Excerpt of Tell Me Why by Stella Cameron

The headlights of a car bounced over a speed bump and came toward her.

Carolee backed up, turning her head to shade her eyes from the glare. The vehicle came to a stop and the lights went out.

A silver Porsche.

The driver's door opened, a man got out, and the door slammed shut. The thunk reverberating amid concrete pillars.

Kip's tall body approached, his heels clicking distinctly. He did something with his right hand and Carolee flinched. There was a click. He'd locked the Porsche.

Stepping through a gap between two concrete retaining blocks, he reached Carolee and said, "Did you keep your head? You didn't call the cops?"

She shook her head.

"Smart girl. Don't look so scared. This is a no-brainer and we all come out of it smelling like roses."

"Where's Faith?"

His hand, landing on her shoulder, startled Carolee. "Faith's in my car--asleep," he said. "She's in great shape and looking forward to having us all together again."

She caught at the neck of her blouse. "Asleep? With all this going on?"

"A couple of pills aren't going to hurt her. You don't want her awake and frightened, do you?"

"The flight," Carolee said. "We're missing it. Fetch Faith." She wanted to see her, to make sure she was all right.

"We're not taking a flight," Kip told her. "I couldn't risk telling you everything just in case you did something stupid with the information. We're driving. In your car. You packed everything?"

Her body felt unnaturally still. "Yes." She lied. Nothing had been packed.

Max was watching the gate inside the terminal and wondering where she was. He'd have no reason to come back out here looking for her.

"Got the money from the bank? Everything I told you to get?"

She patted the shoulder bag she'd carried from her car. Rather than all but emptying her accounts as he'd instructed, she'd only made sure she had enough money for any emergency she might encounter.

"And the dog's in your car?"

"No." If he picked out her car and didn't see Digger, he'd get suspicious.

"I told you to bring the dog," he said through gritted teeth, and shook her by the shoulder. "It was important."

"Why?"

"Because I said so. Everything has to be exactly the way I planned it. You'd bring her dog because . . ."

He turned his face away sharply and she could see his throat moving as he swallowed, and the way the corner of his mouth turned down.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "You should never have tried to do this, Carolee. If you really loved Faith, you wouldn't even consider doing anything to me."

She gaped at him. "What are you talking about?"

"You're going to kill me and pretend it was in self- defense."

He was turning everything around. She backed away, unable to close her mouth or make her voice work. Not searching around for Max took almost more restraint than she had.

Kip followed her. "You set the whole thing up."

An engine roared onto the floor and cut out almost at once. Kip held a hand before her face and hissed, "Not a sound."

Running footsteps quickly faded.

"Kip, please listen to me," Carolee said. "I don't know what you intend to do, but we can work things out for the best. We'll deal with--"

"Shut up." He laughed. "You had your chances, now I've only got one left. Let's get this over with. If I didn't follow your orders tonight, you threatened to make sure I was out of her life for good. You told me we would go away together and I thought it was going to be by plane, but that was only a story. What you really intend to do is get me in your car, drive me somewhere, and kill me. You'll go sobbing to the cops that it was all an accident. Then you'll have everything you want."

"I wouldn't do any of those things. You're crazy."

"Shut your mouth." He raised a hand as if to strike her, but stopped himself.

"I couldn't kill anyone if I tried."

"Who says you're going to kill anyone?"

She cast about. If she ran, he'd still have Faith. "You said it. I don't know what you're talking about."

"I told you a little story. It's the story I'll be telling the police about the way you set me up. Too bad I'm so much bigger and stronger than you."

"Stop it!"

"Keep your voice down. I'm only doing what you've made me do. This isn't what I want, Carolee. I love you, but you don't want me. You want to destroy me and be with another man. He probably helped you work all this out."

"Max would never--"

"That's his name, Max. Poor Max. He's not going to get what he wants afterall. He's not going to get what's mine."

"Listen to me." She steeled herself and stepped closer to him. "Nothing's happened. We can go home and pretend we were never here."

"Liar," he said. "You always made the mistake of taking me for a fool. You ruined my life so I taught you a lesson, or I thought I did. You still haven't learned that I've always been smarter than you."

"Kip, I swear I mean it."

"So do I, baby. Push me. Kick me. Just don't scream till I hit you."