by HELEN HARDT
“Of course. So nice to meet you.” She arranged a large tote bag on the seat next to her.
“Since I didn’t get a call from you and you’re here now, I assume you have some good news for us,” Jonah said.
“I sure do.” She licked her lips. “I hope you know I could get fired for this.”
“I know that, and I really appreciate this,” Jonah said. “We’ll just get the information we need, make copies, and then we’ll get these back to you as soon as we can. I will personally bring them back to your school.”
“Oh, no. Don’t bring them to school. You’ll have to bring them to my home, and then I can sneak them back to the archives.”
Jonah smiled. “Sure.”
I smacked his thigh under the table.
Jordan pulled out four yearbooks from the tote bag and set them on the table. “Here you go.”
Jonah grabbed one and opened it.
I nudged him again. “Shouldn’t we take these home? And look at them privately?”
“We will. But Jordan hasn’t had a drink yet.” He motioned to a waitress and ordered a glass of wine for her.
I couldn’t argue. The woman certainly did deserve a drink for her efforts. After all, she could lose her job if anyone found out she had sneaked into the archives.
“Jordan,” I said, “why do you keep your archives off-site?”
She pursed her lips. “No reason.”
Yeah, she was lying. “Really? Seems like there would be a reason. I’m sure you have plenty of storage space at school.”
“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong. We are so overcrowded. If the alumni don’t come through with more gifts, we may have to close down.”
Good answer. But I still didn’t believe that was the only reason.
I would leave it for now. If I could get Jonah alone, I could tell him my suspicions, and I could get him to turn on the sweetness and soften her up. Of course, I wasn’t in any mood for the two of them to be alone.
I opened the yearbook in front of me, the one from Larry Wade’s junior year. I leafed through the pages. Juniors… Juniors… There they were. I flipped to the end and looked under W. There he was, Lawrence Wade. But for the fact that he was balding and graying, he looked about the same. Pretty forgettable. I backtracked to S, looking for Simpson. He wasn’t there. Well, that didn’t mean anything. Tom Simpson could have been in a different class. I turned to the seniors. Sure enough, there he was, Thomas Simpson. Blond, light-eyed, and very good-looking.
“Bingo,” I said. I shoved the yearbook in front of Jonah.
He gawked at it. “Oh my God. That’s exactly what Bryce looked like in high school, except with a different hairstyle.”
Jonah hadn’t opened the book in front of him. He had been making small talk with Jordan. The waitress brought her wine, and she took a sip.
I continued looking through the book. Lo and behold, there was Theodore Mathias, also a senior in this book. The photo was in black and white, but he appeared dark-haired and dark-eyed with an olive complexion. So Simpson and Mathias were both a year older than Larry, or at least a year ahead of him in school. Next thing on my list was to see if there was any mention of a future lawyers club anywhere in the yearbook. As I began to flip to the index, something caught my eye back in the Juniors section.
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
Chapter Twenty–Four
Jonah
Something in Melanie’s whisper gave me pause. I turned to her, and she had become pale. “Sweetheart, what is it?”
She shoved the yearbook in front of me, pointing. “Check out who else was in Larry Wade’s class.”
The pictures were in black and white, so I couldn’t tell if the hair and eyes were right, but the name I recognized.
Rodney Cates.
My heart thumped. This was all getting just a little too eerie.
My phone buzzed on the table in front of me, and I glanced down. Another text.
Our time is coming, my love. Soon we will be together for eternity.
Shit.
“What is it?” Melanie asked.
“Nothing. Work related.” I hated lying to Melanie, but I would tell her later. I didn’t want to say anything in front of Jordan. The less she knew about this whole situation, the better. We were putting her in danger just by having her get these books.
“I hope I’m not prying,” Jordan said, “but what do you need these books for? You said you needed to find some information for your uncle.”
“Yes,” I said. “My uncle is…dying from cancer.”
She clasped her hand to her mouth. “Oh! I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay. He’s lived a good life.” Lying really didn’t come easy for me. “He was hoping to get in touch with a few of his classmates.”
“How would the yearbook help that? It would be easier to find them online. They’re probably all on Facebook.”
Of course. This was why lying didn’t come easy to me. I sucked at it.
“Oh, it’s not information so much he was looking for,” Melanie said, stroking my arm. “It’s photos. You see, all of his photos were destroyed in a fire a few years ago.”
And again, the hand on the mouth. “Goodness, what terrible luck.”
Melanie nodded. “I know. He’s been through so much. Now, as he is nearing the end of his life, he not only wants to talk to these people that he hasn’t seen in decades, but he also wants to remember them with these photos.”
“I completely understand. I’m so glad that I could be of help to you.” Jordan took a sip of her wine.
I tried not to stare at Melanie in awe. She had just lied her way out of this situation. I had never known her to be anything except completely honest, and I knew she would be when it mattered. But here, the way she was able to save the situation impressed me. To her mind, she was in a session right now, trying to extract information. Brilliant.
I took a sip of my wine. Now we knew that three abductors had been at the same high school, two of them in the same class, one a class below. Rodney Cates was there too… What else did they have in common?
“We truly do want to compensate you for your time,” Melanie was saying.
“Goodness, the drink is more than enough. I’m glad I could do something to make your uncle’s last days better.”
I nearly choked on my wine. I took my wallet out of my pocket and pulled out a hundred-dollar bill. “Please, take this.”
“I can’t take so much.”
I shoved the bill across the table. “I insist. You’ve helped us more than you’ll ever know.”
“Are the two of you…involved?” she asked.
Before I could open my mouth to speak, Melanie said, “We’re just good friends.”
I couldn’t read the look on her face. She had body language down to a T. Anyone looking at her would think she was telling the truth. It unnerved me a bit.
The alpha in me urged me to take her by the hand, pull her toward me, and kiss the life out of her. But Melanie never did anything without a reason. If she thought it would be better for Jordan not to think we were involved, I would go with that.
Did she want me to ask Jordan out or something? Beyond the yearbook, there wasn’t really any information Jordan had that I needed. I’d talk to Melanie about it later.
“I have to use the ladies room,” Melanie said. “If you’ll excuse me for a few minutes?”
“Of course.” I stood and let her out of the booth. I couldn’t help watching her as she walked toward the restroom. She moved with such beauty and confidence.
She was giving me permission to do something. I just wasn’t sure what it was. What more help could Jordan be to us?
Unless Melanie thought knowing why the archives were in a storage facility was important.
“Let me ask,” I said. “How long has your school kept the archives off-site?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve only been at this particular school for two years, and archives have been off
-site the whole time. But I’ve heard rumors.”
“What kind of rumors?”
“Evidently, the school was broken into about five years ago. Some yearbooks were stolen from the library. You know what’s funny? They’re the exact same yearbooks that you requested from me.”
This woman clearly wasn’t the brightest. I lifted my eyebrow. “Really? That’s strange.”
“It is strange, isn’t it? Once I realized that, I called you with the offer to go to the archives. I figured if they weren’t in the library, they probably hadn’t made it online either.”
Okay. Not so dumb after all.
“Anyway, I wanted to help. I mean, you and your friend hardly look like the type who would try to put something over on me. You’re just so…” Rosiness crept into her cheeks.
This was my cue to ask her out. But that wasn’t going to happen. “I’m just a nephew who loves his uncle and will do anything for him.” I stopped, waiting for lightning to strike. I really did hate lying, and that was a big one.
“That’s so very nice of you,” she said.
“Yeah, well, I’m a nice guy. Can I get you another drink?”
“No, thank you. I have to be driving home.”
“I understand.” I stared down at the yearbook Melanie had been looking at. I flipped through a few pages, landing on clubs. French club, German club, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, National Honor Society… Where were the future lawyers?
And then they appeared in front of my eyes. Not the future lawyers, but the future lawmakers. There was Larry, there was Tom, there was Theodore Mathias, and—
My heart nearly stopped. The club had three additional members.
“Are you okay?” Jordan asked.
“Fine.” My voice was tight. Thank God, Melanie was returning from the restroom.
She touched my arm. “Jonah, do you mind if we leave? I’m not feeling very well.”
I went into protective mode. “Of course.” I looked to Jordan. “Do you mind? We’ll need to cut this short.”
“Not at all.” She stood. “Thank you so much for the drink.”
I stood and gave her a hug. “Thank you. You’ve made my uncle very happy.”
“Just call me when you’re done with the yearbooks, and I’ll arrange to meet you somewhere to get them.”
“Will do.”
She turned and walked out the door.
“What’s wrong, baby?” I asked Melanie.
Melanie sat down next to me. “Nothing. I decided it was time to get rid of her. Did you get any information out of her?” Then she looked at me, touching my cheek. “Jonah, what’s wrong?”
I pointed to the future lawmakers club.
“This.”
Chapter Twenty–Five
Melanie
The photo showed six students, five male and one female. I quickly perused the faces. Larry, Tom, and then Theodore Mathias.
One of the two other men was none other than Rodney Cates.
The woman?
My heart stopped.
Wendy Madigan.
I looked to Jonah. And then back down at the book. The last male was taller than the other four and virtually identical to the man sitting beside me.
Bradford Steel.
“Oh my God.”
“Melanie, I have no idea what to make of this. My father knew these men. Was in some lawmaking club with them. What the hell does all this mean?”
I stroked his arm. “I wish I knew. But I can tell you one thing. We will find out.”
“We need to keep these yearbooks. We can’t give them back to Jordan.”
“We don’t want to get her in trouble, Jonah.”
“No, I don’t want to do that,” he said. “But we need these original documents. And I need to talk to Wendy Madigan. Goddamnit, someone is going to tell me the truth if I have to beat it out of them.”
“Jonah, you’re not going to hit a woman.”
He raked his fingers through his hair. “Of course not, baby. You know I would never do that.”
“You know,” I said, “this could mean nothing. So the six of them knew each other in school. That was eons ago. It doesn’t mean a thing.”
He looked at me, straight in my eyes, his own burning. “You don’t believe that.”
I sighed. “No, I don’t. But we have no reason to believe that your father was involved in anything nefarious. He certainly wouldn’t have participated in the kidnapping and rape of his own son.”
Jonah shook his head, his pallor lightening. “At this point, Melanie, I just don’t know. I keep coming back to what Larry said to Bryce and me. ‘The truth is overrated. Once you open the door to that dark room, getting out is damn near impossible.’ I’m now seeing the ironic truth of those words.”
I took his hand, rubbing my thumb into his palm. “I can’t promise you what we’ll find, but I promise you this. We will get to the bottom of this. You and I together. And Talon, Jade, Ryan, and Marj. We will find the truth.”
* * *
Jonah didn’t speak much on the drive home, and when we entered the house, he didn’t even stop to pet Lucy when she trotted up to meet us. He grabbed me, pushed me up against the wall, and crushed his mouth to mine.
The kiss was angry, and while I knew Jonah wasn’t angry with me, I understood why his emotions were coiled up the way they were. He had just found out that his father actually knew all of Talon’s kidnappers, indeed had been in a club with them in high school. Perhaps his emotion wasn’t anger so much as it was helplessness, probably a combination of the two. Whatever it was, I would be here for him. I would see to whatever needs he had.
His tongue tangled with mine, and he groaned against me. When he pulled back a little, he nipped at my lips, sucking the lower one into his mouth and biting it. Then he crushed our lips together again in a demanding, punishing kiss. I knew he wasn’t punishing me. This was his way of punishing the world around him, the world that had delivered to him such a feeling of helplessness.
When he finally broke the kiss and sucked in a deep breath, he grabbed me, holding my face in one hand. “I need to take you downstairs, Melanie. I need that more than I can even put into words right now.”
“Jonah…”
“No, Melanie. I could go out and swim a hundred laps in my pool, or I could go on a run, or we could go to my bedroom and fuck each other’s brains out. But none of those will give me peace, not right now. I need to take you downstairs. And I don’t know what I’ll do if you say no.”
I was not about to deny him. Things tonight might go farther than I was ready for, but I had pledged my love to this man. I had pledged my life to him, and right now he was in pain, big-time emotional pain, and I would do what I could to ease it for him.
I looked at him straight into his dark brooding eyes. “I’m not going to say no.”
He touched his forehead to mine. “Thank God.” Then he swooped me up in his arms, walked me through the foyer and to the door that led to his basement. He thumped down the stairs quickly, turning, walking through the rec room and then opening the door to his dungeon.
“I can’t be gentle with you,” he said. “Not tonight. But I won’t hurt you. I’d never hurt you.”
Fear sliced into me, but I was determined to give him what he needed. “I know you won’t. Take from me what you need, Jonah. I’m here for you.”
He set me down and took a seat on the bed. “Undress.” His voice was firm, commanding.
I wasn’t sure whether he wanted me to undress slowly and give him a striptease or just get naked as quickly as I could. So I decided to compromise and try to be sexy while getting undressed quickly.
I unbuttoned my blouse and slid it over my shoulders. I bent forward and unclasped my bra, so he could see my breasts pointing downward as I removed it. Then I stood straight and put one foot on the bed, unzipping my ankle boot. I removed it and then my sock, and then repeated the motions with my other leg. I stood straight again and unzipped my jeans,
sliding them over my hips and thighs and stepping out of them.
He groaned. “Still that damned beige cotton.”
I bit my lip. My cotton underwear was angering him tonight?
“Come here,” he growled.
I walked toward him slowly, and he grabbed my hips and unceremoniously ripped the panties off me.
“From now on,” he said, “you do not enter this room wearing beige cotton. Is that understood?”
I bit my lip again and nodded.
“Only lace and satin will be allowed in this room,” he said. “I’ll make sure that you possess adequate garments after tonight.”
I nodded again.
“I need to put you on the table tonight, Melanie. I need to bind not only your wrists but also your ankles this time. I need you surrendered to me, laid out for my pleasure. You understand?”
I nodded, but then remembered what he’d said about answering in words. “Yes.”
I looked toward the table. It was rectangular, with stirrups attached. There was a black skirt around it, so I couldn’t see what, if any, mechanism lay underneath. There were clamps attached where I assumed he would bind me.
He came toward me, lifted me in his arms, carried me to the table, and set me down upon the black leather that covered it.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said in a husky voice.
That was a little too much to ask. I was afraid. Goose bumps had erupted on my skin. I was trembling. But I trusted him, and I wanted to do what he needed.
“Lie down.”
I obeyed. He took one of my hands, bound my wrist to one end of the table, and then repeated with my other hand. The bindings were made of leather and were tight but not tight enough to be painful.
I was face up.
He moved to the foot of the table and repeated his actions with each of my ankles. He then removed the stirrups from the table. I secretly sighed in relief. I didn’t really want to go there tonight.
Oddly, my legs weren’t very far apart, but he soon remedied that situation. He unlatched a mechanism at the bottom of the table, and the two sections moved apart until I was spread-eagled before him. He could now position himself between my legs.