“I can’t.”
“Of course you can’t because there’s nothing to tell. My parents were hardworking people who tried to bring justice to a broken world, and you’re nothing more than a bottom feeder.”
“Have you looked carefully at the case, Luke? Or did you only see what you wanted to see?”
I had the case memorized. All of it. There was no grey area. It was black and white. My parents were murdered by family. I didn’t answer him.
“They’re going to pick off every single person you care about until you give them what they want.”
“I don’t have anything to give them. And I don’t know who they are.”
“You’re wrong about that.”
I hated these games he was playing.
“Then why don’t you tell me what it is you think I have in my possession that is worth killing over?”
“I don’t know what it is. But they made some people very angry.”
“Yes, because they were close to putting some criminals away for a very long time.” I gritted my teeth as I spoke.
“Not everything is that cut and dried. You’re wrong about that, actually,” he whispered.
I slammed my fist on the table and the officers nearest my uncle began to walk over.
“If you love that girl, I suggest you give these people exactly what they are after. They won’t stop until they get it or until you’re all extinguished. But you already know that, which is why you’re here.”
The officers were behind my uncle, placing their hands under his arms as they lifted him up. The officers informed me I had to leave and I apologized to the officers, agreeing with them fully. This wasn’t a place for me. I stood up as they began walking my uncle away from me.
“I knew I never should’ve come here,” I muttered to myself, glancing back at the table before leaving.
I noticed a tiny piece of paper on the floor next to where my uncle had been sitting. I scanned the room and quickly picked up the piece of paper that had been folded into a tiny triangle and slipped it into my pocket.
I proceeded to the exit and stopped at the lobby to check out of the prison. I signed my name out of the logbook and said goodbye to the officer who’d so graciously checked me into the facility. I didn’t envy any of the officers who worked here. I didn’t know how they did it.
The moment I got outside to the fresh air, I felt immediately better. Even though I was only visiting, my existence felt very tenuous. As if one false move and I could wind up there too. I knew that was ridiculous, but somehow being inside those walls made me feel more vulnerable than I had in years. I quickly walked over to my rental car and got inside. I wanted off this property before I even attempted to look at the note. For all I knew it wasn’t even from my uncle.
I turned on the car and looked at the clock. Hannah should be out of therapy, and Mitch was probably driving her back to the home she shared with Mia. Mitch had bounced back quickly. I wanted him to take some time off, but he refused. The doctors gave him the okay to get back to work and there was no stopping him. I had to admit that I was relieved to have him back in the mix. He was one of my top guys and I rested a little easier knowing that he was with Hannah.
Hannah was what I needed. I needed to feel her next to me. I needed to hear her voice. She would bring me down again and make me focus on what was important. I dialed Mitch’s number and asked him to check with Hannah to see if she’d be interested in a detour. I heard her glorious laugh in the background and pictured her high-wattage smile as she accepted my invitation. Mitch hung up and I quickly turned out of the heavily-guarded parking lot. I knew I’d never be back here again and wished I’d never gone, but seeing it in my rearview mirror put the visit in its proper perspective. Now if I could dump off my rental car and catch an earlier flight to see Hannah, my world might hold some light once more.
I felt the note burning in my pocket and hoped it offered some answers and wondered if I even had the ability to protect the ones I loved any longer. I wasn’t so sure.
Hannah
I’d curled up on the couch in Luke’s family room and was feeling so much better than when I’d met with Dr. Doro. Probably because the very worry that I’d had about Luke trying to distance himself had righted itself with his invitation to come over this evening. He was upstairs showering while I tried to bury myself in a good book.
The problem was that ever since everything happened it was difficult for me to remain focused. Books used to be my escape, but now it seemed as if very little in life offered me relief. I’d come up with some distractions to keep my mind occupied, but they wore off pretty quickly, and my mind would go back to those terrifying days. I shivered and shook my head, closing the unread book yet again.
I glanced at the cover, which was bright red with silver lettering. It was a thriller. Maybe that was my issue. I needed to sink my teeth into a romance, maybe set in another century, maybe another world.
“Hey, baby.”
I nearly jumped out of my skin. I hadn’t even heard Luke come into the room. I flashed an apologetic smile and glanced in his direction. He looked amazing dressed in board shorts and a t-shirt. His hair was still wet from the shower and the smell of his soap was literally intoxicating.
“Sorry. Little jumpy yet.”
His eyes saddened but he smiled and nodded. “Don’t apologize.”
He walked toward me and sat on the couch. “I thought you might want to go to the beach and maybe zone out a little bit. You could bring your book.”
“The beach sounds like a great plan. I don’t think I’m up for this story though,” I paused. “I need something a little less chaotic. Before you came into the room I was trying to figure out why I wasn’t as into reading, and then I realized maybe reading thrillers wasn’t the best choice considering I’d just lived one big thriller.”
“Wise decision.” He smiled and nodded as he slid his hand over the blanket and rested it on my knee. His slight touch sent an unexpected charge through me, and I placed my hand over his.
“So you didn’t tell me where you were this morning.” I smiled and squeezed his hand, hoping he’d begin to open up to me.
He let out a short breath and shook his head. “Nowhere that mattered.”
“I doubt that if you had to fly there, which you did.”
He twisted his lips and tilted his chin. “You’re relentless.”
“Only because I care. You should be happy. If I didn’t give you the time of day, would that make you happy? I don’t think so.”
He flashed a tentative grin. “I went to visit my uncle.”
It felt like the air had been knocked right out of me. From what both Mia and Luke had told me, they never saw their aunt or uncle and never planned on doing so. Things had obviously changed since my capture.
“Why?” I asked, my voice barely audible.
“I’d hoped he might be willing to shed some light on the past. But I was wrong. It was just a waste of time.”
“Well, what did you talk about? Or what did he say?”
Luke removed his hand from my leg and crossed his arms in front of him. His expression hardened as he contemplated what exactly to say, which bothered me. I wanted to know everything. No filter.
“He’s basically insane. Honestly, I don’t know how he wasn’t deemed criminally insane.”
“It was pre-meditated,” I said, not realizing I’d said it aloud.
Luke’s eyes flashed to mine. “Well, there you go. He’s a calculating, insane person… Listen, I don’t want to put anything else on your plate. All I want you to do is focus on recovering.”
I shook my head in protest. “Getting back to a normal life is part of recovery. Being shielded from life is not. You know what kind of girl I am. I’ve never been one to hide under the covers, and I’m certainly not going to start now.”
He looked almost amused but not quite. “If there was something to tell, I would. The truth of it is that I’m really disappointed in my
self for even thinking that he’d be helpful. All I came away with was that he feels things aren’t always black and white and my parents were involved in something more than the investigation let on.” Luke’s voice was cynical. “Yeah. My parents were involved in bringing criminals to justice. Nothing more. The people they wanted to bring down just didn’t like that they were about to be caught.”
The pain in his voice nearly killed me. Every word was riddled with agony at the mere mention of his parents’ involvement, right or wrong. It made me wonder if Luke was able to look at things objectively.
“Was he trying to imply they were involved in something more than—”
“I don’t know,” he interrupted. “He wouldn’t go any further. It was only half-statements and weak insinuations at best.”
I nodded, not wanting to make things worse for Luke. I could tell he was conflicted about something, and my intuition told me he didn’t want to face whatever was lurking beneath the surface from his uncle’s innuendoes.
“He gave me a note.” Luke glanced at me.
“I didn’t think—”
“Yeah. It wasn’t approved. He left it where we were sitting, and I happened to spot it before I left.”
“What did it say?”
“There was an address on it and another statement that not everything is as it seems.”
“Is the address around here?”
Luke shook his head. “Flagstaff.”
I remembered him mentioning something about a cabin in Flagstaff, but the moment he mentioned it, he brushed it under the rug. I never brought it up again, and I wasn’t certain he remembered even bringing it up to me. There was only one way to find out.
“Was it the cabin?”
“You do have a good memory,” he smirked, unfurling his arms from his chest. It looked like he was starting to relax slightly. “No. It’s not the cabin’s address.”
I didn’t want to ask the next question, but knowing what his aunt and uncle were capable of made it impossible to ignore.
“Could it be a setup?” I questioned as I crawled out from under the throw and over to him. I leaned my head against his shoulder and felt the warmth from his body. He circled his fingers around my arm and I felt so close to him in this moment.
“I wouldn’t put it past them.”
“You’d send someone else in first, right? You know… to check it out.”
He nuzzled the top of my head and settled his arm around my shoulders as he pulled me closer. “I don’t know what I’ll do.”
I’d never heard Luke uncertain of anything in life before. His admission both startled and scared me. I knew there was more than what he was letting on, and I prayed he’d let me in someday soon. I’d seen what secrets had done to families before and wanted no part of it. The only way we’d make it through whatever was in front of us was if we hid nothing and worked through everything together.
“Did you look up the address on Google maps?” I asked.
“No.”
This wasn’t like Luke. He lessened his grip, and I turned around to face him. I saw it in his eyes. He was as broken as I was, and I wasn’t sure how to fix him, how to make him understand this wasn’t his fault.
I straddled my legs over his lap and placed one hand on each of his shoulders, softly massaging his muscles. He slid his hands down my spine and rested them on the small of my back.
“Your smile makes everything in this world right again,” he whispered, his eyes staying on mine.
“If only it were that easy.”
“Maybe it is.” He cupped his hands around my hips and pulled me closer as my legs circled around him. “Maybe it isn’t. I don’t even know any longer. There’s just so much that I can’t control.”
“That’s how life is. We plan to do one thing and go in one direction and something is thrown at us, which takes us in another. But we have each other.” I waited for a response.
His fingers were pressing into my hips as our gaze stayed connected, but I didn’t want him to let go. Feeling his body against mine and seeing the desire run through his expression comforted me in a way I couldn’t explain.
“I thought I’d lost you,” his voice cracked and his fingers went deeper into my flesh.
“You didn’t. You never will,” I murmured, shifting into him even more. Since I’d returned, we’d barely spoken about the events that had transpired and seeing the pain run through his eyes told me why.
“Don’t blame yourself, Luke. You had nothing to do with your parents’ murders and you had nothing to do with what happened to me. You’re not the criminal in all this. Don’t start doing this to yourself. I can see the guilt in your eyes and it kills me.”
“If I hadn’t left your side at the hospital…”
“They would’ve gotten to me at school, at a coffee shop, at the grocery store. Or they would’ve gotten to Mia. This isn’t the Luke I know.”
“I don’t want anything to ever happen to you. I just…There’d be no point—”
“As long as we’re together, we’ll never be alone in any madness that is thrown our way, but if we can at least quiet each other’s demons along the path we’re given, that’s all we can ask,” I whispered, burying my head into his chest. He was quiet for several minutes before I lifted my head up.
“You deserve to see a better world, Hannah.” His tormented eyes searched mine for forgiveness, but there was nothing to forgive.
“So do you… so let’s start now…” I sat back from him and walked my fingers down his shirt, tugging slowly to pull it over his head.
He shook his head, but I could feel the longing underneath me as I sat on his lap. My hands cruised along his abs up to his chest, and his body shuddered as my lips followed the same trail.
“I love you more than you know, Hannah,” his voice trembled as my lips coasted along his neck. I placed gentle kisses along his jaw and sat back on his lap, taking in this beautiful man.
Our eyes locked as his fingers unbuttoned my shirt, and I let it fall down to the floor. The intensity in his eyes made my world completely melt as I thought about what was in store for me. His fingers released the clasps on my bra and I tossed it to the side.
“I’ll never put you in harm’s way again.”
His words shook me to my core as I realized there was nothing I could say to change Luke’s mind about the events that transpired. My only hope was to show him I was safe and here now.
His mouth pressed to mine as his hands stroked my bare skin, creating heat wherever they landed and a desire I could barely contain. My fingers worked to untie the waist of his board shorts, and he managed to slide them down while my legs still wrapped around his waist. He moved me gently onto the sectional, placing me on my back. I unfastened my legs from his waist as he slid my panties down and tossed them to the floor.
There was something different running between us. The desperation and longing we had for each other was mixed with something uncertain, something I wouldn’t fully understand until many months later.
Luke bent my knee up and held my leg as he placed soft kisses along my bare skin until he reached my thigh. He released my leg as he licked my inner thigh, teasing me with his tongue. My body trembled with anticipation as his gaze washed over my breasts while he continued to scatter kisses along my belly until he reached my mouth, but instead of kissing me, he locked his elbows and hovered just out of reach. It was as if we were both trying to memorize every detail of this moment and neither of us knew why.
My eyes committed every inch of his sculpted body to memory as he leaned over me. Anchoring his elbows on each side of my body, his lips parted and our kisses deepened. I ran my hands along his back and settled onto his hips as he nudged my legs apart with just one movement. My body tingled with ecstasy as he entered me and our worlds sank into an amazing collision of bottled-up emotion and longing for something neither of us understood. Whatever we had between us was untouchable and impossible to ever replace, even if the world
tried.
Luke
The images of Hannah as we made love yesterday were impossible to shake. Being with her was never a careless proposition. It had always been more than just sex. The connection that bound us was unlike any I’d ever experienced. She was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. Since her return, I hadn’t wanted to rush things. I wanted everything to be at her pace. But I didn’t realize how much I’d needed her. Remembering her head tipped back as I held her in my arms where she was free from the burdens I’d brought her way made me wish I could make everything bad in her life good. As we stayed in each other’s arms, I’d asked her to move in with me. She hadn’t really given me an answer by the time she’d left. I tried not to read too much into it, but it was difficult not to. I hadn’t actually planned on asking her to move in because I’d wanted to give her space.
Hannah said she was still planning on starting nursing school in a couple weeks, which I hadn’t even given any thought to since she returned. It never occurred to me that she was ready. Or not ready. It hadn’t dawned on me that the semester would be starting so soon. I didn’t know how I felt about that. She was already an easy target and school would make her even more so, but I couldn’t ask her to forgo her dreams. I would never risk her future because of me. I’d just ensure she had a security detail every step of the way.
In the meantime, my hope was that I would make headway on the problem at hand. I’d given the Flagstaff address to Sam in hopes it would mean something on the bureau’s side. It didn’t. I knew I needed to go there. I had planned on visiting the cabin anyway. I knew Hannah didn’t want me to put myself in harm’s way anymore than I wanted that for her, but I couldn’t expect to send one of my men when this directly involved my family. Besides, I wasn’t sure I could trust any other person to recognize something important. Not that I had a clue what I was looking for, but I felt better about blaming myself for a possible miss than anyone else.
“You in here?” Mia called from the foyer.
Buried Sins Page 10
