Chapter 43
Adeline sat on Wyatt’s sofa. She felt numb. Beyond exhausted. They had found nothing. Not one sign of the women or Jamison.
The bastard could have tucked Prescott and Arnold away almost anywhere. Hundreds of tiny shacks and cabins dotted the waterways. Hunters, drug smugglers, and the like built small, primitive shelters all the time. Many were abandoned and left to rot down.
It could take weeks to cover every square mile of land near the water. But Adeline was determined to keep searching until she found the women or their bodies.
She closed her eyes and rested her head on the sofa back. God, she did not want them to be dead. Sheriff Henley had called. The boy, Danny, was missing. Defeat sucked at Adeline’s determination. Would Jamison hide his son with the women . . . to watch him play out his crazy scheme?
The idea of a child being in harm’s way made her sick to her stomach.
They had to find Jamison.
Adeline failed at blocking the thoughts of her mother that nudged their way into her consciousness. The funeral home would have picked up her body by now. They would be waiting for Adeline to make a decision on the arrangements.
She opened her eyes and sat up straight. She couldn’t think about that. It was too fresh. Hurt too much.
Focus on the case. The women. The boy. Henley had no idea how Jamison had gotten into the home belonging to his in-laws, but he had to have gotten in. The boy had vanished. Even with the grandparents and a deputy keeping a diligent watch the bastard had managed to get to the kid.
At least there had been no casualties. The last time this psycho hadn’t been quite so generous.
He’d killed Adeline’s mother. She hadn’t done a damned thing to hurt the son of a bitch. He’d done it to hurt Adeline. By God, she wouldn’t rest until she had hurt him back.
“Bastard.”
She thought of the flowers he’d had delivered to the hospital. The call to the flower shop had come from a phone booth right here in Pascagoula. He was close. But how had he known when she had arrived? They’d rushed back from Jones County. Jamison couldn’t have known hers and Wyatt’s movements.
Yet he had. He’d been watching. Somehow.
He’s watching you real close. Almost as close as he’s watching his boy.
You’re next. It’s time, princess.
Fury blasted through Adeline.
Bring it on, asshole. I will fucking end this.
“You need to get to bed.”
She looked up at Wyatt. He stood over her, his protector mentality in full force. “Is that an invitation?”
“Addy.” He lowered himself onto the coffee table in front of her, took her hands in his. “We’re both beat. You’re operating on nothing but adrenaline. Think about what you’ve been through today. You can’t keep going like this.”
She turned her face away from his. That was the last thing she wanted to think about. Even as she blanked her mind on the subject, the knife of reality sank deeper into her chest and twisted.
“Look,” he said gently, “if we’re going to be able to function in the morning when the search resumes, we need sleep.” He jerked his head toward the hall. “Take a shower and hit the sack. I’ll be right behind you.”
She pulled her hands free of his. “I don’t need you hovering over me.
I’m a detective, not some little girl who needs watching over.
How many times do we have to talk about this?
” She didn’t like this feeling of helplessness.
The aloneness was even worse. His tactics were only driving those points home.
She needed rest. That was true. She would be able to think more clearly if she got some sleep.
Expectations for finding Prescott and Arnold alive had run out about ten hours ago, longer for Prescott.
Two dead princesses . . . one to go.
She closed her eyes, exiled the words. Adeline didn’t want them to be dead. Their kids would be orphaned . . . just as each of them had been. Was that why the bastard had waited so long? So he could inflict the same sort of pain his father had?
Adeline was an orphan now . . . Her mother was gone.
Fury tightened her lips. She would find those women and the kid. And she would make Jamison pay.
“Forget the shower,” Wyatt urged. “Take one in the morning. Get some sleep now. Please, Addy.”
She didn’t have the energy to debate the issue.
“Everything else can wait,” he said softly. “Take a day to think about what you want to do about arrangements for your mom. You don’t need to be in a hurry.”
Her gaze collided with his. Why did he have to bring that up? “Sullenger told you what I said, didn’t she?” Adeline should have known she would. Why the hell was she surprised?
Wyatt frowned, but not before Adeline saw the truth in his eyes.
Damn that little bitch. “Were you surprised?” Jesus Christ. She hadn’t come back here to stay.
If she hadn’t intended to stay before her mother was murdered, why would she decide to now?
“Christ, Wyatt, I came here for the case. When it’s done .
. . when everything’s settled, I’m out of here. ”
Disappointment claimed his every feature. That he didn’t bother arguing only made her angrier. “Say something!” She couldn’t bear him just sitting there staring at her like that.
“I thought you might reconsider.”
The softness of his voice, the sheer misery in his eyes, had the same effect as someone reaching inside her chest and twisting her heart.
She couldn’t pretend he hadn’t gotten to her.
Despite the fact that she’d promised herself she wouldn’t let this happen—that she wouldn’t trust him again, wouldn’t let him get close—here she sat, exactly in that place.
“Why would you think that?” She banished the little voice that shouted liar, liar inside her head. “Because we had sex? Get over it, Wyatt, it was sex. Just sex.” Liar, liar! Adeline clenched her teeth, exiled the voice a second time.
“I know what I felt,” he insisted, his own defenses in place now. His shoulders were tense, the muscle in his jaw throbbing with frustration.
Enough. “And I know what you did nine years ago. Whatever else there is between us,” she reminded him, driving a dagger of her own into his heart, “that betrayal will always trump everything else. Great sex isn’t going to change that.”
“You never gave me a chance to explain,” he countered. “Even an accused felon gets his day in court. Gets to tell his side of the story.”
“Fine.” She couldn’t believe they were doing this now.
What the hell difference did he expect his side of the story to make?
“Spit it out, Wyatt.” She flung her arms upward.
“You’ve wanted to talk about this ever since I arrived.
Go ahead. I’m just dying to hear what made you decide to leave me hanging. ”
He stood, moved around the coffee table to pace the room. Was he buying time? If he didn’t have his story straight by now, he should give it up.
Adeline told herself she was being unreasonable.
She was tired. Hurt. Guilty. And too many other negatives to mention.
She’d screwed everything up, let her mom down, and now it was too late to make up for those mistakes.
She didn’t need this trip down memory lane.
Even now, that old familiar anger that simmered each time she thought about nine years ago heated deep in her gut.
Wyatt stopped, set his hands on his hips, and stared directly at her.
“Cyrus had put the word out that if you stayed, you were dead. Gage and Grider had too many allies to doubt that scenario. I was”—he looked away a moment, seemed to struggle to collect himself—“scared to death you wouldn’t listen to his warning.
” His gaze meshed with hers once more. “That you’d end up dead. ”
Outrage propelled her to her feet. “I wasn’t going anywhere until I ensured that Grider got what was coming to him. He couldn’t avoid charges with the DEA, but I knew he’d set me up. I was supposed to die that day—not Gage. I wanted him to pay for that decision. We both knew he’d set me up.”
For Christ’s sake, Wyatt was the one who’d heard rumors about the setup before the sting went down.
Gage wanted Adeline off his back, and he’d worked a deal with Grider to get the job done during the DEA operation.
Wyatt had even tried to talk her out of moving forward.
She’d refused. He’d never understood that she could take care of herself.
The stare-off lasted a full ten seconds. “Grider wasn’t going to escape punishment,” Wyatt said at last. “What difference did it make if he got twenty-five years or life? At his age, it was irrelevant. I just wanted you safe. The only way to ensure your safety was if you were gone.”
“So you lied to the review committee.” She let him see the old hurt in her eyes.
“You let them believe that because we were lovers, I expected you to back me up, even though you claimed to know nothing. I remember every moment of it like it was yesterday. You took the fifth and left me to face the powers that be. It wasn’t pleasant, Wyatt. What it was, was wrong.”
To her surprise, he nodded. “You’re right. It was wrong.” His words totally stunned her. She couldn’t find the right way to respond before he started talking again.
“I told the review committee,” he admitted, “that I didn’t know what you were talking about.
I wanted you mad enough to leave. The only way to accomplish that was to betray you—to make you hate me enough to walk away.
If I’d taken your side, you wouldn’t have left.
You would have stayed right here and told Cyrus to kiss your ass.
The whole department was in turmoil and blaming you.
You were sick of the dirty cops. You were still grieving the death of your father.
You and your mother were on the outs. I knew I was the only thing keeping you here.
So I did what I had to do to turn you against me.
It was the only way to ensure you were away from here and safe. ”