Master (An Impossible Novel) (Impossible #6) (24 page)

“What did you want to tell me?”  I asked in as confident a voice as I could muster after the door closed behind Dex.

“I already suspected Kennedy before Dex came forward with this evidence,” Frank informed me.  “But we can’t go after him until we’re sure.  I’ve been putting together my own file on him.  He used to own a farm not far from Kimbrell’s.  I’m going to go check it out, and I want you to come with me.”  His hard face softened in a way it only ever did for me.  “I don’t trust your safety to anyone else.”

My head spun.  In the space of a few minutes, we had gone from not having a suspect to compiling strong evidence against the director of the New York unit of the FBI.

“Of course I’ll come with you,” I heard myself say.  I wanted to end this, and if answers could be found at Kennedy Carver’s old farm, I would go out there with Frank.  Even if I did wish I was going with Reed instead.

Reed.
 
He had to know.  He wasn’t safe in New York.

“I just need the bathroom first,” I quickly excused myself.  I didn’t think Frank would approve of me calling Reed to warn him.  But if The Mentor was in New York, then that was the last place I wanted Reed to be.

When I got to the ladies’ room, I locked the door behind me and pulled out my phone.

“Hi, gorgeous,” Reed sounded tired, but he still had a sweet greeting for me.

“Reed, you need to get out of New York.”

“What?  Why?”

“I think Kennedy is The Mentor.  And he has an accomplice in Chicago.  It’s Parnell.  Dex figured it out, and the evidence is there.  You can’t be in New York.  He still wants to kill you.”

“Wait.  I don’t think
it’s Kennedy, Katie.  Smith’s right.  He’s not capable of doing those things.  If you knew him-”

“He owns a private jet.  It flew from Chicago to New York on the night Lydia was transported to Martel’s house.  And he’s a patron at Dusk.  We know The Mentor is one of us, Reed.  Please.  You have to get out of New York.”

There was a pause.  “Okay, Katie, say it is Kennedy.  That still leaves Parnell in Chicago to threaten you.”  He let out a low curse.  “I never should have left you there.  Kennedy can’t leave the New York field office without someone noticing, but Parnell could be anywhere in Chicago.  The CPD couldn’t get any charges to stick even after he threatened you, and they had to cut him loose.”

“Frank and I are going to check out a farm Kennedy used to own.  It’s near Notre Dame, where Kathy was abducted.  I really think he’s the one, Reed.  Please stay away from him.”

“I’ll stay away from him, because I’m coming back to get you.  Send me the address of the farm.  I’m on my way to the airport now.”

Chapter 18

“It looks abandoned,” I remarked as we drove down the pitted dirt road.  Well, it was a driveway, really.  But it was at least a five minute drive from the main road to the farmhouse, and the main road itself was nearly deserted.  We really had arrived in the middle of nowhere.

“He told me no one would hear me scream, and no one ever did.”
  I could see how Kathy’s description of her prison could fit this place.

“No one’s lived here since the late seventies,” Frank answered, gesturing to the overgrown fields.

“Do you think there will be anything left for us to find?  You said Kennedy sold this place.  Who are the current owners?”

“An older man who lives in the city.
  We have his permission to enter the premises.”

An odd tension built within me, anticipation mingled with dread.  I was afraid of what grisly evidence we might find here, even as the growing sense of finality made me hope for an end to this case.  Then I could put all this behind me and start the life I had always wanted.

“Listen, Frank,” I began almost timidly.  “When we catch The Mentor, I want to leave the FBI.  I want to be a vet.  I hope you can understand that-”

“We can talk about your future later,” he cut me off.  “Come on, we’re here.”

I shut my mouth, nervous and a little hurt that Frank had so casually dismissed my dreams.  I got out of the car and picked my way across the sparse gravel toward the farm house.  To my surprise, it wasn’t dilapidated.  The fields had fallen into disuse, but the house itself seemed updated to modern standards.  The air even smelled faintly of fresh paint, and I noticed that the siding was bright white, as though it had just been re-done.

“I thought you said the owner lived in the city?”

Frank pulled a key out of his pocket and motioned for me to join him on the porch.  “He does, but he’s planning on moving back out here.”

When he opened the door, it swung inward to reveal a thoroughly modern home.  There was a brand new plasma TV on the wall and half a dozen laptops set up on the desk in the corner.  It was so at odds with the desolate landscape outside the house.  I stepped across the threshold.

“Welcome home, Kathy.”  The voice was deep, with a broad accent.  My heart jumped up in my throat, and I whirled.  Frank stood there, grinning.  I heaved in a deep breath and then let it out in an angry huff.

“That’s not funny, Frank!”

He closed the door, his lips still split in a wide smile.  It struck me that I had never seen Frank smile quite like that.

“Have you ever known me to make a joke?”  Somehow, that stranger’s voice came from his lips.

I took a wary step back.  “Now is a pretty awful time to start.  Stop talking like that.”

“This is my voice, Kathy. 
My real voice.  You’ve heard it before.”

“Stop calling me that!”  My voice was high with anxiety.  Why was Frank acting this way?  Why di
d he sound like…  That accent.

“He had a broad, Midwestern accent,”
Kathy had described The Mentor.

I took another step back, my head shaking wildly from side to side.  “I don’t know why you’re doing this, but I want you to stop.  Maybe you’re not used to making jokes, but this isn’t funny.”

“I think it is.  This is the most fun I’ve had in years.”  His eyes glittered as he reached into his pocket.  My stomach dropped when he pulled out a syringe.  “I could have taken you at any time, but this is so much better.  I wanted you to find me.  My clever little pet.”

My body acted before my mind could process what was happening.  I fell into a defensive stance, and his grin widened.

“And so brave, too.  I knew you were perfect for me, Kathy.”

“Stop it!”  I shrieked.  “Stop calling me that!”

He laughed.  It was much richer, more genuine, than any laugh I had ever heard from him.  “I’ll call my property whatever I choose.”

I took in a long breath and tried my best for a steady voice.  “I’m going to leave now, Frank.  Just let me leave, and we’ll forget about this.”

He shook his head at me, as though I was a child who couldn’t quite understand an adult concept.  “You’re not going anywhere ever again.  You belong to me.”

His body shifted, ready to lunge.  Frank had taught me to recognize the signs of an attack.  I twisted out of the way of the jabbing needle and came up under his outstretched arm to catch him in the stomach.  He turned his body so that the blow glanced off him, and his free hand made a grab for my shoulder.  I dodged away, putting several feet of space between us.  His indulgent smile let me know he had allowed it.

I recalled the years of training with him, the hits I had taken from him.  He had said they would make me stronger.

His eyes gleamed.  “Come on, fight me.  Show me what you’ve learned.”

Tears gathered at the corners of my eyes as the last nine years of my life twisted in my mind, becoming something sick and sinister.

“Don’t do this, Frank.  Just stop it.”  It was a child’s plea.

“No,” he reprimanded.  “Not Frank.  You’ll call me Master from now on, pet.”

He came at me again, and this time the needle grazed a th
in red line across my neck when I jerked away sloppily.

“Come on, now, Kathy.  I taught you better than that.”

I came at him with a scream of rage.  He smiled even as my fist made contact with his jaw.  He moved with the punch, minimizing the damage.  He would probably barely have a bruise.  And I had gotten too close.  His arm closed around my upper back, pulling me against him.  The needle plunged into my upper arm.

My muscles weakened almost instantly, and I jerked against his hold.  He cupped my cheek in his big hand, cradling my face so I was forced to look up at him.

“I’ve been waiting to see the look on your face when you realize who I really am.”  Red gleamed through the amber of his eyes.  How had I never seen it before?  “And there it is.  So beautiful.”

The visceral horror wasn’t enough to keep the darkness at bay.

“Wake up, pet.  I’m getting tired of waiting.”  A light slap across my cheek made my brain rattle against my skull.  My head throbbed, and my entire body felt too heavy.  A sense of dread stirred in my gut, but my mind couldn’t quite put together why.  I opened my eyes to take stock of my situation.

My vision was black; my lids were securely shuttered by something tightly pressed against them.  Panic surged, doubling the pounding in my head but clearing the cobwebs from my thoughts.  I tried to rip the blindfold off, but my arms barely moved.  I recognized the feel of soft cuffs ensnaring my wrists.

Rough fingertips brushed my cheekbone.  “There she is.”

That voice was so familiar and yet so
wrong.

“Frank,” his name stuck on my too-thick tongue.  I swallowed and tried again.  “Please.  Why are you doing this?”

“It’s
Master,
not Frank.”  He clucked his tongue at me.  “I haven’t even explained the rules yet.  I’ll answer all your questions honestly.  But for each one, there’s a price.  You get to choose how much you give up to me.  You just lost your shirt.”  He chuckled at his sick joke.

Cold steel edged beneath the lower hem of my blouse.  “Don’t!”  I twisted away, and sharp pain flared as the knife nicked my belly.  My body went rigid, my muscles not even daring to quiver with my fear.  All I was conscious of was the point of the blade against my all-too-delicate flesh.  I didn’t even breathe as it scratched up my stomach, not quite breaking the skin.  When it reached the first button on my shirt, the fabric tugged once before the button popped away.  A high, animal whimper escaped me then.

His hand skimmed up my stomach in the wake of the blade, parting the fabric as he cut it open.  “I’ve waited so long for this,” he practically cooed.  I couldn’t see the expression of sick delight on his face.  I was almost glad of that.  At least this way, the knowledge that the man assaulting me was my father figure was an abstract thing.  The Mentor couldn’t be Frank if he didn’t look like Frank.  He sounded different enough that I could almost convince myself.

But then there was the way he smelled; expensive sandalwood cologne, playing over his natural salty scent.  My brain remembered Frank holding me while I cried, even as I mentally revolted against the idea that the man violating me was the one I had loved like a dad.

My anguish left me on a piercing scream when the last button gave way.  Frank laughed, that rich, genuine laugh I had never heard before today.  How had I never realized how cold and stilted his other laugh was?

The blade sheered through my long sleeves, and cool air brushed across my exposed torso.  I was still wearing my bra, but I had never felt so naked.

The cold weight of the knife settled between my breasts as he set it down on my sternum.  I breathed again, but only out of necessity.  Oxygen came in tiny inhales for fear that the steel would shift on a gasp and slice me open.

“You asked why I’m doing this, and I promised an honest answer,” his voice oozed over my bare skin.  “I’m doing this because you’re perfect.  I made sure of it.  I always knew you were a clever girl, and you had the capacity for bravery.  It just took a guiding hand to show you that.  The first time you threw yourself into my arms and cried against me, I felt…  I
felt.
  I hadn’t felt anything since I lost Kathy.  The other women were just toys.  Toys to play with and break and replace.  None of them satisfied me.  None of them made me
feel.
”

His fingers stroked through my hair.  I turned my head away in revulsion, but his hand fisted in my curls, pulling me back where he wanted me.

“You’ll fight me.  You’ll try to outsmart me.  And if you’re very good at the game – which I know you will be – you’ll actually manage to surprise me.  I know you’ll be good at it because I’ve trained you for this for nine years.”

I had no words.  I couldn’t even formulate thoughts.  All that filled my mind was a despairing wail.  After a while, I realized it filled my ears as well.  I was making the agonized sound.

I forced myself to go quiet. 
Think, think.

But he wanted me to try to outthink him.  My stubborn streak told me to defy him, but how could I do that when what he wanted was for me to try to escape him?

Reed knows where I am.  He’ll come for me.
  I clung to that knowledge, but I wasn’t willing to just lie there and wait for rescue.  I had to keep him talking.  So long as he was talking, he wasn’t…
raping me. 
I stumbled over the thought.