Lucky Break

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

LAUREN CLOSETED HERSELF in the bedroom to dress for Gabrielle’s book signing. All the workmen were gone for the day except for J.R., the plumber, and she didn’t want company while she was changing.

Since the news that Brody Pittman was her sister’s accomplice, J.R. had insisted on coming by the house to check the boiler work and replace some of the pipes. He said he’d also check everything out as all Pittman’s work was now suspect. Lauren appreciated J.R.’s diligence and she hoped Brody Pittman hadn’t cost her extra money she didn’t have to spend on this house.

To work on the boiler, he’d had to turn off the heat and it hadn’t taken long for the cold weather outside to seep inside and turn the house into a virtual freezer. Earlier in the day, she’d made a fire in the bedroom fireplace, a nice feature in this old New England home. Lauren had decided to toss Clara’s log in for good measure and she wondered if any of the positive energy had taken hold. She could use some, if such a thing was possible. Time would tell. A small flame still crackled and burned, but clearly it was almost out.

She freshened her makeup and dressed in tapered black slacks, a bright multicolored silk blouse belted at the waist and, of course, her favorite red fringed boots. One last look in the mirror, a quick fix of her bangs, and she was ready to go.

She found Jason in the kitchen talking with J.R. and she took a moment to savor the sight of him. He wore a cream-colored sweater, black denim jeans and loafers, and looked so sexy she wished things between them were back the way they had been a few short weeks ago. She hoped he’d lower his defenses for the night at least, so they could enjoy the signing.

And each other.

Besides, she didn’t need his cousins noticing tension and trying to play matchmaker when there was clearly nothing left to bring them together.

A knot the size of a walnut wedged in Lauren’s stomach. Ridiculous, since she hadn’t wanted any ties to this town when she left for good.

She didn’t miss the irony in her life. She’d driven in on a high in her beloved red convertible. She’d be leaving in a rental car, feeling depressed and blue.

J.R. GAVE JASON a rundown of what he’d found during his inspection of the plumbing. The good news was that the work Brody Pittman did in the house was sound. It also appeared that the man had lied about some of the other items that needed replacement and repair-obviously in a bid to buy himself more time in the house. More positive news for Lauren’s checkbook.

“Hi,” she said, announcing her presence.

“Hey.” Jason glanced up and the breath was sucked out of his lungs.

She’d chosen a soft, flowing blouse with a deep vee, showing more than a generous hint of cleavage while covering everywhere else. Completely appropriate yet seductively sexy, he thought. And her long hair fell over her shoulders, thick and shiny, begging for him to run his hands through it. Better yet, he wanted to feel those silky strands over his naked body. Jason swallowed a groan.

“Hey there,” J.R. said. A decade older than Jason and happily married, the other man couldn’t tear his gaze away from Lauren, either. “Don’t tell my wife I said so, but you look beautiful tonight.”

A flush stained her cheeks. “Thank you!” Her gaze slid to Jason.

“Perfect,” he agreed. “Are you ready?”

“I sure am.” Her eyes sparkled with an excitement that was contagious.

“Have fun, you two. And don’t worry about the plumbing. Everything looks good. Better than we could have hoped.”

Relief flashed over Lauren’s face. “Thank you. That’s wonderful.”

“My pleasure.”

The three of them walked out of the house together. A few minutes later, J.R. pulled out of the driveway and his truck disappeared down the street.

Jason and Lauren settled in his car and buckled their seat belts. He started the engine, but before putting the gears in reverse, he stretched his arm over the top of the seat and turned to Lauren.

“You look beautiful,” he said, unable to hold back the honest words.

She treated him to the first wide smile he’d seen in too long. “Thanks. You look pretty handsome yourself.”

“Thanks.” He accepted the compliment with a grin. “I appreciate you coming tonight. Especially with everything going on. It means a lot to Derek and Gabrielle. And to me.”

She nodded. “I’m honestly looking forward to it!”

“Great. Then let’s get going.” He backed out of the long driveway.

They drove past the residential neighborhood and reached the turn into town. He was halfway down Main Street when Lauren started to frantically paw through her purse and mutter softly.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I forgot my cell phone.”

He slowed the car. “Want to go back?”

She nodded. “I’m sorry, but in case there’s news about my sister, I need to have my phone.”

He glanced at the clock on the dashboard. “No problem. It’s still early.” He managed a three-point turn and was about to drive off when someone waved at them.

“It’s Uncle Hank,” Jason said, rolling down his window.

“Where are you two off to? Oh, I know. Gabrielle’s book signing.” He barely paused for a breath. “Even your father is going, but am I allowed? Oh no.”

“Why not?” Lauren asked.

“I’ve been banned!” Hank rolled his eyes. “Isn’t that the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard?”

Jason grinned. “Not really. Remember the signing at the local library a few months ago?” Jason hadn’t been in town but he’d heard all about it.

“Extenuating circumstances,” his uncle muttered.

“Ever since, Derek hasn’t trusted him to behave,” Jason explained to Lauren.

“My own son. Isn’t that an insult?” his uncle asked. “Besides, I had my reason. She was disputin’ the Corwin Curse when everyone in this town knows how we Corwins suffered because of those dang Perkins!”

Jason stiffened and hit the window button as Hank began his familiar rant. “Goodbye, Uncle Hank,” he said, cutting off the older man’s words.

Jason glanced at Lauren.

“I’m fine,” she assured him before he could ask.

But her set jaw told another story.

“I should be used to it by now,” she said.

But it was clearly a blow. And he knew better than to start any conversation that would lead to an argument, so he let the subject go.

Heading home, he pulled into the driveway. “Want me to go in for you?”

She shook her head. “I think I know where I left the phone. I’ll be right back.”

She jumped out of the car.

Jason settled in to wait.

LAUREN RAN BACK into the house. She normally wasn’t scatterbrained. In fact, she was pretty organized by anyone’s standards, but her sister’s escape had distracted her.

She checked the kitchen first, thinking maybe she’d left her phone on the counter.

No luck.

However, she felt a cool breeze from the far side of the room and slowly walked to the back hall. Jason had long since fixed the broken locks and windows and nobody used this part of the house. An unsettling feeling overtook her. She flicked on the hall light, and sure enough, the glass panes above the outside door had been smashed. Someone had probably stuck their hand inside to open the door, which now swung in the wind.

A shiver that had nothing to do with the cold raced over her skin. She knew exactly who’d broken into the house.

“Beth.” Lauren shook her head in a combination of dismay and frustration. She hadn’t thought her sister would come back here. Once again, Lauren had underestimated her devious sibling.

Suddenly, and Lauren hoped irrationally, she was afraid. She needed to get out of here. She couldn’t walk over the broken glass without making noise or hurting herself. Her only option was to sneak out the front door as quietly as she’d come in. Then get Jason and figure out what to do.

Plan formulated, she took two steps back, hit a solid body and screamed.

A firm hand clamped over her mouth. “Be quiet.”

She considered biting him, but his grip was too tight. Her eyes teared at the painful pressure.

“I’m going to let go and you aren’t going to scream. Understand?”

She recognized Brody Pittman’s voice and nodded.

He slowly eased his grip.

She turned to face him, rubbing her sore cheeks at the same time. “Where’s my sister?”

“Bedroom.” He nudged her in the side, pushing her closer to the door. “Just in case you get any funny ideas about trying to run-” He poked a sharp object into her back.

He had a gun.

Bile rose in her throat, but she remained calm. Her sister was a few feet away and Beth wouldn’t hurt her.

How do you know that, a little voice in her head asked. How could she assume anything about her sister now?

They approached the bedroom and Brody gave Lauren a rough shove into the room. “Look who I found.”

Lauren stumbled in and came face-to-face with her now red-haired sister. “Beth!”

“Lauren, why couldn’t you have just stayed away?” Beth asked, sounding annoyed.

“I forgot my phone-” Lauren glanced around her room and realized Beth had been going through the drawers, tossing things onto the floor in search of-“What are you looking for?”

“The diary,” Beth said. “Just give me the diary you were talking about and go away. Forget you ever saw me here.”

Lauren blinked in surprise. “I can’t do that!”

“Of course you can. And you will.”

“First tell me what is in the diary that’s so important?” Lauren asked, needing to understand all the unanswered questions. “Why did it freak you out so much that I found it? And what are you looking for in the house?”

Brody groaned. “I’m tired of all this yapping. Her boyfriend’s waiting out in the car. Just give us the diary!” He waved the gun at her, his frustration and intent clear.

Shaking, Lauren glanced at her sister.

“Put that away, you imbecile!” Beth’s tone allowed for no argument.

Brody lowered the gun but he remained vigilant.

Beth met Lauren’s gaze. “Look, I know you’re upset…”

Lauren couldn’t control the shrill laugh that escaped her throat. “You don’t know anything about me or you wouldn’t have put me through the hell of visiting you month after month in that psych ward, thinking you were lost forever!” Lauren wiped the tears in her eyes with her jacket sleeve.

Beth shrugged almost apologetically. “If it’s any consolation, I was out of it until two months ago. But once I came to, I had to look out for myself, just like I’ve always looked out for you!”

Lauren’s head began to pound, and with every bizarre word her sister uttered, the pain grew worse. “You think you looked out for me?”

“Of course! Look at the mistakes you made. Going out with Jason Corwin when you were seventeen. If I hadn’t shown Grandmother your diary, who knows where you’d be today! Not on your way to Paris, that’s for sure.” Beth folded her arms across her chest, proud of herself.

Lauren couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You showed Grandma my diary? How could you?”

Beth waved away Lauren’s question. “You don’t have to thank me. I’d do the same today if I could, but I have more important things to do. You’re going to have to come to your senses and get rid of Jason Corwin on your own this time.”

“Beth, listen. I have your lawyer working hard on getting you transferred to a good private psychiatric hospital. I sold my car to add to his retainer. Turn yourself in and this will all be okay.” She reached for her sister, but Beth stepped away.

“The diary. Where is it?” Beth asked harshly.

Startled at the change in her sister, Lauren merely pointed to the nightstand.

“Liar! We already looked there.” Without warning, Brody slapped her across the face, sending Lauren sprawling backward.

She righted herself before she fell to the floor. Hand on her cheek, she glared at him, choking back tears. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

“Don’t you ever touch her again.” Beth glared at him, then turned back to Lauren, who didn’t have the time to sort through her sister’s oddly protective behavior.

“You were never like Grandmother or me,” Beth said. “We’re the ones who understand what it means to be a Perkins. We know we have to protect the legacy. Keep the curse going. I need the diary,” she said, her tone too calm. But her eyes were growing more vacant, reminding Lauren of the day she’d set the fire at The Wave.

Frightened she’d go off the deep end and leave Lauren alone with a gun-wielding Brody, Lauren started for the nightstand. All the while, she hoped enough time had passed that Jason would begin to wonder where she was and come inside to look.

“She’d better not be wasting our time,” Brody said, pacing on the other side of the room.

“I’m not. There’s a fake drawer in here.” Somehow Lauren maintained her composure. “What’s so important about the diary?” she asked her sister while she struggled to release the compartment with unsteady hands. Maybe if she kept asking questions, she’d kill more time.

“Diamonds. There are diamonds buried somewhere in this house and I think the diary holds the key to where they’re located,” Beth said. “Hurry.”

“That’s why you sent Brody to vandalize this place and knock holes in the walls?” The pieces of the puzzle finally made sense, Lauren thought.

“Exactly.”

Lauren rose, diary in hand. “I’ve read it from cover to cover. Most of it’s not legible, and what is won’t reveal anything.”

“That’s for me to judge. I’m Mary. I’m one of the chosen,” her sister explained to Lauren as if she were talking to a child. “Now hand it over.”

Brody waved the gun in a silent threat.

Knowing she had no choice, Lauren extended her hand, intending to give the book to her sister…

JASON HAD GIVEN HER enough time. He’d even dialed her cell, hoping the ring-if she had it on loud and not silent or vibrate-would help her find the lost phone. She hadn’t answered.

He yawned just as Trouble appeared, leaping onto the warm hood of the car and staring at Jason intently. Damn cat unnerved him sometimes.

The cat. Jason clearly remembered he and Lauren had left the cat inside the house when they’d left the first time. He’d watched Lauren go in for her keys and Trouble had not run out the front door.

Yet here he was now.

Watching.

Staring.

Yawning.

His gut churned uncomfortably, and he didn’t know why. So he was going inside.

LAUREN KNEW Jason would show up soon. All she had to do was bide her time. And hope that Brody didn’t turn the gun on Jason when he arrived.

She shuddered at the thought and kept her focus shifting between Brody, who stood near the bedroom door, and Beth, who was immersed in reading the diary.

“Well?” Brody voiced the question on Lauren’s mind. “Anything in there that’ll lead us to the diamonds? We have to get the hell out of here fast.”

Beth shook her head in frustration. “So much of it is ruined, but on the same page it mentions the curse it mentions an offering-in the heart of the house.”

Lauren knew better than to remind her sister she’d already told her as much.

Beth glanced up, a dazed look in her eyes. “Think, think,” she said, pounding her hand against her head.

“I say we take whatever money she’s got on her and get away while the getting’s good.” Brody leveled his gun at Lauren’s heart.

Panic washed over Lauren. She looked beyond Brody toward the door and caught sight of Jason standing there. His eyes locked with hers, conveying all his strength in that one look before he backed out of view once more.

“Well? She’s no good to us anyway,” Brody muttered.

Suddenly, Beth shrieked at Brody. “You won’t threaten my sister again!” She dropped the diary and grabbed the poker beside the fireplace, stunning both Lauren and Brody.

Before either could react, Beth brought the metal down on Brody’s head, the poker connecting with his skull. A sickening crack reverberated through the room and Brody fell to the floor.

Nauseated and stunned, Lauren stared at her sister. A stranger she didn’t know and probably never had.

“I warned him to leave you alone,” Beth said in a monotone voice.

Lauren swallowed hard. If this was how Beth looked after her, Lauren wanted none of it. She spotted the gun lying next to Brody and started for the weapon.

“No!”

Beth barked out her command and Lauren froze.

Slowly, Lauren straightened, her hands spread out in front of her. “Relax,” she said to her sister. “See? I’m not moving.”

“But I am.” Taking advantage of the chaos, Jason chose that moment to silently make his entrance. He couldn’t get near the gun, but he bolted across the room and grabbed the diary, the one thing Beth desperately wanted.

With a shriek, Beth raised the poker over her head, her gaze narrowed on Jason, who visibly braced himself.

For the blow?

Or to take Beth down?

Lauren knew he could probably handle Beth. He outweighed and outmuscled her, but Lauren didn’t want either one of them hurt.

“Beth, don’t!”

At the sound of Lauren’s voice, Beth paused. “Why not?” she asked, as if it were a reasonable question. “He’s standing in the way of everything. And besides, he’s a Corwin.”

“Because I love him!” Lauren yelled without thinking, her sole focus on stopping her sister.

Her words had the opposite effect. Beth screamed as if she’d been attacked and ran for Jason, poker in hand.

Acting on instinct, Lauren dove for her sister’s legs, knocking her down. The poker fell to the floor at the same time Jason took the diary and tossed it into the barely burning embers in the fireplace.

“No!” Beth scrambled to her knees, grabbed the poker and managed to drag the book out, but it was too late.

The journal had caught fire and Beth had jerked her arm back too hard. The book went flying at the old draperies.

Lauren watched in horror as the entire valance and hanging drapes went up in flames.

“The diary!” Beth wailed, and started crawling toward the fire.

“Don’t move!” Jason said, approaching Beth, gun in hand.

Lauren had been so consumed by the scene in front of her, she hadn’t seen him go for the weapon. Neither had Beth, apparently, and even now, her focus was on the diary, which had already burned.

“Let’s get out of here,” Jason said, warily watching the flames and Beth. “Lauren, go!”

She hesitated, not wanting to leave them, then ran for the doorway. At the same time sirens sounded. She paused and glanced back.

“I called the police,” Jason said. “Get going!” He wrapped his hand around Beth’s arm and began to drag her out of the room, kicking and screaming about losing the diary and the diamonds.

She was so hysterical, he needed all his strength to remove her from the burning room.

The one thing he didn’t need was the gun.