After the Storm (KGI #8)(102)

Rusty did as Eve had demanded. She’d keyed in the code and accelerated through the gates so the cameras would only pick up on Rusty in the Jeep. She’d even murmured a caution to Eve to get as low as she could. Hell, she was practically aiding and abetting the woman. Maybe she was the one losing her damn mind.

But she wanted to help, damn it. And she wanted to buy time to figure out what the hell was going on in Eve’s head.

The drive to the hardware store was short. It wouldn’t be opened yet, a fact that might work in her favor because one, she was supposed to be with Eve at Donovan’s house, and two, someone noticing her in this early might question it. One of the perks of living in a small town. Everyone was up in your grill and in your business, and it wouldn’t surprise her one bit if a concerned citizen called Sean or one of the Kellys to let them know someone was at the hardware store before opening.

She could only hope.

“Park in the back,” Eve directed, as if she’d read Rusty’s thoughts about someone noticing they were in this early. “I don’t want the Jeep in sight, nor do I want anyone to see me getting into it.”

Rusty did as she directed and pulled around back to the loading dock, where delivery trucks backed to the entrance to unload stock.

“What exactly is your plan, Eve?” Rusty asked curiously. “I mean, you’re just going to leave me here?”

The two women got out but not before Rusty saw Eve’s grimace and her look of regret. She was almost apologetic as she led Rusty inside—at gunpoint—and then directed her to find rope.

“I’m going to have to tie you up and leave you behind the register. Someone will find you soon. You won’t have to be there for long. But I can’t have you alerting anyone before I have time to get as far away from here as possible.”

Rusty took down one of the coils of rope, picking the softer kind that wasn’t so damn abrasive. If she was going to have a stint tied up behind the cash register, she at least wanted to be as comfortable as possible.

She turned to Eve, casting a wary eye at the gun in her hand. She damned the fact that the surveillance cameras were capturing it all on film. Just more trouble for Eve, who was already a wanted criminal. She cringed knowing there was little to be done this time. It was all there in vivid detail.

Why the hell was she sympathizing with a woman holding a gun on her? She needed her own head examined.

“Empty the register and get the money bag from the safe,” Eve said quietly. “And tell your father I’m sorry. Truly I am. I haven’t met him, but he’s obviously a good man and he doesn’t deserve this from me. But I don’t have a choice. I have to survive. I won’t go back to my stepfather. I’d do anything in the world to keep Cammie and Travis safe, but Donovan will protect them. I won’t be the sacrificial lamb. I wouldn’t survive a day back in his power.”

Rusty moved slowly toward the cash register, opening it even as she reached down and unlocked the safe that held the cash reserves. Money she would have taken to the bank this morning when she came in to open. It was telling that she had no compunction about giving it to Eve. There was something about her quiet desperation and the fact that she kept apologizing that got to Rusty.

Her brothers would say her heart was too soft and that she had no sense of self-preservation. It wasn’t that at all. She saw a woman completely and utterly devastated and fighting to keep her sanity intact. And to survive. Because whatever she thought, she was convinced that she was being given up to her stepfather.

She didn’t have all the pieces to the puzzle yet, but she’d heard enough from Eve to realize that Eve believed Donovan was going to turn her over to her stepfather. And keep Cammie and Travis. Jesus, but this was one twisted-up mess.

She stuffed the cash from the register into the bag holding the other cash and then carefully slid it along the counter toward Eve. And then Eve, regret simmering in her eyes, motioned for Rusty to sit so she could tie her up.

“Eve? Can I ask you what happened? What this is all about? I’m not fighting you. You can talk while you’re tying me up. But I deserve that much, don’t you think? I helped Travis. I like him a lot. He was me when I was that age. I’m worried about him—and you.”

Eve’s features tightened, anger replacing some of the regret. “Donovan has a weakness for women and children but especially children,” she quoted. They were words Rusty had heard many times over the years. It was frequently said about Donovan. “In this case he has a weakness for Cammie and Travis. He loves them. I believe that or I wouldn’t leave them with him where I know they’re safer. He’ll protect them.”

Left unsaid was the fact that Donovan’s weakness only extended to Eve’s siblings and not her, and Rusty knew that was absolutely untrue. But how to get Eve to see that? What the hell had gone wrong? How could she so horribly misunderstand Rusty’s brother? Couldn’t she see the man was not only in love with Cammie and Travis but Eve as well?

“It’s what everyone says—what everyone knows,” Eve continued before Rusty could protest. “Children are his weakness. His Achilles’ heel. And I was just the means—collateral damage—to get what he really wanted. Children. A family. One that doesn’t include me.”

She broke off, grief choking her words, and Rusty could see her fighting tears with her every breath.