by Jen Davis
Matthew gave her a cruel stare. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know!” Her gaze flickered between Crescent and Matthew, looking for any sign that would indicate her children would be left alone. She would say and do anything to save Charlie and Samuel, but would Matthew leave them alone today only to come back to them if Chloe wasn’t where Alice said she might be?
“Think hard,” Matthew said. “Mr. Crescent has a text message prepared for the person on the other side of this feed. All he has to do is press send.”
“Boston!” Alice shouted, and Matthew raised his eyebrows in surprise and exchanged a minor glance with a similarly surprised Crescent. “She told me that she was going back to Boston!”
“When?”
Hysteria rose in Alice’s voice. “She said in the next couple of days, but she could have already left. I haven’t seen her.”
“But you don’t know for sure,” Matthew stated.
The trembling that took Alice over grew so strong her tensed muscles ached and she slowly shook her head, defeated. She knew there was nothing she could say to keep herself alive, but she had to do everything she could to save her boys.
He wouldn’t, Alice thought. He’s only threatening Charlie and Samuel to find Chloe. Goddammit! I don’t know where she is!
“And what do you know about a key?”
Alice’s gaze snapped between Crescent and Matthew, and she felt all the color drain from her face. The fact that Crescent hadn’t said a word and had hardly moved was scaring her more than Matthew was, solely due to the fact that Crescent was in charge of the deadly text and literally had his finger on the button. Matthew waited five heartbeats, and when she didn’t respond, his face hardened and he asked again.
Please forgive me, but I have to try to save my family. “Before she left, Renee gave me a key to a safe deposit box. There was a lock box inside, but I don’t have a key to it. I don’t know where the key is and I don’t know what’s in it. I took the box with me when I left Boston.” Even though Alice had no idea what was in the lock box, she knew it was important enough to keep hidden. She knew Chloe would immediately go for the box once she found out Alice was missing and she needed to give Chloe a chance to get to the box before Matthew could. “It’s in New Mexico and the key to the safe deposit box is in the glove box of my car.”
Alice proceeded to tell Matthew the name of the bank she had used almost three years ago in Albuquerque. They key to the safe deposit box actually was in her car; she hadn’t closed the account with the New Mexico bank just in case she decided to move the box back there one day. Her hope was that since he knew Chloe was going to Boston, Matthew would return and send someone else to Albuquerque to try to find the box. She was counting on the fact that once her body was discovered, just as all of the others had been, Reggie would know to get the boys and himself out of town as quickly as possible.
“Please, Matthew,” Alice begged. “Please don’t hurt my boys. I swear I told you everything I know.”
Matthew raised an inquisitive eyebrow at her, while at the same time Crescent took his gun from his jacket pocket, attached a silencer to the barrel, and pointed it at her. Her eyes locked with Crescent’s, cold and unforgiving, then moved to the computer screen, watching her boys on the playground. Charlie was throwing a football with one of his friends, and Samuel playing tag with a group of other kids, happy and having fun. She froze with terror, her breath labored, and all she could think of was saving her boys.
Alice forced herself to look at Matthew. “I swear, Matthew. That’s all I know about where she might be and that’s all I know about the key.”
She flashed her eyes back to Crescent, waiting for the inevitable pull of the trigger, then back to the computer screen just as Samuel gained ground on a running friend, tagging him with the tip of his fingers. She knew morning recess lasted fifteen minutes, and thought if she kept talking long enough, her boys would be back inside before Tucker could pull the trigger.
“I was in the bathroom when you came to her room and told her why Christopher died. But I swear I have never told a soul what happened that night. She was devastated and terrified. That’s why she left.”
She could see Matthew wasn’t prepared for her confession. “Is that everything?”
Alice looked from Crescent to the computer screen. “Why are you doing this? Please don’t hurt them.”
“I want Renee back and will do whatever it takes to meet that end,” Matthew said in a cold voice. “And I think you’re lying to me. I think you do know where she is. Do you know how it makes her feel every time she learns that another one of her friends has died because of her? I do. Unlike me, she actually has a conscience and empathy. She knows it’s her fault they are dying, and as you apparently know, I told her that I would take every opportunity I could to make her suffer.”
Alice suddenly felt a surge of confidence come over her. She knew she would soon be joining her dead friends and decided to take the opportunity to be bold. She sat up straight and defiantly looked at Matthew. “You’re not wrong about how she feels every time she finds out someone died, but she won’t go down without a fight and you know it. No matter how much power and charm and strength you think you have, she has more. She’s stronger than you give her credit for. She will be the one to break you and make you hate yourself for ever underestimating her.”
Matthew gave her a hard stare and an uncaring smile that suddenly turned foul. “Maybe she’ll get to Boston faster when she finds out about you. After all, you two were the closest all those years ago and I know the loss of you would overwhelm her. The loss of a child would probably kill her.” Matthew gave a slight nod to Crescent.
“No!” she screamed, and jumped up from her seat to reach the phone, forgetting about the gun Crescent had pointed at her. Matthew pushed Alice back in her seat as Crescent’s thumb descended on the send button for the text. Once that was done, Crescent was hovering over Alice, his knees weighing down on her thighs to keep her legs from moving, one hand on her shoulder, the other hand pushing the gun to the side of her head as he forced her to watch the computer screen in agony.
“And,” Matthew said calmly, “I’m sure the knowledge that she is responsible for the death of a child will get her back to me faster.”
Suddenly the world was moving in slow motion for Alice as she had no choice but to watch, tears streaming down her face like a waterfall. She jerked under Crescent’s weight when she heard the sound of a crack come from the speakers of the laptop. The next thing she knew she was watching as Samuel, laughing and having fun playing tag with his friends, stopped running and stood frozen in place for a few seconds before his legs buckled and he collapsed on the ground, a cloud of dirt billowing around him.
Matthew leaned in close to lock unapologetic eyes with a mother in sudden and grieving disbelief, her body shaking so fiercely her anguish could easily be mistaken for a seizure.
Speaking in a sharp, clipped tone he whispered, “Not forgetting you have another son, I’m going to ask again. Where is my daughter?”
Chapter 43
Chloe sat on the bed in Alice’s bedroom, defeated, as she met Christopher’s eyes. “I don’t know. I even took the covers off the light switches.”
“You’re sure it’s here? She wouldn’t have hidden it anywhere else? Her car, maybe? Or the office?”
Chloe lay back, palms covering her eyes as she let out a sigh. “No. It’s here.” She saw it as she moved her hands. Her forehead crinkled and she stared at the ceiling. A dark spot on the inside of the light cover in the shape of something that wouldn’t normally be there. She let out a small laugh. “They key is in the light.”
As soon as Christopher recovered the key from the light cover, they were on their way to retrieve the box. They barely spoke on the drive from New Orleans to Lafayette, until Chloe told herself that she should take Elias’s advice and try not to let her emotions get the best of her. The drive to Alabama would be a long one, and they
couldn’t ignore each other the entire trip. The only sound filling the silence was music, and, thankfully, Chloe had plenty of music stored on her phone.
She couldn’t help but think about Hunter, and with Christopher sitting next to her, she involuntarily began to compare the way she thought she felt about each of them. She wouldn’t deny that seeing Christopher again confused her, but there was a part of her that also wanted to make sure he was real, hoping she was waking up from an agonizing eight-year dream.
To her surprise, she had fallen in love with Hunter in a matter of hours. Somehow, Hunter had shattered her armor, and the thought of never seeing him again crushed her. She tried, and was failing, to convince herself that she didn’t have time to worry about Hunter; after all, now that he knew the truth about who she really was, why would he want anything to do with her? But he was taking up permanent residence in her thoughts and she just wasn’t ready to let him go. No matter what happened to her once she returned to Boston, she would never forget him. She didn’t want to.
“Stop that,” she snapped.
Christopher smiled at her. “Stop what?”
“Staring at me,” she replied, but he continued staring and smiling until she spoke again in a soft voice. “I have no idea what to say and your eerie silence is unnerving.”
“I’m sorry.” The remorse in his voice was sincere. “I know that probably doesn’t mean much, but I am sorry. Seeing you again wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Nothing went the way it was supposed to.”
“Then tell me how it was supposed to go and I’ll tell you how much ‘I’m sorry’ means.”
When he didn’t answer, she let herself get lost in the music, trying to relax, until she saw Christopher reach for her phone and she slapped his hand away.
Rubbing his hand and trying not to laugh, he said, “I just wanted to look at your playlist.”
“Did you consider asking me? And stop staring at me.”
Christopher couldn’t hide his smile. “I haven’t seen you in eight years. I’m going to look at you more than occasionally.”
“Yeah, well, whose fault is that?”
“We missed you by two hours in Cleveland a few years back, and then about a year before that we heard you were in Washington, but all we could find out was you were there and gone. Nobody knew where. We were going to tell you. The plan was that after a month, David would have you come to Chicago and we would tell you everything. Then you were gone and the plans changed. I know that Matthew didn’t expect you to take off, and for a while, Matthew was nervous when it came to David. You being David’s granddaughter is the only reason Matthew still has his position and his life.”
“Had I known this information,” Chloe said with irritation, “I might not have left.”
“Considering the circumstances, everyone involved, including your mother, knew it was best that Matthew played the role of your father and that you didn’t know about it.”
“Best for whom? Matthew? David? The Family? Me?”
“Yes.”
“With me as leverage.”
“When Elise and Wyatt died, David knew Matthew had something to do with their deaths, but you know David. He won’t do anything until he has solid proof. Michaelson gave the proof for your mother’s death but he wants the details of his son’s death before he does anything. So David used whatever he had to in order to make sure you were protected. He knew how Matthew felt, so when Sasha asked to leave, David didn’t have anyone to watch over you. He hired me and sent me to Boston.”
“So you knew?”
“Not everything at first. I mean, I knew the reasons why I was there. I knew that Matthew wasn’t your father and I knew David’s version of how Matthew felt about you.”
“Was it real? How you felt about me, I mean.”
“I didn’t plan on dating you, much less falling in love with you, but it happened and I have never regretted a single moment we had together. Even though your father didn’t approve our being together, David did. When I went to David and told him how I felt, he knew I would love you and protect you. I still love you and I always will.”
“I used to think it was all a dream and that I would wake up with you next to me,” she confessed. “After getting over the shock of seeing you again, I thought my first instinct would be to run to you and make sure you were real. Now I just don’t know how I feel.”
“Jack told us that you met someone else,” he said, sounding disappointed, and let out a sigh. “I couldn’t expect you to pine away for me forever. Especially since we didn’t know how long it would take to find you. Does he feel the same about you?”
She focused on the road and scorned herself for bringing up the topic. “It’s complicated.”
“I bet,” he said in agreement.
“You know what? You’re supposed to be dead, so I built up this wall and keep myself guarded so that I never have to feel the pain I felt when you died. Then I meet someone who breaks through that wall, someone I think about a future with, and then you come back to life and throw a wrench into everything. I’ve lied to him, deceived him, and betrayed him all for the sake of protecting myself. So, yeah, it’s complicated.”
Christopher nodded. “Fair enough. So tell me about him. All Jack said about this guy—”
“Hunter,” she interrupted.
“Hunter,” he repeated, “is that he’s an agent at the Bureau. Widowed, a good man, and completely distracted by you.”
She smiled at the last part, then asked, “Did he tell you that Saffron was Hunter’s wife?”
Christopher groaned. “Shit. Really?”
Chloe let out a long breath. “I just found out a couple days ago, so you can understand why Hunter went a little ballistic when he found out the truth about his wife.”
“How’d you meet him?” Christopher asked.
She gave Christopher a brief recollection of her short time with Hunter, all the while not knowing she was smiling.
“Why didn’t you think you would see him again?”
“I made it a point to keep my distance from others when it came to my personal life. I mean, it’s not like I could tell the story of my life to anyone.”
“And the other men you have dated? I mean, I’m assuming you have dated other men since you left.”
“Dated? No.”
Christopher raised curious eyebrows.
“Well, it’s not like I became a nun after you died.”
“And then you met Hunter.”
Chloe let out a heavy sigh. “And then I met Hunter.”
Chapter 44
Chloe was grateful they spent the rest of the drive talking and reminiscing, taking it slow and getting to know each other again. The subject of how they felt about each other, and how she felt about Hunter, wasn’t brought up again. She told him as much as she was willing to about her life over the years, and he told about his time in Chicago with David. Christopher spent most of his time in charge of the collections, working out of David’s offices, but if someone didn’t come through on their debts, he had to enforce the consequences.
“Unlike Matthew, murder isn’t the answer to everything.”
“Did you ever kill for him?” When Chloe turned to look at Christopher, she clearly saw the shame on his face. “How did I never know?”
“I had to play the game. Doesn’t mean I liked it. The first time I did it, I never told you because I knew how much it would hurt you. Before that, I was just the schmuck who had to clean up the mess. Tucker was the one who got his rocks off when it came to punishments.”
“Unsurprising,” she replied.
“So what happens when we get to the bank?” Christopher asked, changing the subject.
“I go inside and get the box.”
“But how are you going to get the box? Doesn’t the bank have identification rules and signature cards and stuff like that?”
“Alice took care of it,” she said, trying to put him at ease. “It shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Because,” she said, “contrary to popular belief, anyone can be bought for the right price.”
***
Within an hour, Chloe parked in front of the bank and turned off the car, taking in their surroundings for a few minutes. Well off of the highway and seeming to be engulfed with trees, Rockford was not only remote, it was one place Alice knew nobody would think of looking for the box. Still, in a population of less than five hundred, Chloe couldn’t imagine staying longer than they had to.
“How did she find this place?” Christopher asked. “It’s in the middle of nowhere.”
“I don’t know. She probably took a road trip and drove around until she found the right place. That’s what I’d do.”
“Are you sure this is the place?”
“I’m guessing this is the only bank in town,” she said as she opened the car door.
“Wait,” he said as he reached for her, resting his hand on her arm.
She thought his touch might ignite some kind of feeling she hadn’t felt in a long time, but it didn’t. The only thought that momentarily ran through her head at his touch was her wish that it was Hunter’s touch.
“Are you afraid to stay in the car by yourself?” she asked jokingly. “Just sit back and take in the…” she paused trying to find the right word, “…nostalgia. Seems like this place is stuck in the sixties, although it’s a small enough town that I wouldn’t be surprised if we are being watched from behind closed shutters. I’m leaving the keys so you have air conditioning and music. Do not leave me here.”