Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
“What in the hell is happening?”
Honey whirled toward Jake. They were in the hospital’s hallway, right outside of the exam room that had been assigned to Wren.
She’d already been cleaned up— the blood had better all be gone. And a doc was currently examining her, thus the reason Jake was cooling his heels in the hallway with the sheriff. A sheriff who had apparently been keeping far too many secrets from him. Secrets about Wren.
“Wren was in shock when she spoke earlier.” No emotion entered Honey’s cool voice. “Clearly, she did not know what she was saying.”
“Clearly, that’s some bullshit,” he tossed right back. They were alone in the corridor. Makayla and Jennifer had tried to push their way back to the exam area, but the two women had been detained in the waiting room. Right now, he wanted answers, and Jake was going to get them. If Honey wouldn’t give him what he needed, then he’d be ripping his way through every contact he had at the FBI. “You’re a former Fed. A damn FBI profiler.” He knew she’d been one of the best at the job. “Did you work her dad’s case?”
She didn’t speak.
His patience was long gone. All the stuff he’d thought that he knew about Wren? Wrong. And the idea that Wren had been carrying this burden while he just stood there, unknowing, for so many years, made him ache. “You think I don’t know that Milo is a former Fed, too? Seriously? Do you know how many government contracts I’ve worked? And don’t go forgetting my brother is CIA.”
“As if I could forget.” A roll of her eyes. “You twins were always pains in my ass. Still are, by the way.”
He was about to become an even bigger pain. “Milo isn’t her uncle, is he?”
Her lips pursed.
“Her father is a serial killer.”
She rocked onto the balls of her feet, then dipped back onto her heels. The woman was all of five-foot-nothing. The faintest threads of gray slid through the darkness of her black hair. Her sharp gaze assessed him, and he could practically see the wheels grinding in her head as she tried to figure out what BS to feed him. “Wren was confused,” she began.
No, she had not been. “I’ve seen the scars on her shoulders.”
She swallowed. “Have you now? I heard she fell when she was younger. Some kind of tree house accident.” A shake of her head. “Painful, but those things happen.”
“Bullshit.” Honey was normally a much better liar. “Did he do that to her?”
“Wren is?—”
“Do not tell me she’s confused again. She’s not. She’s strong and she’s determined, and she survived two attacks in two days. I don’t think those attacks had a damn thing to do with her father.” Eb had been too certain that this madness was tied to their own bloody pasts. But with this new reveal from Wren, he needed to know more in order to be sure. Maybe he and Honey should both put all of their cards on the table. “Eb sent me to her. He thinks one of our enemies is targeting her. The nightmare that’s happening to Wren? These attacks? He thinks it’s because of us. And that’s what I thought, too, until this new bombshell made me start second guessing.” What had his Wren endured? And how could he take all of her pain away?
Honey’s dark lashes flickered. “That would track. Trouble coming from you two bozos. Trouble follows you both everywhere like a shadow.” A brief pause as she seemed to consider things. Then she exhaled and admitted, “More likely that it is related to you two, especially since her father’s remains were positively identified recently. After being hidden for years, an off-the-books team closed in on him. Only to discover that he was already dead. DNA verified his identity.” Her gaze darted along the empty hallway before returning to Jake. “Her father is dead, and as far as the rest of the world is concerned, his only child—a daughter—died years ago, too. She died as a result of injuries she’d sustained courtesy of her dear old, freak of a dad.”
It felt as if he’d just taken a bullet to the heart. “Who was he?”
“One of the most twisted bastards I’ve ever seen. Handsome as sin, charming as a snake, and sadistic enough to give you nightmares for the rest of your life.”
That wasn’t a name.
“He targeted couples. See, his wife left him when she realized he was, you know, fucking demented. As you do. Only he tracked her down and killed her. First order of business.”
Fucking fuck.
“Then he got this idea in his head that there were no perfect couples in the world. That when times got hard, even the most loving couple would turn on each other. Survival of the fittest at play. These people would do anything to escape, to survive, even betray the one they claimed to love most. Hurt the person they loved the most. Romantic love to him—it was a lie. The only thing that mattered was blood. As in, your own freaking DNA. A blood connection—a familial connection—was the most powerful thing in the world. And since the only person bound by blood to him was his daughter…”
“She was all that mattered.” His hands were fisted.
“Yes. So he liked to give her an up close view of his attacks. He never wanted her to be confused or misled by someone the way he was. Love is a lie. Blood is truth. It was a lesson he worked hard to instill in her.”
This couldn’t be happening. Dammit. Dammit! How could this have happened to his beautiful Wren?
Honey’s gaze darted toward the closed exam room door. “The first time I saw that girl, she was covered in blood. It had dried on her skin. Coated the poor thing. Her eyes were so dark. Huge. And she had her hand on the throat of a vic, like that was going to stop the blood from pouring out of the dead woman. All that blood had just drenched the girl. She was so still. Frozen like a statue in that pose, and I knew, I knew she’d been that way for a long time. Hell, if she hadn’t blinked, I would have thought I was staring at a dead girl.”
He lunged for the exam room door.
It opened before he could touch it. A doctor stood in the doorway. “She’s good.” His gaze was steady and reassuring behind the lenses of his glasses. “Very determined to leave, and asking for…Jake?” A nod. Then a wave at Jake. “I’m assuming that’s you.”
If Wren wanted him, then Wren was getting him. “I’ll be taking her out of here.” He’d take her wherever she wanted to go.
“Thought as much.” An incline of his head toward Honey. “Sheriff Jackson.” Then the doctor bustled away.
Honey grabbed Jake’s arm before he could enter the exam room, and she hauled him close. Her voice dropped to a husky whisper as she said, “Outside of a few shrinks that she was forced to see when she was younger, Wren has never spoken about her past to anyone but me and Milo. Just so you understand how delicate this situation is, Milo told me that he informed her of her father’s death last night. Last. Night. This shit is fresh, and it has to be hitting Wren hard.”
He looked down at her hand. “When, exactly, last night?” His voice had gone wooden. Low, but wooden. “You got a specific time?”
“I don’t know—sometime after you took her off the beach. She called him to check in, probably so he wouldn’t hear the news from me and freak out about the attack.”
Wren had checked in with the older man, then Milo had called Jake. Milo had said that Wren was crying. Sonofabitch.
Everything that had happened afterward…
It has to be hitting Wren hard. Honey’s words slid through his mind once more.
“I don’t know what the hell just put that look on your face, Jacob Jones, but don’t you dare go treating that girl any different, you understand me?” If possible, her voice had dropped even more. A soft but lethal order. “She has fought to be good for as long as I’ve known her. She lived through hell, and she came out freaking valedictorian of her class. She put the past behind her. She did everything right and, from the sound of things, if your past hadn’t come rearing its head, Wren would be safe and happy and living her best life about now.”
Honey thought he would treat Wren differently because her father had been a monster? The sheriff had no clue. The only way he wanted to treat Wren was like the fucking goddess that she was to him.
“Always knew you’d be wrong for her.” Honey’s brows beetled. “Too intense. Too growly all the time. Wren needs someone who smiles and laughs and who can chase the shadows from her life.”
Wren smiled. She laughed. She did that stuff plenty.
But…was any of it real?
“Eb should be here with her,” Honey suddenly declared. “He’s the one who’s always been her best friend. Thought if she’d tell the truth to anyone, it would be him.”
“I’m more than her friend.” I’m going to be her fucking future. And he was done waiting. Waiting in the hall. Waiting on the outskirts of Wren’s life.
He broke away from the sheriff and surged forward. Hurried into the exam room. Then drew up short when he saw Wren standing near the exam table in green scrubs.
She winced. “Don’t judge the outfit. It was all that was available, okay? I am seriously in need of new clothing. But at least the blood is gone.”
Her skin was clean. No more blood on her arms or hands.
Honey shut the door after she slipped into the room. “Wren, we all need to talk.”
Wren slanted her gaze toward Jake. “Did she tell you all the dark and dirty details about my past?”
“Some of them.” He had the feeling there was plenty more darkness to share. “She also said the man was dead.”
“My father? Yes. Or at least, that’s what I’m hearing.”
“It’s what you heard last night. Right before I came into your room to check on you.” He needed to be very sure about this timeline.
“Yes.”
Hell. The truth was like a knife blade to the heart. He’d been tasting heaven, and Wren had been trying to claw her way out of hell. “You said I didn’t know you.” And he’d rattled off crap about the way she liked her eggs and her favorite holiday. His eyes squeezed shut. “Of course, you like Halloween.” How could she not? His eyes opened, and Jake pinned her with his stare even as her previous words played through his head. “I always liked to pretend I was someone else.”
She stepped toward him. “I’d like to leave now, please.”
He was in front of her in an instant. His hands rose and curled around her shoulders. Delicate shoulders that had been carrying a heavy burden that he’d known nothing about. “Eb had no clue?”
Her head turned to the side. Not looking at him any longer but focusing on Honey. “I would like to continue keeping my past as under wraps as possible. I understand that if this investigation leads to anything linked to my f-father, then the truth will have to emerge.” Her lips pressed together.
His hands lightly squeezed her shoulders.
“That’s why I spoke up to Jake,” Wren continued determinedly. “If he’s offering his protection to me, I thought it was only fair for him to be fully aware of what was happening. And just who it was that he was protecting.”
“What in the hell is that supposed to mean?” Jake demanded. He knew exactly?—
Her long lashes swept down to conceal her eyes. “Maybe you don’t want to protect someone like me.”
“Wren.” The horrified cry burst from Honey. “You are nothing at all like your?—”
“We need time alone, Honey.” Firm. Flat. Jake and Wren needed to clear the air, and he was one hundred percent gonna clear it. “Wren has to understand a few important facts before we walk out of here.”
Those long lashes of hers swept up. The darkness of Wren’s eyes almost swallowed him. “I understand plenty, I can assure you of that.”
He wanted to kiss her. To sweep her into his arms and run the hell away with her. To protect her from any and every threat. All items on his agenda. But first…His head angled toward a watchful Honey. “Perhaps there is an update waiting on you? Maybe while Wren was getting checked out, one of your patrols got lucky and found our second suspect. You should go look into that.”
“Are you feeling lucky?” Honey asked him as a twisted smile curved her lips.
He’d never been the lucky one. And he’d killed a man not too long before. Honey had already grilled him about that scene. There would be official statements to make. So many questions to answer, and, yes, when the story spread, people would be digging. The first place they’d dig?
Wren’s life. Her past.
She wanted her secrets to remain hidden. But she had to understand that the truth might emerge. And if—or when—it did, Jake would be right at her side. Or, screw that, he’d be in front of her. Shielding her from any and every threat.
“I’ll just step outside for a bit,” Honey conceded after a stare-off with Jake. “I’ll let Wren’s friends know she’s good.”
But as he looked back at Wren, he saw her flinch at that one word. Good.
Ah, sunshine, we are going to have a problem. Because she needed to stop thinking of herself as?—
“That word really isn’t part of me.” A careful clarification from Wren. “I just pretended.”
Honey had already swept out of the small hospital room. She hadn’t heard Wren’s words. Jake had.
Wren backed up one step. Two.
His hands dropped to his sides. “Eb doesn’t know.” This time, he didn’t phrase the words as a question. Eb was hell on wheels when it came to keeping secrets. He had to be, as a CIA spook. But this…
Wren shook her head. “Uncle Milo said I should tell no one. My fa—the killer was in the wind. I was hidden. Given a new name. A complete new identity. I even looked different.” Her lips pulled down. “The last time he saw me, I was a scrawny, blood-covered thirteen-year-old. I don’t look anything like her any longer. I’m not her.” Adamant.
“Wren…”
“I was placed in protective custody at thirteen. The first placement—it didn’t go so well. I guess I had issues.”
Probably a major understatement.
“Uncle Milo kept checking on me. And, he—when I needed another cover, he’s the one who stepped in. At sixteen, I came here with him. But one of the rules was that Uncle Milo said I couldn’t talk about the past. If I said the wrong thing to the wrong person, then the truth might get out. I’d have to be relocated again. Or maybe, even before I could be relocated, my fa—the killer would find me.” She wrapped her arms protectively around her stomach. “I didn’t want him to find me. So I followed the rules. I never told anyone. I did everything just like I was supposed to do.”
“Perfectly,” he rasped, thinking of her life.
She frowned.
“You played by the rules. Toed the line.” He had to advance on her. But when he did, she instantly backed up. He stopped. “You didn’t even take a lover.” Until me.
“How could I? A lover wouldn’t know me. Not the real me. I pretend enough. I didn’t want to have to keep pretending about who I really was, ah… then, too.”
“But then you let me take you.” The words fell between them. “Want to tell me why?”
“No.”
Just that. He waited. There was no more. “Wren…”
“He was dead. Milo wouldn’t lie to me about something like that. He said they confirmed his identity with DNA. The monster was dead. Since he was dead, I-I thought the attack on the beach had to be random.”
It had been far from random.
“I thought I was safe, and if I was finally safe, then I could have something of my own.”
Now they were getting somewhere. “Why me?” He wanted to close that last bit of distance between them. To pull her into his arms.
Never let go.
But she wasn’t speaking.
He pushed, “Was it because I was there, Wren? Convenient for you?”
Laughter spilled from her. “Jake, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you are pretty much the most inconvenient guy I’ve ever met.”
He loved her laughter. He loved?—
Jake shut down the thought. “Why me?”
Her head had tilted forward. But at that stark question, she angled back her head and stared at him.
“It’s just us here, Wren. What you say to me isn’t leaving this room. I get that you carried secrets your whole life, and the weight of them had to nearly suffocate you.”
Her lower lip trembled. She caught it. Bit it.
“You don’t have to carry them alone any longer.” Let me carry them for you. I’ll carry any weight for you. If she would just let him.
“If the truth gets out, my business will be ruined. I worked hard building up my real estate firm.”
A successful firm that she ran in Charleston. Yes, he knew she’d poured her heart and soul into the business.
“But no one will want to buy a house from a serial killer’s daughter. No one will want to do business with me. No one will even want to be near me.” One hand rose and gestured toward the door. “The ‘friends’ waiting outside? Makayla and Jennifer? Do you think they would have even talked to me back in high school if they knew what my father had done? He tortured those people. Then he made them torture each other. It was all a test, and they just failed over and over and over again. Because love—love won’t last. He taught me that. People will swear that they’ll stand by you. That they will help you, but when it comes right down to it…that’s just not how it works.”
“And how does it work? Really?” How in the hell had she silently battled these demons for so long?
“My fa—the killer believed that blood was stronger than anything else. Give someone a choice of saving a blood relation versus a friend or a lover…and the choice goes to blood. But even then, he said people would turn on family members if it meant saving their own lives. Survival at its core is about caring for no one but yourself.”
Jake shook his head. “You don’t believe that.”
A tear slid down her cheek.
That lone teardrop gutted him.
Before she could reach up and brush aside the tear, he was there. His hand rose and caught the tear. Her hand slid against his. Her eyes widened.
“He didn’t want you to believe in love because the bastard’s own heart had been broken. Honey told me that your mother left him.”
“She left him. He killed her.” Pain twisted in Wren’s voice. “He didn’t have a heart.”
But you do. Baby, you do. “What happened to your shoulders?”
She sucked in a breath. Shook her head. “I don’t?—”
“You fucked me because he was dead, and you didn’t have to worry about protecting a lover anymore.” The conclusion he’d reached. “You were free for the first time in your life, and you turned to me.”
Her gaze searched his.
“That’s one explanation. Or we could say that you fucked me because you were being torn apart by adrenaline and grief, and you needed a release, so you used me.” His hand lingered against her cheek. “That’s fine, too, baby. Use me. Use?—”
“ No.” Hard. Angry. “How about this explanation? I had sex with you because I wanted you. Because I’ve wanted you for a very long time. Because you carry darkness, and you are probably the only person out there who wouldn’t turn away from me in horror if you learned all my dark and twisted secrets.” Her fingers curled around his. “Case in point, you’re not running away from me right now.”
“Hell, no, baby. I’d never run away from you.” They should get that clear. “I’d run to you, every single time.”
“Jake—”
He kissed her. Not hard and demanding. Not consuming. Not with the raw passion that wanted to rip him apart anytime he thought of sex with Wren. But with care because he could do that, too. He wasn’t a full-time bastard. Just a part-time one. So his lips pressed lightly to hers. Softly. A kiss of promise.
There were an awful lot of promises that he wanted to make her. But he would not lie. He couldn’t.
His head lifted. “The truth about your father may come out to the rest of the world. I killed a man today, and death tends to attract attention. I don’t know how deep and hard the Feds buried your past, but you have to be prepared in case the news about your father goes public. If that happens, I will stand with you.”
“My real estate business…”
“Maybe you’ll get new clients who are curious as hell about you. Maybe business will boom, sunshine. Let’s think positive.”
“I’m not sunshine. I’m death.” She let go of his hand.
“Nah. That’s me.” His hand darted up to cup her chin. “Eb thinks the danger you face is because of us—because of him and me and someone who wants to get at us through you. That the past is biting back. Our past, not yours. And like I told you before, you will not be collateral damage.”
“You don’t know that this is about you and Eb! You can’t know for certain.”
Uh, he’d been sent there by Eb to?—
His phone rang. A loud, pealing ringtone that he’d assigned just to one person because, dammit, it was a happy freaking sound, and he liked to know exactly when she was calling. Not that she normally called.
Not that Wren made a habit of calling him…
The phone rang again, and Jake hauled it out of his pocket. He glared at the screen.
“Are you answering that, now? ” she asked, shocked.
“Yeah, I am. Because you’re the one calling.”
“No, I’m not, I’m right here and I?—”
His fingers swiped over the screen, and he put the phone on speaker. “Who the hell is this?”
Laughter. Grating. Robotic.
“You have Wren’s phone,” he snapped. Had her phone been left at her uncle’s place? At the crime scene?
“I saw your face. ” The robotic voice blasted so loudly and hard that Wren flinched. “You thought she would die, and I saw your fear.”
“Fantastic for you. Why don’t you come find me right now? I can show you all kinds of things.” He wanted to shatter the phone and destroy the caller. “All up close and personal-like.” A grim promise.
“You saved her this time. You won’t again. You and your brother will lose her. Do you hear me? You will lose her. ”
“Never gonna happen,” he snarled right back. “But you try and take her, and you will lose your life. Understand me?”
The caller hung up.
Jake forced his jaw to unclench. “I think it’s safe to say,” he gritted out, “the attacks on you are because of me and Eb . ”