. He did have friends on this island, friends who were keeping a close watch on the house today while he let his guard down and reconciled with his wife. A quick phone call was the warning sign that someone unwanted had managed to follow them.

Adrenaline shot through his system. He ran to the closet, grabbed the bag, rushed to Aubrey's side. He pressed a silver handgun into her hands. Her fingers closed around it like she held guns all the time, natural, comfortable.

"What the hell is this?"

"We have to go."

"What do you mean? Go where?"

"We have to leave. Now."

"Why don't you just answer your phone?"

"Aubrey. I don't have time to explain. If we don't leave now, we're dead."

A voice sounded behind them.

"It's too late for that."

CHAPTER 67.

Aubrey Today Aubrey jerked at the familiar voice. She put her hand behind her, tucked the gun into her waistband.

Derek Allen advanced into the room. He had a wicked black gun in his right hand.

Josh immediately stood between Aubrey and Allen. He'd drawn so smoothly Aubrey hadn't even seen his arm move. He trained the weapon on Allen. The lethal twin eyes pointed at each other.

"Aubrey, I want you to go down the stairs and out onto the beach. There is a dock there, and a boat. Get in it, get down, and wait for me." Josh's voice was calm, collected, and dripping with menace. A stranger's voice.

Allen shook his head. "Don't you know I'd never come here alone? The boat's covered. You aren't going anywhere."

"Josh?"

Aubrey's voice was small, frightened. She hated how weak she sounded. Again, and again, someone was taking the choices away from her. Her whole fucking precious little life, other people had made the decisions for her. This time, it was her turn.

She could only hope Allen wouldn't shoot her on sight, just to get her out of the way. She stepped next to Josh, a show of solidarity.

"Both of you need to put the guns away. We will discuss this like civilized people."

Josh growled at her without taking his eyes off Allen. "Go in my bedroom and lock the door. Do it now, Aubrey."

"No. I'm sick of you telling me what to do. You two work it out. I'm no longer involved in this situation. I'm going home."

She stepped away, turning her back on them both, and went for the stairs.

The shot rang out before she made it four feet, the wood above her head splintering.

"Stop. Right. There." Allen wasn't fooling around. Aubrey whirled to face him.

"You bastard. You selfish, horrible bastard. How dare you shoot at me?"

"I didn't shoot at you, Aubrey, or else you'd be dead. I just wanted your attention."

"Well, you have my attention now." Aubrey stepped back to Josh's side.

"Where's the money?" Allen demanded. "Give me the money, and I'll consider killing you quickly."

Josh laughed, a hollow sound that gave Aubrey chills. "Not here. Do you think I'm an idiot? I'd never keep the cash on me."

"I don't believe you."

"It's true. Besides, it's all gone. Why do you think I risked coming back? I need the money from the insurance settlement to keep living."

"You're a liar, Joshua Hamilton."

Aubrey watched them, trying to figure how to get out of there. Allen's creepy voice, his blank, feral smile. It didn't take a genius to see the man was incredibly dangerous.

If Josh had been so careful, taken every precaution, managed to elude not only Allen but the authorities, too, for five years, how in the world had they been found so quickly?

Which led her to a moment of sanity. She'd disappeared. Wouldn't people be looking for her? Well, of course. People must be looking for her. She had no idea how long she'd actually been gone.