He frowned. “I really wish she were here right now so I could ask her what she sees.”
That’s how Jed had met her, and I had to admit I would have been tempted to ask her myself, but it wouldn’t do us any good at the moment. While she’d gotten pretty good about directing visions to tell her what she wanted, she needed to be able to touch the person she was having a vision for, and she was an hour and a half away.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I pressed myself into his chest and gave him a soft smile. “I trust you, Jed.”
He kissed me with a possessiveness that caught me by surprise, his arm like a vice as he held me close. When he lifted his head, his eyes burned with love and worry. “Part of me wants to take you away from here and never look back,” he said with a grave expression. “I feel it’s only fair to warn you that if things take a turn for the worse, that’s what I’m gonna do.”
I stared up at him. “You’re gonna run away with me? What about your business with Witt? What about your new house?”
“Fuck all of that,” he growled.
I stared at him in disbelief. “I can’t let you give up everything for me.”
“Don’t you get it?” he asked in frustration. “You’re my everything. None of it means a damn thing without you.”
“Oh, Jed.” Every time I tried to figure a way out of this mess, I only saw us digging ourselves deeper.
Just like Kate wanted. I suspected every move we had made up to this point had played right into her scheme. We needed to throw her off her game. But how?
At some point, I was going to have to figure out a way to protect Jed and Joe. And Witt and Rose. I’d seen firsthand what the woman was capable of last February, and she’d left a high body count. I couldn’t afford to lose a single person. I had to stop her before she got that far, because now that I thought it over, I suspected the family reunion she was planning involved more than me and Joe. It involved everyone I cared about.
I needed my phone.
“Let’s go,” I said softly as I linked my hand with his, wondering how much longer I’d have with him. Kate would want to take Jed away from me as well as Joe. She’d strip everything from me as payback for daring to fill her shoes in Joe’s life. Kate was wicked and vindictive and capable of horrible, horrible things. She would make our life hell until I gave her what she wanted, and the only way I knew to stop this was to cut her off now.
Before there was too much collateral damage to save them at all.
Chapter 24
“You’re awfully quiet,” Jed said as we approached the motel.
When we’d left the house, he and his team of four guards had acted like I was the Queen of England as they’d moved me to Jed’s car.
I’d been quiet, coming up with a plan to throw Kate off her axis. I had the beginnings of one, and I already knew Jed would never approve.
“Is your phone charged yet?” he asked.
I was sure that wasn’t idle chitchat. He likely wanted to know if Jed or Kate had called me, but when we’d gotten into Jed’s car, I’d discovered my phone battery had died, not that I was surprised. It was old and I hadn’t charged it at all the day before. Now it had been charging for nearly ten minutes and was still showing the charging screen and nothing else.
“You need a new phone,” he said in a gruff tone. “I’m gettin’ you one as soon as the store opens this morning.”
“Jed,” I softly scolded. “Stop. You bought me a car. You’re not buying me a phone. I’ll buy my own.” Which I really couldn’t afford. Sure, I was living with Rose rent-free, but Ronnie had racked up a bundle of credit card debit and I was fighting like hell to get that paid down as quickly as possible. Every spare dime went toward the thousands he owed. Too bad I hadn’t figured out what he’d spent that eighteen thousand dollars on.
“I need to be able to get ahold of you, NK, and your phone is a refurbished four-year-old model. I’m getting’ you a new phone and that’s that.”
I couldn’t help grinning at him. “That’s that, huh?”
He looked slightly chagrinned. “I don’t plan to boss you around, but when it comes to your safety and my peace of mind, I suspect I won’t be able to stop myself.”
I leaned over and rested my temple on his shoulder. “I love you, Jed. No matter what happens, I need you to know that.”
He glanced down at me, and I could see the alarm in his eyes in the glow of the dashboard light. “You’re gonna be fine, Neely Kate, one way or the other. You have to trust me.”
“I trust you, Jed.” And I did—I trusted him to throw away his own life to keep me safe, but Kate was like a bulldog with a piece of rawhide. She was never letting go of me. No matter where we went, she would find me and make things ten times worse for daring to evade her. I couldn’t let him sacrifice himself for me.
I wasn’t worth the price.
The flashing neon lights of the Broken Branch Motel shined in the distance, the lights for multiple letters missing so that it read roach motel.
“Talk about truthfulness in advertisin’,” I quipped, my stomach flip-flopping. What would we find?
He shot me a tight smile, then pulled into the parking lot around the side of the building, which was less noticeable from the road. The one drawback to criminals using the place for nefarious purposes was the difficulty in hiding their cars.
Our security detail parked next to us on the passenger side.
Jed started to open the door when my phone sprang to life.
“Wait,” I said. “I have some messages and voice mails.”
“Any important?”
I glanced up at him. “A voice mail from Granny. And one from Joe. Did he call you?”
“When I woke up with Dermot’s call, I saw a message from your brother saying he didn’t know anything about Chad Manchester’s case because HPD refused to hand it over. Joe said he couldn’t get anywhere near it, and Henryetta’s finest wasn’t talkin’.”
“What time did he text you?” I asked.
“About ten. What’s the time stamp on the voice mail?”
“Thirty minutes ago.” That couldn’t be good. I pressed play and put it on speaker.
“Neely Kate,” Joe said, his voice strained. “I pulled Randy off the detail on your house around supper time, so I dropped by the farmhouse to check on things.” He paused. “The body’s gone. Not a trace. Call me back.”
I stared up at Jed in horror. “Why would she move the body?”
“I don’t know,” Jed said, pulling out his own phone and checking the screen. “We’ll call him back after we see what Dermot’s found.”
I nodded. “I’m gonna leave my phone in here to charge. Can you leave the battery on?”
He didn’t look convinced that it was a good idea. “Just charge it when we come back out.”
“No one’s gonna be stealin’ your car,” I said in a dry tone. “You’ve got two security guys sittin’ right next to it and another two across the street parked on the side of the road.”
He pushed out a breath, clearly not wanting to have this conversation right now. “Fine. Only if you agree to let me get you another phone.”
“Okay.”
He gave me a sideways glance that suggested I’d agreed too fast.
“The store doesn’t open until ten a.m., hours from now,” I said. “And I need this phone charged now.”
He seemed to accept my explanation, leaving the engine light on and the key fob in the console. Then he leaned forward and pulled a ball cap out from under his seat and shoved it onto his head.
Gesturing to his sweatshirt on my lap, which I’d brought with me from Jed’s house, he said, “Put the hoodie on and tug the hood over your face.”
I shoved it over my head and he helped me get my arm through one of the holes as I got the other.
“Stick close to me. Don’t touch a thing.” Then he added, shaking his head, “I know you know better, but I felt better sayin’ it.”
I squeezed his hand. “I’m not offended. I understand.”