“You didn’t do anything to her, did you?” Dylan asked. “Like lock her in the trunk?”
“She’s outside talking to Jordan and Noah,” Michael said. Glaring at his brother, he added, “I didn’t do anything to her except take the car keys.”
“Try to calm down before you talk to her,” Dylan suggested.
“I am calm,” he snapped. “And I don’t plan to talk to her. I’m staying as far away from her as possible.”
“She’s sensitive,” Kate said.
Michael snorted.
“She is,” Kate insisted. “And you watched the video. You know what she’s been through since she got off the plane. Give her a break.”
Dylan was trying to be sympathetic. God knows he’d been in Michael’s place. “Listen. You’re here now, and you’re in one piece, so take this as a win and move on.”
“It was god-awful.”
Dylan and Kate both nodded.
“Dylan, if you laugh I’m gonna put my fist through your face,” Michael muttered.
The door opened and Isabel walked in. She ran to Kate and hugged her, then hugged Dylan and kissed him on the cheek.
“How are you feeling?” Kate asked.
“I’m fine. Don’t look so worried, Kate. I’m okay. Finish what you’re doing,” she said, pointing to the laptop. She was hoping they were too busy to ask about the shooting.
But of course they did ask. They started out easy. She folded her arms and completely ignored Michael while she answered questions about her flight and her decision to stay at the hotel. Isabel thought she was being quite agreeable until they asked her about the shooting. Then she shut down.
“We’ll talk about the . . . incident later,” Kate told her.
“Now it’s an incident? Detective Samuel calls it ‘the event’ and Michael calls it my ‘bad experience.’ I guess ‘incident’ works.”
“What do you call it?” Dylan asked.
“A nightmare.”
Isabel was clearly rattled. She picked up a half-empty bottle of water from the table, then put it back. Kate got her a cold bottle from the refrigerator and handed it to her.
“Come sit down,” Kate suggested.
Isabel shook her head. She walked over to the island and stood there, facing Michael. She still refused to look at him until she got her temper under control.
“Did you hurt yourself?” Dylan asked.
“No.”
“You’ve got a bandage on your upper arm,” he pointed out.
“Oh, that.” She had forgotten it was there.
The body language between Michael and Isabel was amusing Dylan. Michael was glaring at Isabel, but it was wasted effort since she wouldn’t look at him. “Yes, ‘oh, that,’?” he replied. “What happened?”
“I got shot.”
“You what?” Kate exclaimed.
Isabel let out a loud sigh. Here we go again, she thought.
“Oh my God,” Kate whispered.
“Do you have stitches?” Kate asked, alarmed.
“Yes,” she replied. “Five or six stitches, I think. Nothing to be concerned about.”
“Why didn’t you answer any of our phone calls or our texts?”
Isabel knew that look. Kate was getting angry. “I didn’t want to worry you. Besides, there wasn’t anything you could do. I sent the video, and I think that said it all.”
Dylan put his arm around Kate but kept his attention on Isabel. “Okay,” he agreed. “Anything else new?”
“Yes.”
Because she was smiling so sweetly, Dylan was unprepared for what she said.
“Your brother is a mean, pompous, egotistical jerk.”
Kate was shocked. Her sister always took politeness to the limit, no matter what the circumstances were. She was kind and considerate of others’ feelings, so to hear her say anything critical about Dylan’s brother was shocking.
“Isabel, you shouldn’t criticize—”
Isabel shot a warning look at her sister. “Don’t defend him, Kate. You weren’t in the car. You didn’t hear the gross profanities he was shouting at me.”
“Isabel.” Michael said her name in a smooth, even voice. “I shouldn’t have shouted at you. I’m sorry about that.”
She was so surprised by his apology she didn’t know what to say. She was also suspicious.
“You’re sorry?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, then.” She still didn’t believe him but decided not to make an issue out of it.
“I would like to mention a couple of things,” Michael said. His voice was mild now, almost pleasant.
“I’m listening.”
He took another drink of water. “The speed limit here isn’t a suggestion. If the sign posted is forty-five miles per hour, you shouldn’t double it.”
“I don’t think I—”
He put his hand up to stop her. “Another thing I’d like to mention. We drive on the right side of the road here.”
Isabel’s face was turning pink, and Michael’s voice was getting grittier.
“Anything else?”
“Yes,” he answered. “The yellow light isn’t a dare. You’re not supposed to honk the horn and slam on the gas to make it across before the light turns red.”
“Are you finished?”
“Just about.”
“Okay. What else would you like to tell me?” It was killing her not to shout at him. He was acting like an obnoxious know-it-all.
“On the bridge did you happen to notice the ‘no passing’ sign? And before you answer, let me explain that, like the speed limit sign, the do-not-pass sign isn’t a suggestion. They really don’t want you to pass when driving on the bridge, which is why they posted the do-not-pass signs.” He leaned down close to her, and in a hard, clipped voice said, “Do . . . not . . . pass means do . . . not . . . pass.”
Dylan had turned toward the wall and was rubbing the back of his neck so Isabel wouldn’t see him smile.
Kate stared at her sister and looked horrified. “Grace Isabel MacKenna, did you try to pass a car on the bridge? Oh my God, what were you thinking? Didn’t you see the signs? Passing on that narrow bridge . . . Did you get distracted?”
Kate used Isabel’s full name only when she was furious with her, and Isabel hated when that happened. She was feeling horrible now. She could have caused a disaster. The truth was, she hadn’t noticed the signs, but she wasn’t going to admit it.
“You could have killed someone,” Michael said, straining not to lose his temper.
She scowled at him. “I’ve already done that,” she countered.
“Let me guess. You were writing another song in your head. Right?” Michael asked, caustically.
She was suddenly just as angry. “As a matter of fact, I was. The song was all about you, Michael.
I even came up with a title.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
She poked him in the chest. “Dumbass.”
EIGHT
DESPITE THE FACT THAT SHE’D TRIED TO KILL THEM NUMEROUS TIMES ON THE WAY TO