She ceased her struggling, giving him his privacy. 'Were they caught by the police?'

'No.' He sounded a little amused at that. 'I'm sure they would have preferred the cops.' He resettled her in his lap and continued, his voice surprisingly calm. 'They gave instructions for the ransom, said no police or FBI should be contacted. Gayle told me later that my father wouldn't let my mother contact the authorities, but she snuck away and did it anyway. The Feds followed the pickup man to the warehouse complex. That's how they found us, but they had to do a building-to-building search. When the kidnappers realized the Feds were closing in, they freaked. They grabbed the money and ran, but not before trying to take care of us. We'd seen their faces. I was just a kid. I didn't realize that from the beginning we were dead in their eyes. One of them opened the freezer door and . . . fired.'

His arms tightened around her until she had trouble breathing, but she didn't say a word. He abruptly loosened his hold, his voice trembling now. 'I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you.'

She pressed her fingertips to his lips. 'I'm fine. You don't have to tell me any more.'

'I haven't told you anything yet,' he said wearily.

Her heart sank. What was coming was much worse, then. She kissed the base of his throat, tasting the salt of his sweat. 'Then tell me,' she murmured. 'But you don't have to.'

'I think I do. No, I know I do. You need to know. But you need to know why.'

Need to know what? she wanted to demand, but she let him tell it his way. They had time.

'You read the articles so you know that Matty was killed and Stone almost died. They were tied up close to the door, an easy shot. They'd put my chair toward the back. I threw myself down and the chair teetered just enough that the bullet missed my head and grazed my ear. I ended up on the floor and stayed there, waiting for the second shot, but finally realized the bastard thought he'd hit me. He pulled the door shut and left us alone there. In the dark.'

Swallowing the bile that burned her throat, she struggled to hide her horror, but knew that was useless. 'Jesus, Marcus.'

He pressed his lips to her temple and kept them there for a long time. 'I could hear Stone crying, but I couldn't hear Matty at all. Not even breathing. I was thrashing, trying to get free. I'd been thrashing ever since they'd tied me up.'

She cleared her throat. 'How much time, Marcus?'

'We were held for a little more than three days.'

Her chest hurt. 'Three days was an eternity.'

'It was.' A long, long pause. 'When I fell, the wooden back of the chair broke. Between that and the thrashing, I managed to get my hands free. My feet were still tied to the chair's base, but I dragged myself to the door, chair and all. It was locked the bastards had padlocked it before they ran with the ransom cash, so we were trapped. I got my feet free and tried to use part of the broken chair to get us out. Stone had stopped crying and I thought he was dead too, but I couldn't see to know if he was okay. I guess I became kind of an animal, trying to break the door down. The officers searching our warehouse heard me. When they came in, I saw the uniform and thought they were the kidnappers, come back to finish us off, so I attacked them. I didn't want them near Stone and Matty. It took two officers to pull me away and hold me down.'

'I'm so sorry about Matty.'

He nodded, the stubble on his face catching in her hair. 'He died almost immediately, so he didn't suffer so much. Stone . . . he was hurt bad. I still remember the blood when they carried him out. He was in a coma for a week. In the hospital a lot longer than that. He missed Matty's funeral, which was probably a blessing for him.'

'How did you find out that your father was involved?'

'A few days after we were rescued, the phone rang in our apartment. Gayle was at the hospital sitting with Stone and my mother was asleep. She'd taken a sleeping pill that the doctor had given her. That was the beginning of her addiction. Anyway, I answered the phone before it finished ringing because I didn't want it to wake Mom up. And, um . . .' He swallowed hard. 'I heard him. One of the guys who took us. The one who hurt Stone and Matty. I didn't scream, didn't make a sound. It was like I was frozen with fear because I thought he was coming back. Then I heard my father answer the phone from another extension. It all happened pretty fast. They started talking, and I realized they knew each other. My father was angry. He said, "Nobody was supposed to get hurt. You killed my son and the other might die too." Then the guy told my father that he'd broken the agreement by sending in the FBI. My father blew up, so angry that my mother had involved the law. But he was madder that the other guy hadn't given him his share of the money.'

Scarlett wanted to curse, to hit something. Wanted to kill his father, rip out his withered heart with her bare hands. But she kept her cool. Kept her voice calm and her hand warm on his chest. 'What did you do?'

'I wanted to tell someone, but I didn't know who. Mom was out like a light and Gayle was at the hospital with Stone. My paternal grandfather lived nearby and watched us sometimes, but he was just like my father and I was afraid to tell him. Afraid he wouldn't believe me. I tried to walk out of the apartment to find a beat cop, but my father stopped me from going out, said I could be kidnapped again because they'd gotten away and I'd seen their faces.'

'Sonofabitch. He deliberately terrified you.'

'I didn't know what to do. I got paranoid, thinking he was watching me. I was afraid to pick up the phone, afraid that he'd listen to me like I'd listened to him. So I cowered in my room and didn't tell anyone. I didn't know who I could trust.'

'What about your Grandfather Yarborough? You trusted him.'

'I loved him. I loved spending time with him when we visited him, but even back then I never knew who he was going to be, so I was a little scared of him too. He came down to Lexington as soon as we were taken, but he spent all his time at the hospital with my mother and Stone after we were rescued. I never had a moment alone with him when my father wasn't hovering.'

'Your father kept you isolated.'

'Yes. Plus, my grandfather liked my father. Everyone liked my father. He was pleasant and fun and threw a good party. My mother was the moody one, the one everyone said was eccentric. My father was well-loved by everyone who didn't live with us.'

'Gayle lived with you.'

'Gayle got days off. Vacation. My father timed his outbursts very well. And when he couldn't hold back . . . Well, my parents were very good at fighting in private.'

'Dammit, Marcus, I hate the thought of you being so alone in your own home. Surely your mother would have listened when you told her what you'd heard your father say.'

'She would have listened, sure. But she wouldn't have heard. She was in shock. Matty was dead, and Stone almost was. And the bottom line was that she loved my father, even though he'd slap her around sometimes. Nobody knew. I don't even think she knows that I even knew. I kept trying to find the right time to tell her what he did to Stone and Matty, but I never did.'

To Stone and Matty, but not to you. 'How did your father die, Marcus?'

He drew a deep breath and held it.

'Marcus?'

The breath rushed out almost desperately. 'At the funeral, a man came up to my father. Big guy. Really big. Bold, too. Came right up to the casket where we were standing. Asked where his money was. My father said, "It's my son's funeral. Can't you wait?" He asked the man to call him later. So when we got home, I listened and waited. I didn't dare pick up the phone again, but when the call came, I hid nearby and eavesdropped on my father's side of the conversation. He said, "I'll get you the money even if I have to inherit it."'

Scarlett's dread amped up. 'He was going to kill your mother?'

'That's what it sounded like to me. And I made my decision then. I remember that night she tucked me in and sang me a lullaby. Kissed me goodnight. I guess I knew she was sad and scared, and I let her treat me like a little boy.'

'You were a little boy, Marcus.'

'I sure didn't feel like one anymore, I remember that. I wanted to warn her then, but I didn't know how. I stumbled through it, being all cryptic. It should have been simple. I should have just said, "Your husband paid someone to kidnap your children so he could get some money and now he's trying to kill you." But I couldn't get the words out. I started with "My father" but then stumbled and said "Your husband", and then I just couldn't get the words out. All she got was that I was afraid of my father, and she told me that the psychologists said I might mix up reality with fiction for a while as I processed things.'

'You're right. She listened, but it doesn't sound like she could hear what you were trying to say.'

'I realize that now,' he said with a shrug. 'I hadn't slept in my bed since the police brought me home, and I couldn't sleep that night either. I was worried about my mother, so later that night I went to check on her, but she wouldn't wake up. My father wasn't home and Gayle was still with Stone, so I called 911. They pumped my mother's stomach, but she almost died anyway.'

'Did you tell Gayle about your father that night?'

'No. They took Mom to a different hospital than Stone, and since I'd been home alone with her, the cops took me with them. I heard one of them tell the other to be careful, that I was the kid who'd gone apeshit crazy and clawed up two uniforms a few days before. They even talked about restraining me, and I had a panic attack at the thought.'

'No wonder. Stupid untrained sons of bitches,' she muttered.

'They felt bad when I cried like a baby and begged them not to tie me. They told me if I kept my hands to myself they'd leave me alone, so I made myself small in the backseat of the cruiser and didn't say another word. They called Social Services and a caseworker came to sit with me at the ER. She was pretty and nice and I almost got the courage to tell her, but my father showed up and took me home. I was petrified he was going to kill me too, but he just told me to go to sleep, that my mother would be all right. The next morning I woke up and he was gone. He'd packed a bag and left my mother a note saying that he was going away for a few days, that he needed to clear his head after Matty's funeral and find a way to forgive my mother for endangering his kids by defying him and calling in the FBI.'

'What a prince.'

'Yeah. What had woken me up was a noise in my mother's room. I didn't know I was home alone at that point, so I got up to look. And found the big scary guy from the funeral going through my mother's jewelry box.'

Scarlett blinked. 'Shit.'

'I think that's exactly what I said. He'd found the letter my father had left and was pissed. I was so scared I almost fainted, and the guy actually took pity on me. He told me he didn't hurt little kids, that he only needed to find my father because he owed the guy's boss a lot of money.' Here, Marcus paused, hesitating. 'I knew where my father went when he really wanted to get away.' The words came out in a rush, and she could hear the quickening of his breath.

'Something else you overheard?'

'Of course. Plus, I'd been there. So have you.'

Scarlett frowned, then shook her head when realization dawned. 'No way. The cabin in Kentucky?' Owned by his mother, it was where Mikhail had been murdered nine months ago.

'The very same.' He'd grown quiet, hesitant, and instinctively she knew that this was what he hadn't wanted to tell her.

'You told the scary guy where to find your father?' His silence was answer enough. 'No one can blame you, Marcus. You were just a little boy and scared shitless.'

'It would be so easy to let you believe that, but the truth is, I got really calm all of the sudden, because I believed him when he said he wouldn't hurt me. I thought about Matty dead, Stone almost. My mother not safe. And I made a decision. I asked him if I told him where to find my father, would his boss leave my mother, me and my brother alone, even if he never got paid? He looked me in the eye and said that he wouldn't hurt me but that he couldn't promise what any of the other enforcers might do.'

'Enforcers? This guy was with the mob?'

'Yep. But I didn't know that then. I did know that the two kidnappers had taken the whole ransom. I asked the guy how much my father owed his boss and he said about a million. So I told him the kidnappers had taken five million dollars. I told him if he could find the two kidnappers, he could pay back my father's debt and keep the rest. He said he didn't know where to look for the guys, so I told him he could ask my father about that and I told him where I thought he could find my dad. He liked that idea because it was more than my father owed.'

'He could pay your father's debt and keep the four million for himself.'

'Which is what I'm sure he ended up doing,' he said quietly with a grim finality that said his story was finished.

'So . . . what happened to your father? Did they find his body in the cabin?'

'That's what I expected to happen, but no. He was found in a hotel room in downtown Lexington three days later. Tied to the bed, shot with a nine mil, right between the eyes. It was set up to look like he'd been robbed by a prostitute his wallet was empty and there were condoms all over the place.'

'How do you know that?' she asked guardedly.

'I overheard the cops telling my mother at the time, but I also checked out the crime-scene photos years later. Freedom of information, you know,' he added, his tone one of self-hatred. 'My mother was devastated when the cops showed up at our door to deliver the news, and it hit me then exactly what I'd done.'

This was it. 'What exactly did you do, Marcus? And I'll tell you up front, if you say you killed your father, I'm not gonna take it.'

'I set him up, Scarlett. I all but paid for his murder.'

'Yes, you set your father up. But you were just trying to protect your family. You knew your mother and brother wouldn't be safe until the debt was paid. So you thought of a way to get it paid. And you wanted to ensure that the plan would work, so you told the guy where he could find your father. You didn't know the guy would kill your father if he found him. You didn't tell him so that he could kill your father. You did it to save your family. Your father was the one who chose to get in touch with the mob in the first place. He deserved what he got.'

'You're bloodthirsty for a cop, you know,' he said lightly.

His minimization pissed her off, so she pushed on his chest until he loosened his hold enough for her to straddle his hips and look him in the eye. The guilt she saw there made her madder.

'I am not bloodthirsty. What I am is a cop who's seen more death than I ever want to remember. I've seen too many assholes walk away scot-free. I've seen too many women dead because the system doesn't work for them, because even though they followed the rules and reported their abusive SOB husbands and got restraining orders and begged for help, the law couldn't help them until they could prove they were assaulted, and even then the bastards got out by morning and went home to beat them up again.' She poked her finger into his chest. 'You saved your mother's life. Probably Stone's and your own too.' She poked him again. 'You didn't kill your father. You didn't even put out a hit. You were eight years old and simply told the one person who'd listen what had happened to you.' She drew a breath, her body trembling from the anger she was still holding in. 'And if that one person happened to be a mob hit man, well, I consider that to be just a weird, ironically satisfying twist of fate.'

The guilt had disappeared from his eyes, replaced with the hungry look that drove her crazy. 'If I told you that I think I love you, would it be too soon?'

Her heart clenched and twisted at his words, uttered in that smooth voice that made her even crazier. She took his face between her hands and touched her forehead to his. 'Yes, but tell me anyway.'

His lips curved. 'I think I love you, Scarlett Bishop. Or at least I'm well on my way.'

She had to remind herself to breathe. 'Good, because I think I love you too. Even though you have a serious guilt addiction. We have to work on that.'

He kissed her softly, tugged her lower lip gently with his teeth. 'Gonna repair me, Detective?'

She smiled at him as everything fell into place. I'm happy, she realized. And it feels so very nice. 'No, because you're not broken. Just a little banged up. Just like me.'

He swallowed hard, emotion glittering in his eyes. 'I messed you up. Your pretty dress is all sweaty now.' He ran his hands up her legs, under the hem of her dress and over her bare skin to close on her butt. 'I can help you take it off.'

Disappointment swirled with frustration as she mentally calculated how much time had passed. 'As tempting as that sounds, we have to take a rain check. We have somewhere you need to be. Uncle Trace called. He found Mila and Erica. And they will only talk to you.'

His eyes widened in stunned surprise. 'Why didn't you tell me?'

'Because when I came down here, you were in no frame of mind to be what those women needed.' She kissed him hard and fast. 'Are you now?'

'Yes. Thank you.'

She pushed to her feet, almost whimpering when he removed his hands from her butt. Later, she promised herself. When this is over, we'll have all the time we want. She stepped back, extended her hand and pulled him up. 'To the shower with you. Hurry.' She kissed his chest, right above his heart. 'You're all sweaty and you smell like a gym.'

He threaded his fingers through hers. 'And you smell like me, so you need to shower too. I'll wash your hair again, and put some conditioner in this time to get those tangles out.'

'How am I supposed to resist an offer like that?' she asked, stopping at the bottom of the stairs to scoop Zat into her arms, but Marcus beat her to it, cradling the dog much like he'd cradled little Malaya yesterday. And how am I supposed to resist you?

She couldn't. But now that she'd learned his darkest secret, one that proved he was even more of the man she'd hoped for, she knew that she didn't have to resist him at all.

Cincinnati, Ohio

Wednesday 5 August, 8.20 A.M.

Marcus ended his call and handed his phone to Scarlett to plug into the aging Audi's old-fashioned cigarette lighter. He worried about the old car's rattling engine, but knew better than to suggest Scarlett trade it in for a more reliable model. She fixed things. People too. And thank God for that. 'No change on Phillip,' he said with a sigh.

'Tabby Anders is trying to wake up, according to Annabelle Church's grandson, but she's still not coherent.' Scarlett had called Gabriel Benitez to tell him that they were en route to the missing Bautista women. 'Mr Benitez said that he's already called his immigration lawyer friend and they're ready to meet with the family whenever we get them together in a safe place.'

'I've got a place.' Marcus had already reserved the penthouse suite at one of the centrally located hotels downtown. He hadn't done it for the luxury, but for the security. Otherwise Isenberg would want to put the women in protective custody. After being held in slavery for three years, his gut told him the Bautistas would try to run if the police put them in any kind of custody, protective or not.

If they decided to go elsewhere, that would be their right, of course, but he was prepared in the event the Bautista women were willing to come back with them. Hopefully they'd have information about whoever had taken that bastard Anders from his home the day before. Because that person, whoever he was, could be the trafficker they were searching for. Trafficker and murderer and God only knew what else.

'Everything else okay?' Scarlett asked. 'Your conversation with Stone sounded heated.'

'We were arguing about our mother again. I want to push her to go to rehab, and-'

'Stone doesn't want her forced into anything,' she finished sadly.

'Exactly.' He tried to smile. 'I think he's really pissed off that he's back to babysitting Jill. We don't know what to do about her. I'd ask Cal to take over when he comes in later, but he's going to be busy doing his job and Phillip's. And Lisette's.' He sighed. 'And mine too, until this shooter's dealt with.'

'I take it that Cal runs the paper when you're not there?' Scarlett asked.

'Cal runs the paper even when I am there. He's forgotten more about newspapers than I'll ever learn. He's helped me in so many ways since my grandfather died, both with the day-to-day business of running the paper and in utilizing it to its fullest potential.'