The Liar

“You never did understand much of anything. I guess we’ve got to have a long talk, you and I. Let’s go.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

He reached casually behind his back, drew out a gun. “Yes, you are.”

The gun in his hand struck her just as unbelievable as all the rest. “Are you going to shoot me? For what? I don’t have anything you could want.”

“Did have.” He nodded toward the photo on her dresser. She saw now he’d taken it apart.

“I know you, Shelby. You’re so damn simple. One thing you’d never get rid of—that picture you gave me of you and the kid. If they picked me up, they’d still have nothing. I kept what I needed with my lovely wife and daughter.”

“Behind our picture,” she murmured. “What did you hide there?”

“Key to the kingdom. We’ll talk. Let’s go.”

“I’m not—”

“I know where she is,” he said quietly. “Spending the night with her little friend Chelsea. At the grandmother’s. Maybe I’ll just go over there, pay Callie a visit.”

Fear sliced through her, a knife to the bone. “No. No, you stay away from her. You leave her be.”

“I’ll kill you right here where your family will find you. If I have to handle it that way, the kid’s my next stop. Your choice, Shelby.”

“I’ll go. Just leave Callie alone, and I’ll go with you.”

“Damn right you will.” He gestured her out of the room with the gun. “So predictable—always were, always will be. I knew you were a born mark the first time I saw you.”

“Why don’t you just take what you came for and go? We don’t mean anything to you.”

“And how far would I get before you called your cop brother?” As they stepped out of the house, he put an arm tight around her waist, pressed the gun into her side. “We’re going to walk down a little bit, take my car. A minivan, Shelby? You’re an embarrassment to me.”

That tone, that pitying tone. How often had she heard it? “I’m nothing to you, never was.”

“Oh, you were so useful.” He pressed a kiss to her temple, made her shudder. “And at first, hell, you were even fun. God knows you were eager in the sack. This one. Get in, climb over. You’re going to drive.”

“Where are we going?”

“A little place I know. Quiet. Private. It’s just what we need for a heart-to-heart.”

“Why aren’t you dead?”

“You’d like that.”

“I swear on all that’s in me, I would.”

He shoved her into the car, forcing her to crawl over to the driver’s seat.

“I never did anything to you. I did what you wanted, went where you wanted. I gave you a child.”

“And bored the crap out of me. Drive, and keep it to the speed limit. You go over, you go under, I’ll shoot you in the gut. It’s a painful way to die.”

“I can’t drive if I don’t know where I’m going.”

“Take the back roads around that hole-in-the-wall you call a town. Try anything, Shelby, I’ll take you out, then I go after the kid. I’ve got too much at stake, and I’ve worked and waited for it too long to let you fuck it up.”

“You think I care about the jewelry, the money? Take it and go.”

“Oh, I will. First thing Monday morning. If you hadn’t come into the bedroom, you’d never have known I was there. As it is, we’ll have a reunion weekend, then I’m gone. Just do what you’re told, like always, and you’ll be fine.”

“They’ll look for me.”

“And they won’t find you.” Sneering, he pressed the barrel of the gun into her side. “Jesus, you stupid bitch, do you think I’ve outwitted the cops all this time and can’t keep ahead of a bunch of Barney Fifes for a day? Take this turn coming up, to the right. Nice and easy.”

“Your partner’s been around. Jimmy Harlow. Maybe he’ll have better luck finding you.”

“I don’t think so.”

His tone froze her blood.

“What did you do?”

“Found him first. Steady on these switchbacks. I wouldn’t want this gun to go off.”

Her insides quaked, but she kept her hands steady as she negotiated the tight wind of the climb.

“Why did you marry me?”

“It served my purpose at the time. I never could smooth you out, though, never could make anything out of you. Listen to you, look at you, I gave you plenty of money, taught you how to buy the right clothes, how to give a decent dinner party, and you’re still the ignorant hick from the Tennessee hills. It’s amazing I haven’t bashed what brains you have out before now.”

“You’re a thief and a swindler.”

“That’s right, honey.” His sneer shifted to a cheerful grin. “And I’m damn good at it. You? You’ve never been good at anything. Take this excuse for a road on the left. Nice and slow now.”

He might’ve thought her ignorant, useless, malleable, but she knew the hills. And had a reasonable idea where they were going.

“What happened in Miami? All those years ago,” she asked, wanting to keep him talking, distract him as she slid her left hand into her pocket.

“Oh, we’ll talk about that. We’ve got a lot of things to talk about.”

Texting while driving, she thought, struggling not to give way to hysteria, was dangerous.

She hoped to God she managed to do it right.

Because while she knew the hills, she thought she knew the man beside her now. And she believed he meant to kill her before he was done.

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