Deadly Illusions (Hardy Brothers Security Book 3)

by Hart, Lily Harper

  “She is,” Pritchard said. “Not that you’d know it now, of course. Once I got arrested she pretended she didn’t know me, that I was some sort of monster. That’s not the girl I raised. I figure the cops got to her and intimidated her. They’re all a bunch of jackasses.”

  “She’s never been to visit you?”

  “Not once.”

  “What about your wife?”

  “Ex-wife,” Pritchard stressed. “I have no idea where that bitch is. Good riddance to her.”

  “I was under the impression that Mrs. Pritchard just took off one day after your arrest but before you went to trial,” Finn said. “How did you manage to secure a divorce from inside?”

  “She sent the paperwork,” Pritchard said. “She agreed to put a hundred bucks in my commissary account if I agreed to sign the papers. It’s not like I wanted to stay married to the bitch. She never did anything for me.”

  “And your son? Has he ever visited you?”

  “Last time I heard, that little punk was doing a nickel out in Lenox Township,” Pritchard said. “He got low security, the lucky bastard. It’s too bad. I would have liked to spend some quality time with my boy again in here.”

  Finn fought the urge to roll his eyes. “And your daughter hasn’t been out here to see you? Not even once.”

  “I already told you no.”

  “Has she ever written you?”

  “No,” Pritchard said, shaking his head. “What is this about?”

  “Well, sir, the working theory on the current case is that the man who attacked Ms. Pritchard was one of your victims,” Finn explained.

  “Alleged victims,” Pritchard said.

  “You’ve been convicted, sir,” Finn said. “There’s nothing alleged about it.”

  “Except that I was innocent,” Pritchard countered. “I was railroaded by the cops.”

  “I’m sure you were,” Finn said, keeping his voice stiff. “I don’t suppose you can remember if any of your alleged victims also dabbled in chemistry, can you?”

  Pritchard balked. “Chemistry? Like mixing chemicals and stuff?”

  “That would be chemistry, yes.”

  Pritchard was quiet for a moment, thoughtful. “I honestly can’t. What makes you so sure that whoever is attacking Emma has something to do with me?”

  “You have another idea?” Finn asked.

  “Maybe she just pissed someone off,” Pritchard suggested. “She always was a crafty little minx. She had all the boys in the neighborhood sniffing around after her – and she pulled all their strings whenever she could, like they were marionettes.”

  Finn knew that was a lie, but he didn’t reach across the table and punch Pritchard in the mouth for uttering it. That would give him a way.

  “So, you think it could have been one of these high-school boys?” Finn asked.

  Pritchard shrugged. “Who knows? She’s had a way of affecting men ever since she grew boobs.” He was quiet for a second. “Have you seen her? My Emma, I mean. Have you seen her?”

  “We had a brief interview when she retained our services,” Finn lied.

  “How does she look?”

  “She looked healthy, sir.”

  “That’s not what I mean,” Pritchard scoffed. “I mean, how does she look? Is she still hot?”

  Finn’s skin started to crawl. “She’s an attractive woman, sir.”

  Pritchard’s eyebrows ratcheted up. “Attractive? Son, that girl is pure sexual nirvana. If you haven’t had a chance to see her naked, I totally suggest you give her a shot. You’ll never see a better set of boobs in your life. I can guarantee you that. They’re all natural, too, you can give them a hard squeeze and there’s no silicone in there fighting you.”

  Finn’s blood ran cold.

  “She’ll put up a fight at first,” Pritchard continued. “She always acted like she didn’t want it. After a few minutes, though, she’ll stop fighting you and just lay there. You can pretty much get her to do anything you want when she gives up. That’s how I liked her – dead inside.”

  Finn was going to be sick.

  “Make sure you give her hair a good yank,” Prichard added. “If you hurt her enough, she’ll cry. It’s a lot more fun when she cries. It’s even better if you can get her to scream. She’s got quite the set of lungs on her”

  Finn’s hands were clenched at his sides, and it was taking everything he had not to beat Pritchard to within an inch of his life. “I thought all of your victims were males.”

  “It’s true, I am fonder of the male … form,” Pritchard said, an evil smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “I made a special exception for my daughter, though. Someone had to teach her the basics of fulfilling a man. Lord knows no one ever taught her mother, and I was the one who had to suffer through her ineptitude. It’s really her fault all of this happened. I decided that Emma had to know from an early age, and I trained her to meet my needs, you know, to make sure she knew what she was doing.”

  Finn’s heart was hammering so loudly all he could hear was blood rushing past his ears.

  Pritchard, on the other hand, was clearly relishing his walk down memory lane. “You’ve got to get them when they’re young, son,” he said. “That’s when you can break them in and mold them to what you want. I bet Emma is molded really well now. I’m just sorry I don’t get a chance to break that mold.”

  Finn was on his feet, his hand gripping Pritchard’s prison jumper, his face flushing with rage. “You’re sick!”

  Pritchard’s eyes were filled with triumph. “I knew it. You are sleeping with my girl.”

  “You shut your mouth,” Finn warned, ignoring the door to the interview room as it burst open and two guards proceeded to try and wrestle him away from Pritchard.

  For his part, Pritchard never moved from his spot at the table. “The next time you’re inside of her, think of who got there first. The next time you bend her over the counter, think about who did that first, too. In fact, I’m pretty sure you’re never going to be able to touch her again without thinking of me and everything I did to her first. And son? I did everything to her. I did everything to her until she lost her voice from screaming.”

  Finn growled, the sound low and dangerous in the back of his throat.

  “When you see her, tell Emma I said hi,” Pritchard said, laughing. “When you dump her in the dirt, make sure she knows why. I can just picture her face now. I bet she cries.”

  Finn’s mind was filled with a myriad of things: Pity, hate, anger, sadness, and, yes, revulsion. He let the guards drag him out of the building and deposit him outside. Finn was in a fog when he found his Escalade. Once the door was shut, and Finn was separated from the outside world, he let the fog lift.

  And then the rain came – and Finn Hardy cried his eyes out.

  Twenty-Three

  Mandy saw Finn first. She was downstairs, sharing a flirty interlude with James on his office desk before returning to the upstairs apartment to entertain Ally and Emma, when she caught sight of him.

  His shoulders were slumped, his face ashen. That’s when realization smacked her in the face: He knows.

  Mandy exchanged a panicked look with James, who read his brother’s battered countenance even though almost two complete rooms separated them. “Shit,” he muttered. “Shit. Shit. Shit.”

  Finn didn’t say a word to his brother and Mandy. Instead, he just turned, pointing his body toward the stairs. Mandy cut him off, stepping in front of him quickly. “You can’t go up there.”

  Finn glared at her and tried to push her out of the way. “What are you doing?”

  “You can’t go up there,” Mandy repeated. “Just sit over there and … calm down.”

  “You’re not the boss of me,” Finn growled, grabbing Mandy’s shoulders roughly as he tried to bodily lift her out of his path. “I have to talk to Emma.”

  “Don’t,” Mandy warned. “Don’t go up there, Finn. Not looking like you do; not thinking what you’re thinking.”
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br />   “And how do I look?” Finn asked, his tone weary and blank. “Tell me, how do I look, Mandy?”

  “You look upset,” Mandy said, refusing to back down despite the anger in his eyes.

  “Where did you go today?” James asked, moving in behind his girlfriend so he could yank her out of Finn’s reach if it became necessary. Given her penchant to mouth off, James was worried it might actually become necessary.

  “Jackson State Prison,” Finn said.

  Mandy sucked in a breath. “You went to her father? Oh, Finn, why?”

  “Why do you think?” Finn seethed. “I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to see if he had any idea who was after Emma. I was trying to keep her safe. That’s why I went.”

  “What did he tell you?” James asked, already knowing the answer.

  “Well, he told me a lot of things,” Finn said, laughing in a voice completely devoid of mirth. “He told me that Emma’s mother paid him a hundred bucks to sign divorce papers. So that means she went to him to get what she wanted, but didn’t bother to try and see her kids.

  “He told me that he’d like a Dateline interview,” Finn added. “He thinks he deserves one so he can stand up to his alleged victims and tell the real story.”

  Mandy reached her hand out, wrapping her small fingers around Finn’s forearm. She knew what was coming next.

  “Oh, and then he told me if I really wanted to get her going in bed, I should yank her hair and make her cry,” Finn said, his voice trembling, his eyes forlorn. “He said it was better when she screamed and, not to worry, even if I had to force her at first, she would eventually just lay there and take it.”

  Mandy’s heart broke as Finn sank to the floor in the stairwell, his head dropping into his hands as his voice thickened with unshed tears. Mandy sat down next to him, rubbing his back soothingly, content to let him regroup on his own terms.

  “That guy is an animal,” James said, kneeling down so he could meet Finn’s gaze. “He’s a rabid animal. He should be put down.”

  “I can’t believe he said that to you,” Mandy said, brushing away a stray tear of her own.

  “He enjoyed saying it to me,” Finn said. “I went in there pretending I was just an investigator working on the case. He somehow knew, though. I don’t know how he knew.”

  “That’s how he got away with doing the horrible things he did for so long,” James said. “He knows how to read people.”

  “The thing is, once he said it, everything kind of snapped into place,” Finn said. “She was always so scared, so unsure. She woke up screaming in the night – and it wasn’t because some guy tried to throw acid on her at the boat show, or her apartment building burned down. No, it was because he … he … . All of the signs were there. I didn’t see them.”

  Mandy and James exchanged a look.

  “Maybe you didn’t want to see,” James suggested. “Maybe you wanted something you could fix, so you tried to pretend something else was going on.”

  Finn sucked in a shaky breath. “You knew, didn’t you?”

  James shifted uncomfortably. “No,” he lied.

  “How long have you known?” Finn asked.

  “A couple of days,” Mandy supplied. “I found out when I pulled the Lance Pritchard file at the office on Tuesday.”

  Finn was silent, contemplating.

  “I wasn’t trying to invade her privacy,” Mandy said. “I thought, if we could get our hands on the witness list, it would make the search for Emma’s attacker that much easier.”

  “I’m not blaming you.” Finn’s voice was small and muffled. “What did the file say?”

  “It said that Emma was checked out by state medical personnel after her father was arrested,” Mandy said. “She was just barely a ward of the state. In fact, she turned eighteen two weeks after he was arrested – but the investigators used her age to their advantage and put her through a complete medical workup and psychological testing.”

  Finn rubbed the heel of his hand against his burning eye. “And?”

  “And the doctor determined that Emma had been raped repeatedly over the course of the past five to six years, starting at about the age of twelve,” Mandy said.

  Finn choked out a sob, lowering his chin to his crossed arms as they rested on his knees. “And she testified in court?”

  “No,” Mandy said, shaking her hand. “The file says she denied any sexual abuse. She would only testify about what she saw in the house – not about anything pertaining to her.”

  “So, she covered for him,” Finn said.

  “She didn’t cover for him,” Mandy argued. “She protected herself.”

  “How is that protecting herself?” Finn asked. “If she had testified, she could have saved those other boys from testifying.”

  Mandy held out her hands, palms up, and shrugged helplessly. “Sexual assault victims don’t want to talk about it, Finn. She was terrorized as a child. She was … forced. She was forced by the one man who was supposed to protect her. She wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. She wasn’t trying to protect him. She was trying to keep herself sane.”

  Finn shook his head. “Why didn’t she tell me?”

  Mandy pursed her lips. “I can’t speak for Emma,” she said. “I can make a guess, though.”

  Finn waited for her to continue.

  “I think that Emma didn’t tell you because she knew you would look at her differently,” Mandy said.

  “What?”

  “I made the mistake of telling James, and he couldn’t help but stare at her all week,” Mandy said. “It was making her uncomfortable.”

  “What?” Finn was incensed.

  “Hey, I didn’t mean to stare,” James said, holding up his hands in a placating manner. “Every time I looked at her I thought of what she went through and I felt really bad for her. It made me want to kill her father. It wasn’t on purpose.”

  Finn relaxed slightly. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because it wasn’t my secret to tell,” James replied, shifting a look toward Mandy. “It’s Emma’s secret. She needs to tell you.”

  “I already know.” Finn’s bitterness was palpable. “I already know. I can’t put the genie back in the bottle.”

  “If you confront her before she’s ready, Finn, you could drive her away,” Mandy warned. “Is that what you want?” Finn was silent, causing Mandy to furrow her brow. “Oh, God, is that what you want? Are you done with her now?”

  Finn shook his head. “I need to think. This is all a mess.”

  Mandy had sympathy for Finn’s plight, but she had righteous indignation on her side when it came to Emma. “I told you,” she hissed. “I told you that you shouldn’t pursue Emma unless you were sure.”

  “How could I be sure about something like this?” Finn challenged.

  Mandy opened her mouth to answer, but someone else’s voice filled in the conversational void before she could.

  “You couldn’t.”

  James, Mandy, and Finn froze when they heard her, each one of them slowly swiveling so they could see the figure at the top of the stairwell. Emma, her brown hair loose around her shoulders, her skin positively glowing from the facial this afternoon, and her eyes full of betrayal and regret, was standing less than six feet away – and yet it felt as if a chasm was separating her from the other three people in the small room.

  Mandy jumped to her feet. “This isn’t what it looks like.”

  “I’ve been listening for a few minutes,” Emma said. “I know what you were talking about.”

  Finn’s ascent to a standing position was slower and more deliberate than Mandy’s. “I don’t know what to say,” he rasped.

  “I don’t expect you to say anything,” Emma said, her tone chilly. “I knew this would happen. Why do you think I was so adamant about not going out with you? I knew it was a mistake the minute I agreed – and yet I still agreed. That’s on me. That’s my fault. It’s not your fault.”

  Finn’s mouth dropped open. “W
hat?”

  “I should have told you what happened … what he did … from the beginning,” Emma said. “That would have chased you away before things got out of hand. Instead, I was weak. I let myself get closer and closer to you because you made me feel so good about myself. I didn’t think of what it would do to you.”

  Emma moved down a step.

  “Actually, to be fair, I did think of what it would do to you,” she continued. “I was going to tell you that night when we got back to the apartment – but you’d lit all the candles and, well, I’d never danced with anyone before.”

  James raised his hand to the back of Mandy’s neck and pulled her closer to him. He was uncomfortable with the conversation, but the only thing he realized with any clarity was that he and Mandy were outsiders in this.

  “Then, last night, I had another chance,” Emma said. “You asked me what was wrong when we left the bar. I could have told you then, but I just couldn’t make myself say the words.”

  Emma kept her face blank as she slipped down another step.

  “You shouldn’t blame yourself for anything, Finn,” Emma said. “This was all my fault. You’ll never know how truly sorry I am.”

  When she hit the main floor, Emma straightened her shoulders and focused on Mandy and James first. “I want to thank you for all you’ve done for me,” she said. “You’ve really gone above and beyond. If it’s okay, I hope I can spend tonight in your apartment, and then I’ll be out first thing in the morning.”

  “You don’t have to leave,” Mandy protested. “You can stay there as long as you need to. It’s just sitting empty. You don’t have to go.”

  “No,” Emma said, shaking her head slightly. “I think it would be better for everyone if this was a clean break.” She turned to James. “I’m sorry that you almost lost her because of me. I understand why you dislike me.”

  James cleared his throat. “I don’t dislike you. I … .”

  “You pity me,” Emma filled in. “Trust me, I’m used to it. Don’t blame yourself.”

  Emma finally swiveled so she could meet Finn’s conflicted gaze. “I want to thank you for all you’ve done. I can’t tell you how much the past two weeks have meant to me. You made me feel like … a normal person. You listened to me, and laughed with me, and you never once tried to change me. I’ve never had that before, and I’ll cherish that memory for as long as I live.”