Chapter 2
Kiersten
They say that losing a mother is one of the deepest sorrows a heart can ever know.
It certainly was for mine. I can’t begin to describe how distraught I was when I lost my mother.
It was so unexpected. A reaction to medication took her from me.
I was just thirteen at the time, and I found it difficult to cope with the loss.
I struggled with the fact that I would never see my mother’s smile again, that I’d never hear her voice or feel her arms around me.
It was a tough pill to swallow, and not only for me.
It was tough on my father, too. He loved her, adored her, and like me, he didn’t want to face the world without her by his side.
Unfortunately, neither of us had a choice in the matter.
Days after my mother’s death, he quit his job in forensics and spent the next year focusing on me.
No one was surprised by his decision. He was a good man and an even better dad.
We’d always been close—maybe even closer than my mother and I had been.
He was always there for me, even when I didn’t know I needed him, and after my mother’s death, I needed him more than ever.
With his support, I was able to get up and face the day.
Each day got a little easier, and I eventually accepted the fact the world hadn’t stopped turning just because my mother died.
“You all set?” I asked.
“Yes, Bray.” It was the third time he’d called, and every time he sounded more anxious than the last. “I’ve got everything I need to knock the socks right off these guys.”
“You sound oddly confident. What gives?”
“Not sure what you mean?”
“Last night, you were on the brink of hysteria, and now, you’re all ready to face the world. What’s the deal?”
“Well, I might’ve taken your advice and hit a bar last night.”
“Seriously?” he gasped. “Does that mean you got you a little tension relief?”
A smile swept across my face as my mind drifted to my encounter with the mysterious stranger in the bar bathroom.
I’d never really tried the whole ‘one-night stand’ thing, so I wasn’t sure how it would be to have sex with a complete stranger.
I can honestly say that I’ve never experienced anything so unbelievably hot in my entire life, and not just because of the random sex.
This man was absolutely gorgeous with a touch that set me on fire.
As much as I wanted to exchange names and numbers, I knew it wasn’t a good idea.
I was trying to get a business deal off the ground, and the last thing I needed was to be distracted by a hot guy in tight jeans.
I cleared my throat before answering, “I might’ve, but you know I’m not one to kiss and tell.”
“You little slut,” he snickered.
“Sorry, I just couldn’t help myself.”
“Well, I’m glad you got a little action, but I don’t want it to derail your focus.”
“Don’t worry. I’m focused,” I assured him. “I’m ready for this.”
“Are you sure? I mean, really sure?” I could hear the concern in his voice as he said, “Cause if you aren’t, we can forget this whole thing. You can get in your car and come straight back...”
“I’m not backing out.” Braylon had been with me from the beginning, and I adored him for being concerned about me, but I’d worked too hard to chicken out now. “It’s going to be fine.”
“I don’t know.” His voice sounded strained as he reminded me, “I have a bad feeling about all this.”
“We’ve been through all of this a thousand times, Bray.
” I thought back to the days when I first started my small business.
Back then, I was terrified that I’d never get it off the ground, but after busting my ass for the past three years, it was doing better than I ever imagined—which was why I’d arranged a business meeting with a local group in the same line of business.
“I know it’s a little scary to think about branching out, but this could take us to another playing field. ”
“But we’re doing great where we are.”
“I know, but we could do better,” I insisted. “You’re going to have to trust me on this, Bray.”
“Okay.” He inhaled a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “You promise to be careful.”
“Yes, I promise.”
“And you’ll call me the second you’re done with the meeting.”
“You know I will.”
“How much longer do you have before you have to leave?”
“Not long at all.” I glanced over at the clock on my hotel wall as I said, “I better get going.”
“Okay... Good luck!”
“Thanks! Hopefully, I won’t need it.”
I hung up the phone, then rushed over to the mirror and gave myself one last quick check.
I figured it would be best to dress casually, so I wore a pair of my favorite black jeans and a flowy, white sweater with my ankle boots.
My hair was pulled up in a fishtail braid, and I was sporting my favorite bangle bracelets.
I was wearing one of my favorite outfits—one that I’d worn many times before, but as I stood there looking in the mirror, I didn’t even recognize myself.
I certainly wasn’t the same girl I used to be.
I was no longer trusting and na?ve. That part of me was stolen the night I discovered my father wasn’t the man I thought he was.
After my mother died, my father could see that I needed him more now than ever, so not long after my fourteenth birthday, he started renovating our basement into an office.
The remodel was quite extensive, but I didn’t ask questions.
I was just happy he was going to be home more, so I left it alone.
I continued to leave it alone even when I became curious about all the time he spent locked away in his office and the late-night phone calls.
At first, I figured it was his way of coping with the guilt he felt over Mom’s death, but then, he did even more remodeling of the basement and bought a strange, white van.
He didn’t drive it—at least not with me, so I had no idea why he’d purchased it.
Soon after, the late-night outings began.
I still didn’t ask questions. He seemed happy with whatever he was doing, so I just left things alone.
It wasn’t until years later that I discovered that my loving, doting father had a secret—a secret that would change everything.
I’d gotten up in the night to get myself a glass of water when I heard strange sounds coming from the basement.
Curiosity got the best of me, so I crept down the stairs to see what was going on.
There was no sign of him, and everything looked exactly like it always did.
I assumed it was my imagination and started back upstairs, but something just didn’t feel right.
I stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what was different about my father’s office, and after several seconds, I finally realized it was his bookcase.
It was no longer flush to the wall, and there was a strange light shining from beneath it.
I stepped over to get a better look and was surprised to find that there was a secret passage hidden behind the bookcase.
The hairs on the back of my neck prickled against my skin as I gave it a slight push, making enough room for me to slip through.
That’s when I noticed a second door with a key-coded lock pad, but on this particular night, the door was open.
I had an uneasy feeling as I started down the concrete hallway.
I’d only taken a few steps when I heard men’s voices coming from inside one of the mysterious rooms. I inched closer and closer until I could see inside the room.
Complete horror washed over me when I saw my father, along with two other men, piling bloody, dead bodies in the middle of the floor.
My father was barking orders about cleaning out the van as he and another man lifted one of the bodies and shoved it into a flaming incinerator—an incinerator that was in our house, under our roof, and I never had a clue that it was there.
The whole thing seemed so surreal—like I was stuck in a terrible nightmare, but as I stood there listening to my father bark out orders for the men to clean out the van and burn their clothes, I knew it was no dream.
I was in complete shock as I crept down the hall and back upstairs to my room.
I spent the remainder of the night crying silently in my bed, trying unsuccessfully to make sense of what I’d seen.
I simply couldn’t believe what I’d seen.
I’d always thought my father hung the moon, and I never dreamed he could do something so horrific.
It killed me to think he had this dark side that I never knew about—a dark side he’d hidden from me for years.
The next morning, he acted like nothing had changed and behaved like the man I’d always known.
I, on the other hand, felt completely different.
I still loved my father. He was good to me and took care of me, but seeing him do such a horrific thing and then pretending like it never happened changed something in me.
My innocence had been stolen from me, and that was something I would never get back.
Over the next year, I lost count of how many times I heard my father in the basement with those men.
I didn’t have to go rushing downstairs to see what was going on.
I already knew. My hurt eventually turned into anger, and that’s when I became determined to figure out what exactly was going on with my father in that damn basement.
I started doing a little investigating, and by matching the newspaper headlines of gang shootings and the unexplainable disappearance of cartel members with the dates I heard him in the basement, I started to piece things together.
I knew he hadn’t killed the men I read about in those articles, so there was only one explanation that made sense.
My father had used his expertise in forensics to become a cleaner for some of the most notorious men in the south—men like the Ruthless Sinners.