Chapter 21
Jace
“How’s Memphis?” I asked as Mav slid the cup of coffee in front of me.
“He’s fine,” Ronan said. “He’ll need to wear a sling for a couple more weeks, but he won’t need any kind of physical therapy or anything.”
I nodded.
“Jace, there’s something we need to talk to you about. Mav heard from Daisy just as the plane was landing. I didn’t want to say anything in the car with Caleb there.”
I stiffened. “Okay, what is it?”
“Jennings is dead,” Mav said, keeping his voice down.
“What?” I asked in surprise. “How?”
“It appears to be a suicide. His wife found him hanging in the basement of their house. His home office was down there. There was no evidence of foul play, but also no suicide note. Daisy was scanning the local dispatch feeds when she saw the address come through. It’ll hit the local papers in a matter of hours, if it hasn’t already. ”
“Fuck,” I muttered. As badly as I’d wanted the fucker dead for what he’d done to Caleb, it would be Caleb who suffered when he learned what had happened.
He’d blame himself for somehow driving Jennings to it after the confrontation more than two weeks earlier.
I ran my fingers through my hair. Why the fuck couldn’t Caleb just get a damn break already?
“Caleb’s given me permission to talk to you about this,” I said to Ronan.
“You too,” I added to Mav. Even though Caleb and I hadn’t actually talked about Mav learning the truth about what Jennings and Rush had done to Caleb, I had no doubt that Caleb had known it was inevitable that his brother’s fiancé would need to be clued in.
“Jennings and a guy named Rush raped Caleb when he was fifteen. It happened on a camping trip with Caleb’s father.
The fucker handed Caleb to them on a silver platter.
He may have taped both rapes on his phone to use against the men. ”
Mav lurched out of his chair and went to the back door that overlooked the back yard.
He gently pounded his closed fist on the glass.
I suspected if it’d been an actual wall, he would have unleashed the anger I could see cascading throughout his entire body.
Ronan looked just as pissed, but he remained seated.
“If he stored them on his computer…” he murmured.
He didn’t need to finish the sentence. If they’d only been stored on the one computer that Nick had copied the other videos from, then there’d be no proof.
The pedophile had been smart enough to install software on his computer that would wipe the hard drive after a certain amount of time if he didn’t log into it.
By the time Daisy had hacked into the computer the day after Jack had been arrested, the files had already been gone.
The only evidence of Jack’s depravity had been the flash drive.
There’d been no videos on his phone or his cloud account.
“Caleb said he thought Rush worked with his father, but that Rush wasn’t his real name.”
Mav returned to the table and sat. His expression was drawn tight with anger. “We can search the DoD records for someone with a last name or known nickname that’s a variation of Rush, but it’s a long shot.”
“Maybe go back further,” Ronan suggested. “College, high school even. ”
“Caleb said Jennings was friends with his father when they were both in high school. Start there,” I said.
“The timing with this Jennings thing is too convenient,” I added.
“Caleb had a gun on him and still the guy refused to confess to what he’d done.
Assholes like that don’t feel guilt. He strung Caleb along for years with promises that he’d help him, but he didn’t do shit.
He was only trying to keep Caleb quiet long enough to keep him from telling anyone what happened. ”
“You think Jack put a hit out on Jennings like he did Caleb?” Mav asked.
“He’s got the resources,” I said. “The guys who hit us out in the woods were pros.”
Mav nodded in agreement and said, “Talent like that could’ve made Jennings’ death look like a suicide.”
I looked at Ronan. “Any chance the coroner will be able to tell?” I asked.
Ronan shook his head and put out his hands.
“All depends on the coroner. Some are more experienced than others. If he doesn’t see any signs of a struggle, he’s not likely to order the specific drug tests that will show if he ingested anything that would have knocked him out.
Something like GHB would’ve made it easy for someone to string him up without any kind of struggle. ”
“We can’t risk tipping the cops off to look at it as something more,” I said.
“ We can’t,” Ronan agreed. “But Declan probably can. He’s the one who arrested Cortano. If he can find anything that shows Cortano and Jennings were still in contact in the past couple of years, he can feed that to the cops in Bethesda.”
I knew who Ronan was talking about. Declan Barretti was a captain in the Seattle Police Department. He was also the brother-in-law of Dom Barretti, Eli’s adopted father. Declan and Dom had both been present when Eli had admitted that Jack had raped him repeatedly as a teenager.
“Are you sure he won’t figure out Caleb was the one who was at the Jennings’ house that day?” I asked.
“I have no doubt he will figure it out,” Ronan said. “But Caleb’s family, and if we’ve learned anything about the Barrettis, even the ones who are a Barretti by law and not blood, you don’t fuck with their family.”
Mav nodded in agreement.
“I’ll talk to him,” Ronan said.
“I’ll have Daisy see if she can find a link between Jennings and Jack that’s more recent.
If Jennings panicked after Caleb showed up and reached out to Jack, it would explain how he knew Caleb was no longer in Seattle.
It would have been the perfect time for him to silence him.
” Mav looked at me and said, “We found a tracker on the rental car we used in West Virginia. I was the one who rented it. Jack probably knew I’d be one of the people going after Caleb and had someone scanning all the rental car agencies for my information.
We had the car delivered to the airfield we landed at – the tracker was probably already on it.
I’m sorry, Jace. It never even occurred to us to check it. ”
I shook my head. “It wouldn’t have occurred to me either,” I said. “I shouldn’t have insisted on radio silence,” I added. “I panicked.” I shook my head. “I can’t stop seeing that laser sight on his chest. If I’d moved just a fraction of a second slower…”
Ronan put his hand over mine. “You didn’t. Nothing else matters. You got him back here and he’s safe now. Jack isn’t getting another shot at him.”
I nodded. “I need to ask you guys a favor. I need to go back to Germany for a few days. Can Caleb and Willa stay here?”
I realized after the question that I hadn’t even pointed out that Caleb and I were together now and that he would be staying with me going forward.
Hell, Caleb and I hadn’t even had a chance to talk about what would happen once things settled down.
I hadn’t even given thought to where we’d end up.
Though after everything that had happened, I was pretty sure that the where was the easy part. Caleb’s family was here.
And, as it turned out, so was mine.
I just hadn’t realized it.
“You can’t go after him, Jace,” Ronan said .
I sighed. Leave it to Ronan to know what I’d been referring to. “He killed my sister, Ronan.”
“And he’ll pay for that, but you won’t be anywhere near him when it happens. You’re one of the first people the cops will point the finger at.”
“They won’t make the connection,” I insisted.
“Yes, they will,” Mav said softly. “We have a source who works for Interpol. He’s confirmed that Petrov is already on their radar and that an arrest is imminent. He’s also confirmed that a body was discovered in one of Petrov’s known dumping grounds – the body matches Maggie’s description.”
I felt my heart sink. Even though I’d believed what Silver had told me about seeing Maggie die, a tiny part of me had wanted to believe he’d somehow gotten it wrong.
“You supplied DNA to the Berlin police, so they should have confirmation that it’s Maggie within a couple of days. If the time comes, I’ll go with you to claim the body,” Ronan said gently.
I managed a nod. “Petrov’s got ties to the Kremlin. We all know he won’t serve a day behind bars.”
Mav and Ronan exchanged glances. “We’ll be taking care of that. But the police will connect Maggie’s death to Petrov. You’ll be their first suspect if something happens. The plan is to use them as your alibi.”
“Who, the Berlin police?” I asked.
“You’ll be at police headquarters in Berlin answering questions about your sister when Petrov is terminated. We’ve already got someone in place. He’s just waiting for the order,” Mav explained.
“It’s the surest way to keep you with your family, Jace. Nothing, not even revenge, is worth risking losing Caleb and Willa, is it?” Ronan asked.
I automatically shook my head. He was absolutely right.
Which meant I had to rely on these men to take care of everything. To give my sister justice, to help me bring her home, to keep my new family safe, to make sure I came back to them… it was a hefty ask, but I already knew what my answer was.
“Tell me what you need me to do,” I said .
“We’ll keep you in the loop on everything, Jace,” Ronan vowed.
“The kid who saved Willa,” I began. “We need to get him out of there if he’s still alive. His name is Silver. He said Petrov wouldn’t kill him for helping Maggie, but I’m not sure if that’s true or not. But if there’s even a chance he’s alive—”
“We’ll look into it,” Ronan said. “The man who’s going to take Petrov out should be able to give us that information.”
I didn’t ask how they were going to manage any of that, because I didn’t care. I just wanted to find the young man and do for him what he’d done for me and my sister.
The sound of Baby’s nails clicking on the linoleum had me looking over my shoulder.
The big dog had spotted Caleb as he was making his way toward us.
That ridiculous flip-flopping sensation in my belly that always seemed to happen around him had me climbing to my feet.
He walked right into my arms and I didn’t give a shit that Mav was watching as I leaned in to kiss him.
“Everything okay?” I asked, because I could feel the tension in him.
He nodded. “Willa’s asleep. Eli’s with her.” To Mav he said, “Eli wants to talk to you.”
Mav instantly stood and hurried from the room. He patted Caleb on the shoulder as he walked past.
“I need to talk to you,” Caleb said nervously. “Ask you something, really,” he murmured.
“I’ll just go call Daisy,” Ronan said as he smoothly excused himself.
“Can we go for a walk?” Caleb asked as he motioned to the back yard.
“Sure.” I took his hand in mine and led him from the house.
Baby came with us. I noticed him take off toward the woods.
Moments before the big dog reached the tree line, a man stepped out and knelt down to greet the dog.
I smiled because I had no doubt the friendly animal had gotten in the habit of checking out all of Ronan’s men who were guarding the perimeter of the property.
I led Caleb down to the beach where I knew we’d have a little bit of privacy. Ronan’s men would still see us, but they wouldn’t be privy to our conversation.
There was a huge bleached-out log sitting about a hundred feet up from the water, so I led Caleb to it and sat down.
When he didn’t automatically sit down next to me, I assumed he was feeling stressed enough that he didn’t want to talk face to face, so I was about to offer that we sit on the sand so he could sit in front of me, but he surprised me when he stepped over my legs and settled his weight on my thighs.
I automatically put my arms around him to support him.
“What is it, baby?” I asked when he remained quiet.
“I’m not fixed, Jace. I wish I was, but I’m not. No matter how many times you tell me you aren’t leaving me, my mind refuses to believe it.”
“Then your mind and I are going to need to have a serious talk, because I’m not going anywhere.”
He stared into my eyes for a long time. “I want to get some help,” he finally said. “I want to be worthy of you.”
When I went to respond, he covered my mouth with his hand.
“I know I am, here,” he said as he removed his hand from my mouth and placed it over his own heart.
“But I’m not so sure up here.” He pointed to his head.
“I know you’re right… that the things people love about me can’t be lost, but I want more than that.
I want there to come a day where I don’t have to ask you the question that I’m going to ask you today and probably every day for the foreseeable future.
Not because I think you’ll get tired of answering, but because I shouldn’t have to ask it.
I need my own voice to be the one I listen to first. Does that make sense? ”
I nodded, since I was struggling to find my own voice. I finally managed to say, “Ask me the question, baby.”
“Promise me you’re not leaving me, Jace,” he whispered.
“I promise, Caleb. Martha Stewart couldn’t drag—”
He let out a watery laugh and kissed me before I could finish. “I love you, Jace.”
I tucked him against my neck and settled my lips against his ear so that there was no doubt he’d hear me. “I love you, Caleb. I’m so fucking proud to call you mine. Promise me you’ll never leave me.”
“Never,” he croaked, his words almost getting lost on a warm breeze. “And if Martha Stewart ever makes a play for you, she better watch her back because I’ll kick her ass.”
I let out a bark of laughter and then wrapped my arms even tighter around him. “Everything will be okay, Caleb,” I murmured. “Do you believe me?”
He nodded against my neck. “I believe you, Jace.”