The Anders household had been a goddamn nest of vipers. Ken was glad he didn’t have to live with them. He almost felt sorry for Aunt Tabby. But not sorry enough to rescind his order to Sean and the others. The old lady had to go. She’d probably find it a mercy.
‘Did Tabby let the other two women go too?’
‘Probably. I didn’t and Mother wouldn’t. They were Mother’s servants.’
Ken frowned. Stephanie was cooperating, but there was still something off. Something not quite right. She’d given up the aunt so easily, not caring that the woman might be their only hope of rescue.
Drake. Of course, the boyfriend who’d killed Tala. Ken wanted to kick himself. He’d allowed himself to get sidetracked by the baby and the aunt, forgetting about the damn boyfriend, whose last name was . . . He searched his memory. Ah. Connor. Drake Connor.
‘Stephanie,’ he said softly, ‘where is Drake?’
The girl blanched.
Bingo, was Ken’s first thought, closely followed by, Shit. ‘Did you call him when my men arrived? Did you tell him you were being taken away?’
‘No,’ Stephanie said, but her voice cracked.
Ken was on his feet, his palm connecting with her face before she could blink. Her head snapped back, a shrill cry escaping her throat. ‘Do not lie to me, girl.’
Shaken, Stephanie stared up at him, and he retook his seat. ‘Let’s try that again. Did you tell him that you were being taken?’
She looked down, saw her mother’s body and dry-heaved. Thankfully, she’d already emptied her stomach the last time she’d puked. ‘Yes,’ she whispered.
‘Where was he when you told him this?’
‘On his way to get me.’
‘So you think he followed you here?’
An audible swallow. A tiny nod.
Beside her, Chip rolled his eyes. Ken found himself laughing in surprised agreement.
‘I think your father is right for once, Stephanie. Drake’s not coming to save you. He’s halfway to the border by now.’ He texted the boy’s name to Sean, Decker, and Burton, instructing them to find Drake Connor ASAP. ‘Considering he committed murder this morning, it’s doubtful he’ll be running to the police for assistance. And on the supremely wild chance that he tries to stage a rescue on his own, we’ll catch him on his way in. But don’t count on that, honey. You’re more likely to be struck by lightning or win the Powerball.’
Ken finally saw a flicker of defeat in her eyes. She’d held out for hours, waiting for Drake to save her. It was almost sweet. In a gagging kind of way.
He stood up, dusted his palms on his trouser legs. ‘Well, I think I’ve got what I need from you and dear old Dad here,’ he said, perusing the instruments on his cart.
Stephanie made a terrified noise when his intent finally sank in. ‘Wait. You said you’d help me if I talked to you.’
‘Well that was before you wasted more than half of my day. I do have an actual job, you know, and you’ve kept me from doing it. I’ll probably have to work through dinner to catch up. But don’t worry, I won’t kill you. I will kill him, though,’ he said, gesturing at her father. ‘He has no value. You set this in motion by taking Tala out without permission. But since he got you into it by buying Tala and her family in the first place, I’ll let you pick how he goes. Gun or knife?’
Stephanie’s cheeks darkened, fury bending her mouth. ‘Which hurts more?’
Ken threw back his head and laughed. ‘Oh, I wish I could keep you. But you’d try to get away and I’d eventually have to kill you too.’
Her chin lifted, but he could see the fear in her eyes. ‘I’ll try to get away from whoever you sell me to,’ she said with a bravado that was as fake as a three-dollar bill.
His grin softened to a smile. ‘That’ll be his problem. But remember, Tala tried to get away. Didn’t work out too well for her, did it?’ He clapped his hands once. ‘So, Stephanie, darling. What’s it to be? The knife will hurt more, but it’s messy.’
She started to glance down at her mother, but twisted her face away at the last minute. ‘Messy works. Just make him scream. And I have a special request.’
Again he was impressed with her guts, and the depth of her anger. ‘Depends.’
‘I want to tell him something and I want to see his face when I do. But I don’t want to see my mother again, not like that. Can you move him?’
He considered it, then nodded. ‘That’s not unreasonable,’ he said. He dragged Chip, chair and all, to where Stephanie could see him without looking at her mother’s body.
The stare she directed at Chip was positively glacial. One side of her mouth lifted. ‘You might want to ungag him for this. You might enjoy his reaction too.’
One hand firmly gripping his knife – just in case – Ken pulled the wadded cloth from Chip’s mouth, anticipating that the man would try to spit at him and easily stepping out of the way when he did. ‘Go ahead, Stephanie,’ Ken said. ‘I’m a busy man.’
‘That little bastard baby wasn’t yours,’ Stephanie told Chip, her tight smile maliciously gleeful. ‘It was Drake’s.’
Already pale, Chip went white as a sheet. ‘You’re lying.’
She smiled at him, pure ice and hate. ‘No I’m not. When your little bitch whelped, I had a DNA test run, just so I’d know. It was Drake’s. Zero chance of error.’
Chip was looking like he wanted to say something but couldn’t figure out what. Stephanie turned to Ken. ‘You can kill him now. I’m done with him.’
‘Wait,’ Chip said hoarsely. ‘Your mother . . . She would have said something.’
‘She didn’t know. I didn’t tell her.’
Ken stood back, deciding another moment or two wouldn’t make a difference, especially when it was getting interesting again. ‘Why didn’t you tell your mother?’ he asked. ‘You said that seeing the baby hurt her.’
Stephanie swallowed hard. ‘She was mad when I got arrested at school, said if it happened again she’d cut me off and take my car. So I kept the secret as leverage.’
‘You would have traded the secret to keep your car?’
‘And my credit cards,’ she mumbled. ‘Doesn’t seem important now.’
Ken felt a sting of pity. He sighed heavily. ‘Dammit, girl. Now I’m going to have to find you an extra-specially kind buyer. You yanked my heartstrings with that, but now I’m out of time. If you don’t want to watch old Chip here bite it, close your eyes.’
But she impressed him once again, coldly watching Ken slit her father’s throat. He did it slowly, leaving Chip gurgling at the end.
He cleaned his knife and stripped off his gloves. ‘How did you know the baby wasn’t Chip’s?’ he asked her, genuinely curious. ‘What made you do a DNA test?’
‘I didn’t know, exactly,’ she said dully, watching the man who’d raised her gasping for his final breaths. ‘It had a birthmark on its ass, just like Drake has. I’d found out that Chip wasn’t my real father a few years ago, when I got my blood type in school. I thought at first I was adopted and confronted my mother with it. She admitted I wasn’t Chip’s, that she’d had an affair. Asked me not to make it an issue.’ She shook her head. ‘I was planning to, of course, but had been saving that for a rainy day. Nothing stops parents from yelling at you like making them yell at each other. I’d been saving the news about Drake being the kid’s daddy for a really rainy day, mainly because I knew that Chip wanted more kids.’
‘You knew it would hurt him.’ Once again Ken was impressed. Not many girls Stephanie’s age could hold on to a secret like that for such malicious reasons. Alice could, but hell, she’s my daughter. And Ken had made sure of that. He’d run paternity tests on both Alice and Sean.
She nodded. ‘He was so thrilled to have that little brat. He thought that damn baby was his. That she was nursing it was the only thing keeping Tala alive. Mother would have killed her without batting an eye. She hated how much Chip wanted that kid.’ She lifted a shoulder. ‘So I guess it worked out that Drake killed her first. Tala’s brat wasn’t going to nurse forever. Maybe that’s why Tala risked double-crossing us.’ She looked up at him, meeting his eyes squarely. ‘Don’t you have an office in Singapore or Bangkok or somewhere outside the country where you need qualified help? Bora Bora, maybe? Or Cameroon? My French is flawless.’