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“How many times do I have to tell you? I love you. I don’t want to hurt you, but you’re making me do this. I wanted to go to Mexico with you!”
“Then let’s go. Right now. We can leave right now,” Elizabeth said urgently.
“I’m not a fool. I know you don’t love me, and that you’re just trying to find a way to get rid of me. But that’s not going to happen. Now, come on,” Nadia muttered, jerking Chloe toward the barrier fence and the gray ocean beyond.
“Don’t!” Elizabeth cried. “I will go with you. Maybe I don’t love you yet, but I could. I never loved Court the way I should have. Maybe I’m meant to be with you from now on. Just don’t hurt Chloe. I’ll do anything you want, but don’t hurt Chloe.”
“You love her, but you don’t love me.”
“Please . . . Nadia . . .” Tears formed and ran down Elizabeth’s cheeks. “Don’t take her over the fence.”
Chloe’s eyes were locked onto Elizabeth’s while Nadia glared at her with a mixture of frustration and yearning.
“You should have agreed to go with me,” she said. “We could be in Mexico already . . . Rosarito Beach . . . or Acapulco . . . or Puerto Vallarta. I don’t care! Have you been there? To the beaches?”
“Yes, they’re lovely. I want to go with you.”
“Liar! Why do you have to spoil everything!”
Elizabeth shook her head. She didn’t know what to say. Chloe had closed her eyes again, back into her self-induced coma of sorts.
“It’s his fault. Rex!” Nadia bared her teeth. “He’s the one you want to be with.”
“No, no . . . not Rex.”
“You keep thinking you can lie to me. You think I don’t know what love is? I cared about Karl, but I never loved him. I loved you. But I did care about him, and I’m sorry I had to let him go.”
“What do you mean?”
She sighed. “I know you don’t really care. You’re just trying to stall.”
“Tell me about Karl,” Elizabeth stated firmly. “I want to know.”
Nadia shrugged. “First I tried to reason with him, but he wouldn’t listen, so I had to tie him up and gag him. He said I needed help.” She laughed. “The whole fucking world needs help. So what? I believe in love, deep love. That’s what I believe in, and I told him that. But what did he do? Just like you, he was trying to stall. He did work a hand free and get it around the base of a bedroom lamp. Stupid man thought he could surprise me, but I’m the one with surprises.”
Elizabeth prayed Chloe was all right. The late afternoon sun was surprisingly hot. She could feel it digging into her scalp. Stay calm . . . relax . . . be careful. “What did you do to Karl?”
“I didn’t do anything. He did it to himself.”
“Where is he?”
“Oh, he’s at home, but don’t think he’s coming to your rescue, ’cause he’s not.”
“How much farther?” Ravinia asked as Rex tore west toward Corona del Mar. He was passing cars and driving like a maniac and hoped to God he would pick up a traffic cop so that he could lead him to the house.
“Too far.” He’d called the police, given them his name and number, and asked for a BOLO to put out on Nadia Vandell’s car, just in case Ravinia’s information was wrong. The dispatcher had sounded suspicious of him, saying he needed to talk to an officer. Rex snapped back, “The name’s Vandell. Just like it sounds. V-A-N-D-E-L-L. Karl or Nadia.” Then he bit the bullet and said, “There’s a human body in the freezer at their house. I’m betting it’s Karl Vandell. Send someone over there now.”
He’d hung up before she could ask anything more.
“Can’t you go faster?”
“What do you think?” he snapped.
Ravinia set her jaw and stared with laserlike intensity out the windshield.
Chloe suddenly spoke, her voice muffled against Nadia’s blouse. “You won’t hurt me, because if you hurt me, you hurt Mommy. And you love her.”
“You don’t know anything,” Nadia snarled. She shook Chloe hard, put the gun back to her temple, and hauled her over the fence like a ragdoll.
