They didn't need much, just to get out of Black Bear Gorge. If they had to struggle for a while, so be it. Anything was better than telling her son the truth, and, since she'd vowed to never lie to him again, she had no choice.
“I’m not running. I’m protecting my loved ones.” Despite what she told herself, she still felt like a coward.
Shaking her head, she pushed away from the kitchen sink, thoughts of Adam rolling through her mind. What a mess. She shouldn't have allowed him to make love to her, but she'd been greedy, wanting to be with him one last time before saying goodbye to him forever.
Sleeping with him only made it harder to do what she was inevitably going to have to do. She felt guilty as sin, but, despite her love for him, her duty was to protect her son at all costs. And she couldn't protect her son if she stayed in Black Bear Gorge.
The doorbell chimed as she stepped from the kitchen into the living room. A glance at the clock filled her with alarm. Anyone visiting at this hour was surely bringing bad news.
She opened the front door, half expecting to see Sheriff Clarkson, but instead found herself being pushed aside as Adam forced his way inside the house.
“Where is he?” His tone sent shivers of fear down Brynn's spine. He was a large and imposing man regardless of his demeanor, but Brynn had never truly feared him before that moment.
“Where's who?” Her voice came out as a squeak.
Adam took in his surroundings, his gaze stopped on the mantel to his left. Brynn found she couldn't breathe as he crossed the room, picked up a framed head shot of Nathaniel and turned to face her, holding the picture next to his own face.
“Adam, I can explain—”
“Good, because I'm not leaving here until you do.” He looked at the picture briefly before replacing it on the mantel.
“I saw him in the woods, and I thought he had my hair, that he even walked like me,” he said with a mirthless laugh. “I thought it was just me seeing what I wanted to see, my way of dealing with the fact you'd borne another man's child, but you didn't, did you?”
Brynn swallowed, willed her shaking legs not to give out. “I don't know.”
“Oh, come off it, Brynn! He's mine.” His loud voice echoed off the walls.
“Please, Adam, my mother and Nathaniel are sleeping.” Brynn pleaded, understanding his anger but not ready to tell her son the truth…or her mother.
“Well, wake them up.” Adam flung an arm out. “The boy has a right to know who his real father is. I had a right to raise him.”
“It's not like you think,” Brynn started but Adam quickly cut her off.
“In the last hour, I've learned that my brother was a drug-dealing, murdering rapist who videotaped his conquests.”
Brynn gasped.
“I’ve learned that my mother covered for him and even approved of him killing Rachel. I understand you were raped by Cal and thought he'd fathered Nathaniel. I understand you tried to contact me afterward, but my mother intercepted. I understand all of that, Brynn, as fucked up as it is. What I don't understand is why you didn't tell me about him the moment we were paired up to work this case.”
“You don't know the truth, Adam, you only think you do,” Brynn cried, glancing toward the staircase, praying she wouldn't see her son's face peeking over the banister. “Please, let's not do this here. Nathaniel can't know—”
“He's mine,” Adam cut in.
“I don't know that for sure.” Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“The hell you don't,” Adam bit out, passing her on his way to the stairs.
Brynn grabbed his arm as he took the first step upward. “Please don't do this, Adam. I promised myself I'd never lie to him again. Please don't tell him something we don't know to be true.”
He turned his head toward her, his body still prepared to climb the stairs and wake Nate. “He looks just like me.”
“That doesn't mean he's your son,” Brynn cried, struggling to restrain him.
“He has my eyes, my hair, my build, he even walks like me,” Adam spat out. “He has my whole damn face. How could that be possible if he wasn't my son?”
“Because,” Brynn said, her whole body shook as she choked on a sob. “He might be your nephew.”
Chapter Sixteen
Adam stumbled, then froze, turning incredulous eyes to Brynn. It felt like he'd been sucker-punched in the gut. He had only one brother, a brother he'd seen rape women on videotape.
He looked at Brynn, took in the tears sliding down her cheeks, a face red with shame, and fought past the urge to throw up as his head swam with the possibilities he imagined.
“What are you telling me?” he finally asked once he regained the ability to breathe.
“I'm sorry.” Brynn’s voice a small whisper. “I never wanted you to know. I never wanted you to have to face what Zeke was.”
“Or what he did to you,” Adam said. “I found tapes, videos of him raping women.” His stomach churned again and he clamped his lips tightly together, fighting back the rising bile.
Thankful he hadn't seen Brynn in those images on the television screen, that he hadn't had to see the pain and horror on her face as his own brother violated her. “Zeke did that to you, too, didn't he? That's what you're saying.”
She broke out into heavy sobs, her response a slow nod.
“When?”
“At the party,” she answered, wiping the wetness from her face.
He blinked in confusion. “I thought you said Cal raped you then.”
She hiccupped on a loud sob, struggled to look him in the eye and Adam dreaded her next words, seeing in her eyes it was not something he was going to want to hear.
“They both did. First, Cal. Then, Zeke.”
The room spun and Adam sat hard on the stairs. His hands gripped the rails as he struggled to stay conscious. The images that plowed into his mind were too much, more than he could bear. He angrily shoved them away, refusing to create visual imagery of the horror that had occurred that night.
“Adam, are you all right?” Brynn knelt before him, her pain forgotten as she worried about him.
It humbled and disgusted Adam at the same time. Why should she care for him still? What had he done to protect her? To provide her with the security she'd needed?
“How can you even look at me?” he croaked, emotion thick in his throat. “How can you stand to be in the same room with me knowing what monsters I come from?”
“It wasn't your fault.” The earnest tone in her voice ripped at Adam's heart. “Zeke was a bad man, an evil person, but he was your brother. You had no reason to think he would do such a thing.”
“Why did he?” he voiced the question screaming in his mind. He and Zeke had grown up together, played together, learned about life together. He'd looked up to his big brother, idolized him. He would never have done anything to hurt him. “Why would Zeke do something so awful?”
Brynn sniffed, wiped her nose with the side of her hand as she perched on the bottom step of the staircase. “Because he was jealous,” she answered.
“He was crazy about Stacy Willinger but she kept flirting with you, and she rubbed his face in it, loving how jealous he got. I guess he felt you were stealing his girlfriend so he would steal yours.”
“He and Cal plotted this?”
“Cal told me Zeke had caught him kissing a boyfriend in Gatlinburg and held it over his head, threatening to tell his parents and show them the picture he'd taken of him with his boyfriend.” She sighed.
“Zeke figured out that Cal was in love with you and taunted him with that, too. He played mind games with Cal, feeding his own jealousy of our relationship. He just kept pressing and pressing, until, finally, Cal broke. He agreed to rape me and split us up if Zeke would destroy the picture. They concocted the diversion, and Zeke dressed in a ninja suit. When he appeared on the stairs, motioning for me to come to him, I thought he was you.”
Adam sucked in a breath, balling his hand into a fist, but the bast
ards he wanted to slam it into were both already dead.
“I followed him into a dark room and he locked the door. I was pushed onto a bed and I thought it was you, I thought you were just drunk and that's why you were so rough. Oh, Adam, how could I have been so stupid?” Brynn let out a deep sob, squeezing her small hands into fists before continuing.
“I let Cal rape me and when the lights were turned on and I realized what happened and that Zeke was there, I tried to run but Zeke grabbed me. I tried to scream, but he shoved his hand into my mouth and I bit it. This look of rage came over him, and he shoved me down. He said I'd just earned a second round, and he raped me with his fist in my mouth while Cal was puking in the corner.”
Adam sucked in a breath and slowly released it, fighting the urge to puke himself. He cursed himself for believing she'd cheated on him, for every bitter feeling he'd held against her, for not being there for her when she'd needed him…for causing this tragedy to take place.
“It was all my fault.” He stood. “I'm so sorry, Brynn. I'm so sorry for everything.”
“Your fault?” Brynn's brow crinkled in confusion. The way she looked at him, bewildered by his statement, made him feel even worse. “You had nothing to do with it.”
“I had everything to do with it. My so-called best friend raped you because he was in love with me and jealous of you, and my brother set the whole thing up and joined in because of his own jealousy and apparent hatred of me. So, yes, Brynn, this was all my fault, especially since I was so gullible to believe in the lies my brother told me.” Hot angry tears rimmed his eyes, threatened to fall.
“I should have had more faith in you, more trust. Yet, I took his word over yours when it turns out you are the only person who has actually cared for me at all. I don't blame you for running. Why should you have told me anything after the way I accused you?”
“I didn't run from you, Adam. I ran from my own shame. And I ran to protect you.”
“To protect me from what?”
“The truth. I know you loved your brother. I couldn't stand the thought of you knowing what he'd done to me.”
Adam’s stomach took a dip. She’d run away from her home and raised a child alone just so he wouldn’t know the evil that lurked inside his brother.
“Knowing what he was would have been better than being a blind fool all these years, all these years that he spent abusing other women.”
Brynn flinched, and he felt the heat of shame searing through his body.
“I didn't mean that as a reprimand.”
“You should have,” she replied, turning her face away but not before he caught the sheen of fresh tears coating her eyes. “For all we know, I could have been the first. I could have stopped him and Rachel Wood would still be alive today.”
“You don't know that.”
She sniffed, composing herself before meeting his gaze full-on. “You said something about videotapes?”
“You were right about the hiding spot in my mother's room.” Adam sighed with disgust. “I found a stack of tapes and I loaded one into the VCR to see what he'd hidden.”
“Was I on it?” Her voice shook.
“No, thank heaven.” His stomach churned at the thought of seeing her suffer through such an ordeal. “I didn't have to watch much to realize what I was seeing, and I didn't watch the others. I turned them all over to the sheriff.”
Brynn's eyes widened in unmistakable fear as her skin suffused with color.
“I don't think you were on the tapes.” Adam read her mind easily. “They didn't appear old enough.”
“No, but he might have a stash somewhere else and they might be found. He might have recorded me that night, and, if he did, the whole town will know what happened to me. It'll get around and Nathaniel will find out the truth.”
“The truth that you told me a gay guy who raped you was my father?” Nathaniel questioned, stepping out from the shadows of the kitchen. “Or the truth that my real father was either another rapist or this guy right here who fell from the same screwed-up family tree?”
Brynn made a gargled sound in her throat as she quickly rose from the bottom step to run to her son. She stopped halfway and, judging by the hardened look upon the boy's face, Adam didn't blame her. The kid was madder than hell.
“How could you?” Nathaniel’s eyes were wet with unshed tears. “I knew there was something off about that asshole. I never could understand how you could be with him, but I'd never have imagined this. Why did you tell me he was my father?” His eyes narrowed. “Why did you make me think I came from the bastard who hurt you? Oh, that's right. Maybe I did come from one of the guys who raped you.”
“I'm so sorry, honey.” Brynn whimpered before sucking in a big breath, visibly struggling to pull herself together. “There's a chance you could be Adam's,” she offered.
“Great,” Nathaniel looked directly at Adam. “My father was either a rapist or his brother, who cared so much about you he let you just walk away, choosing to believe lies about you. Or did I misunderstand part of the story?”
Adam looked at his feet, unable to meet the boy’s gaze when he’d summed it up perfectly.
“Don't blame Adam. He thought I was pregnant by another man.”
“It's all right,” Adam said calmly despite the anger rolling through his body as he placed his hands on Brynn's shoulders, giving her the comfort she desperately needed.
“Nathaniel has every right to be angry with me and he's had quite a shock. We both have. A simple paternity test will straighten things out and we can go from there.”
“Like it's that simple,” Nathaniel bit out. “I've been lied to my whole life, and you think this can all be swept under the rug. What kind of mother—”
“Watch your tongue, boy,” Adam snapped instinctively, going into protective mode as he felt Brynn's shoulders tense beneath his palms.
Nathaniel scoffed. “Who the hell do you think you are to tell me what to do?”
“Apparently, I'm either your father or your uncle,” Adam retorted. “And that gives me every right. Now, if you're going to be mad, be mad. You have a right to how you feel, and you can direct that anger at me all you want because you're right about one thing. I should have trusted Brynn, I should have been there for her, for both of you regardless whether you're my son or my brother's. So go ahead, blame me if you want, but don't put all this on your mother, not after all she's been through.”
The boy had the decency to look ashamed, but he didn't offer any apology. He stood before them with his hands clenching at his sides and Adam could tell the kid was using all the control he had to keep the rage-heated tears at bay. Adam could see the kid wasn't a kid at all, but a young man, one who had just learned he was possibly the product of a rape. He wouldn't think any less of him if he did let those tears go.
Adam's cell phone vibrated against his hip, and he stepped away from Brynn and Nathaniel to take the call.
As the sheriff gave him disappointing news, he watched Nathaniel and Brynn embrace, all the anger in the room seemed to dissolve as the young man realized his mother's pain was far greater than his own.
Adam wanted to hold both of them, to comfort them the best he could and to promise he would never allow any further pain to enter their lives, but he didn't belong in that embrace. Whether the boy was his son or his nephew, he'd failed him and that went double for Brynn. He'd led evil right to her door.
Brynn looked at him expectantly as he snapped the cell closed, her arms still wrapped around her son. “The expression on your face says that was bad news.”
“The police raided Riley Wood's home, but she wasn't in it. They found all kinds of evidence that she's been plotting revenge against my family for quite some time.”
“You mean we were right there in her home and we didn't find anything.”
“We were too focused on her sister,” Adam said with a hefty dose of self-disgust. “I think she was just using us to help locate Rachel. If it weren't for the fac
t my mother saw her attacker, we still wouldn't know for sure Riley was the one who killed Zeke. And now she's on the loose.”
Brynn tightened her arms around Nathaniel’s shoulders, fear evident in the tight set of her mouth. “The first fire was set to kill Zeke. Then, she took out places that had significance in Zeke's life, the last being his family home. Where will she hit next?”
“She's already gotten her revenge against Zeke, and she's left enough clues that he was the cause of her sister's disappearance. I think she's going for the family now that she knows for a fact her sister is dead. She tried to take out my mother. All that's left is me.”
Brynn released her hold on Nathaniel, taking the two steps necessary to reach Adam.
“Get out.” She took his face in her hands. “Get in your truck and keep going. The police know she's responsible and they're on her trail. Stay away until she's captured.”
“I can't do that,” Adam stated firmly, his instincts kicking into gear. “She wants me to hurt, the way she hurts for her sister. Simply killing me won't make that happen.”
“What are you saying?”
“I'm saying that once again, I've failed to protect you. Wake your mother and pack a few things. Riley will come after my heart first, she’ll come after you.”
Brynn jumped back, her mouth agape in shocked fear, but as she turned toward her son it was hard anger etched into her features. “Hurry and pack a bag, Nate. You and Grandma are getting out of here.”
Nathaniel turned and dutifully walked toward the back of the house.
“And you, too,” Adam ordered.
“No.” She faced him again, her eyes shimmering with fierce determination. “If she's coming for either of us, we'll meet her head on, together.”
“You're not going to have to wait long.” Nathaniel’s words barely registered before Adam caught a whiff of what the kid had noticed.
The unmistakable smell of smoke.
“Get your mother and Nathaniel out of here,” Adam ordered. He pushed Brynn and Nathaniel toward the stairs and made a run for the back of the house where the smell of smoke was strongest. Just as he reached the kitchen, the smoke detector started to wail.
The Fire Still Burns Page 20