Stolen: A Novel of Romantic Suspense (40 page)

But those two stones behind her reminded her how very unfinished this was. “She can’t hurt me unless I let her, Elliot,” Shay whispered, hiding her face against his shirt. It was a lie; she knew it even as she said it. But she wasn’t going to let that woman win. She’d done enough damage and it was past time that it stopped.

“This game she’s playing, now that I’ve figured it out, it’s going to stop. I’ll stop her. I’m not a scared child hiding in a closet anymore.”

No … she was a scared, horrified adult who didn’t know which way to go, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her.

Moments passed as she stood there, pressed against his chest, listening to his heart beating … letting the place of death wrap her in its odd web of peace. “We’ll get this done,” she murmured. Somehow.

But after that?

“Where are you two going for the night?” Hilliard asked as he walked them back to their car.

“We’re staying at the Hotel San Carlos downtown.” Downtown—in the middle of a bunch of people, surrounded by them. It should have terrified her, but she desperately needed it right then. Needed the thought of lots of people, lights, and chaos. Maybe it would keep the shadows in her memory at bay for a little while longer.

Maybe, but she wasn’t counting on it.

“And then …?”

She just stared at him.

“What do you plan on doing next?” he asked gently. “You didn’t just come here for these answers. What about Abernathy? Your sister?”

“Abernathy …” She clenched her jaw. She wasn’t going to think about him, because every time she did, her skin broke out in a cold sweat. Those nightmares, those memories—they were her dragons, the nightmares that had haunted her all of her life. Even as a child, before he’d hurt her so badly, she’d been afraid of him and in her dreams, she’d remembered it.

She didn’t need to see him.

She’d come for answers; she’d found them. She’d found out about her sister and now she needed to figure out the next step. What to do about her, how to find her … 
face
her.

That was her focus. Clenching her jaw until it hurt, she gave herself a minute and continued to stare at the mountains.
Breathe—focus—think—

She could do this. She had to. “I’m not here about Abernathy,” she said, her voice a bare whisper. “He isn’t my concern or my problem—”
He’s just the dragon from my nightmares …
“I’m here because of Leslie.”

“Okay.” He inclined his head. “And what do you plan to do about her?”

“Hell.” Shay spun away. If it weren’t for Darcy, she’d rather just do
nothing
about her. She’d rather never know about her, forget about her … but that wasn’t an option. “She’s a stranger to me, and a monster—somebody I really wish I’d never remembered.”

He’s gone now … you’ll be the princess again …

As the horror rolled through her, she covered her face with her hands, wishing she could carve the sound of that laughing voice, so gleeful and happy, from her
mind. Then bleach herself clean—she felt so unbelievably dirty.

“I don’t want this inside me, Captain,” she said quietly. “I don’t want to remember, I don’t want to think about her … I don’t want to
know
her. If I never thought about her again …”

Her voice hitched and she stopped to take a breath. But it wasn’t that easy. Even if she never heard from Leslie again, even if the woman left her alone, Shay couldn’t walk away.

Because of Darcy.

Feeling the weight of a familiar, intense stare, she looked up and found Elliot’s gaze resting on her. And in those eyes, she saw the knowledge. He knew she wouldn’t let this go … knew she couldn’t.

She looked at Captain Hilliard, as the horror and grief continued to riot through her.

His face was gentle, still so gentle and understanding. “You can leave … she’s not a part of your life, and she never should be, Shay. Just leave. Let us handle this … that’s what the cops are here for.”

“I can’t.” Closing her eyes, she whispered again, “I can’t. She’s …”

I think she killed my friend. She’s screwing with my life. I can’t leave until I find a way to make her stop—

How did she even begin to explain?

“Elliot tells me there was a friend … a missing one. Is that why you can’t leave? Is that why you’re here to begin with?”

Shay nodded. Sinking her nails into her palms, she tried to ground herself, but that small pain wasn’t enough. Darcy … “Her name was Darcy. She’s been missing for two years. And Leslie has been pretending to be her. I never even knew.”

“Didn’t you recognize a change in the voice or anything?”

Shay sighed. “Shit, do you think I haven’t thought about that? No, I didn’t notice any difference in her voice. I can’t explain that, either. Maybe she’s just really good at mimicking other voices.”
Voices …
She stopped and remembered the call to the number Trish had given her, the voice that had sounded like her own. “There was this weird thing, though. She had set up a phone number, claimed it was mine. It’s complicated and it would take a while to explain it all, but I called that number … and she
sounded
like me. I don’t
know
how she managed to pull this off. But Darcy has been missing for two years. You would think I would have realized something was wrong … I’ve been paying …”

She stopped and looked at him. “I’ve been paying her. Damn it, I PayPal money every single month—her paycheck. Wouldn’t the cops have checked on that, with her being reported missing?”

“Yes.” Hilliard nodded. “Assuming they knew—they’d be watching bank accounts. But PayPal accounts aren’t always linked to bank accounts. If the money was just going into the PayPal account, the cops may well not have known about it, especially if the family wasn’t aware of it. Maybe there was an email address they didn’t know about, so they didn’t think to check that one.”

“The business email.” Shay rubbed the heel of her hand over her chest and whispered, “I had her set up a separate account that was only used for my business stuff—it couldn’t be used for anything else. I paid her through that account.”

Closing her eyes, Shay buried her face in her hands, grief hitting her in a hard, heavy wave. She almost collapsed under it. She’d wanted her privacy, her anonymity … and because of that very thing, it had made it that much easier for her sister to stalk and hurt her best friend.

“God, what have I done?”

“You didn’t do anything,” Elliot told her. He laid his hand over the back of her neck, but she couldn’t find the comfort in it that she usually did, and she doubted she deserved any.

“Exactly!” she shouted, spinning away from him and pacing. Arms wrapped around her belly, she stared off into nothing while her heart threatened to split in two. “She did something to my best friend—one of my
only
friends, and did I
know
? Did I realize anything was wrong? No. I quietly bitched to myself about what a pain in the ass Darcy had become. I never realized anything was wrong. I never tried to find out what was going on. I just …” She pressed a hand to her mouth and whispered, “I didn’t do anything.”

Hearing the soft sound of footsteps, she tensed as Elliot approached and stood in front of her. “This isn’t helping,” he said softly. He cupped her face in his hands, stroked a thumb over her lower lip. “I know you’re angry, and I know you’re hurt. I don’t blame you. I don’t even know Darcy and I’m pissed off. But how can you
help
her now if you let guilt tear you apart?”

“So what do I do, damn it?” she asked, her voice catching in her throat. “Just shrug it off? Say
oh, well
and let it be?”

“No.” Dipping his head, he brushed his lips across hers and murmured, “Even if part of me wishes you’d just walk away from this, that’s not who you are. You’ll do what you have to. We’ll find a way to get through this. But don’t let what
she
has done tear you apart, Shay. You can’t do that.”

Reaching up, she curled her fingers into his T-shirt and battled the urge to cry, to scream. Anything. The emotion building inside her had no outlet and she felt as though she might explode. “Elliot, this is killing me,” she whispered.

“You’ll be okay,” he murmured, wrapping her in his arms. “And I’ll be right here. I swear, I’ll be right here, no matter what.”

Shuddering, she rested her head against his chest and tried to think past the anger, the guilt. The horror.
My brother—

Stop it
, she told herself. Swallowing the knot in her throat, she eased back away from him, lifting her head to stare at the gravestones. Her mother and her brother, people she’d never known.

“Shay, no matter how you’re feeling, none of this is on you,” Hilliard said quietly. Then he heaved out a tired, ragged sigh. “You know, I should have known it wouldn’t be a simple thing when I realized you were here. This isn’t just because you needed to find your brother. It’s not just because you’re looking for closure … is it?”

“No.”

He nodded and stroked his jaw. “The wisest thing you
could
do is go home. I’ve already got a weird twist in my gut, just listening to the weird shit you’ve had going on. You can go home and I can start making some calls, see what I can turn up.”

She stared at him.

“And that’s not going to happen, is it?”

“I didn’t come all the way down here just to get sent back home, Captain,” she said quietly.

He turned away, hands planted on his hips. “She could be dangerous. If this is a matter for the police, you’ll have to step back, let the police handle it.” Shooting her a look over his shoulder, he added, “My gut tells me that if Leslie Hall is involved, you have to be careful.”

Shay grimaced. “I already figured that much out,” she said. “She killed my little brother. I think she killed my friend. I’m dealing with a monster …”

A monster …

She had a monster in her
.

Such evil in her soul …

That was what Selena Campbell had said about her. Shay hadn’t realized who she was speaking about at the time. But now she knew it had been Leslie. She’d been speaking about Shay’s sister.

We left Arizona, but she found us …

“There was a family. They may have been her foster parents,” Shay said quietly, looking up to find both Elliot and Hilliard staring at her. “The Campbells—the woman’s name is Selena. They would have lived in Arizona at some point and they took care of Leslie for a while. I think she might have done something to them, or maybe another child they took care of.”

Hilliard pulled out a notebook and started jotting things down.

Elliot just studied her face. “Campbell … Michigan?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah. I … ah, I called her when you left for a little while. I just hoped she’d tell me something. It wasn’t much, but …” Shay shrugged. “Elliot, her voice. She was so terrified. Just even talking to me.”

“How old would she have been when she lived with them?” With a scowl, he looked at Hilliard.

“She was six years older than Shay, so it just depends on when they had her.”

Six years older …
She’d been four when they took her out of hell. So her sister had been ten when she killed their little brother. Bile rose in her throat; she swallowed it, fighting the urge to start retching all over again.
Deal with it now—fall apart later
, she reminded herself.

“A ten-year-old killer. What would they have done with her?” she murmured, also studying Hilliard.

“It depends,” he said, sighing. He looked so damn tired. “Therapy, counseling—back then, they wouldn’t
have done too much with a kid that young. These days, they sometimes try, but it all depends on the trial. Those records are sealed, so the best I can assume is that they had her get help. Then she was fostered out.”

“I’m going to assume the
help
wasn’t much help,” Shay said caustically, looking back at the grave of her brother. How could you
help
a child-killer? “I wonder what she did that had a grown woman so afraid of her.”

Hilliard stared at her, his face grim. “You should just go back home, Shay. Keep away from this—from her. I’ll start asking questions and doing what I can—if there’s something going on, we’ll find it. But it doesn’t need to involve you. You found the answers you said you needed—go home. File a restraining order. Hell, if you need to, hire a bodyguard for a while.” Shrewd eyes shifted Elliot’s way and he added, “Although that may not be necessary considering the shadow you’ve got.”

“Shit.” Shay turned around, staring back at him. “A bodyguard—do you really think she’s going to care about that? She killed a baby—her own brother. And I don’t think she wants to
hurt
me. She wants to freak me out, and she seems to want to control my life, but she doesn’t want to
hurt
me.”

Elliot reached up and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Shay … we don’t know that.”

Yes, I do
. But she didn’t bother arguing. She couldn’t just go home and hide under her bed and pretend this would all go away.

She felt as if she was about to come out of her skin. Her brain all but buzzed with all the stimuli dancing through it. Go
home
?

With a smile that she hoped looked more real than it felt, she said, “I don’t know, Captain. I think I should sleep on it.”