Withholding Secrets (35 page)

I missed Sky’s birthday. I missed Jordan’s birthday. Missed Jordan’s hockey games and Sky’s basketball games. I missed Christmas with them. I missed Kane’s loving touch and beautiful green eyes and gorgeous body. Most of all, I just missed seeing them every day.

April and I was released from the hospital and straight into the courthouse where I sat beside the suited lawyer—the older man who was very sharp looking, too. I could hear the voices behind me, but I didn’t dare to look. I couldn’t. I could feel their presence, but I just couldn’t stand to see their faces, knowing I killed a man. I killed my brother to protect them; the girl who I would always consider to be my daughter, the boy who I would always see as my own son, and the man who I would always love more than anyone in the world.

“Would the defendant please stand?” The older woman looked over her thin wire framed glasses at me with her face made of stone. I hadn’t known or seen one look from her that told me my fate would be different. I was shown all the evidence the FBI had on every crime that I committed. And I didn’t deny it, but I did so to protect a little girl’s innocence. Any mother would have done the same thing.

My lawyer, bless that man’s heart for trying his best to save me, cupped my elbow gently and helped me to my feet. Taking a bullet to the thigh was nothing compared to what was coming now. I would have rather it have been me who had taken that second bullet.

If I just waited ten more seconds, the FBI would have been there storming the place and I might have only gotten one life sentence instead of three. But, I just did what any mother would do when their daughter’s life was at stake.

“Miss Borelli, the list of crimes that you committed is far beyond anything that I’ve seen in my life. I heard the testimony from each side, and the jury has delivered their verdict. Before I read this, I have to say, being a mother is a hard job. You proved that you would go to extraordinary lengths to keep those kids safe, and save those others from a life of unmentionable horror.” She let out a little sigh as her dark, rich brown eyes softened. “I wouldn’t doubt that everything that you did was for the best intentions.”

The tears rolled down my face as I felt their prayers, their hopes, their cries enter into my heart with a heavy hand by the only one from above.

“Would you like to say anything before I read this?” Folding her arms on the high mahogany judge’s stand, a solid lump packed in my throat.

Nodding, I swallowed hard as the pressure of the damaged thigh muscle squeezed tightly and my shoulder allowed a sharp ache to shoot through it. “I would do it all over again if their lives were at stake. I know what I did was wrong, but I had to do what I could to keep her safe. I promised that I would never let another monster touch her. She’s a little girl. She’s
just
a little girl, Your Honor.” The pain was the worst in my heart, holding on for dear life. I just wanted to hug them once more, to tell them that I loved them so much. “Your Honor, if I had known his intentions sooner, I would have done the right thing. I would have gone straight to the police. It was my fault that the girls were abducted. I know that now. I just wish that it could have been different, but I can’t stand here and say that I wouldn’t do it all again to protect them. I am not going to lie. I am not going to stand here and tell you any different, because I would do it all again if her life was at stake. I can handle it. I can take what is coming, but I could never live with myself, knowing that a man would crawl on top of a little girl and take her innocence like my brother had done to me.”

“Is that all, Miss Borelli?”

“My mother always told me that you might have to do the impossible to protect your family. If that makes me a bad person, then I am. I just love all three of them that much.” The hot tears trickled down my face while hearing the sobs that were coming from the spectators.

“Miss Borelli, are you prepared for what this says today?” Her dark red lips pressed together as the hurt filled into those beautiful eyes that she had.

“Yes, Your Honor. The only thing that would be worse than my fate right there is letting my little girl be under those hands that would rob everything from her.” And I meant it. I would rather rot in prison for what I did than to let a man touch that little girl, my little girl, in any harmful way.

Passing the note back to the bailiff, she nodded. The room was filled with even more sobbing behind me, but I raised my chin. I was proud to be the reasoning behind those girls being handed back to their parents instead of a buyer in another country. If I had the option to see each one of them again, I would. I would cry and hug them and tell them that there was someone out there to protect them from harm.

The head juror was a man in his late fifties. Standing, he put his reading glasses on and sucked in a deep breath. “We the jury find the defendant … not guilty for the charge of murder in the first degree.”

My breath rushed from my lungs as I fell back into the arms of my lawyer. Not guilty? Had I heard him right? No. I couldn’t have. I was going to prison. I killed a man. I committed, at least, ten crimes that I could think of off the top of my head. And I was not guilty?

“Keri, the lengths that you went to, to protect those girls and your family were extreme.” A sad smile came to her as she tipped her head. “You will be monitored on your actions every day from here on out.” Setting the folder aside, she cleared her throat. “The defendant, Keri Borelli, is cleared of all charges against her, however, she will be placed under surveillance from here on out and deemed as a computer criminal; to be monitored for any and all computer related activities. This case is dismissed. Onto the case regarding the Borelli children.” Her eyes shot back to mine as the hand brushed my arm. His hand. Kane’s. I knew his touch anywhere, and my blood was flowing thick through my veins.

“Please, don’t. Please don’t take them away from me.” My cries were painful, and they hurt with each breath that I had taken. She was taking them away from me. She was going to send them away.

“Miss Borelli, you are twenty-five. You don’t have a job. You don’t have means to support them. And you have so much more time in recovery that you wouldn’t be able to take care of what they need.” The judge’s eyes eased back as she shook her head.

“Please. We need her!” Jordan’s voice shot out through the room just as full of pain as mine was. I missed him so much. “Don’t take us away from her! Look at what she went through for us!”

“Please, take your seat, young man.” The judge banged her gavel.

Kane stood as he cleared his throat. The tears dripped down onto my hand, and I looked up at him, the waters running down his handsome face. “I will marry her. I have plenty of money. I am perfectly capable of taking all three in.”

“Mr. Bruton, please. Control yourself.” Her gavel came down harder, making a loud bang. I jumped a little, feeling the caress of his hand, his love filling through my black sweater. “I am placing the two kids in a home where they will be taken care of. They will get everything that they need. I am sure that the new adoptive parents will allow you visitation rights, but Keri, your illegal activities are looked upon here. I have to do what is best for the kids.”

“Please, Your Honor. I need them, and they need me.” Grabbing Kane’s hand, I held it tightly, trying to regain the strength back into my damaged leg. But the weakening was insisting I just give up and let the ground wither away under my feet. I was just found not guilty for my crimes and they still want to take my kids away? After everything I did to get those other girls back home to their parents? And they wanted to take Jordan and Sky away from me?

“I have a family that has the means, and they have adopted before. They had their paperwork entered the day you were taken to the hospital, and they are more than willing to accept the two children into their home.” Opening the manila folder before her, the woman wearing the black robe ran her finger over the information again.

“Please, Your Honor. I have the means to take care of all of them. I will marry her today, right now. This is my family, too. Please don’t take them away. You know what she would do to protect them.” Kane’s voice trembled as he lifted my hand to his chest.

“I have to see what is best for the kids. Keri…” Her eyes softened as she looked at me, ripping my heart out of my chest. “You are so young yet. You are
twenty-five
. I have to look at what is best for you, too, and I believe
this is what is best
. I am placing the children under the care of the adoptive parents. Case dismissed.”

Kane reached over the wall and wrapped his arms around me as my life ended. That was the last breath I was able to take. I survived the unthinkable, gone to extreme measures for those kids, just to have them taken away from me in the end.

Jordan and Sky came around, wrapping their arms around me and matching my cries. I hated this. I hated to think of someone else having my kids.

“I love you both. I love you, and I will never let you go. I will still fight for you every chance that I get.” Holding them tight to me, I felt a little tug on my arm. I had to let them go. I would have to watch them leave with someone else now, but I would fight for them. I wouldn’t let it rest until I had them back.

“Jordan, Sky, let’s get home so that Keri can get some rest now,” Ellen, Kane’s mother, said, her warm voice catching me by surprise. “She’s had a long day, and we need to let her get some rest. Then, we will be over to see her at dinner time.”

“What?” Kane’s voice shot out fast as his hand tightened on mine. “Mom…”

“Honey, do you think that we would break you four up? We spoke to the judge and filed the paperwork to adopt them. They were going to take them away because of some inconstancies with the original paperwork, and we weren’t going to let that happen. Not after what she has done for them.” Her eyes drifted down to me. “She is right, Keri. You are young yet. Too young, and you need to live your life. They will always be yours, honey. Just living with us.”

“You adopted them?” My heart tripped and stumbled around in my chest.

“Of course we did. When they told us that the kids were going to be placed in foster care, we had to. We had to step up. Those kids will never be with anyone else.” Reaching over, she cupped my cheek. “We would go the lengths for our family, and you are part of that family, Keri. And I have to say that we have done a good job with the first one that we adopted.”

Kane let out a soft cry as he reached over, hugging his mother. Well, maybe I wouldn’t fight for them after all. They were going to a damn good home with damn good people. Plus, they would always be a part of my life. Mine and Kane’s life.

Christmas in July. Who has never had a Christmas in July before? As I looked over at my wife with the kids tucked on each side of her, I couldn’t be happier. Still, Keri had nightmares and she talked a lot with Alicia, but I was just glad they were home safe. Even Ben had been over almost every day, but mostly because Keri delivered what she promised to him.

Three times a week, Keri had therapy appointments because of what she put herself through. Sometimes, she went with Alicia, but Sky hadn’t been jealous of the connection. Neither one said what they truly went through, but from the looks that they had given each other, I knew that it wasn’t anything good.

People around the city still talked about her, but she would just smile and ask them what lengths they were willing to go to for their kids. Not one ever responded. And I had to say that Sky never was picked on again. Not after the stories that were told. Some of them were true, but Jordan and Sky always laughed them off as if they were lies.

As we just sat around the living room, looking at the tree, I had to laugh. Keri couldn’t skate worth a damn, but she certainly could swing a hockey stick. Of course, it was at another man, but to this day, Joe couldn’t walk and his life expectancy was cut in half for the damage that she had done on him.

Sky was the first to get up and leave Keri’s side to go downstairs for a little bit. How could she not want to go downstairs and try her new game? Jordan was a little more hesitant to get up and go downstairs, but after Keri urged him to, he finally complied.

Looking down at the silver band that Keri put on my finger last month, I couldn’t be happier. There was a time that I tried to force myself to prepare for a life without her, but I knew I never would be able to live with her six feet in the ground. Then again, Keri wasn’t just any woman. She was one who put herself out there, regardless of the outcome, just to protect an innocent girl’s life.

“Kane?” Her sweet and soft voice spilled through the living room, warming every inch of my insides. How I had longed for her voice since that day she pushed me away. I knew those words she said that day still haunted her, but I had forgiven her the second I figured it all out.

Looking up, I took in the sight of the marks that were left on her neck; the ones that appeared just above the scarf that Sky fixed for her once already today. Those marks were left the night she fought her last fight. The same night she thought that no help was coming to them and did whatever she could to at least save Alicia.

Seeing the markings her own brother left on her still made me want to vomit, but at the same time, pride took over knowing she did it all for those girls. And I would hate every single one of them, and also be honored she bared the scars for the rest of her life to prove her love for her own daughter. “Yes?”

“Are you happy?” The water filled in those soft grays as she watched me twirl that band on my left hand. I never imagined that I would have a ring on that finger, but there came a day when I couldn’t wait for her to put one on it. When she finally did, I never stopped smiling, or falling in love with her again, and again.

“Very.” Moving over to the couch next to her, I hesitated to wrap my arm around her. The stuff her brother put her through was more than I could even think about, and I was sure she hadn’t told everything about that captivity and the darkness she endured. If it was dark, the fear was so deep in her that I couldn’t bear it and put three nightlights in our room, and more around the house in case she had gotten up in the middle of the night.

“I … I … um…” Giving a little shrug, she carefully unwrapped the red scarf and placed it on her lap, allowing the scars around her neck to show. The waters glassed over her eyes as they met mine, imprinting her deep into my heart.

“Are
you
happy?”

“Kane.” With her voice weakening, I just wanted to wrap her in my arms and hold her, but I had to hold off. I had to control myself and let her heal. Moving too fast after the horror that she underwent was risky. She would come to me when she was ready. And she already came to me in the night and was willing to crawl in bed next to me now. Someday, she would be fully ready to have me again. “He … I … when I fired that second shot … I thought I killed myself. I thought that I would never see you again. When I woke up in the hospital and you weren’t there, I wished that I had killed myself.”

“Hey. You are here. You are my wife, my whole life, Keri.”

“All I could think was that I lost you for good. I would rather have died than not to have you in my life anymore.” Taking a deep breath, she looked over at me, letting her tears go. “It hurt so bad saying what I did that day, but I couldn’t risk your life. I trusted you with them. I trusted you with Sky, Kane. I really did. I really do. I know that I hurt you that day, and I was prepared to die because of it.”

“I never held it against you, Keri. If I had seen what you were actually doing, I would have stopped you, and then what? Ben would never have seen Alicia again, and those other girls would never have been freed. Sky would have to constantly look over her shoulder, and I would have to guard her constantly.” Stretching my arm out, I laid it along the back of the couch, letting my fingers catch some strands of her silky, darker locks.

Nodding, her chin quivered a little more. “When I had gone there that night, I figured that it was Joe and my boss, but I never thought it would have been him, my own brother. And, I am
not
sorry that I killed him. I am not sorry that I took his life for them, for her, for me.”

“You are the bravest woman that I ever met, and I love you more now than ever, Keri. Just, come to me if anything comes up again. I can’t risk losing you again.” The last night we spent in the interrogation room, I waited for my life to end with the news of Keri’s death. Each minute that passed was torture, and all I could do was hold those kids close and just hope that Sky wasn’t too late with cracking that code.

“He used to drug me. He drugged me enough to keep me asleep so that he…” Reaching over, she slipped her hand into mine and squeezed. “She never told me that she found out what he was doing. She never said a word.”

“She was protecting you, Keri. She loved you. Your mother loved you and didn’t want you to have to be reminded of that every day of your life.”

“Um … when they cleared his home, they found a key. It was to a lockbox, and she had things in there, Kane. Things that she hid. Her will was in there. She left everything to me, Kane. She left everything to me because of him. And my sister, hell, she was just as bad as he was. She knew, too. She knew and never told me. My sister was pissed because he loved me and not her. What kind of sick bastards were they, Kane?” Her hand tightened on mine as she held onto me for her life. “The FBI took everything from the box and sent me the money. They made sure that I had it all, and all I could think is why they couldn’t have found it sooner and I could have been able to keep my kids. If they found it before the hearing, I could have been able to keep my kids.”

“Oh, Keri. My parents love them so much. And they are still yours.” The hole in my heart for my family opened even more, knowing that my parents jumped in and adopted the kids just to keep us all together.

Keri would understand that someday, but for now, everything was too raw for her to accept. Fate was going to take them away no matter how much money Keri had or didn’t have. It was all based on the crimes she committed. “I am such a horrible person. I don’t want to fight for them. They have the best parents there are, and I don’t want to fight for them back.”

Forget it. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I had to hold her. Wrapping my arm around her, I pulled her to my chest and pressed my lips to the top of her head. “That makes you all the better, Keri. Not a bad person. My parents only adopted them to make damn sure they never were taken away from you again. That’s all. They are still yours. They will always be yours, and we don’t need any paper stating anything different.”

“I want us to be like how we were before. I want us to be that family again. I miss it so much. I miss us all together under the same roof, and I can’t help but think that it is all my fault.”

“No, baby. It’s not. And we are all under the same roof. All of us.”

“I missed her birthday, his games, her games, school, Christmas. I didn’t even get her a birthday gift.” Her hand released mine, and just when I feared that she was going to pull away, she wrapped her arms around my waist and rested tight against me, right where I needed her the most.

“Keri, you have given her the best gift anyone could give their daughter. She wouldn’t want anything more. She doesn’t want anything more, because she has exactly what she wants. She had you, Keri.” Smiling, I took the chance and just held her in my arms. How I missed having her in my arms. There would never be another day she wasn’t nestled right in my arms.  

The knock on the door came loud enough to make her jump. Her heart beat out of her chest and against the fabric of the thin, black shirt. Easing my way out from under her, I made my way to the panel and disarmed the alarm and sucked in a deep breath.

It wasn’t going to be my parents, because they were off on a cruise and the kids wanted to stay with Keri. I didn’t blame them at all. With the length of time we had to spend apart, we weren’t going to let that time come in between us again. My mom and dad didn’t argue, but gave us this chance to have the time alone, all together and alone.

The suited woman at the door had a large folder in her hand, and her finely shaped brows were pinching in the middle of her forehead. Her hair was blonde now, and her grassy greens were shaded with the exhaustion. “She hasn’t done anything wrong, Agent Cunningham.”

“I’m not visiting because of broken violations.” Her eyes drifted over to my beautiful wife seated on the couch. “I need to speak to Mrs. Bruton.”

Stepping back, I let the tall blonde walk in and take a seat on the black recliner where she could easily interrogate Keri. My heat slammed hard and my chest muscles tightened trying to figure out why the agent was visiting. “Keri, this is the FBI agent who was working the case when Alicia was abducted. Agent Cunningham.”

“Actually, it’s Laurie Stanton now, but we won’t get into that.” The smile sprang to her face, illuminating the beautiful flawless features the woman had. Though her hair was died and bleached blonde, I could see the changes that were made from the time I spent in the interrogation rooms to now. They were subtle, but I imagine with the FBI, anything can change easily. “Keri, I need your help and expertise on the shit you are able to do…

What happens next with Keri and Kane? What is this agent wanting from Keri now? Here is a glimpse into the next Secret….