Chapter 26

Tawnia hated leaving Autumn. They should be together on a day like this one, a day with so much joy and tragedy. The logical part of her knew they had the rest of their lives to share and that an hour explaining things to Orion wouldn’t damage their sisterhood, but the emotional part of her refused to be comforted at leaving her sister.

Sister. Again, the surge of wonder and joy.

Orion had reached his vehicle and was opening the shiny black door with his key. A Jeep, she saw, reading the make. Not new but obviously but well taken care of. On the seat was a bouquet of flowers and take-out from Smokey’s.

Tawnia’s heart sank. Not only had he come to see her, but he’d come bearing gifts that he knew she’d like—that both she and Autumn would like.

He rolled down his window. “Would have had the top off, but it’s not very private that way.” He gave a dry chuckle. “Besides, I didn’t want the flowers stolen.”

“Orion, I’m really sorry.” Something about his words bothered her, but she wasn’t sure why. Now that they were away from the others, he was being awfully nice about her deception.

“So who did I ask out?” he asked, putting the Jeep into gear.

“Well, you asked Autumn out, but it was Autumn pretending to be me. You see, I met you at the river the time they found that body, and something . . . well, when you took me for Autumn, I didn’t know what to do. We were getting along so well, and then later, since she knew I liked you—” She broke off with a sigh. “There’s no excuse. I shouldn’t have done it. I was just afraid you wouldn’t understand and call it quits before we had a chance.”

He didn’t look at her, but was she imagining the softening of his jaw? “I wasn’t aware Autumn had a sister.” His voice was still stiff.

“She doesn’t—didn’t. We met through Bret by accident. He called me when she was sick because he didn’t know what to do and because we looked so much alike. We’re both adopted. It was only today that we learned we’re twins. Somehow we ended up being given to different adoptive families.”

“I didn’t think they did that, even thirty years ago.”

“Not in the open.” Tawnia studied the side of his face. “With Winter gone, I’m all she has left.”

“Not all.” His jaw worked. “She has her store. I thought she had me. But now I find the woman I thought I was falling in love with is actually two people.”

I’ve blown it, Tawnia thought. He’s a nice man, and I blew it. Aloud, she said. “I’m really sorry, Orion. I know it wasn’t a nice thing to do, but for what it’s worth, I loved our date. Being with you was . . . magical.”

He actually smiled at that, making the dimple in his cheek noticeable. “I’m glad, Tawnia. It is Tawnia, isn’t it? I thought I heard Autumn call you that.”

“Yes. Tawnia McKnight.”

“So who are you exactly, Tawnia McKnight?”

The question embarrassed her, but she answered, anyway. “Well, just me. I guess. I work as a creative director at an advertising firm. I like art.”

“Well, you are creative, I’ll give you that.” Again the softening in his jaw. “No antiques or herbs?”

She shook her head. “And I hate tofu.”

“I take it that means Autumn loves it.”

“Yes. And anything organic.”

He snorted. “What does that mean? Everything we eat is organic.”

“Well, yeah, I guess. But she means as close to a natural state as possible. It’s supposed to be more healthful. I’m sure she’s right, but it’s too much effort for me to think about at the moment.”

He nodded in agreement.

They had arrived at an apartment building with an underground parking facility. “Where are we?” she asked.

“My place.”

He gathered the food and the flowers, and Tawnia wondered if she should offer to carry something, but if she did, he might think she was presumptuous. He wouldn’t likely be inclined to give her the flowers after her deceit. They went up several floors in the elevator in an awkward silence before arriving at his apartment. Inside was a modern designer’s dream—a white carpet with black-and-white throws, white couches, black tables, black and white vases, and black-and-white abstract art hangings. Only the occasional flash of red broke through the black and white decor, making what would have been tedious display into a work of art.

“Nice,” she said.

“I had someone redo it last year.” Orion’s black T-shirt and the gray sprinkling in his black hair blended well with the room’s motif. She was glad to see the tenseness in his face had eased. He strode past the couches to the adjoining kitchen, setting the food bags and the flowers on the black granite countertop.

She walked slowly around the room, wondering what she should say, and decided to start at the beginning—at the feeling of belonging she’d experienced during her first trip to Portland with Bret. Talk. It was what she did when she was nervous. Babbling, Bret called it.

Orion had stopped fiddling with the food bags and simply listened as she walked around his living room, pausing before the displays as she talked. For all the modern beauty of the room, she’d expected something different in his living quarters, something warmer, perhaps. Where were all the pictures? Maybe he kept them in his room.

“Would you like to see the rest of the apartment?” he asked, as though reading something of her feelings in her expression. “Then we could eat.”

“Sure.” She came to meet him in the kitchen, where he smiled and took her hand. At that moment she knew everything was going to be all right. He was still upset, and had every right to be, but he wasn’t going to throw everything they felt out the window.

Yet where did that leave her with Bret? What had he been hinting at in the coroner’s office? Her chest felt heavy, which didn’t bode well for her relationship with Orion. Maybe her parents were right. Maybe she was afraid of commitment.

That was when she saw it—a squarish black garbage bin under the small, built-in desk in the kitchen. Sticking out of it a few inches was a framed drawing, like the one she had seen in Orion’s wallet. A shiver ran through her. She pulled her hand from his. She took one step and then another, her eyes locked onto the drawing. It was Orion’s daughter, all right. “Why did you throw this away?” She bent down, retrieving the frame. There was a spider web of cracks over the surface of the glass, and the bottom part of the frame had been completely torn away. Not only had someone thrown it there, but they had first tried to destroy it. She looked toward him, waiting for a reply.

“Yesterday in the antiques shop,” he began. “Was it you or Autumn?”

She wasn’t sure what that had to do with her question. “Autumn. But I was there. In the back. I heard you talking.”

“She showed me the drawing of Sheree. I saw the signature and knew it was done by the same person who had made this drawing. Sure enough, when I ripped the frame apart it was his signature.” He paused before adding tightly, “This drawing was made by the boy who killed my daughter.”

Tawnia understood how he’d connected the two drawings. Hadn’t she done the same? But accusing Alec Hanks of murder seemed farfetched. “I thought your daughter was alone on the bridge.”

“My daughter killed herself because of Alec Hanks and his father. End of story.” Pain and fury tinged his voice, and the lines on his face were more pronounced.

“I’m so sorry.” The connection was beginning to fall into place. Alec Hanks had been the boyfriend who’d gone away to college, leading a fragile Arleen Harris to her desperate act.

Tears glistened in Orion’s eyes. “I tried to tell her it would be okay, but she didn’t understand. She couldn’t believe she would ever get over him. I tried to talk to Hanks, to see if he would allow at least some contact. I didn’t like the kid, but I couldn’t stand to see my daughter in so much pain. Hanks wouldn’t even hear me out. He didn’t care what happened to Arleen.”

Bitterness made the words ugly, but that wasn’t what brought the fear leaping to Tawnia’s heart. Orion had reason to hate both Alec Hanks and his father. He also knew Sheree’s name, and Tawnia hadn’t heard Autumn tell him that yesterday. And the dark automobile that had sped away from the club last night was similar to Orion’s Jeep without the top.

Her heart thumped heavily in her chest. She looked up at him, wondering how she could get out of there, hoping her eyes didn’t give her away.

What had he done with Sheree?

He stared at her for a full minute without speaking. She ticked the seconds off in her mind, all the while urging her frozen muscles to run, to get out of the apartment. Would Orion, with his training in firefighting, have the knowledge to set explosives?

Probably. Or he could have learned in the three years since his daughter’s death.

I’ve got to get out of here! Panic filled her chest, throbbing faster with each heartbeat.

“Orion, I’m sorry, but I need to get back to Autumn. Her father—you should have seen him. Nine days in the water. It was awful.”

She placed the framed drawing on the counter and backed away.

“What about the food? I know how much you like Smokey’s.” Then he sighed. “Or was that Autumn?”

“We both do. Smokey’s is organic, except some of the desserts, I think.” She turned and started walking to the door. If she could get out of the apartment, she could run down the stairs and find help.

In several paces he beat her to the door, stepping in front of it with a graceful movement. The expression in his dark eyes had changed. His face looked as hard as the black granite of his countertops.

“Orion, let me out of here! Please!” Panic threatened to choke her. Had he killed Sheree?

“I didn’t mean to collapse the bridge.” He spoke the words wearily, as though he was too tired even to care that they came out. “I just wanted to cripple it, to see both Hanks and his son lose their jobs. But I don’t know much about engineering, and it was difficult to calculate how many charges to use.”

Tawnia’s anger momentarily overcame her fear. “You killed Autumn’s father! You killed those children!” She was crying now, too terrified to move or to fight, but determined to say her piece. “What a monstrous, evil thing to do!”

He nodded. “I will live with the guilt for the rest of my life. But Hanks had to pay, one way or another. I knew Robert Glen was angry at Hanks—news gets around. I’d been planning my revenge for three years, and I thought about getting Glen to help me. I made sure to talk to those closest to him, including Sheree, to find out how he might react. I realized right away that he’d never go for the explosives, but I kept watching for an opportunity. Sheree liked me, so we kept in touch. We had dinner a few times. When she let slip what he was planning, I knew I had my chance to take my revenge and walk away a free man.”

“You set them up.”

“For three years I thought about doing something.” His mouth twisted into a smile that held no mirth. “I learned that with patience and money you can get almost anything you want—if not here, then in Mexico or overseas. I got Sheree to give me Glen’s fins, and I put them on the boat with a bit of the explosive disguised as a child’s toy. If you can believe it, the FBI missed it in their first sweep. It was easy enough to have a guy on the inside to make sure the boat actually hit the bridge. He didn’t know about the charges, of course, just the boat part. And that almost failed because the captain saw they weren’t going to make it and tried to stop the boat from hitting the bridge. My man on board had to knock him out. Fortunately, the captain didn’t remember anything afterward.”

“What about Sheree?” That was what she really wanted to know. “She called you last night from the club, didn’t she? You picked her up.”

“How do you know that?”

“I was there. I saw her leave.”

He nodded, placing a hand on her arm. “She’ll never be found, and she’s the only thing connecting me to the bridge.”

And me, Tawnia thought. She wasn’t stupid enough to say it aloud.

“Come on.” Orion pulled on her arm. “The couch is more comfortable.”

Tawnia glanced at the door longingly, just two feet away. She’d never make it despite her proximity, not with him grabbing her arm.

“What are you going to do now?” She tried to make the words calm, but her voice rose at the end.

He looked at her in surprise. “I meant it when I said I wished I could change things. I didn’t want your father to die. I mean, Autumn’s father.” He shook his head. “I wanted to make it up to you. I planned to take care of you.”

The sorrow in his eyes was unbearable, and Tawnia had to look away. “I know.” On Friday night she had felt that he was trying to make something up to her. Or to Autumn, rather. “So it seems I’m not the only one to hide something,” she said. “The sad thing is that I really thought there might be more between us.”

“There was. Between us, anyway. Not the times with Autumn.”

So there had been a difference for him as well, though he hadn’t known what it was.

At his urging, she sat on the white couch, her heart rate beginning to slow. Orion remained standing. Was it possible she could walk away from this? That she could see her sister and Bret and her parents again?

“Do you honestly think,” he asked, “that we could go on from here? Because if I thought for a minute that was possible, I would buy two tickets to Mexico and we could disappear.”

Should she lie? Even if she could leave Autumn, the sight of him sickened her now.

“You have to turn yourself in,” she said gently. “I’ll go with you. You’ll serve time, but if you work with them, it’ll be a lot less.”

“I killed thirty-one people. I’ll get the death penalty.”

“You’ve also saved a lot of people over the years.” She noticed that in his count he’d only included the people who’d died in the bridge collapse. Was it possible Sheree was alive?

“I can’t live like this.” Orion walked to a black wall table under a mirror near the door. Opening the drawer, he took out a gun. A shiny black, it looked like it belonged in the room.

Tawnia’s breath caught in her throat. He’d lulled her into thinking he was going to let her go free, but all along he’d had the gun there, waiting to use.

“No,” she whispered.

He turned to her, the slightest curve of a smile on his handsome face. The gun was coming up. “I’m really sorry it has to end this way. I was beginning to think there could be another way, but I was wrong, and when it all comes down to it, I have nothing left to lose.”

She had a brief and vibrant image of her red blood spreading over the white couch. Would he buy another one or try to have it cleaned?

“I’m sorry, Tawnia.” Orion turned the gun on himself, the barrel next to his heart.

“No!” she cried. “Please, Orion! There’s already been enough death. Please don’t make this one more image I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life.”

He hesitated.

“Please,” she said again.

Orion stared at her sadly. His hand moved downward. He took one step toward her, and then another.

There was a soft explosion, the sound of something moving through the air at high velocity. Orion jerked, eyes opening wide in surprise, his free hand going to his opposite shoulder. Blood seeped from under the fingers. His eyes lifted, not to Tawnia but to the figure that had appeared from the hallway leading to the rest of his apartment.

Tawnia whipped her head around to see Sheree. The girl was dressed in jeans and a tight shirt, her thick hair gathered in a braid down her back, leaving her face unremarkable. She looked about sixteen. In her hand she held a gun.

“Stupid girl,” Sheree muttered. “Should have let him kill himself.”

“Sheree.” Orion took a step in her direction.

“Surprised to see me, Orion?” She walked swiftly toward him, her gun pointed at his heart. Tawnia could see the gun had a silencer and that no one would be alerted to her presence here no matter how many shots she took. “Thought I was in Mexico spending all your beautiful dollars? Oh, I’m going to, make no mistake about that, but first I had one more job to do.” Reaching him, she took away his own gun from his now-useless arm, which he had lowered to his side at Tawnia’s plea.

Sheree sneered at him. “You think all of this happened because you wanted it? No. It happened because I wanted it. I controlled everything. I was the one who gave Robert the idea of getting back at his boss, and I was the one who made you think because of Robert’s plan you could get away with your revenge. I sent the contacts your way and arranged for you to get such powerful explosives for next to nothing. Of course they destroyed most of the bridge. That’s what we planned.”

“We?” Orion’s face was utterly devoid of color. The blood dripped down his arm, the crimson beads falling onto the white carpet.

“This is so much larger than just your petty revenge.”

“Why?” The words were ripped from Tawnia’s throat. “Why would you do such a thing? Who are you working for?”

Sheree’s head turned in Tawnia’s direction. Her eyes seemed surprised, as though during her confrontation with Orion, she had forgotten Tawnia’s existence. She brought up Orion’s gun, pointing it at Tawnia. “Real Americans. People who are sick of the way this country is run. My friends and I aren’t going to sit back and watch crazies ruin our way of life.”

“So you blow up the bridge? How does that preserve your way of life?”

Sheree’s eyes narrowed. “It wasn’t the bridge. It was who was on the bridge. Or supposed to be.”

“The governor,” Tawnia said, making the connection. “You wanted to kill the governor. But you made a mistake about the timing.”

Sheree smiled. “He left early. But he won’t be a problem after tonight, and Orion here will be blamed for all of it. But by then, he’ll be beyond caring.” She glanced at Orion. “I have a car waiting. Don’t try anything, or I’ll shoot you just like I’m going to shoot her. It’s unfortunate you got in the way, but we can’t let anyone warn the governor.”

Casually, Sheree switched her silencer to Orion’s gun, as though she had planned this all along and had chosen her own weapon to be compatible with his. She raised the gun, pointing it at Tawnia.

Her finger tightened on the trigger.

Orion lunged at Sheree, and the bullet dug into the couch beside Tawnia. “I won’t be responsible for her death!” Orion growled.

The two of them struggled. Sheree put a bullet from his own gun into Orion’s hip. He screamed.

“Get out of here!” He yelled at Tawnia. His face dripped sweat.

Tawnia leapt from the couch, her feet propelling her forward. A shot whizzed past her head.

She made her decision almost without thinking. She grabbed at the large black vase standing by the couch, the long-stemmed black grasses it had held showering to the carpet. With effort, she flung it at Sheree. It smashed into the small woman, knocking both her and Orion to the ground.

Sheree twisted. She’d lost Orion’s gun, but she held hers to his temple. “Stop! Now.” Her voice was deadly, and her eyes icy hard.

Tawnia froze. Orion’s brown eyes reproached her for not leaving. But what kind of person would she be if she had escaped and left Orion to die?

Sheree eased herself into a sitting position, still holding the gun at Orion. His eyes lost focus for a moment, and Tawnia wondered if he was going to faint. How quickly everything had spiraled out of control.

A banging came at the door, followed by an anxious voice. “Tawnia? Are you there?”

Bret! He’d come. But would his presence only mean another fatality?

More banging. “Tawnia!” Autumn’s voice now. Tawnia didn’t know whether to feel more hope or more despair.

“You’d better not hurt her, Orion!” Bret yelled through the door. “The police are on their way!”

The words distracted Sheree for the tiniest second. Orion slammed his elbow into Sheree’s head, throwing her back. She recovered quickly, and there was another shot, this one unsilenced. Tawnia threw herself onto the floor, grabbing Sheree’s wrist as she tried to aim the weapon at Orion’s head.

The door burst open. Tawnia caught sight of Bret and Autumn with a man holding a set of keys who must be the building manager. Bret immediately jumped into the fray and wrested the gun from Sheree. Sobbing with relief, Tawnia crawled to Orion, pressing her hand over his wounded shoulder to stop the flow of blood. He lay still on the white carpet, now marbled with red. His eyes slowly closed.

“He needs an ambulance,” Tawnia cried. “And we need to stop the blood.”

Autumn raced to the kitchen for towels. Bret drew out his phone.

Sheree, seeing their preoccupation, jumped to her feet and ran toward the door. Bret shouted at her to stop and waved the gun, but Tawnia knew he could no more shoot the woman than she could have in his position. The man with the keys grabbed Sheree. She fought him off and vanished.

Tawnia felt bitter that she would get away, but as Autumn knelt beside her with the towels, there was more scuffling in the hallway. Sheree began screaming and cursing.

Uniformed men appeared in the doorway, one holding a struggling Sheree. “It doesn’t matter what you do,” she spat at them. “There are more of us.”

Tawnia knew that Sheree’s companions, who had been waiting below, had probably left when the authorities arrived. They’d carry out their plan or perhaps wait for another day.

A man wearing an FBI logo took over for Tawnia, tying bandages over Orion’s wounds. She breathed a sigh of relief. She was shaking so badly, she couldn’t respond to the questions another man fired at her. Autumn’s arms went around Tawnia, anchoring her in the sea of confusion.

Orion opened his eyes and met her gaze. I’m sorry, he mouthed. She knew what he meant. He wished he’d kept her out of it. He wished he hadn’t brought her here today or threatened violence in front of her. He wished he hadn’t set off the explosives or let himself be used by Sheree.

“Sheree said something about killing the governor,” Tawnia remembered suddenly. “Tonight.”

Sheree shot her a venomous look, but one of the men was already talking on the phone, relaying the information. “Don’t worry,” an agent said. “We’ll find out everything we need to know from Miss Activist here. They always break when they’re faced with the real-life consequences of their actions.” Sheree spat at him, but he stepped casually aside to avoid her saliva, a hard smile on his face.

Tawnia and Autumn went into the bathroom to wash Orion’s blood from their hands. After their hands were clean, Autumn threw her arms around Tawnia. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so, so sorry. I should never have made you go with him.”

“It’s not your fault. It’s me who’s sorry.” Sobs shook Tawnia. “How come I can’t tell the bad guys from the good guys?” But Tawnia knew it wasn’t as simple as that. Autumn hugged her harder, their tears mingling together.

“How did you know to come?”

“The FBI called Bret. They’d found out that Orion had bought a ticket to Mexico for Sheree that she never used. That led them to finding some connections to an explosives company in Mexico. The FBI knew Bret had talked to Orion and wanted to see if he knew anything.”

“It was Sheree all along.”

“The passion of youth. I bet she’s been used, just like Orion.”

“He wanted revenge.” Tawnia’s voice was hushed. “Big revenge. But he didn’t mean to kill all those people.”

“But he did kill them.”

Tawnia nodded, tears dripping down her face. She thought of Winter’s still form under that sheet at the medical examiner’s office.

When they emerged from the bathroom, Orion and Sheree had been taken away. Bret and Autumn stayed with Tawnia as she recounted to the authorities what had happened. At last they were permitted to leave that place of horror. They rode down the elevator to the lobby. Jake was waiting for them there, his worried expression relaxing as he spied Autumn.

“I came right after I gave you the directions. I was worried.”

Autumn smiled wearily. “We’re okay. I’m glad you came.”

“Come on,” Jake said. “There are some benches outside. The police and the FBI have the area roped off from the crowd. Apparently someone tipped off the media.”

Tawnia followed the group blindly to the benches, sinking onto one with relief. The air was warm and the sky a brilliant blue that seemed to wash away the vestiges of terror from her heart. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

Autumn didn’t sit beside her. She looked at Bret, his hands thrust deep in his pockets. “Your turn,” Autumn told him. “Don’t blow it again.” Squeezing Tawnia’s shoulder, she walked with Jake to the other bench. Jake put an arm around her, and they began talking quietly, heads close together.

They make a great couple, Tawnia thought.

Bret sat beside her, his eyes scanning the roped area beyond which a crowd had gathered. Tawnia saw a news van, and she turned her face away.

“The county offered me a job today,” he said. “Clay Hanks’s job. I told them yes.”

He wasn’t leaving! Tawnia managed a smile.

Bret scooted closer, lowering his mouth to her ear. “I’ve never been so scared in my entire life. Not even when I heard about Christian. I couldn’t believe I might lose you forever.”

There were many reactions Tawnia could choose. She could make light of the seriousness of his tone, pretending she really didn’t care. Or that he was just a friend. That would prevent any future pain where he was concerned. Yet her dishonesty with both Bret and Orion hadn’t helped any of them so far.

The other choice was to lay her feelings on the line—whatever the consequences.

“If you’re asking for another chance,” she whispered, “the answer’s yes.” His arms were around her in an instant, and Tawnia melted into him. His lips touched her cheek, sliding along her skin until his mouth found hers.

When he let her breathe again, Tawnia smiled. “Now that,” she said softly, “is what I call amazing.”

Bret grinned.

Autumn appeared beside them. “Hey, stop that.” She pointed to the television cameras. “You’re on national TV. Tawnia’s mother will think I’m a bad influence.”

“So what?” Bret said. “Her mother likes me.”

Laughing, Tawnia kissed him again.