Alone (A Bone Secrets Novel) (36 page)

“As I remember you,” he stated.

“That’s enough talking!” Jason’s father snapped.

Victoria leaned on Seth as she turned to look at the angry man. “We need to leave.”

“Absolutely not.” He moved his gun closer to the back of Trinity’s head. Her blonde ponytail dripped rainwater onto her back.

Ice grew in Victoria’s gut. Facing her, Trinity couldn’t see behind her but Victoria’s expression must have alarmed her. Her eyes filled. Both women looked at Jason. The boy appeared stunned.

“Dad, what are you doing?”

“I want you to take them to the shed.”

“No, why—” began Jason.

“Don’t question me, boy!” he snarled.

“Jason,” Trinity started. “Why—”

“Quiet!” roared his father. “Move them, now!”

“No,” stated Trinity. Jason’s father slammed her in the head with his shotgun muzzle, and she cried out, making Victoria cringe. Seth started in Trinity’s direction, but Victoria grabbed his arm with her good hand, locking gazes with the younger gunman. Fear and anger shone from his eyes.

He’s crazy.

She held tight to Seth.

“Get back.” Leo separated Trinity and Jason. “Stand with the girl,” he ordered Victoria.

Every cell in Victoria’s body screamed not to leave Seth. She let go of his arm, holding his gaze. She felt like she was being ripped from her foundation. As long as she stayed by Seth she was safe. She turned her head so neither of the gunmen could see her lips move. “There’s a gun in the console,” she whispered. She usually kept the small handgun in her duffel for boating, ever since she’d been accosted by transients at the waterfront one morning. She’d moved it to her console when she emptied the duffel last week. Seth’s eyes widened the smallest bit and he gave a small nod.

“Leo!” shouted Abbadelli. “What are you doing?”

“What I should have done a long time ago. I’m taking control of this family. You served long enough. It’s time for new blood.”

Abbadelli’s jaw dropped. “Leo?”

“Do you think you’re the only one who can have power?” Leo stared at his father, a challenge in his eyes. “I’ve been watching you all my life. I’ve learned from the best.”

Victoria cringed. Leo’s hatred for his father shone on his face.
What had the man done to his son?

She joined Trinity, whose tears streamed down her cheeks. Her hand was pressed to the side of her head where Leo had hit
her. Blood oozed between her fingers, mixing with the rain that drenched them all. The blood was a dark stain against her light hair. She silently met Victoria’s gaze.

She was terrified.

What had they walked into?

“Lock them in the shed.” Leo dug in his pocket and held out a key to Jason. “Careful opening the door, the other one might try to get out. Bring me back the key.”

Other one?

Leo looked at the two dripping women. “I’ll come give you instructions in a minute.”

No one moved.

Leo moved behind Jason and punched him in the kidney with the butt of his weapon. The boy gasped and fell to his knees. He moaned and collapsed into the mud. Leo kicked him in the other kidney with his boot. “Next time do what you’re told!”

Seth took one step in Leo’s direction only to come face to face with the muzzle of his shotgun.

“Don’t move!”

Seth raised his hands. And froze.

“Now!” Leo bellowed at Jason. Jason lurched up from the ground, resting his hands on his thighs, and then took a few shaky steps, his back hunched in pain, to take the key from his father’s hand. His father pulled a pistol out of the inside of his coat and held it out toward the boy. “Use this.” Jason took it with weak hands.

Jason turned to the women, meeting Trinity’s gaze.
I’m sorry,
he mouthed at her. Trinity simply stared at him.

“Go that way,” Jason directed, pointing to the right of the house with the pistol. Victoria and Trinity looked at each other and back at Jason. Neither moved.

“Move or I’ll shoot her brains out,” Leo said calmly, pressing the muzzle of his shotgun into the back of Trinity’s head. She gasped.

Victoria grabbed her hand and tugged her in the direction Jason had indicated. Trinity followed. Victoria glanced over her shoulder at Leo. Disgust exuded from his gaze. She nearly tripped in alarm.

Why did he hate them?

Seth watched Victoria and Trinity walk away, fighting every instinct to grab the barrels of Leo’s shotgun and deck him with it. But Leo was watching him. Closely.

When Leo stuck his son, the shock hit Seth.

They were in trouble.
Big trouble.

The old man on the porch. Abbadelli. He looked just as shocked by Leo’s actions. He now leaned against one of the porch rails, his focus with the shotgun not as precise as minutes before.

“Looks like you surprised your father,” said Seth to Leo.

The thin man jerked and glared at Seth. “Shut up.”

Seth raised a brow. And said nothing. Both sets of fathers and sons were at odds. That was clear.

“You’re the one who Victoria talked to on the phone, aren’t you?” Seth injected an amazed tone into his voice.
Butter him up.

Leo sneered.

“You posed as your father to get her out here, why?” Seth pressed.

“It was time. He’s let her go on for too long and not done anything about it,” Leo answered. “Move to the porch.” He waved his shotgun in Seth’s direction.

Seth raised his hands and walked toward Abbadelli, where he waited on the porch. The old man was breathing hard, his face red below his white hair. “Your father doesn’t look too good, Leo. Your chest hurt?” he asked Abbadelli.

“Shut up,” Abbadelli snapped. “What is wrong with you?” he gasped at Leo.

“You’ve shoved her in my face for the last time,” Leo said from behind Seth.

Seth stopped at the bottom of the steps, looking up at the old man, worrying he was about to have a heart attack.

“Shoved who?” Abbadelli spit out between breaths.

“The woman! Peres. You’ve bragged for years about her success in my face.”

Seth blinked.
Years?

The shotgun jammed into his back, and Seth stumbled onto the first step. “Get up there. In that chair.”

Seth slowly moved up the step. Abbadelli had recovered enough to keep his shotgun aimed at his progress. The rain stopped beating on his head as he moved under the roof, but drops landing on the ground grew louder, their noise echoing off the wood siding of the cabin.

He sat in the chair.

“Get me some rope,” Leo ordered his father. Abbadelli disappeared into the house, as Leo stood on the top step, his gun trained on Seth’s head. The two men stared at each other.

“What will happen to Victoria and Trinity?” Seth asked.

Leo’s eyes lit up, making the skin on Seth’s neck crawl.
Jesus Christ. So that is what crazy looks like.

“They’ll be tied up for a while.” Leo laughed at his private joke.

Sweat dripped from Seth’s armpits. The air was cold, but he was about to overheat. Everything around him was soaking wet, but his mouth rivaled a desert.
Keep your head.

Abbadelli stepped out of the cabin, a length of rope in his hands. “Tie him to the chair,” Leo ordered. “Tie it tight.”

Seth’s hands were pulled behind him and through the rungs of the back of the chair. He winced as the rope burned his wrist as Abbadelli strictly followed Leo’s orders. The chair was no flimsy discount chair. It was a heavy-duty solid wood construction that looked like it’d been on the Abbadelli porch since the Second World War. Seth wouldn’t be busting any boards trying to escape. Abbadelli tied a second loop tight around his waist.

“Where’s Jason?” Abbadelli asked as he yanked on the ropes to test.

“He’s not back yet.”

“You trust him with those women?” Abbadelli asked.

“He’ll do as he’s told.”

Abbadelli snorted. “I used to say that about you.”

Seth heard a tone of pride in the old man’s voice.
So now he’s impressed that his son is a criminal?

“I let you believe what I wanted you to believe,” Leo said smugly.

Abbadelli straightened from his knot-tying job. “I believed Jason had killed those girls last week. You didn’t do anything to correct me.”

Leo’s face lit up in crazy mode again, setting off alarms in Seth’s head. “I knew you’d figure it out eventually. I wanted to show you I had more steel than you believed.”

Leo had been seeking Daddy’s approval? That was why those girls were killed?

“You needed to see what I was capable of. You always said I had none of you in me, only Mama in me. I wanted you to know you were wrong.”

“So you killed children?” Seth challenged. “What kind of man kills children to prove a point?”

Leo shifted his hold on his shotgun to a batter’s stance and swung the gun at Seth’s head. The tip caught Seth’s cheekbone before he could whip his face out of the way. The crunch sickened his stomach and pain burned along his cheek. Blood dripped onto his shirt.

He ground his eyes shut, the pain reverberating through his skull.

Don’t taunt the killer.

Leo got close to his face. “My father created a work of art with the bodies of those women decades ago. It was damned beautiful. Like a white flower. I never got it out of my head.” He reached out with a finger and jabbed at Seth’s cheekbone. Fire shot though his face and his tears mixed with his blood.

“How?” asked Seth. “How were you able to get those girls to trust and follow you?”

The man kept his face close to Seth’s, grinning as he studied his handiwork below Seth’s eye. “That was easy. Every girl wants to know she’s beautiful. I found some through Jason’s Facebook account, and that led to others. Teen girls post pictures of themselves everywhere. It was easy to find the look I wanted. I’d set up a professional page through Facebook months before, showcasing some of the work I’d done. It was so easy to get their attention; they all wanted the chance to look beautiful on film. Whores. Sluts, all of them.”

They were children. People’s daughters.

“Now. Drink this.” Leo slid a flask out of his back pocket and shook it before unscrewing the cap. Seth didn’t think he was sharing a companionable shot of whiskey.

“What’s that?”

“Something to make you sleep.”

Phenobarbital. What he’d found in the girls’ stomachs.

He turned his face away.

“Hold his head! Plug his nose!” Leo ordered.

Seth’s head was grabbed and braced against Abbadelli’s stomach. Leo snagged Seth’s chin with one hand and pushed the metal against his lips, cutting the soft flesh and scraping his teeth. He thrashed his head back and forth. Someone’s finger dug into his ripped flesh over his cheekbone and he screamed. Leo sloshed the liquid in his mouth. Seth spit and thrashed some more, but some liquid slid down his throat. He tried to gag, envisioning every nasty stench that’d ever crossed his table. He was unsuccessful.

“That’s enough,” Leo snapped. He stood back, panting, his eyes flashing in anger. Behind Seth, Abbadelli panted harder. “I’ll just have to convince him to have a nice long drink.” He set the flask on the railing. “Ready for a show that’ll make you beg me to let you drink?” Leo looked at his father. “Watch him,” he ordered. He turned and dashed down the porch steps into the dark night.

He’s getting Victoria.

Seth wondered if he should have drank.

“Open it,” Jason told Victoria. One-handed, she inserted the key into the lock and unhooked the industrial-sized padlock from the door. She handed the key back to the boy and debated making a run for it. One swift kick to the balls, and she and Trinity
could take off. Jason handled the gun like he couldn’t bear to touch it. She doubted he would shoot them.

Leo she had no doubts about. She’d seen the killer in his eyes.

Her wrist and arm screamed every time she took a rough step. Running would make her pass out from the pain. Besides, where would they run? Back to the cabin to the two men with shotguns? And she couldn’t leave without Seth.

Jason gestured for Trinity to slide open the shed door. A faint light spilled out. Victoria looked inside and caught her breath. Trinity made a small sound in the back of her throat. On a filthy mattress at the back of the small shed lay a woman. Her hair was long and black. With streaks of gray.

Isabel.

Victoria glanced at Jason. He looked as confused as Trinity. The boy didn’t know why the woman was there. “Do you know her?” she asked him. Jason gave a brief shake of his head.

The woman moaned and shifted on the mattress. Victoria stepped up into the shed and darted to the woman, kneeling on the floor next to her. She brushed the long hair out of the woman’s face, and Isabel’s eyes opened. A split second of fear shone from her eyes until she focused on Victoria. She relaxed and her lids fell shut. Victoria’s hand stroked through a wet mass in her hair. Blood. She could feel the wound starting to crust on the woman’s scalp.

Someone had hit her in the head.
Leo?

“Is she all right?” Trinity asked. She hovered over Victoria’s shoulder.

“I don’t know. She’s been hit in the head. She woke and saw me but fell back asleep.”

She shook the woman’s shoulder. “Isabel? Isabel? Wake up.”

“You know her?” Trinity whispered.

Victoria nodded. She looked back at Jason, watching from the shed door. “She needs a hospital. She has a serious head injury.”
Maybe.
“I can’t get her to wake up. Do you know how she got here?”

Jason shook his head again. The teen looked horrified.

“Jason, do you know why she’s here?”

Jason looked pleadingly at her, turmoil rolling in his gaze.

She tried again. “Jason, what is going on with your father?”

The teen’s shoulders slumped. “I think he killed those girls. The ones last week.”

Trinity sucked in her breath. “Your father? Why? Why do you think he did it?”

“Because I found some pictures on his camera. I was going to use it and I scanned through some of the pictures saved in the memory and saw pictures of those dead girls. Brooke was one of them.” His voice wavered on her name. “I wasn’t supposed to be using his equipment.”