I sighed. “Long story short, the money trail was hard to follow and impossible to prove to humans, plus he’d put a huge chunk of his wealth into a trust fund for me. The victims’ families knew what he’d taken but couldn’t prove his money came from the sale of their property, and thus couldn’t get it back. A few of them decided to come after me, personally, and since I was a minor and humans with common sense eventually realized I wasn’t to blame, I was put into the protection program’s special foster unit, and I was given foster parents.”
“But your relatives in Faerie weren’t happy with that,” guessed Dawg.
“Right. I still don’t know who told her, but when my great aunt discovered I was no longer with my father, she had me brought to Faerie to live with her. I never really fit in there, though. My dad had kept me a virgin, so when I got to The Summerlands at fifteen and had never even been kissed, when most rabbits lose their virginity years before, I was a freak. My dad had taught me sex was wrong, and he’d had me hide my body under layers of clothing. He’d taught me to be ashamed. Eventually, I learned to be proud of who I am, but now that I’m back here, where humans look down on women who are overly sexual, I’m trying to find a middle ground.”
Wow, I’d gotten off topic. I took a breath and quickly returned to what they needed to know. “Marshal Faulkner was assigned to me when I returned and signed up for college. They wanted to know where I’d been, and I discovered my dad had escaped prison and they don’t know where he is. They assumed I’ve been with him, but I convinced the Marshal some distant relatives who are off the grid took me in and homeschooled me. He assured me the FBI can’t find me, that the records are sealed so only a few Marshals have access — but it looks like he was wrong.”
“You don’t know where your dad is?” asked Horse.
“No. I assumed the Concilio got him, because once he had nothing to lose, he’d have nothing to keep him from shifting to a one hundred and sixty pound rabbit in his cell and blowing the lid off the secret they’ve worked so hard to keep.” I shook my head. “If the Concilio has him though, you’d think the FBI team would’ve stopped looking for him. Wouldn’t they know?”
“Not necessarily,” said Ghost. “The Concilio has issues with some branches of the highest levels of government in the U.S. They aren’t always forthcoming.”
“Your dad was on death row?” Horse asked, his voice soft, kind. I nodded, and my gentle Bear kissed the top of my head. “I assume Aaron Drake knows the whole story?”
“Yes.”
“He’s on his way. If he doesn’t have an attorney recommendation, the MC has some we can call on.”
Chapter Thirteen
Gabby
I walked into Drake Security with Horse on my left and an attorney who happened to be an Eagle shifter on my right.
Aaron Drake met us as we walked down the hallway, and stopped us all to give me a hug. “They won’t hurt you, Gabby. They’ll ask their questions and you’ll answer them honestly. They know if they step out of line, I’ll destroy their careers by making a stink about them tracking down someone in the protection program. Today should put an end to their contact with you.”
I smelled the wolves who’d tormented me as we entered the room, and Horse’s arm around my waist pulled me a little closer. They were all on the other side of a table, and I’d be seated on this side — near the door so I could leave if the meeting got to be too much for me.
I knew Aaron Drake and my great aunt had been an item once upon a time, but I wasn’t sure he owed this much to her as an old flame. He was married now, with kids, but it seemed she’d been important enough to him that he felt obligated to protect her family.
“Agents,” Aaron said, “today is as much about Gabriella healing from the damage you inflicted upon her as it is about my allowing you to ask some questions. You’ll keep your tone and questions respectful or I will personally end the meeting, and I’ve been clear about my next steps. I can make it so none of you have the authority to ever bother Miss Taylor again.”
“Miss Lepori,” said one of the agents. “In this room there’s no need to refer to her by her alias.”
“I’m Miss Taylor now,” I told them. “My aunt didn’t introduce me to anyone as my father’s daughter in Faerie, and there are few people in the human realm who will remember me as my old identity. I’ve prepared a timeline to tell you, and if you’ll let me go through it without questions I think it’ll be easier for me. I know you’ll have questions, I’d just like to answer them once I’ve made it through to the end.”
Two of the seven nodded, so I began my narrative from when I’d been taken from them. I went through it in moderate detail up until I was taken to Faerie, and gave the most scant of specifics about my time there until we started making arrangements for me to return. Wolves can’t go to Faerie without a specific invitation from one of the Queens, so I was in my right not to tell them details about the realm. I can only tell those secrets that are mine to tell, and even then there are rules about who I can tell and how I can tell them.
When I finished, they asked questions for an hour before they started repeating, and when they asked me for the fifth time where my father was, I looked to Aaron for help. I’d told them I didn’t know but I assumed the Concilio had them, but the FBI team obviously didn’t believe me.
Aaron had been standing off to the side, and now he stepped forward and said, “Gabby has a few questions to ask now, and I trust you’ll give her the same respect she gave you.”
“How did you find my new identity?”
“Our team has an analyst. The FBI hires hackers who are trained to retrieve and analyze data, and she found out your identity shortly after it was given to you, before the records were officially sealed. Our intention was to watch you over time to see if anything popped up, but then you disappeared ten days before your dad escaped a maximum security prison. She has a list of people she checks in on once a month. You popped up earlier this year when you took your GED and SAT tests, but then you disappeared again. She couldn’t put automated searches in because those can trigger the Marshals Service. She almost missed you because you dropped one of the l’s in your first name, and used the wrong middle initial when you registered for college.”
I glanced at The Dragon King, as he’d been the one to recommend I do those things, but before I had an opportunity to comment, another agent said, “Two of the families of your father’s victims have recently received boxes of cash. Both for forty-thousand dollars, and neither have been traceable to the original sender. It seems that, while there was a shipment sticker on them, they weren’t actually shipped. We believe whoever gave it to them traveled to their cities and placed the boxes on the front porches.”
So much for it being my turn to ask questions. Instead of complaining though, I gave them a partial answer. “My trust fund was moved so I’d have access to the funds under my new identity once I came of age.”
This was true, but it wasn’t where the funds to try to reimburse the families came from. My dad had kept a home in Faerie, and there’d been records there of accounts in other countries. I’d cleaned out one account in Switzerland and distributed it to ten families so far. Interesting that only two of them had reported it.
“So you admit you’re the one who gave them the funds?”
It couldn’t hurt to tell them, so I did. “I can never replace the daughter my father took from those families, but as far as I’m concerned, my trust fund is blood money. In many ways I was his victim, too, so I’ll keep enough to pay for my college and frugal living expenses while I’m getting my degrees, but there’s no way I can live high on the hog off it and keep a clear conscience.”
One of the wolves stood and I shrank back into the conference room chair as fear flooded my system. Horse’s hand had rested on top of my thigh for moral support, and now he stood beside me, his hand on my shoulder.
“I mean her no harm,” said the wolf. “Evidence pointed towards her father h
aving a female accomplice, and we were all convinced it was her. The truth is that we’d likely react the same if we were given the same evidence again, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t wrong. We owe her an apology.”
I wasn’t supposed to tell them about the accomplice, but I looked at Aaron, hoping he would. He didn’t disappoint me as he said, “We’ll discuss handshakes in a little while. There was a female accomplice, and he collected her when he went through Faerie to travel to other cities in this realm. The rules are different there and I can’t tell you the specifics of what happened to her, but I can guarantee she’s not only felt the consequences of her actions, but she’ll never come to this realm to cause problems again.”
Right, because she’d spent a few years in Queen Mab’s dungeon before being given to the Rabbit King, and when he didn’t have the stomach for her particular sociopathy, she’d been given to the Siabhra — the boogeymen of the Faerie world, responsible for relentlessly punishing those who deserve it. I shivered at the thought of what she must be going through. Rabbits are scared of everything, and she’d been given to the scariest beings in our world.
His Majesty chuckled as he said, “As you can see from Gabby’s reaction, the Rabbit in question has met a horrid, ongoing fate. Gabby was forbidden from telling you of her, but I have a little more leeway in what I can share.”
The wolf had sat back down when Aaron talked, and Horse had taken his seat again as well. Now, one of them asked Aaron, “Do you know where her father is?”
Aaron was quiet a few seconds before answering, “I don’t have that much leeway, gentlemen. You’ve personally made some enemies and I’m not keen to put myself in the middle of those battles.”
“You assured us his accomplice is facing consequences and will never come to this realm again. Can you give similar assurances for Dwight Lepori? Is he facing consequences, and will he ever be turned loose on human society again?”
Aaron shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I can’t make any assurances. I believe we’re just about done here. Gabby has one final thing to tell you.”
He nodded to me, and I stood and told the wolves, “I’m sure your analyst told you I’m double majoring in psychology and criminal justice. She likely wasn’t aware why, though.” I took a breath to fortify my nerves. “Your team put me through hell, and I saw things no fourteen year old should ever see. I was terrified, and helpless — then hungry and thirsty and sleepy and so fucking tired, and you made me…” They made me pee on myself, but I couldn’t say it out loud.
I took a breath and regained my composure. These men had seen me cry as a child, they weren’t going to see me cry as an adult. “However, I’m happy someone discovered what my father was doing and stopped him. I wish I hadn’t been forced to confront exactly what he’d done to those girls, but since I was, I know the hell he put them through and it was much worse than what ya’ll did to me. I understand you wanted to save one of his victims and were willing to put me through a tough time if it meant doing so.”
I looked at the table a minute because no matter how many times I’d rehearsed this in my head, saying it to these men wasn’t easy. I stood up straight and met the FBI team’s gaze one at a time before continuing. “Someday I’d like to be on a team like yours. Not out in the field because I’m not made of strong enough stuff for that, but behind the scenes helping to figure things out. I want to help catch the really bad guys. Like my dad.” My hands went to my hair and I released the clip holding it on top of my head. “You all know what I looked like at fourteen. My dad kept my hair cut like a boy and he dressed me in oversized clothes. It took a long time to move past the way he raised me, and the things ya’ll did to me, and I’m still not sure I have but I’m working on it. I lived with one of the worst serial killer/rapists on your books. I was raised by him. I don’t know what that’ll help me bring to the table, but it has to count for something.”
Several of them looked towards Horse, and the cruelest of them, the wolf who scared me the most, said, “You’ve aligned yourself with the RTMC. We know you ran to them when we intended to question you, and though we can’t prove it, we believe the member known as Ghost got you out of town. The FBI isn’t in the habit of hiring agents who are friends with the bad guys.”
“You have to know I have a spotless record,” said Horse.
The agent scowled as he opened his mouth to say something else, but Aaron spoke first. “Bottom line, gentlemen, if she graduates with a major in both of the subjects she’s pursuing and the FBI isn’t interested — I’ll hire her. I pay more and give better benefits than Uncle Sam, anyway.”
Without thinking I looked to him and exclaimed, “Your Majesty! I would ne—”
“We’ve had this discussion before, Gabby. In this realm I’m Aaron. You only need to address me formally when we’re in public in Faerie.”
My face flushed hot and I stammered, “I…I…I’m sorry, Aaron. It’s just habit, but I’d never impose upon you for a job.”
“And I wouldn’t let you, but I’m always looking for intelligent people with the proper education and training, and I’m serious about the offer — but we’ll see what happens once you have your degrees in hand.”
“But you don’t go after the bad guys, do you?”
“I hunt the worst of the bad guys, Gabby. When they cross international lines, Uncle Sam pays me to go after them.” He glanced at the wolves and back to me. “I’m also a partner to the Concilio, and I’m tasked with going after supernatural bad guys our governments don’t stand a chance going after.”
“Then why didn’t you go after my dad?”
Aaron looked at Horse, then to me, and I could tell he didn’t want to answer. Finally, Horse pulled me to him and said, “Your dad was killing humans and wasn’t bringing attention to himself. Until he went to prison, I doubt he made it onto the Concilio’s radar, Gabs.”
Aaron nodded. “In the past, when a supernatural has gone to human prison for life, so they have nothing to lose, the Concilio has stepped in to gain control of them so they couldn’t expose us all by changing in front of humans. With modern day camera technology and the ease of copying a file onto a USB drive or uploading to another server somewhere, it’s becoming harder and harder to clean up after the fact, so they’re a little more proactive now than they were thirty years ago.”
I felt the wolves in the room all relax a little, and I realized Aaron had just let them know the Concilio had my dad, without actually telling them.
Chapter Fourteen
Horse
Gabby was exhausted when we left the Drake Security building, and I wished I’d brought the truck instead of the bike.
It turned out the bike was a good call, though, because she seemed to have let some of the stress go by the time I got her back to my house.
“I have a surprise for you,” I told her as we took our helmets off.
“An entire salad bar, and sex until morning?” she asked with a smile.
“Walk with me through the woods?”
“Of course. I could use the fresh air after being inside with…” She shook her head. “I’m glad His Majesty put us in a room with a wall of windows, but it was still hard being in a room with them.”
Aaron had been right about me getting farther with Gabby by giving her space and not pushing. She’s been gradually opening up and letting me into her life, especially once I knew her history. She and Sophia have talked at length about how they feel responsibility for their fathers’ actions. They both know they aren’t to blame, and yet they feel as if they need to do something to make up for all of the horrible things their fathers perpetrated.
“I was so proud of you. You spoke clearly and you didn’t apologize for being you. You may not think you’re strong, but you are so wrong. It took guts to do what you did today.”
I hadn’t known about her giving money to the families of the victims, and I carefully broached the subject. “I’m assuming you had Aaron help with delivering the money?
”
She nodded but didn’t say anything, and I searched for a way to get her talking. “I’m glad you have him to go to, but you know you can come to me for stuff like that, too, right?”
“You aren’t disgusted with me for giving money away?”
I stopped and turned her towards me. “No, Gabs. Why should I be? It sounds like you’re going to make sure you keep enough to get you through college, which means you’re looking after yourself, too. You’re right about being another of his victims. He didn’t torture and kill you, but he messed you up. You’re strong, so you’re okay despite his influence — strong enough to know you don’t want to live like a princess on blood money. Not a damned thing wrong with that. If you have more to give away and want my help, just let me know what you need me to do.”
She nodded, and I know her well enough I could tell she was quiet because she wasn’t sure she could control her emotions, and didn’t trust her voice. I kissed her forehead, pulled her to my side, and walked her through the woods.
We continued in silence for a while, and I could see her curiosity piqued as I led us up a steep hill. Nothing appeared out of place, but her nose picked up the scent of freshly turned earth and she looked at me in question.
I walked her to a tree, reached for what looked like a low stump beside it, and lifted the top and back of the stump to reveal steps. “It’s the backside of the underground part of my house,” I explained. “I put windows in, so you can see outside from this room. I know you may never make it to the rest of my underground home, but I’m hoping you’ll be okay in this part of it.”
Horse (Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club Book 6) Page 6
