Holding Out For A Hero: SEALs, Soldiers, Spies, Cops, FBI Agents and Rangers (172 page)

“Did he hurt you?” he asked, apprehension in his eyes.

“No. Well, yes. He hit me over the head back at the resort hotel.” She told him the shortest version of what happened.

“You can tell me the rest after we get out of here.”

“What happened to you?” She touched the drying blood on his face and winced.

“Like mother like son. She clobbered me with the baseball bat when we got to the attic. Long story. I got the bat away from her and tied her up.”

He held her fast to his chest and kissed her once, twice, three times.

“Come on,” he said as he opened the passenger door and she slipped into the car.

He rounded the hood, jumped in, and they were off in no time. They turned their backs on the horror house.

“I never want to go back there again,” she said. “Don’t ever let me return.”

“Never.” His affirmation sounded breathless. “After we go to the cops, I want to get as far away here as we can.”

“They won’t let us leave town. Benson is dead.”

“You’re probably right. After this I think we should have a real vacation in Aspen.”

She laughed and then groaned as her head and neck ached. “Sounds good.”

“There’s more about the house Griff. It’s…I don’t think it makes any sense. What it does to people. I don’t know where to start to tell you.”

“I think at this point I’d believe anything.”

“After this I don’t want to come back to Bowmount ever again.”

“Deal,” he said.

Silence filled the car interior as the tires hissed. “No one will believe us, Griff. About the house.” She stumbled over her words. “McPhee is dead, too. He was down in that hole with me. Neck broken.”

“Shit.” Griff grumbled the word, his voice hoarse. He reached over for her hand. “After the cops get through with us, after we’re together again. I have a lot of stuff to tell you.”

She clutched his hand tightly. “Oh?”

“Yeah. Stuff you deserve to know. Things I should have told you before. If you hate me after I tell you, so be it. But there’s one thing I’ll tell you right now.” He glanced over at her quickly, heart in his eyes. “When I knew Benson had you, and I realized he could have done anything to you and I couldn’t stop it—” He cut himself off. “I knew that I wanted you in my world. That if I got you out of there, I’d tell you the truth.”

She took a deep breath, and as they turned onto Main Street and made their way to the sheriff’s department, she knew whatever he told her she would be ready for it. They parked in the sheriff’s department parking lot and walked into the building hand in hand.

Blackout: Chapter Fourteen

Saturday afternoon

Griff yawned and his jaw cracked as he opened the passenger door on the Charger and Cassie climbed inside. He closed the door carefully and walked with stiff steps around the car. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this beat up. Thank God for the supersize cups of coffee they both carried. The hospital cafeteria had provided a halfway decent late lunch after they’d checked themselves out of the hospital.

Exhaustion didn’t seem to cover everything they felt. A nurse at the sheriff’s department had examined them and said while they didn’t appear to have concussions they really needed a thorough exam. The cops had gone to the resort and taken a furious Penny into custody. Griff and Cassie had half expected the woman to concoct a story with them as the guilty party. She’d raved and admitted her part in what happened, and lucky for them had also told them she knew what Benson planned. After that the whole show had proceeded smoother and easier for Cassie and Griff and the cops had shipped them off to the hospital by ambulance.

After checkups, x-rays and more poking and prodding, the doctor insisted they stay long enough to be under observation for a while. They were cleared this afternoon.

Once on the road, Cassie stared out the windshield, her expression weary. He thought back to the report the officers had given about the condition of the haunted house when they reached the property. The roses had been blooming, which the police found odd but didn’t comment on. They discovered that Griff’s account of breaking into the house was true, and there they found McPhee dead and Benson cold as the grave. The entire house was in dusty ruins, and one cop admitted to Griff and Cassie that the sixties-style furniture looked completely new. Griff could tell the cops were freaked about that development. In the back of his mind Griff half wondered if the cops would try to pin a charge on him. Both Cassie and Griff had made certain they didn’t mention the paranormal bits of the story—no way in hell the police would believe it. This situation wasn’t over by any means, but at least he had Cassie with him, and she was safe.

Their cell phones didn’t work yet, but at least electricity was starting to come on in most places and with it some news outlets. They had a concept of what had really happened with the EMP. Many parts of the grid had gone down around the United States and the rest of the world, although Europe’s configuration had fared better than the United States. While the apocalypse wasn’t as bad as everyone had thought it would be, the resulting mess was substantial enough.

Cassie interrupted his thought process when she asked, “Where to next?”

“Breckenridge. There’s a great hotel there. Hope they have openings.”

“Sounds good.” She sighed deeply and took another sip of coffee.

One glance and he caught the strange contentment on her face. “Feel better?”

“Loads.”

Griff took a quick glance over at Cassie and caught her deep frown. “You okay?”

“I will be.” She sighed and shifted lower in the seat. “Griff, with everything that’s happened since we escaped Benson, you didn’t get a chance to tell me your secret.”

Shit. Right. He’d promised. “Yeah, that’s true. Can it wait until we’re in a room in Breckenridge and naked?”

She laughed. “That bad, eh?”

“Might be.”

She nodded. “All right. But you’re damned lucky you’re so handsome and that you bought me coffee.”

He laughed with her.

Once in Breckenridge an hour later, they registered at a resort he’d been to a few times for skiing. Luckily Breckenridge wasn’t in a mess and like Bowmount, had electricity. Griff checked them into a large suite.

Later, after showers, they fell into bed naked and went to sleep before getting a chance to talk.

Cassie awakened to feel Griff nuzzling her neck as he spooned her. She shifted onto her back and blinked the sleep out of her eyes. She pulled out of his arms long enough to turn on the bedside lamp.

Griff groaned. “Mmm. What are you doing?” He kissed her shoulder and propped up on his elbow to look down at her. “I was about to kiss you all over.”

“Don’t try and bribe your way out of telling me that secret, Griff. You said it would wait until we were naked. We’re in bed. Naked. Spill it.” She gave her demand with a smile.

He rolled onto his back, and she followed, half sprawled over him. It was hard to concentrate when he cupped her butt and pulled her close to his deliciously hard body.

“Come on, Griff.”

“You’re right. I owe you.”

She traced a pattern between his pecs. “You do.”

His gaze met hers, and she saw how difficult it was for him to open up.

“My grandparents and my parents lived in a survivalist camp in Montana for most of their lives. That’s how I know how to survive in the wilderness and with almost nothing. It’s why I understood about EMP.”

Surprise rippled through her, but so did understanding. So many things came crystal clear. “Why were you afraid to tell me that?”

His serious gaze caught hers and held. “There’s a lot more.”

She smoothed her hand down to his ridged stomach muscles, and he sucked in a breath. “You said I’d hate you. Why would you think that?”

“They were a diverse group with a lot of hate behind their isolation. They were white supremacists. Oddly enough we lived near a Native American community.” His eyes were haunted, his mouth tight as he explained. “My dad brainwashed me and my sister constantly and told us lies about anyone who wasn’t so-called pure. For a little while my parents convinced us it was true—my father did anyway. My mother…well, she didn’t believe it and yet she was too afraid to leave my father.”

A sinking feeling started in her belly as she imagined what Griff and Diane must have experienced. “Oh, God.”

“He beat my mother regularly but never me and Diane. I always thought that was a miracle. We were homeschooled and my mother did her best to try and give me and Diane more perspective and understanding of what the world is like. She explained to us that Dad was full of shit, in not so many words.”

“Thank goodness for that.”

“Yeah. We were all scared to death of him and most of the other people in the group.”

“How many people?”

“About fifty total.”

“What about you grandparents. Did they believe all of that stuff?”

“They were the ones that taught my father all that crap.” He drew in a deep breath. “It came to a head when my father dragged my mother, Diane and I to this bar outside of town frequented by the survivalists. I hated the place. It stank. They gave kids liquor.” He shook his head. “Anyway, one night I went outside and found my sister being raped by this drunk Native American guy. He was so off his ass he didn’t realize he’d wandered into the wrong place. I was so enraged, I threw the guy off my sister and he fell against a rock.”

Griff swallowed hard and closed his eyes. Pain streaked across his face. She practically held her breath, on pins and needles as she listened to his story. Fear spiked through her as she waited for him to continue.

He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. “I was fifteen, and I was already big and strong. When I tossed the guy aside I was just trying to save Diane. I didn’t mean to kill him.”

“Oh, no.” Tears sprung to her eyes as she realized the pain Griff must have experienced and his sister’s agony. “No. Poor Diane. And you.”

She sat up out of his arms and watched his expression change from pained to watchful. “I was charged in his death and sent to a facility for juveniles.”

“But you were just a kid and trying to save your sister.”

“Everyone knew we were from a survivalist camp. They assumed I didn’t mind killing the guy, and that I did try and kill him.”

Anger filled her. “But he was raping your sister.”

He held up one hand. “The local Native Americans wanted me tried as an adult and thrown in the pen.”

She brushed a hand over his forearm, a strong desire to comfort him. “I’m so sorry. That must have been awful.”

“Yeah.” His voice was weary, as if relating the experience drained him. “I spent a year of my life incarcerated. I managed to get my GED while I was in there, so I wasn’t behind in school.”

“Thank goodness.”

“Unfortunately my mother didn’t leave my father.”

“And your sister got pregnant after that, didn’t she?”

“Not from the rape, but by a boy she was seeing. You know the rest of that story.”

She sensed a gap in the story. “What else, Griff?”

“My father finally went ballistic one night and murdered my mother. He beat her to death.”

She put a hand to her mouth, tears coming quickly and easily.

“Come here.” He drew her into his arms. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

She cried into his chest as he held her close, understanding that it wasn’t just his story that saddened her, but the stress of what happened to them over the last week.

“What happened then?” she managed to ask around her tears.

“My aunt…my mother’s sister adopted us so we escaped the survivalist camp. I vowed I’d never be like my father and that I’d help people. I joined the marines when I was eighteen.”

She shifted until she could see his stern expression. She saw worry in his eyes, a deep apprehension she couldn’t have imagined noting in his eyes before.

“Why did you think I’d hate you if I knew this about your past?” she asked.

“I could see that you have Native American heritage when I met you.”

She sighed. “Give me credit for a broad understanding, Griff. You didn’t kill that man because he was Native American. You didn’t mean to kill him at all. You probably saved your sister’s life.”

He smiled, and some of the light returned to his eyes. “It killed me to think you might turn away from me once you knew. I feel like I’ve learned so damn much from you.”

She brushed a finger over his chin. “I know I’ve learned a ton from you. I never really trusted another man until I met you.”

“I wanted you from the moment I saw you, Cassie.”

She returned his grin and felt a new and sweet sensation rise inside her. “I’m tired as hell, sore, and don’t know what to do next. But as long as you’re here it doesn’t seem to matter.”

“Ditto.”

“What do we do after today, Griff?”

“I know I want you with me, no matter what we do. When I realized you were in Benson’s hands…that he’d taken you, I was scared shitless.”

“I felt the same why when he told me Penny had you. I had no idea what she would do.”

“I’m falling hard for you, Cassie.”

She smiled as tears filled her eyes again, but this time from happiness. “Ditto.”

They fell into an embrace, and they didn’t leave the room for a day, sleeping, eating and making love until the wee hours of the morning.

Blackout: Chapter Epilogue

One year later

Breckenridge, Colorado

Cassie watched as Griff lay on the hotel room bed, naked as the day he was born. He was asleep already. Or at least he looked like it. Even in sleep he was so gorgeous with his legs spread open and displaying his heavy masculinity. Her libido adored him. She’d just left the shower. She stood and admired him, thinking about the year just passed. She glanced at the sparkling engagement ring and matching wedding band on her left hand. They’d married over the weekend here in Breckenridge with Griff’s sister, brother-in-law, and her parents in attendance. They hadn’t wanted a formal wedding. Over the last year many things had changed, but their love for each other had grown in leaps and bounds. They’d gone through the investigation into Benson’s death. More and more information emerged on the former Navy man, and the horror of what they survived in Bowmount faded a little more each day. Benson had murdered ten women over the last ten years, and because he’d told Penny all the details, authorities had recovered the bodies. McPhee had been an unfortunate fatality when he’d entered the house. Penny would serve a long time in an institution for the criminally insane.