‘Doesn’t matter. I’ve always thought that for him to get over his fear of uniforms, he had to transfer it somewhere, so it’s generalized to all cops.’
‘But . . . He didn’t trust me when I met him nine months ago, but he didn’t melt down.’
‘Not while you were there. He melted down later.’
‘That’s why you were so fierce that day in the hospital, when I criticized him for lying to us. You told me that when I’d walked a mile in his shoes, then I could judge him. I didn’t understand.’
He kissed her temple. ‘Of course you didn’t. How could you have? I wasn’t going to tell you, because it’s Stone’s secret. But it’s mine too.’
She petted his chest, soothing him. ‘I won’t let him know that I know. I think we’ve achieved a truce and I don’t want to ruin it. Or hurt him any more.’
A shrug of his muscled shoulders. ‘Thank you. At this point he doesn’t think you’re Satan.’ His huffed chuckle was sad. ‘You made some kind of impression. A good one, I think. It’s hard to tell with Stone sometimes.’ He straightened his spine against the wall, jostling her a little in his lap, but his arms kept her close.
‘There are other things I can’t tell you. Things . . . they did to him.’ His voice was stark, filled with pain. ‘They knew I was listening. Saw how hard I fought to get loose so I could make them stop. I . . .’ His chest heaved once. ‘That was . . . Oh God. I still hear his voice, crying for me to help him. They didn’t touch me. I wish they had. I begged them to, to leave Stone and Matty alone. They just laughed and said I’d get my turn.’
Scarlett was trembling with anger, her fists clenching helplessly. She bit her tongue to keep from saying anything, knowing her fury would spill out into her words.
Marcus stroked her hair. ‘More things you can’t unsee,’ he murmured.
‘I hope they’re dead.’ Because if they weren’t, she’d find them and kill them.
‘They are very dead.’
The darkly satisfied way he said it made her pull away to try to see his face, but he held her tighter. ‘Not yet,’ he said harshly. ‘Don’t look at me yet.’
She ceased her struggling, giving him his privacy. ‘Were they caught by the police?’
‘No.’ He sounded a little amused at that. ‘I’m sure they would have preferred the cops.’ He resettled her in his lap and continued, his voice surprisingly calm. ‘They gave instructions for the ransom, said no police or FBI should be contacted. Gayle told me later that my father wouldn’t let my mother contact the authorities, but she snuck away and did it anyway. The Feds followed the pickup man to the warehouse complex. That’s how they found us, but they had to do a building-to-building search. When the kidnappers realized the Feds were closing in, they freaked. They grabbed the money and ran, but not before trying to take care of us. We’d seen their faces. I was just a kid. I didn’t realize that from the beginning we were dead in their eyes. One of them opened the freezer door and . . . fired.’
His arms tightened around her until she had trouble breathing, but she didn’t say a word. He abruptly loosened his hold, his voice trembling now. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.’
She pressed her fingertips to his lips. ‘I’m fine. You don’t have to tell me any more.’
‘I haven’t told you anything yet,’ he said wearily.
Her heart sank. What was coming was much worse, then. She kissed the base of his throat, tasting the salt of his sweat. ‘Then tell me,’ she murmured. ‘But you don’t have to.’
‘I think I do. No, I know I do. You need to know. But you need to know why.’
Need to know what? she wanted to demand, but she let him tell it his way. They had time.
‘You read the articles so you know that Matty was killed and Stone almost died. They were tied up close to the door, an easy shot. They’d put my chair toward the back. I threw myself down and the chair teetered just enough that the bullet missed my head and grazed my ear. I ended up on the floor and stayed there, waiting for the second shot, but finally realized the bastard thought he’d hit me. He pulled the door shut and left us alone there. In the dark.’
Swallowing the bile that burned her throat, she struggled to hide her horror, but knew that was useless. ‘Jesus, Marcus.’
He pressed his lips to her temple and kept them there for a long time. ‘I could hear Stone crying, but I couldn’t hear Matty at all. Not even breathing. I was thrashing, trying to get free. I’d been thrashing ever since they’d tied me up.’
She cleared her throat. ‘How much time, Marcus?’
‘We were held for a little more than three days.’
Her chest hurt. ‘Three days was an eternity.’
‘It was.’ A long, long pause. ‘When I fell, the wooden back of the chair broke. Between that and the thrashing, I managed to get my hands free. My feet were still tied to the chair’s base, but I dragged myself to the door, chair and all. It was locked – the bastards had padlocked it before they ran with the ransom cash, so we were trapped. I got my feet free and tried to use part of the broken chair to get us out. Stone had stopped crying and I thought he was dead too, but I couldn’t see to know if he was okay. I guess I became kind of an animal, trying to break the door down. The officers searching our warehouse heard me. When they came in, I saw the uniform and thought they were the kidnappers, come back to finish us off, so I attacked them. I didn’t want them near Stone and Matty. It took two officers to pull me away and hold me down.’
‘I’m so sorry about Matty.’
He nodded, the stubble on his face catching in her hair. ‘He died almost immediately, so he didn’t suffer so much. Stone . . . he was hurt bad. I still remember the blood when they carried him out. He was in a coma for a week. In the hospital a lot longer than that. He missed Matty’s funeral, which was probably a blessing for him.’
‘How did you find out that your father was involved?’
‘A few days after we were rescued, the phone rang in our apartment. Gayle was at the hospital sitting with Stone and my mother was asleep. She’d taken a sleeping pill that the doctor had given her. That was the beginning of her addiction. Anyway, I answered the phone before it finished ringing because I didn’t want it to wake Mom up. And, um . . .’ He swallowed hard. ‘I heard him. One of the guys who took us. The one who hurt Stone and Matty. I didn’t scream, didn’t make a sound. It was like I was frozen with fear because I thought he was coming back. Then I heard my father answer the phone from another extension. It all happened pretty fast. They started talking, and I realized they knew each other. My father was angry. He said, “Nobody was supposed to get hurt. You killed my son and the other might die too.” Then the guy told my father that he’d broken the agreement by sending in the FBI. My father blew up, so angry that my mother had involved the law. But he was madder that the other guy hadn’t given him his share of the money.’
Scarlett wanted to curse, to hit something. Wanted to kill his father, rip out his withered heart with her bare hands. But she kept her cool. Kept her voice calm and her hand warm on his chest. ‘What did you do?’
‘I wanted to tell someone, but I didn’t know who. Mom was out like a light and Gayle was at the hospital with Stone. My paternal grandfather lived nearby and watched us sometimes, but he was just like my father and I was afraid to tell him. Afraid he wouldn’t believe me. I tried to walk out of the apartment to find a beat cop, but my father stopped me from going out, said I could be kidnapped again because they’d gotten away and I’d seen their faces.’
‘Sonofabitch. He deliberately terrified you.’
‘I didn’t know what to do. I got paranoid, thinking he was watching me. I was afraid to pick up the phone, afraid that he’d listen to me like I’d listened to him. So I cowered in my room and didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t know who I could trust.’
‘What about your Grandfather Yarborough? You trusted him.’
‘I loved him. I loved spending time with him when we visited him, but even back then I never knew who he was going to be, so I was a little scared of him too. He came down to Lexington as soon as we were taken, but he spent all his time at the hospital with my mother and Stone after we were rescued. I never had a moment alone with him when my father wasn’t hovering.’