Silver Falls - Anne Stuart [77]
“How much do you want to bet he already knows?”
She didn’t respond to that one. “Sophie,” she said, her voice thick with tension. “I need to make sure Sophie is okay.”
“Sophie’s with Sheriff Bannister, and she’ll stay with her until this is over.”
She turned to look at him. “Why?” she demanded.
“You know why,” he said in an even voice. “You just don’t want to admit it. Sophie’s not going back to that house and neither are you.”
She exploded. “Don’t be ridiculous! If you’re trying to tell me that David is some kind of serial killer, then you’re wasting your breath. You’ve barely seen him during the last twenty years—I’ve been living with him for the last four months. David wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“Maybe not. But he’d hurt you.” They’d reached a deserted stretch of road, and he slowed, looking for the turn.
“What kind of proof do you have? I’d trust him a hell of a lot more than I’d trust you!”
“I know. Which is why I kidnapped you.” He took a sharp right, heading down the rutted road. “He’s not going to have time to find you—he’s going to be too busy trying to frame me.”
“Oh, I forgot, you’re the poor innocent and David’s the sociopath,” she said, her voice rich with scorn. “Where the fuck are you taking me?”
He almost wanted to smile at her use of David’s forbidden word. “As far away as I can drive in one night. I’ll dump you somewhere that David can’t find you and then come back here and finish this.”
“Dump me or my body?”
“You’re pissing me off.”
“Why? Because I don’t like being dragged off in the middle of the night? Because I don’t trust you? Because I sure as hell don’t like you!” Her voice was getting stronger as her fear was fading.
Good. Because he didn’t want her frightened of him, not when he was the only thing that stood between her and death.
“Now that’s a lie,” he drawled. “Your problem is you like me too much and you’re feeling guilty about it.”
“Oh, please!”
“David knows. He’s always been able to figure people out. He would have known the moment he found us outside my father’s kitchen door that you were attracted to me. And he’s done everything he can to foster it.” He glanced at her. “Haven’t you figured that out yet?”
“The only thing I’ve figured out is that you’re batshit insane.”
“You’ve got the wrong brother.”
“I’m with the wrong brother,” she said. “And if you think I’m going anywhere without my daughter you’re even more deluded than you appear to be.”
“You’re here, aren’t you?” He pulled the car to a stop and killed the lights.
“And exactly where is here?”
“Bates Motel,” he said.
“What?”
He turned off the motor and slid from the car. “That’s just what we call it. This was supposed to be the route the state road took, and years ago someone built a motel here. Then someone paid someone off, the highway got rerouted, and the motel closed.”
“Great. And now Norman Bates wanders around dressed like his mother…” She looked at him. “That reminds me. Where is your mother buried?”
“Damn, woman,” he said, opening her door. She sat there, furious and unmoving. “You’re really trying to get on my nerves. Good thing you didn’t try it with David—you’d be dead already.”
“Your brother is not a rapist and murderer,” she said in the flat voice of absolute certainty.
He reached over and unfastened her seat belt. She hit at him, trying to stop him, but he simply hauled her out of the car, ignoring her struggles. “And you know that…how?”
“I just know. And if you think I’m going with you into the creepy place you’re out of your mind.”
“Haven’t you figured out that you don’t have any choice?” he countered. He clamped a hand on her wrist. He didn’t want to risk hurting her or the baby, but keeping her alive came first.
The sign for the Sleeping Bear Motel had long ago faded, the neon tubes burst by kids throwing rocks. The place really did look like something out of Psycho, but the Silver Falls police used it as a safe place to stash people. Material witnesses, abused wives and girlfriends, runaway kids whose parents might be worse than the streets—the motel had seen them all.