Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [281]
“No apologies accepted,” her uncle would always say, laughing.
In the dark, Tess would pray over and over for her mother to come and rescue her, remembering her mother’s last words, “I’ll be right back, Tessy.” But she never came back to rescue Tess. She never returned at all. How could her mother leave her with such evil people?
As Tess grew older and stronger, her aunt was no longer a match for her. That’s when her uncle took over. Only, her uncle’s form of punishment came late at night when he let himself into her bedroom. When she tried to lock him out, he removed the door to her room. At first she screamed, knowing her aunt could now hear without the door to muffle the sounds. It didn’t take long for her to realize that her aunt had always heard, had always known. She just didn’t care.
Tess ran away to D.C. when she was fifteen. Quickly, she had learned that she could make quite a bit of money doing what her uncle had taught her for free. Fifteen years old, and she was fucking congressmen and four-star generals. That was almost twenty years ago, and yet she had only recently found her escape from that life. She had finally begun a life that was her own. And she sure as hell would not end it here. Not now. Not in this remote grave where no one would ever notice.
She got to her feet and approached the woman. She squatted next to her and put a gentle hand on her shoulder.
“I don’t know if you can hear me. My name is Tess. I want you to know I’m going to get us out of here. I’m not going to leave you here to die.”
Tess pulled a branch closer so she could sit next to the woman in the sunlight. She needed to rest her ankle. She buried her toes into the mud. Despite the slimy earthworms against her skin, the mud did soothe the cracks and cuts and bruises on her feet.
She surveyed the jutting rocks and tree roots, trying to come up with a plan. Just when she began to think it would be impossible, the woman moved slightly to her side. Without opening her eyes, she said, “My name’s Rachel.”
CHAPTER 51
Maggie wasn’t sure what she expected. Could Albert Stucky or Walker Harding be stupid enough to get caught by the Newburgh Heights Police Department? Yet, when Manx showed her into the interrogation room, her heart sank. The handsome young man looked more like a college student than the hardened criminal Manx had described when he had insisted the man was guilty of something.
The kid even stood up when she entered the room, not able to stifle his good manners despite the situation.
“There’s been a huge misunderstanding,” he told her as if she was the new face of reason.
He wore khakis and a crew-neck sweater. Maybe this was what Manx expected burglars to wear in Newburgh Heights.
“Sit the hell down, kid,” Manx snapped at him as though he was jumping up to attack her.
Maggie walked around Manx and sat down at the table opposite the young man. He slid back into his chair, wringing his hands in front of him on the table, his eyes darting from Manx to the other two uniformed officers already in the room.
“I’m Special Agent Margaret O’Dell with the FBI.” She waited for his eyes to settle on hers.
“FBI?” He looked worried and fidgeted in his chair. “Something’s happened to Tess, hasn’t it?”
“I know you may have already explained all this, but how do you know Ms. McGowan, Mr.—”
“Finley. My name’s Will Finley. I met Tess last weekend.”
“Last weekend? So you haven’t been friends for very long. Did she show you a piece of real estate?”
“Excuse me?”
“Ms. McGowan is a real estate agent. Did she show you a house last weekend?”
“No. We met at a bar. We…we spent the night together.”
Maggie wondered if it was a lie. Tess McGowan hadn’t looked like the barfly type. Plus, she guessed Tess to be close to her own age. She couldn’t imagine Tess giving this college kid a second glance. Unless she had been trying to get back at her big-shot, country-club boyfriend. Of course, she also couldn’t imagine