In Close (Bulletproof #3)(67)
Author: Brenda Novak

Claire was about to drop the hose and hurry after him. She didn’t want to miss her chance to speak to him; she doubted he’d come to the door if she knocked. But Don had backed out of the drive and was sitting in the street between them, staring at her through the open window. He’d aged twenty years, it seemed, since she’d seen him last.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No. Nothing.” His tires squealed as he drove off, but their brief interaction had made Joe pause, too. He looked after Don, an enigmatic expression on his face, as Carly came out.

“Here you go. You should be able to reach Katie through her parents, even if she’s not in Salt Lake.”

Claire relinquished the garden hose and accepted the paper. “Thanks, Carly. I appreciate it.” She thought she’d have to hurry over, that Joe would try to avoid her as he had in the past, but he didn’t. This time, he waited.

“Are you ready to talk to me?” she asked as she walked up his drive.

His gaze fell to the paper in her hand. She doubted he could read it. She crumpled it, just in case, but she knew he’d seen Carly give it to her, so maybe that was the reason for his interest. “I don’t have a choice. You won’t quit.”

Claire’s mouth went dry. “Is that a yes?”

Shading his eyes from the sun, he looked across at his neighbor. “What’d Carly have to say?”

“I’ll tell you if you invite me in.”

His forehead creased as he cursed. “No. I don’t want her or anyone else to see us talking. Meet me at my brother’s place in fifteen minutes.”

“I don’t know where he lives.”

After some quick directions, he went inside and slammed the door, but she didn’t care. He’d finally agreed to talk to her—after fifteen years.

Hope made her steps light as she returned to her car and started the engine. She was so sure that having Joe’s cooperation would make a difference, she even managed a smile and a wave for Carly.

But once she got to Peter’s house, she realized just how remote it was and began to grow uneasy. She’d kept on driving, hoping he lived in a cluster of houses as was so often the case in Pineview, but the house she came upon was the only one in the area.

Joe hadn’t invited her to the back of beyond as some kind of a trap, had he?

She pulled in behind Peter’s truck, which was parked in the drive. He was home, but that didn’t make her feel a whole lot better. Not long ago she’d seen a horrifying forensics program about four brothers who’d beaten a man to death and supposedly fed his body to their hogs…?.

Thick as thieves… The words her friends had used to describe Joe and Peter ran through her mind as she gazed out at Peter’s small cabin. Could both brothers have been party to whatever happened to her mother?

Claire couldn’t believe that. Peter wouldn’t have said he thought Joe was having an affair with Alana if he’d helped murder her. Maybe he’d made a mistake. Maybe he’d opened his mouth before learning that his brother was responsible.

She was letting her imagination run away with her. But she didn’t have a cell phone since there was no service. And now that she’d seen this isolated setting, showing up here seemed an unnecessary risk. No one even knew where she was.

Planning to leave while she still could, she put the transmission in Reverse, but she had nowhere to go. Joe had arrived and parked behind her, effectively trapping her car. She saw his grille in her rearview mirror just as she was about to back out and had to stomp on the brake.

“Shit!” she breathed, her mind racing as he got out.

He came toward her wearing a dark scowl and paused near her door with his hands on his hips as if he expected her to get out and go inside with him.

Eyes gravitating to his work boots—they looked just like the pair she’d seen on the man who’d followed her to the cabin—her pulse leaped.

What was she going to do?

Peter came out, distracting them both. He exchanged a few words with Joe that culminated in angry voices and plenty of cursing, which got louder, making it easy to hear what they were saying.

“It’s your fault,” Joe responded. “You’re the one who told everyone Alana and I were having an affair.”

“That’s before I knew it could get you—” Peter glanced in her direction and stopped. “Shit, Joe. This is screwed up, man. I don’t want to be dragged into this. I’m the one who told you to stay away from Alana in the first place. What if the cops—”

Claire screamed as Joe slammed a fist down on the hood of her car. “I don’t care. This won’t go away! Let’s take her inside and get it over with. Otherwise, she’ll head back to town and go straight to the sheriff.” Get what over with? Claire had heard enough. She put her car in Drive but there was no more room to go forward than there was to go back. She could only remain in her locked car.

But that was hardly safe. If they really wanted to get to her, all they had to do was break a window.

Joe was already knocking on the glass. Peter had walked across the lawn and was on the passenger side. Their vehicles penned her in front and back, and the two men penned her in on the left and right.

Leaning on the roof of her car with both hands, Peter shook his head as Joe yelled for her to get out.

“No!” she called back. “Let me go!”

“You can’t let her drive away now,” Peter warned. “Man, this was such a mistake! What were you thinking, bringing her up here?”

“Shut up!” Joe knocked harder. “Claire, get out. I’m not going to hurt you, I swear.”

“What is it you want?”

“I have something to show you. It might tell you what happened to your mother.”

Or he was lying, the information he claimed to possess simply an incentive to lure her inside.

“What did you do to her?” she yelled. “Why did you do it?”

“I didn’t do anything! Would you quit freaking out? I’m trying to help you!”

“Then why did you follow me to her studio?”

“That wasn’t me!”

“Did you trash my house?”

“No!”

“How’d you hear about it?”

“You’re kidding, right? There are no secrets in Pineview.”

Except the one she’d been chasing for fifteen years.

“Just get out and come inside with us, and I’ll tell you what I know. That way, maybe we can put a stop to what’s going on.”