by HELEN HARDT
“Where’s Donny?” I asked.
“He actually had a playdate with a boy in his class,” Jade said. “He was really excited.”
Dale, at ten, was too old for playdates. Only three years separated the brothers, but at their current ages, it might as well have been a lifetime, especially considering what Dale had gone through to spare Donny. Dale wasn’t smiling—he still rarely smiled—but he did look at ease. Not stiff and tense, the way he had for so long…before he’d found the polished rock where he’d seen the stalker standing.
“Hey, Dale,” Ruby said.
“Hi.”
“What do you want to talk about?” she asked. “Do you want us all here?”
“Yeah. That’s fine.”
“What’s on your mind, then?”
He opened his mouth but then closed it.
“Whenever you’re ready, son,” Talon said.
“Sometimes things come back to me,” he said. “I don’t understand why I don’t remember everything. Melanie says I was probably drugged a lot of the time.”
Talon nodded. “You probably were. We’re all glad it didn’t do any permanent damage.”
“Yeah. Me too,” Dale said. “I mean, I kind of don’t want to remember some of it, but Melanie says it’s part of getting better.”
“It is,” Talon said.
“Anyway…” He sighed. “There was a guy where we were. He didn’t do anything to us. He just…”
“Just what?” Talon asked.
“Um…he stood in the room and watched.”
My throat felt raw and saliva pooled in my mouth. I held back a gag.
“Watched…what?” Talon asked slowly.
“Whatever. Whatever the other guys decided…to do to us…that day.”
“He didn’t do any of that?” Ruby said.
“No. He just watched. I only just remembered this today. This morning. I woke up, and I remembered.”
“What did this guy look like?” Ruby asked.
“I don’t know. He wore a mask like all the others. But he also wore a gray hoodie and jeans. Or dark pants. I don’t know. The hood was always up.”
“So you think…” Ruby began.
“I don’t know. Something about the way he stood. That’s what I saw on the playground. It was him. I know it was.”
“So you did recognize him.”
“I’m sure now. I know I wasn’t quite sure at first.”
“You were scared.”
“Well…yeah.” He gulped.
“It’s okay to be scared, sweetie,” Jade soothed. “You’ve been through a lot.”
“No,” he said. “I don’t want to be scared. I don’t want to be scared anymore.”
“You don’t have to be,” Talon said. “The bad men who hurt you are gone, and I won’t let anyone else hurt you. I promise.”
That was a huge promise to make, but I had no doubt my brother meant every word he said to his son. If Cade Booker was indeed the person who had spooked Dale at the playground, he’d better not cross paths with Talon.
Or Joe, for that matter.
Or Ryan or Bryce.
Or me.
He’d put us all through enough.
“Is there anything else you want to tell us?” Ruby asked. “Remember, the more information we have, the more likely it is we can find this guy.”
“I can’t say how I recognized him,” Dale said. “I just know it was him. The guy who watched. He was the same. And he was watching.”
Ruby nodded. “Dale, there’s one other thing.”
“What?”
“You said you used to collect rocks.”
“Yeah.”
“Where is your rock collection? Your mom and dad said they couldn’t find it at your old house.”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t as interested after a while. It was kind of a little kid thing.”
“But you recognized the snowflake obsidian we found outside the playground.”
“Yeah. I had one like it. Most of my rocks were polished. I had a polisher of my own for a while, but when I stopped using it…” He paused a few seconds. “I think my mom sold it at a garage sale. She asked me if it was okay, and I said sure.”
“So you had stopped collecting rocks?” Ruby asked.
“Yeah. It was a little kid thing, you know?”
I smiled. Was it really this simple? “Did you sell your collection at the garage sale?” I asked.
He smiled. Smiled! For the second time since he’d been here. “Who would want to buy a bunch of dumb rocks?”
“Didn’t you say people carried rocks for good luck?”
“That’s what my mom used to tell me. I don’t really believe it. I don’t believe in good luck anymore.”
Silence for a few seconds. Not one of us knew how to respond to that.
However, one thing stood out. The rock collection had simply been misplaced because Dale was no longer interested in it. Kids were like that. They changed hobbies when the wind changed.
“Anything else, Dale?” Ruby asked.
“No.”
“And you haven’t seen that guy on the playground since the last time?”
Dale shook his head.
“Okay.” Ruby smiled. “This is really good information, Dale. You’re helping us a lot.”
He smiled again.
And that was worth every dollar of the Steel fortune.
Chapter Forty-Five
Bryce
Your father trained him.
I opened my mouth, letting my jaw hang there. Words flew through my mind, none of them coming together as a coherent sentence to speak.
My father trained him.
“I don’t understand,” I finally said.
“I’m not sure I fully understand, either,” Brad noted. “Now that your father’s gone, we may never know unless Cade decides to come clean. But I have a theory. I think your father took him as a sort of…protégé.”
I stood, my mouth still dropped open, most likely looking like an imbecile.
A protégé?
A strange wave of envy passed through me, and then I had to stop myself from doubling over.
Envy, Bryce? Really? That your father took a protégé other than you for his life of horror?
I was being stupid. Really fucking stupid.
“But he…” God, what a moron. I couldn’t even form words.
“Like I said, it’s only a theory. But we know your father bought Cade’s father’s silence.”
Money buys silence for a time, son, but a bullet buys it forever.
“I just assumed he…” Again, the words stopped. Brad and I both knew what I meant.
“He probably did. I’m sure Joe told you what your father and the others went through in their training.”
Again, the nausea. “Yeah. He told me. Who would do that?”
“Someone for whom money trumps all else,” Brad said, shaking his head. “Your father wasn’t always that way. Neither was Larry. They were corrupted.”
“Sorry, I don’t buy it. They had to have the propensity for it to even be corrupted like that.”
“I won’t disagree with you there,” he said, “but they were corrupted.”
“By whom?”
“Wendy. She was the mastermind behind it all, though I didn’t see it quite as clearly when we were still in high school.”
“You funded them,” I said, more to myself than to Brad.
“I did. And I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.”
I couldn’t help a sarcastic scoff. “The rest of your life was supposed to have ended eight years ago. Then again a few months ago. Spare me your regrets.”
“I’ve never asked for your sympathy,” he repeated. “Only your discretion.”
“Joe’s my best friend. And Marjorie…”
“You’re in love with her. I couldn’t wish for a better man for my little girl.”
“So how can you ask me to keep this from her? From Joe? From the rest of
them?”
“They’ve all found their happiness, Bryce, just as I knew they would. I’ve done all I can, but my first loyalty is to my wife. You know that.”
“Your wife is insane.”
“Mentally ill,” Brad said.
“Semantics. No offense, but she doesn’t even know you exist.”
“I’m the only one she knows, Bryce. She doesn’t recognize any of her children, and she’s caught in a time warp. She can’t take care of herself.”
“You can’t take care of her either. Sure, you built a replica of your ranch house on that island—”
“I did that so I could take her home,” Brad said. “I had to protect her from Wendy. She never got over her jealousy of Daphne. She would have had her killed. I did what I had to do. I’ve told you this before. My children were adults and could protect themselves. My wife could not.”
“Why were you worried for Daphne, Marj, and Colin when Justin—or Cade, or whoever the fuck he is now—had a beef with Joe and me, not with any of—”
I stopped midsentence. My words were asinine, and I knew it.
“Daphne is the weakest link. Easy to target,” Brad said. “And Marjorie… Well, she means everything to both you and Joe. It was a two-for-one deal.”
“And Colin?”
“Colin is a little different. Cade seems to have an issue with him. I’m not sure why, but it’s enough to make me concerned for Colin’s safely. I was also protecting him from his own father. Ted has been working with Cade Booker since he uncovered his true identity.”
“I always wondered how he found out,” I said. “Joe and I couldn’t figure it out, especially since we had no actual memory of it ourselves.”
“I can’t help you there. My guess is that Cade contacted Ted, but that’s just a guess.”
“There had to be a trail somewhere. My dad took care of Joe’s and my memory and he paid off Cade’s father, but a whole town couldn’t have forgotten a kid.”
“Snow Creek is a small town,” he said, “but if a kid was the invisible type—”
“But he wasn’t invisible. He was a target for the bullies. That’s why Joe and I befriended him in the first place.”
“I wish I had an answer for you. We may never know how Tom pulled it off.”
“It’s all crazy,” I said.
“Pretty much. I know you and Joe have been through this place, but I still feel like there’s something else here.”
“So do I. That’s why I came here today. My father’s darkest secrets are here, and I don’t think we’ve uncovered them all.”
“Then let’s get to it,” he said. “I have the time. Do you?”
I cleared my throat. “You do know you’re a grandfather, right?”
He smiled. “I do. I’ve already sneaked in and gotten a good look at my grandchild. He’s small but strong.”
“Melanie went into premature labor. Probably because of all the stress of the situation. The stress that you caused, Brad. You had Marjorie and the others kidnapped.”
He ignored my rant. “Thank God she and the baby are both fine. I had to be careful. Melanie never actually saw me, so I don’t know if she would recognize me, but—”
“She’d recognize you. Joe looks exactly like you.”
“I was careful. She didn’t see me. I took a quick look at the baby while she was gone to the restroom.”
“How did you— Oh, never mind.”
“I’m pretty good at sneaking around these days.”
Yeah, he was. Being “dead,” he’d have to be.
“All right,” I said. “Let’s start looking. Do you have any idea what we’re looking for?”
“No,” he said, “but I bet we find it.”
My phone buzzed in my pocket. Really? Dominic Booker again? “What is it?” I said into the phone.
“Hey, can you meet me again?” he asked.
“I’m pretty busy at the moment.”
“Who is it?” Brad asked.
“Hold on,” I said to Dominic. Then I muted the phone. “Dominic Booker. He wants to meet me.”
“Great,” he said. “Let’s do it. Now.”
Dominic met us at the cabin.
“How’s your sister?” Brad asked.
“She’ll make a full recovery,” he said. “Luckily the paramedics got to her before she lost too much blood. She’s home from the hospital and taking it easy.”
“Maybe she should be taking it easy in a prison infirmary,” I couldn’t help saying.
“Alex was acting on my orders,” Brad said. “I’ve taken care of the charges against her.”
Of course he had. I opened my mouth but then shut it quickly. Nothing I said or did would change the situation.
Dominic continued, “Alex isn’t one to take anything easy. She’s been fretting over the whole thing, saying crazy stuff.”
“Like what?” Brad asked.
Dominic shook his head. “She’s convinced it all went wrong because she didn’t have her lucky rock.”
That got my attention. Marj had mentioned that Dale’s mother had told him some people carried stones for luck—stones like the one Dale found where he’d seen the stranger lurking around the school playground.
“Lucky rock?”
“Yeah, this smooth rock she keeps with her. She lost it a couple weeks—”
“Smooth rock? Like black with white markings, maybe?”
“Yeah. How did you know that?”
I cleared my throat. “Lucky guess.”
“She calls it snowflake obsidian.”
“Damn. That’s it.”
“That’s what?” Dominic and Brad both asked.
“That was the third thing Ruby found at the playground where Dale saw the strange man watching him. A baseball card, a cufflink with Colin Morse’s initials on it, and a polished piece of snowflake obsidian.”
“That bastard,” Dominic said.
“He was trying to implicate the three of you.” I inhaled. “But why the three of you? His beef is clearly with Joe and me.”
“Who knows?” Dominic said. “The man is a mess. Maybe he didn’t think anyone would believe you or Joe would stalk a little boy. Though why anyone would think Alex or I would—”
“Easy,” Brad said. “He knew you and Alex were onto him, that you were working for me, and he was trying to get you out of the way.”
“But Dominic makes a valid point,” I said. “If his problem is with Joe and me—”
“His plans for you and Joe are much more sinister,” Brad said. “Believe me. I’ve been dealing with psychopaths for the last forty years. One in particular had a beef with me, and she hurt me in the worst possible way.”
Wendy Madigan. Wendy Madigan, who’d had Talon abducted, starved, and brutally tortured.
She’d gotten to him through his child.
His child.
I gulped. “Oh, God.” I quickly texted my mother.
Mom, where’s Henry?
He’s right here with Vicky and
me. Getting ready to feed him.
How much could I tell her without freaking her out? He was most likely safe…as long as Cade Booker couldn’t find him.
But none of us knew where Cade was at the moment.
“What?” Brad said.
“My son. He’s with my mom in Florida. I’m just making sure—”
“I’ve got tails on them,” Brad said. “I’ll know if anything happens. The minute they’re in even the slightest danger, I’ll have them taken to safety.”
Nausea welled within me. If that happened, my mother would be scared shitless. But at least she’d be safe. In the meantime, I wouldn’t burden her with any of this. I didn’t trust Brad to tell the truth about being alive, but I did trust that he had my family’s best interests at heart.
For the first time since he’d shown up, I felt an overwhelming gratitude to Brad Steel. “Thank you,” I said softly. “But what about—”
“I’ve got a tail on Melanie and
the baby as well. I told you that. I’ll know within seconds if anything happens.”
“Why didn’t you have them taken to safety?” I asked. “Never mind. Stupid question. The baby needs medical care. Thank you.”
“I’ll do anything to protect my family,” he said, “and to me, Bryce, you are family.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Marjorie
Ruby and I sat with Jade on the deck after we’d shared a quick dinner of sandwiches. Talon was with the boys in the yard, playing with the dogs.
“He’s like a little kid himself with them,” Jade said. “Those boys have been so good for him.”
“He’s been good for them too,” I said. “Having a father with that level of understanding…” I didn’t need to finish. None of us wanted to say the words, but we all knew how special it was that Talon was now father to the two boys.
“It’s so great to see Dale come out of his shell more,” Ruby agreed.
Jade smiled and patted her belly, which now showed the tiniest baby bump. “I think they’ll be good big brothers.”
“Are you and Tal going to find out the sex?” I asked.
“I don’t know. We haven’t really talked about it. For a while, we were just hoping the pregnancy would continue. Now, with everything else that’s going on, we haven’t discussed it.”
“Are you hoping for one or the other?” Ruby asked.
“I suppose it would be nice to add a girl to the mix,” Jade replied, “but it doesn’t really matter. I just want a healthy, happy baby.”
My phone buzzed. I smiled. “It’s Bryce. Hey,” I said into the phone.
“Where are you?”
“Home. We just had a small dinner, and Jade, Ruby and I are chatting. Where are you?”
“On my way to you. Stay there. I have news.”
“So the rock belongs to Alex Booker,” Ruby said. “Cade Booker is trying to implicate everyone he has an issue with.”
I grabbed Bryce’s arm. “Have you checked in on Henry?”
He nodded. “He’s safe. I’ve got someone keeping watch.”
“Good.” I was eternally glad Bryce had someone keeping tabs on his son. If anything happened… God, I couldn’t go there.