Don’t Keep Silent

by Don't Keep Silent (epub)

  “This all started years ago when I was abducted. Before I moved to Denver and went to college, I had a stalker. His name was Simon Astor. I couldn’t shake him no matter what. So I left and changed my name. Started a new life and left behind the old one. But Simon found me again and that time, he abducted me.”

  Alan’s chest ached as he listened to her story, the past he hadn’t asked her to share before and wished she didn’t have to now. He heard the deep pain that remained. He pulled a chair from the corner to sit closer so she could keep her voice low.

  “He found me by accident, actually. He’d come to Denver for business.” She glanced up at him. “Illegal business. With all his partying and gambling and drugs, he was sucked in deep and was the middleman for a trafficking ring that continued to grow exponentially.”

  “You mean drugs.”

  “Yes. And human. It was all part of a diversified ring that’s still going. I guess being part of that business made him bold enough to take me off the street.”

  Zoey sniffled, and Alan could tell she fought to hold back her sobs. “But I got him, Alan. I got him good.”

  “You killed him.”

  “What? No! No. I could never kill someone. If I could escape without committing murder, even in self-defense, then I would.”

  “Then what do you mean that you got him good?”

  “He beat me. Abused me in every way. Had his fun.”

  His chest tightened as he held her gaze. “Is this . . . is this man . . .”

  She squeezed her eyes shut. Lips quivering, she nodded, then opened her eyes. “I can’t think of him as her father or having to do with any part of her. Never bring that up again. You’re her father, Alan.”

  Alan felt her pain to his bones. He shouldn’t have mentioned it. “You’re right. I’m sorry . . . Please, tell me what happened next.”

  She cleared the thick emotion from her throat. “I let him think I was unconscious, and then when he was passed out drunk, I got on his laptop. He was stupid enough to open it and use it while I was there. Even before I graduated, I knew what I was doing. I hacked all his files. I learned about his business and his partners. Found what I needed about his interactions on the dark web—the names of real people behind dark web identities. Simon . . . I think he was going to use the information for his own leverage to free himself from the man he worked for. I needed that same leverage to protect myself so he would never come for me again. I memorized as much as I could. Didn’t want to leave a digital trail for Simon or anyone else to follow to know what I was up to.”

  Alan’s shoulders sagged. “Zoey, why didn’t you just go to the police?”

  She bolted from the bed. “Because!” She shrank back. She’d spoken too loudly. Her eyes shot to the door, then she lowered her voice. “Because I had already been to the police multiple times. What had they ever done for me? They could not stop him. I could only trust myself. I got leverage, Alan. He would never bother me again.”

  “Okay. Okay,” Alan said. “But . . . wait. Simon is dead. What does any of this have to do with your disappearance now?”

  “I’m getting to that.” Zoey covered her face. “I don’t want you to hate me.”

  “Please, Zoey, just tell me.”

  “I moved money.”

  “Moved? You mean you stole money?”

  “To help others, Alan. I moved money from the organization Simon worked for. Small amounts at a time so it wasn’t too noticeable, and I shared it with organizations that help trafficked women. They needed more funds to make a difference.”

  “That’s right. You talked to Rae about trafficking.”

  “My mistake. I didn’t know she would spend months investigating trafficking in Denver so she could write a story. I already knew where it would lead her.” Zoey grabbed her hair and fisted it. “I hadn’t meant to send her down that road. To dig so deep. She was going to get hurt. So I sent a message to threaten him.”

  Alan stood and gently gripped her shoulders. “Him . . . who are you talking about?”

  Zoey shut her eyes and exhaled as if working up the nerve to keep going, then she opened them. “The man who would lose the most if she exposed him. The head of the trafficking ring in Denver. He has many aliases. Malcom Fox. Devon Winters. William Granger. I threatened to expose him.”

  “But he didn’t listen.”

  She shook her head. “Rae was taken anyway, then saved by that undercover DEA agent. But my threat had drawn Fox’s attention, and I’d tipped my hand. He might have landed in prison, but he sent people to search for me just the same. Possibly because of what I knew about him, but probably because of the money.”

  She hung her head.

  Alan lifted her chin so she would look at him. “Because of the money you diverted to helped trafficked women.”

  “Not that money. Different money.”

  Alan dropped his hands and fisted them. “My head is spinning here, Zoey.”

  She frowned. “At first, after I escaped Simon back in college, I was scared, so scared. I took money to help organizations, yes, but there’s more. I took a chunk of his money.”

  Alan stared at her as he tried to comprehend her words.

  “Only, it turned out it wasn’t Simon’s money. It belonged to Malcom Fox. I think Malcom thought Simon had stolen the money. I think he killed Simon. But he finally figured out that I was the one who stole his money.”

  This whole time Zoey was sitting on money belonging to this criminal. Alan swallowed hard. “And what did you do with the money?”

  “I used it to buy cryptocurrency.”

  That surprised him. “What? You mean like Bitcoin?”

  She nodded. “I was half out of my mind after Simon abducted me. Scared he would come for me again. I feared the leverage of knowledge wasn’t enough. When I was in that room with Simon going through his laptop, there was a Zane Williams thriller novel sitting on the desk. It seemed out of place and caught my attention. Sure enough, Simon had written something inside. I don’t know—he couldn’t find paper? Didn’t want to text or type the information into his computer, leaving a digital trail? But I took that idea and ran with it.

  “I took the money and bought cryptocurrency. That week after I escaped Simon, I visited a used bookstore and grabbed Zane Williams’s Benedict Jaynes adventure series—the first twelve books. I used those novels to hide passwords. Maybe I went a little crazy, but I was terrified. Don’t you see? No one could ever find the money without those passwords.”

  “I’m not sure I understand. Why twelve?”

  “Oh. Well, the cryptocurrency wallet has a thirteen-word passphrase—or seed. When you create it, the software instructs you to never store the seed electronically or on a website. In other words, you don’t want it in digital form. So I wrote down twelve of the words in the Zane Williams novels in series order, which I sent to Mom, instructing her to keep them hidden in plain sight and to never get rid of them. To keep them for me until I needed them.”

  “It seems like overkill.”

  “I hacked into a huge illicit organization, Alan. I had to take every precaution. That last word—the thirteenth word—I kept in my head. In the unlikely event that someone got their hands on the other twelve words of the passphrase, they would need that last word to open up the cryptocurrency. They couldn’t kill me if they wanted the money back. At the time, they didn’t even know who I was. Bitcoins aren’t linked to real identities. That’s the beauty. It was just another tier of protection in case Simon came for me again.”

  “But that would only make him angry and come for you.”

  “If he ever found out who stole the money.”

  “And someone did.”

  “Yes. Malcom Fox did. I wanted to protect Rae, and I wasn’t careful enough when I threatened to expose him.”

  “While that all sounds noble on the surface, you’ve committed crimes.”
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br />   “The worst crime of all is that I’ve put you and Callie in danger. Malcom’s people took me to find out the passwords. To get to the money. They couldn’t kill me, but they could use others. I escaped before they could learn anything from me. I had hoped they would think I had died so they would give up looking for the money. Without me, they could never get it.”

  Alan released a long sigh. This was getting complicated. It wasn’t over yet. “Why would they think you’re dead?”

  “When I was abducted this time, a man I knew from Wyoming contacted me. He said it was about my mother, so I left Callie to meet him. I thought I could trust him.” She stared at Alan but looked right through him. “But he took me. He would never have done that if Malcom Fox wasn’t holding something horrible over his head.

  “I was held in a cabin in the wilderness surrounded by snow and a frozen lake. I knew I had to escape to get to you and protect you because of my mistake. I fell through the ice and would have died. But I’d heard a snowmobile earlier in the day. Some rifle fire. I knew that someone else was out there, and I just kept hoping I would find help. I hung on when I fell through and cried out for help. He made it to me before I succumbed to the frigid water. The snowmobiler pulled me from the ice. His name was Chuck. He took me to his home and let me recover enough. I told him my story. All of it.”

  She covered her face and shuddered, then she dropped her hands. “I had to tell someone. And once I recovered, Chuck helped me get back here. I rode along with one of his trusted long-haul trucker friends to Denver.”

  She exhaled. “It’s imperative that no one else knows I’m alive. Not yet. Too much is at stake. I’m so sorry, Alan. I know you were worried, but I had to wait to contact you. I had to wait until I could sneak into the house without a reporter or one of the officers spotting me.”

  Alan struggled to comprehend all that she had told him.

  “Chuck told me he had suspected something was going on at that cabin, so he would check it out when he saw smoke coming from the chimney. I wasn’t the first woman he’d helped. He said that the other woman had been afraid to go to the police. Afraid for her life.”

  Alan took her hands and urged her to sit on the edge of the bed. He sat next to her and wrapped his arms around her. If only he could calm her trembling body—she was strong, so strong, to have survived. “You’re here, Zoey.” He wished that was all that mattered. “Why have you kept all of this from me for so long? Why have you kept silent about it?”

  He wanted to understand. He needed to understand, because somehow he needed to restore the peace, security, and trust that had been taken from him and his precious family. Could they ever be the same again?

  When Zoey disappeared, his world shattered. Now she was back, and the ground beneath him shook violently. He feared he wasn’t strong enough to hold everything together.

  Zoey abruptly stood and swiped at her eyes. She tugged something from a pocket. “I wrote this note for you in case I died out there, so when someone found my body, they would know who I was and could give it to you.”

  Zoey was the strongest person he’d ever met. Alan took the note. Instead of turning on the bedside lamp, he stood and moved closer to the window where the moonlight could illuminate the paper. Learning Zoey’s secrets in the dark somehow seemed appropriate.

  Had we never met, you and I, then you never would have loved me. I never would have returned your love.

  And now look at us. I’ve caused you trouble. Brought you pain. All I wanted to do was protect you. Please forgive me.

  Please know that I love you.

  Loved you.

  Pain squeezed his heart until he was breathless. Unable to speak. Eventually, he found the words. “You survived to give me this.” He drew her into his arms. That had to mean something. She could have died. Should have died. But she survived. “You made it back to us.”

  That meant everything. He wouldn’t let her go again. He would stand by her through the trials to come. No matter what. Love meant nothing if it didn’t remain through the worst possible struggles. Love meant nothing if it wasn’t unconditional. Then it wasn’t love at all.

  “Now, we have to get out of here,” she said. “You and Callie aren’t safe because of what I’ve done. I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t talk like that.” He gripped her arms and looked at her face. She lifted her eyes to him. Beautiful eyes. More haunted now than he’d ever seen. But there was something else. Joy. She loved him. She’d come back because she loved him and Callie. He knew that, and that was all he needed. “We’re going to survive this, Zoey. I love you. Don’t ever forget it.”

  “I know. Your love is what kept me going. That, and an ounce of hope. But promise me that you’ll love me enough to let me go in order to protect Callie, if it comes to that.”

  A sound drew his attention. The door creaked open.

  “Momma?” Callie’s small voice resounded.

  “Oh, my baby!” She rushed to Callie, dropped to her knees, and pulled her daughter into her arms.

  Alan joined his girls, wrapping them both in his arms. Tears blurred his vision. Maybe their world had been shattered, but they were together again now, and that was all that mattered.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  Bridger-Teton National Forest

  Rae woke up to complete darkness. Her head pounded.

  What happened? Where am I?

  She felt a mattress beneath her. She swept her hand across the top—a quilt. She was in someone’s home?

  Rae pushed herself up. Her temples hammered, catching her off guard. She gently rested back on the pillow and forced her mind to remember. She’d been on the heli-ski tour. She’d been exhausted and made her way to the waiting area to find a seat. Once settled, she hadn’t been able to move.

  Ivan had approached and asked if she was all right. Then she’d woken up here.

  Abducted.

  This wouldn’t be her first time. And Liam had been there the last time. He’d untied her and then dove in front of her when the bullets started flying.

  She squeezed her eyes shut and tamped down the whimper that wanted to escape. That had been one of the most terrifying experiences of her life. But she’d survived then. She could survive now.

  Rae wouldn’t give up hope. She would fight until the end. She tried to think . . . Ivan had given her the protein bar. Had he drugged it? He was in a photograph with a Hummer. Was he the one who had pushed them from the road? The man in the black mask behind the attacks?

  She could figure that out later. Knowing who was behind her abduction wasn’t as important as getting out of here alive. But right now she couldn’t escape as long as she stayed in bed. Ignoring the pain in her head, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and sat forward. Rae hung her head to catch her breath as nausea swirled inside.

  The wind buffeted the cabin, howling at times. But there was another sound. A familiar, thrumming that her fuzzy mind couldn’t identify.

  Light suddenly burst into the dark room. Moonlight through the clouds? She glanced out the window. A flashlight beam shone from a few yards away and revealed deep snow and dense forest getting inundated with heavy snowfall.

  The blizzard would soon be on them in full force.

  Liam would track her phone. Did he already know where she was? She hoped he was on his way. Rae glanced around the room to get her bearings.

  The burst of light disappeared, but she’d learned enough about the room. There was one door. Sure, there was a window, but she doubted it would be easy to open. Probably nailed shut. Even if it wasn’t, this place could be in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. She could climb out, but where would she go? She needed to explore and find out as much as she could, then she could figure out her escape.

  The room was sparse, and although she’d only caught a clear glimpse of it with the flashlight beam, it seemed like her abductor had already remov
ed potential weapons. Rae found the bedroom door. To her surprise, it wasn’t locked. Hearing a voice, she crept down a short hallway and into a massive living room where a fire blazed in the fireplace. The front door swung open. Cold air and snow swirled into the room. She stepped back into the shadows.

  The man in the black mask. Her pulse roared in her ears, joining the wind and helicopter rotors. Snow covered his head and fell from his shoulders. He tugged off the mask.

  Wayne?

  The pilot.

  The breath whooshed from her.

  He’d given her the water—tossed it to Ivan, who’d handed it over. She hadn’t seen a watch on him then.

  Rae struggled to wrap her mind around the fact that this man—Ivan and Sam’s friend and employee—had abducted her. Wayne had been the one who had stolen her laptop. He had needed to learn how much she knew about Zoey. And he’d shoved her on the slopes and was the man who drove the Hummer.

  He quickly tried to get on his cell, cursing that he couldn’t get a signal. Then he moved around until he found one. She kept her back pressed against the wall in the shadows.

  “She’s here. I brought her to Morning Glory like you asked. I don’t care what you do with her. I’m not a coldhearted murderer. I’ve hauled human cargo around enough. I’m done. I want everything you have on me erased. Destroyed. Do you hear me? And another thing—I have to leave now or else I won’t get out of here. I had to hide her vehicle and keep low until it was safe to get her into a helicopter and bring her here. Now the blizzard is starting to move in. She’ll be stuck here, so I wouldn’t worry about an escape. When she wakes up, she can throw another log on the fire. Do with her what you want, but just know that she’s my last job for you. I made a mistake. One. I’m done paying for it.”

  The door slammed.

  Rae’s heart jumped around inside. She ran out into the empty living room. She gasped for breath. No . . . No, no, no.

  Rae flung the front door open. Snow blew past her into the room. “Don’t leave me here!”