Securing Sidney

by Susan Stoker

She stopped talking then, and Gumby ran a hand over the back of her head soothingly. “What else?”

  “Lots. He terrorized me every damn day. I joined every after-school activity I could think of, just so I wasn’t at home. The weekends were the worst. And the shed.” Sidney shuddered.

  When she didn’t continue, he asked, “What happened in the shed, Sidney?”

  If Brian touched her, Gumby would find a way to make the man’s life completely miserable behind bars.

  “The shed was his ‘workspace’ when we were growing up. It’s where…where he learned the best way to carve people up. How to hurt them without killing them. Where he honed his skills with a knife,” Sidney whispered, as if the man was in the other room and might overhear.

  “He killed people when he was a kid? When you were growing up?” Gumby asked, horrified.

  She shook her head against him. “No. Animals. He killed animals.”

  Oh, shit.

  It was suddenly very clear where Sidney’s compassion for dogs came from.

  “You know I wouldn’t be tellin’ you this if I wasn’t drunk, right?” Sidney asked.

  “Yeah. And I’m taking advantage of that fact. We both know it. But you need to get this off your chest.”

  “I told everything at the trial. Everyone already knows,” she protested.

  “I don’t,” Gumby said simply.

  “Promise you won’t hate me tomorrow if I tell you what my brother did?”

  Gumby sat up a little, lifting Sidney’s chin with a finger so she had to look at him. Her eyes were watery and her cheeks flushed with the alcohol still in her system. Any arousal he’d felt when he’d climbed into bed had dissipated. All he wanted to do now was comfort his woman. Reassure her that, just because she shared some DNA with her brother, she wasn’t like him. Not in any way, shape, or form.

  “Promise,” he vowed.

  She nodded, and he let her duck her head once more. If it was easier to talk when she wasn’t looking at him, so be it. Gumby made a mental note to look up the transcripts she’d referenced earlier. If nothing else, he’d ask Wolf, a fellow SEAL buddy, to have his computer expert contact get him what he needed. Knowing how horrible Sidney’s childhood had been, and how terrible Brian James Hale had been, even as a kid, Gumby felt a bone-deep need to know everything.

  The man might already be on death row, but Gumby had a feeling after his talk with Sidney tonight, and after he’d read up on the man, he’d be figuring out a way to make Brian’s life even more miserable than it hopefully already was. Being on death row in Florida wasn’t a picnic, but there were always ways to make it more uncomfortable.

  “One of our neighbors’ cats disappeared one day. The little girl—she was about seven—was devastated. She made fliers and put them up everywhere. There was even a reward offered. Brian had been nice to me for a while, so when he said he wanted to show me something in the shed, I didn’t think too much about it. I followed him out there, and after I went inside, he blocked the door and wouldn’t let me leave.

  “He’d either found or stolen the neighbor’s cat…Scruffy…and he’d hurt it. Bad. I can’t talk about…what he did. Can’t relive it. But trust me when I say he did things to that poor kitty that no sane person could even think about doing. Then after he’d tortured the poor thing, Brian made me watch as he slit the cat’s neck.

  “He laughed, Decker. Laughed. Told me how much fun it was to watch the cat struggle.”

  “Jesus, Sid. I’m so sorry.”

  “But that wasn’t even the worst of it. Not by a long shot. He captured and tortured so many animals. But the dogs… If I’d thought what he’d done to the poor kitty was bad, the things he did to the puppies were even worse. And he collected jars and jars of blood, telling me how much he enjoyed the feel of it on his hands. Once, he cut off the head of a puppy and wrapped it in a box. He gave it to me as a present when my parents weren’t around, and I stupidly opened it. I’ll never forget the eyes of that poor puppy looking up at me when I opened the lid.”

  “And your parents did nothing?” Gumby asked in shock. “How is that possible? They had to know what was going on in that shed.”

  Sidney shrugged. “I told them, and they said I needed to stop being a tattletale and to mind my own business.”

  “But…that makes no sense,” Gumby said, not able to wrap his brain around any adult ignoring the abuse happening literally in their backyard. “Didn’t they know that many serial killers abuse animals when they’re kids? At the very least, they should’ve known that wasn’t normal behavior and tried to get him some help.”

  Sidney shook her head. “I have no idea what they were thinking. They’d always wanted a son, and it was as if the second they had one, they forgot all about their other child. I sometimes think they both must have some sort of mental problem as well, because it’s crazy that they could ignore everything he did growing up…let alone still support him after the truth came out about the women he’d killed.

  “The second I graduated from high school, I was out of there. I wanted nothing to do with my brother. I didn’t even go home for the holidays. After the trial, I moved out here, as far away from them as I could get. I wanted to get as far away as possible from what he’d done.”

  Gumby knew what Brian James Hale had done. He’d killed his first victim when he was only sixteen years old. God, that had been only a year after Sidney had left. He’d gone into downtown Miami and found a prostitute and had killed her by stabbing her in the heart.

  He’d murdered another prostitute a few months later, probably feeling more secure because he hadn’t been caught for the first death. Things escalated from there. By the time he’d graduated from high school, he’d killed a total of five women. Then he’d moved into a small apartment—paid for by his parents—and continued his killing spree, getting bolder and less careful.

  By the time he was caught, he’d admitted to murdering twenty-five women. He could describe how he’d murdered every single one too. Right down to the little details about what their last words were. He’d gotten more sadistic in his methods as time went by, keeping the last two women alive in his apartment for more than a week as he tortured them with his knives. He hadn’t sexually assaulted them, that wasn’t his kink. He simply enjoyed their terror and watching them bleed.

  Yeah, Brian James Hale was one sick bastard…and Gumby hated that Sidney was related to him. Hated that she’d had to grow up witnessing his cruelty. But more relieved than he could say that she’d escaped.

  “How’d you get involved in his trial?” Gumby asked after a minute or two had passed.

  “My parents asked me to come testify on his behalf. I couldn’t believe they’d even asked me that! I mean, he’d murdered over two dozen people! And I truly think the number is way more than that, he’s just not admitting it. There was no way I was going to go into a courtroom and try to convince people that he wasn’t that bad of a dude, like he was merely misunderstood or something.

  “I called the prosecuting attorney right after I hung up with my parents and made sure he knew that Brian was as sane as I was. That he’d had a good childhood. There wasn’t any abuse or anything like that. I wanted him to know that I was normal, and that our upbringing wasn’t to blame. He asked if I would tell the jurors and the judge in person what I’d told him. And I said yes.

  “I sat through the entire trial. Saw all the pictures the investigative people took of his blood-soaked apartment. They’d even gone to my parents’ house and taken pictures of the shed after I’d told the prosecutor what Brian had done in there. That’s how I know about the luminal thing.”

  “I am so proud of you, Sid. You have no idea,” Gumby told her.

  She sniffed against him.

  He hated that she was crying, but didn’t try to stop her. It seemed maybe his Sidney got sad when she drank. Or maybe it was just the conversation. Either way, he’d have to watch that. He liked this mellower side of her, but didn’t like that she m
ight seriously be hurting.

  “I feel so guilty that I didn’t do more when I was a teenager.”

  “What could you have done differently? I think you know as well as I do that your brother was born the way he was. Nothing you could’ve done would’ve fixed him.”

  “Not about Brian. About the animals,” Sidney said softly. Then she looked up at him. “I could’ve done more to help those poor animals he tortured.”

  Gumby’s heart broke, and it all made sense now. Why she was so adamant about confronting abusers. Why she put herself at risk to rescue dogs. Why she put their well-being above her own.

  Guilt was a powerful thing, and it was driving her to put herself in danger. She obviously needed professional help to assist her in getting over something that wasn’t her fault in the first place. To appease the guilt she was feeling. This wasn’t the time to bring it up or try to convince her. But now that he knew what was driving her, he could do his best to help.

  “Oh, Sidney. He would’ve found a way to get his hands on animals no matter what you did.”

  She shook her head.

  Knowing there was nothing he could say right now that would change her mind, Gumby settled for tightening his arms around her and kissing her forehead.

  Ten minutes later, Gumby whispered, “Sid?”

  “Hmmm?”

  “Just checking to see if you were asleep.”

  She lifted her head. “I’m awake. The room is spinning pretty fast so it’s hard to fall asleep. How was your mission? Did you win? Was anyone hurt? I didn’t even ask.”

  He smiled. “It was fine. No one was hurt.”

  “Good. I’m glad.”

  “Me too. And for the record, I was going to get a few hours’ sleep, then call you first thing in the morning. Imagine my surprise when I walked in my house and there you were. Snuggled up to my dog like a fantasy come to life.”

  She chuckled. “Oh, yeah, complete with me snoring, your dog bleeding, and me blotto after drinking too much to deal with cleaning up all that blood.”

  “Yeah, Sid. Complete with you wearing my clothes, cuddled up with my dog, safe and sound in my house. It was the perfect end to a very long mission.”

  “Is that the normal length of time you’re usually gone?” she asked.

  Gumby didn’t respond, and she continued.

  “Because I can handle that. I mean, I can handle it if you’re gone longer too, but knowing that your normal ‘gone time’ is only like a week or two, that’s different from thinking you’ll be gone for months.”

  He understood. He’d left without being able to give her any kind of time frame for when he’d be back. “What would you have done if I had been gone for months?” he asked, genuinely interested in her answer.

  “Cried. Probably a lot. Been sad that we hadn’t taken any pictures together. Gotten on with my life.”

  “Meaning?” Gumby didn’t like that last part. Did she mean she would find someone else to date? Decide they were done as a couple?

  “Called Max to see if he was serious about hiring me. Started saving up money. Rented an apartment. Tried not to think of how much I missed Hannah. Things like that.”

  Gumby relaxed. “I can’t say for sure that there won’t be times when I won’t be gone for a month or more, but generally we’re sent in for shorter periods of time. Once all the intel is gathered, we go in to do the dirty work.” He couldn’t really say more than that, but he hoped it was enough.

  “Good,” she breathed. “Because I missed you. I didn’t like not being able to text you. To call when I wanted to tell you something. I’ve never had that before, you know.”

  He definitely liked that. “Me neither,” he told her. “There were so many things that made me think about you while I was gone.”

  “Like?” she asked.

  He thought about what he could safely tell her, and settled for a heartwarming scene they’d come across on the outskirts of the town they were infiltrating in Afghanistan. “One day, we were on top of a building doing recon and something caught my eye below us. A little boy was walking a puppy. He had a piece of string around the puppy’s neck, and he was trying to get him to follow him. But, being a puppy, every little thing that caught his eye made him want to play. It took about five minutes for the two to go even one block. But every time the puppy got distracted, the little boy didn’t get upset or impatient. He simply waited until the little guy was ready to go again. He reminded me of you…or what you might’ve been like as a child.”

  “Are you serious? You didn’t just make that up to make me feel better?” Sidney asked.

  “Swear it’s true. In the past, I wouldn’t even have noticed that kid and dog. I would’ve seen them, of course, but not thought twice about them. Having you in my life has made me open my eyes to the little things. That kid and dog don’t have even half the things kids here in the States do, but they seemed content.”

  “Decker?”

  “Right here, Sid.”

  “Are you mad that I’m wearing your clothes?”

  He shook his head at how her brain, in its inebriated state, went from one topic to another.

  “No. In fact, I think it’s pretty hot.”

  “Even though I totally rifled through your stuff? I had to open a bunch of drawers to find your T-shirts and even once I did, I couldn’t stop snooping.”

  “Find anything interesting?” he asked, more amused than anything else. He had nothing to hide, especially not from her.

  “A stack of dirty magazines from the nineties, some lube, an old Rubik’s Cube, and a drawer full of socks with no matches.”

  Gumby chuckled. “Sounds about right.”

  “Deck?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I was a little upset that you didn’t ask me to dog-sit Hannah, but I understand now.”

  “You do?”

  “Uh-huh. Caite told me how Rocco was worried about her being by herself in that apartment complex after what happened there, and he felt safer with her here. And I can take care of myself, so I get it.”

  “You think I wasn’t worried about you?” he asked.

  “Well… We haven’t been dating that long, and I’m not the kind of person who people worry about.”

  “I called Jude and asked him to keep his eye on you. He said he would. I also called Faith and told her that you promised not to go after any dogs by yourself until I got back. She also promised to keep her eye on you.”

  She went up on an elbow at his words. “You did?”

  “I did,” he confirmed. “You’re right about Rocco and Caite. I wanted to ask you, but I knew Rocco would feel better with Caite here. And I knew you could definitely take care of yourself. I still worried about you, but more because I didn’t want you to put yourself in a dangerous situation with the animals than anything else. I hated that you wouldn’t get to see Hannah while I was gone, and her you. I’m glad Caite called you. I told her a million times if anything went wrong with Hannah, to get in touch with you. That you’d know how to help.”

  “Oh.”

  “And…you should know. Now that I know you and Caite get along, if Rocco hasn’t found a new place for him and Caite to live by the time we’re sent on another mission, I’m going to ask you both to stay here with Hannah.” He hoped he could convince her to move in with him way before his next mission, so it would just be Caite who was the guest, but he left that part out.

  “I like Caite,” Sidney said, lowering herself back down onto his chest.

  He merely shook his head at how she ignored everything else he’d said. It boded well that she hadn’t freaked out on him for going behind her back to talk to Jude and Faith though. Hopefully she’d figured out that he’d done it out of worry for her, not because he was trying to be controlling.

  “And it seems as if she likes you too,” Gumby reassured her.

  Several more minutes went by before Sidney said, “I’m tired.”

  “Me too.”

  “We s
hould sleep.”

  Gumby chuckled. “Okay.”

  And just like that, Sidney was out. Her breaths against his naked chest felt good. Right.

  Closing his own eyes, Gumby tightened his hold around Sidney. He hadn’t ever had a homecoming like the one he’d had today. In the past, he’d always come home to an empty house and a headful of the people he’d killed, all in the name of fulfilling his duty to his country.

  But tonight, he’d come home to not only his dog, but to his woman as well. A sleepy, tipsy, talkative, snuggly Sidney, who let him know in no uncertain terms that she’d missed him. Who let him in about her past. Who freely admitted to snooping in his stuff, and not being all that apologetic about it either.

  Yeah, life was good—and he was the luckiest son of a bitch ever.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Sidney woke up and realized she was the luckiest woman ever. She took stock of her surroundings and her body. She remembered everything about the day before. Getting the call from Caite, rushing over to Decker’s house, being shocked by the state of the house, cleaning, drinking, Rocco and Decker arriving home unexpectedly, cuddling up to him in his bed…and their conversations.

  She probably wouldn’t have shared what she had about her brother if it hadn’t been for the alcohol, but in the light of day, she was glad she’d told him. It felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Talking about Brian was never fun, but Decker had been the perfect blend of compassionate and outraged on her behalf.

  She wasn’t hungover in the least. She never was. Thank God.

  And now she was lying next to an almost-naked Decker in nothing but one of his oversized T-shirts. The covers had been pushed off them in the middle of the night, and he still slept, so she had free rein to check out his body without worrying about being caught.

  She’d seen him when they’d gone swimming, but that was different. Now she could look her fill without trying to be sneaky about it.

  Decker didn’t look like he had an ounce of extra fat on his body. His abs were amazing. Sidney didn’t think she’d ever seen a six-pack on a man in real life other than on him. She moved her hand down and placed it on his stomach gently. He shifted, but didn’t wake.