Blindfold: The Complete Series Box Set

by M. S. Parker

  She didn’t look at me, but everybody else was.

  “Toni, for fuck’s sake!”

  She glanced down at her hands, nails folded in so she could study them. She pursed her lips as she gazed down at her manicure as if her fingers were of utmost importance.

  That was it. My temper flared and I shoved between her brothers.

  That was yet another big mistake, I realized.

  They caught my arms before I made it a full step. I tried to jerk away and they just put more muscle into it. They were shorter than me, but they were far from weak. Getting away might involve some serious physical force here.

  “Toni.”

  Finally, she looked at me. After a moment, she turned towards her brothers. “Vic, Franky...don’t. He’s not worth it.”

  Their hands fell away and Vic shoulder-checked me hard as he headed back to his sister’s side. She folded her arms over her chest as she met my eyes. There were shadows in her eyes.

  “Go away,” she said quietly. “You’ve got other things to focus on besides me, so maybe you should do that.”

  While I tried to adjust to the dull tone of her normally vibrant voice, she looked up at the brother who'd stayed by her side. “Deacon, I’m exhausted. Take me home, please?”

  I tried one more time. “Toni–”

  “No!” She spun back to me, her hands clenched into fists at her side and for the first time since I first met her, I saw the glitter of tears in her eyes. “I’m exhausted. The only sleep I got was a nap in the interrogation room. The last time I peed, I had to do it on a toilet in front of ten other women. I want to take a shower. I want some food. I want to sleep for about twenty hours straight. What I don’t want is to see you. Ever again.”

  Numb, I stared at her. She couldn't mean it. She was understandably upset, but she couldn't mean she never wanted to see me again. Into the raw silence, I finally managed to speak.

  “I...Toni, I’m sorry. Let me...I’ll fix this. Let me make it up to you.”

  “How?” Her voice cracked as she shouted at me. “Your fucking money? Guess what? It doesn’t solve everything. Grow up, Ashford.”

  She spun on her heel and stormed towards the doors, her brothers following right behind her.

  “Well. I do hate to say I told you so...”

  Marcum’s caustic voice came from behind me.

  I didn't know where she’d come from. I didn’t really care. Looking back, I saw that Marcum had joined Lieutenant Green and the other cops at some point in the past few minutes. Great. They’d all just witnessed everything Toni had yelled at me. Dropping onto a bench, I propped my elbows on my knees and stared at nothing.

  Shit.

  “That went well.”

  It was Green who spoke first. She cleared her throat and when I glanced up, she was running her thumb up and down the crease of the envelope containing the ransom letter.

  “Perhaps we could move on to the real concern, Mr. Lang. Your sister. And this new...letter?”

  Chapter 3

  Toni

  I was going to regret this.

  Shaking with exhaustion, my head pounding, I still found myself turning around. The doors were within my reach, but I couldn't bring myself to open them. Not yet.

  “What letter?”

  Ash’s shoulders had been slumped, but as soon as I spoke, his entire body tensed.

  “Come on, Toni,” Deacon said, resting his hand on my arm. “Let’s go. You’re exhausted and if I don’t get you home so you can rest, Mom’s going to have all of our hides.”

  I gave Deacon a strained smile. “Isadora's my friend.”

  They knew about her, of course. I'd told my family all about her, all about my job and how much I enjoyed working with the sweetest twenty year-old I'd ever met. Deacon’s eyes bore into mine, almost grim in their intensity, but he nodded and his hand fell away. I knew he'd understand. True friends came second only to family.

  Lieutenant Green gave me a tight smile. “I’m sorry, Ms. Gallagher, but we can't discuss an ongoing investigation.”

  “No.” Ash’s voice was low as he slowly raised his head.

  I let my gaze shift back to him, but he didn't meet my eyes. Fine. If that was how he wanted to play it.

  “You can tell her. She cares about my sister.”

  Green bristled. “Mr. Lang, that's not how we do things.”

  Angling my head, I studied the two of them, watching the power struggle as it played out between cop and…whatever in the hell Ashford Lang was. Mega-millionaire, sure. But this was New York. They were practically a dime a dozen. He needed to have friends in powerful places as well as money.

  “Did he ask you to arrest me?” I asked abruptly.

  Next to me, my brothers stiffened. In front of me, Ash went pale, his jaw going tight.

  Lieutenant Green, though, could have done a soldier proud. Her shoulders went back and her chin angled high. “What a citizen of this city requests of me doesn’t dictate my duty, Ms. Gallagher. I do what I swore to do when I picked up my badge.”

  “Nicely said,” I told her dryly. “You neither denied nor confirmed. You should go into politics.” I looked at Ash. “You’re an asshole.”

  In addition to his clenched jaw, a vein started to pulse in his temple. “My sister’s life could be at stake.”

  “Yeah. And how much time did you waste having the cops hassle me? How much was wasted having people trail Vic?” I shook my head and shifted my gaze elsewhere, hoping that sense of betrayal would fade.

  It didn’t.

  “Ms. Gallagher.”

  I looked over to find Agent Marcum standing a few feet away. Her gaze was compassionate. She flicked a look at Ash, a bit of curl to her lip, a sneer. I found myself liking her, despite the side of the badge she stood on. I wasn’t feeling very friendly toward badges right now. But I liked her.

  “Regardless of how he pushed, we would have ended up looking.” She shrugged and shot Vic a glance and then shifted her focus back to me. “Maybe not as hard and definitely not as...intrusively. But we would have looked. Now it’s done and we can focus on Isadora again. She’s what matters, right?”

  Marcum was right. Isadora was what mattered.

  When Ash asked if I wanted to come with them after Green said she wouldn’t discuss aspects of the case in the middle of the station, I agreed. I didn't want to be anywhere near Ash, but I needed to know what was happening with Isadora.

  I left my brothers to cool their heels in the main lobby while Green, Marcum, Ash and I squeezed into a conference room, along with a handful of agents and detectives. I tucked myself into a corner and pretended Ash wasn’t there as the cops went about setting up a board and passing out sheets of paper.

  “Who's this?” I asked softly after Marcum finished placing one large picture square in the middle of the board.

  “That is our one connection.” She slid me a look. “We’ll get you up to speed here shortly.”

  Up to speed? A few minutes later, after Green and Marcum had each taken turns talking, I had to fight the urge to ask them to go over it just one more time.

  Up to speed. Not so much. My brain was taking in what I was being told, but I didn't know if I was really processing it. The one thing I did know was that I needed to be able to examine that picture when I was more coherent.

  As they started to pass around files, I edged around the table to look at the picture. While everybody behind me was talking, I casually lifted the phone I’d slid out of my pocket and snapped an image for myself. I didn't know if I’d managed to pull it off or not, but when I turned back, everybody was still busy flipping through the files. No one had seen me.

  “If you’re curious...”

  I blinked. Marcum was standing in front of me, holding out a file.

  “It can’t leave this room, but you’re welcome to look at the photos. As far as him.” She looked over at the board. “We’ll have to put out an alert on him soon, so we’re not sharing anything you won’t s
ee soon enough.”

  Ash’s gaze shot our way. “An alert.” A muscle pulsed in his cheek as he shook his head. “I want this kept quiet.”

  “I’m aware of your desires, Mr. Lang.” Marcum gestured toward the board, and the picture of the unknown man. “But I'm going to be frank here. Our mystery man doesn't have a record and your sister has been missing for quite some time. At some point, we may need help from the public. Assuming you want your sister found.”

  Ash snapped his jaw shut, but the desperation in his eyes spoke volumes. He was angry, but he was also hurting and frightened for his sister.

  “Please let us do our job,” Lieutenant Green said.

  She flicked a glance at me and I wondered how long it would take her to figure out a way to get me kicked out.

  Clearing my throat, I looked back down at the photographs. Pointedly, I asked, “What’s with the pictures?”

  That was what the file held. Pictures. Or, rather, copies of them. One of the officers had put original photos in sealed bags down the middle of the table in a straight line. When had these come into play? As soon as I asked myself the question, I knew the answer. Someone had gotten these while I'd been under arrest. I wondered if they'd been delivered to the station or to Ash.

  Marcum pulled out a chair across from me and sat down. “If you read the copy of the letter delivered to Mr. Lang late last night, it'll give you a decent idea of what is going on.”

  Frowning, I found the letter in the file and read it. Then I read it again. There wasn’t much to it so I had it memorized by the time I finished. I couldn’t see how the cops might read into anything it and I was trying hard. It was short, simple and to the point.

  As the cops and agents fired questions at Ash, I shifted my attention to the pictures. Okay...these were a little different. I went through them slowly, seeing younger and younger versions of both Isadora and Ash.

  Feeling a pair of eyes on me in that moment, I looked up. Ash was staring directly at me. I set my jaw and lifted my chin, pretending to focus on what was being said.

  He felt bad. I knew he did. Part of me could even understand. My brothers...

  No.

  Even as my brain tried to feed me that bit of bullshit, my conscious mind rejected it. My brothers wouldn’t have pulled strings to get someone arrested, not even if it had been me missing. Unless their gut absolutely screamed yes, she’s guilty, yes, she did it, they wouldn’t have gone after somebody the way Ash had gone after me. And if that had been the case?

  They wouldn’t have slept with the woman.

  So either Ashford Lang was a bigger dick than I’d realized...or I was a bigger fool.

  “We’re looking at somebody with an obsession,” Green continued with whatever she was saying.

  “A grudge.” The words popped out of me without any conscious decision to say anything.

  Everybody in the room shifted their attention to me.

  “Excuse me?” The lieutenant’s voice was coolly polite.

  Marcum’s gaze slid to me. “Excuse me?”

  “Ah...I’m sorry. I just...” I forced a smile. “Never mind. I’m speculating.”

  Green gave a short nod and looked back at the board, but before she could speak, Marcum held up a hand to stop her.

  “Speculating about what, exactly, Ms. Gallagher?”

  Nervous, I reached up and twisted a snarled lock of hair. “Nothing important, Agent Marcum. You guys are the professionals here.”

  “And you’re just shy of your psychology degree. What do you think you see?” Marcum’s eyes narrowed.

  Ash wasn’t the only one staring at me now. I was more nervous than I could remember being in a long, long time. “Ahhhh…” I glanced down at the photographs again. “It’s the pictures. She was…um, well…prepubescent when the first few were taken? Most obsessions don’t start when a girl is still at that stage, do they? Or if they start with a child, they usually stop once the child hits puberty. Most obsessions don't cover both. And Ash – Mr. Lang – is in these photos as well. Besides, how often do kidnappers grab a woman they want to assault, and then make a demand?”

  “We’ve already come to that conclusion, Ms. Gallagher.” Lieutenant Green looked annoyed. “But there are different kinds of obsession, and these pictures do indicate a certain focus on the Lang family. Since Ms. Lang is the one they grabbed, it makes sense she’s the focus of the obsession.”

  “Does it?” I stared at the headstones and how precisely they appeared in the majority of the images. Focal points, even. There wasn’t a single shot that included the stones where the stones were obscured. “I’m not sure she is the focus. Look at most of the pictures. There are a couple of other Langs in them.”

  Confusion flickered in several faces. Except the FBI agents.

  Looking at Agent Marcum, I said softly, “You’re already considering that angle.”

  “The parents?” She picked up one of the copies they’d copied of each photo. “Yes. We’re considering it.”

  “My parents?” Ash nudged one of the images toward Agent Marcum. “In case you didn’t notice, they're dead.”

  “Dead doesn’t mean forgotten, does it, Mr. Lang?” the agent countered.

  He flicked me another look, one I couldn’t read.

  Instead of trying to, I just sat down and closed my eyes, letting the voices wash over me.

  The meeting dragged on so long, I thought I’d fall asleep, but I powered through. When I finally escaped into the slightly fresher air of the main hallway, my brothers were waiting. None of them spoke. Franky pushed a diet soda into my hand while Deacon turned over a bagel. Vic hooked an arm around my neck and hugged me, ignoring the fact that I had already shoved nearly half the bagel into my mouth.

  He held on so tight, I had to nudge him back to take the next bite. “What gives?” I said around the yummy, yeasty goodness.

  Vic just shook his head. “Come on, kid. Let’s get you...” His voice trailed off, his eyes sliding past my shoulder.

  Sighing, I turned and saw Ash standing there.

  He looked as rumpled and worn as I’d ever seen him. He’d shoved up the sleeves of his dress shirt at some point during the discussion, and his hair looked like he’d combed it with a chainsaw, sans blade. There were shadows under his bloodshot eyes. And damn him to hell, he was still gorgeous.

  All three of my brothers gathered at my side, and I could practically see the testosterone oozing in the air. In the middle of a police station, this was the last thing we needed.

  “Guys, let’s go outside,” I said softly.

  I knew they weren’t in the mood to listen, so I hooked one arm through Franky’s to keep him at my side. He was easily the most volatile one of the group. Vic would do almost anything to avoid getting in trouble again, and Deacon had always been the level-headed one.

  As I started to walk, I pulled my brother with me. He didn't resist, but he did grumble under his breath, “You never let me have any fun, Toni.”

  “Yeah, picking a fight in a police station. That’s fun, all right. Or are you looking to top my experience of having a hooker proposition you while you're in holding?”

  As I'd hoped, that caught their attention. All three of my brothers were suddenly demanding to know what in the hell I was talking about. Needing distance between me and the station, I didn't stop to explain, but rather kept walking towards the nearest subway entrance. As I walked, I told them about the oh-so-subtle offer from the prostitute in the holding cell. I forced a smile and a laugh. “But I turned her down. I’m not into girls and I didn't have any cash on me.”

  “If you tell Mom, she’ll have a heart attack,” Franky said, shaking his head.

  “That’s why we’re not telling her.” Deacon cuffed him on the back of the head, rolling his eyes.

  “Guys.” I couldn’t help but laugh for real this time. “Mom’s the one who gave all of us the sex talk. I don’t think she’d be surprised to hear there was a hooker in a holding cell.”<
br />
  I glanced around for Vic to see what his take was, but he wasn't behind me.

  “Shit.”

  Deacon grunted a similar sentiment under his breath as the three of us turned to see our brother a couple yards back, standing not more than an arm’s length from Ash.

  This could end badly.

  I started back towards the pair. “Vic.”

  I shoved hair back from my face. Annoyed, I gathered it all together with a half-thought of shoving it into a knot when I realized I didn’t have my purse. “Shit. Shit. Shit. My purse.”

  My brothers knew me well enough to know I wasn't upset because I had some sort of expensive little bag. Unless I was going to something special, like a wedding or a club, my purse wasn't an accessory. I had everything in it. Wallet, phone, pictures, notes for work and school...

  At least my voice caught my brother's attention, pulling him away from Ash.

  “Did you have it with you when you were arrested?”

  “Yes – no. I don’t know!” I could feel the panic I'd managed to keep at bay all night threatening to come back.

  “It’s at my house.”

  I whipped my head around. Ash had moved closer without any of us knowing and now he was only a few feet away.

  “Your house,” Deacon said, his voice flat.

  Closing my eyes, I flipped back through my memories of what had happened before I'd gotten arrested – skipping quickly over certain parts I didn't want to remember – and then blew out a breath. “Yeah. I put it in the room where I usually work with Isadora. Habit. Then I just...forgot.” I didn't need to remind anyone why I'd forgotten.

  “Fine.” Franky gave Ash a toothy smile. “I can run on over there with Lang here and pick it right up.”

  Ash didn’t even look at my brother. “Are you going to talk to me?”

  I couldn’t avoid him forever. I wanted to. But I knew I couldn’t. It just wasn’t me. Plus, I wasn't about to ruin what I had with Isadora because her brother was an ass.

  Taking a slow breath, I walked over to him. “You know, the entire time I was in there, I kept thinking…wondering if I could have done anything differently yesterday. Done anything that would've changed how things ended up. And I realized I could have…”