Withholding Secrets

by Diana Fisher

  “That was when I had fallen in love with you. That was when I had my first taste of you.” His voice softened as his gentle hand smoothed my hair back. “Mom found out, and she sent me away. I loved you, Keri. I really did, and it was the best that I ever had. And I want more. I want so much more.”

  “You can have me. Just, please. Let them go.” How sick was this bastard, the same bastard I begged to help me? All this time, he knew what I was going through.

  “I can’t do that. Mom didn’t leave me shit, Keri. She left it all to you. I had to make money somehow. It was all because of you, because you were so … perfect. I couldn’t help myself that night, because I loved you so much, Keri.” His lips brushed down my neck, causing the tears to gush out of my eyes and collect onto the cloth that covered them. “I managed to find one that reminded me of you and I had to have her. I needed to have her, Keri. She was so sweet and innocent just like you were. I had her, and her fucking brother came in and called the cops on me.”

  My heart stopped. No, no, no. My brother lived out east. There was no way that he could have been the one. He was … Sky’s monster.

  “Then, I heard that you had gotten some kids, Keri. And low and behold, there she was. There was the one. Keri, I wanted her. I want to relive the time that I once had you.”

  “You can just have me, Chuck. You can just have me. I will let you do what you want. I will do whatever you want. Please, just leave my little girl alone. Let Alicia go. Please. I will let you do anything to me.”

  “You see, you’re ruined, Keri. You are ruined.” His voice cracked as his hand slid down my body. “You are still just as beautiful as you were back then.”

  “Please, Chuck.” The cloth over my eyes soaked up even more wetness that was coming from my eyes. I had to get those girls out of there; out of the hands of this monster. He was disgusting.

  “I can’t. I’m sorry, Keri. I just can’t. I have those sold already. I have them sold, but trust me, as long as they are good and listen to the commands, they will be fine.” A little moan came from him as his hand cupped my breast, massaging it, playing with it, and letting his lips caress it. The vomit was working its way up and burning the tender tissues of my throat. This was my brother touching me! My damn brother.

  Just take it, Keri. Just lie there and take it. If this is how you can get those girls out, buy them some more time, just take it and let him violate you. It’s better you than those innocent girls, right?

  *******

  Sitting at the table in the cold and vacant interrogation room, my heart was in the bottom of my chest. Joe, the kids’ father, was found in the house unconscious, but barely alive. One more hit and his chest would have caved in, completely smothering his heart. But, Keri spared him that much. There was so much blood spread in that room, there was no telling whose it all belonged to. And there wasn’t any sign of Keri.

  I had to call the police, and the FBI came in. After all, it was an investigation now as we had been questioned over and over. Anything to help out those girls and the chance to find Keri again, I would gladly hand over, but I didn’t have anything to help. Still, not knowing if Keri’s blood was some of what they found in the room, the fear was snaking around me, into every crevice I had.

  “Mr. Bruton?” Detective Cunningham walked in, straightening her black pinstriped, form-fitting suit jacket. Her eyes glanced over the room as she let out a breath of air. Her dark, auburn hair was wrapped into a bun and the dark circles were shading her grassy green eyes, proving this case was working her overtime. “I need you to be honest with me.”

  “I have been.” Folding my hands together on the desk, I gritted my teeth. I was still in my clothing from yesterday, and I hadn’t been able to see the kids in four days. Four fucking days they kept us apart. “Why don’t you be honest with me? Where the hell is she? How come she was able to figure out what is going on, and this whole department hasn’t? Where the hell is she, and where the hell are my kids?”

  But she just sat there, taking up space in that chair instead of using what she had to search for Keri. For as young as this woman was, there was no way she could do anything or be anything, except a paper pusher for the department. And that wasn’t going to find Keri.

  Shoving the chair back, I stood, pressing my hands down on the unforgiving and cold tabletop. Four days we were there while those girls and Keri were out there somewhere. The more the days that passed, the greater the chances were that they would move the girls and dump Keri’s body off somewhere along the way.

  “She is out there someone where to try and save those girls. How can you all just sit around and wait until those girls are moved?”

  The gentleness in her eyes deepened and the heart was coming forth on the sleeve of her black jacket. “There was something that was found in the room … along with a lot of Keri’s blood. A bunch of numbers were written in her blood, but no one can figure it out what it means.”

  “What is it?” My stomach dropped hard as she sat the folder down on the table and opened it to the photo of the wall of Sky’s room that was smeared in blood. Toward the end, the numbers were a little more difficult to read, but that was a lot of blood, her blood.

  Tears burned my eyes. So much blood was there. I could just imagine her bloodied body lying there as she used it to smear the wall, to put numbers on the wall. Was she counting? Why not just spell out what she wanted to say? Who it was? Where the girls were? Something?

  “She’s not alive, is she?” My heart shattered and the hot waters were filling in my eyes. There was no way that she was alive with all of the blood that was in that room.

  “We don’t know. This was the only area where there was her blood. The rest was Joe’s.” Shoving the photo closer to me, the muscle in her jaw flexed, enough to show a little ticking of a pulse from the pressures. Her long, slender finger pointed to the smeared numbers. “Do you think there is something with this? From what the kids talked about of her, she was good with numbers. Do you think that this could be a message?”

  Shaking my head, my heart splintered apart with the separate shards sticking deep into my chest wall. Four days without seeing those kids, our kids. I could about imagine what they were going through right now. And Sky. I heard her crying the other day and I was stuck in this damn room where I couldn’t tell her that it was going to be okay.

  Sky.

  ‘It’s all a numbers game, Sky. Just a game. You just have to figure it out.’ Keri told her so many times while she was doing her homework. Keri left her a message. Now, it would have to be up to Sky to break the code and Keri would be found—or rather, the girls, because Keri would never make it through this. Not with this much blood loss.

  “Keri had been working with Skylar on some number games. Take this to Sky, but don’t tell her that it is Keri’s blood. She doesn’t need to know that.” Taking a seat, I brushed my fingers over the smear of blood that had to be from her face. God, Keri. What you wouldn’t go through for those kids. Knowing that she would go to these lengths for the people she loved, made me love her so much more. I would do anything to have her back, to get her back. “Can you tell Sky that I love her and I am still here? Tell her that it’s going to be okay.”

  “I will. We will get you reunited soon.”

  Pushing herself up to her feet, the young agent smoothed down the matching pinstriped pants and her heels clicked on the tiled flooring as she moved to the phone that was attached to the wall. Listening to the relay of the information, the tears built back up in my eyes. Keri was going to the longest lengths to help those girls, and I hoped it was all noted in her defense.

  “She’s such an amazing woman.” Tears burned my eyes as I closed them, thinking of that last conversation we had; that horrible fight. I thought she wanted to walk away. I thought she was just done with us. It was so clear now; the fear that was scathing her, shredding her apart as those hate filled words poured from her.

  “She beat her ex-husband nearly to death wit
h a hockey stick. Do I need to show you what she did?” Seeing those images only intensified my love for her. What she brought onto the man who broke those two children and damn near ruined a great woman was well deserved. As Agent Cunningham strode around the room, her arms folded, drawing the neckline of her jacket to bunch up. I took in the beauty the tall and sleek woman had, but she was no Keri. Not even close.

  “No.” A little smile popped out from nowhere and danced across my face. I would have liked to see her take him down for everything that the kids told me about him, and the way he treated her in that month they all lived together. I just couldn’t believe that Jordan said Joe beat Keri. She never mentioned that part of anything before. He had hit her and choked her, but…

  My stomach tightened a little more. The kid didn’t hear Joe beating her. He heard something else. Something that no kid should ever hear. If that guy wasn’t under protection at the hospital, I would go in there and finish him off just for her.

  “What is so funny about the fact that she beat him within an inch of his life?” Agent Cunningham’s lip curled, showing her pearly white teeth.

  “Come on. Talk to Jordan. He will tell you why this…” Grabbing the folder, I pulled out the photo of the grown man spread on the floor in a pool of his blood and the stick beside him. “Why this is not a bad thing. Do you even realize that she stayed with him because of those kids?”

  “That is no reason—” Her tight words were cut short, her swan like neck wrenched around to see the visitor.

  An older, male agent stuck his head in the opening of the heavy, metal door, encouraging the anger to run away from the woman’s pinched face. “Bring him.”

  Jumping up from the chair, my heart stopped hard and my stomach rumbled in pain. What if they were taking me to identify Keri’s body? What if they dumped her already and ran off with the girls while these so-called agents sat around drinking coffee and finding more reasons to make Keri out to be the bad person? But I followed to another door, matching the one I just came from.

  When it opened, I saw Sky with her head buried in her arms, crying as hard as she could. Her red rink jacket was wrapped around her, and her hair was a mess. Shoving my way in, I picked her right up and held her like a child and let her cry into my shoulder. “I’m right here, sweetheart.”

  “She’s dead, Coach Kane! She’s dead!” Her body trembled as she screamed breathlessly into the crook of my neck. Tears scorched my eyes as I just held her tightly. A few tears emerged to the surface and managed to sneak out. I wanted to find Keri for this little girl. I would do anything to find that woman alive.

  “They don’t know that.” Swallowing the heavy lump in my throat, I pulled her back enough to look her over.

  “That’s her blood. That … her … blood…” Her dark red and puffy eyes met mine, ripping a new hole in my stomach and letting the pieces of my heart fall in, one by one. “She’s gone. She left me, Coach Kane.”

  “No. She did this to save you, Sky.” Taking a seat on the chair, I held her on my lap and pointed at the photo. “Sky, I think that this is a message she left for you. I think this is something these detectives need in order to find those girls, and Keri. Can you try to break this?”

  “I can’t. I can’t do it! I’m not like her. I’m not, Coach Kane. I can’t do it.” The shiver of fear shot through her as she tried cowering into me for protection and comfort.

  “Please, Sky. You have to try. You have to see what she is trying to tell us. This might save her.” A world of pain spun in my gut and spewed out all over in my intestines. This was our only chance in saving those girls, and maybe Keri if that was even possible.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know what it says.”

  Cupping her cheeks in my hands, I looked deep into her eyes, letting the tears roll down my cheek. “Please, Sky. Keri did all this to protect you, to keep you safe, and she went for Alicia to bring her back home. Please, help her now. Please, help her.”

  “I don’t know. She is the one that knows this.” Her eyes shot over to the blood filled photo that was displayed before her.

  “Please, try. Try for her. Please, Sky.” I begged, knowing that it was hard for me to see all the blood, too. Even more so for my little girl to automatically jump to the conclusion that it was Keri’s.

  We needed Keri right now, and there would be no way that Sky would ever be calmed down enough to look at the message clearly. Not with the pain of losing Keri, the separation from me and her brother, and the fear that was deep in her. How was her life going to be after Keri? How would she ever go on without Keri there in her life? At least, if Keri could never be there again, Sky would always remember the lengths the woman went to keep her safe.

  Wrapping her tight in my arms, I just let myself mourn the loss of Keri. I had to face the fact that we wouldn’t have her in our lives anymore. Now, I would have to focus on what to do with Sky. How do I get her through this? How would I get Jordan through it?

  Even though that kid was just as strong as Keri, he would fall hard after this. Hell. I wasn’t even sure that I would make it without Keri in my life, but I had to. I had to be strong and get these kids through the loss.

  “Mr. Bruton…” The newer detective, or agent, or whatever he was, cleared his throat while reaching across the table to point at the photo.

  “You are not taking my kids away. I will not leave my daughter again. I am through with this. I want my son, and I will take them home.” My eyes drifted up to the door, seeing Agent Cunningham with Jordan at her side. Jumping to my feet, I wrapped my arm around him, I pulled him close to me and just held those kids while letting them cry.

  We were allowed to stay together, and Chinese takeout was delivered and brought to us. Afterward, I tucked them in on the cots that were set up and rested on the wall near them.

  Closing my eyes, I dreamed of Keri. The smile she wore the day we went to the ice rink and she had been so bad on the skates. I held onto her the majority of the time just to keep her on her skates, and though she didn’t like skating, she went right along with it. For once, she was able to let go of every worry, every fear, and just had fun. And it wasn’t very often that she would let everything go like she did that day. She tried, but a part of me wondered if she had a sixth sense that this would happen. I just wanted to find out how she had figured it all out and the FBI hadn’t even cracked one case or got anywhere close to finding any clue to the missing girls.

  “Coach Kane!” Sky’s scream shot through the room, making me jump. Knocking into Jordan’s cot, I gasped while trying to catch my breath. Had I fallen asleep? And what was Sky doing awake? She was just asleep a minute ago. “Coach Kane! It’s an address!”

  Before I could get to my feet, she was at the door, pounding on it, screaming, and crying, begging for someone to let us out.

  “What do you mean?” Trying to rub the burn out of my eyes, I looked at the clock. Was it really three in the morning? “Sky—”

  “I woke up after you fell asleep and I looked at it. The more that I looked at it, the more I missed her. But, then it came to me.” She pointed at the numbers. “It’s an address. It has to be the address where she was, and she said ‘love me’.” Her fists curled around my shirt as she pulled me down closer to her. “She said love me, Coach Kane. I love her. Please, tell them so that we can save her.”

  “Um, Sky…” Putting my hand on her shoulder, the pain swelled up in my chest, imagining if that was all her blood, there was no way she made it out of that room alive. Just because her body hadn’t turned up didn’t mean she was still alive, no matter how much I was hoping she was. “They don’t think that she, um, she made it this long … not with all the blood…”

  “She’s still alive. I know that she is.” Her eyes glassed over with tears as her chin quivered. “She’s still right here.” She patted the front of her gray t-shirt over her heart. “She hasn’t let go yet.”

  “I hope that you are right, Sky. I hope that she is still alive,
but we need to also prepare for the worse. If something…”

  The door opened and Agent Cunningham walked in, an inch thick folder in her manicured hand. Holding it up, the stern and powerful mask was covering her face, but the excitement of a break in the case was coming forth for a change.

  “Do you know what this is?” She paused, allowing me a moment to draw in the conclusion of what the case folder was. “This here is a file of all the crimes that your hero committed.”

  “And here is the address where they are keeping the girls.” Patting Sky’s back, I straightened my shoulders, the pride sinking into my bones and settling right beside the warmth of love Keri left me with. “She wouldn’t have had to commit these crimes if you could’ve done your job.”

  “Mr. Bruton, you just may want to let me talk.” Her eyes shifted over to Sky, a smile finally shattering the business mode. “Little girl, you just may have saved six girls’ lives.”

  Wrapping my arms around Sky, and getting Jordan over to my side, my heart increased in size and finally managed to slow for a few beats … until Agent Cunningham held up a photo of a man who looked to be in his thirties with the same coloration of eyes that Keri had.

  Sky’s eyes shot to the photo as the color drained from her face. “No.” Gasping for air, she took a few steps back as she held up her hands, covered her chest, and the fear filled into her eyes. “Coach Kane, don’t let him hurt me again.”

  “Wait…” Taking the photo, I swallowed hard as I looked at Jordan, whose eyes were glazed over with anger. My intestines shriveled up and my dinner was threatening to come out. “Who is this, Jordan?”

  “That’s the bastard I caught sneaking in Sky’s bed with her.” His fists balled and he tried to slam one on the hard, cold table.

  “This is Charles Mercer, Keri Mercer’s brother. You would know her by her married name, which she kept from the divorce, Keri Borelli.” Cunningham’s brows eased back as the sympathy for the girl washed in. “Are you sure?”