Deadly Memories (Hardy Brothers Security Book 18) (10 page)

G
rady was a mess
.

He paced the living room for hours after Sophie shut the bedroom door, his heart refusing to calm, his mind fighting the urge to rest. He knew looking into her past when she clearly didn’t want him to do it was a mistake. Now he worried he would have to pay the ultimate price for his transgression.

He couldn’t lose her.

Long after he heard Sophie leave the master bathroom and saw the light sliver beneath the door flash out, Grady settled on the floor, his back to the door, and waited. He would wait all night if he had to. He would wait forever.

Even though he was exhausted, emotional turmoil making him overwrought, Grady could not turn off his brain. He wondered how he went wrong. Then he wondered if he went right even once since hearing about the storage unit.

His back ached as he stretched, and he considered moving to the couch to ease his tired muscles, but the idea of being away from Sophie gutted him and he remained rooted to his spot.

He lost track of time, his mind wandering to the happy days and nights spent with Sophie over the past year and a half. He thought about when they met. He thought about when he told her he loved her. He thought about every touch, laugh, and tear. And then he heard it.

Grady tilted his head to the side, convinced he’d been mistaken about the sound emanating from the bedroom. It had to be a trick of his mind. Then he heard it again. It was Sophie, and she was sobbing.

Grady’s heart shattered and before he realized what he was doing, he got to his feet and pushed opened the door. His eyes landed on the bed, expecting to find Sophie crying into her pillow. Instead he found her sitting against the wall by the door, her head buried in her knees.

“Oh, Sophie.” Grady dropped to his knees and crawled to her, gathering her in his arms and tugging her on his lap as he held her. “I’m so sorry. You have no idea how sorry I am.”

Sophie didn’t speak, instead burying her face in Grady’s shoulder as he rubbed her back and rocked her.

“Oh, my Sophie,” Grady said, kissing her forehead. “I’m going to make this up to you. I don’t know how yet, but I am. I just … please forgive me. Please don’t walk away from me. I can’t live without you.”

“I can’t be without you either,” Sophie said, her shoulders shaking. “I wasn’t really considering trying. It’s just … .” She broke off, returning to her tears.

“You were hurt, and I did the hurting,” Grady finished, brushing her hair away from her face. The light in the room was limited to what the moon filtering through the bedroom window could offer, but Sophie’s swollen eyes were like a punch in the stomach. “Sophie, I love you so much. It’s okay. No matter what, nothing will change the way I feel about you.

“I shouldn’t have done what I did, and I am very sorry for the way I went about gathering information, but I still want to know everything about you,” he continued. “Just because something bad happened when you were a child, that doesn’t mean you’re not the best person in the world now.”

Sophie barked out a hoarse laugh through her tears. “You don’t have to lay it on so thick.”

“I’m not laying anything on,” Grady said, pressing a soft kiss to the side of her mouth. “You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me. You’re my whole world. I hope you know that.”

“You’re mine, too,” Sophie said, reaching up to wipe her nose and frowning. “I need some tissue.”

Grady offered her a rueful smile as he leaned forward, pressing her waist against him as he did in case she tried to put distance between them, and tugged his T-shirt off before wordlessly handing it to her.

“You want me to blow snot on your shirt?”

“Sugar, right now I wouldn’t care if you blew snot on me as long as you let me keep touching you,” Grady said.

Sophie shook her head but took the shirt and wiped it across her nose. Grady took the opportunity to run his finger down her cheek. She was cold, small shudders running through her body, but he was reluctant to move in case he broke the spell and reminded her how angry she was with him.

“I suppose you want me to tell you about it, huh?”

Grady shook his head. “No. I’m not going to pressure you. One day, when you’re ready and you trust me, I’ll be here to listen. I won’t push you into something you’re not ready to talk about, though. Never again.”

Sophie leaned forward and rested her head against Grady’s shoulder, causing him to tighten his arms around her in an effort to stave off the shudders wracking her body. The Michigan nights were still cold despite spring’s official arrival, but Sophie’s body reacted as if it was twenty degrees below zero and they were outside.

“Sugar, I don’t want to risk moving, but you’re shaking and I need to get you under a blanket,” Grady said, grabbing Sophie’s hips and lifting her off the floor. He carried her to the bed, refusing to let go of her even as he struggled to lift the comforter and crawl underneath with her clinging to him.

Grady situated her body on top of his, tugging the covers close and cuddling Sophie as he got comfortable. “Better?”

Sophie didn’t respond.

“Sophie, I don’t need you to tell me about it,” Grady said, searching desperately for a way to make her feel better. “I love you so much. If you don’t ever want to talk about what your foster father did, I’m okay with that. I want you to feel safe, and I’m worried I’ve taken that away from you.”

“It wasn’t Will Jordan.”

The words were quiet, matter-of-fact even, and yet they caused Grady’s heart to flop. He opened his mouth, a question on his lips, and then he closed it and kissed Sophie’s forehead as he petted her hair. He was terrified of doing the wrong thing, and it had him frozen when he knew he should be proactive.

“I can hear your mind working,” Sophie said, her voice cracking. “You want to know what happened, but you’re desperate not to fight.”

“You know me extremely well,” Grady said, rubbing idles circles on the back of Sophie’s neck. “I am afraid of pushing the wrong button and having you kick me out of your life. I’m not going to lie.”

“I will never kick you out of my life, Grady. I shouldn’t have said what I said, but I was confused and hurt and part of me wanted to hurt you, too. I knew it was wrong. You don’t have to be afraid of me. That’s not what I want.”

“Well, I did a few wrong things, too, so I’m declaring us even,” Grady said. “In fact, I’m pretty sure I still owe you. We’ll figure out a way for me to work off my punishment when you’re feeling better and we’ve both had some sleep.”

“Ask your questions, Grady,” Sophie prodded. “I want to get this over with. I don’t want to drag it out. I can’t take it.”

“I don’t need to ask questions.”

“Yes, you do,” Sophie argued. “If you don’t, it’s going to get the best of you down the road and you’re going to do something else stupid. Save us the fight, aggravation, and another ruined shirt.”

Grady snorted. “You really do know me, don’t you?”

“I really do.”

“Mandy read a few details in the file, but then I ran out and left her and James to fight because I was upset,” Grady said, searching for the right words to explain things. “The file said your foster father hit you and knocked you out. You just said it wasn’t him, though. Was it your foster mother?”

“I don’t want to give you the wrong idea, because Will Jordan did hit me a few times, but he wasn’t the one who tried to kill me that night,” Sophie said, a tightness spreading throughout Grady’s chest at her words. “He was a terrible man and a mean drunk.”

“Sugar, if you’re not ready for this … .”

“I want to, Grady. I need to tell you so we can put it behind us, because I don’t ever want to talk about it again.”

“Okay,” Grady said, brushing his lips against Sophie’s forehead. Her face rested against his chest, and he couldn’t see her expression without straining, but he wouldn’t trade this moment for anything and he vowed to get things right for a change. “I’m listening.”

“It wasn’t Will Jordan who hit me that night. It was his son, Daryl.”

“I don’t remember Mandy mentioning a son,” Grady said. “Before you get angry with her by the way, we kind of forced her into it. Trust me. I’m sure she punished James tonight. I know that doesn’t make things right, but … don’t blame her. She was really ticked off at me.”

“I don’t blame any of you,” Sophie said. “Let that go, okay?”

Grady nodded.

“Daryl Jordan was Will and Bree’s biological son,” Sophie explained, launching into her tale. “He was their pride and joy and they spoiled him rotten, much the way Peter eventually spoiled me. They took in foster kids for the money, and they used all of that state funding to buy Daryl whatever he wanted while the foster kids were limited to one meal a day and a huge list of chores.”

“This makes me so angry, sugar,” Grady said.

“It gets worse,” Sophie said. “Daryl got off on torturing the foster kids. When I got to the house, there was an older girl named Debbie and she had bruises all over her arms. She showed them to me. Daryl liked to purposely pinch her until she cried.”

Grady bit his lip to keep himself from saying something hateful.

“One night while Will was getting drunk in the living room and Bree was getting high in the basement I caught Daryl stealing money from his mother’s wallet and he threatened to hit me if I didn’t keep quiet,” Sophie said. “I had no intention of telling, but he didn’t believe me and he started screaming that I was the one who stole the money and he punched me really hard when I wasn’t looking.

“When Will came upstairs he was pretty drunk,” she continued. “I thought he was going to help, but instead he just laughed and watched for a little bit. He gave Daryl pointers on how to get leverage and hit me harder. Then he told Daryl he had an idea … and that’s when they put the belt around my neck and dragged me down the stairs.

“I thought for sure I was going to die,” Sophie said, shivering as Grady held her as tightly as he could without suffocating her. “I passed out a few times. They left me on the floor for hours. When I would wake up, they would come back by and tighten the belt again and then laugh as I gasped for air.”

“Sophie … .” Grady had no words. He wanted to hop out of bed and track down both monsters so he could kill them with his bare hands. Instead he held Sophie and let her pour her heart out.

“When the paramedics came, they were very concerned and they kept trying to get me to talk to them, but my throat was swollen and I could barely breathe,” Sophie said. “They had to help me with a tube, and I was in the hospital for two days before the swelling went down enough that I could talk.

“The police came to question me, and Will and Bree spun some story about how I did it to myself,” Sophie said, earning a low growl from Grady. “I was afraid no one would believe me because I was just a foster kid, but Lucy showed up and was an advocate for me. She was so apologetic for having placed me with them.”

“What happened after that?” Grady asked. “How did you end up with Peter?”

“On paper, Peter is listed as an import and export businessman,” Sophie said, smiling softly. “He read about what happened to me in the newspaper and was incensed. He paid for all of my hospital care and dropped off this huge mountain of toys.

“He came by every single day while I was in the hospital,” she continued. “He brought me books … and toys … and he read to me. He made Sven, who was pretty young back then, put on a tiara and pretend to be a princess. He never once asked what happened. He just amused me with stories and showered attention on me.

“When it came time to go to another home, Lucy was terrified of accidentally putting me in another bad foster home and Peter overheard her talking,” Sophie said. “That’s when he came forward and applied to take me. I’m sure there was some legal maneuvering that went into that, and I’m also sure that some of it was illegal. I didn’t care, though, because I knew instinctively that Peter would never hurt me.

“Two weeks later I moved into the big house and Peter and his men spoiled me rotten,” she said. “Peter never pressured me to discuss things, and when I would wake up screaming from nightmares he would sleep on the floor in my bedroom.”

“Well, if I didn’t already like the guy, I would love him now,” Grady said. “What happened to the Jordans?”

“When the cops didn’t buy their story about me doing it to myself, Will said he did it and was arrested,” Sophie answered. “He made a deal with the prosecutor and was sentenced to ten years. Bree got something like three years and I don’t know what happened to Daryl.”

“Sophie, this is one of the worst things I’ve ever heard in my life, but I don’t understand why you didn’t want to tell me,” Grady said. “Did you think it would somehow change how I felt about you?”

“No. I was just … embarrassed.”

“Because you were a child tortured by adults? Sophie, that’s ridiculous. You survived something terrible and you came out the other side. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“I know that in my head, but I can’t help it,” Sophie said. “It still haunts me.”

“What’s the deal with the jewelry box?” Grady asked, petting the back of Sophie’s head. “Why did you get so upset when you saw it?”

“When I was in the hospital, Bree slipped by the nurses when they weren’t looking and gave it to me,” Sophie replied. “I thought she was there to apologize, or say what her son did was wrong. Instead she tried to bribe me with the jewelry box to say that I did it to myself.”

“What was in it?”

“Just little trinkets,” Sophie said. “It was all fake jewelry and some of those candy necklaces. It was a bribe fit for a child … but I wasn’t a child any longer. I don’t know why Lucy kept it and put in my storage unit. Maybe she didn’t realize how it made me feel. Now I can’t even ask. I had no idea she died.”

“She sounds like she did her best to do right by you,” Grady said. “How did you lose touch?”

“I was only at Peter’s a month when he started proceedings to adopt me,” Sophie explained. “He wanted me to feel safe and loved. He wanted me to know no one would take me away from him. Once the adoption was finalized, Lucy had no reason to see me and she had so many other cases. We just … fell out of touch.”