Larger Than Life by Alison Kent (read the beginning after the end novel .txt) 📕

The light changed and Ed accelerated. "I guess that was it then, wasn't it? The end of the Big Brown Barn."

"In its current incarnation?" She shrugged, laced her fingers, propped her hands in her lap. "Maybe. We've always known it could happen. But no. We're not done. At least not permanently."

"Ah, now that's better," he said, reaching for the AC's temperature control and notching it up. "More like the woman with a cause that I know."

Please don't say it. Please don't say it. She couldn't take it if he added "love." "Listen, do you mind taking me by the market?" she asked. "I never did get my groceries bought yesterday."

He glanced over. "What? You couldn't find time for shopping between all your criminal activities?"

"Something like that," she answered, humoring him when he wasn't very funny at all.

"Sure. But are you in a big hurry?" he asked. "I wanted to show you something. It's a bit of a drive."

She was dying to spend about an hour in the shower. But she wasn't the least bit anxious to see what sort of mess she'd be returning to clean up. And Mick wasn't there, so indulging Ed now would be more palatable than putting him off later. "I guess there's no rush. What is it?"

"A piece of property I'm considering buying," he said, making the turn onto the state road that led out of town.

Interesting. She wondered where that had come from. "And you just decided this today?"

He shook his head. "I've been thinking about it for awhile. But I thought with the Barn being compromised, this might be the perfect time to jump. I could eventually move the clinic. We could build another shelter."

It was something to consider, getting right back to work. On the other hand, if she told Ed she was taking a break, putting some time between this incident and what she decided to do in the future, she might find a way to weed him out of the operation.

Giving up the work she and Candy had come here to do wasn't an option. The hiatus, however, was. The reorganization was. They could make their way further underground. Tighten the network. Get rid of the control freak at her side.

She stared out the window as Ed drove, realizing what an opportunity she'd just been presented. And if she and Candy weren't the mothers of all invention when it came to turning bad into good . . .

Several minutes later, Neva found herself frowning as Ed put on his blinker, felt a strange rush of adrenaline as he slowed and made the turn. "Ed. This is Holden Wagner's property."

"I know." Ed chuckled beneath his breath. "He's thinking of selling it. Seemed like poetic justice to be the one to snap it up."

He'd heard Holden was selling? Since when? "That's strange. I'd heard he was thinking of building on it. He had huge plans for a house."

"He thought he'd be marrying Liberty." The truck bounced over the property's cattle guard. "A man's plans change when he doesn't get what he wants."

Something wasn't right here. Obviously Ed knew about Liberty's disappearance. That was the reason Neva had been in jail.

She brought her fingers up to rub beneath her chin. A frisson of unpleasant anticipation buzzed along her skin. "I didn't know his plans to marry Liberty had changed. I'm sure she'll be found soon enough."

"Maybe," he said, his tone indifferent, flat, then distracted. "But it will still be too late for Wagner."

Neva grabbed for the armrest as the truck bumped along the rutted drive, her pulse pounding from more than the shock of the ride. "Ed, what's going on here?"

"Tell me something, Nevada." He swerved off the dirt road and into the rocky pasture, sending her sprawling into the door. "What do you see in Mick Savin that you don't see in me?"

Okay. Now she knew something wasn't right here. In fact, it was very, very wrong. She pushed up slowly, one hand hovering near the door handle, the other settling on the button of her seat belt release.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, her heart bouncing between her chest- and her throat. "What does Mick have to do with anything?"

"Nothing, really. I'm just curious." He adjusted the AC's temperature again. She saw the sheen of sweat on his forearm and the back of his hand. "I've been working for over a year to figure out why you stopped sleeping with me. And then he shows up out of nowhere. He sticks around for no obvious reason. It's got to be about getting in your pants."

She'd had enough. This was getting weird and scary, and she didn't like weird and scary when she didn't have her gun. "Ed, take me home. I've seen Holden's property. And I'll pick up my groceries later. I've just spent the night in jail, for God's sake. I need sleep. I need food. I need a shower. I don't have time for your games."

"You have time, Nevada. Your boyfriend left town yesterday and your girlfriend knows you're safe with me. You don't have anywhere you need to be. Besides, there's more to the property than what you can see from here."

What did he mean, she didn't have anywhere to be? And how did he know about Mick and Candy? He was so perfectly stoic, so strangely calm . . . "Ed, what are you—"

"Goddamn, Nevada. Would you shut the hell up?" he erupted then, reaching beneath his seat and pulling out a handgun he brandished in her direction. "I don't know why you have such a hard time letting someone else call the shots. I have something to show you. And I'm taking you to see it whether you like it or not."

Don't panic. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. God, what was happening here? "You're kidnapping me because I broke off our relationship?"

He laughed, a flat, cool sound. "Oh, no. This isn't a kidnapping. It's retribution, and it's been