Chapter 38 Macy #2
I halfheartedly nod. “Some things, but most of it is still blank.” My breath hitches when I remember the seconds leading to me blacking out.
“They hit me.” Grayson hisses with me when I trickle my fingers over the back of my skull.
It feels like a handful of stitches are still embedded in the raised, calloused skin.
“And the lady… she…” I lower my hand to my neck. “She inserted something into my neck.”
“She gave you a lethal dose of oxytocin.”
His eyes speak volumes, yet he remains silent. He doesn’t want to step me through this. He wants me… no—he needs me to analyze the facts on my own because he thinks it’s the only way I’ll believe the recollection of events.
“I trust you, Grayson,” I blurt out before I can stop myself. “What happened wasn’t your fault.”
“I wish that were true, freckles.” His voice is barely a whisper.
He battles with himself for almost thirty seconds before the quickest glance at my sleeping child sees him folding like a lawn chair.
“It’s my fault. Your attack was my fault.
” I shake my head. He would never purposely put me in danger, but he maintains his adamancy.
“Cameron knew I would stay. She knew my guilt about not protecting her would let her tear me to shreds for hours, which in turn would give her the perfect alibi. She just didn’t anticipate Samuel’s hesitation when he recognized the target she had selected.
” My heart aches for him during the following two sentences.
“Her change of heart was never about me. She only stopped pretending that she didn’t know who I was so she could get close to you.
” I’m lost as to why she would do that until he adds, “She promised a couple a baby by the start of the month, and took a hefty down payment, but your ‘date’ with Samuel cut her list of candidates even shorter than her archaic beliefs on child-rearing did.”
A yearning for the weight of my gun on my hip smacks into me when his eyes lower to the bundle of blue sleeping between us. Their guilt shows whose baby Cameron planned to give the couple.
It wasn’t hers.
What woman would do that? I can’t imagine any woman being involved in a fetal abduction conglomerate, but a pregnant lady taking part blows my mind, and not in a good way.
As quickly as disbelief hit me, the truth tramples me. “Cameron was never pregnant, was she?”
Air whizzes from Grayson’s nose before he fills the room with the scent of my shampoo with a quick headshake.
“She wasn’t at the Lamaze class because she was months away from giving birth.
She only attended because Samuel gave her the all clear.
If that hadn’t occurred, I have no doubt I’d still be rummaging through her file every night for the next seventeen years, seeking clues on where she is. ”
I’m itching to comfort him, but my shock stops me from formulating a reply. The pieces are slotting together. They’re just too twisted and demented to make the picture crystal clear.
My silence gives Grayson the floor. “Her pregnancy was a ruse to lure expecting mothers into a friendship with her so she could…”
He can’t finish his sentence, and I’m glad.
This could change him. It could tarnish the magic that makes him so good at his job.
That’s the last thing I want. Women like Kendall are relying on him, and even with all that’s happened, he’s still the best agent to bring these women home.
When I say that to him, he scoffs. “You give me too much credit, freckles.”
Pride puffs out his chest as he stares at me in a way I’ve experienced before, but only for a second before guilt stole it away.
It doesn’t pinch it from me this time. It holds firm for several heart-thrashing seconds, growing when he says, “I’m not the one who single-handedly took down four key players in the La eMe.
” The air shifts. It’s denser now, more venerated.
“The man you took down in the alleyway was one of the original perps who kidnapped Cameron.”
I worry about the fallout from shooting an agent, but Grayson quickly dismisses my concerns.
“He wasn’t an agent. My father didn’t fake Cameron’s abduction, nor did he threaten her or her family.
She was kidnapped by the head of a La eMe syndicate based in Tijuana.
They met when Cameron traveled to Tijuana for spring break her senior year.
” I never thought I could hate someone I hardly know, but I hate Cameron when he says, “Her affair with Diego was shorter than the one I had no clue I was a part of, but impactful enough for Cameron to forgive him within days of him kidnapping her, and to do his bidding the past seventeen years.”
So the terror in her eyes he described from that night wasn’t fake. His intuition was correct. Cameron was kidnapped. He was just blind to how rotten an apple can become when nurtured by the wrong tree.
“How did you find all this out?”
Grayson is a brilliant man. He is the best agent I know, but he’s too comfortable with my son to give the vibe of a fly-in, fly-out hospital visitor. He’s been here the entire time I’ve been here. My heart tells me this, and so does my head.
Grayson’s smile takes my breath away. It’s one only the privileged get to see, and I treasure each one I’ve earned since the day we met.
Today will be no different. “My father.” His grin slips as he slaps me with a truth I’ve been dying to unearth since I got an inkling of its existence.
“Although I’m pissed he didn’t bring this directly to me, I’m still glad he forced you on bed rest.” Anger scarcely hues my cheeks before he cools the rage.
“He didn’t order bed rest because he’s stuck in the Stone Age.
It was the only way he could get you off the radar of a viable threat. ”
I take a minute to comb through the sludge in my head, seeking an incident that would inspire a death threat. When I mostly come up blank, I say, “My speech?”
I don’t sound confident. Rightfully so. Our brief visit to my hometown nabbed Sidney Fullick and three of her acquaintances, but associates of the trafficking industry don’t have a lot of friends.
Even hitmen these days are picky about who they work for.
When the bratva and the Italian cartel pulled out of the trafficking industry, both competitors and acquaintances took note.
That’s why I’ve been so optimistic about bringing Kendall home. The trafficking industry is shrinking instead of growing. It just hasn’t stretched across all regions of the globe yet.
Grayson grits his teeth, then shakes his head.
“Then who?” I ask, too impatient to sort through the fragments of memories slowly filtering through my head.
A protective flare darts through his eyes, and when I notice it’s tinged with jealousy, the truth lands in my lap.
“Thompson.”
Now it isn’t solely Grayson’s jaw that’s tight. His hand not clutched by my son’s tiny fingers is firmly balled.
“Was he one of them?” I don’t need to clarify my question. The anger billowing from my ears speaks for me. He was driving an Audi and had multiple bank accounts in the high six-figure range. That screams corruption.
Grayson jerks up his chin, tripling my fury.
However, it has nothing on the anger that envelops me when he says, “To get back at you for losing him the supposed perks that come with our positions, he told a judge that Samuel was his informant”—I almost giggle when he gags while air quoting his last word—“and that he was working an active case when we nabbed him. That’s how he dodged prosecution so easily. ”
“That bitch.”
“I am reasonably sure that’s what his roommate at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility called him when Alex got him settled in his cell earlier this week.”
I shouldn’t smile. It just can’t be helped. I’m all about justice being served to those deserving of its wrath. It’s as essential to me as being the voice of the victims.
Although I’d love to stay in the bubble of bliss forever, I can’t forget my obligations. “Kendall?”
Sorrow fills Grayson’s eyes before he slowly shakes his head.
“This syndicate’s business plan was fetal abduction, not baby-making.
Investigators recovered thirty-eight women from unmarked graves, and their families identified and claimed their remains.
Kendall wasn’t one of them.” He inches closer, ridding my room of its horrid sanitary smell.
“I know I should apologize, freckles, but I won’t.
I’m not sorry we didn’t find your sister, because those victims were already dead.
We know Kendall isn’t. We know it from years of experience, and we know it in here…
” Tears flood my eyes when he taps his chest before doing the same to mine.
“So I won’t apologize. I will just promise that we will bring her home. Together.”
While pretending tears aren’t close to wetting my cheeks, I cover his hand with mine, holding it hostage to my chest before wordlessly thanking him for everything he’s done.
This crew wasn’t the syndicate that has Kendall, but he gave thirty-eight families closure.
He freed them from a pain that’s sometimes worse than grief.
They don’t have to wonder anymore. Now that they have answers, they can start to move forward.
Crew and I can’t do that yet. We’re still stuck in this debilitating spiral of not knowing. We will find answers. I know we will. I just need to keep karma’s balance sheet even, and I know the perfect way to do that.