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Max stared at me, as if weighing my words, then walked out of the room.
Rachel shook her head. "You've made a mistake, Brynn."
"We need time, and I bought us some," I said harshly. "And I don't think I'm the one who's making the mistakes, Rachel. Or should I call you Mom? No. I can't call you that," I said with a shake of my head.
"I'm sorry you had to find out this way. But I still hope that knowing you and Dani are his daughters will stop Max from killing you."
"I'm not sure it matters to him at all, or if he even believes you. I'm not sure I even believe you. You've told so many lies."
Rachel's expression turned grim. "It doesn't matter what you believe. Giving him the jewels won't save us."
"He's not going to get them. I hid the box in the closet, but the jewels are somewhere else."
"Then he'll kill one of you for sure when he sees the box is empty. Where did you put them?"
I thought about telling her, but then Max returned to the room, cutting off our conversation.
He left the door partially ajar, and I could see a hallway and stained glass in the distance. My first impression had been right. We were in a church. But where was everyone else?Shouldn't there be a priest or a minister somewhere? Office people? Cleaning staff? Someone?It felt too quiet.
"One of these days, God is going to strike you down for all the evil dealings you've done in church," Rachel said.
He offered up an evil smile. "God isn't calling the shots. I am."
"How did you two get involved?" I asked, wanting to break up their conversation, which was filled with so much anger it made the situation more volatile.
"Do you want to tell her our love story?" Max asked, as he waved the gun at Rachel.
"It wasn't a love story. It was a nightmare," she retorted.
"It didn't start out that way," he said. "You wanted me so badly you couldn't stand it."
"I was stupid. I didn't know who you really were." Rachel turned to me. "I met Max in a bar in Brooklyn. I had just turned twenty-one and was working as a waitress while my sister was at NYU getting a degree in music. She was the smart one. I was anything but smart. Max and his friends would come into the bar, and I couldn't see past his charm."
I could understand how she'd been taken in. I'd thought Max was charming when I'd first met him, and he'd lied to me very convincingly about having a stepdaughter in the school and having dated my mother. "Go on," I said when the silence in the room lengthened. I needed to keep them both talking. Maybe buying more time wouldn't buy me and Dani a ticket out of this horrible situation, but at least I could find out more about why we were in it in the first place.
"Tell her how you begged me to let you make a few extra bucks," Max said.
"That's true," Rachel replied. "I knew Max was doing more than working for his aunt's travel agency, which was just a front, providing cover for a smuggling operation that had been run by his family for decades. He always had a lot of cash, and I wanted some." Rachel kept her gaze focused on me, as if she couldn't stand to look at Max. "It started out so simply. I just had to take an envelope to church with me and leave it in the confessional, under the kneeler."
"What was in the envelope?"
"I don't know," she said. "I didn't ask. The job was easy, and it paid well."
"Then she got greedy," Max cut in. "She wanted to do bigger jobs."
"So did you," Rachel said, flinging a hard look at Max. "You were more ambitious than I was. You hated that your cousins kept getting bigger jobs than you. Your family only got the crumbs. So you came up with a plan to make a big score for yourself, start your own operation on the side, by stealing from James Holden, who was as dirty as you were, just a lot richer and a lot more polished."
"You loved the idea," Max reminded Rachel. "You couldn't wait to help me. When I told you the target, you came up with a way to help me gain access to the house, through the target's brother."
Another piece of the puzzle fell into place. "You slept with Ian Holden," I said. "It wasn't Mom, was it? You were the one Ian took to his brother's estate."
Rachel gave me a surprised look. "How did you know about that?"
"I talked to Ian. He told me he had an affair with his student, and that student was my mother, but it was you who had the affair. You pretended to be her, didn't you?"
"Yes," Rachel admitted. "But my sister did have a crush on him. She talked about how brilliant and handsome Ian was, and how she thought he might like her. When I found out he was related to James Holden, I saw a way to help Max, to prove my value to him."
Not one word that came out of her mouth made me like her more. I was beginning to think she was as bad as Max was.
