Cold feet(70)
Author: Brenda Novak

Madison Lieberman…Who would’ve thought Ellis Purcell’s daughter would exact such perfect, if unwitting, revenge? Pretty, petite Madison.

Shaking her head, Holly laughed bitterly. Men liked their women small because it made them feel strong, powerful. Small women were desirable. Holly had large bones and height to rival most men’s. The exact opposite of the petted girl she’d grown up with as her stepsister. Different from Susan in every way…

But that was nothing new. Holly had long since learned that luck was never in her corner. If she wanted anything, she had to take matters into her own hands.

Getting out of the car, she pulled the black hood of her sweatshirt up over her hair. It wasn’t easy to see through the trees that partially blocked her view of the house, but she dared not move the car any closer. Caleb wasn’t a fool. After hearing his impatience with her on the phone, she was afraid of what he’d do if he caught her here.

But she needed to look things over. To think. To plan. Madison was something new, something she hadn’t anticipated….

The smell of the sea hit her with the first blast of wind. She inhaled deeply as she made her way up the drive, crouching between the cars, moving steadily, deliberately, while gathering her calm and controlling her rage.

Caleb’s car was to the right, Madison’s to the left. They were parked side by side, as if they belonged to a married couple.

Holly grimaced and felt the hood of each car with the back of her hand. Cold. Just as she’d expected. It was nearly midnight.

With a frown, she hid in the arbor that concealed her from Madison’s house, and craned her head to see Caleb’s cottage. It was dark. He was there, in bed, without her.

She felt a sudden wave of debilitating sadness. Why did Caleb have to betray her like this? Why was he forcing her hand? It didn’t make sense. She’d done everything for him, even going so far as to arrange her sister’s death for his next book!

Absently rubbing the scratches on her arms where a few scabs remained, she closed her eyes, trying to shut out her last memories of Susan. If it hadn’t been for Lance, the cheating bastard, her sister would never have shown up at her house so late at night. Susan would never have seen what she’d seen. But she had shown up and left Holly no choice. Susan was too perceptive, too persistent and inquisitive. She wouldn’t let it go.

Still, Holly regretted that Susan was gone. Her stepsister was the only person in her life who’d stuck by her through thick and thin.

It’s okay, she told herself when her throat started to tighten and burn. I only did what I had to do. And she’d been clever enough to make it all work to her advantage. She wasn’t going to let Caleb slip away from her now. Madison would be a figure in his next book, nothing more, and Holly and Caleb would finally be together again.

Except Holly’s rival wasn’t only a woman. It was a child, too. She’d seen that picture on the fridge, known instantly how much Madison’s daughter would appeal to Caleb. He’d wanted children for years….

Holly remembered the time she’d pretended to be pregnant. Sometimes it helped to pretend. Having a child would have made her life so much easier. Caleb wouldn’t have left her if there’d been a baby.

Only she couldn’t conceive. The abortion she’d given herself at sixteen had ruined any chance of that. But she wouldn’t allow Madison to offer him what she couldn’t.

Reality, as cold and harsh as the wind stinging her face, was too strong for pretending tonight. Holly knew she had to face the truth and deal with the gut-roiling jealousy that caused her real, physical pain–pain so acute she doubled over, barely biting back a groan.

"I’ll fix it…I’ll fix it…." She whispered those words like an incantation until she could believe her own promise. Until she could stand again. Until she could breathe.

She would fix it, she decided. She’d fix everything.

But how? Holly bit her lip as she tried to think. She could lure Caleb away from the house with a lie about some new piece of evidence. If she said Margie White, a friend of Susan’s they’d already interviewed, had found something in her car, Caleb would rush right over to her house. Margie wouldn’t know what he was talking about once he got there, of course, but Holly didn’t need Margie to support the lie. She just needed time. When she saw Caleb again, she’d tell him that whoever had called her with the information had sounded just like Margie. She must have been mistaken, she’d say. Anyone could call based on that flyer they’d distributed, right? Maybe she’d even try to make it seem like a crank. And once Caleb was gone, she’d cut Madison’s phone line, just in case things didn’t go as smoothly as planned.

That was it, she decided. That was a good plan. With that plan, Madison and Brianna wouldn’t figure in Caleb’s affections for long.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

THE RINGING OF the telephone interrupted a particularly good dream. Caleb was reluctant to wake fully, but he thought it might be Madison. Why he thought it might be her, he wasn’t sure. Probably just wishful thinking.

"Hello?" Hearing the scratchy quality of his own voice, he cleared his throat and tried again. "Hello?"

"Wake up, Trovato."

Gibbons. Caleb tried not to feel disappointed. Shoving himself into a sitting position, he shot a glance at the clock to see that it was only one in the morning and not dawn, as he’d first assumed. "What is it? Did you arrest Tye Purcell?"

"No."

Caleb’s disappointment grew exponentially. He’d been so sure they’d finally reached the end of the road, achieved resolution. "Why not?"

"Several reasons. Remember that drop of blood we found on the sheet beneath Susan’s body?"

"Yeah."

"It’s Type O, and Tye’s Type B. It might take a few weeks to do a DNA comparison, but it only takes a minute to get a blood type."

"So that’s it? We’re back to square one?" Caleb propped the phone against his shoulder, got out of bed and yanked on his jeans. He needed a cup of coffee. He’d slept most of the day and half the night, but he still felt groggy as hell.

"Not yet. Holly just called me."

"Thank God she didn’t call me," Caleb muttered, heading to the kitchen. He was so sick of hearing from his ex-wife he thought he could live the rest of his life without contact and be the better for it.

"You two having a lovers’ quarrel?"

Caleb flipped on the kitchen light, wincing at the sudden brightness. "We don’t have a lovers’ anything. What’d she want?"

"She said a friend of Susan’s named Margie called her and–"

"This late? Don’t people do things in the middle of the day anymore?"

"That’s what I’d like to know. According to Holly, Margie just found a note in her car signed by a man named Tye. She thinks it must’ve fallen out of Susan’s purse a week or so before she died, when Margie and Susan went to lunch."