In Seconds

That possibility made Vivian wince. Had she misjudged her mother after all?

Or…had Ellen told as much as she could about Vivian’s calls?

The mere fact of her death didn’t provide the answer. The Crew could’ve killed her even if she cooperated.

“Hey!” He gave her shoulders another squeeze.

Talk. She needed to talk. “Who’s going to see to her burial?” she asked. “I can’t expect Virgil to do it.”

“You’re right. He can’t leave Peyton. Not while she’s so close to having the baby.”

It was more than that. Her brother was absolutely convinced that Ellen had conspired with Gary to murder Martin and let him take the blame for it. He wouldn’t attend Ellen’s funeral even if it was right across the street and there was no danger.

“So?” She reclaimed her sunglasses and put them on. They provided a shield of sorts—a small one, granted, but that was better than nothing.

“It’s a homicide, so there’ll be an autopsy,” he replied. “That may take several days, maybe a week or two.”

“She’s already been dead awhile. Who knows how long? Sonja Ivey was so upset she could hardly speak. She was too busy gasping and crying.” Images of the murdered marshal in Colorado loomed, but Vivian shoved them away.

“The police will get whatever information they can about the way she was killed. But my point is this—you don’t have to make every decision right this minute. Let’s deal with the shock first.”

The shock was exactly what she was attempting to overcome. She felt as if she’d been dumped into some kind of arctic wilderness. If she didn’t force herself to keep thinking, keep planning, keep moving, she’d freeze and be unable to do anything. “But I have to worry about her burial at some point, don’t I? Some point soon.”

She stepped out of reach. Being so close to him had once felt right, but not anymore. He’d been Laurel’s crutch, Laurel’s love, not Vivian’s. Vivian was too infatuated with the sheriff to be able to fall back into a relationship with Rex. Not that she could pursue what she felt for him, either. “At the very least, I have to tell the police who’s responsible for her death. I won’t let The Crew get away with this.”

The empty place inside her was filling up—with anger and outrage. It threatened to make her reckless because she was beginning to care less about her own safety and well-being than achieving justice.

Or maybe it wasn’t justice she wanted so much as revenge. Was she becoming less like ordinary people and more like the men who hunted her? It wouldn’t surprise her. They’d made her live in their world, made her look over her shoulder every second, for nearly four years.

“You might have to let the police handle the investigation on their own,” Rex said.

“No.”

He gripped her elbow. “Look, I know what you’re feeling. I feel the same. But it’s a war we can’t win.”

She knocked his hand away. “We won’t win if we don’t fight.”

“Don’t you think Virgil and I have considered that? We have. Lots of times. But there are too many of them. We could pick off one or two, maybe even three or four. But we can’t get to the most powerful members. They’ll just keep sending more foot soldiers until we screw up or get too tired to run. Then they’ll get us.”

She didn’t want to hear that. As logical as it was, it pushed her into a corner. “Maybe that’s a chance we have to take. Maybe we have to risk our lives to make our lives worth living.”

“That sounds fine and good for us,” he responded. “I’m willing to take that risk. But what about Jake and Mia? And Virgil’s kids?”

“That’s exactly what The Crew’s counting on, that we’ll offer no resistance, play it safe.”

“Or, by killing your mother, they could be trying to coax you out of hiding. Which is why you can’t contact anyone, least of all the LAPD.”

She threw up her hands. “Oh, come on. The Crew can’t have moles everywhere.”

“They can in L.A.! That’s their home turf.”

She couldn’t even go to her mother’s funeral? “Then who’ll bury her?”

“Natalie.”

Ellen’s sister. “You think she’d bother to interrupt her life, to put herself out for us?” Natalie lived in Texas with her husband, who’d been in the air force for most of his career. She’d been very careful to keep her distance, didn’t want the taint of what had happened to ruin her life, too.

“If there’s no one else,” he said. “She remained loyal to Ellen throughout it all, right?”

Natalie believed that Gary had killed Martin as a favor to Ellen, but that Ellen had no foreknowledge of it. According to her, Gary only implicated Ellen because Ellen didn’t give him more of the money, and his ex supported this theory, which was another reason Ellen had never been charged. But letting Natalie take over the funeral arrangements meant conceding yet another battle to The Crew. “She was my mother. That makes her funeral my responsibility.”

He raked a hand through his hair, which was longer than she’d ever seen him wear it, longer than hers. “Doesn’t matter. You can’t go back to L.A. The Crew could be watching and waiting for you to do just that.”

Or they could be here in Montana. That was the problem. She didn’t know.

“I’ve…had it,” she said. “I don’t know how else to explain what’s going on with me.”

He sat on the edge of the closest picnic table. “You don’t have any other choice, Laurel—Vivian,” he corrected before she could protest. “You have to do what you have to do in order to survive.”

“No. I could fight back. I have that choice.”

“But do you know what fighting means?”

“It means I’ll endanger my children, like you’ve already pointed out. But what if you took them to Virgil?”

He got up again. “That’s crazy. I’m not leaving you here alone.”

He had to. He wasn’t well. “If I don’t have to worry about my kids, I’ll be able to defend myself.”

His expression said he didn’t think she stood a snowball’s chance in hell. And he was probably right. But she had to at least try to break free, didn’t she? Running wasn’t necessarily any safer. The Crew could find her again. And maybe next time she wouldn’t have the warning she did now.

“Against how many?” he asked. “One? Two? Don’t you remember what happened in Colorado?”

She’d never forget. But she couldn’t allow the fear inspired by that event to define her whole life. She could no longer live behind the boundaries of that fear, not anymore. “However many they send.”

Instead of arguing with her, he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed. No doubt he was hoping Virgil could talk some sense into her.

“Bad news,” he said into the phone. “She’s okay. But…she’s talking crazy. And she has something to tell you.”

At first Vivian refused to take the phone. She knew what Virgil would tell her. But Rex insisted they wouldn’t leave until she had this conversation, and she had no hope of getting the keys from him, even in his weakened state.

“Tattletale,” she muttered to Rex, then gave him a dirty look when he grinned at her. “Hello?”

“What’s going on?” Virgil demanded.

Tilting her head back, she stared up at the sky and breathed in the scent of pine. “Mom’s been murdered.”

His response, when it came, was so low she could barely hear it. “I’m sorry, Laurel.”

Suddenly the tears that’d been so conspicuously missing began to burn behind her eyes. Determined not to shed them, she blinked rapidly. She was done crying. She was done allowing herself to be frightened and intimidated, too. This was her life, damn it. She was taking it back.

“How’d it happen?” he asked.

“She was stabbed. Sonja Ivey found her on the floor of the laundry room.”

“The Crew got hold of her?”

“Who else? With Ink out of prison, that has to be it.” Tears leaked out despite her efforts to dam them, so she simply squeezed her eyes shut and relied on her glasses to hide them.

“I haven’t told you this, but…I tried to warn her.”

This took Vivian aback. “You called Mom?”

“I went to see her. Right after we left Washington, D.C.”