My muscles tensed as he neared.
“Kill me!” Aidan pleaded. “Kill me, not her!” His torment lanced through me, and in that moment I wished Judd would kill him first. I didn’t want him to see this. We were both dead anyway. Better he go first, never having to witness what was about to happen.
Judd rounded the bed and halted on the left side. “I’ve already seen her naked. She’s got a great body, but you know that, don’t you?”
“Don’t hurt her.” The tears in Aidan’s voice seared me, as did the hopelessness on his face as he fought against the bindings. I prayed my knots were loose enough for him to get free, though I had no idea how he’d get out of the cuffs.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. I felt like a broken record, but if he was going to kill me, I wanted to know why.
“No, sweetheart.” He grabbed at the front of his pants. “Enough stalling. I’m in the mood to play.” He crawled onto the bed, and I sank into a surreal state. The shadows in the bedroom deepened, and I didn’t hear Aidan yelling, didn’t hear the roar of my own heartbeat . . . failed to notice the doorbell sounding until Judd jumped from the bed.
“Who the hell is that?” he demanded.
My gaze clashed with Aidan’s, and I knew we remembered at the same time. His mother.
“No one knows we’re here. Just ignore it,” Aidan said, though his panicked tone gave him away.
Judd narrowed his eyes, flexed his fingers around the gun, and disappeared into the hall.
Aidan let out a curse as hysteria finally bubbled from my chest, erupting from me like a volcano. “We’re gonna die.”
“No, baby. Look at me.” The chair leg thumped.
I lifted my head again.
He’d freed one leg and was now rocking the chair to free the other. “Everything’s gonna be okay.” Rocking some more, he nearly fell sideways at one point, but managed to break free. He rushed to the side of the bed. “I can’t untie you, but you might be able to reach my cell. It’s in my coat.” He leaned toward my bound hand, and I strained to reach into his pocket.
“If that’s your mom . . .” My fingers barely touched the phone, so I reached further.
“I can’t think about that right now. The only way any of us are getting out of here is if we get help.” He leaned his body more heavily on the mattress. “Hurry.”
“I’m trying!” I finally got a good hold and pulled the phone from his pocket.
“Call 9-1-1. Shit! Hurry—he’s coming.”
Aidan sprinted back to his chair as I tried to key in the numbers. The rope kept my hand at an odd angle, and I was scared Judd would return before I had a chance to get help.
Come on! Don’t give up.
I hit the correct buttons as footsteps sounded in the hall.
“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”
“Help us!” I cried, keeping my voice low. “He’s holding us at gunpoint.” I rattled off the address and then gasped. The phone slipped from my fingers and dropped to the floor as Lila and the sheriff appeared in the doorway. They entered the room, Judd behind them, his gun at the ready between his hands.
“Look who crashed our party.”
“Let them go,” The sheriff said. “This is between you and me. Let’s talk about this.”
“Sure, let’s talk. This is turning out to be a nice little family get-together, isn’t it?” Judd snickered. “We’ve got Aidan here, the golden child, and his fine piece of ass. Oh, and we have mommy here too. This should be interesting.” He grabbed Lila and pressed the weapon against her head. “He doesn’t know, does he, Dad?”
Thick silence ensued, and the sheriff slowly put his hands in the air. “You know.” It was a statement—one he and Judd understood perfectly. Aidan and I were left in the dark, and Lila seemed too terrified to make a sound.
“Shitty way to find out you have a brother,” Judd said.
Aidan’s eyes widened as understanding dawned.
The sheriff dropped his head. “How’d you find out?”
“I overheard you guys talking when she came here for her dad’s funeral.”
Lila yelped as Judd shoved her forward. She fell into the sheriff’s arms and came apart, her body shaking as she clung to him.
“I don’t understand,” McFayden began. “I only found out about Aidan a couple of years ago.” He was too calm as he inched backward, which made me wonder what he was up to. “You couldn’t have killed all those women in Boise.”
Judd looked pleased with himself. “I didn’t. I killed his wife though. Hell, she fought like a wildcat.” He aimed a smug smile toward Aidan. “Wasn’t hard to resurrect the Hangman after he vanished into thin air.”
“Why’d you do it?” McFayden asked.
“You weren’t there for me, but you jumped to protect them.” Judd blinked, and moisture trickled down his cheeks. “Pretty fucked up that I had to commit murder to get your attention.”
“I tried to protect you. Your mother left with you—I didn’t know where you were. I never stopped looking, but I couldn’t find you.”
“You’re lying! She told me you didn’t care. He told me.” His voice had changed, reminding me of the way he’d sounded as a child in my vision. He pulled up his shirt to reveal an ugly pattern of scars—the kind that made me think someone had burned him.
“Look at them, Dad. You weren’t around to stop this. He did worse. So much worse. You don’t know how many times he held me down and—”
“Please, Judd.” McFayden interrupted, blinking rapidly as his mouth trembled. He shook his head. “This isn’t the way to deal with it. Let me get you the help you need.” He paused for a moment. “Let them go.”
“It’s always about them!” Judd waved the gun around and advanced on his father, who pushed Lila behind him. Aidan tensed, and I was terrified he was about to do something that would get him killed.
“Nobody’s leaving here,” Judd said. He sneered as his dad and Lila slowly backed toward Aidan. “That’s right—go protect your perfect son.”
Lila dropped next to Aidan and held onto him. I heard her soft cries from where I was restrained to the bed, and I accepted that we were all going to die. You couldn’t reason with someone so far gone. I closed my eyes, not wanting to watch when it happened, and listened as the sheriff continued to stall Judd.
“I won’t hurt you, son. Despite what you’ve done, I love you. But I won’t let you hurt them either. You’ll have to kill me first.”
The blast shocked us all. My eyes popped open, and Judd was crying, looking on the verge of being sick as he stared in horror at his father. McFayden gazed at the blood oozing from his arm, mouth agape as Judd staggered back. Lila cried harder.
Where the hell were the police? As if in answer to my silent question, sirens sounded outside. Judd froze, listening as they drew closer. The echo of slammed doors penetrated the walls, and almost instantly, a cell phone rang.
“Fuck!” He paced a circle in front of the bedroom door.
“Come on, son. Put the gun down before you get yourself killed.”
He stomped to his father and stuck the barrel in his face. McFayden closed his eyes.
“Jeff!” Lila shrieked. She jumped to her feet, trying to launch herself at the sheriff, but Aidan trapped her between his thighs.
“No, Mom!”
“Kill me.” McFayden said, still grasping his injured arm. “If killing me will dull the pain inside you, do it.” A tear slipped down his cheek. “I should’ve been there.”
Judd stumbled back again, and time stalled as he turned the gun on himself.
Everyone seemed to hold their breath, frozen in a sequence of events that only seemed possible in the movies. McFayden fell to his knees, pleading with him to drop the gun, and someone’s cell went off again but was ignored. “Please, I’m begging you. Don’t do it.”
“I won’t let them take me,” Judd said, chest heaving, his hand shaking as he held the weapon to his temple.
“I lo
ve you,” the sheriff choked. He hurtled himself at him, knocking him to the floor with a loud grunt, and they struggled amongst a tangle of limbs. Aidan jumped to his feet, his body ready to leap into action, despite not having the use of his arms.
Lila was screaming at them to stop. The bedroom door flung open, and several deputies swarmed inside. She rushed across the room and fell next to McFayden. He gathered her into his arms as the deputies detained Judd, who was openly bawling. They hauled him to his feet and dragged him from the room.
Someone unlocked the cuffs around Aidan’s wrists, and he wasted no time in untying me, his fingers working fast to free my hands and feet. He pulled me into the safety of his embrace.
“If I never let you go, it’ll be too soon.”
34. Intentions
“Do you want me to go in with you?”
“No, I’ll be okay,” I said. “Doing this alone . . . I think it’s something I need to do.”
Aidan slid his palms along my cheeks. His lips met mine, and for a few moments our surroundings faded. We broke apart just as an officer moved past, decked out in a uniform that was such a dark shade of blue, one might think it was black.
“I’ll be right here when you’re done.” He let go, and I could tell by the strain on his face that he wanted to go with me.
“I won’t be long.”
A detective escorted me into the back of the station. She opened a door to an office that was small and cluttered in a disorganized way that probably made sense to her.
“Have a seat,” she said, gesturing toward the only chair facing her desk. She sat across from me and brushed the blond curls from her forehead. She seemed too young to be a cop, and I wasn’t even sure why.
Judd hadn’t been much older. I swallowed hard and silently recited the mantra that had gotten me through the past ten days: He’s in jail. Don’t waste a thought on him.
Too bad some part of my stubborn mind refused to listen.
“I know this isn’t easy for you,” she said, and I blinked, reminding myself how I was in the here and now. I had something important to do—something that wasn’t easy, as she’d said, but it needed to be done.
“Take your time,” she said. “I’m here as long as you need.”
The next forty-five minutes picked at the scab covering my emotional wound. In light of what Judd had put us through, talking about my rape didn’t inflict as much pain as it once had, but it still cut deep.
Difficult or not, I couldn’t remain silent any longer. Professor Keely’s other victim was locked in a her-word-against-his battle, and from what Joe had told me, his father was likely going to beat the charges.
I couldn’t let that happen.
“You were very brave for coming forward, Ms. Hill.”
We stood, and I quietly thanked her as she opened the door for me. She led me back to the lobby, and almost immediately I found myself in Aidan’s arms.
“How did it go?”
“Good.”
“How do you feel?”
“Better. I never realized how much I needed closure.” I hesitated. “Maybe you’re right. I think counseling might be a good idea.”
He inched away to look at me. “I am so proud of you.”
Catching sight of my mom standing nearby, I gave Aidan a funny look.
“The sooner you clear the air with her, the better. Trust me.”
I scowled at him. “A little hypocritical, don’t you think?”
He grinned. “I just got off the phone with my mother. Things are far from resolved, but we’re working on it.”
“This is so not fair,” I grumbled.
He kissed my cheek. “You still love me.” He gestured toward the exit. “I’ll wait for you in the car.”
“Okay.” I watched him go before closing the distance between my mom and me. “Hey.”
“Hi, Kenz.” She pulled me into her arms and held on tight. “I’ve missed you.”
“Me too.”
She let go a few seconds later, and we watched as two officers hauled in a scruffy blond guy who twitched every few seconds. “With everything that happened over Thanksgiving and afterward, I never got a chance to tell you something,” she said.
“What’s that?”
“That you can tell me anything. No matter what.”
I rubbed the toe of my sneaker over warn linoleum. “Part of me was ashamed.”
“You have no reason to be ashamed. If I ever get my hands on him . . .” I peeked up and caught her wiping beneath her eyes. “I wish you would’ve told me. Over the summer, I sensed something was wrong, but I would’ve never imagined this, and then when you dropped out of school and moved—” she broke off, shaking her head. “I couldn’t make sense of it.”
I wandered a few steps, too uncomfortable with our conversation to stay in one spot for long. “I knew how much you liked and respected his dad.” I lowered myself onto a bench and peered up at her. “Joe knew me better than anyone, and even he didn’t believe me.”
“I would have believed you. You’re my baby—I’m always going to be on your side.”
“Even though I’m with Aidan now?”
She sat beside me. “I don’t have anything against him. It’s true, I always thought you and Joe would get married someday and make me grandbabies.” She smiled. “But I can see how much Aidan loves you. Now that we know you’re not related . . .” She turned pink at the reminder.
“Yeah, can we not talk about that?” Bringing up that particular memory would only make reconciling things more difficult.
“Deal.” She glanced at my stomach, and I thought about the months ahead—soon my belly wouldn’t be so flat. “Looks like you’re going to give me grandbabies after all.”
“Grandbaby,” I said, laughing. “Don’t hex me—Marcus already gave you twins.” Joe walked through the entrance, and I abruptly stopped laughing. “You didn’t.” My head swerved back to her, and I shot her an accusing glare.
“Hey.” She held up her hands. “I can honestly say I had nothing to do with this.” She stood, adjusting her purse strap. “I’ll let you two catch up. I told Marcus I’d babysit for him and Alicia. They’re down from Salem for the weekend.”
“Tell them I said hi.” I was much too distracted by Joe’s presence as he waited across the room, his eyes straying to me every so often.
“See you soon,” Mom said. She gave me another hug before taking off toward the exit where she stopped to greet Joe on her way out. He didn’t waste time in ambling to my side.
“Hi, Mac.”
“Hi.”
He gave me a quick hug, and I was certain we both sensed the awkwardness between us. “How’ve you been?” he asked once he’d stepped away.
“Coping, but things are getting easier.”
He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his coat. “Your mom told me the news about you and Aidan. Must be nice to know you’re not being scandalous.”
I clenched my teeth. “Why are you here, Joe?”
He pointed a thumb toward the front desk. “They called me. Guess they have more questions for me or something.” His gaze swept my body from head to toe. “You seem . . . content.”
I managed a smile. “I’m getting there.” Probably the most at peace I’d been in months, despite things still being up in the air with Aidan and me. Despite the nightmares. Ten days since Judd had been arrested, yet we hadn’t talked about our future. We’d talked about the baby some, but everything else was off-limits, lest we disrupt the tenuous balance we’d created since everything had gone down.
“Promise me something,” Joe said, his voice dropping in that familiar way that told me whatever he had to say was important.
“What is it?”
“Come to me if you’re ever in trouble, no matter what. I’ll always be here for you, Mac.”
“I will.”
He shook his head. “No, I mean it. You’re always gonna be apart of my life, and yeah, I hate that I lost you, but I don’t w
ant what happened to come between us. Promise me you won’t close the door on us.”
“I’m not the one who shut it in the first place.” I paused, biting my lip. “We can’t go back. You know that, right?”
“You say that, but I can’t throw thirteen years down the drain. I hope you can’t either.” He frowned. “If he wasn’t in the picture, would you give me another chance?”
“I’ve gotta go.” I moved around him, incapable of uttering the word “goodbye” because it just seemed wrong.
“Hey, Mac?”
I turned, and he met me with a sad smile. “Congratulations on the baby. You’re gonna be an amazing mom.”
“Thanks.” My mouth turned up the slightest bit, and the balance of my world evened out a little more in that moment. Everything was going to be okay; for once I believed it.
Aidan was waiting for me in the car. I settled into the passenger seat, and every tear I hadn’t cried in the past few days seemed to gush from my eyes.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. He placed his hand on the nape of my neck, his fingers tracing circles, and my body flushed and chilled at the same time.
I held my breath, but uncontrollable laughter bubbled up and spilled over anyway. I glanced at him through my tears. “Nothing. Everything. Probably just hormones.” I wiped my face. “I’m glad we came here today.”
“I figured you needed this.” His fingers lingered on my skin for a few seconds longer before he started the ignition. After several stoplights and a few turns, we were speeding down the highway toward Watcher’s Point. My throat ached with a new fear—one I knew we needed to talk about. The words wouldn’t come though, and the questions I needed answers to remained unasked.
What was going to happen to us now?
Was he staying in Watcher’s Point or did he want to go back to Boise? Would he ask me to go with him?
I’d follow him anywhere.
“The last time you were this quiet and distant, you broke up with me,” he said. “Your mother didn’t have any more confessions, did she?”
My mouth lifted at the corners. If he was worried, then maybe that was a good sign. “No. I think all her skeletons are out now.” God, I hoped so. “And I definitely don’t have any plans to break up with you.” I sent him a sidelong glance. “You’re too good in bed.” Even with a gunshot wound slowing him down.
Epiphany (Legacy of Payne) Page 27