"What are you saying?" Kenny staggered about as if he were drunk.
"I'm going to the sheriff in the morning and tell him what I did."
"You can't!" Kenny turned quickly, his eyes fixed on Elizabeth. "This is all your fault. You and your damned visions. No one is going to do anything to help Reece. I won't allow it. Do you hear me? I won't allow it!"
"Did you kill your father?" Elizabeth backed away from Kenny, slowly but surely easing toward the front door.
"Did I... Is that what this is all about?" Kenny opened his clenched fists, then reclosed them. "Is that what your crazy visions showed you? That I killed Daddy?"
"Mr. Stanton.. .Kenny..." Easing herself up off the sofa, Claire held out her hand. "No one is accusing you of anything."
"She is!" Kenny pointed at Elizabeth. "You're no psychic. You haven't had any visions. You're in this with Reece, aren't you? You're just another stupid woman who fell for his tough-guy image, aren't you?"
Sensing Kenny's deep frustration, Elizabeth backed up against the door, uncertain how close he was to losing control. "You're talking about your wife, aren't you? Reece Landry didn't have an affair with Tracy, despite what you may think or what she might have said. Don't let your jealousy blind you to the truth about your brother."
"That man is not my brother." Kenny reached out for Elizabeth, grabbing her by the shoulders, jerking her forward. "You're as big a fool as every other woman I know when it comes to Reece Landry, but you've made a big mistake trying to help a convicted murderer." Grabbing Elizabeth around the waist with one fleshy hand, Kenny circled her neck with his other hand, pressing his fingers against her windpipe.
"If the police don't catch Landry, then Harry Gunn will," Kenny said. "And that old man's crazy enough to kill anyone who gets in his way. You know how crazy he is? He's been taking turns following Chris and then Tracy all around Newell. Ever since he heard Reece was back in town, he figured Chris or Tracy would lead him to Reece."
"Kenny, please let Ms. Mallory go." Claire took a tentative step forward. "She may want to help Reece, but that doesn't mean she wants to harm you."
Kenny tightened his hold on Elizabeth, his fingers biting into her neck. She tried not to panic, but she felt Kenny's desperation, all his pain focused on her because she was Reece Landry's woman.
"Kenny, please..." Elizabeth said. She knew what was going to happen, and wished she could prevent the inevitable. Reece would never allow Kenny to harm her. At this precise moment she sensed Reece preparing himself to attack. And when he did-
"I was Daddy's only son," Kenny said. "Everything was mine. Daddy, Stanton Industries and Tracy. Then Reece came along."
"I know how difficult it must have been for you, but surely you realize that your father played you and Reece against each other for his own perverse reasons. You mustn't blame Reece-"
Kenny roared with laughter, the laughter of a man on the edge of a breakdown. "Don't blame Reece for sleeping with my wife, for taking my father away from me, for stealing part of my inheritance." Kenny shoved Elizabeth up against the wall. "When I found out about Tracy and Reece, I should have killed her. I should have killed them both."
Kenny's fingers closed around Elizabeth's throat, choking her. She grabbed at his shoulders, shoving him, at the same time kicking his leg. If only Reece would stay put, she could handle this situation. Kenny didn't have a weapon, and she felt certain she was strong enough to fight him off.
Just as she raised her leg, aiming directly for Kenny's groin, he released her. Reece jerked Kenny away from Elizabeth, tossing him to the floor as easily as he would have thrown a pillow. Kenny glared up at his brother, pure hatred in his eyes. Elizabeth slumped against the wall, coughing several times, then gulping in air.
"You slimy little son of a bitch!" Reece stared at Kenny, at his father's firstborn, at the soft, pampered, weak and spoiled heir to the throne.
Lying flat on his back on the floor, Kenny looked toward Elizabeth. "I was right, wasn't I? You're just one more of Reece Landry's conquests." Then Kenny grinned as he stared up at Reece. "What's the matter, Landry? You don't want me to touch your woman? That's not fair, is it, since you've done a lot more than touch my wife?"
Reece, his legs spread apart, clenched his hands open and closed as he stood over his brother, wanting more than anything to beat the hell out of Bradley Kenneth Stanton, Jr. "You're too blinded by hate to see the truth. God, I feel sorry for you. To think I envied you all my life."
Elizabeth grabbed Reece by the sleeve of his jacket. "Don't do what you're thinking. He's not worth it."
"You'd better listen to your lady friend," Kenny said, shoving himself up into a sitting position. "Unless you intend to kill me and Claire both. After all, she'd be a witness to my murder."
Elizabeth tugged on Reece's sleeve. He glanced at her quickly, exchanging a brief message of understanding, then looked back down at Kenny. "Claire is going to tell the sheriff the truth about your fight with B.K.," Reece said. "And the man Tracy was with when B.K. was killed is going to blow your alibi, so, big brother, you'd better be prepared to do some explaining."
"You think you're so damned smart, don't you?" Kenny's mouth widened into a self-satisfied smirk. "Well, I didn't kill Daddy. And Claire isn't going to tell the sheriff anything, and neither is that muscle-bound twenty-year-old Tracy was screwing the night you murdered Daddy."
Elizabeth saw Claire pick up from the end table a heavy brass flower vase filled with an arrangement of silk roses. Elizabeth glanced at Reece, and knew he was aware of Claire's movements.
"The Stantons own this town," Kenny said. "We make the rules. Nobody goes against a Stanton and wins. You should know that, Landry."
Claire Roberts walked up behind Kenny, who sat on the floor smiling at Reece and Elizabeth, a cocky glint in his eyes. Lifting the large brass vase, Claire brought it down on top of Kenny's head. He fell sideways, unconscious. The brass vase thumped silently onto the floor; the peach silk roses scattered across the sea of blue carpet.
Claire knelt beside Kenny, feeling for a pulse. "He's fine. I just knocked him out."
"You most certainly did," Elizabeth said, slightly stunned by the other woman's actions.
"Reece, you have to get away as fast as you can," Claire said. "I'll have to call the police before Kenny comes to, but I'll wait as long as I can to give you a head start."
"Claire?" Reece stared at B. K. Stanton's secretary.
"I'll tell the police everything. The truth about Kenny's quarrel with his father, the fact that he threatened to kill B.K. And... and I'll tell them that you were here tonight. I'm through with lying. For Kenny or for you."
"That's fair enough," Reece said. "Thank you, Claire."
"Go on. Get out of here." Bracing her hand on a recliner at her side, Claire lifted herself up from the floor.
Slipping his arm around Elizabeth, Reece led her out the front door and to Sam's T-Bird.
"Get in the back and lie down," Elizabeth told him. "I'll drive us to Spruce Pine as quickly as possible."
Reece opened the car door. "We need to talk to Sam before we go back to the cottage. He should know what happened here, that Kenny's going to tell the police you're helping me. And I need to find out if Sam was able to persuade Tracy's lover to admit the truth."
"It's too dangerous to go to Sam's motel. Once Kenny comes to-"
"We're going to the motel," Reece said. "And Sam's going to get you out of Newell as fast as he can." "No! I won't go. I won't leave you." "Dammit, Lizzie. This time you'll do what I tell you to do."
Chapter 11