Page 136 of Thick as Thieves

“Will you please calm down for a minute and listen to me?”

“What for?”

“Because Rusty isn’t done yet. Ask yourself why he all but admitted to killing Hawkins and threatened to implicate us? Hear me out. Please.”

She hesitated, then backed up to the bed and sat down.

Ledge looked down at the floor and ran his hand around the back of his neck. “Several weeks before Easter of 2000, on a Saturday morning, Rusty cornered me in a diner. He laid out his plan to rob the store. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, and basically told him he was crazy and to fuck off. I was on the verge of leaving when he threatened me with reprisal if I didn’t go along.

“He was sly, subtle, but his message hit me like a hammer. For all my badass attitude, I was convinced that if I told him no soap, he would punish me for it, and I would have to live with knowing that I had caused destruction or death to something or someone I cared about.

“So, weighed against my uncle’s bar, his life, I chose instead to commit a felony crime. That doesn’t excuse what I did, but that’s the reason I did it. I wish I could undo it. I can’t.”

She looked in the area of his upper arm where she knew the tattoo to be. “Infinity.”

“That’s right. It’s forever.”

She assimilated all that, then sharpened her gaze on him. “How did my dad get away with the money?”

“I swear on my uncle’s head, I don’t know.” He told her about Rusty’s appointing himself keeper of the cash for six months, when they would divide it. “Minutes after we split up, I was arrested.

“I don’t know what happened beyond that point, but Rusty somehow lost possession of that bag, because he’s still bitter over being cheated out of the money. Bitter enough to get vengeance.”

He walked over to her where she still sat on the bed. “Hate me. You’re entitled. But don’t underestimate him. You know firsthand what he’s capable of. I think he has more in store. That’s why I fear for your safety.”

Startling them both, another voice intruded on their conversation. “How touching.”

Chapter 37

Lisa stood in the open doorway, taking in the tableau with a frown of disapproval. “I knocked, but I guess you didn’t hear me above the storm.”

Ledge couldn’t tell if she meant that literally or metaphorically. He looked to Arden to gauge her reaction. She stood but stayed where she was and didn’t greet her sister with either a welcoming hug or even a smile.

Stilted, she said, “I wasn’t expecting you.”

Lisa slid a glance in his direction. “Evidently.”

Arden motioned toward him. “This is—”

“Oh, I know who he is. His fear for your safety obviously extends to sharing your bedroom.”

“Who I share my bedroom with is none of your business,” Arden said. “Although I understand that you made it your business yesterday.”

Ledge didn’t know what she was talking about, but it was apparent that Lisa did. Defensively, she raised her chin a fraction.

“Jacob called me last evening,” Arden said. “He left a voice mail, but I didn’t listen to it until this morning. He told me that you had showed up at his house yesterday, unannounced, and that you created quite a scene when he refused to disclose personal information about me and my relationship with him.” Arden paused to give Lisa time to comment. She didn’t.

“He said you became so contentious, his wife threatened to call the police. Jacob persuaded her not to go to those lengths, but the upshot was that he had to order you, in no uncertain terms, off his property.”

“All right, yes,” Lisa said. “I tracked him down.”

“After intercepting and reading a letter he sent to me. Who gave you the right to do that?”

Ledge reasoned that Arden must have listened to the voice mail before joining him in his kitchen that morning. Maybe if Rusty hadn’t arrived she would have told him about it. But it was clear to him now why she wasn’t overjoyed to see Lisa, who, even though called out, had retained her cool.

She said, “We should be having this conversation without an audience.”

“Don’t mind Ledge,” Arden said. “He knows all about Jacob.”