Come and Find Me A Novel of Suspense - By Hallie Ephron Page 0,58

be stood up. “I should be heading home soon.”

She was about to put the phone back when the message-waiting alert went off. Had to be Ashley, seeing the missed call. But when Diana went to retrieve the text message, she saw it was from a number she didn’t recognize.

She nearly dropped the phone as she started to read.

Sorry. Car crapped out. Sunoco on 3A at I89. Meet me? GROB

She didn’t know what to feel. Dread that there was still, at the very least, unsettling news about her sister? Relief that she hadn’t placed her trust in a creep who was just out to make her look like a fool? Guilty excitement that he was waiting for her?

She pocketed the phone and used the newspaper to cover her head as she sprinted back to the car. She opened the door, tossed the walking stick into the back, climbed into the driver’s seat, slammed the door shut, and jammed the key into the ignition.

“Hello, Diana.” The familiar voice walloped her.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Shit, shit, shit!” She held on to the steering wheel with both hands, waiting for her vision to clear, her heart to stop galloping.

She turned around. Jake was sitting in the backseat. He looked transformed since they’d last met in person, his head completely shaved, a reddish Vandyke beard and mustache on his face. If it hadn’t been for the voice and the John Lennon glasses, she’d never have recognized him. He’d caught Daniel’s walking stick and had it pointed at her like a javelin.

“What in the hell are you doing here?” she said, her voice shaking. It felt as if Jake had sucked the oxygen from the air in the closed car. She gasped for breath. That’s when she saw the cell phone, sitting on the seat beside him.

Idiot! A pall of mortification settled over her. No wonder GROB had used a voice synthesizer. GROB was Jake.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “Take it easy, please, don’t freak out.” In a single fluid move, he slid between the front bucket seats and into the front passenger seat.

Diana screamed and pressed herself against the door. She had to get out of there. She clawed for the handle, but before she could open the door there was a dull thock. Doors locking. Diana felt her blood thrumming in her ears. Her keys were no longer in the ignition.

“Take it easy, take it easy,” Jake said. “I’m sorry for freaking you out.”

“Let me out,” she said. “Jake, please, let me out now. Whatever you have to say to me, you can say it out there.” He didn’t move.

“Help!” she screamed, banging at the window. “Help, help!” She screamed as loud as she could, but not a single person was near enough to hear, and the tinted glass made her invisible. She started to reach into the backseat for the walking stick.

“Stop!” Jake cupped his hand behind her head, twined his finger in her hair, and pulled it taut, immobilizing her. “Calm down. I was afraid you’d be like this.”

“Ow!” she cried as he tightened his grip, and she felt the skin pulling at the corners of her eyes.

“I can explain.” He brought his face close to hers and stared back at her. “Let me explain. Okay?”

Diana could smell coffee breath, aftershave, and the metallic scent of her own fear. She took a shuddering breath and managed a nod. Jake loosened his grip.

“Okay?” he said.

She nodded again. Slowly Jake let go. They sat in silence for a few moments, and Diana felt as if she were in a cage staring out at him. Her chest hurt as she took in air and exhaled.

“O-kay. Let’s start over,” he said. “I’m sorry I had to do it this way, but I need you to come with me. Diana, it’s okay, really it is.” He was talking to her like she was a child. “You can trust me.”

“Trust”—Diana’s voice was hoarse—“is something you earn. You trick me to get me to come here. Hide in the backseat and then scare me half to death, and now I’m supposed to trust you?”

“I’m sorry. I had to wait in the Hummer because I wasn’t sure it was you. You look . . . different from what I was expecting.”

“I thought I was meeting . . . There’s nothing wrong with my sister, is there?”

His silence confirmed it.

“You made me think she was deathly ill. My sister, the last person I can trust in this world.