Page 90 of Fatal Mistake
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Tara pulled up behind a white sedan parked in the exact location Oren had said it would be. Did he truly want to see her, or was this a way to subdue her? Was he hiding in the woods and when she got in the car he’d attack? Maybe put a bomb around her neck, too?
She opened the car door and heard the phone ringing from the other car. She had no choice. Only two minutes remained on Oren’s time clock and she had to move. Now!
She bolted from Agent Ward’s car and raced across the road. Her hands trembled and she fumbled with the door handle.
“No, no, no. June is counting on you.” She jerked the door open and saw the lighted cell on the passenger seat.
She dove to answer it. She soon discovered it wasn’t a normal call; he’d called on Skype. Dreading seeing his face on the video app, she tapped the answer button and averted her eyes.
“Hello, Tara.” His smarmy voice sent chills of repulsion over her body. “I thought for a moment you hadn’t obeyed.”
“Cal’s on his way as you requested, so now you can let June go.”
“You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?”
She had hoped that would be the case, but deep in her heart she’d known that Oren would require something more. “What else do you want from me?”
“Look at me, Tara.”
She swallowed hard and swung her gaze to the phone. Expecting to see his face, she saw her aunt instead.
“June,” Tara cried out.
“Enough of that.” Oren swung the camera to his face.
Tara nearly gasped at the change in his appearance since she’d last seen him at the pump house, but she managed to bite her lip before she displayed her shock. He wore a full but scraggly beard, a white woven cap, and a traditional white Indian shirt. His eyes were glazed and piercing at the same time, and she saw nothing of the boy she’d grown up with. Nothing of her friend. It was time to finally admit that person was long gone and evil faced her instead.
“We have no time to lose,” he said. “First, I want you to take the agent’s phone and yours, too. Smash them on the road. Be sure to aim this phone’s camera at it so I can see you destroy them.”
There was no point in arguing, so she got out of the car and dropped her phone on the ground, then stomped on it with the heel of her shoe. It took a few tries, but it finally cracked and died. She did the same thing with Agent Ward’s phone, severing any hope that Cal could trace her location.
“I want to see a close-up of the cells,” Oren demanded.
She bent low and demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the phones.
“Go back to the car and drive to June’s house. The car has GPS, and I’ve mounted cameras inside and outside the vehicle in case you planned to have someone follow you.”
“I’m all alone,” she said.
“Good, because I’ll know if you aren’t, and I’ll kill June.”
Tara wished Oren hadn’t planned all of this so carefully or she might have been able to come up with a way to outsmart him.
“Oh, and Tara, you have another thirty minutes. I’ll make another video call then, and you best be with June.”
He disconnected, and she wasted no time but hopped into the car and raced down the highway to her aunt’s driveway. The house was dark, and there was no sign of the car belonging to June’s protection detail. Tara wished Cal was there with her, but then, what could he do? He’d told her he couldn’t disarm the bomb yet. Besides, her intuition said Oren still wanted something from her or he could have killed her the moment she arrived at the car he’d left for her.
And what about Cal’s life?
They were just getting to know each other and starting to like and respect each other. And besides that, he was a fine man and didn’t deserve to lose his life because of a choice she’d made.
“But I have to save June,” she mumbled, and parked the car by the front steps.
She got out, barely noticing the cool breeze drifting through the fields bringing the fresh scent of recently mowed grass. She stepped toward the house, her shoes feeling like they were encased in lead. She forced her feet up the stairs and found the door unlocked.
Fearing some sort of trip wire or booby trap, she cracked the door open only a fraction and held her breath. When nothing happened, she pushed the door open another foot and yelled, “June.”
