She leaned on the railing. “Making what was supposed to be an impossible bail for that witch who kidnapped my niece and left her mother to die doesn’t make your spidey senses tingle?” Hannah had trained a gun on Hilary Sayles’ heart yesterday. If she hadn’t let Robert talk her down, maybe she wouldn’t have to worry about the other monster today...
“If only I could go after everyone who helped a creep make bail.”
“How long ago did Alex Sheldon leave Boston?”
Robert shot her a look that was half wounded, half warning. “Oh, sweetheart, why don’t you tell me?”
“The hospital where Michael Abbot was recovering from his gunshot wound is one of the last places Sheldon was spotted before he closed up everything two days later.”
He narrowed his eyes. “And I’ll assume you know that I was in the same hospital waiting room with him.”
Hannah shrugged. “I mean, you were the officer on the scene when Abbot was shot—”
Robert cut her off. “Is there something you want to say?”
Hannah closed her eyes and sighed. “Nope, not a thing.” She turned to the ocean again before he could pursue it. “So tell me more about this island built on a trash heap.”
—
The boat docked half an hour later. Robert took Hannah by the hand and led her to the beach. “Come on, I’ll show you why I picked this.”
They walked up the pretty gravel-paved hill to the highest peak in Boston Harbor. Hannah grinned as she took in the view of the buildings, power plants, airport and ships. “Not too bad, right?” Robert asked from the bench he was sitting on.
“I’m glad the Big Dig was good for something,” she quipped.
“Now, now, you have no idea what traffic was like in this city before that project.”
“Blah, blah, blah,” Hannah said dismissively. “You don’t even know what traffic is until you’ve been to Brussels.”
“Yeah?” Robert asked casually as he crossed his legs. “And what’s in Brussels?”
“Anything you want,” Hannah said softly.
“But not Mariela?”
“No,” Hannah said. “Boy, did I hate wasting that much time, but I’ve never been so grateful.”
He stood up and put his arms around her. After a moment, she rested her head on his chest. “I don’t want you to think about that anymore.”
He felt her shiver. She stroked his back. “Okay. And I don’t want you to think about guns, theft, and drugs anymore.”
“Uh huh.” He played with her golden hair. “It’s a little different. It’s my job.”
“So if I got a regular paycheck from somewhere like the City of Boston, would I get to call what I worry about my job, too? Ooh!” she said as she looked up at him. “How about I go work for the FBI?”
Robert instinctively moved around his jaw, reminded of how one of the agents had hit him there yesterday. “I think the Boston office might have a few openings soon.”
She laughed. “What do you call it when someone deliberately sandbags himself?”
“You think I set myself up to get punched like that? I’m lucky that asshole didn’t give me a concussion.”
“My mistake,” Hannah said, her golden eyes sparkling. “You’re just a hothead who doesn’t think anything through.”
“I’m an open book, huh?” he asked sarcastically.
She put her hands underneath his shirt, and he felt a spark of electricity surge through him. “I’m just really smart,” she said playfully as she pressed against him. “And speaking of smart women, explain to me again why Emily can’t stand you.”
He’d been enjoying this day up until then. “Didn’t we already establish that you know about...that?”
She shrugged. “There’s only so much you’re going to get from written reports and gossip; I’d much rather hear your version.”
“It’s probably not going to sound much better.” He had a feeling that if he tried to put her off, she wasn’t going to let it go. And what was the harm? It was a while ago, and things had changed.
Mostly.
He put his hands in his pockets and looked at the harbor. “My dad was a real piece of work. Old school cop from South Boston. I think he started running out on my mother as soon as they got back from their honeymoon, but by the time I came along, I think she was glad she didn’t have to see him that much. I had to pretend things were normal every Sunday, because for some reason, he’d decided that we all needed to go to church as a family. And sometimes he’d stick around for dinner too, if he didn’t have a date.
“Baptiste worked with my father on the force, and yes, a black guy working with my racist asshole of a father was about as pleasant as you’d imagine. I didn’t see them together that much, but he came around twice a week to check on me and my mom. Because my father was such a piece of garbage on the job that Baptiste knew he couldn’t be doing much better at home.
“My mother was waiting for an excuse to kick him out, and one day after Baptiste came over, she packed all of his things and put them on the front porch. I saw him come home that night, look at the bags on the porch, and without saying anything, he just loaded them up into his car and drove off.”
“I’m sorry—” Hannah started, but he shook his head.
“Don’t be. I was hoping my mother would find a reason to kick him out. And the reason, as I bet you know, was actually pretty good: he was being investigated by the department for not only taking money from Lucy Bartolome to look at her sister-in-law Josie for the murder of her husband Tom; he was also stalking Josie and then blackmailing her.” He felt his cheeks prickle as the anger started to rise from his belly, but pushed it down as he was so practiced at doing. “Sometimes I wonder if he knew that Tom had beaten her, but I know it doesn’t matter. He wouldn’t have changed anything he did.”
Hannah exhaled. “And then Josie Bartolome was found raped and murdered.”
“And nobody looked as good for it as the cop she’d been terrified of.” He couldn’t see the harbor anymore. “To this day, I’m not sure if she sicced the department on my dad because Josie was dead or because he hadn’t charged her before she’d been killed.” He shrugged. “For my mother, that was enough. For my father, that was the beginning of the end.
“One day when I was in high school, Baptiste came by and told me that I needed to come with him to visit my father, because Baptiste was the only one who stuck by him when he was being investigated, and it’s probably because of him that my dad got to keep his job.”
“Because of you and your mother.” It wasn’t a question.
“Because of us. So the least I could do for this guy who’d made sure my mother and I would be taken care of was pretend that I didn’t think my father was worse than garbage.”
“So what happened?” she asked softly.
“He was broken.” The words came out so easily, without having to think them, because they were the truth. He’d never forgotten the bloated shell of a man he saw when Baptiste had taken him to his father’s apartment. “But he didn’t say, ‘I’m happy to see you’ or ‘I’ve missed you’; the first words out of his mouth were ‘I didn’t do it.’ And without asking about school, the girls I was dating, or if I was looking at college, he told me all about Lucy, and Tom, and Josie, and the little bit he’d picked up about Alex Sheldon and the Hendricksons and Bartolomes. And I knew—like I’d always known—that he hadn’t done it. He was a stupid, bullying womanizer, but he wasn’t a killer. At least, not the way she died.”
“Oh, Robert.” Hannah hugged him from behind. “You knew because Baptiste didn’t think he’d done it.”
He rubbed her lower arm. “Pro-tip: never bring that up in front of him, because boy, did he want to kill me when he found out what I’d done because of it.”
“And that was?”
He was grateful he didn’t have to look at her. “I reopened the investigation into Josie Bartolome’s murder. I told Joanna Hazlett what I was doing so I could TA o
ne of her classes that Jessie Bartolome—Josie and Tom’s daughter—was enrolled in. I just didn’t tell her everything.”
Hannah let go. “You mean the part about sleeping with her student?”
That hadn’t been part of his plan, but he hadn’t been smart enough to stop when Jessie had thrown herself at him. “That, and the fact that I was also investigating Lucy.” He blew out a breath. “And Alex Sheldon. And her son Richard. And his girlfriend Zainab Oginabe-Kensit. And his cousin Michael Abbot. And his ex-wife Miranda Harel.” He paused. “And then Emily and Mitch.”
She circled around to face him. “So...what exactly did Emily and Mitch have to do with Josie Bartolome’s murder?”
He looked up at the sky. “Nothing.”
“Mmhmm. So why did you investigate them?”
He forced himself to face her. “Because she pissed me off.”
“Wow.”
If there had been other way to see it, he would have. “And then I found out that Mitch couldn’t stop ‘talking’ to an old girlfriend.”
Hannah’s eyes widened. “Mitch was cheating on Emily?”
“Depends on your definition of cheating,” he said dryly. “He’ll say it was just email; anyone else who read them would say it was cheating.”
“What did Emily do?”
“She kicked him out. And then Zainab left Richard when she found out he was cheating-cheating. And then Miranda Harel found out that Michael Abbot was back in town and had been stalking her for a month.” He shrugged. “Yeah, they all hated me, but the really good part was that I got Sheldon to admit that he’d blackmailed Lucy into marrying Richard’s father.”
“That man has been a bastard for a long time then.” She raised an eyebrow. “And since she’s now married to Joanna Hazlett, let me guess what he blackmailed her with?”
“Yeah, that.” Robert looked at the ground. That was his lowest moment, and he hadn’t even intended it. He wasn’t trying to out a closeted lesbian, and if he’d realized that was going to happen, he would have done it differently. “But I actually learned something interesting when that came out: Sheldon knew about that because Tom Bartolome told him, and Tom used that to force Joanna into bed with him.”
Hannah rubbed her face with both hands and turned away. “That is sick.”
“And that is Tom Bartolome. He was also the one who raped and killed Josie after playing dead for a few years. And guess what? Lucy was right after all—Josie did try to kill Tom, but not for the money. It was the only way she thought she could stop him from beating her daughter too.”
Robert saw tears cloud Hannah’s golden eyes. “No one should have to make that kind of choice.” She sniffed. “But didn’t you arrest Tom Bartolome? Isn’t he in prison now? They shouldn’t hate you now.”
Robert sighed. “And then I got involved with Zainab.”
“Oh.” Hannah took a deep breath. “After you broke her and her boyfriend up.”
“And Emily is friends with them both.”
She swallowed. “Is she why the two of you broke up?” she asked softly.
“No.” That still stuck in his chest more than he’d thought it would. “Richard is. She wanted him, not me.” He made a face. “And I’m not sure she ever wanted me as much as she did a break from those drama queens she’s surrounded by.”
“Oh.”
He touched her hair and she seemed to shrink back. He stepped in closer. “That was a long time ago.”
Hannah pursed her lips and looked off to the side as if she were thinking about something. “I guess,” she said finally, “those are good enough reasons for all of them to hate you.” She looked back at him. “So then why did you call Mitch to represent me?”
He stroked her neck. “I figured he’d love it if I owed him a favor.”
She laughed softly. “Yeah? You think I’m worth a favor?”
He moved so close to her that he could feel her breath on his neck. “You’re worth a lot more,” he said before he pressed his lips to hers. He felt her smile for a moment, and as soon as she put her arms around his neck, he forgot all about the Bartolomes, Zainab, Mitch, and Emily.
Chapter Two
Josh Bruges had fallen asleep looking at the same dawn that had woken his sister up. He had spent the night in Mari’s hospital room; he didn’t want her to wake up and be afraid when she didn’t recognize her surroundings.
She was only awake for a few minutes at a time because she was exhausted in every way. The first few times it took her a moment to recognize him, but eventually she smiled when she saw him. “You haven’t changed at all,” she murmured.
“Neither have you, Mari.”
“That’s not true,” she whispered. “I must look like...death.”
He gently took her frail fingers in his hand. She looked no less miraculous to him than she had when they’d first met as teenagers. The intravenous fluids were starting to make her skin less papery and gray, and he was sure that as soon as she could properly eat, her face would be less gaunt. “You look like the rest of my life.”
The nurses had taken pity on him and given him a cot. He set it up so he could lie next to Mari and hold her hand as they both slept. He knew he shouldn’t be so happy to have her back like this, but he would take her any way he could.
He’d kissed her the last time he saw her and told her that everything was going to be alright. The more frightened she was—for her mother, of the people she was afraid to leave, for the baby they knew was coming—the braver he became. “Everything’s going to be alright. All we have to do is follow the plan and then we’ll all be together.”
“Do you promise?”
“With my life.”
Why hadn’t they counted on their father Jerry locking Hannah in her room that day? Why hadn’t Josh just grabbed Mari, regardless of her objections, when they found out Hannah couldn’t come? Why hadn’t he done a million things differently?
Hannah thought he was mad at her for that. She was wrong—he hated Jerry for it. Hannah thought he stayed with Jerry and their mother Meg because he felt sorry for them. That was wrong. It was only because Mari might come back to him there, and he couldn’t bear the thought of missing her. He didn’t pity his parents at all; sometimes he wondered what would happen if he stayed at his garage late or was so engrossed on his computer in the basement that he “forgot” to buy groceries for a few days. Would Jerry and Meg be sober enough to figure out how to get to the grocery store, much less drive the car?
He shouldn’t have gotten them beer, but a lifetime of obedience made it a habit long after his father was able to hurt him. And he didn’t care enough about them to worry about their health.
Josh remembered when Mari had been taken like it was yesterday, but the day in between then and now had been an eternity. He wasn’t angry at Hannah for screwing up; he was mad at her for always thinking she could outsmart everyone. When was she going to learn that not everyone was as stupid as their parents, her teachers, or those perverts she’d scammed? When was she going to realize that she was lucky more than anything else, and luck wasn’t something to bank on, no matter how much you could sneak your way through things?
Getting something you really deserved was about hard work more than anything else.
When he awoke a few hours after dawn, he noticed the bracelet around her wrist for the first time.
Mariela Doe.
Doe. That wasn’t right.
“Doe?!” He almost shouted when the doctor came in. “That’s a name you give when don’t know who she is. I do. She is the mother of my little girl.”
“Mister Bruges, are you married?” the doctor asked kindly.
“No. She was kidnapped— “
“I understand,” the doctor said sympathetically. “But if the patient doesn’t have a last name, then we assign him or her ‘Doe.’ It’s hospital policy.”
Josh made his decision then.
“Josh,” Mariela whispered weakly when she opened her eyes for the first
time. “I thought it was a dream.”
“No, Mari,” he whispered back, kissing her hand and rubbing his face with it. “I am right here and I am never going to let you out of my sight again.”
She closed her eyes and tears trickled down her cheeks. “Did you find her? Mariana?”
“Yes, baby, she’s safe. Hannah will bring her by as soon as I call her.”
She tried to smile, but she was too weak even for that. “She looks...like you and Hannah. The same gold in your hair and eyes.”
He kissed her forehead. “Are you nuts? She’s as beautiful as her mom.”
“Don’t say that,” she said, clearing her throat. “Every time I looked at her, I saw the two of you. Don’t tell me I was dreaming.”
He longed to hold her, but she was too fragile right now. “I’m here now.”
“And Hannah? Is she alright? I was so worried—“
“Don’t worry about Hannah. She can still take care of herself.”
“She also took care of you.”
“I don’t want to talk about my sister,” Josh said as gently as he could. “I want to talk about us. I want you to have my name, Mari. I want you to marry me.”
Her eyes widened. “No,” she said. “I might not leave this room, and you’d be a widower before...” She sighed, exhausted. “I don’t want you to be sad.”
“I’m not letting you out of my sight again,” Josh repeated. “You’re going to walk out of here and you’re going to see the world and you’re going to help me raise our beautiful little girl. And you’re going to do it as my wife.”
“I don’t want you to take care of me,” she said, touching his arm.
“But that’s all I’ve wanted since you were taken from me.”
—
Robert had invited Hannah back to his place when their boat returned to Boston, but she’d resisted. “I can’t,” she said in between kisses. “I have to visit Mari and check on Mariana. And since I haven’t changed my clothes since yesterday, someone’s going to ask me why.”
Justice, Mercy and Other Myths (The New Pioneers Book 7) Page 2