Behind the Lies (A Montgomery Justice Novel) (32 page)

Zach nodded, his expression brooding while she walked to the bathroom, closed the door, and turned on the shower. She cradled Luke’s phone in her hands, held her breath, and thumbed through recent calls. When she recognized the California area code she hit redial.

“That was fast, Montgomery.”

The sound of her husband’s voice made Jenna shake.

“I accept your offer, Brad,” Jenna said. “I’ll bring your evidence tonight. Where and when do you want to meet?”

Brad chuckled. “I knew you’d come through, Jenna. Don’t try to double-cross me or else I’ll take you down with me.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” She clutched the phone and sent up a heartfelt prayer that her plan wouldn’t fail. “If you give up Sam, Brad, you can have whatever you want.”

She folded her fist at the second knuckle and tensed her hand. To protect her son, she would do anything.

H
OT WATER DOUSED
Jenna in the small, utilitarian bathroom. The sheets of heat pounded into her, but she didn’t linger. She couldn’t afford to. Swirling steam cleared her head when she breathed in. She couldn’t believe she’d agreed to meet Brad. She had no more chance of giving him the evidence in the next hour than she had of flying to the moon.

She slammed down the shower handle, grabbed a towel, and quickly dressed. She peered into the hallway, then skirted into the bedroom. She tossed the phone onto the bed and stared at the device. What had she done? Her legs trembled beneath her. The room felt colder than she remembered. Maybe it was the shower—or the thought of seeing Brad chilled her soul.

The crickets chirped a mournful song through the window. If she kept her meeting with Brad, she would never live to see her son again. She longed to go to him now, but she knew she’d break down.

A soft knock sounded at the door. “Jenna,” Zach whispered.

She fell backward onto the bed, curled her body around the phone, and closed her eyes, feigning sleep.

A soft snick sounded as the door opened, then silence.

She focused on making her breathing slow and even.

A strange tension filled the room. She who had begged him for no more lies now deceived him. Her heart shattered.

Less than a minute later, the door clicked closed again, and heavy footsteps walked away. She squeezed her eyelids and a tear leaked down her cheek. She curled her arms around her abdomen and pressed tight, shoving down the shame and fears rising up into her throat.

No one could beat Brad, but he would never expect her to fight back. He’d cowed her for so many years. She would be the only one who might get close enough to surprise him—and stop him.

The longer she lay there, though, the more she doubted herself. Zach would be furious at her. He’d have gone in to meet Brad with his brothers—each armed with enough weaponry to kill ten men. She scraped her hands through her hair. What was she thinking trying to somehow surprise Brad enough to kill him with her bare hands?

She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. She didn’t want to die and leave Sam alone.

God, what a fool
.

She knew what she had to do. She’d have to admit to Zach and his brothers what she’d done. They weren’t going to be happy.

She groaned and sat up. Something crinkled beneath her. She tugged the manila file folder free and stared at her name, printed on the label. Her emotions were all over the place. This burgeoning sense of disaster hovered over her.

She should go out there and face Zach.

Instead, she removed the paperclip holding the documents together and opened the file. Several photos slipped out, including
her engagement picture with Brad. The edge of the paperclip dug into her finger. She slipped it into her back pocket and nudged the image aside. Her hand trembled. Sure enough, her father’s eyes stared back at her.

Beneath the newspaper clipping lay a mug shot. A prison photo. Of her father? But he’d died in an accident when she was fourteen. Maybe it wasn’t him. This man had crow’s-feet around his eyes. And the date. Only a few years ago.

It made no sense.

Her fingers trembled. She searched and found another document. A death certificate bearing her father’s name and a date.
Oh God.

Not over a decade ago. Two years ago. In prison.

She scanned the paperwork. In prison for fraud, tax evasion, assault, and battery.

The heroic image she’d held for so long exploded into sharp shards that pierced her heart. Her father had been a thug.

He hadn’t died in a car wreck like she’d been told.

Another lie, but this one shook her to her core. She’d believed in him. Every cell of faith in humanity inside her came from him. And he had been a fraud.

Her stomach twisted. She gasped for air.

She’d loved her father. Believed in him.

Nothing about her life was real. Nothing. Not her marriage, not her childhood, not her life. She ripped the locket from her throat and dropped it on the floor.

Had Zach known?

She shivered again. She felt so cold. She glanced at the window. The curtains fluttered into the room, billowing.

“Mommy?” a small voice whined from the doorway.

Jenna turned her face from the window and scrubbed the tears from her cheeks. Sam tiptoed in.

“Hi, baby.” She choked the words and struggled to stop her body from quaking. She needed the one person in her life who loved her unconditionally. “Can Mommy have a hug?”

“Don’t cry, Mommy.” He ran across the room and climbed into her lap, crinkling the file beneath her. She didn’t care. She shoved the papers to the floor and clutched her son, praying he would restore the heart that had just been pulverized into oblivion.

Sam squirmed on her lap and faced her. He patted her cheek. “Everything will be OK, Mommy.” He laid his head against her breast and she rocked him, holding on to the one real person in her life.

“Tell me a story, Mommy. It’ll make you feel better.”

Stories had been her father’s way of driving away the pain, of giving her hope. The inspiration had vanished. “I don’t have any more stories, Sam.”

He sat up, his eyes wide. “None?” He gently kissed her cheek. “It’s all right, Mommy. I’ll tell
you
a story.”

Tears burned her eyes. She lifted Sam and sat him on the bed. Her eyes flicked to the blowing curtains.
Oh, my God.
The window was open…and it hadn’t been.

“Mommy. Are you all right? You’re breathing really fast.”

“I’m…I’m fine.”

But she wasn’t. She ran to the window and slammed it down. The screen was gone.

She turned around. “Run, Sam. Get out—”

Sam’s eyes suddenly grew wide. His mouth gaped open. “Mommy!”

Something slammed against the side of her head and the room went black.

She’d made a terrible mistake.

Zach looked down the hall. Had he heard something? The television on the counter droned the local newscast.

“Hey, Seth, shut off the TV.”

He half expected Jenna to stalk out and tear into him, but Sam reaching out to him instead of her seemed to have broken her. Plus, Brad’s call had obviously shaken her to her core. She’d become comfortable with the idea of running. She’d trusted him to help her disappear, but that was it. “I don’t think Jenna believes we can stop Brad Walters.”

“She’s wrong,” Luke said. “She’ll come out when she’s ready. She probably just needs to process.”

“Process? Seriously?” Seth laughed. “Where the hell did you learn that?”

“Army shrinks,” Luke muttered.

“Yeah, well, Jenna doesn’t process,” Zach said. “She stands her ground…or runs.”

A flash of insight hit him. “Damn it, she runs.” He rose from the chair so fast it clattered to the floor behind him. He should have recognized that look on her face. The same resigned determination he’d witnessed after she’d hot-wired his damned truck.

“You think she’s gone?” Seth said, following at his heels.

“God, I hope not.”

His hand gripped the last bedroom’s doorknob. Locked.

He knocked on the door. “Jenna?”

No answer.

He knocked harder. “Jenna!”

“Shh. You’ll wake the kid,” Luke said.

A dark, horrifying feeling enveloped Zach. She wouldn’t have run without her son.

“Check Sam,” he shouted at his brothers, then kicked in the door. The room was empty. The curtains fluttered in the window.

“The kid’s gone,” Luke yelled from down the hall.

Zach stuck his head out of the window and his blood froze at the stain of crimson on the windowsill. The screen lay in pieces on the ground.

No.
He cupped his hands. “Jenna!”

His heart raced as he waited, focusing, praying to hear the sound of her voice above laughter from the bar.

Seth ran in. “They’re both gone.”

Zach turned and his foot slipped on a piece of paper. He glanced down at the floor and scooped up the file folder and the small locket he’d caught her fondling. It didn’t take a second to scan her father’s mug shot, record, and date of death. Jenna had told Zach her father died when she was fourteen. The same year her father had gone to prison.
Oh God.
Had this been the final straw for her? Had it sent her into the night?
That made no sense.

“Zach,” Luke said, pocketing the necklace. “We’ve got a problem. My phone was on the bed. She called Walters.”

“Oh, Jenna,” Zach rubbed his face. He cursed himself for not forcing himself into this room and making her talk to him. “There’s blood on the window.”

“She could still have left voluntarily,” Luke said.

“You’re right,” Zach muttered. “Check the cars. She might have hot-wired one or stolen the keys. She’s resourceful.”

They burst out the front door. All the vehicles were there. Zach yelled her name again, his desperation growing.

She’d left on foot?
But the blood
…

Zach scanned the parking lot. The spotlights had been dimmed after the basketball game ended, but something unusual caught his attention. An area of torn-up grass to the side of the house. He knelt down. Wet, sticky. Blood. And two tiny hands had dug into the earth.

Sam.

“Seth, get over here,” he said quietly, his fist clenched to tamp down the foreboding.

His brother crouched beside him and let out a curse. He spanned his hand across the smaller handprint. “Sam didn’t go willingly.”

“Brad’s taken them.” Zach bit down.

“It doesn’t mean he’ll kill her.” Seth studied the ground more closely. “There was a car here.”

“Brad wants the evidence,” Luke said. “He needs her until he gets it. We have time.”

“The evidence is still in California in a safety deposit box. She mentioned La Jolla. There are hundreds of possibilities.”

“Then we’ll start searching,” Seth said.

Luke let out a slow, deep breath. “She’ll buy us time. She’s already proven she can think on her feet.”

Zach rubbed his chin. “Yeah, but she’s afraid of him.”

“Jenna had the courage to leave,” Luke reminded him. “She called him. She faces her fears.”

“She might tell him the evidence is in California and only she can retrieve it. That might give her an escape opportunity. She’s smart that way,” Zach said.

“We need a watch on the airports. Walters won’t want to take sixteen hours to get that evidence. He’ll try to hire a private plane.”

“I’m on it,” Luke said.

Zach followed his brothers inside. Within seconds, Luke had opened his computer, and Seth pulled out his phone to hit up his own contacts.

An overwhelming fear paralyzed Zach. “We’ve got to find her,” he choked. “I don’t think I can live without her.”

Darkness and cold metal surrounded her. The smell of exhaust and rubber filled the air. A bounce shifted Jenna hard against a mound under her shoulder. The roar of a vehicle rumbled around her.
Oh God.
She was in the trunk of a car.

She groaned, then blinked, but she still couldn’t see anything.

The pain splitting her skull pounded incessantly where she’d been struck. She tried to move, but her hands had been secured behind her back. The metal cuffs bit into her skin.