Brice sucked in a breath, riding the rush of adrenaline and pleasure racing through his veins. “Didn’t Ashley tell you how much I love to cause pain?” Brice set the end of the bat on the wood chair between Foster’s widespread legs and nudged the tip right into his balls. “Who has Adam?”
Foster tried to breathe through his open mouth. His head hung forward, his eyes closed. Blood dripped onto the bat between his legs.
Brice grabbed him by the hair and yanked his head up. “I know he’s not with the DEA agent who was with Aurora . . . oh, I mean Ashley, at the hospital. The one who thinks he can put his hands on my woman.”
Foster’s eyes opened and the man glared daggers at him. “You don’t want to fuck with him. He killed your buddy Darren early this morning. You even think about going near Ashley, he’ll kill you, too.”
Brice pushed Foster’s head, pulling his hair, and released him. “No. You’re lying. Darren isn’t dead.”
Foster gave him a gruesome bloody grin. “He tried to sneak onto that DEA agent’s property to kidnap Ashley back for you. For all his wanting to please you, he ended up dead.”
Brice jabbed the bat into Foster’s balls. “No! He’s not dead.”
Foster grunted in pain and folded over, trying to ease the excruciating pain and hide his nuts from another attack.
Brice seethed. “That stupid fuck. I told him to stay put and wait for me. He defied me and got what he deserved.”
“You will, too.” Foster found his breath and the ability to spit words through his clenched jaw. “They found your files in Darren’s car, including the one with all the video cards of the recordings you made of all the twisted things you did to Ashley . . . Aurora . . . no, Ashley.” Foster’s narrowed, fury-filled gaze sharpened with the promise of death if he got his hands on Brice.
No. They took all his precious recordings.
All his allies would fall.
He’d have no help.
He was on his own.
They knew his secrets and what he’d done to help Ashley transform into her true self. They didn’t understand. No one but Ashley understood why and how hard he’d worked to help her become her true self.
He swung the bat wide, whacking Foster in the head and putting him out, hopefully for good judging by the blood oozing out of the wound on the side of his head.
He didn’t need Foster’s help to find Adam. Once he got Aurora back, she’d know where to find Adam. They’d be together again. All he had to do was bide his time, find the right opportunity, and he’d have her back in his arms. They’d finish what they started. She’d finish her transformation and be his. Finally.
Chapter Thirty
Ashley stood in the driveway in front of Beck’s silver truck staring at the burned-out shell of Brice’s once-beautiful home. No less than five sheriff’s deputies stood around them, watching for any sign of Brice. No one had seen him in four days. While Sergeant Foster recovered in the hospital from his near-death encounter with Brice, she’d spent the last few days holed up at Beck’s answering more questions about Brice and Darren and making plans for Adam. The nights she spent in Beck’s arms were some of the best of her life.
In the dark, they lit each other up with so much passion and love—she’d never thought two people could share that kind of close connection.
She felt lucky to have something in her life so good and pure when all the bad still hadn’t gone away. She still had to face things like today.
“As you can see, the place caved in on itself as the fire consumed the top floor and roof.” The lieutenant taking over for Sergeant Foster stood beside her ready to take notes.
She stared at the charred remains of the house she’d once thought a lovely place to vacation and relax in the beautiful Montana landscape.
“Miss Swan? Can you tell me approximately where he held you?”
Beck stepped in front of her, blocking her view. “We can come back and do this another time.”
“From the second-floor window, I could see the front gardens. They were lovely. White rosebushes. Lights pointed up at the canopy of the small trees and highlighted the stone walls. The trimmed hedges’ leaves were deep green and glossy. I remember thinking when I looked out at the beauty of it all that I felt like a princess in the tower.” She sighed, angry at herself for such foolish thoughts. “Turns out there was no prince coming to my rescue. Only the devil hell-bent on transforming me into his puppet until he killed me.”
“In your story, Ashley, the princess saves herself.”
She finally looked into Beck’s eyes. “Notice the oddly missing window on the facade of the house where you’d put one to make the front look uniform? That’s where the ‘safe’ room was built. A vault within the house on the second floor.” She pointed to the debris blocking the lower blown-out windows and the odd corner of something sticking through the crumbled stone wall.
Beck and the lieutenant nodded, understanding what they were looking at now.
She walked around the house, pointing out where the French door she snuck out with Adam used to be. Nothing was left of his room at the top of the back stairs. She followed the path along the back patio like a robot, showing them the path she took into the open field and land beyond. “I’m not walking that route to Beck’s place again. All I can tell you is that I went that way with nothing but a prayer I’d find my way to safety, but really I just wanted away from here. Beck’s light drew me to him.”
“You must have been close to his place when you saw the light,” the lieutenant guessed, jotting down notes in his book and on the diagram he’d drawn.
“No. It was nothing more than a pinpoint, but something in the dark to guide my way to someone I hoped would help me.” She placed her hand on Beck’s chest and smiled up at him. A silent thank-you to him and God for answering her prayer.
He smiled back, and said to the lieutenant who shook off her notion that she saw the light from that far away, “On a dark night, even a candle can be seen miles away.”
Beck and the lieutenant wandered closer to the house to get a better view of the layout and the collapsed metal walls that had been her home far too long.
She stuck to the perimeter of the patio, enjoying the few hardy plants that withstood the snowstorm. Most of the snow had melted over the last few warmer days. She wandered the path toward the edge of the landscaped yard, enjoying the garden Brice took so much pride in, and stopped, staring at the small hill surrounded by large boulders with dead plants mixed between them.
She stilled, trying to figure out why that hill meant something to her. She closed her eyes and thought of all the times Brice made her stare out here from the wide windows. Something familiar about it nudged at the back of her mind, trying to come forward.
Then it hit her.
She tore her purse off her shoulder, unlatched the flap, and dumped it over, spilling the meager contents on the ground. She picked up the folded paper, sending the lip gloss Mia bought her rolling down the stone path. Her compact smacked against the stone and fell open. A pen rolled and slipped into a crack. She unfolded the drawing Adam made her and held it up. A perfect match to the hill surrounded in stones.
She stared at the picture of her and Adam standing next to it. “It’s all of us.” She repeated his words.
“What’s all of us?” Beck asked.
“Get a shovel.” She turned to him, her heart racing, her words quickly stumbling out her mouth. “You have to dig right here.” She pointed to the grassy center of the hill.
“Why?” Beck’s voice held a gentle tone to try to calm her down.
“There used to be small rosebushes here. Now it’s grass.”
“So? The gardener relandscaped.”
She grabbed his arm. “No. Don’t you see? He buried her here.” She held up the picture Adam drew. “He said, ‘It’s all of us.’ Not it’s both of us. He was trying to tell me his mother is in the picture, too.”
Beck swore, then yelled, “Lieutenant,
get the forensic team over here. And tell them to bring some shovels.”
The lieutenant ran toward the men sifting through the ash in the ravaged building.
Beck took her by the shoulders. “What do you know about Adam’s mother that you haven’t told me?”
“Nothing for sure. She worked here when I came for my getaway. I suspected they had a thing. She didn’t like the way Brice flirted with me. But at that point, it was still just this thing we did, like people saw on his show. Nothing serious. Fun between friends. At least on my part. When Brice’s advances turned serious, Jackie warned me to leave before it was too late. I thought she wanted me out of the way so she could be with Brice.
“He couldn’t stand it when someone defied him. I thought it was just the perfectionist in him snapping at people to give him their best. Then I saw what he was really like when I defied him in those early weeks. She was still here when he allowed me out in the beginning. She served us dinner and tried to appear like everything was normal, but every once in a while I’d see this look in her eyes that she didn’t think what he was doing was right.”
“It wasn’t. She should have called the cops.”
“On her own out here, no place to go. If Brice discovered what she’d done before she got away with Adam . . .” Ashley shook her head. “I think, in the end, she tried to do the right thing and he killed her.” She stared down at the patch of grass. Her gut soured and her heart sank. “It’s my fault.”
Beck took her shoulders and turned her to him. “No, sweetheart. If she’s there”—he nodded toward the grass—“it’s on Brice. All of this is his fault.”
She wanted to believe that, but still felt responsible because she’d been naïve, too trusting, and never saw the trap before it was sprung. “If she’s there, we’ll finally know what happened to her.”
“Yes, and we’ll nail him for murder. There is no way he will ever be allowed out of jail. Adam will have some justice.”
“Adam deserves more than that.” Ashley had an idea of how she’d get Adam everything he deserved. Beck probably wouldn’t like it, but sometimes you had to fight dirty.
“You both deserve more than that bastard gave you, and you’ll get it once Brice is behind bars.”
“That day can’t come soon enough.”
“For you and me both.”
“If it comes to it and you have a chance to take Brice, don’t hesitate because of my safety. No matter what, you take him down. He can’t ever be allowed to hurt another living soul.”
Beck wrapped one arm around her back and placed his hand on the side of her head. “Sweetheart, I will never put you at risk for anything. I know this might sound a little too close to the things Brice said to you, but without you in my life, it’s just not worth living.” He leaned in and kissed her, showing her just how much she mattered to him.
He held her face cupped in his warm hands and stared down at her.
She smiled up at him. “Nothing you say or make me feel is anything like what I experienced with Brice. I know the difference because you make me feel everything good people hope to have in their lives.” She placed her hand over his heart. “All I want to do is spend more time with you.”
Surprised, his eyes narrowed. “You don’t want to go back to L.A.?”
“Why? You’re here.”
Beck grinned, wrapped her in his arms, and held her as they watched the forensic techs dig and sift through the partially frozen ground. It took nearly an hour before one of the techs held up his hand to halt digging again. Another tech took a soft brush and dusted the dirt away. Everyone stood back. Beck released her, but took her hand as she walked forward and stared into the hole at Adam’s mother’s remains. A tear slipped past her lashes and fell down her cheek. That poor, poor woman. Another one of Brice’s victims.
One of the techs leaned down and brushed away the hair from Jackie’s face revealing the jagged wound on her forehead.
Beck hooked his hand around her middle and gently pulled her away. “Enough, Ashley.”
The farther he pulled her away from the garden and onto the patio, the wider her view of the yard. That strange feeling came over her again.
“Beck.”
“Yeah.”
“There are five more hills.” She swept her hand out to indicate the five mounds she’d walked past when she reached Jackie’s grave. She turned back to the house and around again. “That’s what he wanted me to see from the windows. His view. His garden. His victims.”
“Ashley, are you saying . . .”
“There are more of them.” Deep down, she knew it. She couldn’t have been his only victim. But she’d do whatever it took to ensure she was his last.
“Wait here.” Beck ran over to the lieutenant and spoke to him. The man turned and stared at the other hills, then directed the forensic team to start digging up the next one.
Beck came back to her. “They’ll get to work and let us know.” Beck took her hand and pulled her around the patio toward the front of the house and away from all that death.
“They’ll run a DNA test to confirm it’s Jackie,” he assured her.
“It is.” Though badly decomposed, Ashley recognized the dark hair and one other thing. “They’ll find Adam’s baby picture in the silver locket around her neck. I want that back when they’ve finished with her. It should go to Adam.”
“It will.”
“Do you think they’ll let me have him?” Ashley worried that he’d go to his grandmother in Florida and that a court or his father would never grant her custody.
“One step at a time. He’ll stay with Caden and Mia in protective custody until Brice is found. You talked to him. He’s happy there. Mia said he’s gained five pounds, he’s reading every book he can get his hands on thanks to Mia’s tutoring, and Caden says he actually let go some of his apprehension about Caden being a stranger, a man, and so big, and played with him last night. He talks more and more each day. The pediatrician said he’s healthy, and despite not having anyone really looking out for him this past year, he’s nearly met all his milestones. Given a few more weeks with Mia, or us—”
“Us?”
Beck helped her into his truck and stood in the open door staring at her. “Yes, us. What did you think—that you and I ended when Brice got caught?”
“No.” Raising Adam together was a big step to ask Beck to take with her. It would change everything. For both of them. It meant a commitment to Adam that required a commitment between them, too. She wanted that, but didn’t want to ask for too much too fast. She didn’t want to push Beck for more than he wanted to give. She didn’t want to waste another day of her life, waiting for things to happen. But that didn’t mean Beck felt the same way. “I haven’t had time to think. All I know is I want you and Adam and a real life.”
“Great. We’re on the same page.”
“Just like that?”
“I guess I need to take you home and show you again how much I mean it.”
“By home do you mean the place I’ve kind of taken over?”
“I rue the day you ever got your credit card back and started ordering online and having things delivered overnight.” He smiled. “If the worst thing you do is take over my closet and make me never want to leave our bed, I’m okay with that.”
“You’d like my place in L.A. It’s in the hills. Lots of flowers and trees. Private. Like your place.”
“Our place.” He corrected her again. “Do you miss home?”
“I miss having what’s mine, but I love sharing what’s yours. Does that make sense?” After Brice took everything from her, she missed the simple things, like picking out an outfit, drinking tea from her favorite mug, doing what she wanted to do when she wanted to do it, and saying what she wanted, not those damn scripted lines.
“Yeah. It makes perfect sense. Let’s go home. And don’t worry about Adam. He’s in good hands right now. We’ll give him a good life. The one his mother wanted for him.”
; She hoped she’d be a good mother. “I’ll try to love him as much as she did.”
“If you make him feel as loved as I feel from you, he’s going to be the happiest kid on the planet.”
“Aw, Beck.”
“I know. Since I met you, all kinds of nice things come out of my mouth. What will all the drug dealers think?”
She smiled, because he’d made the joke to ease her mind about finding Adam’s mother and possibly more victims.
A chill went up her spine that she could have ended up planted out there with the roses.
“What will you do now that you can’t work undercover anymore?”
“Right now, I’m your full-time bodyguard as long as you need me.”
She tilted her head, sad she’d taken something from him that he’d loved and done so well. “Beck, you can’t give up your job.”
“I can take a longer leave of absence. Believe me, I’ve earned it.”
“You’d do that for me?”
“I’d do anything for you. Including putting up with a dozen paparazzi with long lens cameras watching my house.”
“At least no drug dealers will sneak up on you and try to kill you.”
His derisive chuckle didn’t convince her that threat wasn’t as real today as before he met her. More so now. “Don’t remind me. We need to work on our security setup.”
“Maybe we need to loosen security a bit.”
He pointed a finger at her face. “Don’t even say it. I’m not using you as bait.”
“Beck—”
He slammed the door, cutting off her words, rounded the truck, opened his door, and slid into his seat. “I’m not listening to any plan that involves putting you within sight of that bastard. It’s not going to happen. No.”
Montana Heat: Escape to You Page 23
