Trust in the Lawe (Colorado Trust 3)

“Shut-up,” he ordered with a jerk of the gun. “Let’s just get this over with. We’re going to make it look like a little accident, and then the money will be mine like it should’ve been when my father died. If I’d gotten it in the first place, I wouldn’t be in the mess I’m in now.”

“Our father,” she said, hoping to stir some tiny bit of compassion in him with the reminder that they were blood related.

“No, my father,” he replied. “Turns out your bitch of a mother was pregnant by another man before she married him.”

“What?”

“I found paternity papers in a safety deposit box back in April. Ninety-nine percent improbable that David Zelner is the father of female child, Kendra Zelner,” he mimicked, as if reading the results from a formal letter.

She shook her head in disbelief. “No. Mom would’ve told me—she never would’ve kept something like that from me.”

“You really didn’t know the bitch very well.”

“Stop calling her that,” Kendra protested. Confusion bombarded in her mind. Was it true? Or was he trying to hurt her because he hated her so much?

“I call it like it is,” Robert sneered. “How the hell do you think I found you? It was easy to trace your brother Joel once I located Vivian’s ex.”

Her mother’s ex-husband—Joel’s father. Suddenly it wasn’t so unbelievable. Maybe she’d figured a previous marriage and an unknown brother was the most Kendra could handle. Or maybe she’d been too much of a coward to reveal the full extent of her lies. One tiny little part of her could understand that.

He shifted his stance and she focused on the here and now.

“You see,” he gloated, “you’re not entitled to a single penny of my father’s money. I’m taking what’s rightfully mine—what would’ve been mine if it weren’t for your whore of a mother and the fact that you and that snot-nosed kid were always his favorites.”

His laugh bordered on maniacal and chilled her blood. So did the smile that stretched his cruel mouth. “Imagine what Dad would have said if he’d known. He would’ve killed her…like I’m about to kill you.” He thrust the gun forward and stepped closer.

She stumbled back. “You can’t shoot me—there’ll be an investigation.”

“Oh, Kendra, I’m not stupid.”

Her gaze flicked to the gun before meeting his once more.

“Leverage,” he explained with a smug grin. “Guns are persuasive—back up.” He jabbed the weapon forward and she instinctively retreated from the danger. Another chilling laugh erupted.

“You’ll never get away with this.”

“Oh, but I will. See? There’s no proof I was here.” He waved one gloved hand in a wide arc, as if performing a magical disappearing act.

Another step forward for him, one backward for her.

She wished she’d hugged Noah tighter before leaving for the courthouse this morning. Taken a moment to see the rest of her family.

And Colton…God, she wished—

“This is all an unfortunate accident,” Robert interrupted her somber thoughts in a voice void of all emotion. “Too bad you went hiking all alone…too bad you got lost…”

She glanced back, alarmed at how close she’d gotten to the edge. Robert’s voice droned on as her boot heel caught on a rock, and she flailed her arms to catch her balance.

“Too bad you accidentally fell off a cliff.”

****

Colton paused and held his labored breath, straining for any sound outside the natural order of the mountains. Finally, he heard it—a voice that carried above the wind rustling the Aspen leaves and pine branches.

He pushed on, holding the gun in front of him as he crept forward and eased around the edge of a large boulder. His heart thumped at the sight of Kendra on her hands and knees about thirty yards away, on the edge of a ravine that he knew dropped over a hundred feet.

“Robert, please—I’ll give you the money. You can have it all!”

The terror in Kendra’s voice sent a chill down his spine. Robert simply laughed and rage curled inside Colton’s gut.