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Getting up, I reached over for the phone, ending the call before it was even made. “Listen to me! I know you don’t think I’m up to this … whatever this is … but I am. And I came to you because I have a plan, and I need your help to see it through, not because I need you to protect me! So can you listen to me or not!”
“Go on,” he nodded, somewhat stunned as I sat back down.
“Like I was saying, Bo threatened me, but in all honesty, I didn’t care. It’s what he wanted that bothered me—”
“He wants Noah to help get Frank out of the country.”
I glared at him, crossing my arms.
“Sorry.” He raised his hands in defense, leaning back.
“Anyway, yes, he wants Noah to help his father escape, and if he doesn’t, then Bo will expose everything, making sure I get pinned for most of it.” As I should, honestly. “But if Noah does that, he’s fucked when it comes to the Callahans. If they could so easily figure out where our shoot was and change the venue so Noah could have a one-on-one chat, they wouldn’t just forgive him for letting Frank go. And truthfully … I … I want Frank dead. No,” I paused, not because it was hard, but because I couldn’t believe how badly I wanted it. “I need him gone, Austin. I need Noah to be free of him—of everything that’s holding him back. And the closer I get to him, the more I realize it’s family. It sucks. I wish it wasn’t true. But it is. Frank and Bo are anchors. The only thing stopping that is Esther, which is why we are going to make it look like she died in a tragic accident.”
“Can I speak now?” he asked, raising his hand.
Sighing, I nodded, “Yes, you can speak.”
“I understand. Believe me, I do. But how do you plan on making a three-month-old corpse look like it died in an accident? Secondly, I have no idea where she is. I left it to Bo.”
I paused for a second. “You guys said you she would reappear over New Year’s. What were you thinking?”
“There is this open murder investigation —”
“Never mind,” I held my hand up, not wanting to hear about it. “It doesn’t matter, because I thought about it. When I was fourteen, I was on the set of a movie called Street Kings. One of the mechanics was explaining the stunts and how they didn’t want me anywhere near the car when it exploded because it had the ability burn a body to the point of no recognition.”
“A car accident? Which causes the car to explode? Amelia, this isn’t like the movies. Cars just don’t explode—”
“Not explode, but burn intensely. One collision, a strong enough one that ruptures an already weak fuel tank. It takes anywhere from thirty seconds to a minute for the actual car to spark up to where it seems like it is exploding. But it’s just enough to keep people at bay and for Esther to burn through.” When it came to memorization, the ins and outs of movies, I was the best. And this scene I remembered perfectly. I remember the director wanting it to look realistic, the makes and models of all the cars they tested. This could work. This would work. There was only one catch.
“Okay. Let’s say the car burns like you want it to. How will you do the collision?”
I smiled, and I knew he understood what I meant.
“No. Amelia. No—”
“I’m going to be driving.”
“Have you lost your mind? This plan is half-cocked as it is. I can see dozen of ways this could go wrong. Hell, you could be pulled over by the police before you even get to crash! Let alone the state you’ll be in afterward—”
“Exactly. If I’m involved, no one would even think I had anything to do with it. Bo will lose the only card he has—”
“I’m not asking for your permission. I’m letting you know what I am planning to do. The only reason why I came to you is because I need you to fill Noah’s schedule so he’ll be too busy to check in with me. But if I have to, I will lie and go out on my own.”
“You don’t even know where Esther is.”
He needed to stop underestimating me. Lifting my phone from my pocket, I held it up for him to see. “When I was a teenager, Esther gave me these matching necklaces, not knowing a sponsor had given me a ring from the same collection. It has a GPS locator on it. When Bo came to see me, I slipped the ring into his jacket pocket. With this little handy dandy app, I can not only see where he went, but if he came next to any one of my contacts. Esther died wearing that necklace. She stayed in one spot for nine hours before the battery died. Which means…”
“You know where she is,” he groaned, leaning back against the chair. “Noah will kill me—”
“Not, at least, until after he is safer. And I’ll beg him not to.”
“Thanks,” he said, rolling his eyes, but the corner of his lip turned up. “You were right. You are nothing like you once were.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment. So are you in or out?”
“Let me see the address,” he demanded.
“You’ll do it without me.”
