Текст книги "Uncovered by Truth"
Автор книги: Rachael Duncan
сообщить о нарушении
Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 14 страниц)
“HEY,” I SAY into the phone as I stand outside the hotel room. It’s cold as balls this early and I can see my breath as I talk. Elizabeth is still sleeping, so I want to get this over with before she wakes up and starts asking questions again.
“What’s up, Matthews?”
“Sir, I need a favor.”
“What’s that?”
“I need you to have someone leave another gun in my glove box.”
“Why?” he asks confused.
“I want Elizabeth to have one when I have to leave the motel for shit.”
He lets out a deep sigh. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“It’s not like she’s going to be carrying it and I’ll give her the run down on how to use it. I’d just feel better with all this shit going on if she had it just in case. Can you make that happen?”
There’s a long pause and I’m starting to get pissed knowing he’s about to reject my request. “Fine,” he finally says, much to my relief. “I’ll have someone dump one in there overnight. Just make sure she knows how to use it, alright?”
“You got it.”
“Hang in there, okay? We’re real close to ending all of this.”
I’m kind of tired of hearing him say that. I’m not sure how much longer Elizabeth can deal with this. Shit, it’s starting to wear on me. She’s strong as hell, but I can see the stress is starting to take its toll on her. It’s obvious in the way she worries her lip between her teeth, how she bites her nails, and when she stares off into space in deep thought. I want her to be in control of her life. Not have some asshole like Cal drag her down, drowning her in misery. As long as he’s out there, she’ll have to keep looking over her shoulder, afraid he’s found her. I have no doubts that if he ever locates her, he’ll kill her.
I’m sure the cartel is out looking for me more than her since I know what they’re trying to accomplish. Seeing how close they got to us makes me wonder if I should have left her at home and came for her when this was done. I shake my head to myself. The deadline was fast approaching and Cal told me he’d hurt her if Hutchison wasn’t killed in two weeks. I made the right decision. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.
After I hang up the phone, I walk back into the hotel room to find Elizabeth sitting up in bed, staring at the wall. “Good morning, sweetheart.” I walk over to her and plant a kiss on her lips. I can’t help it. It’s just a natural reaction now. Pulling back, I flash her a smile.
“Good morning. Where were you?” She’s guarded, waiting for me to tell her that I can’t say. I hate keeping secrets from her, but I have to right now.
“I was outside making a phone call.”
“Let me guess, you won’t—or can’t—tell me who you were talking to,” she says in a monotone voice that lets me know she’s getting sick of the same answer.
Sighing, I close my eyes and shake my head. When I open them, I see her posture sag in disappointment and I want to punch something for making her feel this way. Moving toward the bed, I sit down on it. “Come here.” I grab her arm and move her to sit in front of me between my outstretched legs. I wrap my arms around her and hold her to me. She resists at first, but soon melts back into me. Releasing my hold on her, my hands go to her shoulders and slowly kneed the muscles. She’s wound up tight and I’m hoping this provides a little bit of relaxation for her. A moment where she can close her eyes, shut off her brain, and forget about the last twelve hours.
And hopefully not be so pissed at me.
Her head lolls to the side as I work her neck, rubbing small circles with my thumbs. “Mmm, right there,” she moans. “Harder.” I apply more pressure as demanded. “Yeeeeesssss,” she drags out. I’m a bastard for having these thoughts given the timing, but damn if I don’t want to bury myself in her.
“You keep making those noises and your shoulders won’t be the only thing I’m rubbing.” Her breath hitches giving away the affect I have on her. I couldn’t stop the cocky grin that spreads across my face even if I tried. With my dick pressed firmly against the front of my pants, I continue to rub her back.
“When was the last time you talked to your mother?” I ask, wanting to know how she’s doing.
“I talked to her last Monday, same as every week. She might get worried if she doesn’t hear from me tomorrow.”
“How’s she doing?”
“She’s doing really well. Her energy levels have increased and she seems . . .” she trails off for a second, “happier.”
“Do you ever talk to her about you and Cal? How miserable you were? The things he did to you?” I try to hide the anger in my voice, but I know I fail miserably. If her mother knows, she’s just as bad as that prick in my book.
She lets out a deep sigh. “Yes and no. I’ve tried in the past to talk to her about how I wasn’t happy. She always brushed it off. Does she know he hits me or that he—” She stops abruptly. My hands pause against her lower back waiting for her to finish her thought. “No, she doesn’t know the details of the monster I’m married to.”
“You were going to say something and stopped. What were you going to say?”
“I was going to say that she doesn’t know he cheats on me.” The whole sentence comes out choppy, like she’s making it up as she speaks. My eyebrow arches in suspicion.
“Why wouldn’t you just say that then?”
“Because I’m sick of dwelling on the past. There’s things that can’t be changed no matter how much I wish they could and I’m tired of thinking about it,” she says angrily. Her whole body tenses again and I fight to hold my tongue. The detective in me wants to push the issue and get answers, but the guy that loves her and wants to keep her from feeling pain wants to let it go. For now, the sap in me wins.
“Have you hung out with Catherine lately?” I feel bad that I’m about to use her to get information, but I’ll do whatever it takes at this point.
“Actually no,” she says in a calmer voice. I’m relieved she seems to have let her anger go. “I haven’t seen her in about two months or so. It’s definitely been since before my little episode on stage that day with Cal. A part of me thinks she’s embarrassed since people were speculating that I was crazy and not fit to be the next First Lady and she didn’t want to associate with me. God forbid her name be tarnished.” She sighs. “Oh well, I think it’s for the best. I didn’t really like her that much anyway. I was only friends with her because of Cal.”
Bingo.
That’s just the opening I need. “Why would Cal want you to be friends with her?” My hands travel gradually up her spine, massaging along the way until I reach her neck.
“His family’s company provides the steel for her husband’s shipping company. It just looks good to be friendly and helps keep the contracts. Although I never understood why it was me that had to kiss Catherine’s ass. I always felt like it should’ve been the other way around given the favors Cal was constantly doing for Henry.”
“What favors?” I ask coolly.
“I don’t know the specifics. I just overheard Cal on the phone one day talking about getting the votes so I think he might have sponsored a piece of legislation that helped him in some way.”
“How do you know that had anything to do with Henry?”
“Because he had just gotten off the phone with him prior to that and seemed on edge and agitated. I assumed one had to do with the other.”
That might be the connection we were looking for.
True to Turner’s word, the next morning I find an extra glock sitting in the glove compartment. I put it in the waistband of my jeans before getting out of the car and heading back to the room. Elizabeth is sitting on the bed watching television when I come back in. “I wanted to talk to you about something,” I start.
“Sure,” she says, turning toward me. “What is it?”
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately after the cabin incident, and I think it would be a good idea if you had something to protect yourself.” Her head tilts to the side in confusion until I pull out the gun, causing her eyes to widen.
“I-I don’t think I can do that, Alex.” Her voice is timid, showing how nervous this makes her.
“Yes, you can. It’s really easy and I’ll be here to walk you through it. By the time we’re done, you’ll know this thing forward and backward, okay?”
She swallows hard before nodding. Sitting on the bed with her, I go over the different parts of the gun before talking about safety.
“Just remember, this gun is always loaded. Even if it’s not, treat it like it is and the chances of an accident go way down.” She nods her understanding again.
The last thing I teach her is proper technique; how to hold it, how to line up the sights, what to do if it jams, and how to fire it. She looks slightly overwhelmed by all the information I just threw at her, but that’s okay. She just needs to be comfortable enough to pick it up if the worst-case scenario happens.
“Got it?”
A glazed look crosses over her face and it almost makes me laugh. “Yeah,” she says, unsure.
“Perfect. Let’s go find a secluded place to fire off a couple rounds so you know what it feels like when it goes off.” At first she’s hesitant, but she eventually gets up and follows me out the door.
Living out in the middle of nowhere has its advantages. We find a nice spot not far away and spend the next hour or so target practicing. Thank God for Turner and his foresight because he left me a whole bunch of ammo along with the gun. I guess he figured she’d need to squeeze off a few too.
It’s not long before Elizabeth relaxes a little and actually looks comfortable. Watching her raise the glock, aim, and fire is like the biggest wet dream. She looks hot as fuck right now and doesn’t have a damn clue.
“Okay, I think you’ve got the hang of it. I have to say that I’m pretty impressed, sweetheart. You’re a natural.” I wink before leaning down and giving her a kiss. I had lined up some empty soda cans and she ended up hitting them all.
“You remember that,” she says with a feisty smile on her face. Damn what I wouldn’t love to do with that mouth right now.
TWO DAYS LATER and we’re about to pack up the few things we have in the room and find another hotel. After that close call at the cabin, we both agreed not to take any chances. I updated Turner on the information I got out of Elizabeth about Cal and his connection to Henry yesterday. He’s got someone combing through his voting record right now. I know whatever we find is going to be the concrete evidence needed to put these fuckers away.
“Alex,” she says catching my attention. “Do you mind if I use your phone to call my mom? It’s Monday and she’ll worry if she doesn’t hear from me.”
“Yeah, just be careful what you say to her.” I hand her the phone and she dials her mom’s number.
“Hi, Mom, how are you feeling?” she asks after a few seconds. It goes quiet and when I look back up at her, she’s as white as a ghost.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, concern clear in my voice. Her mouth opens slightly but she just shakes her head.
“What! No, I left him, Mom, but you and Dad can’t tell Cal you talked to me. Do you understand?” She pauses while her mother talks and I strain to hear what she’s saying, but I can’t. “How can you say that? You have no idea what kind of monster I was married to, mother. He did things to me I would never dream of telling you.” Her tone takes on a hard edge and I can feel the resentment radiating off of her. “I only stayed married to him because it made you happy and it’s what paid your medical bills. I couldn’t leave him and let that disease kill you, so I died a little inside every day instead. But I’m taking my life back and I will not go back to that son of a bitch,” she seethes as her face turns red with anger. “Look, I’ve got to go. Please don’t say anything to Cal if he calls you again. I love you too.” She hangs up and tosses the phone on the bed.
“What happened?”
“Cal called my mother and said that I’d been kidnapped. He filed a missing person’s report on me yesterday.”
“Shit.” This isn’t good. It’s not like the FBI goes around to the local precincts and lets them know that there are undercover operations going on in the area, especially when we’re bouncing around from place to place. Not to mention we don’t know how far Cal and this cartel’s influence goes. We can’t risk notifying someone who ends up being an informant.
Her face is going to be plastered on every major news outlet. If someone recognizes her and reports it, the cops will have no idea what’s really going on and will notify Cal that they found her. “This just keeps getting better and better,” I mutter to myself as I rub the bridge of my nose.
“I just want this to be over.” Her hands cover her face. She sounds so defeated, so exhausted that I know I can’t lose my shit right now. I have to be strong for the both of us. Give her hope that this will all be worth it in the long run and that we just have to keep moving.
Walking over to her, I pull her hands away and cup her cheeks. “It will be. We just have to hang in there a little longer. Do you think your mom will tell Cal she talked to you?”
She shakes her head. “No, but I kinda feel bad I just blew up on her like that. I don’t want to put my unhappiness off on her. I had choices and I chose to stay, but it’s just something I’ve been holding in for so long and it all just came to a head when she asked me why I left him.”
I pull her into me and hold her. “I’m sure she understands you were speaking out of frustration. She’s your mother, she’ll forgive you.” My lips find the tip of her nose, making her smile.
“You’re probably right.” She sighs while letting go of some of the tension in her body.
“You ready to go?”
“Yeah.”
I drape one arm around her shoulder and we walk to the car. She looks up at me and gives me a tight smile that doesn’t reach those beautiful eyes of hers. I squeeze her tighter, silently showing my support. The conversation with her mom must be weighing on her mind and I just want to be there for her.
About an hour or so later, we’re pulling into the parking lot. If I didn’t need to stay close to the area, I’d have us halfway across the country by now. Being this close to Cal and his goons doesn’t make me feel better in regards to Elizabeth’s safety. I want nothing more than to run far, far away with her, but I have to see this through first. As long as Cal is out there, she’ll never truly be safe no matter how far we run. He has the resources to track her down.
On the way here, we stopped at a Goodwill store. We both needed some more clothes and figured the people in there wouldn’t pay us much attention. After grabbing a few things haphazardly, we went through the checkout and were out of there in ten minutes flat, so I’m confident no one recognized us.
“Do you want to get in the shower first?” I ask her.
“Uh, no, you go ahead.” Ever since she got off the phone with her mom she seems distracted, distant even. I keep telling myself that she’s just processing everything that has happened over the last several days, but my gut tells me it’s more than that. She’s either not being honest about their conversation, or there’s something else bothering her.
“Okay, I’ll be out in a minute.” I kiss her on the cheek and walk back to the bathroom. Reaching over my head and grabbing the back of my collar, I pull my shirt over my head and then turn on the shower. I’m about to take off my pants when I realize I forgot shampoo and soap. This isn’t the type of hotel that gives out tiny complimentary bottles. When I walk out of the bathroom, I see Elizabeth sitting on the edge of the bed with her face in her hands. Her body quietly shakes and I know she’s crying.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” I rush over and kneel in front of her, concern clear in my voice.
She wipes her face quickly and looks up at me. The sorrow filling her eyes just about breaks me. Shaking her head, she says, “Nothing, I’m just being emotional.” She sniffles and tries to laugh it off, but we both know she’s not convincing.
“What have I told you before? You can’t lie for shit. I know you’re hiding something from me.” I cup her cheek to ease the sting of my words, but I’ve let her off the hook a lot. Never pushing her to talk to me when she doesn’t want to. Hell, I didn’t even force her to tell me the whole reason why she was trying to commit suicide. That ends now. We’ll sit here all damn night if we have to.
She pulls her face away from my hand and looks down at the ground. Her lip trembles and she bites it to steady it. “I just can’t. It hurts too much.” Her throat is clogged with emotion making it difficult to hear her clearly.
“Please, talk to me,” I plead. “I can tell this is eating away at you.”
“I’m afraid,” she whispers. Bringing her gaze back to mine, I see the truth in her words. She’s terrified. Of what, I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.
“Of what?”
She closes her eyes. “What you’ll think. What you’ll do.” She pauses and opens them up. “How you’ll look at me.” Her voice cracks on the last word.
“God, Elizabeth. There isn’t anything you could tell me that would make me look at you differently. I love you. Nothing is ever going to change that. Ever.” My eyes never leave hers as I tell her this with every bit of confidence I feel. The fact that she thinks I’d judge her or love her less hurts. My feelings for her are unwavering. I thought she knew that.
She sniffs again and looks up at the ceiling seeming to collect herself. The anticipation is driving me fucking insane. “Soon after you were taken, I found out I was pregnant.”
Pregnant.
The one thing I never expected her to say. The shock of it hits me first. I forget how to breathe as I lose my balance and land on my ass.
I’m going to be a dad.
It slowly sinks in and a big grin spreads across my face. But as I look up at Elizabeth, she’s not sharing in the same happiness as me. My eyes travel to her stomach and see that it’s as flat as ever with no sign of a baby bump at all. I’m not an expert, but I’d think she’d be showing by now. That observation puts a lead ball in the pit of my stomach. I have a bad feeling about this. I’m terrified to hear what she’ll say next.
Her bottom lip quivers and she swallows hard before continuing. “At first I was completely stunned. I couldn’t believe this was happening and I didn’t know how to process it. I had just lost you and now I was carrying your baby. It felt like a miracle that God was giving me a piece of you that I’d be able to hold on to for the rest of my life. But then I realized I’d have to tell Cal.”
It suddenly dawns on me. “That day you had to be helped off stage . . .”
She solemnly nods. “I found out that morning. I was so wrapped up in my own thoughts on what I was going to do that I completely zoned out. I didn’t have a clue what was going on around me, so I made a fool of myself and Cal. When we got back to the bus, he was furious. Saying I’ve fucked up his campaign and that I’m so worthless that I can’t even sit and smile like I’m supposed to.” My fists clench hearing of him disrespecting her again.
“He kept yelling and banging things around.” Her eyes close as if she’s remembering the moment. “I finally caved and told him.”
“What did he do?” My heart picks up its pace.
I know it’s coming.
The part that I don’t want to hear.
Her eyes come back to mine. Her sadness and apprehension meets my fear. “At first he just looked at me. It was like he was trying to decide if he heard me right. But after he recovered, he made it very clear what I was to do. He—he told me I had to get an abortion.”
Abortion?
No.
My whole body goes rigid, turning to ice. She couldn’t have. “D-did you—”
“No,” she cuts me off. “Cal knew the baby wasn’t his. The only explanation would be that I was unfaithful. And, well, we can’t have people knowing that I’m a whore, is how he put it. He was adamant that I terminate the pregnancy, but I refused. I finally had something in my life that was made out of love. I wasn’t going to give that up,” she chokes out.
We made a baby. And Cal wanted to kill it. I want to ask her what happened, but fear has latched on to my vocal cords and is holding my words hostage. My imagination runs wild. I don’t want to hear this. I can’t. Bile rises up the back of my throat as I force myself to listen.
“He . . . oh, God.” She covers her face with her hands and begins to sob. I stand up and immediately wrap my arms around her. I know this is going to kill me. Destroy me. I sit next to her and continue holding her, rocking back and forth. I want to delay this as long as possible. As soon as she says it out loud, it becomes real. There’ll be no hiding from it. And I don’t know if I’ll be able to control myself.
“Shhh, it’s going to be okay, sweetheart.” Soon, her sobbing subsides.
“I should’ve told you all of this a while ago, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.” She pulls back from my arms. “Cal drugged me and had a crooked doctor come over and perform the abortion at our home,” she rushes out while tears stream down face. “I didn’t even know until I woke up the next morning. Cal was sitting next to my bed and told me he took care of the issue since I wouldn’t. I didn’t have to ask to know what he was talking about. I could feel it.” Her words are thick with emotion and she barely gets it all out before she crumbles in a fit of hysterics.
I’m stunned.
Heartbroken.
I can’t even console her right now.
If I thought I had experienced heartache before—my past relationships, losing my brothers in combat—it has nothing on what I’m feeling now. I feel like someone has cracked my ribs in two, reached in, and yanked my heart out with their bare hands. The wind has been knocked out of me and breathing becomes a challenge. My body is slowly shutting down as what she says sinks in.
“Our baby?” I ask just above a whisper. The ache in my chest is so deep I find it hard to speak as a single tear runs down my face. “He k-killed our baby?”
She nods as her body succumbs to the pain and she continues to sob uncontrollably. “It was like losing you all over again,” she says through her tears.
I sit motionless for I don’t know how long, staring at the wall. I don’t blink. I don’t speak. I let the enormity of the situation settle over me and fester like an infection. “Is that why you tried to kill yourself?” I finally ask.
“Yes,” she hiccups.
I feel like I’m in utter despair. Never in my life have I been so helpless. There’s not a goddamn thing I can do to change this and it’s killing me. He took away something that I—that we—can never get back. My heart breaks for Elizabeth at the thought of her going through this on her own. Once again I failed to save her, but this time I also failed my unborn child. A child I’ll never get to meet, hold, feed, or rock. My stomach turns violently, threatening to expel its contents with that realization.
It hurts. It’s a pain like no other. My jaw grinds as depression and rage fight a battle within me, competing for control. I have to swallow down the bile that rises in my throat as images of an innocent, green-eyed beauty flash through my head. I can’t do this. I can’t think about what we’ve lost and not do something about it. I get up and grab my car keys.
“Where are you going?” she asks alarmed. I don’t answer her and storm out the door. Jail is too nice of a place for Cal.
That motherfucker dies today.
