The Good Sister (21 page)

“You would really use her against me? Haven’t you done enough to her?”

“Yes. But I need to do this for you.” He leaned forward and touched her forehead as he gently stroked her tangled hair. “Ah, Lindsey, you are my redemption. You are all that I have to show for my life. You always were. That was never a lie. So, I can’t leave you like this.”

She stared him down and he raised his eyebrows as if to say “your move.” She swallowed and her head spun around. She wanted nothing more than to lie back down and never move again. But what about Jessie? He was threatening Jessie. She could not let that happen.

She slowly swung her legs over the edge of the bed, and gulped the nauseating bile that climbed up her throat. She stood on shaking, quivering legs. Her body still groaned with soreness and bruises.

“It won’t work. He’ll find me wherever I go and kill me.”

“He is about to be the most tracked and photographed man in Virginia and D.C. So, no, he won’t. The man is as ambitious as I used to be. Nothing will derail his plans or his campaign. You will know where he is at all times, simply because he is about to become a public figure. Sure, he’ll spin it that you left the house after this scary attack for safety reasons. He’ll only come out better for it. Trust me, I know, because it’s what I would do in his position. If you believe I am he, then you must believe I know how he’ll react. And you need to leave.”

The long t-shirt she wore slid down to her knees. She took a step forward and swayed, catching herself on the nightstand, before she took another one. Then another.

He nodded in approval. “You’re Lindsey Bains, not Lindsey Johanson. Don’t forget the good, Lindsey. There was good between us. You represent all the good in me. Don’t let what I did change any of that. Please, Lindsey.”

He walked into her closet and came back out with jeans and a sweatshirt. He helped her dress and the sheer surrealism of it made it feel fake. Like she made it up. She was not being dressed by her dead father and about to leave Elliot. No. That wasn’t happening. It could not happen. She was in a huge bout with denial over conjuring up her father, because at her very core, he was the man she wanted to come and rescue her. She once went to him for everything: answers, love, and ultimately, protection. And he was whom she wished would help her. That made her a wicked traitor to Jessie.

Her father was still a tall, strong man. He carried himself with the same bearing that benefited a man who commanded an Army. He put his arm under her.

“Is there anything sentimental you want to keep?”

“My purse. It has all my stuff. Some clothes. Maybe a jacket.”

His face whipped down to catch her eye. “You’re doing this then? You really are?”

She shrugged. It had to be dream anyway, so why not pretend to escape her prison?

He squeezed her hand. “That’s my girl. That’s my soldier. You are still in there.” He kissed the top of her head and put his hand gently on her jaw.

“What do you plan to do? Walk up to Noah and say, here she is?”

“Kind of. I’m not leaving you here, whatever I do.”

“You’re crazy. This won’t work.”

“It will. And Lindsey? I love you. If nothing else convinces you of that, just know that I am on a short leash. If they realize I’ve come back here, they will terminate me. I have to leave tonight. But know now that if I do die, for real, but I get you safely away from Elliot, it was worth it. You are all that I have left who is worth anything.”

She snorted. “It won’t matter. You’re as good as dead to me.”

“Ah, sweetheart, don’t discount me yet.”

“I still hate you. I will forever hate you.”

He smiled as he gently pulled her forward to descend the stairs. “
If only I had a penny for how many times I’ve thought that too. That’s fine, sweetheart, as long as you leave here. I can accept that.”

Noah shoved the water bottle into the passenger seat. How much longer could he do this? Jessie seemed to think he could do it indefinitely. But he had a job to get back to. And bills to pay. A family to account for. He had all but abandoned poor Tessa, leaving her in Penny’s care. They didn’t know what was going on, just that he had to go. He said it was important and he’d tell them when he could.

The thing was: it was important. But he needed to do something more than just sit in a car and stare at the house. Picking a peanut out of the can of nuts next to him, he selfishly wondered how much longer he could stand just sitting here. It gave new meaning to the word “boring.” Mind-numbing. Grueling. He got so antsy, he thought he might scratch his damn eyes out.

But Elliot was there a lot of the time and never kept a consistent schedule. Sometimes, he left for twenty minutes, others for two hours. There was no telling how long. And that smarmy-looking man who was always in his attendance
stayed there the entire day.

He munched on the honey-roasted peanuts, glancing up to see a man shuffling down the sidewalk. He was tall, not as tall as Noah, and bald. He hunched over as he walked the way that old people often do. He suddenly stopped about ten feet from Noah’s car and looked up, directly at Noah through the windshield. Noah was so startled, he dropped the can of peanuts, which spilled all over his feet and the floor mat.

General Travis Bains?

He blinked and rubbed a hand over his eyes. No. No way. His boredom was obviously making him delirious now. The general was long dead.

The apparition motioned toward him, but he sat there without moving. No. The stranger could not know him. He could not be a dead man walking. The ghost’s lips pursed as he rolled his eyes, stepping up to the passenger door and jiggling the handle while motioning for Noah to unlock it.

The man tapped on the window. “For God’s sake, Noah, yes! It’s me, Travis Bains! Snap out of it. Zombies aren’t taking over the streets. Now, open up the damn car.”

His fingers finally responded and he clicked the doors unlocked. Bains slid into the seat.

“How could you be here?”

“Because I didn’t die. It was all faked. Long story. No one knows I’m alive, but five people, and now you. It stays that way. I did what no one else could do; I got her to take the first step. She listens to me. As she always has. Lifelong habits can’t totally be obliterated.”

Noah drew in a sharp breath. “You dirty, mother-fucking, son of a bitch.”

He waved his hand around. “Yeah, yeah, I am all that and more. But not to Lindsey. She’s around the corner right now, tucked behind the hedge in front of the blue house. Pick her up. Then drive like hell and get her as far away from him as you can. Drive until your eyes are literally about to fall out. The further you get now, the less chance she’ll come back. She won’t want to listen to you. Not like she does to me. But you have to make her. You can be nice to her later. Later, when she isn’t his prisoner. Do not get on a plane. Just drive. And only pay with cash. You just get my daughter the fuck away from that narcissistic monster.”

His mouth stayed agape. “You got her out?”

“Barely. And I do mean barely. Do you understand me? She’s a thread’s width from going back.”

Noah stared for a prolonged moment of silence. “You must get the profound hypocrisy of this, don’t you? There was a time when you were the monster, and Jessie was only a thread’s width from escaping.”

Bains snorted. “Save her, Noah. That’s all that matters.”

“Are you going to kill Elliot?”

“I should. But no, I don’t have enough time. I just had to get her away from him. And lucky for me, here you were, sitting like an idiot. What was your plan, by the way?”

He nearly blushed. Okay, so he didn’t blaze in there, gallantly freeing Lindsey of her situation as Will did for Jessie. Okay, he was patiently waiting and watching for the opportunity. He was… well, shit, he was doing exactly as Jessie told him to do.

Bains shook his head and reached for the door. “Doesn’t matter. Just get out of here. And do not, do you hear me? DO NOT take her to Jessie and Will’s. Don’t even take her to the same state as where they live.”

He handed Noah a scrap of paper. “Memorize this and drop a note to me. Tell me where she is. I must know. I have to know she’s safe. Will you do that for me?”

The tacked-on question sounded almost polite. It was quite obvious Bains had no idea how to be polite or properly ask for favors.

“Can’t I just email you?”

“Nope. Technology is all traceable and monitored. Do this for me.”

“Fine.” At Noah’s consent, Bains nodded and exited the vehicle.

Noah squealed around the corner, nearly putting the car on its side in his haste to find her. Lindsey stood up just as he pulled over. She had a big coat over her, with the hood up. She also had a small bag and her purse, but was leaving the house with nearly nothing to her name.

She got in and didn’t look at him, or even ask him what the hell he was doing there. She didn’t react to any of it, but put her seatbelt on in silence. Noah watched her for a moment, before shaking himself back to attention and obeying
Bains’s advice. He drove.

The miles sped by and she clutched the seatbelt around her, but stared straight ahead. He clicked the radio on, attempting to ease the awful tension in there. What did one say in such a situation? There were no words he could find to explain his helping her escape the violent predator she was married to. Or to discuss her reaction upon learning her dad was not dead, and had just spoken to both of them. Noah’s hands gripped the steering wheel robotically as he tried to keep his mind on driving instead of the myriad questions he had festering in his brain.

After thirty miles passed on the odometer, he draped his hand casually over the wheel. “So, the general isn’t dead after all.”

He didn’t look at her, but kept his gaze focused straight ahead. He felt her shift in the seat as she stared at him silently. He finally cast a glance her way with a small smile.

“No. I thought I was making him up.”

“Yeah? Me too. He had to physically beat on my window before I believed he wasn’t just an apparition.”

She didn’t answer him. Silence. Another hundred miles. Two hundred miles. Darkness had long settled in and Noah switched the station to news radio. Then talk radio. After feeling smarter and more educated, he switched back to music again. He rubbed his eyes and shifted in his seat, doing anything he could to stay awake and keep on driving.

Shit!
He’d virtually stolen the rental car!  Or was it stealing? Couldn’t he simply return it to another branch of the agency? He’d have to find out. Crap, he was no good at being a fugitive. Or whatever Lindsey and he would now be labeled. He had so many questions, but they didn’t outnumber his fears. He was not the right man for doing this. But… he was the only one around. He sighed out loud. So here he was: racing across the country with a nearly comatose woman after her dead father insisted upon it.

He stopped finally for gas, feeling a bit worried by the general’s warning. Would she try to bolt out of there? She had long ago slumped against the door with her head resting on a balled-up sweatshirt.

What did she actually look like? He couldn’t tell. She averted her face and kept the hood of the sweatshirt up, blocking most of her profile.

“Do you want anything?”

“Water.”

“Okay, water it is.” He grimaced, thinking he sounded like a complete schmuck. His voice was too cheerful. But he had no idea how else to talk to her. Or even what tone to use with her. He had no idea how to get through her strange, almost catatonic state.

He bought himself a coffee and water for her, as well as some candy bars and chips. He also grabbed some pre-made lunch items and a couple of sad-looking apples the convenience store kept beside the register. His eyes were riveted on Lindsey, but thankfully, she never moved. With some relief, he finally slid into the car.

“There’re some snacks if you get hungry.” Yeah, that should help her.

“I’m not hungry.”

He started driving again. Another few hours elapsed. He yawned, feeling exhausted. He crossed the entire state and was losing steam. His adrenaline was rapidly fading.

After fifteen hours of driving, three bathroom stops, three gas stops, and four candy bars, she finally asked Noah, “Where are we going?” lifting her head off the window. It was the most activity she’d shown yet.

Did he dare admit the truth? “I don’t know. He said I just had to get you as far away as I could, as fast as I could. So I did.”

“He, being my dad? And you thought he was a good person to obey?”

He twisted his neck back and forth. “No? Yes. I have no damn idea.”

She snorted. “So, you’re driving at breakneck speed with no destination in mind?”

“Yeah, pretty much. Figured the opposite coast might be a good place to start. He warned me not to take you to your sister and Will.”

“He’s probably right. I’m sure he knows how someone like Elliot would react.”

“I need to call Jessie. She’s got to be a total mess by now.”

“I figured she was behind this. She couldn’t come because of the baby, so she sent you.”

“No. I actually volunteered.”

“How did she figure it out?” Lindsey’s tone sounded dead. There wasn’t a trace of feeling or inflection. It was the same tone as someone reciting a vocabulary list might use. She seemed to ignore any feelings about her situation.

“She didn’t. I did.”

Her face sought his in the first sign of reaction from her. He winced when he found it. She had fading, yellowing bruises on her neck and jaw. Her eye was still uncomfortably swollen and an ugly cut slashed her forehead.

“How? How could you possibly guess?”

“How could I miss it? And more to the point, how could I not see all the hints you tried to leave for us? Worst of all, even with that bad feeling in my gut, I still let you go with him. Without a last word of worry or care. I think I knew, I just couldn’t accept it.”

“What changed your mind?”

“The scar.”

“What scar?”

“The one you showed Tessa. The one you got in your ‘former relationship.’ The thing is: Jessie told me you had no former relationships before Elliot.”

She nodded. “Yes, now you can see why I should never have told anyone. You tell just one, and a lot of others find out.”

“You should have screamed it at us for not seeing!”

She shrugged. “I know what you’re thinking. Why didn’t I stay in Washington? Why didn’t I tell you? Why didn’t I do something?”

“No. it’s not what you didn’t do. I don’t think this is any of your fault.”

“Yes, you do. You must wonder why I didn’t leave. Why I went back with him. You have to wonder what’s wrong with me to want such a thing.”

His heart felt like all the blood was pumping out of it. He felt completely drained. She really believed that. “No. No, Lindsey. Just like I don’t blame Tessa or her six kids. Should I resent her? Instead of helping her? Or send her back because she stayed with the abuser too?”

Lindsey’s entire torso stiffened. “No.”

“Then why would you even suggest I might think that of you?”

She was silent. Then, “I don’t want to talk anymore.”

“Okay. Of course. Just… do you have any idea where we should go?”

She slouched again, leaning her head against the balled-up sweatshirt as she shut her eyes. “Yes. Keep driving west. There’s a place to go. The place I always envisioned that if I ever got away, I’d go there.”

“Care to tell me where it is?”

She didn’t answer, but simply closed her eyes.