An icy chill ran through her at his words, followed by an involuntary shiver at the piercing determination in his eyes. She stepped back, suddenly lost in what was happening. How could this be happening?
Nick led her by one shoulder and turned her around, edging her to the vehicles.
“My car.” Cora stopped even as he nudged her forward. “Why is my car in your garage?”
Her tiny red Miata was parked on the other side of several huge SUVs. Someone had moved it inside and put the top down. Somehow that took her anger level over the top.
“Keith’s garage,” Nick corrected. “Alexander must have moved it in here.”
Cora shuddered again as the realization hit her. Alexander had probably watched her park her car and sneak across the lawn to the house. Nick seemed to be on the same line of thinking.
“He might have followed me to the restaurant. It’s a safe assumption to say he planned for you to end up here.”
She stared at the cement floor and wished she could slip right through it, away from Nick and away from this mess. Nick’s scent filled her nose; her stomach did a small flip. When she glanced at his face, she thought she saw concern there. However, she didn’t plan on trusting anyone who worked for Keith Holloway. The words ‘how could you’ almost came out, but saying that would show him that she felt stabbed in the back. That didn’t make any sense. Why would she feel betrayed after one short, mysterious yet flirty, meeting?
Nick opened the passenger door of his Mustang for her, but Cora stopped short. The air felt full of static, ready to shock them at any second. They both held their ground.
“Cora.” He stopped to grind his jaw. “I’m getting you out of this house to keep you safe, and I’m doing what they say for now to keep your dad alive. You’re leaving, and it’s either with me or Alexander.”
Each word came out slowly, like he was trying to control his temper. Or maybe panic?
Cora cast another look toward the door leading inside. “I want to know where Jerry will be.”
“Keith won’t tell me that.” Nick’s voice grew quiet, ensuring no one in the house could hear him.
So they don’t trust him, she thought, yet Keith gave him the job of watching her. That didn’t make a lot of sense. Something seemed strange about Nick’s involvement in all of this.
She glanced down at her skirt and heels. “I have a bag of extra clothes in my car, can I at least get it?”
“I’ll do it.” He watched her the entire time he walked to car and got her bag. “Now if you don’t get in, I have a feeling Alexander will soon come out to take care of things.” He nodded toward a security camera mounted in the corner. He ushered her into his own vehicle, filled with the scent of new leather and fresh pine. Nick walked around and slid behind the wheel, but he paused with his hand holding the key in the ignition. While he stared at the wheel, Cora could see him wrestling inside.
“This feels like the worst thing I’ve ever done,” she said. “I shouldn’t leave him there alone.”
His resolve cracked. She saw it, clear as day, in his eyes.
“Cora… this is the worst thing I’ve ever done too, but if we don’t do things Keith’s way, he’ll kill your father.”
“No…” It was more of a breath than a word. She stared at him blankly as he leaned over and grabbed her buckle. She didn’t move as he clicked it in.
The car engine roared in the garage before the door opened and Nick pulled out. She turned her head to see the house, and that one lit window in the dark. It’s me and you. I’ll help you somehow, Dad.
Nick’s words registered now, that her dad would be leaving. How could Jerry find money that he didn’t steal? She tried to think of any way she could get away from Nick and get help, if she could do it before he called Keith.
“I’m sorry they involved you,” he said, a mile or so down the road. Thankfully he didn’t add that she should have minded her own business and stayed away from the house. Nick didn’t say a word about her following him. She didn’t want to hear that she’d put herself in harm’s way by snooping around the Holloway property either.
“I want to take you somewhere else, somewhere safe, but that’s Alexander’s car half a block back.”
She turned to look before she realized that even that might be dangerous. She noticed Nick was taking back roads and alleys, cutting through town. She watched for road signs but didn’t see any.
“Where are you taking me?”
“There’s a tiny cabin up in the mountains,” he answered while glancing in the rear view mirror at Alexander’s head lights. “Please don’t be scared, I promise I won’t hurt you.”
Her rattled nerves didn’t need this. “Then why are you driving me out to a secluded cabin?” While speaking, she slid her arm down the armrest, feeling for a lock button. There didn’t seem to be one. She glanced at the door, saw the controls down lower, and slammed her hand into them.
Nothing happened. Neither button moved the window either way.
Nick glanced at her hand. “Alexander disables the locks and windows on all the passenger doors. He altered my car a few days ago too.”
Tears stung the inside of her eyelids. Mortified, she rubbed her face, hoping he wouldn’t notice. It seemed likely he was playing both sides, acting like he wanted to help her even as he kidnapped her. Since he ignored her previous question, she asked, “Do you believe Jerry stole from Keith?”
“No, I don’t.”
He didn’t? “Then why are you helping him?”
“I’m a pawn in this, too. You’ve been thrown into this without any say, I’ll give you that. I got involved on my own accord, but I had to.”
A new and bigger wave of panic hit. They were leaving the city on some kind of cutoff road that didn’t have a sign she could read. She looked out the window, or tried to look like she was staring outside, while she considered the best way to break it. How would she break the window and jump out without hurting herself?
“Who was the man in the study with my father?”
“The oversized teenager is Terrance Holloway, taking his rightful family place, fulfilling his duty, proud to be a Holloway.”
Now where did that come from? She saw another angle to this story: Nick was trying to fit into the Holloways for some reason, but he was bitter about it. She knew better than to ask, but decided to get there by another route and ask questions about the other people involved.
“What exactly does Alexander Pierce do for Keith?”
“You know Alexander?” Nick questioned, waited in vain for an answer, and said, “He’s a white-collar criminal who somehow made a connection with Keith. Guess he saw an opportunity for some job security. He screens who gets hired, takes care of surveillance at the warehouses, and handles different problems that come up. He even does a little press.” Nick glanced over and saw her roll her eyes.
“Yeah, he talked to me about that.” Cora saw a clearer picture now, one where Alexander ran the show. The Holloways sounded like some kind of mob family to her, and she wondered if Nick got the same impression. If he did, why did he work for them and risk going to prison?
He intrigued her, really intrigued her. She wanted to know more about him, but warning bells rang in her head. She tried with a simple, off handed, “And you?”
“I’m someone who didn’t want to have any connections with those people.”
And yet he did. His strange answers didn’t tell Cora much of anything. He could be a criminal just like Alexander, who, after all, could be handsome if he wasn’t so angry and self-centered.
She knew next to nothing about this man driving her to an unknown destination. She couldn’t guess one way or the other if he was carrying a gun, or if he’d pull it on her. Either way, her short frame couldn’t hold its own against him.
He glanced at her as the dash lights gleamed in his brown eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know my family could actually go this far.”
Her mind stopped listening at the word
family.
“Excuse me?” She sat up straight and glared at him. “Those people are your family?”
His glance was much longer this time, and she could see the mental gears turning as he re-evaluated her.
“I’m Nick Holloway, Keith’s son.” Nick’s eyes weren’t hurt by her outburst, but he looked confused. “Didn’t you know?”
“But Keith’s so ugly…”
He laughed, although it was short and tense. “I hope that means you think the opposite of me.”
That explained a whole heck of a lot. No wonder he worked for Keith – he wasn’t working for the family, he was a part of it. She bit the inside of her cheek so hard she tasted blood. Keep calm, stay clear. Cora needed her brain working to get her out of this. Blinding anger had to wait. “I’ve never heard a word about you. Not your name, not that Keith even had a son.”
“Jerry never mentioned me?”
She gave him a slight shake of her head before dutifully adding, “Though he didn’t talk about anyone from his job, or their family.”
He studied her again, something he did too much. She wanted to tell him to keep his eyes on the road before he got them in a wreck. He said, “To be fair, I’ve been out of the picture since I left for college in California. Keith and I hardly spoke since then. I went straight to work after graduation, and I wasn’t planning on coming back, but my cousin asked me to get involved. So I went to Keith and asked for a second chance.”
Cora wondered why Keith would let Nick get involved after that slap in the face. This seemed to be getting more tangled by the minute. “So Alexander and Terrance are a part of your family?”
“Not Alexander. Terrance is my cousin. He’s fresh out of high school. It’s sad…he was this chubby little kid that followed Adam and me around.”
He sounded wistful. It was hard to picture being a part of a family like that. “So how did you get involved again? You were out and free of them.” She certainly wouldn’t have come back.
“Adam called, worried, and said this started over money, but it involved a lot more than that this time. He said people’s lives are on the line. I left, but he was here and living with this.”
Adam…another player. She’d get to that one later.
“So you rushed back to help Keith?”
“No, I want to help you.”
Where did he get off saying that? “How did you even know about me? I didn’t have to be involved in this. Wait, you’ll just have another outrageous explanation for that one, too.”
He thumped on the steering wheel. “No, you didn’t need to be here, but Alexander advised Keith from the beginning that Jerry puts you first. They knew he’d do about anything to keep you safe.”
Great. She hated Alexander, and she had a long list of reasons why, including the fact that he was still following them. Too bad his car couldn’t hit a deer and run off the road.
Nick glanced at her before saying, “I’ve heard a lot about you, that’s why I assumed you’d know about me.”
Cora didn’t like the fact that he knew anything about her. She especially didn’t like people knowing how poor she’d been throughout her childhood. His family carried a lot of weight, while her family consisted only of her and her father. The two of them had tried their best not to be noticed at all. Sometimes she still felt like hiding. Jerry had been very supportive when she chose journalism as her major in college, but he’d also been surprised when she decided she wanted to be a reporter and be on camera. To be honest, she’d been in a small stage of rebellion then. She felt like she’d overcome all and wanted to show the world. Cora could still remember that on-top-of-the-world feeling. If only she could feel it again.
“I turned on the news the other night so I could put a face with the name.”
Something gave her the feeling that wasn’t anything close to the full story. Wondering about Nick’s opinion of her unnerved Cora, and she didn’t know why she cared. His good looks sure didn’t help. She wanted to buy into his story, but his actions went against it. Face the facts girl, Cora thought, he’s doing the leg work for Keith Holloway.
Outside, the moon chased them through the tall evergreens. Strange worries plagued her: unfinished to-do lists, tasks left undone at work, and worries about her apartment. “A lot of people will look for me you know, and my father.”
“I think Jerry’s going to lay low, for your safety. This cabin is way out in the sticks, way back on an overgrown road. I’m sorry to say but no one will go out as far as we’re going.”
“Sorry?” she asked. His voice suggested he regretted taking her out to this middle-of-nowhere cabin, but it also sounded like he was promising that no one could find them.
“I’m sorry about all of this. Really, Cora.”
Yeah, well, actions speak louder than words. They could be headed east into the Cascade Mountains or west toward the coastal mountain range, and she had no clue about how to tell. No one would ever think to look for her out in the Oregon wilderness. She was on her own.