Chapter Thirty-Eight
O’Connor
Linden spent most of the evening getting Avery settled and their things unpacked, which meant I had a lot of grovelling to do with Aunt Kay.
Which mostly entailed listening to her as she filled me in on her life these past twenty years. It eased some of my guilt knowing that she’s been living a fulfilling, happy life.
She volunteers throughout the week. She sees her friends at the local YMCA for water aerobics. She dates, and unfortunately told me way too many details about that.
But she only slightly scolds me when I insist that we order pizza instead of letting her cook. She only relents when I explain Avery’s food aversions.
“So, she’s more than your neighbor, right? Linden’s your girlfriend?”
I scratch my jaw. Girlfriend doesn’t begin to cover it. “She’s my everything, Kay.”
Her head tips in genuine awe. “Oh, I just knew it. I see the way you look at her. Your father always looked at your mother that way. Your uncle never looked at me that way,” she scoffs, flinging her kitchen towel over her shoulder.
“She’s been through a lot, but she’s resilient, and she’s a wonderful mother despite everything stacked against her.”
Kay squeaks with emotion that she can’t contain. “And her daughter?”
“She has me wrapped around her little finger.” I smile easily, and Aunt Kay joins me at the kitchen table to touch my cheek.
“I’m so glad you found your family,” she says softly. “And I can’t wait to go Christmas shopping,” she says a lot louder. “Shopping for a little girl,” she hoots, clapping her hands.
“We can repaint your room, make it a girly room. And I can buy her whatever toys she likes. Missy down at the community center is going to beg to start working on a customized blanket.”
“Whoa, whoa. You’ve got to slow down.”
She thumps her towel off her shoulder in a huff. “Why?”
“You can’t talk to Missy down at the community center about all of this yet. Linden and Avery aren’t here on vacation. Linden’s ex and his family hurt her. They tried taking Avery from her, and not in a legal, upstanding way. They might still try to come after them. That’s why we’re here.”
“You’re not going to let a thing happen to those girls… Are you?”
“No, I’m not.” Something on my face must startle her because she leans back in her chair.
“What exactly do you plan to do, Jack?”
“What I do now is outside the realm of normal laws, but I hunt really bad people for a living, Aunt Kay. They deserve it, I promise; they do. And I’m going to kill every single person who has hurt Linden and Avery.
” There’s no point in sugar coating it. Kay will either accept the man I am now, or she won’t, but it’s better to find out now before she gets too attached to us being here.
She wrings her hands, but she doesn’t look like she’s afraid of what I said. “I know you wouldn’t do anything unless it was for the greater good. Your parents raised you knowing right from wrong even when you were still in diapers.”
“I miss them.”
“Me too. I think about them all the time. They would have loved to see the man you became.”
“It’s weird, but I have the urge to introduce them to Linden. It doesn’t make sense because they’ve been gone so long, but it seems wrong that she’ll never get to know them.”
“Even if they aren’t here, they’re watching over you. They would have loved Linden and Avery like their own.”
I nod in agreement. “She deserves that, you know? Having people see how amazing she is. She’s been done wrong by so many people who should have taken care of her.”
“Did her ex leave the bruises on her face?”
“Not this time, but his family is powerful, and they were doing bad things… Linden found out, and they were going to kill her.”
Aunt Kay gasps. “Lord, protect her.”
I’ll protect her.
“I was collecting intel on their illegal business and just so happened to fall for my neighbor, who also happened to be their former daughter-in-law.”
“That is divine intervention, dear.”
Aunt Kay has always been a believer in God. She was raised Catholic like most everyone around here is, but she didn’t mention if she’s been attending church during our talks this evening.
I haven’t been since I was a little boy.
A creaking floorboard sounds from behind me, but it doesn’t faze me. “You can come in here,” I say over my shoulder.
The swinging door to the kitchen opens, and a bashful-looking Linden limps through it.
“How long were you eavesdropping?” Kay asks cheekily, but I clocked her the moment she came down the stairs into the living room a few minutes ago.
“Too long not to be filled with shame.”
I pull out a chair and pat it for her. “It’s okay. No secrets anymore, remember?”
She nods. “Avery went searching for the cat.”
“Let me check on the pizza,” Aunt Kay offers, just giving us an excuse to have the room.
“Divine intervention, huh?” Linden leans her elbow on the table and rests her head on her hand. “Do you believe in God?”
I grab the bottom of her chair, pulling her towards me. “I believe in whatever led me to you.”
“So Project Obsidian?” She smiles softly.
“I guess I should call my boss and thank him.”
“Who is your boss?”
“I have no idea. I’ve only ever heard his distorted voice.”
“Creepy.”
“Pay is good though.” I shrug, and she shakes her head in amusement.
“Seems like a lot of risk for a paycheck.”
“It was never about the money. If the op was terminated and I wasn’t getting a dime, I would have stayed right next door to you until I knew you were safe.”
“I like the Jack that speaks what’s on his mind,” she whispers, looking at me tenderly with her beautiful honey eyes.
“Talking about you is a whole lot easier than talking about the bad stuff.”
“Then sandwich it. Good, bad, good.”
“I’m afraid to tell you the whole truth about the Merrill and Edmund,” I admit.
“Why?”
“It’s going to devastate you, and that devastates me.”
“You don’t think I can handle it?”
“No, I know you can handle it, but it doesn’t mean it won’t suck any less. It goes way beyond a bee sting, Linden.”
Referencing Avery’s “bee sting” from a few weeks ago makes her sit straight up in her seat. “Tell me right now.”
“Let’s just wait until Avery goes to sleep.”
“No, I will have a panic attack by then. I need to know now.”
Shit. I knew I shouldn’t have brought it up, but she deserves to know. I just can’t risk Avery overhearing. “Come outside with me.”
She nods and lets me help her to the edge of the backyard where a swinging bench sits, looking into the trees bordering the property. The moon is rising in the sky just beyond them.
We sit next to each other, but it’s not close enough, and she doesn’t protest when I drag her onto my lap.
“Whatever your reaction is, you are safe to feel it with me,” I assure her, kissing her head. She nods, tangling her fingers into my shirt above my chest.
“Merrill and Edmund were experimenting on humans.” She stiffens in my arms. “I was there because they were selling human body parts on the black market, but we had no idea how extensive it went. They weren’t stealing recently deceased bodies…
We thought maybe they were finding brain-dead patients who weren’t organ donors from the hospital but… ”
“Those people in the house? They were…”
“Yeah.”
“Oh, my God. What were they doing with them though?”
“Research. They were attempting to replicate DNA. Cloning organs. They wanted to figure out how to create a new person.”
“What?” She sits up to look at me. “That’s insane.”
I nod sadly. “Not just any new person, Linden.” Her brows furrow, but I decide just to rip the bandage off. “They were trying to bring their daughter back.”
“That’s not possible.”
“No, I don’t think it is. But they had the closest living thing in arm’s reach, and they were testing their theories on strangers until it was safe enough to use on their real target.”
“You think they were going to experiment on Avery too? Is that why the bee sting freaked you out so bad?”
“I had suspicions that they were doing something with Avery’s blood, but I had no idea how far it went. Even when you didn’t know where I was, Linden, I was in that house watching over Avery. I was there during every scheduled visit, so she wasn’t alone.”
“You were?”
“I had all of your documents forged already, but after the bee sting I made fake ones too, because I knew I was going to protect you two from them. I was going to blow everything up before I let them touch her.”
“When were you going to tell me?” She asks angrily, but she’s crying, and she’s not pushing me away. She’s clinging to me harder.
“I thought I could wait until they were dead, so I could tell you with certainty you were safe, but after I saw all the encrypted files with my own eyes…” I shake my head at the memory.
“That’s what I was doing when you were fighting for your life getting out of that damn mansion.
It wasn’t a planned visit, so I didn’t know you were there.
I always wanted to know where you were, and I should have been more on top of it…
But I was trying to respect your space. I was already violating your life so much.
“Instead, I was reading study after study outlining exactly how they planned to use Avery’s DNA and pick apart her organs to bring a version of their daughter back.
I was fucking horrified. I was waiting for you to come home, so I could beg you to let me take you guys away.
And if you didn’t believe me, I was going to steal you away by force because hating me was a better outcome than what they planned to do. ”
“Jack,” she whimpers, melting against my chest. “They almost had her. They almost took my baby from me.”
“I know. I know.” I can’t seem to hold her tight enough. Nothing will take away the betrayal she feels from her in-laws. I wish I could protect her from all of this. This pain isn’t as easy to erase, but at least I stopped the worst of it before it became reality.
“I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been there. If you had never been my neighbor,” she cries.
“We don’t have to worry about that now. I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”