by HELEN HARDT
“He read me fairy tales.”
“Oh? And did you like those stories?”
“I did…until…”
“Until when?”
“Until I no longer believed in happily ever after.”
“Stop it!” Gina, who had been standing as usual, fell to the floor and rolled into a fetal position, her hands covering her ears. “It hurts me, Tio! Stop! I’d rather die!”
I stood and rushed toward her, wrapping my arms around her. Gina was far from the first patient to break down in my office, but this episode nearly cut my heart right out of my chest. She had finally told me about the first time her uncle raped her.
She was eight years old.
I jolted upright, my skin clammy with cold perspiration.
Gina.
My God.
I’d rather die.
She’d been flashing back to her abuse, her first rape, and I thought she’d been saying those words to her uncle. She might have been.
But she’d also been saying them to me.
Had she been crying for help? Showing me she was suicidal? And I’d missed it?
I lay back down on the bed, shaking.
Chapter Thirty–Five
Jonah
“The truth.” Wendy stroked her cheek with her index finger and then took another drink of her scotch. “I had been under the impression that I was telling you boys the truth.”
“You know what we mean, Wendy,” Talon said. “What are the things that you could only reveal to me?”
“I suppose Jade told you that your father and I were…involved.”
My nerves jumped a bit, as they did every time I thought about my father being unfaithful. Yes, Jade had told us what she knew, how Wendy claimed to be our father’s true love. I was only fifteen when my mother passed away, but I was old enough to remember the looks my parents had shared between them. I had a hard time believing my father had been unfaithful.
“She did,” Talon said.
Wendy sighed. “I’m sorry if that was hard for you to hear.”
Talon visibly tensed and clutched the arm of the sofa. “Not especially.”
He was lying, but I knew why he did it—so Wendy would feel she could talk freely.
“Brad and I were soul mates,” she said. “We would’ve been together if it weren’t for your mother.”
“Yes, we’ve heard the story. Mom got pregnant with Joe.”
“As far as I know,” Wendy said, “they met at a party. It was during one of the ‘off’ times in our relationship. We were both seeing other people at the time. I was seeing a journalism major. Your father was dating some homecoming-queen type, blond and blue-eyed. Why he hooked up with Daphne that night, I’ll never know.”
“Well, we’re kind of glad he did, or the two of us wouldn’t be here,” I said.
She smiled. “True enough, and the two of you are dead ringers for him.” She nodded to me. “Especially you.”
“So you’ve told me.” I drank some coffee, trying not to think about how she was looking at me.
“Anyway, Daphne got pregnant, but of course Brad didn’t know that for a little while yet. After that night, he and I got back together and decided to try to make it work between us, even though we were separated and attending different colleges. So all was going fine and well, and then about a month later, your mother showed up saying she was pregnant and it was Brad’s child.”
“If Dad was the love of your life and you were his, why didn’t he just take care of Daphne and the baby but stay with you?” I asked. “He certainly had the money.”
“Believe me, that’s what I wanted him to do,” Wendy said. “But your father was nothing if not an honorable man. He didn’t want a child of his growing up without his name. So he decided to marry Daphne, but he and I continued to see each other.”
“That doesn’t sound very honorable,” I said. And I also wasn’t buying it.
“No,” Wendy agreed. “But you have to understand the passion and desire we had between us. This may be hard for you to hear, but we couldn’t stay away from each other. God knows, we both tried it more than one time. But we always failed. We were in love.” She looked to Talon. “Jade has been very frank with me about what you two feel for each other. Trust me when I say your father and I had that same thing. I would’ve done anything for him, and he would’ve done the same for me.”
“Which is why you helped him cover up my abduction,” Talon said.
Wendy nodded somberly. “Please believe me. I tried to talk him out of that, Talon. I knew it would do no good to bury it. I knew you needed help dealing with it, and so did Brad and Daphne.” She looked to me. “You and your brother too, probably. The whole family could have benefitted from counseling, but Brad would have none of it.”
“Why?” I asked. “That’s the thing that puzzles us the most. Why did Dad allow this to happen?”
Wendy downed the rest of her scotch and set the glass on the coffee table, loudly this time. She looked at both of us intently. “What I told Jade was the truth. A lot of it was because of Daphne. She was so unstable, and she had just had the premature baby. Brad didn’t think she could handle the pressure.”
“So you’re saying my father forsook me for my mother?” Talon said.
“In a way, I suppose he did. But he did love you, Talon. Please believe that. He loved all you kids. The four of you were the reason he and I never got together.”
“What do you mean?”
“He refused to disrupt your lives. He wouldn’t divorce your mother. I also think your father didn’t understand the magnitude of what had happened to you. He refused to contemplate it, even acknowledge it. Male-on-male rape, especially on a child, is a hard thing for most men to deal with.”
“You don’t have to tell me that,” Talon said.
“I know I don’t. I’m so glad you finally got the help you needed. You and Jade will have a great life together. She’s a wonderful girl.”
“That she is.”
“But understand, what your father did, he did for love. He thought he was doing the right thing for you—for all of you, including your mother.”
“There must be more to this, Wendy,” I said. “What is it that you’re not telling us?”
Wendy sighed. “Your father had some enemies. There was a part of him that thought…”
“Thought what?” Talon said.
“I haven’t said this out loud in twenty-five years.”
“Now is the time,” I said.
Wendy drew in a breath and fidgeted with her hands. “Your father thought it was possible that…you had been taken on purpose.”
Talon nearly jerked off the sofa.
I opened my mouth to speak. “That is directly contrary to what Larry Wade says. He told Jade that Talon was never meant to be taken.”
Wendy leaned forward. “Do you hear yourself? Who are you going to believe? A psychopathic pedophile or a former newswoman?”
She had a point there.
“Who are these enemies you’re talking about?” I asked. “And why would they be involved with taking Talon? And why would they be involved with Larry Wade?”
“About a week before you were found, Talon,” Wendy said, “your father received a ransom demand.”
“Let me guess,” Talon said. “The demand was for five million dollars.”
“I don’t know. Your father wouldn’t tell me the amount, so I honestly don’t know anything about the transfer. But that’s my guess,” Wendy said.
“Why wasn’t any of this made public?” I asked.
“For the same reason none of the rest of it was made public. To protect you, to protect your mother, and for some strange reason, to protect Larry Wade.”
“How did our uncle even get involved in this?” I asked.
“Your uncle is just a sick man. He got involved with some even sicker people. And when push came to shove, he couldn’t let it happen to you.”
“Couldn’t let it happen?” Talon gasped. �
�It happened. I assure you.”
“But he did get you out of there, Talon. I’m not defending him,” Wendy said. “But their plans were to kill you if they didn’t get the money.”
“Are you saying this whole thing was a conspiracy? To kidnap Talon?”
“I don’t think it had to be Talon. It could have been any one of you three. In fact, they probably wanted all three of you, but Talon was the one they got.”
“What about the other kids? What about Luke Walker?”
“The other kids were a ruse. They were setting up their MO. That way, when they took one of you boys, the police would assume it was the same kidnappers that were working in the area.”
“So Luke’s parents never got a ransom note,” I said.
“No,” Wendy said. “None of the other kids’ parents got a ransom note. That would have made the news. Those poor kids were just playthings for these men while they were setting up for the kill.”
“And then I was taken, and it never made the news.”
“Yes, and I’m afraid I had a lot to do with that. But your mother was pregnant with your sister at the time, and Brad was really worried about her. If she’d had to talk to police officers and reporters… He wasn’t sure she could take it. As it was, she went into premature labor and delivered the girl early. Your sister wasn’t supposed to live, you know.”
“Yes,” Talon said, “we know. Thank you for letting Jade know about that. Now at least our sister knows why she has no middle name.”
I studied my hands. I remembered my mother having Marjorie. I had just turned thirteen, Talon had been gone for several weeks, and the baby had to stay in the hospital for quite a while. But I didn’t remember being worried about it. Heck, I didn’t know this new baby. But I knew my brother. And my brother was gone.
More guilt. Just put it in the guilt coffers. Thank God Marjorie had survived, or I’d feel guilty about that too—guilty for not caring about my new baby sister, who was hovering on the brink of death, because I was too wrapped up in feeling guilty about my brother, who was missing.
I shook my head to clear it. “So this whole thing was a sting basically. To get money out of my father.”
“That’s my take on it,” Wendy said.
“Then why not just kidnap the kids?” I asked. “Why molest Talon and kill the others?”
“I can’t begin to tell you what makes people child molesters,” Wendy said, turning to Talon. “You’d be better asking your therapist about that.”
“All right, then,” I said. “Who are these enemies that my father had? Enemies so powerful that they would kidnap his son, abuse him, and nearly starve him to death, for five million dollars?”
“I wish I could tell you. I can’t tell you how many times I begged Brad to tell me who they were. But he said he didn’t want to burden me with it. That as a newswoman, I would be constantly trying to find them, and he didn’t want my life ruined that way.” She sighed. “His heart was in the right place. His heart was always in the right place. But that doesn’t mean he always did the right thing.”
“Larry told Jade that he had reason to believe my father was involved in organized crime,” Talon said.
“I know. But trust me, Brad would never do that. He had a lot of integrity.”
“Then why would Larry say that?”
“Why does Larry Wade do anything? The man’s a criminal. A psychopath. Most likely a pathological liar as well. Don’t waste your time trying to figure him out. You won’t get very far.”
“So our father wasn’t in organized crime,” I said, “but he did have enemies. Enemies who apparently could be appeased for five million dollars.”
“Or some other amount,” Wendy said.
“And he didn’t tell you who these enemies were or why they were his enemies?”
“No, he didn’t. Even though I begged him to.”
“So my father paid the ransom?” I asked.
Wendy nodded.
“Why, then, did Larry get in so much trouble from the other two by letting Talon escape? I mean, if my father paid, weren’t these guys going to let Talon go?”
“I wish I could tell you,” Wendy said. “I realize parts of this story don’t jell together. I’m only telling you what I know.”
“Larry claims he never saw any of that five million dollars. He says none of it went to him.”
“He could be telling the truth for all I know,” she said, “or he could be lying. We’ll probably never know.”
“I do remember that he was the follower of the three,” Talon said. “The other two seemed to be more in charge. I got the feeling Larry was just along for the ride.”
“It’s hard to say,” Wendy said. “The other two may have approached Larry because of his familial connection. I don’t know, and I can’t really speculate.”
“We need to get on the road soon, Wendy,” I said. “Is there anything else you should tell us? Anything you haven’t gotten into?”
“Not that I can think of right off hand. It has been twenty-five years.” She looked at Talon intently. “I’m so very glad you’re okay. Please give Jade my best.”
Talon stood. “I sure will. She speaks highly of you. Thank you for the information. If we have more questions, may we visit you again?”
She stood and pulled Talon into a hug. “Of course. Anytime. I want to do all I can to help all of you.”
She turned to me, but I held out my hand. I didn’t want to hug this woman, and I couldn’t put my finger on why. Something bothered me—something I couldn’t put into words. As I shook her hand, I said, “Thank you. We really appreciate your time.”
“It’s nothing.” She smiled at me. “I truly wish I could do more.”
“I’m sure we’ll have more questions for you.” I tried to return her smile but wasn’t sure if I succeeded. “For now, we’ll be heading out. Come on, Tal.”
She showed us to the door, and Talon and I walked to the car.
“I’ll drive,” I said. Once we were on the road, I cleared my throat. “What do you think?”
“Some of what she said made sense.”
“Are you still convinced that Nico Kostas is one of the men who abducted you?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. If these guys were enemies of Dad, I guess we have to figure out why Nico Kostas would be Dad’s enemy.”
And Tom Simpson. But I hadn’t yet told Talon of my suspicions, and now was certainly not the time.
“If Nico Kostas tried to kill Jade’s mother for a million dollars in insurance money, I guess it would make sense that he would demand a five-million-dollar ransom from some rich rancher,” I said.
“You don’t sound entirely convinced, Joe.”
Sometimes I got freaked at how well Talon could read me. “I’m not. And I’m not sure why. Most of what she said made some sense. And although I didn’t know Dad had any enemies, I certainly don’t doubt that he did. People with money tend to make enemies, even if they don’t know it. It could have been a pissed-off employee for all we know. Or a struggling rancher who didn’t get business because Dad could bid lower. So yeah, he certainly could have had enemies out there that we never knew about.”
“So what bugs you?”
“A couple of things. Things that hadn’t occurred to me before today.” Mostly because I’d been so focused on Melanie Carmichael and Tom Simpson.
“Yeah? What are those?”
“Well, the whole ‘in love’ thing. Wendy is a nice-looking woman, but she hardly seems Dad’s type. Mom was drop-dead gorgeous, on the other hand.”
“Drop-dead gorgeous, but also mentally ill.”
I nodded. “There’s that. And I know looks aren’t everything, but here’s the thing.”
“What?”
“If Wendy and Dad were so in love, why didn’t they get together after Mom died?”
Chapter Thirty–Six
Melanie
I had no idea how long I had been in the room. The man in black had br
ought me food once, and though I hadn’t been hungry, I ate. I had been over every inch of the room, trying to find an escape, but it was impossible. Whenever I was thirsty, I drank from the sink in the tiny bathroom. I still had no idea what my fate would be.
As if in answer, the man in black unlocked the door and entered. “Good morning, Doctor.”
Did that mean it was morning? I had no idea. I had slept…I thought. Or had I just relived sessions with Gina in a semi-hypnotic state?
“Today’s your lucky day,” he said. “You’re getting out of here.”
Though the thought should have made me ecstatic, I stood there grimly. The memory of Gina’s session—I’d rather die—had numbed me again. Had I missed a cry for help? There’d been no other indication that she might be suicidal. She’d held down a job, done volunteer work at a local children’s shelter…had been in a lot better shape than Talon Steel had been when he first came to me, and he hadn’t been suicidal. To the contrary, his overwhelming will to survive had completely overshadowed his desire to die.
The man in black interrupted my thoughts by pulling me from the bed and turning me around to face the wall.
He bound my hands behind my back, this time with duct tape. “Can’t have you trying anything funny,” he said.
Anything funny? As if I could. The room held nothing that could be used as a weapon, and this man had already demonstrated that he was much stronger than I was.
“Don’t you want to know where you’re going?”
“Not particularly,” I said.
“Okay. Have it your way.”
We walked out the door, and I realized I was in a house. This little room with no windows had been built in the middle of the basement. He led me up the stairs, through a laundry room. To the left was a kitchen. We went to the right. Into the garage. It was a large garage, big enough for three vehicles. However, only one old car sat in the garage.
“This is a very special car, Dr. Carmichael.”
It was huge, like an old pimp car from a few decades ago. “It doesn’t look that special to me. It looks like a piece of crap.”
