Chapter 22 #2
Acid burned the back of his throat. His mother didn’t need to spell it out. He’d never been assigned to the sex crimes unit, but he knew what human trafficking entailed. He’d just never thought it through when it came to his mom. Or maybe he hadn’t wanted to know the dark side of the fairy tale.
“You were sexually assaulted.”
His mom’s voice was brisk. “I was. Multiple times. I didn’t tell your father about it until after we’d been dating for a while.
He was angry, so very angry, and he felt like he’d failed me.
He grew overprotective. He didn’t want me taking my law school classes because he was worried about me walking to my car at night.
He felt so helpless that he almost quit the force, and to be honest, I almost quit him.
He couldn’t get past my tragedy, and I wasn’t willing to let it sit on my shoulders my entire life. ”
His parents had always seemed blissfully happy. He couldn’t imagine them splitting up.
“What happened?”
“I reminded him that I was the victim, and that bringing the people who had preyed upon so many innocent women to justice was something I needed to do and would do all over again, regardless of the consequences. I convinced him that respecting me meant respecting my choices, even if he didn’t agree with them.
You’re right. Your father was a hero, but not because he always kept me safe.
He was a hero because he realized that, in his fear, he was trying to take away my volition.
He was a hero because he went to therapy, worked through his guilt, accepted my choices, and chose to continue in law enforcement, knowing that things weren’t always going to work out exactly as he wanted every time. ”
He heard her message loud and clear.
Loving someone didn’t mean always protecting them or keeping them safe.
It meant supporting them even when it was difficult.
It meant respecting Rose’s decision. It meant accepting Phillipe’s decision to go out alone that night.
It meant letting go of the guilt he’d been carrying every day for the past two years so it didn’t destroy his chance at happiness with the woman he loved.
Shit. Why did his mother always have to be right?
He retraced his steps back to the cabin at a run.
He was going to go to Philadelphia with Rose.
He was going to give her the one hundred fifty percent commitment and support he’d promised.
He’d wrangle a sniper rifle from Virus and plant his ass at the best vantage point he could find.
Watching her walk into that warehouse by herself was going to be the hardest thing he’d ever done, but he’d do it for her.
But when he got back to the cabin, Rose and Kemper were gone.
* * *
It was nearly 9:30 p.m. by the time they reached the deserted industrial area where the warehouse was located.
They were close to the airport. The car shook every few minutes as planes buzzed by.
A spring wind blew a few wrappers, chip bags, and other trash to join the water bottles, beer cans, broken glass, and car parts that lay on the sides of the road.
“How much farther?” she asked.
The long car ride had been spent mostly in silence.
Rosemary didn’t feel like talking. Her mind warred with itself, rehashing that horrible argument with Aleksei and second-guessing her decision.
The choice had seemed so clear at Virus’s cabin, but a sense of unease tapped at her ribs as soon as she entered the car.
The tapping had slowly increased to a steady thrum.
Gary slowed and made a quick right, pulling behind a large dark building. Most of the lights in the parking area were broken, creating an eerie darkness full of black holes and shadows.
He faced her. “I’m sorry. You seem like a nice woman.”
Sorry?
“Sorry for what?”
“Give me the laptop.”
She clutched her backpack like a security blanket, the disquiet in her chest a frantic drumbeat. “We decided this already. I need to be the one to return it to Sal. I need to convince him that I haven’t done anything wrong. I need to make sure my family will be safe.”
He sighed and pulled a gun from the holster on his chest, aiming it toward her. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”
Fear slithered through her veins. Gary had agreed to her demand to take the laptop to Moresco herself so easily, almost too easily, and he’d hustled her into the car right after Aleksei had stormed out of the cabin.
She’d assumed he was helping her avoid further argument, that he was rushing so they would have time to meet with his on-site team before she met with Moresco.
Have time to plan her entry. Time for the FBI to do everything they could to keep her safe.
Had Gary just wanted to get her away from Aleksei? They’d been in the car together for hours, and he hadn’t made one phone call. Wouldn’t he need to be coordinating with his team?
Her stomach dropped the way it had when she’d ridden the Double Shot at the beach for the very first time last summer. She and Sage had held hands as long as they could and screamed like teenagers. That stomach drop was terrifying joy. This one was simply terror.
“You’re working for Moresco.”
“You’re a smart woman. Too smart, and too curious for your own good.”
Her scalp started to itch. “What do you mean?”
“Lily’s been slipping extra invoices into the Moresco files for the past five years, and nobody noticed until you came along.”
It didn’t make sense. Why would Sal ask Gary to give Lily fake invoices to put in the file? And how the hell did Kemper even know Lily?
Five years.
Images of Lily’s tear-stained face in the stairwell filled her mind. Lily had been waiting for her married boyfriend to leave his wife for five years.
“You’re Lily’s boyfriend.”
A genuine smile wiped away Kemper’s haggard expression. He looked handsome. Trustworthy.
“I really do love that woman. She tipped me off as soon as she realized you were messing around in the Moresco files. Our plan was perfect. The office explosion would destroy all the evidence, and the bomb at Aleksei’s apartment would make him look like the perp.
Everyone knows he hates Moresco. Moresco would be dead, Aleksei would take the fall, and I, broken by it all, would retire to Borneo, where Lily would join me a few months later. ”
Gary wasn’t helping Sal. He was stealing from him.
“You were the one embezzling the money. You’re the one who planted the bombs.”
Kemper nodded, relaxing his arm a bit so the gun pointed toward her abdomen instead of her chest. She needed to keep him talking while she figured out how to get out of this.
“Don’t you have a family?” she asked.
Her family was everything to her. She couldn’t imagine heading to Asia and never coming back.
“My wife and I divorced a few months ago. The house is sold, and she got a one-time payout. Of course, she doesn’t know about the money I have squirreled away in a foreign bank account.”