Devil in Disguise (23 page)

“I was streaking through the woods in my skivvies. The only
thing I owned was a pocket knife I’d stolen from a deer stand. Will it hurt if they destroy this house? Yes, absolutely. I will shed a few tears. I love my home. But it’s just a place. It can be rebuilt. Getting
to know
you has been an honor. I hope we’ll be lifelong friends, and that’s
worth more than a pile of wooden boards and nails.”

Julia buried her head in her own lap, refusing to look at either
woman. Sobs wracked her frail body.

“Aw, come on,
mon chaton.
” Conrad knelt before Julia. “You should
see this woman’s ability to make something out of nothing. I’m surprised she hasn’t torn this whole place down herself just for the
challenge of
starting over. Right now, I need you to stop feeling guilty over this and pull yourself together. It’s almost time for Neena to go, and
we’ve got some work of our own to do, okay?”

Julia looked up, meeting Conrad’s gaze as she nodded solemnly. A look passed between them that Rachel couldn’t decipher. After a moment, the girl threw herself into Conrad’s arms. He caught her, appearing only mildly surprised by her action.

Rachel and Neena silently excused themselves, walking into the kitchen.

“Neena, I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am. If there is
anything at all we can do, please tell us.”

“You’re starting to sound like Julia now.” Neena waved off her apology. “Conrad was there for me when I needed him. I’m only doing the same for him now that the roles are reversed. As for your sister, I would have given anything for someone to help me through my healing process. If I could be that for someone else, then maybe everything I went through has purpose.”

“Aside from your brother, you are my favorite person on the
planet, Neena Russell.” Rachel hugged her just as fiercely as Julia
had Conrad, catching Neena totally off guard.

“I love you too, Rachel Langston.” Neena returned the hug.

Rachel needed that hug to sustain her through the conversation she had ahead of her. With a heavy heart, she trudged up the stairs to talk to her mother about what came after the Russells’.

“Hey, Mom.” Rachel sat on the edge of the full-size bed her
mother had been sleeping in.

Rosemary glanced her way, arching her eyebrows, a smile half curling her lip. “I know that look. You’re getting ready to tell me
something you think I don’t want to hear.”

Rachel bit her lower lip, a small, sad smile of her own still
making its way through. “Yeah, I am.”

“Alright then, let’s hear it.” Rosemary stopped sifting through her things and came to sit beside Rachel on the bed.

“The safe house Veronica found for Julia is hidden. Family
can’t stay with her. But we don’t think it’s safe for you to go home just yet, so Veronica made arrangements for you to go somewhere else.”

“Where is this somewhere?”

“It’s a treatment facility – for people with addictions.”

Rosemary’s face darkened. “Not this again, Rachel.”

“Mom, I get it. You don’t want to hear this from me, and I’ve
done a pretty damned good job of keeping my mouth shut. You’ve done nothing but sleep since Julia was taken, and I didn’t say a word. But Mom, this is no way to live.”

“Don’t tell me how I should or shouldn’t be living.”

“You need somewhere to go anyway. Why not to this place?” Rachel argued.

Rosemary’s eyes snapped with anger. Her jaw twitched, but she didn’t speak. Neither woman did. They simply stared at each other. It was Rosemary who finally broke the staredown, seeming to melt under the heat of Rachel’s gaze.

“Maybe I like being numb. Did you ever think about that,
Rachel? That I like the way I feel?”

“No, it never occurred to me that anyone could be happy living the way you do.”

“I never said I was happy.” Rosemary sounded tired. “I wasn’t always like this, you know.”

“I know, Mom. I remember.” Rachel scooted closer to her
mother, wrapping a comforting arm around her.

“When your father left, I had so much trouble sleeping.”

Rachel nodded, a distant memory surfacing with her mother’s words. Grief had swept through the Cooper household that year. It had happened so quickly: one moment her father had been there, so strong and full of life, and then he was gone, taken by a car accident one rainy night.

Her uncles had flown in from San Francisco to comfort Rachel and her mother. Rachel remembered wanting to go back to California with her Uncle Jack or even the carefree Sam, but
Rosemary had been adamant their home was in New Jersey. At the time, Rachel had felt
like a prisoner to her mother’s grief. As a little girl, all she’d known
was that she missed her daddy, and being around her uncles made him feel not so far away.

“I have found,” Rachel began tentatively, “that for a wound to heal, it has to be cleaned out, no matter how bad it hurts to do so. If you just slap a bandage on it without cleaning it first, then it’ll fester. Mom, you’ve been slapping a bandage on your life for almost thirty years. It’s probably time to clean the wound.”

Tears gathered in both women’s eyes as they sat in silence for a moment.

“It’s just for a little while, right?” Rosemary asked.

“It’s a voluntary program,” Rachel reiterated.

“I don’t really have anywhere else to go anyway, do I?”

“It’ll be okay, Mom.” Rachel hugged her mom again, a glimmer of hope for her mother’s future lighting for the first time in decades.

The day seemed to drag by after that. They tried to act normally, but everyone in the household could feel the tension of waiting.
Even the baby was fussier than usual. Finally, Rachel received the
call from Veronica. Every adult in the house stopped moving the
instant the ringtone pierced the air.

Veronica began without preamble. “There’s definitely someone in town. I’m picking up all kinds of chatter. This line should be secure, but we only have a minute before they find it. It sounds like a couple of them have gone to dinner now, so this is your chance. Get the Russells out and be sure they see you, Conrad, and Julia stay. Send your mom with the Russells for now. Tell Charlie that Sheriff Taylor is just south of their place right now, waiting for them. When they get to the edge of town, another marked car will follow them to the next district. Give me fifteen minutes and I’ll be back to get you.”

When Rachel hung up the phone, she had a rapt audience. “It’s time. Load up your kids and my mom and head south out of town. Sheriff Taylor is waiting on the main road to follow you to the next town. When he drops off, another marked car will pick up.”

Charlie and Neena nodded, moving to round up their children. Rachel and Julia each gave their mother a hug.

Tears shone in Rosemary’s eyes as she regarded her daughters. “You girls take care of yourselves.”

“We will, Mom,” Rachel promised. “You take of yourself too.”

As the Russells loaded their children and dog into the car, it was apparent they were struggling to keep their goodbyes a lighthearted farewell. For the benefit of the younger children and anyone who might possibly be watching the house, they both kept a smile on their faces and didn’t turn to look back at the house as they pulled away, though Rachel was certain she saw Charlie’s eyes lingering on the rearview mirror.

Rachel glanced at her watch. They had fifteen minutes looming
ahead, and then they could make their own bid for escape. The
chickens
scurried around the yard, blissfully unaware of the countdown happening around them. The sky turned golden in the twilight.
Rachel
couldn’t help closing her eyes for a moment, absorbing the feel of this happy place one last time. Memories flashed through her mind, a collage of moments shared, moments filled with laughter and tears and love.

CONRAD PLACED A HAND
on each of Rachel’s shoulders and kissed her forehead. “It won’t be long now.”

Rachel nodded. “Should we go in the kitchen to wait for our phone call?”

“Sure. Oh, and I have something for you.” He paused to produce her knife from his pocket. “You forgot this at the cabin.”

“Thank you.” She accepted the small knife, not sure what good it would do her. “I’d rather have Charlie’s shotgun, but beggars can’t be choosers.”

“I’ll show you later how to best use it if you have to.” He nodded toward the knife, and she nodded in agreement. It was
somewhat unsettling, the thought of actually wielding a knife against another human being.

“Conrad.” Rachel chewed her thumbnail nervously. “What
about the animals?”

“None of them are in the house. Hopefully they’ll have the sense to leave if things get rough. That’s the best I can give them, unfortunately.”

“I can’t just leave Darcy. I don’t even want to leave the chickens to their own devices.”

“They’ll be okay. They have the barn, and I’ll ask Anjelita Torres to take care of them once it’s safe.”

Rachel blinked back tears. If Neena could walk away from every
material thing in her world and not shed a tear, Rachel was
determined to hold it together now.

Conrad glanced out the window before coming back to Rachel at the table. “When Veronica pulls up, get in the car without hesitation and stay close to me. Keep your head down once you’re in the car, just in case.”

Rachel nodded, glancing impatiently at the clock on the wall and
then out the window. The sun was nearly gone. Her stomach was churning. She placed a hand on her stomach, willing her nerves to
settle.

“No worries,
mon amour
,” Conrad tipped her chin up so he could brush his lips against hers. “This time tomorrow, I’ll have you back at the Four Seasons.”

Before he’d even finished his sentence, Conrad’s voice was
joined by another, calling from outside.

“Juuuullliaaaa,” the sing-song voice taunted. “Come out, come out wherever you are.”

Julia froze, all color draining from her face. With a dead voice,
she said, “I told you he was here.”

Every muscle in Conrad’s body tensed. He looked like a wild animal, ready to pounce. He moved to stand in front of Julia even as
Rachel moved to stand back-to-back with the girl, watching their flank.

Something broke through the living room window with a crash. “The house is surrounded!” a voice called. Orange illuminated the evening shade as flames exploded in the Russell’s front room.

The three of them moved in unison toward the back door. Rachel grabbed a butcher knife from the wooden block on the counter and
handed it to Julia, at the same time flipping open her own little
pocket knife. Her heart hammered in her throat, but she took deep, steady breaths in an attempt to stave off panic.

Another fireball crashed through the kitchen window. Conrad
kept them moving at a steady pace, tamping Rachel’s urge to bolt. When they cleared the threshold of the door, a large man jumped Conrad, the two tumbling to the ground, nearly crashing into the
girls
in the process. Julia screamed. Instinctively, Rachel shoved her aside, even as a bullet flew past their heads, coming from an unknown
assailant in the shadows.

A third man emerged from the dark, grabbing Julia while
Conrad was busy fighting off what had turned into two attackers. Without hesitating, Rachel made a swipe with her knife at the hands latched
on to her sister, drawing blood on the first pass. His grip didn’t
loosen. He was using her own sister as a shield, making it impossible to get at more than his hands, so she kept slashing at the only target she could find with her little knife, refusing to give up.

Julia was trying to wrestle out of his grasp, finally freeing her hand enough to take her own swipe at him with the knife Rachel had given her. The blade sliced open a swath of skin across his arm; this time he did loosen his grip with a string of curses. Julia sprang free, tumbling backwards to the ground in her haste to get away. As soon as she cleared the range of her initial attacker, bullets rang out again, sending her scuttling in the other direction.

When the man went to dive for Julia, Rachel reacted without thinking, charging straight at him, sending them both tumbling to the grass in a heap. She fought like a hellcat, contorting until she was able to plunge her pocket knife into him with little heed to aim. Just as Rachel’s blade pierced skin, Julia swung a shovel at his back. The man went limp.

“Oh my God. Oh my God,” Julia began to chant. “Did I kill him? I didn’t mean to kill him.”

Rachel pulled the girl away, forcing her to turn away from the image of the crumpled man on the lawn. “Don’t worry about him now. Run.” She wanted to go back to help Conrad, but she knew she couldn’t leave Julia in her current state. Besides, Conrad was strong
and a good fighter. He stood a much better chance on his own than
he did if Rachel jumped in the mix — at least that’s what she told herself as she tugged her sister into the cover of trees that lined the
yard.

They didn’t slow down until they were far enough back in the woods to feel invisible. Rachel turned back, scanning the scene for Conrad just in time to see the house explode into a massive inferno. Angry flames licked the sky, claiming everything in their path.

The whole world seemed to stop turning in that moment. Rachel
shook her head in denial, her stomach and throat clenched in fear. She broke free from Julia, blindly heading back to where she saw
Conrad
last. Strong arms wrapped around her, a hand clapping over her
mouth
as the arms pulled her back into the forest. She struggled, kicking
wildly at the man who’d lifted her off her feet.