Did You Miss Me? (51 page)

He couldn’t wait on Matt’s all-clear any longer. He forced himself to stand up, then looked around for a toilet. Damn, but if the shelter didn’t have one. He found it in the back corner behind a curtain – a camping toilet that looked brand new.
Mitch
would
have thought of this
. His oldest brother had a plan for everything.

When he came out, Kimberly was giving him the evil eye. He removed the tape from her mouth, careful to keep his fingers away from her teeth.

‘Water.’ She was croaky again and he felt a little bad that he’d made her go without water all night. He gave her a few sips, then pulled the blanket off her.

‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Let’s go.’

‘I need to go too. Really bad.’

Cole hesitated. ‘I’m not untying your hands.’

She gave him a weary look. ‘I weigh a hundred five pounds, probably less since your asshole brother’s been starving me to death. You’re what, like two hundred? Like I can be a threat to you.’

One-sixty-five actually, but hearing he looked bigger was nice for his ego. ‘I don’t know . . .’

She huffed angrily. ‘Come on, kid. Use your brain. I can’t take you. Let me pee and then tie me back up if you want. I just want to get to my sister.’

Cole didn’t want her sister to die. And she couldn’t take him. She was too tiny. ‘Okay, fine. But when you’re done, I tie you back up.’

‘Whatever.’

He untied her, taking care to stay away from her feet. ‘Hurry up.’ He watched her limp to the toilet, dragging her hurt leg behind her. His brother had done that to her. He still didn’t believe it.

Mitch, what the hell are you doing? And where are you?
For that matter, where was Matt? It wasn’t like Matt to just not show up.

This was really bad. He’d taken a stolen gun to school. Stolen from a cop, if Kimberly was telling the truth.
If it gets traced back to me
 . . . The cops would never believe he wasn’t part of whatever Mitch had going. Whatever the hell that was.

I am so tired of this family
.
I wish I were adopted
.

Kimberly came out of the toilet, her limp more pronounced. ‘I need to re-bandage my leg. It started bleeding again while I was in there.’

‘Fine, just hurry.’

She hobbled back to the bed and grabbed the roll of gauze that sat on the floor beside it. She started to unbutton her jeans, then stopped, glaring. ‘Do you mind?’

Rolling his eyes, he turned his back. He needed to get out of here and to the bus station. He’d call Rico in Miami and tell him he’d be a little late, and—

Cole groaned, the pain in his head worse than anything he’d ever felt. He sat up, the room doing a slow spin that left him nauseated.
The bitch
. She’d hit him with something. He blinked hard until the room came back into focus. A fire extinguisher lay on the floor on its side and Cole vaguely remembered seeing it on the wall by the toilet.

I’m a stupid idiot
. He staggered to his feet, wondering how long he’d been out. He patted his pockets for his cell to check the time – and found his pockets empty. She’d cleaned him out. And stolen his backpack.

He ran for the stairs and sighed with relief when he got to the garage. The van was still here. She had to be on foot and she couldn’t go far with her leg messed up. He thought of the little room in the basement. Her sister was probably in there.

He looked around the garage for a weapon, because a hundred-five-pounds or not, the girl was fucking dangerous.
I shouldn’t have listened to a word she said
.

Weapon, weapon, what can I use?
He scanned the shelves, everything neat as a pin, the way Mitch demanded. Shovel.
I’ll use a shovel
. He ran to the wall where all the garden tools were arranged on a pegboard.

The big empty space where the shovel had been registered in his mind a second before he heard the grunt behind him, then felt the second blow crash into his head. He turned, his legs weak and the room spinning. He felt himself falling, his knees cracking as they hit the concrete floor.

The sight of the shovel coming at his face was the last thing he saw before everything went dark.

Wheeling, West Virginia, Thursday, December 5, 6.00
A.M.

Joseph inhaled deeply as he came awake in stages.

Peaches
. Warm body curled against him.
Mmm
. Curvy warm body. Pretty hand resting over his heart. Long leg buttressing his hip. Curls tickling his jaw.

He’d always felt envious of men who woke with soft women in their arms who were meant for only them. Now he didn’t have to.
Because I’ve got one
.

He hadn’t wanted to tell her about Jo. About what he’d done. But he was glad that he had. Many people knew the play-by-play of his story. Anyone who was fluent in French could read the police report, he supposed. His family knew, even Holly. And he knew they’d been afraid for his sanity those first few years. He knew they worried about his temper sometimes.

He’d never told anyone that he still heard the snap of that man’s neck. That it still brought him . . . comfort. He liked that word a lot better. He kissed the top of her head and slid from the bed, reluctantly. He wished he could stay. Wake her with slow kisses and make love to her for hours.

But he had a job to do and so did she. He needed to find three still-missing girls – Kimberly, her sister, and Heather Lipton, assuming any of them were still alive. He needed to bring Doug and Beckett to justice. But he had to find them first.

She needed to confront a past over which she’d had no control. When they found Beckett’s cabin – and Joseph had no doubt that they would because Doug was driving them in that direction – she’d insist on being there, no matter how much it hurt her. And even though every bit of him screamed in protest at the very idea of letting her go there, he knew he couldn’t keep her from doing so. Nor should he.

She was a grown woman, smart and logical, and the decisions she made would be wise ones. Necessary ones. He just needed to keep her safe through the process.

He wasn’t sure which of them had the harder job.

Joseph snapped a leash on Tasha, then left Daphne’s room, quietly pulling the door closed behind him. And then he froze as Simone came out her own door, across the hall. Their eyes collided and Joseph felt his cheeks heat.
Busted
, was his first thought.

‘Good morning,’ he said quietly.

She studied him for a long moment. ‘Good morning, Joseph. Is she all right?’

‘Yes.’
She’s more than all right
.
She’s amazing
.
‘
Yesterday was a hard day.’

‘For all of us,’ Simone said and he could see she was still angry. On one hand, he didn’t blame her. But as Daphne’s . . .

What am I?
he wondered. ‘Boyfriend’ sounded way too juvenile. Lover? Yes, but that didn’t begin to describe what he felt. Suddenly he heard Daphne’s voice in his mind from the day before, as they’d driven through the mountains.
You want a mate
.
So do I
. Warmth curled around his heart. He liked that. Very much.

As Daphne’s
mate
, her welfare was top of his agenda. Daphne’s welfare would be improved if her mother could forgive what had never been intended as a slight.

‘May I offer my opinion as an outsider, Simone?’

She lifted a shoulder. ‘Doesn’t seem like you’re an outsider anymore.’

‘Then I’ll take that as a yes. You’re angry and you have a right to be. But seems to me that the person you need to be angry with is Beckett. Not Daphne and not Maggie.’

She closed her eyes briefly. ‘I understand why Daphne didn’t tell me, but Maggie wasn’t a scared little girl. She should have told me.’

‘I don’t know about that. I think that Daphne’s having someone she could trust with her pain, someone she didn’t think she was hurting in the process . . . it made a difference. And kids know when you betray their trust. If Maggie had told you, Daphne might never have opened up again. And particularly not to you. Not because she didn’t trust you or love you. But in telling you, she would have hurt you. That would have pushed her deeper into herself. You might never have gotten her back.’

‘I’m her mother,’ Simone said stubbornly. ‘I should have known. I could have helped her.’ Then her eyes filled. ‘You think I was unaware of her pain? I knew. Every goddamn day I knew she was in pain, but I never knew how to help. Maggie knew. She kept that from me. She kept me from taking care of my own child. Do you have any idea how that feels?’

‘No, because I’m not a parent. I would never discount your pain. But at the same time, don’t discount how difficult this was for Maggie.’

Simone made a rough, scoffing sound in her throat and Joseph frowned.

‘Simone, don’t you think she always knew this day would come? That she dreaded it? She loves you both. Last night you heard Daphne’s pain and it nearly tore you apart. But last night it was only an echo of what it was twenty-eight years ago. What do you think it was like for Maggie, to hear it fresh and not have anyone she could share it with? She’s carried a heavy burden all these years. And I think, even knowing how angry this has made you, she’d do it again the same way. For your daughter.’

‘She could have shared it with
me
. She didn’t have to bear it alone. She had no
right
to.’ Her voice rang with conviction. He wasn’t getting through.

He mentally backed up, came back at another angle. ‘My dad taught me to drive.’

She blinked. ‘What?’

‘Yeah. I was a hothead when I was a teenager and not about to let anyone push me around. I remember sitting at a four-way stop. Another driver took my right-of-way and I wasn’t going to have it. I put my foot on the gas and went through the intersection. Next thing I knew I was in the ER getting stitches and my dad’s car was totaled.’

‘And the point of this is?’

He smiled at her, gently. ‘I’m getting there. My father wasn’t happy, especially when I tried to defend myself. I was in the right, the other guy in the wrong. Dad got real quiet and told me I could be right, but I could be dead right. You had the right to know, Simone. But you could have been dead right. And where would that have left your daughter?’

She faltered. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘Beckett has killed to keep his secret. He killed your niece. Just last night he nearly killed a nurse at the hospital, just to steal his ID so he could sneak inside. We found that young man just in time. Beckett was smothering your grandson with a pillow when Daphne walked in on him and he stabbed the officer standing guard outside Ford’s door. God only knows how many he’s killed in the past twenty-eight years. He threatened to kill
you
if she told. He threatened her with that over and over again. Your daughter may have saved your life by keeping this secret. So be mad if you want, but be mad at the right person.’

‘Daphne didn’t tell me about the nurse,’ she said, as if that one fact was enough to tilt the scales toward belief from disbelief. Sometimes it worked like that, that one detail tipped the balance one way or the other.

‘I think she was pretty overwhelmed at the time. I don’t think a lot of this has sunk in. It may not for weeks.’

‘But when it does, you’ll be there for her?’

‘I promise.’
Because I’m her mate
. He knew it as clearly as his own name.

‘Thank you,’ she said hoarsely.

‘Don’t thank me for that. It’s the smallest thing I can do for her. Simone, you’ve had a terrible shock and it probably hasn’t sunk in with you either. But Daphne’s in a different position.’

‘She’s still in danger.’

‘Yes, but we’ll find Beckett and we’ll find Doug.’ He knew that as clearly as his own name, too. He wouldn’t let Daphne go through life looking over her shoulder in fear. ‘I’m talking about her career. Everything she’s worked so hard for. This will all come out and even though she was a victim in all of this, people will ask why she didn’t turn Beckett in earlier.’

‘It’s nobody’s business,’ Simone said fiercely.

‘No, but she’s a prosecutor. She expects victims to come forward, to testify. That she didn’t . . . nobody will blame her per se, but as Grayson told me last night, she’ll become the story in the courtroom. It’ll die down eventually, but she’s going to need all of us around her, supporting her until it does. She’s going to need you
and
Maggie. She loves you both.’

Her shoulders sagged. ‘You’re saying I have to let my anger go for her own good.’

He shrugged. ‘You
are
her mother. Isn’t that what mothers do?’

She regarded him for a long, long moment. ‘You, Joseph Carter, are damn good.’

He smiled. ‘I know. Now, I’m going downstairs to walk Tasha and get coffee. Can I bring you anything?’

‘Coffee would be nice. But I’ll walk with you. I could use the exer . . .’

She trailed off as the door next to her opened and Maggie came out, a music box in one hand and a small suitcase in the other. She stopped short when she saw them, her expression carefully blank. ‘Joseph, Simone.’

‘Where are you going?’ Simone asked, pointing at the suitcase.

‘Home.’

Joseph frowned. ‘Maggie, the farm’s a crime scene. You can’t stay there.’

‘Not Daphne’s farm. My farm. I’m going home.’

‘To Riverdale?’ Simone’s face fell. ‘No. You can’t.’

‘I can and I should and I’m long overdue. I meant to stay with you two for eight weeks and it turned into eight years. I miss my own place.’ She drew her shoulders back. ‘It’s time I went home. I’ve already talked to Scott. He’ll take care of the horses until you find another hired hand.’

Simone’s mouth fell open. ‘You’re . . . you’re not a hired hand. Maggie . . .’

Maggie looked down, then back up again. ‘That’s not what you said last night.’

Joseph couldn’t control a wince.
Ouch
.

Simone let out a ragged breath. ‘Maggie, I’m sorry. I said a lot of things I shouldn’t have. I was wrong. Please don’t go.’