by Selena Kitt
Bruce walked to the dresser and using a towel tossed on top, he opened the first drawer then the second. “We need to get the police out here. There are purses, pictures, clothing even jewelry. Maybe these things can help identify his victims.”
Stephen stood in the middle of the room, staring at the center support beams, careful to not touch anything as he studied the chains. “These are covered in blood.”
“No surprise there.”
Dane walked over to the center support beam. His voice caught, before he rasped out, “There are names and dates scratched into this pole.”
The other two men came to look and found even more than a dated tally. Pleas for help scratched into the wood made Dane turn away, his eyes closing in pain and disbelief.
Grimly, Bruce said, “Good, this information will help us identify the victims and provide answers for their families.”
“Yeah, except we don’t know where this asshole is. He’s still on the loose and here we are, so focused on John, we’ve lost sight of Peppe. For all we know he planned to kidnap Jade from the beginning.”
“Christ.” Dane rubbed his chin, feeling as if he’d just been given a huge reprieve. “This just gets better and better. So my brother is innocent and Peppe is a killer? Did Emile know? Did he help his father? Did Tasha? Is that why no one could bear to look after him? Why they didn’t dare hire a local to look after him? In case he killed more women or in case someone found out what he’d done? As that would bring everything back onto them?”
Stephen snorted. “This place is giving me the creeps.”
Dane smiled, relief washing through him as he realized something major. “At least this proves my brother’s innocence. We need to get the police out here right now.”
Stephen, shaking his head, took one last look around the cellar. “I’ll wait here for the authorities. You go check in with the others and you might as well check out John’s shop. Peppe could just as easily have stashed Jade there. Especially if it’s close to the hotel.”
Bruce turned to go. “Wilson is waiting outside with Meg. He started retching when he saw this room. We’ll leave the three of you here to wait. I don’t need to remind you not to touch anything. If you find anything else, contact Dr. Mike and Susan back at the hotel. Call and fill them in. Dane and I will go straight to the shop.” Bruce had his phone out, and was climbing the stairs to call the police from outside.
“And if you hear anything, or see anything, call me on my cell.” Dane wrote the number down on a receipt he found in his wallet and handed it over to Stephen. “We have no idea where Peppe is, so be careful. I don’t know what the old man might have in his arsenal. He got these women here somehow.”
Dane drove into town in a much more positive mental state than he’d left it. Surely his brother was innocent of all the suggested crimes?
He desperately needed to find Jade. To know she was okay, and to hold her again. There was so much ugliness here. He couldn’t wait to go back to Seattle now.
When this was over, he’d convince his brother to come home with him. That was the best answer. Put this all behind him and start again. Dane could give him a job, a place to live, help him get back on his feet.
Bruce called Dr. Mike with an update that had Dr. Mike gasping with outrage. He told Bruce there’d been no sign of John or of Jade. Fifteen minutes after Bruce had finished his call, Dane pulled into the back of the shop he’d only ever driven past before. It looked the same. He reached into the glove box of his truck and pulled out a small clipboard. He rifled through several sheets of paper to find the one he was looking for. “726 Main Road. This is it.”
Bruce stared at the broken door numbers on the entrance. “Well, let’s go check it out. I really don’t want to find any more nasty horrors like what we just found.”
“I just want to find Jade – safe and sound.”
The men approached carefully. It was late afternoon now but still people walked the sidewalks and vehicles moved quickly along the street. An ordinary day.
But not for him. For Dane it was as if time stopped. If she were here, it would devastate him. But even then, it didn’t mean John was to blame. And if Jade weren’t here, he’d be even more upset and concerned for her. He needed to find her. Fast.
“This wall is cracked enough to enter.” Dane shook his head. Why the hell hadn’t he come here earlier and checked up on his brother? The back wall wasn’t just cracked. It was half gone. Shrugging, Dane stepped through carefully and followed the dirty pathway to a small door. He opened it. Dirty footprints led down the stairs.
Bruce stepped up behind him. “What is it?” he whispered.
Dane motioned to the tracks. Bruce grimaced. “Are we thinking he’s down there?”
The two men exchanged looks. Dane knew that if there were someone still down there, they had the advantage. Then again, he didn’t have an option. He slipped down the first couple of stairs as quietly as he could.
He bent down to peer around the corner.
“Oh, my God.”
Jade’s heart clogged her throat.
Even as a she watched, a large square of light appeared, highlighting stairs in the far corner.
Her muscles tensed. She could hardly breathe. She didn’t know if she should try to make it look like she were sleeping, or sit casually and wait.
That she was finally going to find out who was behind her kidnapping, almost scared her more than not knowing.
Her heart beat so hard she could barely think. Work boots like Dane’s appeared followed by jean-clad legs. Long and lean. She gulped and shoved her fist into her mouth to stop the whimpers forming in the back of her throat. It couldn’t be. Please not.
Then a familiar face came into view. Jade stared in disbelief and horror.
It was.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Dane raced to her side. “Jesus. Jade. Thank God, we found you.”
“Jade?” At the sight of Bruce’s worried face, Jade burst into tears. Dane wrapped her in his arms. “I’m so sorry. It’s going to be fine now. I promise. It’s over.”
She couldn’t stop crying. “Thank you for finding me. I can’t get free.” She kicked her leg out to show them the chain. “I’ve been so scared. I was afraid he’d come back, then I was terrified he wouldn’t come back and I’d die here forgotten and alone.”
“Never forgotten, sweetheart. We’re here. You’re going to be fine now.” Dane gave her a big hug then stepped back. She reached for him again, scared he’d leave her alone. He grabbed her hands. “Bruce, come hold her. I need to find something to knock that manacle off.”
Bruce stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. He held her close. “I just called the authorities again. I expect they’ll escort us all to the airport after this and wait until we get on to make sure we leave.”
Dane shook his head. “I can’t say I’d blame them. Now what the hell can I use to get that damn thing off her leg?”
She pointed to the far corner. “There’s a mess of stuff over there. You might find something to use.”
Dane headed to the corner.
“Damn it, Jade. What the hell happened?” Bruce gave her a quick shake. “We were so worried about you.”
She sniffled slightly, touching the side of her head, still tender but no longer bleeding. “I was sitting at the table waiting for Dane and Meg to come back, when the lights went out. I woke up here. With this.” She pointed to her foot again. “What is this place? Where are we?”
“We’re still in town. It’s been about five hours since you went missing. Oh, and you wouldn’t believe what we found out.”
She slid her arm through his, unable to let go of him. They both watched as Dane bent down to check something then stood again. He returned quickly with an odd assortment of tools in his hand.
“Dane, what’s over there?”
He shot Bruce a hard look. “I’m going to work on this lock. Bruce, why don’t you go and see? Maybe you can identi
fy it.”
Curious, Jade watched as Bruce hurried to the far end where he became lost in the shadows. She could barely see as he stopped and stared before dropping to the floor. “What is it, Dane?”
He sighed and stopped fiddling with the lock to look up at her. “It’s not what, as much as whom?”
“Oh, God.” Jade’s stomach threatened to heave. There was a person over there? Dead? Dane hadn’t said so, but she hadn’t heard a word the whole time she’d been here.
“He’ll need to add an ambulance to the fleet on its way.” Dane shook his head. “I never thought to call. All I wanted was to get this damn manacle off you.” He struggled to break the manacle while Jade watched, willing him to hurry.
The longer it took, the more she started to panic. They had to get away. Fast.
A hoarse, hard voice sliced through their concentration. “Well, well. Look who finally came to visit. Checking up on me, big brother?”
Dane froze. He closed his eyes briefly, his face contorting in disgust. And pain. Jade gasped and huddled in a ball in front of Dane. She couldn’t believe it. She didn’t want to believe it. Poor Dane. She tried to peer around Dane to be sure. “Dane? Is that John?”
Slowly opening his eyes to look into hers, he whispered, “Yeah. I’m so sorry. I’d hoped to get you safely away before your kidnapper returned. Looks like he found us first.”
“Stand up, stepbrother.” Jade couldn’t see John’s face but his voice conveyed no sign of the weak, ineffectual man she’d believed him to be.
Sighing, Dane dropped the tools and slowly stood. Turning to face John, he motioned at the gun in John’s hand and casually said, “What’s going on, John? I don’t get it. Explanation, please?”
“You never did have the brains everyone gave you credit for. To the world, you were always the first, the best, the biggest. God, I hated that. You were always trying to steal the limelight. And here I find you, trying to steal my new girl.”
Dane shook his head. “Your girl? You actually kidnapped Jade? Are you crazy?”
John smiled.
Jade peered around Dane. Oh God. That look on John’s face. So empty, so lacking in anything recognizable. She reached for the tools Dane had dropped and worked frantically on the lock.
“No,” John said softly. “I’m not crazy. I didn’t figure you’d find Jade so fast.”
“I have to admit I had some help from friends.”
“That damn team. They’re the reason everything’s wrong. Then again, they also offered the perfect avenue to bring about a much needed change.”
“Change? Is that what you call the destruction of your family?”
“I didn’t touch Emile. Peppe fought with him and knocked him down. The two of them had a whopper of a fight about the doctor he was trying to bring in behind my back to look after Tasha. Peppe was just getting his own back. Emile had already washed his hands of the old man. His death just finished off Tasha but that had nothing to do with me.” He smirked. “Except for the pillow over her mouth and nose.”
“What about your high school girlfriend, Celia? Did you do her in?” Dane’s voice held a plea that Jade had trouble understanding. Her gaze shifted from one brother to the other. Who the hell was Celia?
Shock sat heavy on John’s face. “Wow, you have been doing your homework, haven’t you?” He smiled. A gesture that shot ice rippling through Jade. God, whoever Celia was, Jade was sure she’d died at John’s hands.
“And your first wife, Elise? Did you kill her too?”
“That stupid bitch. She thought she could leave me. She asked for a divorce of all things. Then she didn’t even tell me she was pregnant. Doubt it was mine anyway. Besides, she deserved what she got.”
Jade switched her gaze to Dane’s face, watching the myriad of emotions wash over him. His fists clenched, then relaxed. These people Dane mentioned had been people he’d known. People that had been part of his life, too.
Anger and disbelief fired up Dane’s voice. “And Tasha – had she wanted a divorce as well? Or did you think the baby wasn’t yours? Is that what you do, get rid of women when you don’t want them anymore?”
“No. You see you should give me a medal for Tasha. Now that lady was a bitch. Especially toward the end. And I didn’t kill the baby. She lost that all on her own. You can’t lay that one on me.”
Jade could listen no longer. “She lost it or you helped her lose it?” Bitterness flowed from her voice. She didn’t even try to hold back. This innocent-looking man had caused so much pain and suffering. She stared down at the chain in her hand. So much misery. “Did you kidnap and abuse those poor women under Tasha’s nose, too?”
Dane shook his head at her, but she didn’t understand why.
John chuckled, a hard, nasty sound that made her shudder. “You’re as stupid as Tasha was. I wasn’t even here then. At least not for all of them.” He relaxed slightly, rocking back on his heels. “I didn’t kidnap those women. That was Peppe. I had no idea he could be so ingenious. No idea all that time I was stuck with Tasha that he was out scouting new victims. It still pisses me off that he thought of it first. That he’d been doing it for years.”
He waved the gun around. “I only found out when I was burying those fucking bodies. Talk about a turning point in my life. Emile brought a woman over and threw her on top of the pile thinking I wouldn’t notice. I might not have, except for the goddamn manacle. They didn’t even take the thing off her in death.”
“Peppe has a mess of them hanging in a busted down shed. They are seriously old. Probably find his whole damn family were either slaves or slavers at one time themselves.” He grinned a nasty smirk that made Jade wince. “I confronted him and he told me about Peppe – that Peppe hadn’t been strong enough to get rid of the body on his own, so he’d had to do it for him.” John laughed, a cold sound that sent shards of ice down Jade’s back. “The women were Peppe’s slaves. They looked after his every need. Emile wouldn’t have anything to do with his father after that. Little wuss. And Tasha could never look him in the eye again. She lived in terror of him being found out.”
“Emile even built a mess of crosses with inscriptions for the poor women. Said he didn’t know how many his dad had killed, but it had to stop.”
John laughed again, the sound crawling inside Jade’s skin like ants to an open wound. She’d bet anything Emile had been the one to write the inscription: For all Those That Have Gone Before.
In memory of his father’s victims. How sad.
“Although, the way I see it, you owe me. I’m pretty sure Emile changed his mind about things. That he was looking to snatch one of the team members for himself.” John sniggered. “Oh, he never said anything directly, but you could tell that something was bugging him. I bet the idea wouldn’t leave him alone. It’s not like he had a wife.” John continued, his voice brutally cold and confident. “I’d seen what Peppe had built, too. Had a little talk with him myself. Scared the pants off him. He was pretty easy to control from then on until the dementia really started. Who knew what he might have said.”
He motioned behind him. “I don’t have to worry anymore. That crazy Peppe was stalking Jade too. I took care of that.” He shrugged. “He just cemented my decision to kidnap her. Now, I have the perfect place to pick up where he left off.”
“You mean Peppe’s little dungeon in the root cellar? Well, the police are there right now.”
John’s face mottled as rage filled him. “Fucking assholes. That’s where I was going to take her. It’s a perfect hidey hole.”
Jade gasped. That had been his intention. She refocused on the manacle’s lock. She tried to keep one eye on the conversation and that damn gun and the other eye on her ankle and lock. She couldn’t see Bruce, but he had to know what was going on. What was he doing? And thank God John hadn’t noticed him.
“It’s a crime scene now.” Dane’s hard voice left no doubts.
John’s color receded as he considered the problem. “I’ll
keep her here then. When they’re done, I’ll put it back in order.” He shrugged. “No problem.” He sneered and studied his older brother. “I’d planned on taking you out eventually. But I wanted you to suffer first. That’s why I took Jade. I hadn’t planned on it. But you were so happy. So delighted at the unexpected turn in your life.
“Mine was shit and once again, you were going to come out with the gold. No point in you having all that money – or her – when it could be mine. Poor timing though to kill you so soon after the other deaths.” He brightened, “Unless I can make it look like you killed them.”
Click. Jade stilled in shock. Dane shifted to stand in front of her, giving her more cover. She slipped her hand into Dane’s and stood beside him, finally with the manacle unlocked, but still in place.
Dane’s hand latched onto her. He tucked her further behind him.
“Aww. Isn’t that so cute?”
Jade cringed at the mockery in John’s voice. She leaned her head against Dane’s broad back. Her breath caught. They needed a distraction… Something to give Dane and Bruce an advantage. Dane couldn’t outrun a bullet. But John would have a hard time fighting them both off.
“Shut up. Why did you have to pick on Jade anyway? Surely, you knew I wouldn’t rest until I found her?” He tensed. Jade recognized his change in stance, just not the reason for it. She peeked around his shoulder. He squeezed her hand tightly, then released it. She accepted the warning and took a second, more cautious look.
Bruce stood in the shadows, a large chunk of broken wood in his hand.
“And you’d have suffered for it every day.” John grinned.
