Tell Me True (13 page)

I SAT STUNNED
as I watched Maxwell's body float by, his skin already discolored from the water and death, or maybe it was just the moonlight playing tricks on my mind. He was face-down, which was a small blessing, but I could imagine his face. Would it be scared? Confused? At peace? Some macabre part of me wanted to turn him over to see, but he'd already moved out of reach.

Jon
grasped for me and I accepted the comfort of his hug for a moment before pulling back and staring at the rope ladder.

"We'll be together after this," he said, his voice thick with need. "Right? You'll be mine?"

I hid my heart from him, my heart that belonged to Ash and always would. Jon only knew the part of the plan he needed to, the part that would allow us to catch the real Midnight Murderer. But he didn't know my heart, and I couldn't let him see it.

Not yet.

"Yes, you and me. We'll be together. But first, we have to finish this."

COVERED IN BLOOD
, shaking uncontrollably, I ran through the burning yacht to find Ash and Bridgette. A crew member tried to stop me as I turned the corner, but I pushed him away and he shrugged and ran to the life boats.

I heard helicopters in the distance and I kept running, my feet bleeding from glass and debris as the yacht shook and began to sink.

And then I heard the most beautiful sound in the world. Ash's voice. Calling me.

I ran into his arms. "You're alive!"

"I am. I've been trying to find you. Bridgette's already been rescued but I wouldn't leave without you. Come, we have to go—now!"

We boarded a helicopter and it flew up as I watched the yacht burn and sink into the ocean, along with all my family's secrets. Ash held me, his strong arms supporting me as we were taken
to Massachusetts General Hospital for medical help.

My mind filled with all the revelations of the night, and I tallied up how many lives had been lost this last year, including Molly, the young girl Jon got pregnant
and the last casualty of Alpha Pi Omega.

And I wondered if I should tell anyone about Jon. The truth heals, sometimes. I had learned the hard way that sometimes the truth also wounded, and for no good reason. Telling Ash and Bridgette about Jon would just open up wounds that were trying to heal and wouldn't help them recover or move on.

But there were other secrets that needed telling. How much should Ash know about the truth of his parents? What would that do to him?

I considered these questions in the days that followed the tragedy, as investigators tried to make sense of what had happened.

Most of the crew survived. Mr. And Mrs. Brown had gotten out in time and hadn't been injured. Bridgette was recovering and was still pregnant. But the death toll was big.

Ashton and Louise
Davenport.

Maxwell Fisher
.

Professor
George Cavin

Detective Aaron Gray
.

And Jon Davenport, though his name would be missing from all official accounts.

So much loss and heartbreak. I modified the truth to spare Ash more pain, and I laid the guilt of what happened on Professor Cavin. He would carry the public weight for everything, and I would live my life being the only one left alive who knew the truth—the whole truth.

It was a burden I would gladly bear to spare my husband and best friend more pain.

***

Months later,
Ash surprised me with a honeymoon to Bali. "Do you remember when you were Cat and we used our phone calls to go to exotic locations and make love?" he asked as we boarded our international flight.

"Yes." My heart skipped every time I looked at him, at his smile and the dimple in his chin. At how he looked at me with such love and devotion. The secrets I carried in my heart lightened when I remembered why I carried them instead of sharing them. This man was worth anything and everything to me.

I got a text and read it, smiling.
Hurry back. I don't want you to miss the baby being born. ~Bridge

I replied.
We'll be back in plenty of time. I can't wait to meet my niece or nephew.

She had chosen not to find out the sex, and I knew she mourned for Jon more than all of us. But she'd recovered for the baby and had even gone back to med school
at the same time I rejoined law school. I’d had Ash teach me how to invest the small trust my parents left me so I could be more self-sufficient financially, and I'd reframed the one portrait I had of me with my parents and hung it in the living room. I still had mixed feelings about my mother, about what her choices had led to, but I'd taken Bridgette's advice and remembered the mother I knew and loved. The kind, funny, caring woman who had raised me. She would live in my heart forever and I would let the other woman, the criminal I didn't know, rest in peace at the bottom of the ocean with all the other drowned secrets.

I pulled my attention away from my phone, dropping it into my purse, and looked up at my husband. "You were saying?"

"Yes, well, remember that hotel in Ubud I told you about?"

I did
—but when we arrived in the little town in central Bali, it took my breath away. My imagination could never have filled in the details of this majestic place, surrounded by a rainforest. We checked into our hotel and enjoyed the scattering of tropical flowers on the bed and the warm breeze blowing through the white gauze curtains on the window overlooking the Ayung River.

In the distance, monkeys chattered in the coconut palms and we could hear the waterfalls crashing against rocks.

We stood on the balcony and admired the cocoa and coffee trees blending with bamboo, flame trees and orchids. The lush color overwhelmed me.

We didn't waste time and soon stripped our clothes off and waded into the private cascading pool overlooking the forest. The warm water pulled me in and I sank into it, enjoying the feel of the sun on my bare flesh.

Ash joined me, our bodies coming together as he kissed me. His hand explored my body and found itself between my legs, pushing into me as I wrapped my legs around him in the water. He pushed me against the edge of the pool, water streaming over us as he spread my legs wider and placed his cock between the folds of my pussy. His tip teased me as he held me up against him. "Tell me you want me."

"I want you." I rubbed closer to him, trying to force him inside me, but he controlled my hips.

"Tell me you need me."

"I need you."

He sank deeper into me, filling me and stretching me, but didn't move.

"Tell me you love me."

"I love you, Ash."

He shoved himself into me, rocking me against the edge of the pool, fucking me so hard I cried out, screaming his name.

In the jungle, the monkeys screeched in a cacophony of sound as we both climaxed together under the heat of the Bali sun.

I STOOD, SHAKING
, bits of Professor Cavin smeared into my hair and on my face, and I dropped the gun and sobbed. I'd just killed the man I thought of as my protector. My mentor. I covered myself with my shirt and adjusted my pants, disgusted and terrified by what he'd been about to do.

Angry at what he'd done to my mother and father.

Shaking, I searched the cabin for my mother's research, the last bit of evidence that any of this had happened. I hadn't wanted to leave the research behind. It seemed somehow fitting to have it here as I completed my revenge. I took it in my hands and lit a match, setting the bundle on fire as I dropped it into the tin trash can in the corner.

The flames danced in my eyes as I watched this chapter in my life end for good.

"Cat?"

I turned and saw Jon laying on the floor, his eyes open, his hand held out to me.

"Jon? But I thought…"

He moved slowly, opening up his shirt to show the safety vest he wore. "I knew it would be dangerous. I came prepared. It's over now, Cat. It's over. We can be together."

He sat up and reached for me, and I crawled toward him. "Oh Jon, there's so much I wish I could tell you."

"We'll have our whole lives for that," he said, a smile on his face.

"Jon, I know the truth. About everything."

His smile faltered. "The truth?"

I nodded. "I know you were there that night. With Cavin. I know you participated. I was young. I thought there was only one man there, but there were two."

He fell back, fear in his eyes. "Cat, he made me go. I didn't want to, but he made me, said I had to become a real man if I ever wanted to
be a member of Alpha Pi Omega."

"You raped and helped murder my mother."

He shook his head. "Cat, please, it's over now. Let's just forget it and move on."

"You killed my father."

"Cat, they would have ruined everything."

"You destroyed her life even when she tried to help you."
I held the gun up to his face. "I knew the whole time, Jon, I just needed to make sure. But I knew, and so did my mother. She knew you were a psychopath. She found the dead animals you tortured and buried. She studied you and saw the signs. Much of her research had been destroyed, but not the page where she named you. She knew what you were capable of and she was going to stop you, but you stopped her first. And now, I'm going to stop you. You were always a part of my plan."

"No, Cat! I love you."

"And I love Ash."

I pulled the trigger and watched him die.

"Goodbye, Jon."

***

The papers continued to burn. Words my mother had written that had spelled the end of her life.

Jon Davenport exhibits all the tendencies of a high
ly functioning and very dangerous psychopath. It is my belief that he is being groomed to take over, to become the monster the group needs to continue killing anyone who gets in their way. If something happens to me, look to him first. He won't stop until he is dead.

None of them will.

Do you love a good romance? Then pick up
When the Heart Falls
, an epic stand-alon
e novel where love conquers all and two lost souls overcome their darkness together in the city of lights.

Want to read a paranormal romance with mystery? Get Seduced by Innocence FREE
here
!

Thank you for reading!