Cascade Falls was stunning in November. The first dusting of snow had already settled across the little town, though the dark lake remained almost entirely unfrozen still, awaiting the colder weather that was sure to trickle in during the upcoming winter months. Mike had visited her in the final week of October, and once again in the second week of November to solidify their plans. April was to return to Cascade Falls for Thanksgiving to avoid arousing suspicion from anyone, and from there, they would make contact with a much sketchier character on the wrong side of the motorcycle club who might be able to help Van. It was a longshot, but they didn’t have much of a choice. Breaking out of any security facility, minimum or maximum, wasn’t exactly a cake-walk.
However, they couldn’t leave him in there anymore. April’s heart broke again and again, as she thought about all the physical trials Van had to endure while incarcerated. Recently, he’d taken a few shots to the ribs, and Mike said he was sporting a black eye the last time he went to visit. Things weren’t looking great, and they had to act fast. Mike’s ominous prediction that Van would be dead by Christmas sat heavily on her shoulders, and April thought of nothing else most of the time: she had to find a way to get him out.
Once he was back on the outside, she hoped—maybe foolishly—that they’d be able to prove his innocence and incriminate James, but she also knew they had to take things one step at a time. Nobody was going to slap Van on the back and give him a get-out-of-jail-free card for escaping prison, but that was exactly what she and Mike were hoping for. Get him out. Get him safe.
Sometimes she pictured their reunion, which always involved a lot of kissing and nudity, but April tried not to dwell on it. She’d ended things with Van for a reason, and even if—and that was a big if—they were able to spring him to freedom, she wasn’t sure she ought to hop right back into the relationship.
Even if she did still love him.
After all, this had to be love, right? She was willing to break a man out of jail—that had to be love. Only for now, it might be best for everyone if she kept those feelings to herself.
She’d only been back in Cascade Falls for two days, and she was itching to drive out to the prison to see Van. However, with James watching her like a hawk and her mom stressed about preparing her first Thanksgiving feast as a “Palmer woman”, there was no way in hell she’d get out to see Van. Again, it was probably best for everyone that way.
Thanksgiving was a few days away still, and she’d been staying in one of the guest rooms in James’s huge home under the guise of wanting to visit for the week. Her mom had been thrilled to have her there, and she felt a little guilty for deceiving her. If everything went according to plan (when they eventually made a plan, that is), she was sure her mom would understand why April had to keep so much from her. They would need to have a serious talk about everything that had happened over the last few months, specifically about James, and then they would move on from there.
If everything worked out. Her future was heavily reliant on a huge if at the moment, and she tried not to focus too much on that.
Sighing, April gave herself a final look in the en-suite bathroom mirror, then switched off the light. She didn’t want to dress up just to meet Mike and whoever else he had invited to their little free-Van-from-prison session tonight, but she’d told James and her mom that she was meeting some friends for drinks after dinner. So, she’d thrown on a pair of sinfully tight jeans and a cute beige sweater, which she would eventually pair with black boots and a knit cap. A part of her hoped that word might get back to Van about how good she looked, but that was more of a selfish want than anything else.
After grabbing her purse, she slipped out of the guest bedroom and rushed for the front door. She slowed on the grand spiral staircase, however, as she saw James and her mom strolling from the kitchen to the sitting room.
“Oh, honey, you look so pretty,” her mom cooed, as she descended the few final steps. Her heart pounded heavily in her chest, as she tried to pull off a breezy casualness that didn’t come naturally to her. “Where are you meeting the girls again?”
“Just the coffee shop,” she said, as she went for her boots, which lay flopped over by the front door. As she moved, James’s eyes followed her every step, and she could practically feel his skepticism at a ten foot distance. “We might go to the bar afterward too… Not really sure what the plan is.”
“Well, don’t drive home if you do go to the bar.” Over her shoulder, she saw her mom pat James on the chest. “One of us will be happy to pick you up if you end up drinking.”
April bit back a cringe, as she stuffed her feet into her boots. “Sure. Thanks. That’d be great.”
“Who are you meeting again?” James asked. April went for her coat, which she yanked on a little more forcefully than necessary. Just the sound of his voice grated her nerves, and she could barely make eye contact with him anymore; not only was he terrifying, but she was essentially plotting against him with some of his own guys. Nothing would bode well for her if things fell through.
“Just some girls from high school,” April told him with a shrug. His eyes narrowed, and she pretended to search through her purse for something.
“Who?”
“What’s with the interrogation,” she said lightly, trying to pass it off as a joke. “I wasn’t aware I was still in high school. Do I have a curfew, too?”
Her mom’s shrill laughter made both James and April visibly wince.
“Honey, we’re just nosy old farts who are living vicariously through you,” her mom insisted with a slight roll of her eyes. April offered the best laugh she could, all the while thinking that if anyone ought to be living vicariously, it was April. James and her mom went to many social events around town, several of which had been while April was visiting. In the last two days.
“Right, right, yeah, I guess,” April babbled, as she went for the front door finally, her palms sweaty. “See you later then.”
“Say hi to the girls for me!” her mom called, as she all but ran through the doorway, and April gave her a small wave and a smile. The last thing she saw before shutting the door was James’s scowl, which stayed burned into her field of vision, as she hopped into her mom’s car and headed down the snowy driveway.
But, of course, April wasn’t headed to meet up with any of her old high school friends. In fact, none of them even knew she was in town, though she realized that she probably should have actually met up with one or two at some point. She needed someone to validate her story should James end up snooping around for her exact whereabouts—and, really, it wouldn’t kill her to touch base with a few of her old friends. She’d never been great about keeping in touch with the exception of a few close friends, and she figured she owed it to herself to try more.
Although she took the route that would get her downtown, April turned at the last possible moment and headed out of Cascade Falls. There was a little resort on the other side of the lake with a cozy Italian restaurant that Mike had made reservations at, and she was already running a little late. Small towns weren’t as efficient as bigger ones in clearing the snow off the roads, and she had to fight her way around snow drifts and ice patches to reach her destination. When she finally made it, she was a little unnerved that there was no motorcycle in the parking lot, but when she saw Mike waiting by the main doors, she figured it made sense that he wouldn’t drive that beast anywhere in this weather.
“Glad you made it,” he said as she approached, smiling at her in that kindly way he always did, the skin around his eyes crinkling. After being in contact with Mike on and off since they first met, April had a little ball of guilt sitting heavily in the pit of her stomach for assuming he was such a creep. Sure, he drove a motorcycle, but she had to stop stereotyping all bikers as assholes.
Not everyone was James Palmer.
“Ice patch on the last turn nearly took me out,” she told him, shivering as they walked for the warmth of the resort. Peter’s Inn was in direct competition with Cascade Falls’ very own historical resort on the other side of the lake, and from what April had heard, the prices here were more reasonable.
“You got snow tires on that thing?” Mike asked, as he shot one last look back at her mom’s car. She shrugged, which made him grumble. “It’s really not safe to be driving without them.”
Why couldn’t her mom have married Mike? The guy was recently widowed and worked for the town newspaper as its editor-in-chief. Motorcycle enthusiast. Dad of three. All-round nice guy, despite plotting to bust Van out of jail. At least she felt safe with him.
“Rabbit’s already here,” he told her, as they strolled through the rustic resort, making their way back to where the Italian restaurant overlooked the lake. Despite being early in the week, the place seemed packed as they approached, the volume of conversation rising more and more with every step she took.
She needed a few seconds to process exactly what he’d just said, and when she did, April stopped and gave Mike a hard look. “Rabbit?”
“He’s the best in the business,” Mike told her, a slight warning edge to his tone. Right. Don’t insult this Rabbit guy or his name. Got it. April nodded, as if this all made perfect sense, and then slipped a step behind him as they entered the restaurant. The hostess tried to seat them at first, but Mike waved her off with a smile, pointing across the way to a booth beside the window overlooking the lake.
“Our friend is waiting on us, but thank you.”
April too gave the woman a smile, but the hostess was already back at her little station, scrambling to get the cordless phone that had just started ringing.
As they moved through the restaurant, unease settled across her. She’d been trying to avoid James and his goons ever since she returned to Cascade Falls, but in this new setting, she had no idea just how many eyes might not be looking at her favorably. Swallowing hard, she pulled up the neck of her coat and tried to subtly hide her face in it, hoping she could lose any onlookers once she was in the booth.
Rabbit was almost Mike’s opposite—physically, anyway. Where Mike had the thickness a lot of older men had, some of it due to lack of activity, some thanks to beer, Rabbit was thin as a rod. Jet black hair sat atop his head, and he was fiddling with a sharp toothpick when they arrived. He didn’t stand to greet them. Didn’t even smile. At least he looked scrubbed up and clean. April would have thought a guy who went by the name of Rabbit might have looked like a criminal, but she was happy to see that wasn’t the case. He was clean shaven and wearing a dress shirt, though she couldn’t see what was on the lower half beneath the table.
“Rabbit,” Mike said by way of greeting as he slid into the booth. The man’s head bobbed up and down, his eyes drifting over to April as she climbed onto the bench after Mike. She realized once she’d settled that she preferred it this way. It was easier to make an escape when she wasn’t sandwiched between a thick body and a window. “This is April.”
She glanced up sharply at the mention of her name, offering Rabbit a small smile.
“April,” he said, as if trying her name out for size. “Van’s girl, right?”
“His friend,” she corrected, not wanting to be associated as some romantic interest and therefore not taken seriously. “Stepsister, actually.”
Rabbit nodded again, then he leaned back, as a waitress arrived to deliver some drinks. Both Mike and Rabbit were given beers, and April’s lips twitched into a frown when a water was placed in front of her. The newcomer shrugged apologetically when she looked his way.
“Didn’t know what you’d want,” he said, as though waiting for her to place an order was so out of the question. She shook it off, not wanting to make anything a bigger issue than it needed to be. Falling silent, April twirled her straw around inside her drink, ice clinking off the glass, as Mike and Rabbit exchanged some small chitchat. She’d almost tuned it out completely until Van’s name popped up a few times over, and by then their food had arrived. Rabbit seemed to be the take-charge kind of guy and had ordered everyone a fettuccini Alfredo with seafood, which she had no complaints about.
At least he hadn’t gotten her a salad; he seemed like the type of guy who assumed women only ate lettuce leaves in public.
“Look, I know the kid’s in a tough spot,” Rabbit said with a sigh, “but I’m trying to go straight these days. You know my boat tour thing is really… really taking off.”
A cold feeling gripped her, as she stared at him. This guy was supposed to be their in, their saving grace. Mike, however, seemed unperturbed by the man’s statement.
“You’re actually happy just giving rich assholes tours of the lake?” he asked, swirling his noodles around his fork before shoving it into his mouth. April picked at her plate, still full from dinner at home but feeling rude if she didn’t eat.
“I dunno. It’s good money.”
“You know I hate this stuff,” Mike said softly, shaking his head. “I don’t want to associate with this side of the club.”
“I know.” Rabbit grabbed his napkin to wipe some food off his shirt, which had fallen from his fork midway to his mouth. “You’re a good guy, Mikey, but this is a big operation you’re proposing—“
“You owe Van a shitload of favors, Rabbit,” Mike remarked, his gaze hardening. Suddenly, the cold feeling started to dissipate, and April found she could sit up a little straighter. “A lot. He’s pulled through for you in the past more times than you can count, I bet.”
April arched an eyebrow and wondered if Mike knew this from personal experience, or if Van had told the guy to gently remind Rabbit of the fact. Either way, she was glad they had some leverage here.
“Aw, come on, Mikey—“
“I don’t really see what the discussion is about then,” April interjected, finding her nerve at last. Van needed their help, and if this guy was the guy to do it, she wasn’t going to let him worm his way out of the task by complaining. “You owe Van favors. Van needs your help now. It’s as simple as that. If he stays in there, he’ll die… then you’ll be owing a dead man, and I hear that really eats at a person.”
She’d heard that line—or something similar—on a cheesy crime show once, and she was proud with how flawlessly she’d delivered it. Rabbit stared at her for a long moment, and she shrugged her shoulders as she tucked into her meal.
“Where’d you find this girl?”
“She’s here for Van,” Mike replied, and even though she wasn’t looking at him, she could hear the smile in his voice, and it gave her confidence. All this time she’d been worried that she was making a mistake by coming back, that Mike could have done this without her. But she’d never be able to forgive herself if she didn’t personally see to Van’s freedom in one way or another. She’d essentially put him in there, and damn it, she was going to do everything she could to get him out.
Rabbit fell silent for a few long moments, his gaze unfocused and distant, until he finally said, “Because it’s for Van, and I do owe him, I’ll do it for a fraction of my usual fee.”
“We’ll negotiate the price when you tell me what you plan to do,” Mike remarked breezily, and April sat back, hiding her smile. It was finally in motion, and she couldn’t help but think she’d played a small part in getting the ball rolling.
“I mean, if I look back on other gigs, I have a few ideas already about how to get him out,” Rabbit continued, settling back against the booth. “This one time, we…”
April leaned in, listening to the man regale both Mike and her with stories of the old days, when breaking out of federal facilities wasn’t really all that hard. That was how he’d earned his reputation for being the best in the business, and she suspected a part of him wanted to show everyone that he was still damn good at his job.
And that was precisely what April wanted to hear. Someone out there, Van was eating a shitty prison dinner, worried about if he’d make it to this weekend—not realizing that by this weekend, she’d be seeing him face-to-face again as a free man.
Hopefully.