door when she said, “Wait. Mom and Dad’s wedding rings. They’re on the dresser.”
I returned for them, and as an afterthought, picked up her uniform.
“I don’t want that!”
“It could be evidence.”
“But who would you give it to, Keira? No one will believe me. I’m just a maid.”
I stared at her. “April, you are not just a maid. You’re so much more than that!”
I eased her arm back around my shoulders, and once again we moved toward the door.
Together, we climbed the stairs to the kitchen and had just arrived when I heard a noise from the hall. Then I felt a hand on the back of my neck. April pulled away and scooted back until the kitchen cabinets blocked her path.
“I should have known,” Lance Beckett sneered. “April is too weak to have pulled it off by herself.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked. “Pulled what off?”
“Where did you take my valuables? Who did you sell them to?”
“I didn’t take anything of yours! Get off me! Can’t you see that April is hurt? She needs to see a doctor.”
“She’s not going to see anyone. Who would pay the doctor’s fees? She is, after all, only a maid.”
While we were talking, April had risen to a standing position beside Mr. Beckett. I struggled and pulled until he turned further away from her. I wanted to give her the best chance possible to escape unnoticed through the back door, so I was surprised when she rushed at us instead and thrust her hand forward. Mr. Beckett’s eyes opened wide, and he began to cough. His grip on my neck loosened. I pulled away.
He fell forward but caught himself against the countertop. I backed away. The handle of a steak knife stuck out of his back. Lance Beckett reached over his shoulder and gripped the handle of the knife. I dropped April’s necklace with the rings and her uniform and lunged toward the knife rack on the counter. I turned and steadied the carving knife in my hand.
“Keira!” I heard April’s scream as Mr. Beckett lunged at me.
I sidestepped but felt a searing pain in my side. I ignored it and raised my knife to his throat. Then I whispered quietly directly into his ear, “Now the doctors won’t be able to help you either, no matter how much care you can afford.” April turned away as I sliced his throat.
“Grab your things!” I called as I bent to pick up the knife he’d pulled from his back. The other one was still clutched in my hand.
-Guy-
Onto Plan C
Two figures rounded the corner. One was Keira. I turned the key in the ignition, and the motor rumbled to life. Slowly, I pulled forward. When the girls climbed in, I noticed the blood drenched knives in Keira’s hand. “Are we on to plan C?”
She nodded. “It was unavoidable.”
I could see from April’s condition that her situation had grown exponentially worse after I’d left. Lance Beckett had indeed targeted April for my actions. The skin around her right eye was red and swollen, and she walked with a limp.
I placed a call. “Can you meet us at safe house 4? Yes, as soon as possible. We’re on our way.” I disconnected and immediately placed a second call. “Did you get it? Good. We’ll need you both on the earliest flight out. We’ll see you soon.”
“Who?” I asked. I nodded at the knives.
“Lance Beckett.”
“Is he?”
“Yes.”
“Ashton? What are you doing here?” asked April.
“We can talk about that later,” Keira murmured.
“No, Keira, now. There’s nothing wrong with my hearing or with my intelligence. Why is Ashton here?”
“There’s no simple way to explain this. April, this is Rick. He was just pretending to be Ashton. You were right though. You can trust him.”
“Trust him? I don’t even know his name! Is it really Rick or Ashton? Or is it something else?” She was on the brink of hysteria.
Keira tried to calm her. “Listen, as soon as I learned what was happening to you, we came back.”
“What was happening to me? But Ashton knew about that before you left.”
“But I didn’t know Rick was Ashton until last night, and he didn’t know you were my sister,” Keira explained.
“Last night…”
I glanced in the rear view mirror. April stared at me.
“You’re Rick?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“And I’m supposed to trust you? You really were trying to get me out, to get me somewhere safe before…”
“Yes,” I said again. “I’m sorry I was too late.”
She turned back to her sister. “Keira, why do you trust