“You stay right there,” Jolly ordered. “If you don’t I’ll—”
“I know,” she murmured, then watched him retreat into the dark woods.
In the next second she was on her back, tackled from the side by a heavy body and flattened to the ground. On top of her was Jared McBride.
“Please tell me you weren’t going to just stand there and wait for him to come back and kill you.”
“I can’t breathe! I thought you were dead.” There was relief in her voice.
“You can mourn me later.” He rolled off of her, stood up, then pulled her up with him. “Stay low,” he whispered, “and stay close to me. Jolly has two other goons with him.”
“What about Melissa?” Eden said into his back as she did her best to keep up with him.
“I don’t know. I’m the only one here.”
“Remi is here,” she said.
Halting, Jared looked at her. “That big Cajun is here?”
“Somewhere. I saw him hiding under the porch of the house.”
Jared shook his head in disbelief. “Why didn’t we just send out invitations? It was bad enough having to act like we didn’t know what you and Granville were up to. I had to fish pieces of a note out of the toilet pipe.” He made a noise of exasperation. “Stay with me and keep quiet. Can you use a gun?”
“Never shot one in my life.”
“That’s a help. Get down!” He put his hand over the top of her head and pushed her down into a circle of tree trunks. They could hear male voices near them, but the voices didn’t seem upset, so maybe they hadn’t found out that Eden was missing. She was the only one who could sign the papers, so they needed her.
“Hands up!” came a voice near them. “Drop your weapons! Do it or we’ll shoot.”
“Who the hell is that?” Jared said under his breath. “And who is he talking to?”
Eden thought she was going to be sick. She recognized the voice. “He’s my son-in-law,” she said. “Stuart.”
Jared leaned back against the tree trunk, then with a grunt of pain, turned his back to Eden. “Could you…?” She knew what he meant. There were still pyracantha thorns in his back, as there were in hers. While he reloaded two guns, she ran her hands over his back and pulled out all the thorns she could find.
“Thanks, honey,” he said, making a joke. “Wish me luck,” he said as he started to leave their dark little nest.
But Eden caught his head in her hands and kissed him hard. “Save everyone,” she whispered, “including yourself.”
He removed the pistol from his ankle holster and handed it to her. “Aim and point.” He kissed her again, then he was gone into the night.
Chapter Twenty-five
EDEN waited as long as she could stand to. She heard no sounds, not even animals. Nothing slithered or scurried. After what seemed like hours but was probably only minutes, she heard the sound of a car being started. Whose car? she wondered. And where was it going?
And what about Stuart? Who had he been telling to drop his gun? The scary Mr. Jolly?
As quietly as she could, Eden left the relative safety of the trees and made her way back to the icehouse. Silently, she went inside. It was dark, so she had to feel her way around. She nearly slipped on a puddle of blood from Brad’s leg, but no one was in the icehouse.
She went outside and stood still, listening, but she heard nothing. She took two steps and tripped over a body. Cautiously, wishing she had a light, she bent down to the body. When it groaned, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the gun Jared had given her. She’d heard of safety catches. Was there one on this gun? If there was, was it on or off?
The person on the ground groaned again, and she recognized the voice. “Stuart? It’s me, Eden.” She put the gun back in her pocket and bent down to her son-in-law. “Are you all right?”
“My head hurts. Someone hit me. Where’s Missy?”
“Melissa is—” Eden said pointedly, then made herself stop. She’d always hated that nickname. “I don’t know where anyone is or what they’re doing. I heard you tell a man to stick his hands up. Who was he?”
“I don’t know. He’d been shot in the leg.”