by Blythe, Jane
“That’s how I felt about my family.” Malachi looked thoughtful. “I kept them safe. I taught them. I learned medicine so I could help them when they were sick. I looked after them financially.”
“You loved them.” Jack felt like he was making progress with Malachi. Maybe he could talk him down without needing to use Eliza. He didn’t want to put her in the middle of a potentially dangerous situation if he didn't have to.
“I loved them before, but after the accident I couldn’t feel things anymore.”
“That’s not true, Malachi,” Jack contradicted. Paige and Ryan had managed to track down a lot of background information on Malachi, and he intended to use as much of it as possible to attempt to talk him down.
Frowning, Malachi moved the knife back to Laura’s throat. “I don’t have emotions anymore.”
Given that Malachi was an imminent threat to the safety of others, they’d been able to get his psychiatric history. The psychiatrist who had seen him shortly after the accident had determined that Malachi had lost the ability to empathize with others, but he could indeed feel emotions. Anger, joy, excitement, fear, frustration—Malachi could feel it all. In fact, the brain damage he suffered made his emotions stronger, but his ability to deal with them appropriately was severely diminished. Combine that with his impaired capacity to empathize, and he had become a virtual ticking time bomb.
“After your father’s death, you were angry,” Jack reminded him. “Very angry. At everyone. You were getting into fights at school. Beating up the other kids. You got expelled.”
“They kept saying they were sorry about my father’s death,” Malachi growled. “I didn’t want them to be sorry. My father was having an affair. He didn’t take care of his family. He deserved to die.”
“You blamed him.”
“It was my birthday. We should have been celebrating with our family; instead, he went to his mistress,” Malachi spat the word out like it was poison. He tightened his grip on Laura, digging his arm into her neck and cutting off her air supply. Laura’s eyes grew even wider with panic, and she clawed at Malachi’s arm, standing on her tiptoes so she could breathe.
“She tried to kill you.” Jack stomped on the rage that spouted inside him as he watched Laura’s terror. “No one would blame you for hating her.”
“She thought she could order my father around. He told her it was over. She didn’t listen. That woman was disobedient and disrespectful. I didn’t want my sisters to turn out like her. I made sure they didn’t.”
“You abused them, Malachi,” Jack said softly. He didn’t think Malachi would hurt Laura. He’d truly believed he was protecting his sisters, and now Laura. His best bet was to keep Malachi talking and distracted. Xavier and Eliza should be here now. The prospect of getting Eliza back would hopefully be enough to cause him to let his guard down, and once he released Laura, then Ryan, Paige, or one of the many cops he was sure were surrounding them, but that he couldn’t see, could take a shot at him.
“I protected them. I made sure they were safe.”
“You kept them locked in that house for twenty-three years.”
“I kept them safe,” Malachi repeated.
“You had sex with them.” Jack worked to keep the disgust from his voice.
He shrugged indifferently. “Women have urges that they can't control. I simply took care of them so they wouldn’t go and ruin other families.”
The accident and the events leading up to it, plus the brain injury, had really messed Malachi up. He had referred to his sisters as women, but at the time of the accident, they had ranged in age from sixteen to infancy. Clearly Malachi identified turning thirteen with becoming an adult, and in his mind, he became the head of the family at the age of thirteen. Maegan had told them the sexual abuse began on her thirteenth birthday.
“How did the fire start?” Jack asked. There was no point in discussing what Malachi had done to his sisters and mother—to him, it all made perfect sense.
“She tried to let them out of the house.”
“Who tried to help who out of the house?”
“My mother tried to get Samantha out.”
Samantha Ingham had gone to Malachi’s school. She had disappeared almost a year before the fire that had killed Malachi’s family. At the time, she had been happily married with three kids and worked as a prominent defense lawyer. It had been deemed that her abduction was a result of one of the cases she had worked on, but the police had never been able to prove which criminal she had represented had repaid her by kidnapping her. Apparently, the police had been wrong.
“You had liked Samantha since you were kids. You wanted her to have a good life.”
“I had been going to kiss her at my party. We would have gotten together, and we would have been married once we graduated school. We would have been a family. My father ruined all of that. She was supposed to be mine. She was mine. I only reclaimed her because that was the way it was supposed to be. I rectified my father’s mistakes. Samantha was happy with me. We were expecting a baby.”
“How did the fire get started?”
“I wasn't there that night. My mother thought she could start a fire, get the fire department to come, and get Samantha out. Only the fire spread too quickly. They couldn’t get out.”
Eliza had tried the same thing, only a sprinkler system had thwarted her attempt. Malachi must have learned his lesson from his mother’s actions. “The police never found Samantha's body.”
“I got there before the fire department. I tried to rescue them. I got Samantha out first, but she wasn't breathing, I put her in the trunk of my car.”
“Where is she buried?” Jack asked, positive that Malachi would have wanted the woman he loved properly laid to rest.
He gestured his head at the graves behind him. “She’s with my mother. The two women I loved most in the world. I thought it was fitting that they should spend eternity together.”
“But your mother betrayed you,” Jack reminded him. Anne Rivers must have finally realized what a mistake she had made letting her son rule their household with an iron fist—forbidding anyone to leave and sexually abusing them all.
“She made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes,” Malachi retorted.
“Like your father made a mistake in having an affair. A mistake he tried to rectify. Your mother made the same mistake.”
Malachi went deadly still. “What do you mean?”
“Your mother had an affair, too. Abby wasn't your father’s daughter.”
For a long moment, Malachi didn’t say anything, just stood there and processed this new information. Then he chuckled. “Nice try, Detective, but I don’t buy it. My mother would never have cheated on my father. She would never have risked her family’s happiness. And now, as lovely and as therapeutic even, as this little chat has been, we have to leave now. Come along, Laura.” Malachi tried to pull her backward, but Laura resisted. “Don’t worry, Detective. I’ll take good care of your wife and your baby. I’ll treat them like my own, because they are now.”
Jack readied himself to attempt a shot. He knew Ryan and Paige would be, too, as would every cop out there. There was no way Malachi was walking out of this cemetery with Laura.
Then Jack heard footsteps approaching. Xavier and Eliza had arrived. Now they just had to hope their plan worked.
* * * * *
3:22 A.M.
“I don’t think I can do this.” Eliza paused to whisper in Xavier’s ear. She hadn’t wanted to leave the hospital to come to the cemetery to try and talk Malachi down. She was petrified at the prospect of seeing him again. And what if something went wrong? Xavier had assured her that he wouldn’t let Malachi hurt her, but that was no guarantee.
Still, she couldn’t do nothing.
That wasn't the kind of person she was.
If there was anything she could do to stop Malachi from hurting Laura, then she had to do it.
Plus, she didn’t want to live with the knowledge t
hat Malachi was free to come back for her at any time he chose.
So, she had agreed to come.
Only now that they were actually here at the cemetery, she was having second thoughts. Serious second thoughts.
“You can do it, Eliza,” Xavier whispered back.
His words strengthened her. She wasn't sure why. In just a couple of hours, this man had become very important to her. He gave her strength when she didn’t have any of her own right now. Eliza didn’t understand it. Maybe it was because he reminded her of George. But maybe it was okay that it didn’t make sense. Maybe he was just her guardian angel, sent by God to help her during this horrible time.
“Whoa, easy, I got you,” Xavier grabbed her elbow as she stumbled, steadying her. “Take it slow. It’s dark out here and you're still weak.”
And weak she was. When she had climbed out of her hospital bed to come here, her knees had buckled, and she would have hit the floor if Xavier hadn’t caught her first. Now walking through the wooded cemetery in the dark, she barely had enough energy to walk in a straight line. She kept tripping over sticks and rocks and tree roots. The drugs she’d taken were still in her system, leaving her feeling woozy and not quite all there.
“We’re almost there.” Xavier stopped, and Eliza stopped with him. “You remember what you need to do, right?”
Eliza could feel his worried gaze on her. She knew the plan. She just wasn't sure it was a good one. Or that she wanted to be a part of it. Still, she had agreed, and she wasn't going to back out now. “I know what to do,” she assured him.
“All right. Jack and I will be right there, and Ryan and Paige and lots of other cops are surrounding the area. Malachi won't be leaving here, and he won't hurt you, okay?”
“Okay,” Eliza echoed with a lot less conviction.
They walked a few more yards, and then on the other side of a small group of trees stood Laura’s husband, Jack Xander. A few yards in front of him were the gravesites of Malachi’s family. Malachi stood in front of the headstones. Laura was pressed against his body, a knife at her throat.
“If you try anything stupid, Detective, I’ll make sure you regret it,” Malachi was saying. Moving the knife from Laura’s neck, he traced the tip down her cheek, leaving a trail of blood behind it. Laura whimpered and tried to shrink away from the knife, but there was nowhere for her to go. She was trapped. Eliza knew the feeling.
“I don’t think you want to leave just yet, Malachi. There’s someone here who wants to see you.” Jack waggled a finger at her, urging her forward.
Reluctantly, Eliza complied. She didn’t want to see Malachi. She didn’t want to talk to him. She didn’t want to pretend that she would go home with him. She didn’t want to claim that they would raise their daughter together.
“Eliza?” Malachi sounded surprised to see her. “What are you doing here?”
Taking a deep breath, she took a step closer. “Who’s Eliza?” On the drive over, Xavier had coached her on a few things to say and do and advised her to pretend she still believed she was Malachi’s daughter Ariyel.
Even in the dark, she could see he was suspicious. “Do you really expect me to believe that these cops didn’t tell you that your name is Eliza and that I kidnapped you and Maegan and Bethany and Hayley and held you all against your will for five years?” Malachi scoffed.
She made herself sound timid, which wasn’t a stretch. “They told me that, but I told them they were lying.”
He was confused now. “You really believe you're Ariyel?”
“I am Ariyel.”
“Why are you here?”
“I asked them to bring me to you.”
He directed his attention to Jack. “Someone else is here?”
“Only my partner.” Jack gestured to Xavier.
Scanning the area and seeing no one else, Malachi nodded. “Come closer,” he ordered her.
Complying, she left the relative safety of Xavier and Jack and crept across the grass toward Malachi. When she got closer, she met Laura’s violet eyes. Beneath the terror, Laura was clearly commanding her not to risk herself. Ignoring her, Eliza focused on Malachi. “I want to go home,” she whispered.
“Home? What home?”
“Our home.”
“The other girls can't come back with us. Maegan convinced the cops that I hurt her, and they took the girls away.” Malachi was focused solely on her now, his grip on Laura loosening. She just needed to keep him talking a little longer, and then as soon as he let Laura go, the cops would take him out.
“We just need Arianna.”
He looked around. “Where is the baby?”
“She's in the car. It’s too cold out here for her, she’s so little.” Of course, that wasn't true. Arianna was safely back at the hospital. Eliza may or may not love the baby, but she certainly intended to protect her.
Thankfully, Malachi seemed to buy her bluff. He nodded and smiled at her. “Come here,” he said almost tenderly.
Fighting her instincts, which were screaming at her to run as fast and as far away as she could, Eliza walked closer. Close enough now that he could reach out and touch her. She wanted this over. Being this near to Malachi was making her whole body tremble and her stomach turn vicious circles.
“You can have Eliza and Arianna. You can take your daughter and her mother and disappear again. Just let Laura go,” Jack’s voice spoke softly.
“You mean you're letting me go even though you know what I've done?” Malachi sounded incredulous.
“I just want my wife back. I told you I would do anything to protect her.” Jack’s voice was completely calm.
Malachi was wavering, Eliza could see it in his eyes. Why didn’t he just release Laura and be done with it? She couldn’t last much longer. The desire to run back to Xavier was near overwhelming, and she feared she would give in to it soon. But if she did, there would be nothing stopping Malachi from hurting or even killing Laura. It was that knowledge alone that kept Eliza’s feet rooted to the spot.
“Please, let her go,” Eliza murmured.
“Why would you care if I let her go or not?” Malachi demanded.
“I … I don’t … I don’t care,” Eliza stammered. “I just want to go home.” She was unable to stop her eyes from darting around. Xavier had said there were cops surrounding them, remaining out of sight so as not to spook Malachi, but Eliza couldn’t see anyone.
Her panic was quickly rising.
What if there weren’t any other cops here?
What if Xavier and Jack truly intended to trade her for Laura?
What if Malachi was going to take her with him and keep her locked away—forever, this time.
Following her darting gaze, a slow and resigned smile lit Malachi’s face. “Well played, Detective. It almost worked perfectly. You kept me talking, Eliza almost had me distracted enough to release your wife. Once I let her go, I'm guessing one of the dozens of cops surrounding us were going to take me out.”
“You're not walking out of here alive, Malachi,” Jack told him.
“If I'm not walking out of here alive, then neither are they.”
What happened next happened so quickly, Eliza didn’t have time to react.
Malachi lunged forward, Laura still in his arms.
The knife swung in a huge arc down toward her, glinting in the moonlight as it moved.
There was an explosion of pain in her shoulder.
Something warm and wet spilled down her chest.
She dropped to the ground, her legs no longer strong enough to support her.
There was screaming.
A loud bang.
Then footsteps.
Content in the knowledge that the bang was a gunshot and that the bullet had most likely killed its target, Eliza let her body and her mind go completely limp, closed her eyes, and rested.
* * * * *
3:34 A.M.
Everything happened so quickly.
In Laura’s mind, it was nothing more than
a jumble of sounds and sights.
Malachi lunged at Eliza, plunging the knife deep into her shoulder.
Then he brought the blade back to her neck and sliced into it.
As he released her, she dropped to the ground. It wasn't a planned move in anticipation of the cops she knew were all around them firing a shot at Malachi. It was simply because she didn’t have enough strength left to remain on her feet.
A gunshot sliced through the night.
Someone dropped to the ground beside her.
Laura wasn't unconscious, but she also wasn't really aware of anything happening around her.
Voices yelled.
Footsteps pounded the earth.
Someone knelt at her side.
Something pressed to her neck, and she heard a voice yell, “I need medics here.”
“Me too,” someone else yelled.
“On their way,” a third voice spoke.
Her body was shaking. She couldn’t stop it. The constant trembling was hurting her already bruised and sore muscles.
“Laura?” Fingertips brushed hair off her cheek. “Can you hear me?”
She was struggling to open her eyes. Dazed and disoriented at first, she wasn't quite sure where she was or what was happening.
Then she panicked. Where was Jack? He’d been here. He had tried to talk Malachi into letting her go. At one point she had been sure he would be willing to trade himself for her. She had been so furious. How could he even think of doing that? Didn’t he know that if anything happened to him her life would be over? She had tried to catch his eye, order him not to even consider it, but he had refused to look at her. Had he done it? Had he traded himself for her?
Then as her eyes settled on the face hovering above her she relaxed. “Jack.”
Relief flooded his blue eyes. “I'm right here, angel, and I'm not going anywhere. Try not to talk. It’ll make the bleeding worse.”