He went quiet.
“Fine.”
“I don’t know what’s going on,” he stated, “but she just got some bad news.”
He told him everything.
“Jesus. That’s not bad news, Jules, that’s something that makes people die inside.”
Yeah, he was aware.
This woman’s parents were sexual sadists, rapists, baby thieves, and one wasn’t even her real parent. Her real one was dead in a sealed off room as her spirit haunted the house.
There was no way to sugar coat it.
“I don’t know what’s going on between you…”
“Nothing. There’s nothing there,” Hart said, pulling on his jeans and then boots. “I’ll follow her. When this case is done, I’m going home.”
“Hart.”
“Julian, I have to go home to my family. Ivy needs me.”
What more could he say?
The man was stubborn and made up his mind. Julian only hoped he didn’t eventually regret it.
* * * L i t t l e m o o n * * *
It was time.
They knew too much.
He was sure of it.
As he sat outside the estate, watching it, he knew that the moment was perfect. She was leaving and alone. He could see her in the zippy little sports coupe she was driving.
He didn’t understand why she was alone, but maybe the Littlemoons had given up.
The truth was so far hidden that it would never shake free. His past was just that, and once his mother was avenged, he’d be free too.
No one would know it was him.
He’d covered his trail.
It took years, but it worked. After years of being their friend, it made the whole thing a walk in the park.
Yes, he’d slipped beneath their radar, and he was glad.
He’d outsmarted his father, uncle, grandmother, and siblings. He was right there—in plain sight, and they never noticed him.
They didn’t see the resemblance.
They didn’t see that they all had the same eyes.
No, they didn’t see him because he didn’t have their last name or their money.
Well, as he killed each one, they got to see his face in that moment of clarity. As he was shoving that witch from the cliff, shooting his father in the head, drowning his uncle in the lake, snapping that old lady’s neck, and burning his sibling alive, they knew it.
They saw it then.
He was ruthless.
He was a killer.
See?
It was in the blood.
And after he killed Lennox Easton, he would be the last one standing.
And he would have won the war.
* * * L i t t l e m o o n * * *
Hart followed her there.
It was the last place he wanted to be. Just looking at the gallery and thinking about what he lost was enough to make him hate the world.
Still, he’d finish this up.
Hart knew that looking at her, seeing the woman he loved as she planned to leave him behind, broke him.
It damaged something so deep in him.
Now it was about recovery.
It was about survival.
So, he pulled out his phone and called Clarissa.
He may have lost one woman in his life, but he still had his little girl. He still had his daughter, and in the end, that would be enough.
It had to be.
He was destined to die a lonely man.
With a broken heart.
* * * L i t t l e m o o n * * *
Tori was busy flipping through anything she could find in the books. She had to pray something would fall out, or they’d get a clue.
Only, that wasn’t what was happening.
This case…
It was pretty much unsolvable. Not only had the Easton family buried all the truth, but they destroyed anything that could lead people to what had happened.
They were screwed. For the first time, in a long time, they might not solve this one.
Tori was about to give up, when her cell phone rang. Glancing down, she noticed it was Tony.
Maybe he could give her something.
“Hey, Doc! How are you doing?”
“Same old. Elizabeth is riding ass this morning, and that’s why I’m late getting back to you. I apologize.”
“It’s okay. Tell me what you have,” she said, putting it on speaker for her husband, Beau, and Nyx to hear.
“It’s hard over pictures, but your victim looks like she’s been tortured. Then again, I can’t see the staining, so it could be abuse of a corpse.”
“It was perimortem. We know what happened to her right before she died. Our killer kicked the shit out of her.”
“Yeah, that’s an understatement,” Doctor Magnus stated.
“Is there anything you can give me that will help me distinguish her identity?” Tori asked. “I need something to point me in the right direction.”
“Other than that she’s female?”
“Yes.”
“She’s Native American. Her zygomatic bones give it away,” he said.
“What?” Tori said.
“Her cheekbones. They are distinctive.”
“Doc, I love you.”
“Yeah, you wouldn’t be the first lady to say that to me,” he teased. “It’s my brain.”
“I need a favor.”
“What?”
“Are you by a computer?”
“Yes, why?”
“Can you do a search for me on a name?” Tori asked as her husband began pacing.
“Yes. Shoot.”
“Look up Evangeline Byrd.”
There was typing and then a pause. “I only have one match, and it’s to your area. Actually, it’s more toward Delta Falls. There appears to be a woman who went missing…”
“Thank you, Doctor! I owe you one!”
She hung up the phone.
Julian was pissed. “He played us from the start. He didn’t give us the autopsies to slow us down. He set you up with Calvin Foster because then we’d trust him and tell him what we knew.”
Shit!
This was bad.
They had inadvertently let the fox right into the henhouse on this one.
“He played the Native card, Jules. He searched her name for us and didn’t come up with anything because as sheriff, he could make it disappear—like the original police report for Mariah. He’s Lennox’s brother, and he’s going to take her out!”
Julian pulled out his phone. “I’ll call Hart. If he sees him…”
Yeah, his instinct said to shoot, but they couldn’t get away with that. Instead, Julian had to hope they weren’t too late.
Two lives depended on it.
* * * L i t t l e m o o n * * *
When Hart answered his phone, he could hear Julian’s frantic voice in the background.
“What are you saying? I can’t understand you.”
His eyes went huge.
“The sheriff?” he stated. “Okay, I’ll keep my eyes open. I’ll get inside to keep Lennox safe,” he stated.
Hart had just hung his phone up when he saw movement from his peripheral. He turned his head slightly, and it saved his life.
The strike to his skull only knocked him out instead of fracturing his skull.
“Well, it looks like I have to move fast,” Silver Byrd said, dragging the man into the bushes outside the gallery. “I’m sorry I had to kill you. Honestly, this wasn’t my intent,” he said, dumping him there without checking his vitals.
No one would survive that strike to the skull.
Silver Byrd looked around.
“It looks like I have limited time. This is going to have to count. I have to kill my sister, and get the hell out of town.”
And he would.
Before anyone was the wiser.
* * * L i t t l e m o o n * * *
Milo Perkin’s
Studio
Inside, Lennox was trying to convince Milo it wasn’
t happening. She wasn’t leaving to do the show.
Even after the way Hart was treating her, she had to have faith in him. Her life couldn’t possibly be this shitty.
How could it?
The universe couldn’t hate her this much.
After everything she’d heard an hour ago, she had to have faith in someone.
She chose Hart.
If they were meant to be, he’d be there.
“You can’t do this,” whined Milo. “This is everything we’ve been working for,” he stated.
“We?”
“Yes, we! I promoted you. I got you as much business as possible. You owe me.”
She laughed, and it wasn’t a happy one either.
“I don’t owe anyone anything. I’m my own person. I’m doing this last show, and then we’re done.”
He gasped.
“Why?”
“You’re being obnoxious. Now get me the receipts you have for my paintings you sold already. I’ll take them home to file them away.”
“You’ll regret this,” he stated.
She regretted a lot, but this wasn’t one of the things. She’d tank her career to be with Everhart Rose. This was simply the beginning of the end.
When Milo left, she heard a muffled thump from the other room. Getting up, she went after him.
“Milo?” she called.
When she entered the room, she found him on the floor in a crumbled heap.
Before she could move, the pain to the back of her head was horrible. It knocked her to her knees, and then to the floor.
Everything spun.
As she stared up at the sheriff, she didn’t understand.
What the hell was going on?
* * * L i t t l e m o o n * * *
When she woke, she was bound to a table. Her arms were restrained over her head, her legs to the other side.
Lennox couldn’t move.
She was trapped.
As he stood over her, she couldn’t figure out what was going on around her.
“Why?” she asked.
“You’re my sister. Our father killed our mother.”
She stared at him.
“I don’t understand why you’re doing this.”
Silver Byrd dropped a hip to the corner of the table she was restrained on, and he began his story.
“Our mother delivered Cornell first, then me, and finally you. She managed to save me by telling our sick fuck father that I died. Instead, she slipped me away. She gave me to her sister. You see, our mother was allowed to come and go as she pleased. She played along to make enough money to support her family. She was going to come back for both of you, but he found out. He caught her in Cornell’s nursery.”
“I don’t get any of this. What did I do to you?”
“Our mother is Native American. You and Cornell look like an Easton. I look like our mother. We have the same eyes, Lennox. You never noticed. As to why I’m doing it to you, I’m going to avenge our mother. She died for us, and someone has to care. We both know it won’t be an Easton.”
“You’re insane.”
He slapped her.
It stung, but she refused to cry.
“Maybe I get it from our father. Maybe we’re all crazy, Lennox. It doesn’t matter. My auntie told me the tale many years ago. From a child, I’ve known I had to avenge her. I became a cop in this miserable town to be close to the Eastons. I’ve been in your shadows for all of my life.”
“If it’s about the money...”
He slapped her again.
“Shut your vile Easton mouth!”
She’d had enough.
“Our mother took money to have kids and be my father’s concubine, and it got her killed and you want me to feel sorry? She played with fire!”
He screamed in rage as his hands found her throat. “DON’T TALK ABOUT HER LIKE THAT!”
Like mother like son. Evangeline enjoyed choking the breath from her lungs too.
As the room spun, he finally let her go, and Lennox knew she had to calm him down.
Really, leaving the house alone today…
Not her smartest move.
Here was the proof.
“I still don’t get why you want to kill me. I didn’t hurt her. I was a baby. I hate the Easton family. I’ve distanced myself for years.”
He stopped moving as if thinking about what she was saying. It was clear to Lennox that he’d been made into a monster hell bent on revenge at a young age.
He laughed. “It’s simple. You’re an Easton, and they need to pay.”
She struggled to get free.
“Don’t worry. Your death will be nothing like theirs.”
That didn’t make her feel better.
“I shoved her off the cliff, and she deserved it. Your faux mother screamed all the way down. When I called nine one one, I couldn’t risk my name appearing, so the police report had to go missing. I was still a deputy then, but now…I made it all disappear.”
“You’re insane.”
“Our dear old father… BOOM!” he said, making her jump. “Right to the head. No one said a word. I lost some of the evidence. The bullet casing went missing, and the case went quiet.”
She couldn’t believe this.
This was her end.
Maybe it was a good thing Hart hated her. It wouldn’t hurt him as much. She thought about the previous night and how they’d made love.
If she was dying, that was going to be her focus.
“Our grandmother, bless her rotten old soul—she paid everyone off. She buried it.”
Lennox wanted to say that their mother had been a greedy slut too, but she didn’t want to die yet. There was still a chance.
She began praying.
“Our brother was a douchebag. He would treat women the exact same way that our father would. I had to kill him. If I let you live, Lennox, even though you’re not like them, it wouldn’t end this. Our mother deserves justice.”
“And Calvin Foster? Why did you cut off his penis and feed it to him?”
“You can thank the Littlemoons. They thought he was involved with Evangeline’s murder. I couldn’t take any chances. I killed him too.”
This was horrible.
This man was insane. How the hell did he become a cop? Weren’t there tests?
“Now it’s time to kill you.”
He picked up a gasoline can.
“They’ll figure it out and find you.”
“Oh, they are on their way here—thus the fire. It will slow them down. By the time they ID your body, I’ll be another nameless Indian on some distant reservation. I’ll disappear, since I’ve been invisible from day one.”
She screamed for help as he tossed gasoline on her.
“That big oaf that’s been following you around was outside, but I ended him too. He can’t save you.”
“Everhart!” she screamed. He had to be lying. Ivy couldn’t lose her father, and because of her. If she could go back, she’d fix that one thing. She’d save him for his child.
As he lit the match, she began sobbing.
It was over.
She’d lost the man she loved.
She’d lost her family.
This sucked.
“Goodbye, Lennox. It was nice being your brother.”
As he went to raise his hand to drop the match, someone hit him from the side. The shot was so fast and hard, everyone in the room gasped for a breath.
The match tumbled and Lenox held her breath as Hart and Silver Byrd wrestled on the ground.
She prayed it didn’t ignite, or she was dead.
As the men fought, Julian and Tori raced into the room. They immediately went to Lennox, to get her away from the match and gasoline—just in case.
They untied her.
They got Lennox up.
“Help him,” she said, as she watched Hart beat the hell out of the man.
Maybe his anger was a good thing.
With one last punch to the face
, he took him down.
“I think he has this one,” Julian stated, going over to help Hart from the floor.
“Thanks,” he stated.
“Good work. You hit like a bus.”
Hart rolled his neck. Taking down Silver Byrd was cathartic. He’d enjoyed beating him within an inch of his life.
“Are we done here?” he asked. “I’d really like to go home and see my daughter.”
Lennox stared at him, tears and gasoline mixing on her skin. She’d thought he was dead…
He saved her.
Now this was it?
He wouldn’t even look at her.
“Uh, yeah, if you don’t think you’d like a kiss from the girl you saved.”
Hart stared at her. “No, I think that’s a bad idea. Good luck, Lennox. It was a pleasure.”
Even Tori stared at him.
Lennox waited until he left, and then she stared at Tori. “He was all I had to live for, and now he’s gone too. Why is this my life? Why am I cursed?”
“It’s okay,” Tori tried to offer anything she could to help the woman. Honestly, she had no clue why Hart was being cold.
“It’ll never be okay.”
Lennox had finally gotten her wish. Someone saw her for who she was.
Then he made her fall in love.
And then…he hated what he saw, and instead, he willingly walked away.
Epilogue
This had been one hell of a case.
Tori was emotionally and physically bankrupt. As her husband drove her home, she sat in the SUV, seat back, and eyes closed.
She was thinking about Lennox.
The woman was broken, and she couldn’t figure it out. That wasn’t like Everhart Rose.
Something was eating at him.
“You’re going to meddle, aren’t you?” Julian asked as they drove home. They were five minutes from home, and he couldn’t wait to get there. “I know you, Victoria. It’s going to drive you crazy. Maybe he just decided he didn’t want to be in a relationship with her.”
Forbidden Secrets Page 39