Kidnapping in Kendall County (19 page)

Her testimony had sealed his fate. “I should have lied back then, said I didn't see anything.”

Another tense second passed. “You were only a kid, Avery.”

“So were you.”

His gaze locked with hers, the memories of the two of them huddled together out in the rain after their mother had left them returning.
I'll take care of you,
Hank had promised.

And he did.

How had she paid him back? By abandoning him.

He cleared his throat. “I tried to find out what happened to you after I got locked up, but no one would tell me anything.”

Avery twined her fingers on the table. “Nobody wanted to take me,” she admitted. “I wound up in a group home.”

He made a low sound of disgust in his throat. “Was it bad?”

Avery picked at her fingernails to keep from rubbing that damned scar. “Not as bad as...the Mulligans.” Nothing had been as bad as living with them.

Of course, Hank might argue that prison was.

“They told me you didn't remember the details of that night.” Hank lowered his head, then spoke through gritted teeth. “I'm glad. I hated what he did to you. He was a monster.”

Shame washed over Avery. She'd never told anyone except the therapist the truth. But Hank knew her darkest secret.

Avery reached across the table and laid one hand on his.

“I'm so sorry for everything, Hank. I know you killed Wade for me.” Tears clogged her throat. “I...should have spoken up, told someone about what he was doing. Maybe it would have helped get you off, or at least they'd have given you some leniency and a lighter sentence.”

Hank studied her for a long few minutes, his expression altering between anger and confusion. “You still don't remember?”

She swallowed hard. “Just that he was drinking. That you fought with him, and he tied you up. Then he came in my room.” She pressed a finger to her temple, massaging where a headache pounded. The headaches always came when she struggled to recall the details. “Then everything went black until I saw you with that knife.”

Hank pulled his hand away and dropped his head into his hands. “God, I don't believe this.”

Avery watched him struggle, her heart pounding.

“Hank, I'm sorry. I should have lied about seeing you with that knife. You always stood up for me, and I let you down.” Her voice cracked with regret.

The handcuffs clanged again, as he reached for her hands this time. The guard stepped forward and cleared his throat in a warning, and Hank pulled his hands back.

“Look at me, Avery,” Hank said in a deep voice. “I didn't kill Wade.”

“What?”

“I didn't kill him,” Wade said again, his voice a hoarse whisper.

Avery gaped at him. Was this a last-minute attempt to save himself from death? “But...you told them you hated him, that you were glad you'd stabbed him.”

He leaned closer over the table, his look feral. “I did stab him, but he was already dead when I stuck that blade in him.”

“What?” Avery's head reeled. “Why didn't you tell the police that?”

“Because I thought
you
killed him,” Hank hissed.

Avery gasped. “You...thought I killed him?”

“Yes.” The word sounded as if it had been ripped straight from his gut. “He was in your room, and there was no one else there in the house. And you had a knife. It was bloody.”

“What?” Avery looked down at her hands. “But I don't remember that.”

Hank rubbed hand down his face. “I...I took it from you. You were...hysterical, in shock.”

Avery tried to piece together the holes in her past. “But...I didn't kill him, Hank. At least I don't think I did.”

Hank's eyes narrowed. “You said you blacked out?”

She had lost time, lost her memory. Because she'd stabbed Wade herself?

Her pulse thundered. Had she let Hank go to jail to cover for her?

God... “Hank, tell me the truth. Did you see me stab him?”

“No, not exactly.” Hank rolled his hands into fists on the table, his scarred knuckles red from clenching his hands so tight. “But I heard him going into your room that night. I knew what he was going to do. I'd known it when Joleen left that morning and I'd been dreading it all day.”

So had she.

“So I sneaked a knife under my pillow. But he tied me up like always. I lay there and heard the door open, and I got angry.” His cheeks blushed with shame. “Then I heard you crying again, and I got madder and madder. He was a monster, and I was your big brother. I had to do something.”

“But you did,” Avery said, her heart aching as memories surfaced. “You tried to pull him off me before, and he beat you for it.” She paused, struggling with the images hitting her. Wade on top of her. Wade holding her down.

Or was that another night? So many of them bled together....

Nights of Wade shoving Hank against the wall and beating him with his belt. His fists. A wooden mallet. Anything he could get his hands on.

“I
wanted
to kill him,” Hank said, his voice gaining force. “So I twisted in the bed until I got hold of that knife and cut myself free. But when I made it to your room, Wade was already bleeding on the floor. His eyes were bulging, and he wasn't breathing.”

Avery's head swam. “He was already dead?”

Hank nodded. “I thought you'd stabbed him. You were crouched on the bed, crying and shaking. I tried to get you to stop crying, but you wouldn't. And you wouldn't talk, either. You just kept staring at the blood, and I heard the siren and was afraid they'd take you away, and you didn't deserve that.”

A cold chill enveloped Avery. “Oh, Hank, what have we done?”

Silence fell between them, fraught with emotion. They were both lost in the horror of that night.

Finally Avery swiped at her tears. “This is unreal.... You went to jail for nothing. I should have come forward and told everyone what he'd done to me.” Rage and pain suffused her for all Hank had lost. For what they'd both lost. “I'm so sorry.... We have to make this right. We have to get you out of here.”

Despair settled on Hank's face, the scar on his temple stark beneath the harsh lighting. “It's too late now. My execution is already set.”

She couldn't let him die for a crime he hadn't committed. “No, I'll find a way,” she said. “I'll talk to your lawyer.”

Hank grunted. “Not the one I had in the beginning. He didn't give a crap. But there is a new lady, just out of law school. She came to see me a few weeks ago.”

“Did you tell her what you told me?”

Hank shook his head. “I was afraid they'd come after you and arrest you. There's no way I'd let you end up in this place.”

Avery's throat burned with regret, yet her anger gave her strength. “What was this lawyer's name? I'll talk to the warden, and then I'll call her.”

“It won't do any good,” Hank said, defeat in his voice. “I told you, it's too late.”

“No, it's not.” Avery took a deep breath. “What was that lawyer's name?”

“Lisa Ellis,” Hank mumbled. “But I'm telling you, it won't make any difference.” He gestured around the room, then at the guard. “I know how things work in here.”

Avery's voice gained conviction. “I'm not going to let you die for something you didn't do, Hank. I'll talk to that lawyer and if she can't help, I'll find someone who will.”

Avery stood, anxious to make the phone call. Hank had given up hope long ago because she hadn't been there for him.

No one had.

It was time that changed.

* * *

J
AXON
IDENTIFIED
HIMSELF
to the warden, a chuffy bald man with thick dark brows and ropes of tattoos on his arms, and explained that he wanted to visit Hank Tierney.

“Yes, you can see him, but this is odd,” Warden Unger said. “Tierney has only had one visitor in the past twenty years until today. Today he's had two.”

Jaxon straightened his shoulders. “Who else came to see him?”

“His sister.” The warden scratched his head. “Obviously with the execution date approaching, she wanted to say goodbye.”

Or perhaps that lawyer Director Landers had mentioned had spoken with her.

The warden twirled the pen on his desk. “What brings you here?”

“My director wanted me to make sure the execution is still on.”

Warden Unger nodded. “Good. Thought you might be working for that pansy-ass attorney out to get a stay.”

“I take it that means you think Tierney is guilty.”

Unger shrugged and dropped the pen. “A jury convicted him. My job is to make sure these animals in here don't slit each other's throats, not argue with the court.”

A buzzer sounded on the warden's desk, and his receptionist's voice echoed over the speaker.

“Warden, Avery Tierney insists on seeing you right away.”

Unger glanced at Jaxon and Jaxon nodded in agreement. “Send her in.”

Jaxon had studied the files on the case before he'd driven to the prison. Avery Tierney had been the only person at the house when her brother murdered their foster father.

She was nine at the time, and according to the doctor who'd examined and interviewed her afterward, she'd been in shock and too traumatized to talk.

The door opened, and the warden's secretary escorted Avery Tierney in.

Nothing Jaxon had read in the file prepared him for the beautiful woman who stepped inside. Avery Tierney had been a skinny, homely-looking kid wearing hand-me-downs with scraggly, dirty brown hair and freckles. She'd looked lost, alone and frightened.

This Avery was petite with chocolate-brown eyes that would melt a man's heart and curves that twisted his gut into a knot.

Although fear still lingered in those eyes. The kind of fear that made a man want to drag her in his arms and promise her everything would be all right.

She looked back and forth between him and the warden. “Warden Unger,” Avery said, her voice urgent. “You have to help me stop the execution and get my brother released from prison.”

The warden cleared his throat. “Why would I do that, Miss Tierney?”

A pained sound ripped from Avery Tierney's throat. “Because he's innocent. He didn't kill Wade Mulligan.”

Copyright © 2014 by Rita B. Herron

ISBN-13: 9781460343951

Kidnapping in Kendall County

Copyright © 2014 by Delores Fossen

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