“Success hides flaws,” Richard said dryly.
“And what would you know about success?” Richard’s gaze didn’t waver, and after a moment, Tom laughed. “Still no sense of humor? What a shame.”
“Interesting word coming from you,” Jessie said.
Tom ignored her. “Let’s get on with it. What do you want?”
“You gave Alex Sheldon information several years ago,” Robert said. “We’d like to know what you told him.”
Tom laughed. “In exchange for a full pardon?”
“I’m afraid that’s not on the table.” And Robert wouldn’t go along with it even if it were.
“I didn’t think so. And I’m afraid I don’t see a reason to cooperate. Alex was helpful in ways you couldn’t be.” Tom put his fingers together. “Then again, I’ve heard you might have some potential.”
“That’s too bad.” Robert had been prepared for this. “I guess we’ll have to ask some of your associates here.”
The malevolent half-smile that seemed permanently fixed on his mouth faltered. “Ask them what?”
“About what you might have told them about your time as a trafficker.” Robert watched something that looked like concern fill Tom’s eyes. “Maybe there’s something we can offer them.”
Tom tried to smile again. “It isn’t common knowledge.”
“And why is that?” Richard asked as if genuinely curious. “Wouldn’t being a successful purveyor of human flesh get you some admiration from this crowd?”
Jessie nodded as if in agreement. “And I’ve got to admit there’s a twisted brilliance to turning an inexpensive commodity like a child nobody wants into a money-making machine.”
“Be quiet,” Tom said sharply.
Robert started to rise. “Relax, Mister Bartolome. It’s the actual child molesters your friends don’t think much of. You were just the middleman.”
“They don’t think too much of those, either,” Tom hissed. “Sit down.”
Robert could have sworn that for half a second, Lucy smiled at him. “If you think we have something to talk about.”
Tom looked at his sister. “What are you offering, Luce?”
“The Bartolome Center for the Prevention of Human Trafficking,” Lucy answered. She didn’t blink until thirty seconds later when Tom, shocked, finally laughed.
“Is that a joke?”
Lucy’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, it is, but that’s the offer. In a hundred years, no one is going to remember that you’re the monster who liked to beat, rape and murder young women—and their children—and sell them for a profit. They’ll remember you as the man who gave his name to an important cause.”
Tom turned to Robert, who could see he couldn’t care less about the appeal to his ego. “And you’ll be discreet?”
“As long as you’re thorough.”
Tom folded his hands on the table. “When would you like to get started?”
Chapter Thirty-Five
One month later
Hannah had created a routine: she woke up, made Mariana breakfast and lunch, woke Mariana up, laughed over breakfast, took Mariana to school, and then went to work at Project Pride. In her first month, she’d set up a better filing system and database. That was necessary before she could start pulling together her network to reach out to people trying to escape and set up safe houses and transition services for people once they did. Finally, all of the years she’d sifted through garbage felt like they were worth something.
Aside from Mariana.
Hannah left work in time to pick Mariana up from school. She asked Mariana about her day, talked about what they should have for dinner, and then listened to her talk to Hellie on speakerphone for half an hour while she cooked. Then she made helped Mariana with her homework and put her to bed by eight o’clock.
On the weekends, either the Grahams hosted Mariana, Hannah hosted Hellie, or Hannah and Mariana joined the Grahams for an outing. When Emily casually mentioned that Miranda and her family wanted to join them next time, Hannah agreed. It was a strange extended family that Emily had assembled for herself, but Hannah was grateful that she and Mariana were invited to be a part of it.
Hannah saw a family therapist for advice once a week, and she was advised that Mariana needed to talk about her parents with her. But whenever Hannah tried to bring it up, Mariana would silently shake her head and Hannah would change the subject.
“Aunt Hannah, will you tell me a story?” Mariana asked one night at nine.
Hannah looked up in surprise; Mariana was usually a deep sleeper. “Of course, sweetie.”
Hannah got into bed with her and Mariana asked her to tell her a story. “What kind of story?”
“One about a prince and princess and their baby.”
“Okay,” Hannah agreed after a moment. “Once upon a time—” Mariana closed her eyes. “—there was a handsome prince who could build castles and chariots with his hands. He was so smart that some people would have called him a wizard, but he was very shy and liked to stay in his castle.
“But one day, he met a beautiful girl, and he forgot that he was ever shy. When she saw him, she knew that he wasn’t just a prince but a hero, and when he saw her, he knew she was really a princess and he wanted her to live in his castle with him. They loved each other so much that they made a beautiful little baby princess, but when the prince was trying to bring them to his castle, a wicked dragon took the princess and their baby and hid them away. He took them out only long enough to send them to another dragon, and the princess was very sad. But she knew that the prince was never going to stop looking for her.
“The prince found them at last, and he loved the princess more than he ever had.” Hannah took a breath and fought her tears. “And he loved the little princess more than he thought he could love anything. But the dragons were coming back, and they decided that they needed to leave the little princess with her—”
“Her fairy godmother,” Mariana whispered sleepily.
“Her fairy godmother,” Hannah repeated. “Because they knew that she was going to guard the little princess with her life and that nothing bad would happen to her.” She swallowed. “And they knew that she would keep the little princess safe until they’d slain all the dragons and could come back for her.”
“I like that story,” Mariana said before she drifted off to sleep.
“So do I,” Hannah whispered.
It was a nice routine for them both, but it ended for Hannah as soon as Mariana went to bed. Then Hannah couldn’t stop thinking about doomed princes, trapped princesses, witches, dragons...and knights.
But fairy tales weren’t for smart people, and Hannah was determined that she was going to be smart from now on. And it was better that way, since life was never going to have a Happily Ever After for Mariana. How could it, now that her parents were gone? But at least Mariana wouldn’t need anyone to rescue her ever again.
Hannah was in the Project Pride office, tracking down a lead from Nick, when she heard Alice end a phone call. “That’s something.”
“What’s up?” Hannah asked as she scanned a message board.
“We’ve got an appointment at City Hall tomorrow.”
Hannah turned around. “What?”
“They have some news, and they want to make sure we heard it in person before it leaks to the press.”
“What’s wrong with the phone?”
Alice was taken aback. “It’s kind of an honor,” she said slowly. “Let’s not piss off Hwang. We need our friends.”
Hannah knew all too well what Hwang could do if he didn’t like you. “Fine. But you can do all the talking.”
Hannah grudgingly put on a dress and heels the next morning, which made Mariana giggle. “Why do you look pretty today?”
Hannah winked. “So I can put a spell on a dragon.”
She met Alice on the steps of City Hall at ten. “You clean up well,” Alice said appreciatively.
Hannah shrugged. “Thanks. Now let�
�s get this over with.”
Alice groaned. “Promise you’ll pretend to be grateful, no matter what it is.”
Hannah smiled in spite of herself. “Don’t worry, boss. I know how to make people think what I want them to.”
They were shown into the mayor’s suite, and Hannah was shocked to see David Hwang himself. He introduced them to his chief of staff, Charlie Gavin, before he began. “Thank you both for coming in today. I want you to know that we’ve been very impressed with your work. We’ve been looking for a way to help, and I think you’ll be able to use this.”
“Any help we can get is appreciated,” Alice said gratefully, but Hannah remained silent.
“Then you’ll be pleased to hear that Tom Bartolome has given the Boston Police Department what he gave to Alex Sheldon before he left several years ago. We know it’s not everything that Sheldon developed, but we believe—”
“Can you repeat that?” Hannah couldn’t believe her ears. “Bartolome gave up his old network?”
David half-smiled. “It was a big operation, and even when he was at the top of it, he didn’t have every single name. But he remembered the names of the people right under him, and most of the ones right below that. We’ve verified the connection, but we’re hoping—”
“That we can use this to piece together Sheldon’s operation.” Alice turned to Hannah. “This is amazing. With your contacts, we should be able to pull most of that together.”
One of the many things Hannah had learned was that nothing came for free. “Why? Tom Bartolome is never getting out of prison and there’s nothing the Feds could negotiate down for him.”
“There will be a new center named in his honor: the Bartolome Center for the Prevention of Human Trafficking and Exploitation.” David paused. “The Bartolomes felt it was the least they could do.”
She felt David’s eyes searching her for something. Gratitude? Forgiveness? Whatever it was, she didn’t have it. “Okay,” was the best she could manage.
She only half-heard Alice excitedly planning out how they would use the information when they left the building. She was trying to come up with a way that Robert wasn’t involved, but she knew that was impossible.
“Tomorrow,” Hannah said when she heard Alice pause for breath. “I need a day to digest this.”
Alice nodded quickly. “Take it. Because we’re not coming up for air for a while after tomorrow.”
Hannah wanted to be smart, but before she knew what she was doing, she found herself sitting in a taxi and giving the driver an address.
She was at Robert’s building twenty minutes later. She rang the doorbell repeatedly. Of course he’s not home, she thought right before the door buzzed.
She knocked on Robert’s door once before it opened. She found herself staring into his clear blue eyes. Be smart, or try.
“What have you done?”
He smiled at her and she felt her toes curl in her shoes. “Hello to you, too.”
He closed the door behind her. The apartment felt different. She did a double-take when she saw that he had flowers on the table and a painting hanging on a wall. Robert had invited some color into his life.
Too bad, because this was black and white. “I guess you went to a lot of trouble for me. Now tell me: was begging the Bartolomes for something easier than apologizing to me?”
He rubbed at the stubble on his face. “And what am I supposed to apologize for?”
She wanted to laugh. “Let’s see: you arrested me, you practically called me a whore, and then you said I wasn’t fit to take care of Mariana. Where do you want to start?”
He set his jaw. “You kept the truth from me. If you had been honest with me, your brother wouldn’t have left, Mariana would be with her parents, Joanna wouldn’t be in prison, and—”
“—And Alex Sheldon would still be alive!” Did he think he was telling her something she didn’t know? “What was I supposed to do? What would you have done if I’d told you that Josh...and then Joanna Hazlett... What could you have done?”
He reached out to touch her, but she pulled away. He looked hurt, but nodded as if to acknowledge that he deserved that. “I would have arrested Sheldon if you’d told me that he’d threatened Mari.”
“You think I didn’t think of that?” She thought of how incomprehensible Mari had been. “She wouldn’t have been able to testify.”
“I’d have had his check,” Robert said. She could tell he’d been thinking too. “That would have been enough to hold him while I gathered evidence—”
“And then as soon as you had to let him go, that woman would have been back at my brother.”
He took a tentative step closer. “Then I would have arrested Joanna for conspiring to commit a murder.”
Her chest tightened. “And Lucy Bartolome would have had you fired because everyone knew you had a grudge against her and no one would have believed you weren’t taking it out on her wife.” She bitterly thought of Hwang earlier that day. “Especially not the mayor.”
He gripped her arms tightly. “I would have gone after her anyway.”
He wasn’t smart, either. “And Sheldon? If you weren’t a cop?”
“Whatever I needed to do.”
She angrily broke free of his hold. “I may not have told you everything, but at least I didn’t lie to myself. Your job is your life. I know a lot of things you can do without a badge, but I don’t know how you would get out of bed in the morning without yours.” She looked around. “It must be killing you to take a vacation day like this.”
“You were worried about my job?” He sounded as if he wanted to laugh now, but not happily. “Are you kidding me? Do you know how close I came to losing it because you kept me in the dark? Do you know how much you compromised Baptiste?”
“Yes. I know I screwed that up, and I’m sorry.” She closed her eyes. “Tell Baptiste I’m sorry too, okay?”
His eyes searched her face and she couldn’t move. “And you didn’t think I could have figured something out?”
“Your best ideas usually end up with someone punching you.”
“So I guess it was lose-lose.” He moved so close she could feel his breath on her neck. “Then why did you stay?”
She touched his chest and felt him tremble underneath her fingers. She touched his neck with her other hand and rubbed his jaw with her thumb. “Because I couldn’t leave.” She lifted her chin and pressed her lips to his. He responded first softly, then more insistently. His hands grabbed her face and she brought her fingers to his hips.
He pulled out of the kiss. “But then you did stay away, and now I can’t even do this God damned job,” he whispered against her forehead. “Baptiste forced me to take a vacation because after we got the names from Bartolome, I’ve been useless and I couldn’t hide it. If I can’t come back able to do my job, I can’t come back.”
She pulled away. “You arrested me! I was supposed to come back to you after that?”
He backed her up against the wall. “I am sorry I arrested you, but I’m sorrier I didn’t do something to make you see how stupid all of those risks were.”
“And you think I’d have done any of that if Mariana had been with me?”
“Oh, of course not,” he said in a mocking tone that infuriated her. “But I’m sure you’d do something just as stupid if you thought you were protecting her. When are you going to start acting like your life isn’t worthless?”
She shook his hand off angrily. “My life isn’t worthless. I have friends now—”
“Emily Graham isn’t a friend, she’s a crutch!”
“How dare you?” Hannah pushed away from him and ducked under his arms. “She’s the only one who will drop everything to help me with Mariana. You can’t stand that someone will do that for me?”
He closed the distance between them. She stepped back and he kept following. “Did she tell you to be careful? Did she tell you that you’ve been crazy? Did she tell you that Mariana needs you to be okay so you can
take care of her? Or did she tell you not to worry and that everything was going to be fine?”
“She and Mitch know,” Hannah began when he backed her into the couch, “that I don’t need to be lectured!”
“Then stop acting like a teenager who’s putting her life on hold until she can fix everything. Start acting like you’re a real person who has something to live for. Start acting like you want to keep something just for you.”
She pushed him off her and tried to walk away, but he held her arm tightly. “I wanted you more than I ever wanted anything, and everything blew up because of it.”
He forced her to face him. She tried to look away but he held her face. “Then start trusting me,” he said fiercely. “I’m willing to risk everything for you, as many times as I have to. I’ll get punched by some prick at the FBI, I’ll make the guy I think of as a father wonder what he ever saw in me, and I’ll make a deal with an entitled psychopath to find out whatever he told a self-aggrandizing sociopath.”
Her heart was beating in her throat. “Because that’s how much you want me?”
He pressed up against her. Be smart, be smart, be smart. “And because I don’t want you to think that the world is full of monsters. And because I want you to know that if I’d been there when you were fourteen, I would have believed you.”
She felt something inside her break.
“Don’t cry,” he whispered, kissing her face. “I shouldn’t have said that—”
“No,” she said. “You were the first person who did believe me.”
She didn’t have to be smart anymore, she thought as she kissed him back, and everything would still be okay.
—
Hannah had missed the feeling of his skin against hers. “Thank you,” she said as she settled into his warmth.
Robert stroked her shoulder. “I don’t usually need a thank you, so you know.”
She wrinkled her nose. “For what you did with the Bartolomes. Because I know why you did it.”
Justice, Mercy and Other Myths (The New Pioneers Book 7) Page 18