by Shelly Knox
“What really bothers me is that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me yourself. You didn’t care enough to convey that horrendous revelation about Keri to me.” She turned her back on him, closed the box, and then reached for the packing tape.
“You know about your sister’s involvement?”
She remained with her back to him. “Yes. Wyndon wanted me to write a series of articles on it. Can you believe him? And when I said no, he informed me that if I didn’t, I’d probably be giving up a Pulitzer.” She shook her head and her shoulders slumped a bit. “A prize for what my sister has done.”
“You’re blaming yourself for all of this. I know you.”
Whirling around, she yelled, “Who do I blame? Some investigative reporter I am. I never figured it out! My fucking sister was a psychopath and I never knew it. I was investigating the very crime she orchestrated. I never fathomed she was involved. Now we know why she wanted to get me out of town.”
“Blame the killer. Blame your sister. Hell, blame God. But don’t blame yourself. She was an evil person. Her gift was deceit. Her crimes had nothing to do with you. No one will have expected you to know what she was doing. She was your sister.”
Pounding a fist on the box she just finished packing, she said, “You’re wrong. Look how the public always thinks the serial killer’s family should have known. Everyone will blame me.”
“No. Not the people who love and care for you. They will never blame you. Why are you really leaving?”
She jabbed her index finger at him. “How can you ask me that? I can’t stay here. Not after what she did. I can’t face the media.” Her breaths came hard and fast. Then she added, “I can’t stay after what you did.”
Bursting from deep within, he struggled to hold the sob from escaping his soul. “What about us?” He didn’t mean to raise his voice so loud, but he couldn’t bear to lose her.
Tazzie whined and pawed at Piper’s leg, giving away her anxiety. She petted the top of her dog’s head. “What us?” She left the kitchen.
Jaxson followed, grabbed her arm, and spun her around. He seized her other shoulder and held her in front of him. “Don’t.”
“Let me go.” She pulled and struggled at his grip. “Don’t make this harder than it is.”
He wouldn’t let her go, not this time. He’d fight for her. “You have to understand I would have told you when I could. Everything happened so fast. You don’t just leave work in the middle of getting warrants and planning how to take the suspect into custody. It’s not like I have a desk job. Hell, my supervisor made me stay behind to tie everything up before he let me follow you to Austin. Unless I quit, I didn’t have a choice.” He caught his breath and another tear washed over the rim and plunged to the floor. “Don’t push me away.”
“Don’t put this on me. I gave you an out and you walked away. You took the out.”
“What? We hashed through all that. We learned Keri spun that scenario. She’s why I left. Don’t let her break us up again. Don’t let her evil win.”
“But you walked away before she spun it. You walked out of the hospital room.”
“I planned to come back after giving you a little space. I tried to do what was best for you. I love you. I’ll do anything for you. But don’t make me leave. I can’t do that again.” Jaxson pulled her close until their foreheads touched. He gazed into her watery, blue-green eyes. “I need you, Piper. I need you.”
Chapter 73
The words shot through her heart like a single sniper bullet, piercing the block of ice that had formed when he walked out.
“Need isn’t the same as love, Jaxson.”
“I told you I love you. I’ve never stopped. I’ve never even been with or dated another woman since you. I knew no one would ever measure up.”
Finally, the tears flowed. They streamed down her cheeks like a torrential rainstorm.
He took his fingers and swiped the moisture off her cheeks. “Don’t cry, sunshine.”
“I love you, too. But I meant it. I can’t stay here. I just can’t. I leave for Georgia tomorrow. Your home is here, with the Texas Rangers.”
“No, my home is with you.”
Jaxson smiled his trademark lopsided grin, with the one dimple as deep as she’d ever seen it. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips to hers. As they kissed, for the first time after learning of Keri’s death, after learning her sister masterminded all the gruesome deaths of the pregnant women, Piper finally believed happiness was possible.
After all, they could conquer anything if they were together.
Epilogue
Jaxson and Piper sat at his solid maple kitchen table with padded straight-back chairs. He had a stack of papers in a folder labeled Keri Morgan. She petted Tazzie as she tried to understand the news he had shared with her. They had planned to leave for Georgia after only a short two weeks after Keri’s death. This would give Jax and Jon time to completely close-out the case on Keri and Luke.
It had taken three months.
“I knew you were looking into the human trafficking angle, but I never thought you would find anything. I guess my mind kept telling me you would somehow exonerate her and she would be a victim.” Tazz placed her head on Piper’s lap and sighed.
She turned her glass of iced tea around and around on the coaster. The ice tinkled against the glass.
Reaching for her hand, he grasped it tight, almost stopping the trembling, but not quite. “I am so sorry, Sunshine. I don’t know what to say.” He paused. “The FBI profilers were adamant that it didn’t make sense she would begin at creating a partnership with a serial killer to steal babies. They insisted she was involved in criminal activities prior to partnering with Luke. When they tore apart her closet, they found another hidden safe. In it were two ledgers. It wasn’t too smart of her to keep the key to the encoded ledger in the same house, let alone the same safe.”
“I would have thought she was smarter than that.” She kept her eyes lowered, not able to meet his eyes. What if one day he thinks I must have known? What if one day he blames me like the media has?
“Yeah, well, once we ran everything down, it proved her involvement in human trafficking began in her late teens. She began low on the totem pole of the organization. At first, she kidnapped teens right off the street. Most of them were prostitutes or runaways. Unfortunately, law enforcement probably didn’t go the extra mile to find most of them—not that they could have anyway. Almost all of the girls were moved to other countries immediately.”
Her head shook side to side in disbelief of this whole horrible, messed up criminal her little sister turned out to be. Tazzie pushed closer to Piper and let out a low whine. “This is so hard to believe.”
“You can take solace in the fact that finding the ledgers led to an operation that found almost three hundred children and young adults. They are now able to heal and regain their life.”
“I need to make amends for my sister.”
His thumb rubbed the back of her hand. “Sunshine, it wasn’t your fault.”
Her gaze finally raised to meet his eyes. “I know. But still. I want to work with a Human Trafficking organization when we move to Georgia. I have mad computer search skills. Maybe I can be of some help.”
For the first time in days, he smiled, and it reached his eyes. “You’re amazing.”
A warmth started thawing her chest and the idea to give back lightened her breathing and the trembling almost quieted completely. She had hoped she could find her way out of the madness—out of the misery her sister caused all those families, all those babies. “Hey, what about all the babies? Did you find them all?”
“We retrieved all the babies listed in her book and returned them to their extended family. They may have lost a daughter or sister, but at least they have her child back with them.”
“I don’t know if I want the answer to this, but did Todd get a baby from this ring?”
“No. Todd and his wife are on several adoption
lists and are trying to get a surrogate.”
“At least that’s good news.” Petting Tazz’s head, she realized it would take time, but they would be all right. She wouldn’t let Keri win.
He leaned back in his chair and took a gulp of his tea. After sitting the glass back on the table with a thump, he brightened. “You want even more good news? I found a house for us to rent in Bristol, GA. The GBI has a hiring freeze, so I took a job as a Detective for the Bristol Police Force.”
“Are you going to be happy doing that? Isn’t that a step down from being a Texas Ranger? I don’t want you to give up your dream because I can’t stay here.”
Standing, he moved to her side and knelt next to her chair. “Are you serious? My dream came true.” He took her hand and kissed the back of it. You’re back in my life. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. My one and only dream. Not the Rangers, not the GBI. You.” He pulled something from his pocket and held it to her ring finger. As he slipped the engagement ring she wore long ago onto her finger he asked, “Piper, marry me?”
For the first time in years, her heart soared above all the crap that she had endured, from all the hurt her sister caused, from the fear she had lost him forever. “Yes. What took you so long?”
Thank you for reading Betrayed. Hope you enjoyed Piper and Jaxon’s story. If you want to meet up with them again, they will be in a future book in a new series I’ve created, Woodland Mysteries.
About the Author
Acclaimed suspense author Shelly Knox loves to hear from the readers. Contact her through Facebook or her website at shellyknox.com.
Shelly has been a professional writer for nearly thirty years. She has published a number of short stories in Sun Magazine and was a regular contributor to True Story, True Confessions, and True Romance.
Shelly’s first novel, Twin Deceptions, was re-released in December 2018. Her second novel, Death Wore White, was released in May 2019.
She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from National University. Shelly also has an MBA in Healthcare Management from the University of Phoenix and recently retired from a successful thirty-six-year career with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
She currently lives in Georgia with her two Shelties, Izzie and Mia. She writes full-time, although she takes lots of breaks to play with and train her dogs in obedience and tricks.
A member of Romance Writers of America (RWA) since 1990, this talented author was the co-founder of Chesapeake Romance Writers during the same year. She is also a member of Sisters in Crime as well as the RWA online chapter, Kiss of Death.
Other Books By Shelly Knox
Twin Deceptions re-released December 2018
Death Wore White released May 2019
Shelly loves to hear from readers. You can contact her through email, her website or Facebook.
[email protected]
www.shellyknox.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorShellyKnox/
Human Trafficking Facts
The International Labour Organization estimates that there are 40.3 million victims of human trafficking globally.
81% of them are trapped in forced labor.
25% of them are children.
75% are women and girls.
The International Labor Organization estimates that forced labor and human trafficking is a $150 billion industry worldwide.
The U.S. Department of Labor has identified 148 goods from 75 countries made by forced and child labor.
In 2017, an estimated 1 out of 7 endangered runaways reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children were likely child sex trafficking victims.
Of those, 88% were in the care of social services or foster care when they ran.
There is no official estimate of the total number of human trafficking victims in the U.S. Polaris estimates that the total number of victims nationally reaches into the hundreds of thousands when estimates of both adults and minors and sex trafficking and labor trafficking are aggregated.
Source: Polaris
The United States, along with Mexico and the Philippines, was ranked one of the world’s worst places for human trafficking in 2018. In the US, there is no official number of human trafficking victims, but estimates place it in the hundreds of thousands.
Source: Fox News, Polaris Project, Human Trafficking Hotline
If you suspect someone, child or adult, is being held against their will, please contact the Human Trafficking Hotline at:
1 (888) 373-7888
National Human Trafficking Hotline
SMS: 233733 (Text "HELP" or "INFO")
Hours: 24 hours, 7 days a week
Languages: English, Spanish and 200 more languages
For More information on Human Trafficking, please use the link below:
Website: humantraffickinghotline.org
20% of the Gross Royalties from Betrayed will go to the Polaris Project
