by E. E. Borton
“I did,” said Carlos. “I’d go home after spending the day with Kate and hug my wife so tight she’d start laughing. I couldn’t tell my son enough times how much I loved him and would always be there for him.
“She told me everything, Grey. Everything that psychopath did to her. She also told me everything that was going through her mind while he was torturing her and Caleb. Unimaginable things. Things that will haunt me for the rest of my life that didn’t even happen to me. They happened to her.”
“That’s how she got you to help, isn’t it?” said Grey. “She knew you had a wife and a young son. She knew you’d think about what you’d do if the same thing happened to them.”
“I believe she did.”
“That doesn’t bother you? It doesn’t bother you that she manipulated you into risking your career for her? I’m not trying to be a jerk here, Carlos. I just need to know.”
“No, it doesn’t bother me. She found them. She found everyone that had anything to do with the crime. All of us helped her, of course, but she hunted each one of them down. She took most of the risks, and when she found them she punished them. In a way they deserved to be punished. I have no problem with that.”
“How far down that road are you willing to go?” asked Grey.
“I don’t know,” said Carlos. “I don’t believe she’d push any of us that far.”
“You can’t be sure of that.”
“I’m sure enough. You need to be as well.”
“What do you mean?”
“Whatever she asks of me, I’ll do because I trust her. I trust that she doesn’t want to see any of us get hurt. I’m not naïve, Grey. I know we need to go into dark, dangerous places to find the assholes that live there. The difference is, she’s willing to go in first. I’ll be right beside her. Will you?”
“I’ve already been there with her.”
“Then maybe the real question is, are you willing to go back?”
As Grey walked up the stairs to the front door after leaving Carlos, he already knew his answer. Turning the corner into the War Room, he found Kate sitting alone and staring at Emily’s mugshot on the big screen. He watched her for a moment before turning to the image.
“She really is striking,” said Kate. “Even with the weight of all that trouble, she’s beautiful.”
“I wonder if that’s part of the reason for the trouble,” said Grey.
“If not all of it,” said Kate, turning to face him. “I’m sorry about today. I should’ve told you before I reached out to her mother.”
“You don’t have to explain your reasons to me, Kate. Not anymore.”
“What are you saying?” asked Kate, giving her undivided attention. “Are you leaving?”
“I thought about it more times than you know. All I ever wanted to do was keep you and everyone else safe. I wasn’t able to prevent what happened to you, Paul, or Caleb, but I thought I’d be able to take care of you after. The problem with that is, you don’t want to be kept safe. I realize that now.”
“I do feel safe with you,” said Kate. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Yes, you do. You’d keep fighting. You’d keep putting yourself in harm’s way for others. It’s who you are now. It’s who you’ve always been, you just didn’t know it.”
“It’s not about putting myself in harm’s way,” said Kate. “It’s about putting myself in a position to help someone who feels helpless. Right now, Karla Pierce feels helpless and ignored. But she’s not willing to give up on Emily. I don’t think any of us believe she’s still alive, but that doesn’t matter. What does matter is finding out who hurt her and making them feel as much of that pain as possible.”
“It’s different now,” said Grey. “You were the victim. I was able to kill for you because I care about you. I was able to hunt and punish Diego because he hurt the people I love. I don’t even know Emily or Karla. None of us do. How are we going to be able to do the things we need to do if we don’t feel their pain?”
“You will feel it,” said Kate, reaching over and taking his hand. “Trust me, you will, and you’ll care about Emily. You’ll care about what happened to her. We don’t have to know them to know their pain and suffering. We’ve already experienced what that feels like.
“But I agree with you, we need to get to know them before we can do the things that need to be done. That’s why I’d like for you to come with me to Boudreaux.”
“You’re asking me?”
“Yes,” said Kate. “I’m asking.”
“Then my answer is yes. When do you want to leave?”
“Our flight leaves tomorrow afternoon.”
“You are a very unique woman,” said Grey, laughing.
“What? You could’ve said no.”
“When have I ever said no?”
“Exactly. You’re making my point for me.”
“What’s the plan that you already have and probably already started?”
“Evan and Abby are staying here and digging up everything they can about Emily’s records, the town, and who runs it,” said Kate. “Karla believes she’s getting railroaded and pushed to the side by every official she turns to for help. As tenacious as she seems, that can’t be an easy thing to do.”
“And you and I are going to Boudreaux to dig up everything we can about Emily’s life.”
“You’re good at this,” said Kate, grinning. “Chief is in court until next week. If you need him with you, we’ll put him on a plane. If not, he’ll help Evan and Abby here.”
“We’re going to a very small town which means we need to keep a low profile,” said Grey. “The fewer people who know we’re there poking around, the better.”
“You and Chief will be able to keep a low profile; I won’t. What happened to me here will be impossible to keep quiet, so I’m not even going to try. I’ll be staying with Karla at her home and going with her on Monday when she makes her rounds.”
“You’re not going to make anything easy for me, are you?”
“Probably not, but I know how much you love a challenge,” said Kate, waiting for a smile from Grey that didn’t arrive. “Evan is working on a smoke screen for me. It’ll explain why I’m there and how easy it was to get me involved. You’ll have to ask him for the details.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Kate stood and made her way around the table to Grey. She pulled him up by his hands and wrapped her arms around his neck. He returned the embrace.
“I love you, Grey. There’s nobody else in the world I’d rather have by my side than you. Do you understand that?”
“I do,” said Grey, pulling away from her. “I trust you. You’re going to have to learn how to trust me as well. I’ll follow you anywhere you need to go. I won’t hesitate and I won’t let anyone hurt you again. Do you understand that?”
“Yes, sir, I do.”
Kate left Grey and headed upstairs to take a shower. She stood in front of a full-length mirror as she undressed. When she was naked, she stepped closer to the mirror.
Looking at her face, she traced the path of the scar with her fingertips from her eyebrow, over her prosthetic eye, and down her cheek. She did the same for the light scar across her throat. She lowered her eyes to her chest and abdomen, repeating the process several more times. With every touch, she forced herself to remember the blade that caused the horrific wounds that brought her to the brink of death. It was part of her daily routine that she started the first time she saw her reflection after the attack.
When she lifted her head, she replaced her image with his face. She stared into the eyes of the man who held the knife that inflicted the wounds and murdered her son. A face she needed to see to take her deeper into the darkness.
“I made you pay for what you did to me and my family,” whispered Kate. “You made it easy for me to watch you die in agony. You’re burning in hell right now, but there are more like you out there still walking this earth. Your kind took Emily from her mother like you took Caleb f
rom me. I don’t care why anymore. All I care about is being so close that I can hear their last breath leave their bodies. Just like I did yours.”
Kate reached for her robe and covered herself. It was still difficult to linger in the place that brought the rage she needed to fuel her determination. Having to think about Diego meant she would have to remember everything he did to Caleb. She looked once again into the mirror before erasing his image from her mind.
“I took your power from you and made it mine. I’ll use it to find them, hurt them, and then send them to hell with you. Even if I have to drag them there myself.”
Chapter 5
What a Wonderful World
After the sale of her deceased husband’s company, Kate’s personal wealth exceeded eighty million. She founded a private security and investigation firm with Grey, Chief, and her younger sister Abby as employees. It allowed Grey to resign his position as an FBI agent and Chief to retire early from the police department. The only member of the team who wasn’t an employee was Evan. (He relinquished the daily task of running his company to his management staff, but remained active at a distance.)
As civilians, Grey and Chief had fewer restrictions and more freedom to investigate than they did as law enforcement officers. While pursuing the men responsible for destroying Kate’s family, Grey and Chief had their hands tied by their chains of command. She removed those chains by offering them full-time positions in her new business.
Two four-wheel-drive SUVs were waiting for Kate and Grey after their chartered jet landed at Houma-Terrebonne airport in southern Louisiana. It was a forty-five mile drive to Karla’s home south of Boudreaux. On their way down, most of the road they traveled was flanked by Cypress trees standing in shallow, black water. As each mile passed under their tires, they seemed to be going back in time.
It was late afternoon when they arrived at their destination. When they stepped out of their vehicles, they were enveloped in a blanket of hot, sticky air and the pungent smell of low tide in the bayou.
Most of the houses at the end of the earth were dilapidated and weathered. Tin roofs were browning from the rust, and broken windows were replaced with plywood or plastic sheets. Many had old cars in varying stages of decay under trees and tiny front lawns that resembled a graveyard for children’s toys. These were in stark contrast to the large plantation-style homes with pristine lawns they drove past north of town.
Kate and Grey stood at the end of the walkway and surveyed the house that looked out of place. It was elegant in its simplicity. It was a small, perfect square. Sunlight was gleaming off its tin roof, and the hunter green trim was a perfect match with the beige siding. Handcrafted hurricane shutters were varnished to bring out the natural grain of the wood. A single row of flowers in a bed without weeds seemed to encircle the entire home. It separated the house from a manicured lawn and a picket fence the same color as the trim.
“Is Karla a carpenter?” asked Grey, admiring the scene.
“I don’t think so,” said Kate. “She does keep a beautiful home compared to the others.”
They both noticed the silhouette of a woman moving slowly across the porch. As they walked to the bottom of the steps, the screen door opened, revealing a bright, contagious smile. Kate saw her with a cane and reached up to hold the door open.
“You must be Ms. Kate and Mr. Grey,” said Karla, motioning for them to come inside.
“Yes, ma’am, we are,” said Grey.
“Come in, come in,” said Karla. “I’m so glad to see you both. It’s awful hot out today, so let’s go inside and sit. I’ve got some iced tea waiting for the both of you.”
“Thank you,” said Kate. “That sounds wonderful.”
After Grey closed the door behind them, he turned and was greeted by Emily. She was everywhere in the small living room, but the first photo he saw was a large senior portrait hanging over the floral couch. Her long dark hair framed a round face with flawless skin, but it was her eyes that held his. They were mesmerizing.
“That’s my baby girl,” said Karla, noticing Grey’s stare. “Isn’t she beautiful?”
“She is,” said Grey. “The only photos I’ve seen were from court records. They didn’t do her justice, Mrs. Pierce. Not even close.”
“Please, everybody around here calls me Ms. Karla. And you meant to say her mugshots.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Grey. “Her mugshots.”
“I know more than you think I do,” said Karla, turning for the kitchen.
“Please, Ms. Karla, let me help you,” said Grey, walking up behind her.
“Such a gentleman,” said Karla, turning to Kate.
“My knight in shining armor.”
Grey found the glasses and pitcher of tea with ease in the tiny kitchen. He placed them on a serving tray and returned to the living room as Karla was sitting down beside Kate on the couch. The entire room was the size of Kate’s walk-in closet, but Karla’s home was in perfect order and immaculate.
“I’m in love with this house,” said Kate. “It’s gorgeous.”
“Oh, child, I feel like the old woman who lived in a shoe,” said Karla, accepting a glass from Grey. “But I’m thankful I have this place. I had a lot of help from some boys that grew up with Emily. They fixed this place up for me and still take care of the yard every week.”
“Did Emily grow up in this house?” asked Grey.
With his first question, he knew he had struck a chord. Karla lowered her eyes and Kate reached over, patting her hand. At that moment, he knew Kate already understood why it affected her. Once again, he was an outsider looking in.
“Grey, Emily’s room is through that door and to the left,” said Kate. “She hasn’t used it in a while, but most of her things are still in there from when she did. I thought maybe you could start in there while Karla and I get to know each other better.”
“Of course,” said Grey, glaring at Kate and then reaching for his glass. “Can I take this? It’s delicious.”
“I’m sorry,” said Kate after Grey left the room. “I didn’t tell him much about our conversation.”
“He didn’t seem happy about that,” said Karla.
“Trust me, I’ll be paying for that later.”
“So he doesn’t know about her journals?”
“No,” said Kate. “It’s one of the reasons why I haven’t told him very much about her. I want him to get to know her in a different way. You’ll be helping me learn about your daughter. Your daughter will be helping him.”
“I should’ve read them,” said Karla. “Maybe there was something in there that could’ve warned me she was in more trouble than she led on.”
“Are you kidding me?” said Kate, smiling. “You should get a parenting award for not reading them. No teenage girl on the planet wants a nosey mother reading her journal. But if there is anything on those pages that can help us, he’ll find it. He’s very good at what he does.”
“I can’t thank you enough,” said Karla, taking Kate’s hand. “Nobody seems to care that she’s gone. Nobody wants to help me besides Tyler, but even he doesn’t know what to do anymore.”
“We care,” said Kate, squeezing her hand. “We care very much. We also know what to do and how to do it. We’re going to find out what happened to your daughter. I can promise you that.”
Grey stood at the foot of Emily’s bed and scanned the room before he moved any objects. As with the rest of the house, it was in perfect order. He wanted to make sure everything would be back in its place when he finished.
As soon as he walked in, he realized he was standing in the room of a young teenager, not a young adult. He knew Emily was twenty and hadn’t lived in her mother’s home for years, but it was like time had stood still from her days in high school. Grey knew there were two possible reasons for the room to be frozen in time. Either her mother decorated it recently to remember better days, or it was the point where Emily’s life had changed drastically.
It wasn’t the
room of a junkie prostitute. There were stuffed animals leaning against the pillows of a bed that was ready for military inspection. Clothes were pressed on hangers and folded in neat stacks in the drawers. There were rows of glitter nail polish and flavored lip gloss on the dresser. Only a small opening remained on the vanity as photos of smiling teenage friends were tucked into every inch of the mirror’s frame. All of the colors were pastel, from the light purple walls to the pink curtains covering the single window in the room.
After his initial sweep, he started digging deeper into spaces most parents overlooked. He checked for false bottoms in the drawers and jewelry boxes. He removed the vent covers and checked the underside of the bed for openings in the thin material covering the bottom. Satisfied there were no secret compartments to discover, he stepped into the tiny closet. Under a stack of sweaters, he found two thick journals. Heart-shaped locks were the only security measures, which he defeated with a paper clip.
Grey turned to shed more light on the pages. As with everything else in the room, they were in perfect order. Her penmanship was neat and each entry was preceded by a date. The books were big, and he knew he didn’t have enough time to read them cover to cover in her room. He didn’t concern himself with the first entry of the journal. He was more interested in her last.
He opened the second journal to her final entry. After reading the pages, he closed it and sat on the corner of her bed. He was hoping for an answer as to why she stopped on that date and didn’t write another word. The answer didn’t come. More questions did.
“That’s when I knew my little girl was going to be famous,” said Karla, smiling at Grey when he walked back into the living room. “I just knew someday I’d see her face in a movie or hear her voice on the radio. She had no fear and would break into a song or dance in the middle of the grocery store. And I’m talking about when she was five.”
Karla flipped through pages of a photo album as she spoke. Grey and Kate could tell she was looking for a specific picture of Emily. Her face lit up when she found it. She held it up and pointed at her young daughter standing on a makeshift stage next to a pool. She was wearing a powder blue princess gown, bright yellow rain boots, and a Dr. Seuss hat. Her head was tilted back with her eyes closed and her mouth wide open.
