Poison (18 page)

She was silent for a long while as tears streamed over her cheeks. Her body was cold, so incredibly cold, as if she was going numb. But John’s tone was so emphatic that she wondered if maybe he could be a little bit right. Could he? But didn’t she deserve this? Hadn’t she married Marcus? But John had nothing to gain by lying to her. In fact he went out of his way to tell her the stark truth whatever that truth was. He wouldn’t lie to her. He wouldn’t bother.

“Cassie are you listening to me? You didn’t fail your sister.”

She let go of a long breath. Her lungs rattled as if she had pneumonia. “I heard you. Do you really believe that? It wasn’t my fault? You don’t think I deserve this?”

“I don’t think you deserve this,” he said, his tone so incredibly gentle she nearly lost her battle to not break down. John wouldn’t talk to her like that unless he meant it. Maybe he did have some genuine feelings toward her.

“She’s going to be okay. She has to be okay.”

“I don’t know. Luke was in a hurry and barely got out the name of the hospital and that Kelly was hurt before he hung up.”

“It was during the day, wasn’t it? Marcus got to Kelly during the day in the very house being watched by the police?”

“Yeah,” John said a wealth of inflection in his voice. “The police think Marcus must have been at my house and followed my parents to Luke, Tim and Kelly.”

Cassie shuddered. She bit her lip and whispered, “Why didn’t he take Tim? He could have. He could have taken my son today and I’d have never seen him again.”

John took his eyes off the road to look into hers. He swallowed and finally nodded. “Yes, he could have. He must have chosen not to.”

Cassie closed her eyes, her body jerked back into the seat as if John’s words had physically assaulted her. She pressed a hand to her mouth to hold in the bile that suddenly filled her throat. Tim was okay because for some reason Marcus had
decided
to leave him alone and instead beat up her sister. Tears leaked over Cassie’s eye lids.

And wasn’t Marcus just fucking brilliant? He had accomplished in making her
relieved
that he’d attacked her sister and not her son. He had chosen to hurt the last person anyone had considered protecting. Is that what had saved Tim today? The fact that Marcus liked surprises? And that he would love the fact that he’d outmaneuvered her and the authorities? The sick bastard won no matter what.

Marcus seemed to be three steps ahead of them. He had found her here at the Tyler’s, and then followed John’s parents to her son. And the entire time she’d had no idea she had been found, or her son was in imminent danger.

She quit talking. The thought of what happened, and what could have happened made her stomach twist and tighten. Numbness started to take over. She welcomed it. She stared out the window seeing nothing.

When they got to the hospital it all happened in a surreal blur—asking for Kelly, taking the elevator up to her floor, and dreading what they’d hear once they got to Kelly’s room. Luke, looking grim, met them in the hallway. Cassie heard everything Luke said, but her mind was foggy and unclear. Was this really happening?

Then her heart stopped.

There sat Tim. He was sitting between John’s parents just down the hall from Kelly’s room. Nancy was holding Tim’s hand tightly. Cassie knew she should thank them for being so kind and good to her son. But just then, nothing in the world mattered, but Tim.

She broke away from Luke and John. Tim got up, and she caught him against her in a crushing hug, lifting him off the floor. He was real. Tim was in her arms and okay. When she finally put him down, she smoothed back his hair and showered kisses all over his face, still holding his thin little arms in her hands.

“Mommy!”

“I’m here honey, I’m here.” She pulled him back in for a long hug.

“Aunt Kelly,” Tim said feebly, his voice muffled by her shirt.

“I know. I know. I’m sorry Tim. She’s...she’s going to be all right, you’ll see.”

Cassie faltered. But she couldn’t, just couldn’t let this little boy who’d witnessed so much, been so scared for too long, be more upset then he was already. Tim sagged against her as if believing her.

Cassie then bent down and told Tim she had to go check on his aunt. Tim nodded, clinging to her hand. She had to nearly pry his fingers off her. Tim sat back down between Nancy and Liam. He’d quickly attached to them in a way that surprised her. Of course, he was just as attached to Luke, and Cassie saw trouble in that fact.

Cassie straightened. She made eye contact with the Tylers and said a few polite words of thanks and asked them to watch Tim as she went to Kelly. They agreed and expressed their sorrow for leading Marcus to Kelly. Cassie turned to go face what her life had yet again done to her sister.

****

Cassie’s head spun. She clawed at the door handle to hold herself up. Seeing her beautiful sister on the bed was the worst moment of her life. John came close and held her up. She heard his voice telling her to breathe deeply. She concentrated on his calming tone as he murmured over and over that Kelly was going to be okay. Kelly would heal. She’d been beaten badly but wasn’t going to suffer any long term damage.

The only spot she’d been beaten was her perfect face.

As near as the police and doctors could put together, she had been taken by surprise and tied to the bed, duct tape had been placed over her mouth. No one in the household, which included four adults and Tim, had heard a thing. Not even a muffled thump or grunt. Nothing. She’d been punched in her face; her eyes blackened, her lip split, her nose crushed. Kelly had identified it was Marcus who assaulted her. He’d been sitting on her bed when she’d walked in, grabbed her, and knocked her across the face before she could get away. That had been just after lunch, in broad daylight.

Cassie collapsed next to Kelly, grabbing one of her hands gently in between both of hers, Cassie leaned her forehead against their joined hands. Tears slid down her cheeks, into her mouth, over her chin and pooled on her shirt.

“I’m sorry Kelly,” she whispered to her sleeping sister. She raised her head, and stared at Kelly’s painted purple, manicured finger tips. The ends were chipped. From fighting off Marcus? Cassie’s breath came out in a shaky gust. God, would it ever end? Would the harm she brought to those she loved ever be finished?

But then, she wasn’t sorry. She wasn’t sorry that it was Kelly, and not Tim before her in the hospital bed. The guilt choked her.

But wasn’t that what Marcus had intended? The irony that Cassie was somehow grateful to Marcus for hurting her sister, but leaving her son alone?

Kelly’s chest rose and fell. The rhythmic movements comforted her that Kelly was alive. Kelly would heal. She now had to make sure Marcus Leary never again had the chance to hurt her sister, her son, or anyone else in her life.

Next time, it needed to be her that Marcus had the power to hurt, and not her loved ones.

When Cassie returned to the corridor, she felt like a part of her had changed and wasn’t going to recover. It was only then she noticed the police surrounding the Tylers and Tim. Cassie was taken aside and questioned extensively. They now had a crime and were ready to step up help for her.

Cassie sank into a chair as she and Tim sat together, waiting for her injured sister to wake up.

Cassie refused to leave the hospital, not until she could take Kelly home. She now knew separating wasn’t the answer. The Tylers stayed there waiting too. John sat close but said nothing to her.

Finally, Cassie got up and walked down the corridor, needing some coffee. Alone, she stood in front of the machine as it poured coffee into a paper cup.

Someone bumped her from behind. She turned to find a dark-haired nurse in purple scrubs. The woman smiled, handed her a magazine, then turned and scurried off. Cassie automatically took it before it occurred to her that something wasn’t right. Cassie started toward the nurse, but she was already gone. Cassie hadn’t a clue what the nurse looked like, just a generic figure in scrubs.

Cassie looked down at the magazine. It was a week old fashion magazine. The only remarkable thing was the corner of white paper, a different texture then the shiny magazine pages. Cassie looked at it hard. Her heart dropped, her hands became sticky with sweat. What the hell was this? She sat down and opened the magazine to the page the marker was on.

She knew his handwriting immediately.

Her heart froze; her blood dropped a few degrees in her veins.

But still she didn’t say anything. She swallowed with difficulty and read it.

She knew where Marcus was now.

Chapter Nineteen

Cassie took the keys from John’s jacket, excused herself to use the restroom, and then slipped past the uniformed policewoman who was on guard to protect her. She ran down three flights of stairs to burst into the parking garage. She then stole John’s SUV.

She tightened her grip on the steering wheel to calm her trembling hands. She had too easily made it away from the hospital. She felt her heart would burst. She’d wanted to get caught. For now she was alone, on her way to see Marcus, her stomach twisting in pain.

The note, so like Marcus, clearly detailed what she was to do, and what would happen if she didn’t. Kelly had just been a warning. If she told anyone or didn’t show up, he promised he would take their son from her. Cassie had long known that Marcus was cold and calculating. But the degree to which he’d attacked Kelly, so boldly, in the house and in broad daylight, had Cassie terrified that he’d crossed a line of evil she hadn’t anticipated. The closer she drove to Marcus, the chances of her getting away from him was quickly diminishing.

She was heart-attack worthy scared. She didn’t want to get hurt. And even more sickening was that she was going to Marcus willingly. Under duress for Tim, of course, but here she was purposely slipping police protection and driving toward Marcus.

She was sure that’s what Marcus would find so brilliant about his plan. She was the one sneaking past the police. With his plan, Marcus was in no danger of getting caught; she was.

She smashed her hand onto the steering wheel. She’d been naive enough to think she could draw Marcus to John’s house. It made her laugh out loud.

The only thing that calmed her increasing panic was that Tim was safe. She believed it, had to believe he was safe surrounded by the Tylers and the police. Most of all because John was there, and no matter what, John wouldn’t let anyone hurt her son.

The headlights finally picked out the sign she’d been looking for. She numbed her thoughts, steeled her resolve, and pulled into the parking lot. She wondered if she’d leave here alive.

****

John knew the cop faces well. He’d made a conscious effort to study them and especially the one guarding Cassie. Then the officer walked up toward them. Something was wrong.

John stood and listened as the policewoman reported in to the detective who was handling the case. John’s entire body went cold. His heart stopped, his hands clenched. Jesus. Cassie was gone? Where? How? He closed his eyes. Kelly was thirty feet away. There was no doubt anymore the violence that Marcus was capable of, and that he was hunting Cassie. If Kelly was an example of what Marcus was capable of, what did he have planned for Cassie?

They had to find her
. He shook off the debilitating fear. He had to act. Now. He had to find Cassie before it was too late. Finally he understood the fear Cassie had been living with all this time.

He turned to Luke and told him quietly. Luke went over to Tim. John looked around searching for some reason why Cassie would take off like this. Had Leary gotten to her? How? The hospital floor they were on was sealed tight.

Unless she left willingly. But how? Why? He grabbed his jacket; his keys were gone. Cassie had taken them.

****

He wasn’t there.

Cassie narrowed her eyes as she scanned the murky, gloomy bar. No familiar steely blue eyes looked back at her. Before her was what could have been a replica of the bar she remembered Marcus first talking to her in. A few stragglers played pool, patrons sat by themselves at the bar nursing beers. There was a waitress walking around in clothes that were too tight for how old and droopy she was.

But no Marcus.

Cassie wilted under the knowledge. She’d been sure he’d be sitting in their smiling placidly at her before he took her arm and led her off to some isolated spot in the woods. She felt the relief and fear at once. What was Marcus’s game? Why the elaborate set up? Why wasn’t he here?

She sat down. She kept her eyes down, avoiding the inevitable moment when Marcus Leary would come inside. She was seated only a few moments before the aging waitress came over to her, took a drink off her small tray, and set it before Cassie.

She glanced up. “I didn’t order anything.”

“Well, seems you’re popular sweetheart. Gentleman bought it for you,” the waitress said, her voice gravelly, nearly male sounding. The waitress started to turn and go away. Cassie grabbed at her arm.

“Who bought this?”

The waitress shrugged. “Don’t know, bartender said to send it over to you.”

Cassie looked over at the old man behind the bar. He didn’t glance her way. Cassie got up and went over to the bar where the man was wiping out a shot glass.

“Who sent me that drink?”

The bartender regarded Cassie with a sneer over his dirty, yellow teeth. He was probably sixty or so, an aging drunk, whose looks seemed to have shrunk up into his squinty-eyed stare.

“Don’t know his name. Some guy came in here just before you and says a blond would be coming in looking just like you, and he wanted to be sure she got a drink. Said to tell you he’d be real hurt if you didn’t drink it. I’d suggest you do that, Cassie. Drink it.” Goose bumps broke out over her skin at the use of her name. And the creepy smile he followed it up with. She wished him to hell. “That’s it? You expect me to believe you don’t know the man? That you took his money and honored his request?”