by Janie Crouch
“You don’t think he’s planning something else?”
“I think he was probably testing it out. Making sure it really worked. The rash gave him an excuse to try to manipulate the hardware and see what he could get away with.”
Tanner got off the phone a few minutes later. He seemed much more relieved at what he’d found out. Sowers had convinced Tanner there was nothing to be concerned about.
“It’s really safe?” Marilyn asked.
Tanner gave her a smile. “Jared will either go into holding until the ankle monitor can be fixed or someone will keep him under surveillance. We’ll be notified if anything changes.”
Bree came over and rubbed her shoulder. “This actually reassures me that the monitor is working the way it’s intended. I don’t doubt that Jared was probably trying to test it out and see if the cops came running to his door if he tried to remove it. Now he knows it works and they will.”
Marilyn looked over at Noah, who gave her a smile. He’d basically just said the same thing.
Tanner was smiling, too. “And we might be able to use this with Judge Osborne to get Jared moved back into jail until the trial. The judge isn’t going to put up with this nonsense.”
Good. These were all good things. But she still needed to get home and check on Eva and Sam. She felt terrible. Bree hadn’t had any sort of bachelorette party, so tonight was supposed to be her girls’ night.
“I know I was supposed to hang over here with you tonight,” she said to Bree, “but I need to go to the kids. See them with my own eyes.” She wouldn’t be able to function properly until she did.
Bree pulled Marilyn in for a hug. “I’m fine. Go be with your kids. I totally understand. I’ll see you bright and early in the morning.”
Bree probably meant it. She’d been alone for a long time before she met Tanner. She wouldn’t mind spending the evening alone. But still, Marilyn felt like a terrible friend, especially after everything Bree had done for her. But they all left, being sure to shoo the groom out so he didn’t stay.
Damn Jared for messing up one more thing in her life. For making her afraid and causing her to dance to his tune again.
She and Noah were both quiet as he walked her back to New Journeys.
Everything was fine. Ronnie Kitchens, even off duty, was walking circles around the outside of the property to make sure nothing was out of place. He shook Noah and Marilyn’s hands as they arrived, then Marilyn reached over and hugged him.
The older man seemed a little uncomfortable by the gesture, but Marilyn couldn’t help it. He was here, helping, even when he didn’t have to be. “Thank you, Deputy Kitchens.”
He nodded at her as she stepped back. “We want you and your children to be safe here. That’s my job. And Risk Peak is your home. We’ll all do what we can to keep ours safe.”
She wanted to hug him again.
Once she and Noah were inside the building, they checked on the kids and found them asleep, Tromsø spread out across Sam’s bed. Noah did a thorough search of the building before coming back to her.
“Everything looks solid. Are you doing okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Cassandra is going to stay here on the couch in her office, just to be an extra person around. I may not get much sleep, but I’ll be okay.”
“Do you want me to stay?”
Did she want him to stay?
Yes, she very much did. Not just because of the threat of Jared, but because she wanted him here with her. Wanted to feel his arms around her. Wanted much more.
But tonight wasn’t the night for that.
“No,” she said softly. “I know you have plans. I’ll be fine.”
Just like Marilyn was supposed to be spending Bree’s last single night with her, Noah was supposed to be out with Tanner.
He cocked his head to the side, studying her. “I’d like to take my brother out for his last drink as a single man, but he and I both would agree that you feeling secure is more important.”
She reached up and grabbed his biceps—so very firm and strong under her fingers. “I do feel secure. Everything you’ve done over the last few months has gotten me to this place where I don’t have to panic over every little thing. Go, have that drink with your brother. Jared will still be around to harass us when you’re done, trust me.”
He leaned down and kissed her. “You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever known, you know that?”
She raised an eyebrow. “You should probably get out more often, then.”
“I don’t think I ever need to get out more often ever again. I know what I know.”
She couldn’t stop her smile. “Let’s get your brother married tomorrow then we’ll talk.”
He winked at her and her heart turned to goo. “Don’t think I’m not going to take you up on that, gorgeous. We’ve got stuff to get through—I know it and you know it—but we’ll be doing that together.”
She didn’t doubt it for a second.
24
Noah walked into Micky’s, one of the two bars in Risk Peak. He’d bought his brother his first drink here when Tanner had turned twenty-one and was glad to buy him his last drink here as a single man.
But damn it, it had been hard to leave Marilyn, even knowing she was fine.
“Marilyn and the kids okay?” Tanner asked as Noah sat across from him in the booth. “Can’t blame Marilyn for being nervous after everything that’s happened in the last week.”
“Yep. Kids were sound asleep.” Noah took a sip of the beer Tanner pushed towards him.
“The way Marilyn looked when that alarm went off about Ellis’s monitor…” Tanner shook his head. “I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d taken the kids and fled the country.”
“I’m trying to give her whatever she needs to work through this at her own pace.” Noah spun his beer between his fingers. “But believe me, it’s only out of respect for you that this situation hasn’t already been completely handled.”
Tanner let out a sigh. “In some ways I would totally approve of you handling it yourself. I got the case files. I know Marilyn told us some about what Ellis did to her, but it’s bad, Noah.”
“She’s told me a little. Sick stuff. The physical abuse was what got him arrested, but the other stuff he did to her…” he trailed off. “I don’t even think she’s told me all of it.”
His helplessness and rage at her words earlier this week would haunt him for the rest of his life.
She blamed herself.
God, the agony of that still rocked him to his core.
Having enough experience to understand the physical pain of what she’d gone through was bad enough. She never complained, but she was still stiff sometimes—old injuries that would plague her for years, maybe forever.
But imagining the emotional trauma she’d kept buried for so long was devastating. She could adjust to the physical pain, but that sort of internal scarring of her psyche?
No wonder she suffered from PTSD. He had no idea how she’d functioned day in and day out at all.
He hadn’t been lying when he’d told her she was the most amazing woman he’d ever known.
He planned to spend the rest of his life proving that to her.
Tanner studied him, knowing Noah wouldn’t provide details about Marilyn’s abuse. That was her decision—whatever she decided to or not to share, he’d be right next to her in support.
“I’m sure most of it isn’t in the police report, either,” Tanner finally said. “But hell, what was in the report was bad enough. Ellis should be looking at eight to ten years.”
Noah shook his head. “Not long enough, if you ask me.” Not nearly long enough.
“It’s too bad we can’t pin the stuff in the wilderness on him. Whitaker is still looking into that. He’s gotten warrants to go through Paul Wyn and George Pearson’s phone records and texts. If he can tie it to Ellis, you know he will.”
“Good.” Noah took a sip of his beer. “Accessory to attempted murder
is going to hold a much longer sentence, I’m assuming.”
“Hell yeah. And that would be much better because I really don’t like how Oscar Stobbart seems so confident about the case and how Ellis won’t see jail time.”
“That’s his job, right? Hell, someone who’s as good at this sleazy lawyer stuff as he is knows that the appearance of confidence can get them a long way.”
Noah wasn’t sure if Stobbart had also raped Marilyn, but even if he hadn’t, the guy was a fucking bastard to have stood there and watched.
He had to purposely loosen his fingers around his beer glass, afraid he might actually damage it.
“I thought that, too.” Tanner shrugged. “But it’s almost like they have a plan. They aren’t worried at all. And that worries me. I know confidence is his business, but I have no idea how Stobbart can look at this evidence and be so sure Ellis is not going to jail.”
“Maybe they plan to pay off jurors or something. I know most of Ellis’s accounts are frozen, but you know he has to have stuff stashed away somewhere.”
“Yeah, I’m sure he’d be great at finding the weakest link in the jurors.” Tanner took another sip of his beer.
In some ways Noah wished Ellis would be acquitted at his trial. That he would come after Marilyn.
It would be the last thing the man ever did.
Tanner leaned back in the booth. “Or maybe they don’t plan on going to trial at all.”
“You mean making a run for it?” Even better. Noah and the law could be on the hunt for him sooner and get this over with.
Tanner shook his head, mumbling something about how Bree would’ve caught any weaknesses in the ankle monitor. Noah agreed. Look at how fast it had detected when Ellis had messed with it tonight.
Tanner looked up at him, some sort of realization falling over his face. “There are no weak links in the computer system.”
They knew that already, had confirmed it. But something had his brother’s law enforcement spider senses tingling. Tanner reached for his phone, made a call, then cursed.
“Who are you calling?”
Tanner hit redial. “Adam Sowers, the marshal who was checking on Jared. He isn’t answering.”
“You think that means trouble?”
“I just don’t like it,” Tanner said. He tried one more time for good measure, but still nothing.
Tanner made a call to another marshal to see if Sowers had checked in. Noah wasn’t sure exactly what the other law enforcement agent said on the phone, but one specific sentence from Tanner had Noah’s own spider senses tingling.
“I’m just wondering if maybe Jared Ellis found a weakness none of us were considering.”
Shit.
What Tanner had said earlier now became perfectly clear. There are no weak links in the computer system.
Ellis wasn’t an expert in computers, so he wouldn’t have tried to outsmart everyone that way. He was a sociopath—an expert in manipulating people. That’s how he would’ve outsmarted the system.
Noah jumped up and had paid for the beers by the time Tanner disconnected his call. The look on his brother’s face was not reassuring. They rushed toward the door.
“This all may be nothing,” Tanner said. “I could be grasping at things that aren’t there.”
“Until we know for sure, I think we need to head back to New Journeys. No harm in checking on Marilyn and the kids and standing guard there until we have multiple eyewitness accounts that Ellis is, in fact, still in Denver.”
“I don’t want to get Marilyn nervous if there’s no reason to.”
Noah shook his head. “Believe me, I don’t want to, either.”
But she could handle it. His tiny warrior could handle it. She’d rather know and face the fight head-on.
They rode together in Tanner’s SUV to New Journeys. Both of them were checking the darkness for anything unfamiliar, person or otherwise, as they walked to the door. Ronnie was still there and reported that he’d been walking the perimeter and hadn’t seen anything.
Tanner rang the bell, Noah and him both keeping their faces clearly in range of the security camera so whoever was answering the door wouldn’t get worried. It was nearly midnight, after all. Within just a few seconds the door opened.
“Hi, Tanner,” Francis said. “Bree isn’t here.”
“I know. Actually, we’re looking for Marilyn and the kids.”
“She’s not here, either.”
Tension flooded Noah’s entire body. “What? I just brought her back over here myself not even an hour ago.”
He knew he needed to tone it down a little when Francis involuntary step back. He muttered an apology.
Tanner took over with the charm Noah was never going to have. “How about the kids?” He smiled again. “Are they here?”
“Yes, they’re both in bed asleep. Marilyn went back out to see Bree. Said something about how she wasn’t a marmot and that a good bottle of wine was a terrible thing to waste.”
That made sense. Marilyn wanted to be a good friend. Noah turned from the doorway to look out into the darkness. Why did something not feel right about this whole situation?
Tanner continued to handle Francis. “It’s good for Bree to have someone hanging out with her the night before the wedding.”
Francis nodded. “That’s what Marilyn and I thought, too. Is everything okay?”
“Yes, everything’s fine. Just do me a favor. Call it pre-wedding jitters or whatever, but just don’t open the door to anyone you don’t know personally, okay?”
Francis smiled. “Trust me, I never do. But I’ll make sure.”
“I’ll see you at the wedding tomorrow.”
Tanner looked over at him as they both heard the door lock behind them. They shrugged at each other. It had been one hell of a week—truly running the gamut of emotions. Maybe they both had pre-wedding jitters, looking for danger that wasn’t there.
Tanner was saying just that when the phone rang in his hand. He laughed. “That’s probably Marshal Brickman now. Probably going to tell me that Sowers requests that I stop being such an overprotective jackass and let him do his job.”
Tanner pressed the speaker icon so they could both hear. “Marshal. I’m sure I probably owe you an apol—”
“Dempsey, you were right. Ellis had someone holding Sowers’s wife and baby hostage. Ellis is gone.”
Ellis was gone.
Brickman kept talking, but Noah and Tanner were already sprinting for the SUV. Noah had his phone and called Marilyn, but it went straight to voicemail.
Shit. He needed to get to her right damn now.
25
“Bree, it’s me!” Marilyn pounded on Bree’s door, smiling. “I couldn’t leave you on the night before your wedding!”
Coming here was the right decision. She was not a marmot anymore. She was not going to just hunker down and survive.
And damn it, she was not going to let Jared steal any more of her life. He was desperate to get her attention, and now that his friends were dead, maybe he would resort to other scare tactics, like messing with the ankle monitor, knowing it would cause a commotion.
Well, she wasn’t going to jump through his hoops anymore. She’d take it one day at a time until he was back in jail. But they had a wedding to focus on, and she refused to let him ruin that. Refused to give him any more of her attention.
Not today, Satan.
She was smiling at the phrase the town teens used all the time when the door opened and she found the devil of her own personal hell standing in front of her.
“Hello, wife.”
Before a single bit of her training could kick in, Jared yanked her inside, slamming the door behind him. She couldn’t help but shrink back. He was so much bigger, so much stronger than she had remembered.
All she could think about was the pain he could inflict. Every place on her body he’d ever damaged seemed to start hurting all at once.
She darted for the door, all her instincts telling
her to get out and get to safety, but he caught her and flung her back against the wall hard enough to stun her.
“So predictable.” Jared shook his head with a little snicker. “You’re always so predictable and stupid, Marilyn. It’s why you’ll always belong to me. You should be happy I even want to keep you.”
So predictable.
Stupid.
You’ll always belong to me.
They were the very words from her nightmares. She wrapped her arms around her head to escape his voice…to escape what she knew was coming.
But he wasn’t talking to her, he was saying something to Bree. Bree said something about Jared ruining her wedding gown. Marilyn couldn’t seem to focus on their words through the roaring of fear in her ears.
Then he pulled out a gun and pointed it right at Bree.
Marilyn sucked in a breath and took her arms off her head. No. She wouldn’t just stand there and do nothing while Jared threatened her friend.
“I think a spot of blood on your precious gown is the least of your problems,” Jared sneered at Bree. “You’re not really needed anymore.”
Oh God. He was going to kill her.
Marilyn pushed herself off the wall. “Jared—”
He turned and pointed a finger at her. “You shut up. It’s your fault that we’re in this situation to begin with. Deciding to air all our dirty laundry with the cops. Every couple has an argument here and there. You didn’t need to bring the cops into it.”
For just a second, she took his words to heart and shrank back against the wall. But then stopped.
No.
This wasn’t her fault. None of it was her fault. And god damn it, she was not going to let Jared hurt Bree.
Marilyn wasn’t that eighteen-year-old girl he’d found in the trailer park anymore. She wasn’t without skills, without friends, without the ability to take control of a situation.
Breathe, gorgeous. You know what to do.
It wasn’t Noah’s voice she heard in her head.
It was hers.
And yes, she fucking knew what to do.
