Fame And Secrets (Lords Of Lyre Book 2)

by Cora Kenborn

  Dalton laughed again, ignoring the Glocks pointed at him. “Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep…”

  “Shut up!” I shouted. “I’m sick of that shit. Where is Phoebe?”

  “Lord’s Princess fell fast asleep, and dreamt she heard her screaming. But when she awoke, she found it a joke, for she was but still dreaming. Then up they took, alongside a brook, determined for to find her. They found her indeed, but it made their hearts bleed, for the door had been locked behind her. It happened one day, as Lord’s Princess did play, into a dark room hard by. There they espied the bitch on her side, dead from the heat and the dry.”

  “You’re fucking insane.” He continued to laugh, lolling his head on his shoulders in time with the cadence of the rhyme. In that moment, I realized the man in front of me served as a vessel for evil. He’d been a child abuser, and now, a murderer. “You get off on that?” I screamed. “You get off on torturing women? What the fuck happened to you, man? You made her life hell. She screamed every night in her dreams because of you.” Red blinded my vision. “You ruined her.”

  Quieting his incessant humming, he tapped his top lip with a dirty finger. “I do have one regret.”

  I lowered the gun slightly. “Yeah?”

  Dalton smiled a sick grin. “That I didn’t get the first taste.”

  “Motherfucker!” I raised my gun to end him, but before I could pull the trigger, a blast deafened my ears. His forehead exploded, and with eyes wide open, he fell forward.

  In shock, Zane and I turned to where Chloe stood, her hand outstretched and finger still bent on the trigger. As the lingering smoke cleared, a cold indifference dominated her face.

  I took the gun gently from her hand. “Chloe?”

  She stared at his lifeless body crumpled on the floor. “I was bad enough. I would’ve never let him touch my baby sister.”

  The room was bathed in silence as Zane and I shared a look. Chloe’s powerful words held meaning neither of us could ever rationalize. Daniel Dalton had molested Chloe as a child. She endured it to protect her sister from the same fate.

  With two men dead, and Sarah wailing in the other room, I pulled my phone from my pocket to dial 911 when Zane snatched it out of my hand.

  “Are you insane?” Pocketing my phone, he pulled out his own and dialed.

  “Who are you calling?”

  “My friends. I never called them off the job…even after you told me to the second time. I had a feeling something like this would happen.” He spoke low into the phone for a few moments, then ended the call. He glanced from me to Chloe, then motioned to the body on the floor. “They were never here. No trace will ever be found. Jaxon Hough can look all he wants.”

  “What about Sarah?”

  “They’ll figure something out. The less we know, the better.”

  As much as she’d tortured us, I still didn’t want to offer her the same. “I don’t want her dead, Zane.”

  A long stare preceded another phone call. “Fine,” he ground out as he spoke low into his cell.

  I raked my hands over my face, reality weighing hard. “He never told me where to find Phoebe.”

  “That’s not true.” Chloe turned determined eyes on me.

  “What do you mean?”

  “That damn nursery rhyme. Weren’t you listening?”

  “I tried not to.”

  She shook her head. “No, he changed the words again. At first I thought he was rambling, then they started clicking. Lord’s Princess fell fast asleep, and dreamt she heard her screaming. I think he was telling us she didn’t die in that video, Julian.” She continued with her analysis. “Then up they took, alongside a brook, determined for to find her. A habitual caller said something about seeing my father at an apartment complex months ago, on the outskirts of Hollywood Hills. She didn’t put much stock in it, but what if it’s near a brook?” My heart sped up. “It happened one day, as Lord’s Princess did play, into a dark room hard by. There they espied the bitch on her side, dead from the heat and the dry.”

  “What does that part mean?”

  Her voice dimmed. “When we were little, Phoebe wandered off to an old schoolhouse. It had a boiler room, and somehow she got herself locked inside.” Her eyes dilated with excitement. “We eventually found her, but she’d passed out from heat exhaustion from the boilers. There was no ventilation. It was just a windowless room.”

  As if in a vacuum, all sound muffled as my dream the night she disappeared came back to me.

  “I’ve been looking for you.”

  “I know, silly.”

  “Where are we?”

  “Here. There. Lots of places.”

  “Could you be vaguer?”

  “You’ll understand someday.”

  “Tell me now.”

  “I can’t. I have to go.”

  “You just got here. Wherever here is.”

  “Shhh. He’ll hear you.”

  “He? Who’s he? Who’s here, Phoebe? Where have you been, why is your hair wet?”

  “Princess fell fast asleep, and dreamt she heard them rhyming; but when she awoke, she found it a joke, for the air was thick and climbing.”

  In that instant, I knew she hadn’t died in that video. I could still save her. A single word tore from my throat as I ran for the front door

  “Now.”

  ***

  The GPS address led us straight to Hill Heights apartment building. My heart constricted as familiarity rang in my head.

  This is the building Elisabeth Cayden managed.

  Phoebe had been right all along. He was hiding in plain sight.

  I didn’t wait for Zane to stop the car before I ran toward the maintenance building. My heart raced. The darkness was gone. Her light was dim, but I felt it. I frantically threw my body against the locked door, until Zane pulled me back and shot it open.

  “Phoebe?” I called to her over and over as we searched the humid room.

  The circular damp, dark room with no windows from my dream.

  She’d led me to her. I didn’t know how, and I probably never would.

  All three of us coughed through the fog. I could barely see my own hand in front of my face, and the heated air was so thick, my shirt dripped in sweat within seconds.

  “Phoebe?” I called out, more frantic than ever.

  “Over here!” I followed Zane’s voice to the far left corner of the room. Blindly reaching, I knew the minute I touched her leg.

  It was my Phoebe.

  “Is she breathing?” I coughed through the haze.

  “Don’t know, help me pull her out. We’ve got to get her out of here.”

  Moving in a blur, we stumbled outside and fell to the ground, Phoebe’s limp body tumbling out of my arms. I didn’t think, I didn’t hesitate. I pulled her chin up, opened her mouth, and blew. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Zane climb on top of her and begin chest compressions. In a strange rhythm that we found instantly, he pumped her heart, and I breathed life into her. After three rounds of nothing, panic set in. I couldn’t lose her again.

  As I lowered my mouth for another breath, a tortured wheeze exited her cheeks, and she coughed furiously.

  “Phoebe?” I stroked her hair, her cheeks, her lips…anything to let her know I was there. “Phoebe, that’s it, baby…breathe, come on, princess. Come back to me.”

  Drawing in another ragged breath, her eyes fluttered open and rolled my way. I panted in relief, tears clouding my vision.

  Make that five times I’ve cried in my life.

  A barely audible whisper struggled from her throat. “You’re late.”

  I stared down at her, her face cradled in my hands. I’d never remove them. For as long as I lived, I’d never let her go. “Traffic,” I answered, kissing her bruised cheek. “It’ll never happen again.”

  ***

  Phoebe and I sat in the backseat of the BMW with Iris cuddled between us as Chloe drove to the hospital. With her head on my shoulder, I brushed her hair out of her fa
ce.

  “Are you ever going to tell me what happened in there?”

  Her head lolled onto my chest. “Someday.”

  Chloe tightened her fingers on the steering wheel. “What are we supposed to tell the police when we get there?”

  “That won’t be a problem.” All eyes turned to Faith, who sat on Zane’s lap in the passenger’s seat.

  “What do you mean?” I asked cautiously.

  “I called Jaxon Hough while you guys were inside.”

  “You what?” Zane’s voice betrayed his frustration.

  She rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t give me that look. He’s a good guy. I was worried about his job. He did leave his position to help us, you know.” She gave me a pointed look. “So, I let him know we’d found Phoebe, and we’re taking her to the hospital.” She glanced at us. “What the hell is everyone’s problem? Jaxon and I have it all worked out. He got an anonymous tip. Now we can say he saved Phoebe, and he’ll get a hero’s commendation.” She cast a downward glance at Zane. “Happy?”

  I held my wife and daughter tightly in my arms and kissed them both. “Ecstatic.”

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Phoebe

  Wilmington, NC

  North Carolina Iris Festival

  One Month Later

  “So, you’re stalking me.”

  “Do you want to hear this or not? I put two and two, a couple of threes, and a really drunk one together and called the festival coordinator for the names of past title holders.”

  “And they just willingly gave you all my personal info?”

  “I may have had to promise to headline next year’s festival.”

  Julian made good on his promise from a darkened hallway the night we officially met. Lords of Lyre had been billed as the big headlining act for the 2016 North Carolina Iris Festival—a huge event held every year with street fairs, concerts, carnivals, and, of course, the Miss Iris Festival pageant.

  After Iris and I received clearance from our doctors to fly, Julian locked himself in his office. When he emerged, hair standing on end, grinning like the village idiot, I knew he’d done something big.

  Standing in the doorway of the Botanical Garden main house, I smiled, remembering the glimmer in his eye as he fondled the rings on my finger at the hospital.

  “What’d you say if I asked you to marry me?”

  “I’d say maybe you needed the CAT scan, not me. Julian. We are married.”

  “Yeah, but that was for us. I distinctly remember promising you a ceremony in front of our family and friends.”

  “What’re you up to, Bale?”

  He grinned and dusted my lips with a potent kiss. “Pack something white.”

  So, I did. And here I stood about to walk down the floral path of the Wilmington Botanical Gardens, holding a bouquet of blue irises in a white sundress. For a pop of color, and because I was far from the virginal bride, I placed one of the blue irises behind one ear. At least I knew Julian would get a good laugh.

  The road back hadn’t been without its potholes. No one could go through the depths of hell I’d come through unscathed. Not only were there still unresolved postpartum issues to deal with, Julian and I had a foundation to rebuild, fractured by sorrow and trauma. Then there were the horrific nightmares that plagued me nightly, waking me in a cold sweat, unable to breathe from the phantom scarf still wrapped around my neck.

  One thing was for sure, it’d be a long time before either of us would allow Iris back into her nursery to sleep.

  On Eliza’s suggestion, Julian and I started seeing a therapist together to work through some major issues we seemed to find ourselves repeating. We weren’t perfect, but a work in progress with a mutual love that had made it through a lifetime of darkness.

  Free from the monster that haunted me my entire life, I walked myself weightlessly down a path where there were no chairs, no decorations, and no fanfare. A simple gazebo spread out in front of me stood unassuming and flanked by my sister, brother-in-law, niece, Eliza, Ryker, Ty, Zane, Faith, and even Kristina.

  As I approached, Chloe wiped her eyes. I stopped and kissed her cheek before ascending the steps and meeting my husband at the makeshift altar. He held out his hand, the other occupied by a wiggling Iris in a frilly pink dress.

  We’d never been ones for tradition, so he pulled me in for a quick but devastating kiss as our daughter cooed between us. Grinning, he nodded to the minister.

  “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness the union of Julian and Phoebe in holy matrimony…”

  ***

  The last hour blurred with happiness and regret. After the ceremony, we kept it low key, picnicking on the lawn, talking and enjoying each other’s company. At some point, Zane and Faith argued, and she took off into the main house. Minutes later, Zane went after her. Half an hour later, they both came back outside, their faces mirroring each other’s sadness.

  All I could do was hug her, holding on gently so as not to injure her still healing ribs. I should say things a best friend should say…yet the words wouldn’t come. I reassured her with a final squeeze and pulled back to look in her eyes. They held a deadly combination of fear and compassion. It was a combination I knew well within the confines of my own soul.

  “Pheebs, I didn’t want to tell you before the wedding, but I’m leaving in a few minutes.”

  “Where’re you going?”

  She bit her lip. “Back to Charleston. Back with my family. I need to get away from Armando until I can file for divorce. He, uh…he found out what I did, going with Julian and Zane to find you.” She dusted the earth with her toe. “It didn’t end well.”

  I grabbed her hand and held it tight, noticing the fresh bruises on her arms. “Will I ever see you again?”

  Faith held back the tears, the only thing she had left the media hadn’t spilled for the world to see. “Of course you will. If you think I’m not going to be at that little girl’s first birthday, you’re sadly mistaken, my dear friend.”

  I gave her a halfhearted smile. “I never wanted you hurt because of me.”

  She shook her head and smiled sadly. “It had nothing to do with you, Pheebs.”

  “It had everything to do with me. He attacked you twice because you got involved with my problems. I know men like him. He’ll do it again.”

  Faith grabbed my chin, forcing my gaze upward. “I think this had more to do with Zane than it did his precious image.”

  I cornered her stare. “Is he why you’re leaving too?”

  Faith glanced to the side and watched Julian and Zane engrossed in a hushed discussion. “It’s just time for me to go home, Pheebs. It’s what’s best.”

  “For who?”

  “Everyone.”

  “You don’t believe that any more than I do.”

  Nervously pulling down the skirt of her dress, Faith glanced again at Zane. “Phoebe, it’s not that simple. It’s been amazing, but it’s over. I can’t stay here running from Armando every day, and we both know Zane isn’t a one-woman kind of guy.”

  “He wasn’t before you,” I said, crossing my arms.

  “Pheebs, a man doesn’t change his entire innate behavior in a few months.”

  I took note of Zane’s coiled body language. “Well, I’ve seen….”

  Faith shook her head emphatically. “Don’t compare Zane to Julian. They’re nothing alike. Julian is a relationship-oriented kind of guy. I like Zane…probably more than I should. But I like him the way he is. I don’t want him to change for me. I’m too fucked up for anyone right now.”

  “Can you walk away from him that easily?” I asked, pinning her with a serious stare.

  Closing her eyes momentarily, Faith opened them and peeled back the layers of her heart. “Zane came into my life for a purpose. Even now, I’m not sure what that purpose was, other than to make me see there are men who care for women without possessing them.” She sucked in a chest full of air and blew it out slowly. “Life goes on, Pheebs. We
deal with the choices we’ve made. Whether they’re right or wrong, decisions make us own up to who we are.”

  “Faith…”

  She placed a hand on my arm. “You need to go. It’s your honeymoon. I promise I’ll call when my plane lands. Take care of you and that baby.”

  I began to protest, when Julian appeared by my side. Leaning down, he placed a kiss on top of my head and nodded in Faith’s direction. “I don’t know how to say I’m sorry, Faith.”

  A confused look passed over her face. “For what?”

  “For doubting you. For not sticking up for you when you needed it. You saved Iris. I’ll never be able to repay you.”

  With a defiant shake of her head, blond waves fell over her shoulder, masking the evidence of a slap. “I’d do it all again for the same outcome.” She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. His free arm went around her waist as they hugged awkwardly. Pulling away, she wiped wetness that gathered underneath her eyes. “Take care of her, Bale. She’s family to me. I’m trusting you to keep my family safe.”

  With a solemn nod, he pulled back from her. “With my life.”

  This time, her smile was real. “I don’t doubt that at all.”

  ***

  I stood at the edge of the gazebo, watching Eliza and Chloe take turns cuddling Iris against their chests and buzzing her around the garden like a human airplane. It made me laugh. So much had happened, it felt like a lifetime had passed since Julian pulled me from the boiler room. Four weeks hardly seemed accurate.

  Ryker and Julian traded brotherly punches to each other’s shoulders as my brother-in-law eyed up a group of young co-eds in short shorts and flip-flops by the water’s edge. His life had just begun…new experiences and lessons just waiting for a budding rock star to learn.

  Thinking about it made me reflect on the last year of my life. I absentmindedly ran my fingers across my rings again. No sane couple endured what Julian and I had in such a short amount of time. Normal people wouldn’t experience a sliver of our drama in their lifetime.