Chapter 8
HARMONY RACED THROUGH the house, making sure all doors were locked before pulling up the email from Anna, Lucas’s sister, on her iPad.
Hi, Heidi or is it Harmony? Did you think we wouldn’t find you?
Harmony swallowed the bile that smacked the back of her throat like a water balloon exploding, stinging your skin before the warm water trickled down your skin. Anna hadn’t been a criminal, and she barely knew of her brother’s escapades, but when the Feds had come to arrest him, Anna blamed Harmony for everything. She had gone as far as to say it was Harmony who had led her brother down the path of destruction.
Then, when Anna’s mother had a heart attack right before the arraignment, that’s when things got really ugly. Anna swore she’d make sure Harmony would pay for ruining her family.
You can run. But you can’t hide. And I wouldn’t call your FBI friends to come and rescue you, because if you do, I’ll make sure your boyfriend’s family suffers. I’ll start with the youngest. Boy, what a cutie. It will pain me to make him suffer a fate that will change his parents forever.
Like you changed my mother.
Harmony hovered the mouse over the jpeg file attached to the email. Holding her breath, she clicked the file.
“Shit,” she held back a scream as she stared at a picture of Kate and her youngest child asleep in her lap. The image had been taken at the barbeque.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Anna had someone watching her, and they were probably outside right now. She turned her attention back to the screen.
If you want the children to stay safe, you will get in your car, drive to the address at the bottom of this email, and face the consequences of your actions.
She glanced to the bottom. The location was only about a half hour away.
Her life certainly wasn’t worth saving over three innocent children that had nothing to do with Lucas, his shady dealings, or his family.
“You win, Lucas,” she whispered, resolved to the fact she’d do exactly what Anna asked. No questions.
You have until six in the morning. Fail to meet me there, and Kate’s children start dying. It won’t end there, either. Kate, her husband, Mason’s parents, his dog, and then him. They will all die because you’re a selfish bitch.
“Like hell they will.” She set the iPad on the table next to her and snagged the picture Mason had found.
She held the picture in her trembling fingers. She’d been four months pregnant and thought she had the life. She had money, power, and she had Lucas. A man who gave her everything.
Until he took it all away.
Rubbing her stomach, she bit back the tears. One minute she was about to embark on the most important job she’d ever have as a human being, and with the swift kick of her boyfriend’s boots, it all disappeared.
The first beating Lucas dished out resulted in a black eye, a split lip, and a concussion that prompted a trip to the ER where she found out she was two months pregnant. Lucas swore it was the drugs that made him hit her, and he swore he’d give them up.
And he did.
But that didn’t last.
The second beating landed her in the ER where the doctor informed her that the blows to her stomach had caused the placenta to separate from the uterus, and her baby had died.
That’s when she knew she needed to leave Lucas, only that proved to be near impossible.
Enter the FBI.
“Shit, Mason. Where did you find this picture?” That wasn’t a question she could send him a text about and not expect some flack. Think. Think. Think.
Harmony Baker: Sorry to bother you, but the picture of my parents was with some other items. Did you move them? Because I can’t find them.
She hoped that wouldn’t send up a million warning signals, but hopefully, if it did, she’d be long gone.
Mason Cooper: All I saw was a shoebox on the mantel. I didn’t touch it.
With a pounding heart, she stood and made her way to the fireplace. Sure enough, a shoebox that hadn’t been there when she’d left for the barbeque lined the shelf. She looked around the area, trying to find something else that would be plausible that she’d wanted to find, which warranted a text. That’s when she noticed another photograph of Lucas when he’d been arrested that must have fallen.
Harmony Baker: Not the shoebox. But a picture of my dad.
Lying made her stomach churn as if sour milk coated the lining. Lying to Mason made her want to vomit. If he’d seen the picture, she was sure he would have confronted her about it.
Or at the very least, he would have taken the image.
Mason Cooper: Sorry. I didn’t see it.
Harmony Baker: Okay. Thanks. It’s probably in my nightstand.
Mason Cooper: I’ll leave my phone on. Please don’t hesitate to reach out, even if you think it’s nothing.
Harmony Baker: Will do. Goodnight, Mason.
Mason Cooper: Sleep well, Harmony.
She figured that would be the last communication she ever had with the man. Turning off her phone, she collected her purse. She didn’t need anything else. She had gas in the car and since she’s going to meet someone who was mostly likely going to kill her, she figured she looked nice enough in her summer dress.
Witness protection was nice while it lasted.
Letting out a long sigh, she headed for the back door and her modest SUV. Time to say goodbye to Harmony Baker, the small town of St. Helena’s, and the sexy police officer, Mason, and his adorable dog, Coop.
Life had some fucking twisted turns.
She slipped behind the steering wheel of her older model vehicle. She knew starting it would alert Coop and most likely his owner, so she slammed the gearshift in neutral, hoping it would start to roll down the slight slope toward the street.
The sound of a vicious bark caught her attention.
“Shit.” To her left, she saw Coop racing from the front door toward her car.
Mason followed behind, only he went for the rear of the car, not the side door. “Get out of the way,” she muttered, but he didn’t listen. Instead he put his hands on the back of the car as if to try to stop it.
She hit the brakes. “Get out of my way,” she yelled as she rolled down the window.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
“None of your business.”
“Like hell. You made it my business the second you signed the lease. Now get out of the car and start telling me what the fuck is really going on.”
“You really want to know?” She snagged her phone and leapt from the driver’s seat. Bringing up the email, she clicked on the image. It didn’t matter at this point if he knew her true identity. All that mattered was that she got to the designated location to prevent more deaths. “If I don’t do what Anna says, your sister’s kids are dead. So leave me the fuck alone and let me go.”