Silver Falls - Anne Stuart [69]
He couldn’t let that happen. He could stonewall Maggie. She’d believe what she’d want to believe, but she wouldn’t come up with any evidence unless his helpful father decided to go one step further in protecting David. It was the way it had always been, with even their mother keeping a close eye on her damaged birth son. In the end it had killed her, and if he’d had any proof at the time he would have killed David himself.
But he hadn’t, everything had pointed to him, once again, and he’d gotten the hell out of there. He’d gotten out and kept on going, running until he could run no more. Until he’d heard his twisted baby brother had married.
One mistake he’d made was to be too careful. David wasn’t going to screw up without more help—he was cunning, deliberate, totally in control. He had no emotions, no weaknesses as far as Caleb could see. If he was waiting for David to screw up he was going to be stuck in this hellhole for a long time.
In the meantime he had to get Rachel and her daughter out of town. She wouldn’t listen to his warnings, she wouldn’t listen to her own instincts. So he had no choice but to take it one step further.
Maggie Bannister was waiting for him, and he’d have to undergo what he’d been through so many times in his life. Denying his guilt without implicating David, at least overtly. He’d been doing it since David was ten and Stephen Henry had beaten him for supposedly lying about his brother, though he suspected the old man had known perfectly well who the guilty culprit really was. Not that Maggie could believe him if he tried.
If he was going to stop David he’d have to do it on his own—there’d be no help from their father. Sooner or later David’s little tricks could come back to bite him in the butt, and he could let go of the guilt.
Once that happened he’d be long gone, continents away, and he wouldn’t even need to think about it. Think about his niece or nephew growing up with a monster for a father. Soon enough it would all be over.
But first he had to get rid of Rachel.
Sophie woke up early, just after dawn. She took a quick shower and threw on the school uniform that she hated, the dull greens and grays of the ordinariness that her mother had only recently seemed to prize. She grabbed a soda from her fridge, a Butterfingers from her stash, well out of Rachel’s sight or they’d be long gone. She brushed her hair, working her fingers through the snarls, and reached for her barrettes.
Her fingers skimmed the intricately chased silver ones David had given her. He always asked her why she didn’t wear them, and she always told him she was saving them for something special.
Like when her mother came to her senses and left the creep.
That wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. The murders had just brought back all the fear and horror of Tessa’s death, and if Sophie knew her mother, and she did, she’d dig in even harder.
Maybe she wasn’t madly in love with David after all. There was no missing the tension that was simmering beneath the surface. So far Sophie had tolerated him for Rachel’s sake, but if her mother wasn’t as blinded as she had been in the beginning then maybe there was a chance for them to get out of there.
She’d certainly picked the wrong brother. Caleb was everything David wasn’t—funny, relaxed, treated her like an adult instead of some creepy, precious doll. Her mother had always had excellent taste in friends and the occasional boyfriend. It was only with David that her instincts had gone haywire.
Sophie crept silently to the door, her Asics in her hand, moving the chair out of the way and unlocking it without making a sound. Her mother had no idea she locked her door, had locked it within a week of getting there. She herself didn’t quite know why—it just made her feel safer. Which was kind of weird, because she left her windows open on the warmer nights. Whatever threatened her was inside the house, not out.
But she wasn’t going to think about that. The house was still and silent—David and