Auf'd (The Belinda & Bennett Mysteries, Book Two)

Chapter 19

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Brooke seemed to know where they were going, and neither of them spoke while she drove. Belinda worked on clearing her head. Her heart had slowed down considerably, but then picked up every time she remembered they had a human being tied up in the trunk. But she needed to think. Seriously. About what she was doing.

Why did she just help Brooke tie up Mrs. Sykes and put her in the trunk to do—what? Not that Belinda thought Brooke would kill her at this point. It seemed awfully complicated if that's what she wanted. And why bring Belinda into it? Wouldn't she just have to kill her too? So that seemed out. If it was somehow related to protecting Mrs. Sykes, why did Brooke care? Especially if Brooke hated that Mrs. Sykes involved Sawyer in her schemes.

"Here we are." Brooke interrupted her problem-solving, and Belinda became aware that they were at the Portside Harbor Marina. Oh, dear. What if Kyle saw them?

Belinda watched people milling around, drifting through the harbor, washing and waxing crafts of all sizes, her eyes searching for a bronze face with golden brown hair. "You seriously think we're going to sneak her onto a boat in front of all these people?"

"I seriously think we're going to sneak her on board your boat, yes."

Belinda's eyes widened. Then she shook her head stubbornly. "I don't have the keys."

Brooke dangled them in front of her and thrust them into her palm. How did she find those? "Go get one of those carts. I have a plan."

Belinda wrapped her fingers around the keys. "I don't like being bossed around when what I'm being told to do is sketchy at best." This was all wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

"She intended to inject you with that stuff. You do know that, right?"

Belinda pressed her lips tight. She kept feeling the side of her neck where a nice bump cropped up after her needle experience. Sadly, she did know.

Belinda sighed and pushed out of her car to get a cart, panicking every time she saw brown hair. But it was never Kyle. She set the cart by the trunk and took a deep breath as she opened it up. Blue tarp. Blue tarp and one woman underneath it. This was insane. Brooke was insane.

Brooke came around and together they tried to make it look like they weren't lifting a body into the cart.

"What did you do?" Belinda hissed. Mrs. Sykes should have come to by then.

Brooke just shrugged and ignored her.

Belinda pushed the cart nonchalantly, because, you know, she hauled bodies onto her family's cruising yacht ALL THE TIME. She smiled politely to everyone they passed, focusing on the fast clunk, clunk, clunk of the cart's wheels over the dock slats. It was one thing getting Mrs. Sykes from the trunk to the cart. It would be another thing to get her from the cart onto the boat.

Belinda unlocked and opened the stern door, then unlocked the cabin's sliding door. No Kyle. She should have felt relieved, but part of her really wanted to stumble onto him. He might be able to get her out of this.

This was going to be fun without looking suspicious. No one was right in the vicinity, and everybody in the marina was busy with some sort of seasonal prep work. But she felt like they all knew she had just kidnapped someone.

"Let's do this," Brooke said. They each took an end with Belinda on the swim platform and Brooke on the dock. Belinda slowly backed up toward the sliding door that led into the cabin. They'd managed to keep the tarp fluffy and not squeeze it around Mrs. Sykes like mummy wrappings.