Family Sins(64)

“What’s wrong?” she cried.

“We found Talia. Her car went over the side of the cliff. Bowie went down to the wreck site, and before I could stop him, Jesse went, too.”

“Oh my God!” Leigh groaned. “Is Talia alive? Are the boys okay?”

“Talia is alive, but I don’t know how badly she’s hurt. Her car was partway down, hung up in some trees. While Bowie was pulling her out the window the car began to slide again. Jesse threw himself on top of the trunk to slow it down so Bowie had time to pull her free. I never saw anything like it, Mama. He may be slow, but in times of danger, his soldier instincts kick in. They’re still down there waiting for rescue to get to them.”

Leigh could hardly believe what she was hearing.

“I’m coming down. I won’t get in the way, but those are my children hanging on to the side of the mountain, and I need to be there.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Aidan said, and then saw the first rescue truck appear around the curve. “Oh, thank God. The first rescue unit is here. Gotta go.”

Leigh ran inside the house for her purse, tossed in the phone and pulled out her car keys. Moments later she was in her Jeep and heading for the main road. Never had she felt Stanton’s absence as strongly as she was feeling it now. They were all under attack, and it was turning into a blood feud.

“Oh, Stanton, this is just more of the madness related to your murder. I don’t know how this is going to turn out, but I’ll go down fighting for you and our children,” she said, and kept driving until she came up on the rescue vehicles blocking the road.

She got out, trying not to be overwhelmed by the panic she was feeling, and began moving through the crowd of men and vehicles looking for Aidan. When she saw him talking to Constable Riordan she headed straight toward them.

Aidan saw her coming.

“Mama’s here. You can ask her about all this.”

Riordan saw the look on her face as he turned around. She looked upset, bordering on enraged. Just as he thought she would stop to talk, she walked right past him and all the way to the edge of the road.

Aidan ran to catch up with her.

“Mama?”

She pointed at the men rappelling down the mountainside just below where they were standing.

“I can’t see Jesse or Bowie.”

“They’re lying down. See the top of Bowie’s head there, between that stump and that scrub brush?”

She looked again, then put a hand to her heart, as if to steady the beat.

“My God, yes, I see. Where’s Jesse?”

Aidan pulled her a few feet to the right and pointed again.

“See him there? Bowie has one arm around him and the other holding Talia.”

“Do you know how badly she’s hurt?”

“No, only that Bowie yelled that she was alive before he pulled her out.”

Leigh shoved her hands through her hair.

“I can’t believe this happened. Are they going to be able to recover Talia’s car?”

“Yes, ma’am. The wrecker crew is waiting until they have Talia in the ambulance before they get to work.”

Leigh looked out across the mountains to the valley below. Eden was down there somewhere beyond the trees, harboring a den of vipers. It was time to run the snakes out of Eden.

“I need to speak to Constable Riordan again.”

“He’s waiting to talk to you, too,” Aidan said. “Want me to go with you?”

“No, you stay here and watch out for Talia and your brothers.”

“Okay,” he said.

He’d seen that look on her face before. He recognized that take-charge attitude. Shit was about to hit the fan.

Leigh looked for the constable, then ran over to where he was standing.

“I need to talk to you,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am. Let’s step over here so we’re out of the way.”

She followed him a few yards uphill and then stopped.

“You saw Bowie’s pickup down the hill?”

“Yes, on the way up. Aidan said Bowie’s brakes went out.”

“I think they were tampered with, and the fact that Talia’s car went off the side of the mountain leads me to believe it was tampered with, too.”

“That’s a pretty far stretch, saying someone got access to both their vehicles and then they just happened to be driving up the mountain on the same day,” Riordan said.

“It’s not a stretch at all. Circumstance put both cars right beside each other today, and I’d bet money that’s where and when it happened. Talia buried her father this morning. Bowie went into Eden to be with her. Both cars must have been parked at her house, because the funeral home would have picked them up there to take them to the service.”

“Why do you automatically assume it was tampering?”

“Because a couple of days ago I had a run-in with my family. It wasn’t pretty. The bottom line is, when we went to leave, if it hadn’t been for Bowie’s quick thinking, Justin would have put a knife in my back. My boys took him down and took the knife away from him. He threatened to get even. He told all of us we would be sorry. And now this? There is no such thing as coincidence when it comes to those people.”

Riordan frowned. “Did you report the assault to Chief Clayton?”