“She’s here.”
The deep voice on the other end of the line made Stella go cold with anger—and a little bit of dread. Marlee Frampton was a thorn in her side that she hadn’t been able to dislodge in over a decade.
“Do you want me to take care of her?” Chuck asked.
Stella gripped her cell phone tighter and leaned back in the office chair. “Leave her alone.”
“Why?” he demanded, anger making his voice go even deeper. “She’s gotten close to us more times than I like to admit. The fact that she’s sniffing around here tells me we need to get out. Now.”
“No.”
“Why the fuck not?”
Stella looked out the window of her rented home to the pasture beyond. The house was out of the way and difficult to find. Just the kind of place for her. “I don’t owe you any kind of explanation. You work for me, Chuck. And if you want to quit, then by all means, do it.”
“I’m only trying to protect things,” he replied gruffly.
“Killing Marlee would bring more attention to us. We’ve been able to use our friends to keep a step or two ahead of her. We’ll keep doing that for as long as we have to.”
Chuck blew out a breath. “I can make sure she gets another lead somewhere and then do it.”
“No, and I’m not going to tell you again.”
“Why are you protecting her?”
“I’m not protecting her,” Stella answered tightly. “I’m protecting us.”
Chuck made a sound in the back of his throat. “Nope. You’re protecting her. I could’ve killed her multiple times already. Instances that never would’ve led anyone to us because our friends would’ve made sure of it.”
“I’m not having this conversation again. I’ve told you my decision, and I expect you to follow my orders as you always have.”
“You’re going to look back one day and realize that you should’ve heeded me on this,” Chuck said and hung up the phone.
Stella tossed her cell on the desk and leaned back, slipping her fingers into her short blond hair. She stared at the ceiling for a few moments before she lowered her arms and sat up straight. She might have acted nonchalantly with Chuck, but the truth was, she was worried. Very worried.
Marlee had no idea how close she had come to destroying everything Stella had built for over two decades. And it was true, she could’ve had Marlee killed many times over. She wished she could get it done, but she just couldn’t. It would destroy Diane. After what’d happened to Diane and her husband after Macey was killed, Stella couldn’t bring more harm to the family.
But if it came down to her survival or Marlee’s, Stella wouldn’t hesitate to do what had to be done.
After pulling open the top left drawer of her desk, she removed a wooden box about eight inches long and four inches deep. She flipped the lid to reveal an expensive pen set. Stella didn’t look twice at the Montblanc pen as she lifted out the tray to reveal a hidden compartment beneath, the space holding a burner phone.
She reached for it and turned it on. The phone was only used in emergencies, but this was definitely an emergency. She selected the only saved number and brought the cell to her ear as it began to ring.
There was no answer, but that wasn’t unusual. She waited for the voicemail to start. “It’s me,” she said. “My little problem is closer than ever. The operation here has been very successful, but I think it’s time I find a new location before she gets lucky and finds us.”
After she ended the call, Stella shut off the phone and placed it in the box before she put everything back where it had been. The next location had already been picked, and a team had been sent to set up the area in case they had to leave Texas suddenly. The entire reason Stella had begun to pick out the next territory well in advance and set up a team to get things ready was because of Marlee.
The intrepid cop-turned-PI had nearly cornered Stella three years earlier. That was the closest Marlee had ever come and was the closest Stella would allow anyone to get. Too much was at stake.
Stella got to her feet and walked around the bedroom she’d turned into her office. It was small, but she didn’t need much space. She had learned to keep her business tidy, and with everything in the cloud nowadays, everything she had was highly encrypted and stored electronically. It made her life much easier.
Pure luck had led her to this path to begin with. She’d been young, broke, and homeless at seventeen. Living on the streets had been the hardest thing she’d ever done, but she’d found a friend, another runaway who understood that life on the streets was rough. However, sometimes, living at the home you ran away from was even harder.
She and Jenny had become close. A couple of months later, Jenny told Stella exactly why she had run away from her family—her father had raped her since the age of six. At sixteen, she found out that she was pregnant and told him not to touch her again. That’s when he started hitting her. Jenny managed to get away and jumped out a window. All she’d had on was a pair of shorts and a shirt but being barefoot didn’t stop her. Eventually, she found her way to Los Angeles, and that’s where she met Stella.
Stella had no idea what to do for someone who was pregnant. She had gotten good at stealing food, but soon, that wasn’t enough to feed them since Jenny couldn’t move as fast as she used to. Stella honed her skills as a pickpocket, and that’s how she kept food in Jenny’s belly for her and the baby. When the weather turned, Stella sometimes managed to get enough money to rent a room for the night.
She smiled as she remembered how Jenny used to stand beneath the shower, washing herself and her hair dozens of times before she finished. Stella’s smile vanished as she closed her eyes. Jenny began to complain of her back hurting. Stella knew that Jenny needed a doctor, but it took some convincing to make Jenny see it, as well.
The day Stella was going to bring Jenny to the clinic, she went into labor in the room they had rented. She tried to get Jenny to her feet so they could go to the hospital. She knew in her gut that something was really wrong, but every time she touched Jenny, the girl screamed in pain. Finally, all Stella could do was hold Jenny’s hand and do whatever she could to deliver the baby.
There was so much blood. Stella had never seen so much before in her life. She had been shocked by it, but then suddenly, there was this little baby wiggling in her arms and screaming at the top of its lungs. Out of all that pain, a new life had been born.
She laughed and held the baby up for Jenny to see her son. Only Jenny was dead. Amid her tears, Stella managed to cut the umbilical cord and wrap the baby in a blanket. She wanted to stay with her friend, but if she alerted anyone to what had happened, the cops would come—and they always asked too many questions.
Stella looked down at the baby. She had no idea what to do with him, but she wasn’t going to let him go into the foster system like she had. She was determined to take care of him. The problem was, stealing money or running any cons with a crying baby was impossible. He wouldn’t stop screaming.
The resolve she had to take care of him quickly turned to resentment because she couldn’t leave him alone to get the things he needed, but she also couldn’t bring him with her. She realized that he was starving, and she had nothing to give him. It wasn’t until his cries turned to whimpers and he began to look ashen that she realized that he was dying.
Stella walked all night to the orphanage. She hadn’t wanted to put him in the system, but she didn’t want him to die either. She owed Jenny that much, at least. But as Stella walked around the back of the building, a man stepped from around a shed and stopped her.
“What are you about, girl?” he demanded in a sharp tone.
She held up the infant, who was no longer moving. “My friend had this baby, but she died.”
“You think we’ll give you food or clothing for him?” The man snorted in laughter. “That won’t happen.”
“I—” Stella started.
But the man moved a step closer and lowered his voice. “Is the babe still alive?”
Stella put her hand beneath his nose and felt his breath. “Yes.”
“I know someone looking for a little boy for themselves. How about I offer you five hundred dollars for him?”
She’d never held that much money before. “Five hundred?”
“All right, eight hundred. He’ll be fed and clothed and will belong to a good family.”
Stella glanced down at the child. She’d planned to leave him at the orphanage, but if she could find him a family and get money to live off of, they both benefited. And wouldn’t that have made Jenny happy?
She held the baby closer. “I want a thousand.”
The man smiled slowly and drew out a stack of bills to count out the money. He held it out to her. “Here’s your payment. Give me the baby, and you can be on your way.”
There was a brief moment of hesitation, but the idea of not having to steal money for food for a while was too great a temptation. Stella jerked the cash out of the man’s hand and shoved the baby at him. And she never looked back. After that, it was easy to find women on the streets who’d birthed babies they didn’t want. Stella went back to that old man six more times, earning herself a little more each time and giving some of it to the mothers who’d sold their babies.
It wasn’t long before Stella wanted even more money. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too difficult to find people willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for babies. Soon, demand exceeded supply, and Stella had to find other ways to get the children. That’s when she met Chuck. He’d been a doctor in the military but had been kicked out for murdering someone. It made it impossible for him to practice again. Yet he was exactly what Stella needed.
She found the pregnant women, he followed them for weeks and learned their habits. Then, he cornered them, knocked them unconscious, and cut them open to remove the babies. Once the infants were safely delivered, he sliced the mothers’ necks so they bled out.
It wasn’t optimal. In fact, it was the worst way to get the babies, but sometimes, Stella had to do whatever it took.
And it just might be time to remove Marlee from the equation.