Kate laughed again.
“Enough!” Stella shouted, then kicked me, only I was ready for her this time. Just as her foot was about to connect with my ribs, I grabbed her ankle and rolled to my side, bringing her down to the floor.
The gun went off and I prayed I hadn’t gotten shot, but plaster rained down on my head. She’d shot the ceiling.
Stella was on her back, looking startled, but she was still holding the gun. She quickly sat up and pointed it at me again, her eyes full of rage.
“Neely Kate!” my sister shouted from my phone that was on the floor again. I was surprised to hear that she was slightly frantic.
“I’m here,” I said, lying on my side. I’d landed right where she’d previously kicked me, fresh pain shooting through my ribs. I still had my gun at my back, but fat lot of good it did me right now.
“Get up!” Stella shouted as she got to her feet. “Get up, you stupid bitch!”
“How about we make a trade?” Kate said in her negotiating tone, only her usual smugness was missing. “I’ll give you Branson and you give me my sister.”
“How much is she worth to you?” Stella asked. “Is she worth a bag full of money?”
Kate was silent for a moment. “I don’t have a bag full of money on me, but I can come up with one when the bank opens.”
“Is that where the money is?” Stella asked in a hateful tone. “In the bank?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that. I’d just told her that Jed had the money, but maybe she thought I was lying. “She wants a specific bag of money,” I called out to Kate.
“Money’s money, right?” Kate asked. “Bring me my sister, and I’ll get you your money and throw in this worthless scumbag as a bonus.”
Stella seemed to think about it. “How much money?”
“How much money, Neely Kate?” my sister asked.
I considered lying, but Stella likely knew how much there was, and this would be a test to see how much Kate wanted me. “Ten thousand dollars.”
“Done,” Kate said. “But the offer’s only good for fifteen minutes. Come to Rose’s farmhouse.” Then she hung up.
I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or nervous that Kate was willing and eager to pay ten thousand dollars for me.
“We need to take your car,” I said to Stella. “Where is it?”
She gave me a sardonic grin. “How about we take that sheriff’s car? We can turn on the lights. I always wanted to do that.” Her hand started twitching and she cast her gaze to the door as though she was losing interest in our conversation.
“Even if I knew where the keys to the sheriff’s patrol car were, there’s no way in Hades I’d drive that thing. Kate would likely shoot us on sight.”
“Then you better get an extension because we ain’t got a car.”
I stared at her in disbelief. “Then how’d you get out here?”
“My car broke down, so I got an Uber. A tall, skinny guy picked me up in a station wagon and dropped me off.”
Officer Ernie? He’d recently started driving for Uber, and he fit the description of the driver. He was incompetent as a police officer, and it sounded like his lack of common sense had transferred to this job too. He had to know this was Joe’s house. “Then we’re gonna have to walk,” I said. “It’s a five-minute stroll through the field, but we’ll need to bring a flashlight. There’s too much cloud cover to see where we’re going.”
Stella narrowed her eyes. “I ain’t hikin’ through no field.”
That was actually a good thing. The longer we stayed at Joe’s house, the better chance I had of Jed getting here and stopping Stella.
But Stella must have figured that out too. “Or we can wait for your boyfriend to show up. Then I can shoot him, and we can take his car.”
Panic swamped my head. “He won’t be here in time for us to get to Kate, and then you’ll be out your money and Branson. We need to walk.”
“Why’re you so eager to help me get the money and Branson?” she asked in an incredulous tone.
“Because the sooner you get them both, the sooner you get out of my life.”
A huge grin spread across her face, showing the gaps in her rotten teeth. Stella had plans for getting me out of my life all right… or more specifically, she had plans for me to leave hers eternally.
I wasn’t going down without a fight.
Time to put this in motion. When I got to my feet, she started to twitch. I was making her nervous. Five years ago, I never made her nervous, but I wasn’t the same woman she’d known before and she knew it, which made me a wild card. “We need to go, Stella. I’m only moving things along.”
I started to put my phone in my pocket, but she waved the gun at me.
“Uh-uh. Leave that here.”
When I started to squat, she said, “Nope. Toss it down. It’s a piece of shit anyway.”
While she had a point, I reluctantly let it drop to the hardwood floor. Jed was going to show up and I’d be gone. How could I leave him a clue where to find me?
“Where’s a flashlight in this damn house?”
“Under the sink,” I said, hoping she’d turn her back to get it, giving me a chance to escape, but she wasn’t high enough to make her that stupid.
“Walk over there and get it. Slowly.”
I had no choice but to do as she said. I also began to wonder why Joe hadn’t shown up. Had he figured out I was being held hostage and was biding his time to save me? Something deep in my gut told me Joe was close—at Rose’s farm. He’d been there about to leave, and now Kate was there. Had she snuck up on him, or was he spying on her?
Stella followed me like a shadow, staying far enough out of reach to make me leery of jumping her. When I opened the cabinet door and squatted to get the flashlight, her gaze flicked inside the cabinet for a split second then back to me. “What’s that cord?”
I gave it a quick glance. “A bungee cord.”
“What’s he got a bungee cord in there for?”
Why did she even care? But I needed to keep her talking. She’d always been more devious when she was silent. “Joe was remodeling his kitchen, and he had a cabinet that wouldn’t stay closed. He kept bangin’ his head on it, so he used the bungee cord to keep it closed until he fixed it.”
“And you say he’s your brother?” A gleam filled her eyes, and I didn’t trust her one iota.
“Half brother.”
She waved the gun as though to dismiss the clarifier. “Get the cord too.”
I didn’t feel good about this and suspected where this was going, and sure enough, when I got to my feet, she said, “Put your hands together and hold on to one end of the bungee cord.”
“Stella,” I said, trying to sound calmer than I felt. “That isn’t necessary. You want Branson and the money. I want to see my sister.”
She barked a short laugh. “Don’t even try to pull that shit over my head, Neely Kate. Her name on your phone is Evil Half Sister.”
“So we’re off to a rocky start…”
“I’ll say,” she grunted. “Put your hands together, palms touchin’, or I’ll shoot your foot and you’ll have a hell of a time walkin’ across a field on a bloody stump.”
She was close enough to do serious damage, and cold enough to do it without remorse. I had no choice to do as she said, even if it burned in my gut.
Moving closer, she picked up the end of the cord and started wrapping it around my wrists while leveling the gun at my stomach. It was a short cord, so it didn’t buy me much time to act while she was of distracted, but I knew Jed had to be closer than he’d been before and she wasn’t watching to ambush him.
“You’re not the same,” she said as she stretched the cord tight and hooked it on the other loops, the metal hook digging into my skin and drawing blood. “You used to be meek and mild and—”
“Controllable,” I finished, burning with anger.
She laughed. “You’re still controllable. You just have more attitude now. Now, how do we get to this farm we’re going to?”
The cord was so tight I could feel it cutting off circulation to my hands, but I suspected if I complained, Stella would only make it tighter.
“Out back.” I nodded my head toward the back door in the kitchen.