Destroy You (Destroy #3) (26 page)

Chapter 33

Trent

During my short ride in the ambulance, images of Trinity looped through my head. It didn’t seem real that she was gone, and if I hadn’t witnessed her being consumed by fire, I doubt I’d have believed it. Trinity was a force of nature in my life. She had a quick wit and a sharp tongue. When she was around, the world was painted in shades of neon, and I’d never see things the same way I did before she entered my life years ago.

Unfortunately, time had changed her into a hopelessly fucked-up girl. After she left us the first time to go back and live with her mother, Trinity had turned to drugs and alcohol to cope with her life. She’d grown increasingly bitter and jaded during her teen years, as the cycle of going between our house and her mother’s wore her down. I’d tried hard to bring back the young girl in pigtails that still believed there was a happy ending out there waiting for her, but there wasn’t any hope in Trinity’s eyes when I saw her today.

The ambulance pulled in front of the hospital. Even though I was only feeling pain in my hands, I was still strapped down to a gurney and wheeled into the ER. Doctors hovered over me and talked about me as if I weren’t present. I opened my mouth to speak but an oxygen mask was placed over my face.

When a nurse brought over a hospital gown, I started struggling with them. I ripped the mask off my face, which stung like a bitch when I closed my hand around it. “I’m not wearing that shit.”

The doctor sighed. “Mr…” He flipped through my chart. “McKenzie. You need to be treated for the burns on your hands and for smoke inhalation.”

My jaw clenched. Yelling at the doctor for doing his job was stupid, but I wasn’t wearing that ass-baring sheet they called a gown. “Treat me then, but I’m not wearing that,” I said and pointed to the faded blue piece of fabric the nurse was still holding.

The doctor shrugged. “Have it your way. If the smell of smoke gets to be too much, let us know and we’ll bring you a gown.”

Not fucking likely. I didn’t plan on staying here long enough for it to be a problem. “When can I get out of here?”

“We’re going to run some tests on your blood count and monitor your oxygen levels first,” he said. “Also the burns on your hands need to be treated and dressed. Once all of that is taken care of, we can see to getting you released.”

“Fine, but can someone track down Toni Padilla?” I asked. “She’s visiting her mom Graciela Padilla here in the hospital. Oh, and I should call my mom, because if she hears about the fire on the news, she’ll kick my ass once she finds out I’m okay.”

I dictated my mom’s phone number to an administrative assistant and waited impatiently for someone to bring Toni in. Ten minutes later when she still hadn’t appeared, I started to worry that her mother’s condition was very bad and that once again Trinity had managed to keep me from being with her. As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I felt guilty. Being angry with her wouldn’t take away the pain of her death, but dammit, I was so pissed off at her.

From down the hallway, I could hear my mother’s voice demanding to be shown to my room. She was a calm woman under normal conditions but could be a total lunatic when she was stressed. After hassling a few nurses, she was shown to my room. My doctor exited to give us a few minutes alone and to check on the arrival of the burn specialist.

“Oh! Thank God you’re all right,” she sobbed. “Look at your hands,” she gasped.

“They’ll be all right, Mom. A specialist is going to be in here soon to check on them. Please don’t worry about me.” I paused, not wanting to make Trinity’s death any more real by telling my mother. Like telling her would confirm I wasn’t trapped in some horrible nightmare I’d soon wake up from. “Mom, have you heard…?”

My mom put her hand on my cheek and sat down on my bed. “I know about Trinity.” She wiped a tear from her cheek. “I think we all knew that girl was on a path of destruction. I hoped she’d turn her life around, but I suppose I’ve been preparing myself for this day. Of course, I hadn’t imagined she’d burn down your bar while you were still in it. I’m so mad at that girl and mad at myself for feeling that way.”

“I understand. I’m mad at her too, and it makes me feel like shit,” I admitted.

My doctor returned, and my mom stood and stepped away from my bed. “Sorry I can’t stay. I’ve got to start making arrangements for Trinity’s funeral. I’ve been trying to find her mother. I would want to know if I was her parent, but she seems to have fallen off the face of the earth again. I want to make a few more phone calls before I throw in the towel.”

I nodded. I certainly didn’t envy what she had to do. “Let me know if you need me.”

She smiled sadly. “I can do this. You just focus on getting better and being safe.” She leveled a piercing glare at me to emphasize her point before exiting.

A nurse poked her head in the room a few minutes after my mother’s departure. “Doctor, there’s a police officer here to speak to Mr. McKenzie.”

Detective Daniels pushed past the nurse. I was expecting to see Zack, hopefully escorting Toni to see me, and felt a moment’s panic when it wasn’t him. Daniels must have seen the look of fear cross my face, because he quickly put me at ease. “I had Davis take Toni to a new safe house. The rest of us are here with you.”

My relief lasted only a few seconds. “You sent Zack to guard her alone?”

“Relax. Very few people know about this place, and Officer Davis knows what he’s doing.”

Another doctor entered the room, introduced himself, and began smearing an ointment on my hands and bandaging them. Daniels continued to go over the details of the fire over and over again until I considered ruining the doc’s patch-up job on my hands by decking him in the face. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the guy, but if I had to describe the moments that led up to Trinity being engulfed in flames one more time, I was going to do physical violence to someone.

Outside in the hallway, the sounds of police radios and frantic paramedics caused Daniels to pause his questions. He moved over to the doorway and stopped. From across the room, I heard him gasp. The sound prompted me to fumble to take off the oxygen mask and blood pressure cuff that was effectively restraining me to the bed.

Daniels only waited a moment before he began to follow the gurney down the hallway. As soon as I freed myself, I went after him. When the medical staff turned the corner toward X-Ray, I got a glimpse of short, dirty-blond hair. It wasn’t enough for me to be sure who it was, but the look on Daniels’s face confirmed it was Zack.

“Daniels, where is Toni?” I demanded.

He shook his head. “Fuck,” he muttered under his breath and pulled out his phone. I wanted to overhear his conversation, but he moved away from me down the hall. After a two-minute phone call, he made his way back to where I was standing.

“I’ve got to call Martin. I don’t give a shit that he isn’t a cop anymore, I need his help.”

My jaw clenched, and I searched his face, hoping to see anything other than the desperation written plainly across his features. “Tell me,” I demanded.

He shook his head. “I don’t have a fucking clue where she is.”

“What do you know?” My tone was cutting, but he needed to start telling me something before I lost my shit.

“Something weird is going on. Perez was the one that dropped Davis off here at the hospital. The safe house we set up was in Selah. I don’t know why he was with him, or why if he needed medical treatment, he didn’t take Davis to Yakima since it was closer.”

Agent Perez came down the hallway and approached Daniels. “What’s going on here, JP?” Daniels asked him.

He exhaled. “Dispatch received a call with the address of the safe house and instructions to hurry. The dispatcher says that there was a woman heard in the background, but the call was dropped. I was in the area and went there immediately. I noticed a motorcycle in the front yard, Davis’s unmarked car, and tracks for another vehicle. I raced Zack here without thinking. I should have taken him to a closer hospital, but I wanted him to be treated where we’ve already got uniformed officers looking out.”

Perez looked up at me, and I could see there was worse news coming. “Just a couple of minutes ago, one of the techs confirmed Miguel’s car was captured on security cameras pulling past the gates of the property. It wasn’t there when I arrived.”

“Why wasn’t there someone monitoring the security cameras? Who does the motorcycle belong to?” I asked.

“Funny you should ask. The plates on the bike are registered to you,” Perez answered.

Registered to me? Rocky had pulled my bike out of the storage area because he was going to take it home and store it for me. It was outside the bar before the fire. Anyone could have taken it, but only one person came to mind.

“Leo Maroni was at the bar right before the fire. He’s the one that pulled me out of the fire. I haven’t seen him since they loaded me into the ambulance,” I said.

Perez smiled slightly. “That’s excellent news. I’m going to see if I can get him on the phone.”

I wanted to pester him more, but he disappeared down the hallway, dialing his phone.

Daniels slapped me on the back, and I coughed. Perhaps I did need that oxygen mask after all. I didn’t see how I was going to be able to stay still, though, until I knew where Toni was.

“Stop imagining the worst until we hear what made Perez so excited,” Daniels instructed.

Reed and Aiden came up behind me. “It’s about time you arrived,” Daniels said to Reed.

“You called me ten minutes ago,” he pointed out.

“We need to go check in with Perez and find out what the fuck is going on. I’m ready to get out of here. We aren’t going to find her sitting on our asses,” Daniels grumbled.

Aiden grabbed my elbow and pulled me back toward the exam room I was supposed to be in while Reed and Daniels went to find Perez. “C’mon. Believe me, I know waiting is hard, but you have to trust these guys to do their job. Reed and Daniels found Becca when my bitch of a mother had her abducted. I promise you they won’t quit until they’ve found Toni.”

Trust was difficult, and sitting still was nearly impossible, but with the machines hooked back up to me, I didn’t have much choice. Aiden didn’t appear any more settled than I felt. He paced in front of the small window, constantly checking his phone.

He growled, and the sound expressed all the tension building inside of me. “Oh, to hell with this,” he shouted.

I pulled the mask off my face again and freed myself from the rest of the machines. “What can we do?”

Aiden shrugged. “I’m not really sure, but we can go back to my house and see if we can figure out a place to start.” He glanced over his shoulder before looking at me again. “I can probably hack into the police security database and see what they recorded from the safe house.”

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.” Daniels surprised us by choosing that moment to reenter my room. “We should go back to your place, though. Perez wants to get us all together. He believes Toni is safe and said he’ll explain everything to us somewhere more secure.” Daniels motioned us to follow him, and without checking myself out of the hospital, I walked out.

Chapter 34

Toni

Leo drove us to a seedy-looking motel outside of Ellensburg. It was the kind of place meth addicts went to overdose. The property consisted of several tiny little cabins all spread apart. They may have been charming about forty years ago, but now they had missing shingles, chipped paint, and weeds in the flowerbeds. It was either perfect for hiding out, or for chopping up a body. I was really hoping Leo was planning on option A.

I had vague memories of Leo, but I also seemed to have memories of a woman being beaten to death, so I wasn’t sure remembering him went to his favor. He pulled around to the side of the office, where the car wouldn’t be visible, and went in to get us a room. He’d pulled the plates off the car back at the safe house and switched them with the ones on Zack’s car so fast it was clear he’d had practice.

He didn’t give me the creeps the way he did when I first met him at the bar, but that didn’t mean I thought shacking up with him at some roach motel was a good idea, either. While I was out of his sight, I tried to struggle against where my hands and feet were still bound together, but I only managed to dig the nylon ties deeper into my skin.

Leo strolled around the corner of the building and back to the driver’s side of the car a few minutes later. He looked down at my hands and shook his head. “You are still a little hellion. I don’t know why I thought that would have changed.”

He started the car and drove to the back corner of the property. After he parked in front of one of the shacks—up close they looked less like cabins—he ran around the front of the car and opened my door. He had to reach inside and pick me up since I was still bound. He tossed me over his shoulder so he had one hand free.

Instead of those electronic cards that almost every motel has now, this place still used real keys on enormous key chains only Paul Bunyan or the Jolly Green Giant could put in their pockets. With me balanced on his shoulder, Leo opened the door and carried me through the entrance before kicking it shut. He immediately locked the door behind him, walked through a tiny sitting room, and set me down on one of the two beds in the bedroom.

From the pocket of his jeans, he produced a multi-tool with a serrated knife. My heart sputtered, and I held my breath.

“Calm down,” he said and grabbed my calf. “I know you don’t trust me yet, but I’m not going to hurt you.”

He put the blade under the zip tie on my ankles and started to saw through the hard nylon. The movement made it dig in a little more, and I winced. “At least I will try not to hurt you anymore than necessary. That little fucker put these things on way too tight. Not that he should have used them at all, but he could have been more humane about it. I don’t feel so bad about all the duct tape I used to secure him to that tree now.”

The moment my ankles were free, the blood rushed into my feet, making them feel like thousands of tiny needles were being inserted into my skin. I wiggled them around until the pain started to dissipate a little.

Leo looked at me sympathetically, and I knew it was because he had to cut the ties off my wrists next. “This is going to hurt. I’m sorry, but he put these on too tight as well, and you don’t have the benefit of long sleeves to keep these from digging into your skin.”

I sucked in a breath, like it was going to help me endure the pain. The first jarring motion of him sawing through the tie made me release it in a hiss. “Distract me,” I begged.

“Hmm,” he said. “Do you know the name Eva?”

I don’t know if it was the name or the nylon cord cutting into my skin, but I felt immediately on the verge of passing out or puking. I swallowed hard before I managed to respond. “Yeah, my dad has called me that a few times in the past. And sometimes I dream of a woman named Eva.”

He stopped cutting and stared at me with his mouth gaping open. “Your dad calls you Eva? That sonofabitch!” He took several deep breaths to calm down before he proceeded to cut the tie again.

“Leo, who is Eva?” I asked, but I think deep down I knew what he was about to tell me.

“She was your mother,” he said in a hushed tone. The reverence in his voice showed me he’d cared for her deeply.

“But I visited my mother today in the hospital, didn’t I?”

“No, that miserable cunt is not your mother,” he snapped. “Sorry, let me get this cord off your wrists, and I’ll tell you everything.”

A few more agonizing passes of the blade across the nylon and my hands were free. My shoulders ached from having my arms bound behind my back, and my wrists were red, raw, and bloody.

Leo saw the marks on my skin and closed his eyes for a minute. “Annie, why don’t you go take a shower and try to gently clean your wounds. I’m going to call Javier and your EPD friends and let them know where we are.”

I started to argue with him, wanting to know the rest of the story, but he held his hand up to stop me. “I know you want to hear everything right now, but Javier insisted he be here when you find out, and I think you’d probably like to know how Trent and Zack are doing, right?”

Dammit, he had me there. As much as I wanted to hear what he had to say, I needed to know how Trent was doing and if Zack was still alive. I nodded and went to the bathroom, praying I didn’t find something inhabiting the shower.

Aside from hard-water stains and chipped counter tops, the bathroom was pretty clean. The showerhead didn’t exert the most water pressure, but nothing crawled in with me, so overall I’d say it was a tolerable experience. There was a bit of a
Psycho
moment, though, as I washed my wrists and all the dried blood ran down the drain. I shook those images from my mind and quickly finished up.

I’d only been in the bathroom for about fifteen minutes, but the sound of car doors outside let me know Leo hadn’t wasted time making his phone calls. He went over to the window and pulled back the curtain to peer outside. Satisfied with whoever had arrived, he unlocked the door so they could enter.

Javier Perez came in first, followed by Daniels, Reed, and Trent. My eyes welled with tears the moment I saw he was safe, and a hysterical noise escaped my throat. I ran toward him and practically climbed him when I reached him.

After a moment, I realized his arms were wrapped around me, but he wasn’t holding me. I looked down and saw his hands were covered in bandages. I slid down his body and brought his hands up to take a closer look, not that I could see anything through the gauze.

The corner of his mouth curved up, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. As bad as this day was for me, I could tell it was very traumatic for him. “Are you okay?” I squeaked.

He licked his lip and dragged his teeth across his lip ring. “It’s better now that I know you’re safe, but I’m not sure I’m anywhere close to okay,” he admitted.

“Your hands?”

“Second degree burns. They hurt like a bitch, but they’ll heal. There probably won’t even be much scarring. I, uh, tried…” He exhaled shakily.

Leo came over and patted Trent on the shoulder. He waited until Trent looked at him. “You did everything you could. There are a lot of people that deserve blame for what happened to that girl, but you aren’t one of them. Do you understand me?”

“Who?” I asked.

“Trinity,” Trent whispered.

I gasped. I didn’t like her, but no way would I have wished her dead. “Oh God. I’m so sorry. You probably need to go and help your mom with arrangements or just be with each other. I totally understand if you need to go,” I rambled.

He put his arms around me again and used his forearms to pull me tight to his chest. “I love you, Wildcat. I’m not going to lie, losing her, especially like that, sucks. Thank you for thinking of me while you are going through this, but what I need right now is you. I’ve been worried sick about you since I saw Zack being wheeled through the hospital.”

“He’s alive?” I asked. “I’m so glad he was found. Leo kinda tossed me into Miguel’s car and took off.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Leo interjected. “Javi and I have been investigating a branch of the Mexican drug cartel, and if Miguel is wrapped up with them, like we think he is, it could have been bad. I didn’t want to risk losing you again.”

“What do you mean by losing me again?” I asked.

He and Perez exchanged a look, and Leo gestured for me to sit. Once I sat down on the bed, pulling Trent along with me, Leo dragged a chair over in front of me and took a seat. He exhaled, and his expression took on a faraway look.

“When I was twenty-one years old, I was a rookie on the San Diego Police Force. I was cocky, stubborn, and believed I was invincible. Javier and I were in the police academy together, and after graduation, we decided to share a place.

“Javi’s sister helped us find a nice duplex next to her. It worked out great, right up until he realized I’d fallen in love with her. We fought about it at first, but once he saw that I’d do anything for her, and her little girl, he accepted our relationship. I didn’t care that her daughter wasn’t biologically mine. We started planning to get married, and if she could convince her ex to give up his rights, I was going to adopt her little girl.”

A tear ran down his face, and he cleared his throat, trying to choke back sobs. “What I didn’t know at the time was that her ex-boyfriend hadn’t given up on the idea of the two of them. When they first got together, he spoiled her. He was much older than she was, and she got caught up in his spell. That was until she found out he was married, and she was the other woman. She ended their fling that moment and promised him she wouldn’t tell his wife. Unfortunately, she learned she was pregnant soon after. For four years, he would sneak away and see their daughter. She was trapped in exactly the relationship she’d tried to avoid, and he wouldn’t tolerate her bringing other men around the little girl.”

I was shaking, but too stunned to intrude, so I let him continue speaking, even though every word brought my nightmare closer to reality. I took a deep breath and forced the feeling back, trying to lie to myself for a few more seconds.

“I didn’t know he had a horrible temper or what she risked by seeing me. What I know now, but can’t prove, is that he found out about us and beat her to death with a blunt object in front of their four-year-old daughter. My guess is he paid someone in the police department to lose the incriminating evidence taken at the scene. There wasn’t enough proof remaining of his guilt, and he was never charged with a crime. Worse, after she died, he legally claimed the little girl and raised her with his wife. I tried to keep track of her, but they left the area shortly after. I tried every method I knew to find her, but it was like she vanished.”

That sick feeling returned, and I began to shake.

“Annie—”

I jumped up and paced the room like a caged animal.

“No! Those were dreams. Not real—they can’t be—he can’t be—Oh, God,” I sobbed. My parents had lied to me for years. No, they weren’t my parents, or at least she wasn’t my real mother.

“What was my mother’s name?” I asked in a hushed tone.

Javier looked up at me. “Evangeline Perez. Your name was Antoinette Renee Perez.”

My hand covered my mouth before I thought about moving it. It just occurred to me that Javier was my uncle. When my eyes welled with tears, he got up and pulled me into his arms. He kissed the top of my head and rocked us back and forth. “The moment I met you in Seattle, I felt like I’d seen a ghost. You look so much like your mother, but I’d given up the hope of finding you years ago.”

“That’s the part I don’t understand,” Reed interjected.

“I knew my sister was seeing some old guy named Anthony Silva. By the time our family was notified of Eva’s death, you’d already been released to him from the hospital,” Javier explained. “I went to court to try to get custody, but he’d disappeared overnight. Leo and I tried everything to find you, but he’d covered his tracks completely. There was even a falsified death certificate for Antoinette Perez, so we couldn’t get you listed as a missing child. I still chased down every lead we could, but it was like you’d just disappeared into thin air.”

“What now?” Trent interrupted. “After all the trouble her father has gone through to control her and try to force her to marry that dickwad, I don’t think he’s going to just walk away.”

Reed seemed pensive and sauntered over to peer out the window. “It seems to me that about this time we try and hole up in a safe house somewhere, falsely thinking we’re well hidden, when the bad guy comes and ambushes us with our guard down.”

“How about we skip that part this time?” I commented.

“He’s right, though. We’ll just be sitting ducks unless we figure out a way to bring them down,” Leo replied.

“What do you suggest?” Javier tossed back in a sarcastic tone.

Leo tipped his head in my direction. “If Anthony Silva, or whatever the fuck he wants to go by—”

“Padilla,” Javier reminded him.

“I don’t give a shit. Anyway, if he is so determined to marry his daughter off to Miguel Santos, like Trent pointed out, I think it’s time we found out why. That little shit barely has two brain cells to rub together, and that’s who he wants for his daughter? I call bullshit. There’s something else in play there, and I want to know what.”