The man pulled his hand out of his jacket. No gun. Instead, he stuck out his meaty hand for a handshake. “Aidan Alexander.”
“Michael Tang. I’m a friend.”
“A friend of Elizabeth? I’m looking for her,” Aidan said, his voice grave. “She’s in danger.”
Michael frowned. “Danger?”
“She’s my sister-in-law,” the man continued in that same, serious voice. “As you might know, my brother passed away a few months ago, and since then, Elizabeth hasn’t been herself. She gets herself worked up, and now she’s disappeared. I’m worried about her.” The words were punctuated by something Michael didn’t expect—an expression of genuine concern.
As the alarm rang all around them, a tiny glimmer of doubt ran through Michael’s mind. What if Aidan’s explanation was true? All Michael had to go on was Ellie’s account, which included amnesia.
Ellie had lost a spouse, too. That truth sat inside him, heavy, weighing him down enough that he wanted to lean against the doorjamb. She was staggering under her own loss, and he knew better than most how much that loss changed everything about a person. How it could drive a person to the edge of reason. He studied the worried look on Aidan’s face. If Michael had a sister-in-law who had disappeared, he’d do everything to find her. He’d want to know where she was, that she was safe.
Still, Michael bristled at the man’s comments. Something about his tone when he’d said she gets herself worked up made him uncomfortable, like Aidan had ideas about women that Michael didn’t share. And then there were the men who had tried to kidnap Ellie—they had given the same explanation Aidan had.
He offered a neutral response. “I’m sorry for the loss of your brother.”
“He’s in good hands with the Lord,” Aidan said. There was genuine sorrow in his expression, but it was mixed with something else Michael couldn’t identify. “Elizabeth is here right now, isn’t she.”
It wasn’t a question. Michael had to decide. He had to listen to his heart. It was pounding out a message, loud and clear: protect Ellie.
The alarm wailed, the piercing sound ratcheting the tension in the room even higher. Michael started across the floor, keeping an eye on Aidan’s right hand. It didn’t move, so Michael continued. He shoved his hands in his pockets, as if the two of them weren’t in the middle of a chess game where the consequence for losing could be brutal.
“How do you know she’s here?” Michael asked, stalling for time as he closed the distance between him and the man. “And how did you get in?”
A good-old-boy smile, the one that oozed both authority and charm, spread across his face.
“Sean gave me a key, but something’s wrong with the alarm,” said Aidan. “Elizabeth needs to turn this thing off. Where is she?”
Michael stopped in front of the staircase. He leaned against the banister, but inside readied himself for whatever was coming.
“She said she doesn’t want to see you,” said Michael, tilting his head to the side a little, like he was confused. “She says you tried to harm her.”
Anger slashed across Aidan’s face. It was gone almost instantly, but in that moment, Michael knew that he had chosen correctly. This man was hiding his fury, trying to manipulate Michael.
Aidan shook his head and grimaced. “Like I told you, she’s been buried in grief, and it’s making her hysterical. Paranoid. I need to bring her somewhere where she’ll be safe, where she can be reasoned with. Because right now, she’s not making any sense.”
“What do you know about the men who came to my property, trying to take her away? Or the truck that was chasing us?” Michael asked. There was no way those men hadn’t told Aidan what had happened, so Michael put it out in the open, drawing out the conversation.
Aidan assessed him. “The foreman at our construction company is a buddy of mine, and he and another guy are helping me find Elizabeth.” He shook his head. “But they got a bit heavy-handed. Not my intention. I just want her to be safe.”
It was a plausible explanation...if Michael hadn’t actually been there. But he could see the way Aidan’s carefully crafted explanation sketched a story of a reasonable, worried brother-in-law just trying to take care of his unstable sister-in-law. He was painting a picture, not just for Michael, but for everyone they might encounter.
Michael didn’t believe the way Aidan was shaping the story. He believed what Ellie had insisted—that she was in danger. But he was impressed with just how convincing Aidan’s account was. And that made him uneasy. Ellie’s hesitation to contact the police was making more and more sense. He could see why a friend on the police force might believe the man’s story. That made Aidan even more dangerous. Here was a man who was willing to use his power to manipulate others, to take away Ellie’s power, her choices. And that was something that Michael would never stand for.
The alarm was wearing on Michael, that incessant, high-pitched wail. Somewhere, a company was being signaled, alerted by the intruder, but up here at the top of the Sierra Nevada, in the middle of a winter storm, alarms were a joke. The best anyone could hope for was a visit from the company after the roads were cleared. Long after this would be over. Aidan undoubtedly knew this was true.
“Where is she?” Aidan repeated, taking a step closer. “She needs to come down and turn off the alarm.”
He took another step. The man was trying to intimidate Michael. Good. The nearer he was, the better.
“I imagine she doesn’t trust being close to you, considering the events of the day,” said Michael mildly.
Aidan advanced another step and Michael straightened. He took his hands out of his pockets, preparing himself for whatever came next. The alarm squealed over and over. Michael could see the tension in the man’s jaw, the way the noise was wearing on him, too.
“I’m going upstairs to find her,” said Aidan, his voice taking on an edge, losing some of that jovial good-old-boy tone. “She needs to come down and take care of this.”
Michael shook his head. “I can’t let you do that.”
Aidan’s expression hardened and Michael caught a flash of anger, unfiltered. He had seen glimpses of it simmering under the surface, but Aidan was no longer holding back. Michael could see exactly why Ellie would run from him.
“What makes you think I need your permission?” the man said through gritted teeth. “I need Elizabeth, and this isn’t your house.”
Aidan took another step, so that he was within arm’s reach. Good. No one with any real plan would let themselves get that close. This was a man who hadn’t thought further than intimidation. But the wild card was the gun. Michael knew this kind of man would have one. It was just a question of where and how hard it would be to disarm him.
Aidan took one more step to the side, like he was going to go around Michael and up the stairs. He tried to nudge Michael aside, but Michael grabbed Aidan’s right arm and twisted it behind his back. Aidan let out a yelp of surprise and flailed his free arm, trying to grab hold of Michael. He yanked Aidan’s right arm higher, forcing the man to double over.
Aidan kicked back at Michael, throwing them both off balance. Together, they tipped sideways, falling on the wooden steps. Michael tried to twist before they hit, but his shoulder crashed into the edge of the wooden plank. Pain shot down his biceps and he fought to keep hold of the man’s arm. The grunt from under him told Michael that the fall hadn’t been good for Aidan either. More of the man’s curses came through under the screech of the alarm.
“I should have guessed you knew karate,” he muttered.
Michael ignored the barb—maybe intentional or maybe ignorance? He almost laughed. Did this guy even know what karate was? “These are high school wrestling moves, buddy. Mixed with some self-defense.”
Aidan struggled under Michael’s hold, his left arm grasping inside his jacket.
The gun. Aidan was going for it.
Michael had to reach it first.
