Chapter 40
RILEY
“C ome on, little one, just show me a sign.” I haul myself out of the bath and grab hold of a towel. I won’t admit to Sawyer that I ran it a little hotter than usual. It doesn’t seem to have worked anyway.
I grab my robe from the back of the door and tie it around my middle; it only just stretches around me. Dr. West said she could be in there for another two weeks, and I can’t even imagine what two more weeks of her growing would be like.
Picking up a hand towel, I use it to dry my hair as I head out the door and back to the bedroom.
My hospital bag is sitting patiently by the door. The nursery is ready; all we need now is for things to get moving.
“Morning, Riley.” I gasp when I step through the bedroom door and see Jack sitting patiently on the end of my bed.
“No!” I shake my head and start backing away.
“Yes.” He steps toward me. “It’s me, in the flesh.” He waits until I’m backed up against the wall before he takes my wrist and forces my hand to touch his face.
“You're dead.” I must be dreaming, maybe I ran that bath too hot and I’ve passed out in it.
“Do I feel dead?” he asks, looking and sounding nothing like the Jack I used to know. This man is cold and very dangerous.
“What are you doing here?”
“We can talk about that later,” he tells me, and when he looks between our bodies, I freeze when his hand touches my stomach.
“What happened to never wanting kids?” he asks, reaching his hand behind his back and retrieving a gun.
“Jack, what's that for?” I hear the fear in my voice.
“Come back into the bedroom, take the weight off those feet.” He presses the barrel against my head to get me moving, and I try my best to be brave and not panic as I do as he says.
“Sit down right here.” He pats the mattress, keeping the gun tight to my temple.
“Now, tell me why, of all the places on Earth, you came here?” he hisses at me.
“I saw your car, the bomb. There was a body.” I go over everything in my head, wondering how he could possibly be here.
“The Gendrys do a thorough job, don’t they?” He laughs, and I feel as if my insides are being twisted in knots.
“What are you talking about?”
“Do you think I could have pulled off a disappearing act like that, all by myself? I’m good but not that fucking good.” He hooks his finger into his mouth and pulls it open so I can see the gaps at the back of his mouth. “Dental records are all you need when a body is unidentifiable, you know that.”
“But why? All this time I thought it was them who killed you!”
“I was getting too much pressure from the Bureau, Riley. I couldn’t be on both sides forever. Not with you constantly kicking the hornet's nest.”
“Well, you picked the wrong side. How could you? You know what that family does, you investigated it.”
“Nothing matters more than family, Riley.”
“What?” I’m tired of him talking to me in riddles.
“Look a little closer… I may not have the Gendry surname, but I got my daddy's eyes.”
“ No. ”
“My mom never had the guts to tell me that Steve wasn’t my real dad. She thinks I went to the grave believing her lies. Michael approached me when I was eleven years old and told me who I really was. We agreed to keep our meetings a secret, in case Mom moved us away again. I hated not being one of them, but I got a chance to prove myself in a way none of his other sons could. I worked my way up through the ranks so I could be an inside man who my dad knew he would have no doubt about trusting. That took a lot of work, then you…you handing your little homework project to the boss put all that in jeopardy. Dad’s business had been going under the radar for years, and when they opened that case, I had to be on it. I felt really bad for having to bring up your history. But it was a duty of care.”
“What are you talking about?” I recoil in horror when I start to suspect where this is going.
“You know what I’m talking about, my brother takes a photograph of every single one. A little keepsake. You think the first time we met, I hadn’t seen you before?”
“You're lying.” I shake my head.
“You became a threat, Riley, and Gendrys don’t like threats.”
“So why not just kill me like they do everyone else. We were together for three years , you asked me to marry you!”
“And you said yes.” He chuckles.
“The problem is, Riley…” He crouches between my legs, “...I really did love you. I saw you the night of that party, all pretty and placid. You didn’t even look in my direction, I thought you were just like everyone else who flirted with my brother. That you’d heard of the Gendry name and were out for what you could get.”
“That's not true, and you know it. You know me, Jack.”
“Do I?” He makes me tense when he drops the gun to glide across the top of my stomach.
“I thought I did…but you're full of surprises.”
I understand his shock. Back when we were together, I told him that I didn’t want to have kids. I was so scared that I couldn’t love that I forced myself to try it, and refusing to become like my parents meant that I would have to choose one or the other. I was never going to risk bringing a child into a relationship. So I lied. I told the man I was set to marry that I didn’t want kids when, deep down, it was all my heart ever desired.
“Shacking up with a dodgy bartender, letting him knock you up. That's not the Riley Hale I know.” Jack shakes his head.
“So you got with me because your brother raped me?” I stare back at him, trying to take the conversation away from my baby.
“You're not listening to me. My feelings for you have always been real. I saw you that night, and I was hurt that you went home with him. I thought that you were just like all the others. I thought that you’d gotten what you deserved.”
“You're sick,” I tell him, crying more tears when I think about all the time I spent trying to love this man.
“Meeting you, years later, at training was a coincidence. I recognised you, I saw that you were different, I saw who you really were, and I wanted you.”
“You had me, Jack, but you blew yourself up and chose them,” I remind him, very aware that the gun is still pointing at my belly.
“I never really had you.” He raises it back up and uses it to slide some of the wet hair from my face. “You didn’t look me in the eyes when we fucked, the way you do with him.”
I feel that cold chill again when I realize what he’s saying.
“How do you know that, Jack?” I ask, fearing his answer.
“I’ve seen it, Riley. I’ve seen everything. I’ve had you under surveillance.” The way he looks up at the light fixture above the bed makes me shudder. “I even left you a little reminder of us when I came here to fix them up.
I close my eyes when I think of the day I found that picture on my bed.
“I loved you, Riley, I loved you enough to walk away. I tried to warn you to back off, and now it’s too late. I need you to tell me where the girl is.” He looks unhinged.
“Jack, I don’t know where she is; you’ll have to ask Jamie Sullivan.” I feel my little girl fidget inside me and start to cry when I think of the danger she’s in.
“Not the answer I came here for, Riley. Try again.” He presses the gun hard into my temple.
“I don’t know where she is, I swear. I asked him to hide her, because I knew they’d try to take her back. I swear on my baby's life that I don’t know where she is.” I stroke my hand over my tummy, wondering if she can sense my fear.
“Why is he so special? Why him?” Jack asks with tears forming in his eyes.
“I’ve always wanted to be a mom, I just knew that if I was, I’d have to do it alone.”
“See that. That, right there…that's what I’m talking about. You’re cold and closed off, Riley. I loved you so hard, and you gave nothing back.”
“I was trying,” I promise him.
“Guess I just wasn’t enough.” He shakes his head in disappointment.
“I really didn’t want to do this, remember that.” He keeps the gun pointed at me, as he reaches down to the floor on the other side of the bed and picks up a holdall..
“You know where that girl is, and you're gonna tell me.” He reaches inside and pulls out some rope. “Or things are about to get real painful.”