Dangerous Embrace (Embrace #1) (40 page)

“Okay, let’s summarize here. He doesn’t know her last name and he doesn’t know she lives in Santa Rosa. He thinks your name is Sonders—or something like that. She told him you’re a cop from Denver.”

“Did the cop thing deter him at all?”

“No, he didn’t seem to care at all.” Mark thought about the entire conversation. “Oh, and they talked about her step-dad—which is another issue entirely.” He thrust his hand out gesturing to the computer monitor. “She believes he murdered her stepfather. He was murdered a couple of years ago and they never caught the killer.”

“Right.” Brian snapped his fingers as if trying to recall the conversation. “The gun dealer. I remember her mentioning him.”

Mark went on to explain Sarah’s suspicions. When he finished, Brian focused on him with a calculating stare.

“What do you think? When he mentioned the step-dad in conversation, did he act guilty?”

“Brian, I was on my fourth or fifth shot of tequila. Honestly, I don’t know. He’s definitely jealous. He stared me down when I put my hands on her and his parting words were, ‘I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon’ or something to that effect. It scared her; she saw that as a threat.”

“Maybe it was a threat, it is kinda creepy.” Brian looked at the monitor again and scratched his chin. “Okay, let me make a couple of calls.” He pulled out his cell phone and his little note pad.

While Brian talked on the phone, he also copied the information from the website with Kevin’s bio. When he closed his phone, he went back to asking Mark questions.

“What’s the step-dad’s name?”

“I’m not sure, Charlie...something, I’ll ask Sarah—”

“Charlie Wyman,” Sarah said coming up behind him.

Mark turned to her. “You look like you feel better.”

“I do.” She smiled as she handed Brian the piece of paper with all Kevin’s information. When the computer screen caught her eye, her smile faded.

“Sit down. I’ll tell you what I have,” Brian said. “I called my friend at the airport. After some smooth talking, I got her to check on his flight. He leaves tomorrow, Southwest Airlines at 9:15 a.m. If I call her after 10:00 a.m. she’ll confirm whether or not he got on the flight. My theory is, if he’s coming after you here in Santa Rosa, he’ll do it between now and then, or he won’t be on that flight tomorrow. If he’s going to look for you in Colorado, he’ll change his flight. We’ll know for sure tomorrow.”

“There is one more thing we haven’t considered.” Sarah looked at Brian, then Mark, and then back to Brian. “What if he saw the two of us in the paper...or on the news? The news stories have died down, but there is still a good chance he’s seen it.”

“Either way, Sarah, if he’s coming after you, he won’t be on that plane tomorrow. We can’t do much until we know for sure.”

She got the sense now that he was placating her and she felt a little silly. “Am I overreacting?”

“Considering what you’ve been through in the last few months, considering this guy”—Brian pointed his pen at the computer screen—“and considering everything Mark’s told me, no, you’re not overreacting. Mark should put another one of his guys in this house until tomorrow afternoon. We can wait it out and see what happens. Until then, I’ll check out what’s going on in the investigation for Charlie Wyman. Can you give me more detail on that, maybe the date of his death, full name, things like that?”

“Yeah, I’ll write down what I remember.” She reached over for the same piece of paper she’d handed him and jotted down the facts she had on Charlie.

Sarah could hear the doubt in their voices. As if they couldn’t believe Kevin was capable of murder. Sarah felt the anger rise with the bile in her throat. What made them think they knew him better than she?

“Kevin is into knives. He collects them, hunts with them, and uses them to scare people—he likes guns, too—but knives were always his favorite when he really wanted to terrorize someone.” Sarah didn’t look up at them, didn’t want to invite questions. “Someone broke into Charlie’s house and stabbed him to death. When Kevin talked about him last night, he pointedly said he met Charlie
just
before he died, which was an odd thing to say. Kevin always bragged about the game he’d hunted, and he had the same attitude last night when he talked about Charlie.”

She was calm when she said it, but the memory made her want to throw up.

When she looked up, Brian was watching her. “Did he ever threaten you with a knife, Sarah?”

Brian came right out and asked without hesitation, and it surprised her. Mark seemed to have a way of getting information out of people without them realizing they were giving it. But not Brian, he threw it right out there. She looked at him for a long time not sure how to answer.

“Yes,” she finally said. “Sometimes he used a gun. It was a game to him. He would wait until I cried and then he’d pull away, call me a baby and laugh at me.” She didn’t look away when she said it. She wanted to be what she needed to be—stronger, more resilient. She could hear Mark’s breathing increase as he lifted his hand to rub his face.

“I don’t know,” she said to Brian’s unasked question.

Brian’s eyebrows drew together. “You don’t know what?”

“You wanted to ask me why I didn’t leave...I don’t know why.”

“Sarah, I don’t need to ask, he’s a manipulator. Most abusive men are narcissistic. They do it for control. They want to lift themselves up by bringing you down. It’s a power game. Rapists don’t rape for the sex, they rape for power. He’s no different. I’m sure he told you how worthless you were on a daily basis, made you feel like you needed him, and couldn’t survive without him. That kind of abuse is no different than being chained to a bed and starved—same effect on people.”

Mark and Sarah both stared at him. Sarah felt like she’d been punched in the stomach, but she didn’t get up. She would not allow herself to run away from Brian’s gaze.

“It’s nice to know I’m a textbook pathetic, stupid woman.”

“You’re not stupid, pathetic, or textbook. Actually, you’re the opposite of textbook. Most abused women end up dead or in prison for murder. You were strong enough to get away and get your life together. That’s not luck, Sarah. It’s pure, unadulterated strength of character and drive. You can continue to put yourself down, but your time and energy would be better spent concentrating on your new family.”

Wow—he didn’t pull any punches. Sarah wasn’t sure how she liked that. Mark and Brian’s relationship made better sense now that she understood their complete opposite personalities. She finally looked over at Mark’s pale face and saw the nausea he felt.

“Are you okay?”

“I’ll be right back.” He stood up and rushed out of the room.

“He drank a lot last night.”

Brian chuckled. “Yeah, I heard.”

“I’m going to go check on him.”

She went into the bathroom and found him splashing water on his face. “Are you okay?”

He looked at her and nodded as he dried his face on a towel. “You didn’t tell me about the knives.” Mark wiped the clamminess from his neck and rubbed his face again.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have now, but I wanted you to understand why I think he may be the person who killed Charlie.”

“You should tell me everything. I want to know so I can understand you better and help you deal with this.”

“You already treat me like a glass doll. I don’t want you to tiptoe around me, always afraid you’re going to hurt me.”

He stepped back, sat on the closed toilet, and covered his face with the towel. “I hurt you last night.”

“No.” She knelt in front of him. “You did not hurt me last night. Last night was real, you finally didn’t hold back. If I would have said no or asked you to stop, you would have, right?”

“Of course, I would have stopped. I just drank too much and I was upset. I’m sorry.”

She grinned. “I’m not sorry. I enjoyed last night.”

“Did he really put a gun to your head?”

“It doesn’t matter now, Mark.”

“It does matter. It explains everything. God damn, no wonder you want to run away...and the nightmares. I never imagined he did things like that to you. It might have been a game to him, but to you, it had to be terrifying.” He closed his eyes tightly. “It makes me sick to think about it.”

“It makes me sick, too. We have to stop thinking about it.” She nodded toward the office. “Come on, Brian is waiting for us.”

They walked back into the office and Brian was typing on the computer.

“I’ll do some checking in Nashville. Make some calls and see where their investigation stands with Wyman.” He stopped typing and stood to leave. “When I hear from my contact at the airport tomorrow, I’ll call and let you know.”

~

“I feel guilty that Shane sat up all night while we slept,” Sarah said, fixing the collar on her shirt in the bathroom mirror. She tried to hide her agitation from Mark.

“Don’t feel guilty, he’s well paid, and he got a free breakfast out of it.”

She turned from the mirror to face him. “Telling me he’s being paid to sooth my insecurities doesn’t ease my guilt.”

“Your insecurities are well founded. Stop feeling guilty. I’m just hoping Kevin”—he looked at his watch—“got on that plane twenty minutes ago so we can have a nice quiet weekend.”

She sighed. “I would love a quiet weekend.”

“Let’s go downstairs so he can go home.”

She nodded and followed him out.

“Thanks for waiting, Shane. You can take off now,” Mark said, refilling his mug. “Brian should be calling soon. We’ll let you know what’s going on for tonight, get some sleep just in case.”

“Okay, but don’t call me until this afternoon. I’m going straight to bed when I get home.” He yawned as he walked toward to door. “See you guys later.”

“Thanks again, Shane,” Sarah called to his back as he left. She rubbed at her neck, trying to ease some of her tension.

When the phone rang, she stiffened up again.

“Hello,” Mark answered.

He sighed in relief. “What now? Do we still need to worry about this?”

Mark’s eyes met Sarah’s. “Okay, thanks, man.” Mark hung up the phone. “He boarded the plane. Brian is on his way over with the information he’s dug up on him.”

“Okay, so...this might be over soon?”

“Yes, if this goes well, you’ll never have to worry about him again.” Mark reached for her and she rested her head on his chest, unable to hide her relief. “He sounded like he had good news.”

When the doorbell rang, she tensed again.

Mark gave her a sad smile and walked over to get the door for Brian.

“Hi, guys. Good morning.”

“That was fast,” Mark said, gesturing to a chair.

“You look better today,” Brian said to Sarah as he took his seat.

“Thank you. I finally got a good night sleep.”

“I had a talk with an old friend of yours, a cop in Nashville.”

“I don’t know any cops in Nashville.”

“He wasn’t a cop in the eighth grade, but he’s a cop now, a regular good ol’ boy too.” Brian chuckled.

Sarah stared at him for a moment. “I’m afraid to ask...”

“John Bennett.”

Sarah thought about it for a few seconds. “I don’t know...wait, do you mean
Johnny Rhay
Bennett?”

Brian gave her a funny look and nodded his head. “Yeah, he did call himself Johnny Rhay, but I thought it was a joke. Sounds like a Nascar driver if you ask me.”

“Johnny Rhay...oh my God! He’s a cop?” She smiled. “I’m a little surprised.”

“He had some pretty good stories about you, this good ol’ boy liked to talk.”

“We don’t need to go
there
,” she said, feeling the blush rise in her cheeks.

“Oh come on, don’t get embarrassed now.
Was
he the first boy you kissed? ‘Cause he
reckoned
you were the first girl he kissed.” Brian laughed at the look on her face.

“Anyway, Charlie being a gun dealer, all the cops liked him. He was a friend of the department. They’re all interested in finding his killer.”

“Yeah, Johnny Rhay knew Charlie well.”

“I told him the story and he’s very interested in Kevin Lewis, although that has more to do with you than Charlie.”

Sarah stood up quickly. “You told Johnny Rhay?”

“Don’t panic, Sarah,” Brian said.

“Brian, give her a minute. This isn’t something she likes to talk about,” Mark said.

She paced the room for a minute, trying to reconcile her thoughts.

Brian rolled his eyes at Mark. “She’s fine, give her some credit. Sarah, if you sit down, I’ll tell you exactly what I told him, which wasn’t very much.”

Sarah willed herself to relax. It wasn’t that big of a deal, right? One more person knowing about her past wasn’t the end of the world. When she felt ready, she sat back down.

“Are you okay?” Mark asked, surveying her expression.

“Anyway,” Brian said, ignoring Mark’s question. “I gave him zero details about the abuse, or the baby, or the length of time you were with the guy. I only told him what he needed to know about Kevin and our suspicions about the Charlie Wyman case.” Brian smiled at her. “He was pretty curious about you though, asked if you were single. You must have been a hot item in the eighth grade.”