Autumn dragged in a soundless gulp of air, and for a moment, it felt as if time froze. Paralyzed with tension, she felt as if a clock was ticking inexorably down, and that all she could do was wait for the inevitable. Carter was here, he'd come to cover his tracks, and she was in exactly the wrong place, with no hope of escape. She'd have to wait and accept the fact that she'd lost.
Then, that frantic moment dissipated, and urgency flooded in. She had mere moments to act! That was all!
Shoving the laptop's lid down, she put it back in its bag and slid the bag under the cabinet. It wasn't exactly out of sight, but it wasn't immediately obvious.
Now, she had to save herself. If he found her in this room, then he'd kill her with one blow of his fist. At any moment, she expected to see his solid form darkening the doorway. But he must still be downstairs.
Not for long. As she turned for the door, she heard footsteps on the stairs. He was coming up.
Mouth dry, palms sweating, Autumn tiptoed out of the office and ducked into the next room, breathing hard, just as the feet rounded the corner and headed up the second flight.
This was a starkly furnished spare bedroom. The window blinds were drawn. A single bed looked to have its dark gray coverlet ironed into place, and the small desk with the wooden chair in the corner of the room was bare.
Autumn flattened herself on the inside of the door, every muscle in her body quivering. Would he look in here? Or worse still, would Carter discover the laptop bag and take it away with him? Both scenarios were potentially disastrous.
The one thing she needed to do, though, was hide. She couldn’t face up to a solidly built coffee racketeer, who’d already killed one man in person, and had also shown himself resourceful enough to spike a drink and try to kill again to cover his tracks.
Be quiet, she urged herself, as the footsteps headed upstairs, but hesitantly. This killer didn't know the layout of Trevor's house. That was why he hadn't come up the stairs faster and trapped her in the office. Hopefully he stayed in the office. Then, maybe, she could sneak down, and call the police again, and call Ben, and start yelling for help.
The footsteps, heavy and purposeful, tramped into the office.
“Where is it? Damn you, you silly little man. I’m going to find this and I’m going to break it into pieces. Nobody will know what you sent me. It was ridiculous in any case. What a loser thing to do. You asked for this. The way you reneged on our contract, you were asking to get punched in the head. And to get punched again, hard, when you went down. I’d had enough of you, and I know how to handle these problems. Nobody does this to me and gets away with it. You didn't deserve to live after what you did to me.”
Trying not to breathe audibly, Autumn listened in horror. This man was a psychopath. Trevor couldn’t have known that he’d treated the one person badly who was taking actual glee in getting his revenge. It would be a deadly outcome if Carter saw her now. Hopefully, if she hid away, she had enough evidence to take him down. After all, she'd been here in the house and had overheard him. Her witness report would stand up. Wouldn't it?
Carter was starting to search frantically next door. Her heart sped up as she wondered what he'd do if he didn't find the laptop and if he thought it was somewhere else.
He might rampage through the whole top floor of the house, and she’d have to hide. Where could she hide that he wouldn’t look for a laptop? She was a lot bigger and easier to spot, and already, she was fearing that this would go really bad.
“He must have hidden it!” Thumps and thud resounded from next door. He was taking stuff off the shelves and flinging it on the floor. There was a scraping, indicating that he’d moved a large piece of furniture aside.
And then, a cry of triumph.
“There you are! Come here, come to me. I’ve got the phone and now I’ve got this. Everything will be erased, and it’s all I need.” Carter’s voice had changed from harsh and strident to a coo, as there was a soft sliding sound. That was the laptop bag coming out from where she’d shoved it. He’d gotten it.
Autumn tried her best to remember the words of the email, wishing that she'd done more at the time. She should have taken a screenshot or forwarded it to herself. There was so much she'd omitted to do, but even so, she was planning on taking this as far as she could, assuming she got out of here alive and unscathed.
Carter wasn’t waiting around, and clearly wasn’t planning on opening the laptop then and there. He was going to rush out, make a run for it, and pretend he’d never been here at all.
She could take a photo of him running out, if she angled her phone right, and caught a shot of him through the window! Inspiration struck, as Autumn groped in her pocket for her phone. Too little, too late, but at least it was something.
And then, she gasped in a horrified breath as she heard something she’d never, ever expected. There was another set of footsteps, light and fast, racing up the stairs in the direction of the office.
Who was this?
Autumn didn’t have long to wait before she found out.
In wrathful tones, Willow’s voice resounded through the top floor.
“Mr. Carter! I put the evidence together and figured out you'd be here. You murdered Trevor Brewster, didn't you? And you tried to kill my sister!"
Silence for a few beats, broken only by Carter’s harsh breathing.
“You think you’re so clever?” he said in menacing tones. “Maybe too clever. I’ll tell you now, you’re not walking out of this room alive. And nobody will trace this back to me. I’ll be gone!”
Autumn gasped. She had only moments to act, and if she didn’t come up with a coherent plan, then her loving, reckless sister Willow was going to be his next victim.
There was only one thing she could use, and that was the chair. Autumn grabbed it, feeling astounded at the way her own mindset had changed. When it was her own safety at stake, all she’d wanted to do was hide away. But with her sister’s life at risk? She had become a raging lioness.
Brandishing the chair, she raced from the room, her feet skidding on the floorboards as she rushed back into the office. Just in time to hear Willow shout, “Eeek!”
Carter, fist raised, was lunging in Willow’s direction. He had an expression of cold fury on his broad face, and the laptop tucked firmly under his other arm, ready for the getaway.
“You do not hit my sister!” As Willow shrieked again in surprise at her sudden appearance, Autumn charged toward Carter, yelling out the words.
Her surprise appearance had caused him to hesitate, and that lethal fist hadn't landed. Now, knowing there was only a moment to act, she raised the chair as high as she could get it, causing the ceiling light to bob and swing as a leg hit it. Then, she brought it down, aiming for the top of his short-haired head.
The blow caused him to stagger and recoil, but she didn’t manage to knock him out. He stumbled hard, but regained his balance, and now, as he glared at her, she saw madness in his eyes.
Autumn was no longer scared. A reckless bravery flooded her as she raised the chair again, getting it down too slowly as he charged. She’d hoped that a leg would collide with his head this time. Instead, he ran face-first into the descending seat. The impact was audible, and he recoiled with an outraged cry.
“Autumn! We need to take him down!”
Willow kicked out with her booted leg, stubbing her toe on the desk as she missed Carter completely.
“Ouch!” she yelled, hopping on one foot as she grabbed a paperweight from the desk, undeterred, and flung it at him. He ducked, and it caught him on the shoulder. Another angry cry erupted from the big man. Autumn had the distinct feeling that this was as risky as baiting an elephant. Neither she nor Willow had any training in a fight situation. She didn’t even know martial arts. All they were doing was hurting him slightly and making him madder, and any moment now, he was going to lunge forward, grab their necks, slam their heads together, and that would be the end of it.
Even so, she wasn’t going to give up. And with her sister’s survival at stake, she wasn’t running away.
Autumn stood her ground, raising the chair again as he charged at her with a yell, with the horrible feeling that he’d brush it aside as easily as a toothpick. But this time, Willow managed to get in his way.
With a warrior-like cry, Willow leaped forward, and her kick caught him directly on the knee.
A howl of enraged pain erupted from Carter’s mouth as he staggered sideways, bending over to grab his knee. Autumn took the opportunity to bring the chair down on his head again. It didn't have much effect other than to break the chair leg clean off. It was a flimsy chair, and he had an exceptionally hard head.
Undeterred, she raised it again, hoping to get another blow in before he recovered, but it caught on the light again, and this time, dropped down on her head as she lost her grip on it. Willow was dancing around, jumping from foot to foot, aiming to land another kick. She squeaked as Carter’s clutching hand grabbed at her jacket. Ripping it away from him, she tripped over the paperweight and fell backward with a cry.
Groping for the chair again, teeth gritted, Autumn was determined to launch a final attack and take him down. But she was all out of time, because Carter was lunging toward her, too fast and strongly for her to be able to defend herself.
Just as the situation seemed perilous, there was a massive bang from the downstairs window, and then more clattering footsteps sounded across the wooden floor of the home’s first floor.
Everyone froze.
“Where are they?” a man shouted.
Autumn felt a ray of hope she recognized the voice. Was that Warring?
For a moment, the only sound in the upstairs office was harsh breathing. She thought she saw a flash of panic in Carter’s eyes. And then came the welcome sound, the person she’d been hoping to hear.
“This way, officer! I’m sure they’re up here!”
It was Ben’s voice. He’d come to the rescue in the nick of time, just as she and Willow had been flagging, handicapped by their own lack of prowess as combat fighters.
“No! No, no, this can’t be happening,” Carter muttered, dropping the laptop and retreating to the back wall, as a familiar, bulky form darkened the door.
“Police! This is Officer Warring! Hands in the air, sir! Hands in the air. You are under arrest!”