“Doesn’t matter,” he growled. “She goes, Rick.”
“She might go, but it won’t make a difference.” Rick’s voice was firm, his expression icy. “I won’t hide this information from her. It affects her, not just due to her job, but due to the fact that her life is now in more danger than any of the rest of you. Would you deny her the information that would help save it?”
The bombshell was dropped with the ease of words, but the echo of the implications resounded
throughout the room. Sam paled, but all eyes now turned to Heather.
“Why?” Cade bit out, turning quickly back to Rick.
“Reginald Robert Jennings. He’s Jack Jennings full brother, and both men are half brothers to Jedediah Marcelle, the man you killed, Cade. Reginald Robert is Marly’s natural father.”
Silence, thick and all consuming filled the room for long seconds.
“No.” Cade’s voice was furious, blistering with his rage.
“Someone went to a lot of trouble to hide the records. There were even false records recorded in the computer system, which is why we were stumped for so long. It took a physical search.” Rick opened the file and pushed it toward Cade. “I have birth records, marriage license, divorce record, all of it. Some of it was pretty cleverly hidden. Someone wanted Reginald Robert’s name erased from any public files. I think he’s the one who was writing to Marly, and I believe he’s the one stalking the family now. If that’s true, then Heather’s life won’t be worth shit if he’s not caught.”
The cold brutal edge of his voice assured her of just how serious he was.
“Thanks, Rick,” she bit out, fear flashing through her now.
Rick sighed roughly.
“He’s focused on Sam,” he said. “I can’t figure that one out. I would expect him to focus on Cade, because of Marly and the fact that Cade was the one who killed his brother. Instead, he blames Sam. I believe it’s because his social status, as well as his brother’s life, ended because of Marcelle’s fixation on Sam.”
“Enough.” Sam’s voice was like broken glass.
Rick glanced away, but when he looked back, his expression was even, cool and impersonal.
“Servants gossip, and it seems there were several who were aware of what was going on in that basement,” he continued, ignoring the way the man began to shift dangerously, muscles bunching as though preparing to attack.
“I managed to track one down, and to get him to talk. He was the one that carried the meals down to the room, who injected the drugs…”
“Enough.” Cade shook his head, his hands bunching into fists in the pockets of his jeans.
“Reginald went to medical school for a while,” Rick continued. “He was especially proficient with a scalpel. The scars Sam carries proves that whoever did the work, knew what they were doing. As does Heather’s.”
Heather watched Sam. He flinched with each word, denial raging in his expression. She felt her heart breaking for him. She couldn’t stand here, knowing that listening to every word out of Rick’s mouth was destroying him further because she was hearing it. Because she knew.
“Enough,” she whispered, holding a hand up to stop Rick.
Everyone turned to her then.
“Sam,” she whispered his name, tears coming to her eyes as she saw the unbearable shame in his expression. “I think I need to go talk to Marly as well. Will you let me know what I need to stay alive?”
She was placing her life in his hands; something she had never dared to do with anyone else. He blinked in surprise, in relief.
“I will.” He swallowed tightly.
“Heather.” Tara’s voice was filled with protest. “I’ll fill you in…”
“No.” Heather shook her head. “Sam can fill me in. He knows what I need to know and what can wait until he’s ready.”
She didn’t give Sam time to answer, orTara to protest. She swept from the room, pain echoing through her body; for herself, for Sam, and for his brothers. They stood there, together, yet apart.As though invisible shields separated them, refusing to allow them to draw together, to face the past as a unit.
She was already aware of many of the details. Painful, horrendous. Rick hadn’t cut them any slack when he first detailed the dangers they faced. They were three men lucky to be alive, to be able to function in any normal way, and one of them had committed murder.
Men so horrifically abused, that their only connection to each other was the sexual bonds they shared with each other’s women. Strong, dependable, decent men whose only faults were their sexual needs and their loyalty to each other. And these men were being stalked, possibly by someone who had aided the monster who tried to destroy them. Wanted to destroy them because Sam had refused the homosexual relationship his abuser had wanted.
The drugs they had been injected with had aided the abuser in forcing them to rape each other. The normal bonds of brotherhood and trust had been destroyed in ways Heather could only imagine.
Her stomach rolled with the sickening realization of what Sam had suffered. The guilt and the pain he lived with was suddenly more real to her than it ever had been. Her feelings for him though, rather than dimming at that knowledge, were only growing. And in growing, she faced the bitter realization that there were now choices she would have to make as well.
Chapter Eleven
“They’re going to try to hide from us forever,” Marly raged furiously as Heather watched her pace the room.
Her long hair fell in ringlets down her back, swishing against her h*ps as she stalked the room.
“They can’t hide for much longer, Marly.” Sarah sat back in the chair she had taken at the side of the room.
“It’s not like I’m unaware of what happened,” Marly bit out, pushing her fingers through her hair, as she seemed to grit her teeth in pain. “Dammit, Sarah, he treats me like I’m still a child.”
Not hardly, Heather thought sarcastically. She had been unlucky enough to walk into the kitchen one morning searching out coffee, only to find Cade buried balls deep between his lover’s thighs as he bent her over the counter.
“You look like you disagree,” Marly snapped as she turned on her.
Heather watched her curiously before shrugging. “He doesn’t treat like you a child.”
Her eyes narrowed until only a sliver of the brilliant blue could be glimpsed.