Her Scream in the Silence (Carly Moore #2) - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,133

baby. But when that man showed up on my property, I realized I’d thought wrong. I grabbed my shotgun and ran out the back to the creek, then hurried down it a ways so he wouldn’t see my footprints.”

“Weren’t your feet wet and freezing?” I asked.

“I was wearin’ my snow boots.”

Lula was obviously a whole lot smarter than I’d given her credit for.

“I wasn’t sure what to do or where to go, so I decided to go to Max. He’s always been nice to me. Momma had hinted that maybe Bingham wasn’t my daddy after all, that maybe it was Bart Drummond. She knew I was wantin’ to quit workin’ with Mobley, and she thought I’d keep doin’ it if I thought there was a pot of gold at the end.”

Which meant Bart was likely behind the operation after all.

“Did you call Max to come get you?”

“I had to get to a phone first. I stuck to the trees, so it took me most of the day to get to town. I wanted to stay hidden, so I let myself into one of the rooms at the Alpine Inn by pickin’ the lock. That’s when I called Max. I told him someone was after me. He said to stay put, that he’d come get me after closin’, but then he called and told me to get out of there. To go hide in the church until he could come get me.”

I nodded. “I saw Neil Carpenter coming out of one of the rooms at the inn, and it freaked him out. He must have thought his father was lookin’ for you.” I made a face. “Your father.”

I glanced up. Marco was leaning against the opening to the kitchen, watching me with concern in his eyes.

Her hands twisted in her lap. “I hadn’t given him any details at that point. Anyway, he brought me back to the inn and put me in the second room from the end. He said he’d fortified the locks and no one was gettin’ in. He left me a burger and fries and then went back to the tavern. He called me later, after he walked Greta to her car, and said this was gettin’ serious and I needed to tell him what was goin’ on. I was scared he was just puttin’ me up temporarily, so I told him. Just blurted it out. ‘I’m your baby sister,’ I said. And Carly, I’m not proud of this, but since I didn’t know what else to do to get his help, I lied to him. ‘We have the same daddy,’ I said, ‘and I think he wants me dead.’ He told me to stay put and he’d be over after he closed.”

Had Max made that call from his office? He’d been gone a long time and then acted tight-lipped afterward.

“He hated that you were lookin’ for me. He thought that tellin’ you Ruth wouldn’t like you lookin’ would make you stop, but he said he underestimated your stubbornness.”

Marco grinned, but he stayed in the background, giving us our space even though it was his house.

Earnestness filled her eyes. “Max wanted to tell you, but I made him swear to keep it a secret. It’s my fault he kept it from you.”

“How did Wyatt get involved?”

“He knocked on my motel door and gave me a blanket to wrap around my head and told me to get into the backseat of his truck and stay down. Max was sittin’ in the front, smellin’ like puke.”

“Late Saturday afternoon?” I asked. After Wyatt had taken off running.

“Yeah.”

I nearly asked if they were worried about being seen, but then I thought better of it. Downtown Drum was pretty dead on the weekends.

“Wyatt took us both to his house, and after Max showered and had some coffee, we just talked.” She gave me an apologetic smile. “Wyatt had already figured out that Bart was my daddy, and he knows about five others. He has a notebook he keeps notes in.”

I smothered the involuntary gasp rising in my throat. He barely knew Lula, but because they shared DNA he’d told her more than he’d told me. After everything we’d been through.

Marco made a move to come into the living room, but he must have thought better of it because he stopped and turned toward the table, easing himself into a chair.

“Wyatt said we needed to take the weekend to think things through and figure out how to handle the situation, ’cause they still thought