by Darcia Helle
“Why did Nico tell you?” Ben finally asked. “What do you have over him?”
Graham smiled but it came off looking more like a grimace. “It wasn’t Nico.”
“Who then?”
“I suppose it won’t hurt for you to know. Ace gave me the info.”
“Why?”
“Let’s just say he owed me,” Graham replied. “And part of his repayment plan was to give me information he thought I’d find interesting. I have to admit, one of our detectives buying a kid was pretty damn interesting.”
“We were desperate,” Ben muttered. “You have no idea what it was like.”
“More like your wife was desperate. Didn’t save your marriage though, did it?”
Ben glared at Graham. His muscles tingled and he fought back the urge to pound Graham’s skull against the windshield. He said, “She wanted a baby so bad. I know she blamed me for that accident every single day. She didn’t want me riding that damn bike anyway. But I had to take the Harley out, didn’t care what she thought. Then, after, when we found out I couldn’t have kids because of it, well, she hated me. I wanted to fix it. I thought if I gave her the baby she wanted so badly that we’d be okay.”
Ben shook his head. Stupid to try and justify or explain. Telling Graham personal information was never a good idea. Sharing feelings with him was even worse. He clamped his mouth shut and stared out his side window.
A moment later Graham’s cell phone chirped to life. Ben tuned out the conversation. It was probably another in the endless parade of women that Graham used. He lowered his window all the way down, breathed in the cold air, and watched the hookers strut along the sidewalk.
When he realized Graham had stopped talking, he turned to face him. Graham was staring at him with a look of impatience and he said, “You listening?”
“What?”
“Nico’s dead.”
Ben’s stomach twisted. “Was it her?”
“Uh-huh.”
“We have to find her.”
“You think she knows she has a twin?”
The blood rushed to Ben’s head and pounded in his ears. “I think about that every minute.”
***
Ian sat with the phone to his ear, wondering who Sam was putting on the other end and why. Through the phone he heard the rumble of an engine and traffic passing. His caller ID gave no number and no name. More mystery was the last thing he needed in his life. He tapped his fingers against the steering wheel, squirmed, fidgeted. For the first time ever, Ian wished he had taken up smoking.
Finally a voice said, “Hello Ian.”
With the voice came instant recognition. But he refused to accept what his brain was telling him. He pushed his door open and stepped out in the driveway because he needed something to do. Not truly believing his own ears, he asked, “Who is this?”
“Your father. And please don’t hang up. I have something very important to tell you.”
Ian’s mouth worked but no sound escaped. He paced the length of the driveway, oblivious to the cold night air. The streetlights threw shadows along the lawn. He stared into the dark spaces, his mind going back twenty years to that young boy who had desperately wanted his father to care enough to return.
“I know you hate me,” Cameron said. “No words from me are likely to change that. I have no excuses and won’t bother attempting any sort of justification for walking out of your life. I don’t expect your forgiveness but I do need you to listen to me. Your mother is in danger.”
“Because of you,” Ian managed to say. “Because you’re a coldhearted son of a bitch and you sold your own kid on the black market.”
“Your mother had nothing to do with it.”
“I know that! I know it was Holly’s kid. Do you think that makes it better for anyone?” Ian slammed his foot into the side of his tire. The pain in his toe came as a welcome distraction from the feeling that his heart would soon explode. He said, “Obviously whoever is out to get my mother has no clue that the kid isn’t hers. Or do they? What the hell did you do?”
“Ian please,” Cameron said softly. “I understand your anger. Honestly, you couldn’t say anything I’m not already thinking myself. But we don’t have time for this. I need to tell you what’s going on so you’ll be able to help your mother.”
Ian gazed out into the shadows, wondering now if someone was out there watching. He inhaled sharply and said, “Tell me.”
As Cameron’s deep voice rumbled in his ear, Ian sank to his knees in the grass. Unaware that wetness from the recent rain was soaking through his jeans, unaware of the cold or of time passing, Ian closed his eyes and listened. A dozen emotions tore through him, from anger to sadness. His half-sister, technically also his cousin, was out there somewhere killing people. And his mother was on her hit list.
Minutes passed as the words continued to flood Ian’s mind. He hated what he was hearing. He wanted to rip his father apart, bit by bit, make him suffer for all the years lost and all the pain caused.
Cameron said, “Are you still with me, Ian?”
“Yeah,” Ian managed.
“You need to make sure your mother is well protected.”
“We’re taking her to a friend’s place.”
“Not the detective,” Cameron said.
Ian rose and began pacing again. “How do you know about her?”
“That doesn’t matter right now. The point is that Sara most likely knows about her as well. She’s smart. She’ll figure out that your mother is there.”
“Jesus,” Ian muttered.
“And be careful who you trust with this. Others are involved.”
“Others?”
After a short pause, Cameron said, “There’s one other part of this that I haven’t told you. I haven’t told anyone.” He gave a sad sort of laugh. “And I rather doubt that Holly has told you. Sara, as I said, was not given the life I’d been promised she’d have. But the other girl was. You see, Holly had twin girls. I was promised they’d be kept together, adopted out to this desperate couple who wanted children more than anything. But the girls were separated. Sara, unfortunately, well… you get what happened there. The other girl, she was sold to the original couple.
“The couple, they were good to her. She’s had a good life. Parents eventually got divorced but she’s okay. Lives up near you, in Berkley. She’s a marketing executive. Ian, she knows nothing about the circumstances of the adoption, nothing about her sister. But I’m not so sure that Sara doesn’t know about her.”
Ian watched a car cruise along the street and wished he could jump inside with the driver and leave this all behind. The car slowed. Ian backed up, suddenly nervous. As the car passed, he let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
“Ian,” Cameron said. “You still with me?”
“Yeah…”
“The reason I told you to be careful. You listening?”
“Yeah.”
“The couple who adopted Amy, Sara’s sister? Well the father is a cop. A detective.”
Ian bit back the curses that immediately sprang to his mind. He asked, “So what does this mean? I can’t trust the cops to help us?” Then it struck him and he said, “This detective’s name is Ben Sterling, right?”
Cameron’s voice was strained as he said, “Yes.”
“Christ, he was here! He dated my mother. What the hell was he trying to do? Is he the reason why my mother went nuts? What the hell did he do to her?”
“Slow down,” Cameron said. “I don’t think Sterling would hurt your mother. I honestly don’t. I think he’s scared. He knows about Sara. He knows what she’s doing.”
“Damn you!”
“Sterling’s partner, Peter Graham. He’s the problem. Don’t trust him. I don’t want to get into the reasons now, just stay with your mother. Don’t let her outside or near any windows. I’m going to fix this, Ian. I’ll find Sara. I won’t let her hurt your mother.”
Ian slammed his finger into the power button on his ph
one. He shoved it in his pocket, then doubled over with the urge to throw up. Taking deep breaths, he waited until the feeling subsided. His heart slammed against his chest as he ran to his house.
Chapter 54
“I need you to pack a few things,” Lucianna told Corinne. “We’re going to have a little sleepover at my apartment.”
Corinne glanced at Greg, then turned her attention back to Lucianna. “A sleepover?” She said the words slowly, as if she were trying to decipher their meaning. Then she asked, “Why?”
Lucianna inwardly cringed at this. Corinne was trying so hard to connect all the dots. She didn’t want to do or say anything to push her back into that dark place. She also didn’t want to lie. Not an outright lie, anyway. She said, “We think you might be in a little bit of danger if you stay here. So we’re going to bring you to my condo until we can sort it all out.”
“This has something to do with those men who have been watching me, right?”
“Yes.”
Lucianna expected more questions, maybe even hysteria. What she didn’t expect was for Corinne to take it in stride, nod, and say, “Okay. I’ll go pack.”
Once Corinne was out of earshot, Lucianna said to Greg, “You’ve worked miracles with her already.”
Greg grinned boyishly. “She’s ready. She wants to remember. She’s just terrified of what those memories will be. So she pushes them away where they can’t hurt her.”
“From what we’ve found, she’s had some good reasons to do that.”
“What’s going on?”
Lucianna gave Greg a condensed version of recent events. She kept her eye on the hallway, watching for Corinne. When she’d brought him up to date, she said, ‘What a twisted mess.”
“I should go with you,” Greg said.
“I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
“You didn’t ask me,” Greg replied. “I offered. Besides, Corinne is on the verge of allowing the memories. The activity around her is forcing them more quickly than she’s ready for. If she is suddenly unable to suppress all those memories any longer, if they come back to her in a flood, she could experience a very negative reaction.”
“You mean she could get even more nuts?”
“Essentially. Yes.”
“Has she had any breakthroughs yet? Any more memories?”
“I don’t believe so. No.”
Lucianna let out a long breath. “Then if you don’t mind, having you around would sure be a big help.” She glanced out the front window and said, “I wonder what’s taking Ian so long.”
“Hopefully this Sam gentleman is supplying some necessary information.”
Lucianna frowned, thinking that she didn’t quite trust Sam to do anything out of the goodness of his heart. She said, “I’d better go check on Corinne. We need to get moving.”
Just then the front door popped open. Ian stepped inside, his expression a mixture of shock and anger. His eyes locked on Lucianna and he said, “I just spoke to my father.”
At first Lucianna thought she’d heard wrong. Then she muttered, “Oh shit,” and crossed the room to Ian. She said, “What did he say?”
“We can’t take my mother to your place. It won’t be safe for her there.”
“Why not?”
Corinne picked that moment to emerge from her bedroom. She was carrying a small suitcase and for some reason had changed her clothes and applied fresh lipstick. Spotting Ian, she said, “There you are! We’re having a slumber party at your girlfriend’s house.”
Ian’s cheeks immediately reddened. “Ma…” His voice trailed off as if he’d lost the energy to speak.
Greg took the suitcase from Corinne and placed it on the floor. He said to her, “Why don’t you and I go into the kitchen and make some tea.”
“That sounds nice,” Corinne said. She linked her arm into his and winked at Ian before disappearing into the kitchen.
“Oh my,” Lucianna said with a chuckle. “Your mom seems to be taken with her new psychiatrist.”
“Great,” Ian muttered. “That’s just what we need.”
Lucianna took his hand and led him to the couch. She said, “Tell me what your father said.”
Ian groaned as he collapsed onto the couch. He started at the beginning of the phone call and recited back everything that had been said. Lucianna listened without interrupting, her mind churning the information around, fitting together the missing pieces of the puzzle they’d been trying to solve.
“Twins,” she said when he had finished. “Jesus.”
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t Holly tell us that?”
“Hell if I know.”
Lucianna’s cell phone chirped. She swore softly as she yanked it from her pocket and answered. “Well now I at least know you’re still alive,” Vinnie said. “Where are you?”
“Oh shit,” Lucianna said. “I’m sorry, Vinnie. We’ve got new info and we can’t take Corinne to my place.”
“What new info?”
Lucianna filled him in as quickly as she could. Then she said, “We’re still at Ian’s.”
“I assumed as much. I’ll be there in three minutes.”
“What happened with Kane?”
“He told us about Sara. Not about the twin.”
“Anything about Sterling or Graham.”
“Not a word,” Vinnie said.
“Did he have any idea where Sara might be?”
“No. They’ve been looking for her as well. Of course, now that Nico is dead, they’ve probably got other things on their minds.”
“Let’s hope so,” Lucianna said. “But wouldn’t that make them want her more? Since she’s the one who killed him?”
“Had Nico allowed some sort of chain of command, perhaps that would have been the case. However, Nico had not appointed anyone to be next in line, as Ace had done with him. For whatever reasons, most of which I’m sure had to do with enormous ego, the man was the sole power. Consequently, his little band of merry men is now in complete upheaval.”
“Gee, that’s too bad,” Lucianna muttered.
“My sentiments exactly.”
“So you don’t think they’ll be looking for revenge?”
“Regarding the girl, yes, I’d say they will eventually,” Vinnie said. “But I believe they will be leaving you and the McCormick family alone. By the time they get themselves organized, this will all be resolved.”
“What about Ben? And that narcissistic Graham? They’re a problem to us.”
“Both are being sought out at this very moment,” Vinnie said. “They won’t cause any further trouble. Once we have this sorted out, we’ll decide what to do about the two of them.”
Lucianna raised her eyebrows at the implication of those words but she made no comment. Instead she said, “We need to find Sara. Any ideas?”
“No need to search her out,” Vinnie said. “She’ll be finding us shortly. Now open the door please. I’m pulling in the driveway.”
***
Ben climbed out of the passenger seat and stepped away from the car. The hooker slid in beside Graham, gave Ben a wink, then slammed the door shut. No lights reached this end of the parking lot and inside the car was dark. But Ben had left the window down and could hear the girl giggling.
She was twenty at most, probably closer to eighteen. Her blonde hair hung straight down her back. Despite the cold, she wore six-inch heels, a mini skirt, and a little top that showed off her pierced bellybutton. Graham had informed him that her nipples were also pierced. More information than he needed to know.
Ben walked across the parking lot before the sound effects grew more intense. His stomach churned at the thought of getting back into that car, knowing the girl had just given Graham a blowjob there. Also more information than he needed.
One of the other hookers across the street whistled at him. He offered a weak smile, then turned on the sidewalk and strode toward the corner drugstore. The place probably survived on the sale of narcotic painkill
ers and condoms. But at least it was a warm place to kill his designated fifteen minutes.
A Chinese girl behind the cash register smiled as he stepped inside. She had a gap between her two front teeth and dimples on each cheek. She looked sweet and he hoped that she stayed that way.
He strolled slowly down the aisles, not really looking, just thinking. Amy, his daughter, had a twin sister who was a killer. Each time he allowed that thought to settle around him, it was like a kick to his gut. He didn’t think it had anything to do with genetics. The girl had been abused, brought up in a world with no morals, no safety, no love. She’d become a product of her upbringing.
Guilt ate at him for the way that girl had turned out. He tried to tell himself that it had nothing to do with him. He hadn’t abused her. He hadn’t raised her to be a child prostitute. Yet deep inside he realized that he did own the guilt he felt. While he hadn’t placed her in that situation, he had done nothing to get her and the thousands of others out of it. Christ, he was a cop. He was well aware of what happened to most of those kids sold on the black market.
Had he been that desperate? Or had it been more about selfishness? Adopting a baby, a newborn, was so difficult through legal adoption. And it took years, if you ever did find a newborn. He’d wanted to save his marriage. He’d needed to give his wife what she wanted most. And what he could never give her himself. So he’d crossed that line.
Often he’d consoled himself by acknowledging that they’d given Amy a better life. And they had. Despite their divorce, both he and Lynne had worked together to provide the best for Amy. She’d graduated college with honors and now worked as a marketing executive. She was engaged to a financial adviser, a great guy who worshipped her. She was happy. She was safe. But was that enough?
“Can I help you find something?”
Ben spun around to find a middle-aged man with white hair and wire-rimmed glasses gazing at him curiously. He wore one of those white lab coats with a nametag stuck to his pocket, identifying him as Alan Hanson, Pharmacist. Ben realized that he’d been standing in this spot, facing the endless row of pain relievers, long enough to attract attention. He probably came off as some aging, doped-up fool.
