said, her voice shaking. “I was leaving work late, and they grabbed me in the parking lot. They brought me here.”
Even though there weren’t a lot of details in that, Aiden could almost see it, and it turned his stomach a little. Kendall wasn’t a large woman, and these two goons towered over her. She had to have been terrified.
Still was.
No one was that good an actor.
“Jewell’s daughters could be behind this,” Aiden said just to see what kind of reaction he’d get from them. No one argued. But then, he didn’t see anything in their body language that he’d hit a home run, either.
Of course, who else would it be?
Jewell had abandoned her husband and three sons all those years ago when she left town under the cloud of suspicion of murdering Aiden’s father. The suspicion had finally been confirmed when the case was reopened, and those bone fragments had been discovered. Jewell was finally where she belonged.
In jail.
And she hadn’t exactly mended fences with her own sons and ex-husband.
Still, she had two daughters, a stepson and a now-shot half sister on her side. Once Kendall was safe, Aiden would go to Jewell’s spawn and step-spawn and demand answers.
First, though, he had to get Kendall out of this.
“I guess you’ll hold her until I destroy the evidence?” Aiden asked.
The talker nodded. “The sooner you do it, the sooner you can have her back.”
Not likely.
Except that didn’t make sense, either. Jewell’s kids knew she loved her much younger half sister. In fact, word was that Jewell thought of Kendall more like a daughter than a half sister.
So why would Jewell’s kids have put Kendall at risk like this?
“Why?” Aiden repeated out loud and shook his head. “And that why covers a lot of territory. There’s plenty about this that doesn’t make sense.”
Kendall opened her mouth. Closed it. Then swallowed hard. “I thought Laine might have said something.”
Aiden shook his head. “My sister? What does she have to do with this?”
“Laine saw me coming out of the doctor’s office. I swear, Aiden, I was going to leave town next week. I wasn’t going to put any of this on you. I know how you and your family feel about me.”
There was a gun trained on him, but Aiden went some steps closer so he could look Kendall straight in the eye. “What the heck are you talking about?”
She made a sound. Sort of a helpless moan that came from deep within her chest. “They took me because I’m pregnant. Because they knew they could use that for leverage.”
Kendall’s breath shuddered. “Aiden, the baby I’m carrying is yours.”
It was hard to think through the pain, but Kendall braced herself for Aiden’s reaction. She expected him to curse or yell. To ask what she’d already asked herself—how could this have happened? But other than a few moments of silence, that was it.
Those moments of silence were his only physical response to the baby.
Unlike her.
She was sweating now. Not because it was hot but because her arm was throbbing. Yes, it was just a flesh wound, but she was bleeding, and she needed the wound cleaned and tended. Later, if there was a later, she’d deal with Aiden’s reaction.
Heaven knew what that would be.
“How do you think this is going to work?” Aiden’s attention shifted from her to the gunman who’d been doing all the talking.
“You’ll leave now. Go to the evidence storage room. You shouldn’t have any trouble getting in there, since you’re the county sheriff. Tell them you need to look at something else that involves another case. And once you’re inside, destroy the evidence.”
Aiden shook his head. “It won’t be that simple. There are surveillance cameras.”
“Then figure out a way around them,” the gunman snapped. “After all, your kid’s life depends on it.”
Now Aiden cursed, but it was under his breath. “And what about Kendall? You shot her. It can’t be good for my kid to have his or her mother injured like that.”
“Don’t worry about her. We’ll get her to a doctor. The only thing you have to worry about is doing what you’ve been told.” The man took something from his shirt pocket and tossed it to Aiden.
A cell phone.
“It’ll take videos,” he explained. “Film yourself destroying the evidence and send it to the number already programmed into the phone.”
“And then you’ll let Kendall go?” Aiden asked with plenty of skepticism in his tone.
“Eventually. In a day or two. We got no reason to keep her, and truth is, she’s a pain in the butt. I, for one, will be glad to give her back to you. She bit me,” he growled, glancing down at his wrist.
She had indeed resorted to biting and clawing. She’d done everything to try to escape. But when he threatened to hurt the baby, Kendall knew she had no choice but to stop fighting and look for a better way out of this.
So far, she hadn’t come up with one.
This definitely didn’t qualify as better.
“Hate to burst your bubble,” Aiden said, “but if you hold Kendall for a day or two, someone will report her missing. And people will look for her. You really want to raise those kinds of red flags, since half of her kin are lawmen?”
Kendall groaned softly. “I’ve already told my friends, Jewell and the rest of my family that I’d be leaving town tomorrow morning. I said I needed some downtime and for them not to be surprised if they didn’t hear from me for a while.”
The gunman laughed. “She tied it up in a pretty little bow for us, didn’t she?”
Yes, she did, but Kendall intended to shove that proverbial bow down his throat the first chance she got. She wasn’t in any position to win a physical fight with him, but sooner or later, he’d let down his guard.
She hoped.
Aiden’s gaze came back to her. “I’m figuring you didn’t ask to be here, but I know you won’t shed any tears over this evidence being destroyed.”
“You’re wrong,” she let him know after she choked back another wave of pain. “I don’t want my sister convicted of murder, but I don’t want her free like this, either. And neither would Jewell.”
The corner of Aiden’s mouth lifted in an expression she knew all too well. The Braddock smirk. As an O’Neal and Jewell’s sister, she’d been on the receiving end of it a lot since their families were at odds for twenty-three years.
“Time for you to leave,” the gunman said to Aiden. “Oh, and don’t bother to pull some kind of stunt like pretending to leave so you can double back and rescue her. Kendall will be tucked away someplace safe, where you can’t find her.”
There was no telling what they’d consider someplace safe, but she seriously doubted these snakes had her safety in mind beyond using her to try to prod Aiden into committing a felony.
Aiden stood there, his glare shifting among them, and he cursed again. “Give me at least two hours, and you’ll have your video of me destroying the bone fragments.”
Oh, mercy. He was going to do it.
Kendall