Fire Born (Firehouse 343) (28 page)

“Fuck!” he said again. “I can’t believe this shit! Why the fuck couldn’t yo
u just do a
simple job, hmm? Asking
you
to
cozy up to my
little whore
was
a
simple enough
task
because
neither of you is that bright. And s
he fell
for it
hook
, line, and sinker—
didn’t you, Veronica? Thought he was just a nice guy working a simple job, ‘cause you’re too fucking stupid to realize he was just getting to know you for me. To tell me about your routine so I’d know best when to send in the expert…though some expert he turned out to be. Thank goodness I’ve already taken care of that problem.
”

So Larry hadn’t started the fire and neither had Graham, Martie mused. There was a third culprit involved who, judging by Graham’s
words,
was already dead. He’d hired someone to kill Ronnie and Jessica, but he had killed his would-be assassin himself.

“Go,” he snapped then. “I don’t care how you do it, but you find that fucking kid and you bring her here.”

Larry left without saying a word, opening and shutting a door somewhere to Martie’s right.

“So…
What to do while I wait?”
Graham said, and Martie could
hear him
pacing now. “I suppose I could kill you now. I was thinking of letting you live, maybe even taking you back as a side piece. You were a good lay, Veronica, I’ll give you that. But then, a gold-digging little whore usually is.”

“Kenny
please
. Please don’t hurt me. Don’t hurt Jessica,” Ronnie begged.

“I know what we could do while Larry’s gone. With Martie still out over there, we could have a little fun. If you please me—and I mean
really
rock my world—I’ll consider your request.”

Oh no. Was he serious? Martie wondered. Was he really going to
force Ronnie to b
eg
for her life, for her child’s life, by having sex with him?

This was not Graham, she told herself. Not the Graham she knew, the Graham she liked and respected. This man was a completely different person—one that he had very cleverly hidden behind the mask of the man she
thought
she knew.

“You want sex?” Ronnie
asked,
her tone as incredulous as Martie’s thoughts.

“I don’t see why you’re so surprised. It’s what brought us together, isn’t it?” Graham countered.
“
You wanted to fuck a rich
man,
I wanted an easy piece of ass. How was I to know you’d be such a good little whore? Or that you’d actually have the nerve to defy me when I told you to get rid of that fucking kid? There’s really not much else for us to do until either Larry returns or Martie wakes up. Something else I have to figure out how to handle now that Larry’s fucked that up too, but I’ll think of something. I always do.”

Martie heard him move over to where Ronnie’s voice came from, and she chanced opening her eyes a crack. Ronnie had been bound to a chair as she was, but now Graham was untying her. When her hands were free he jerked her to her feet and pulled her roughly to him.

“You either give it to me willingly or I take it from you, Veronica. It’s your choice,” Graham told her. Then he chuckled. “Maybe I should just take it. Had to do that to the wife the other night, and you know what I realized? I like it that way. I like taking what belongs to me whether the bitch wants to give it or not.”

Through her lashes she watched as Graham forced a kiss on Ronnie
, who stiffened
at first and then struggled to get away from him. Graham reared back and slapped her, hard enough to cause her nose to bleed, then grabbed her t-shirt and began to tear it. M
artie could bear no more
—no way could she just sit there and let a woman be raped.

Feigning a moan, she slowly rolled her head as though she were just now coming back to herself. She moaned again as she slowly opened her eyes and looked at the two figures before her.

“Graham?” she said, feeding confusion into her voice—not a difficult task as she had no clue as to what had made the man snap. She noted as she glanced around that they could only be in one place: the
Breckon
Apartments, though it was hard telling which one.
Whichever apartment he’d holed them up in, they were in a bedroom.

“Gra
ham, what is this? What
is going on?” she asked.

He had turned to her when she first said his name, but looked back at Ronnie and said, “You’re saved—for now. I’ll still have you later.”

Graham pushed her back into her chair and retied the rope around her. Ronnie was crying freely, tears pouring from her eyes and mixing with the blood that dripped from her nose.
He then turned and stepped over to Martie, crouching in front of her as he reached a hand up and brushed an
err
ant lock of hair away from her face
. His fingertips lightly touched the place where Larry had hit her with his pistol and she winced.

“I’m so sorry, my love,” he told her softly. “Larry should never have hit you.”

“Who is Larry to you? What is going on?” she asked.

Graham sighed. “Larry is my little brother—half brother, actually. A bastard son of my father’s
who does what I tell him to do. I thought you’d be on your way back to Bil
lings by the time I got here;
if I’d known you were going to be at the apartment, I would never have allowed him to hurt you. You mean too much to me.”

She blinked as if disoriented. “I don’t understand,” Martie told him, hoping to glean more information. “Why are you here?”

Graham shook his head, a placating smile on his lips. “Martie, my dear, surely you can figure that one out.”

“You’re… Are you Jessica’s father?” she asked, pretending to just come to the conclusion.

He nodded. “Sadly, yes. Veronica was never supposed to get pregnant, and when she did I ordered her to have an abortion. She refused, and then she disappeared. You may find it hard to believe, but it’s taken me almost eleven years to find them. Can you believe a man of my skill and intellect lost track of one stupid whore for that long?”

Martie slowly shook her head. “But why did you want to find them? Why not just let them be? I mean, if she didn’t demand you admit you’re the father, what difference did it make if she had the baby?
”

Graham sighed as he stood. “Because I have plans,” he said, echoing his earlier statement. “
I’ve always wanted to get into politics, because making the laws is where the real power is at. It’s taken me a while, but I’m finally ready to make my move:
I’m going to run for Governor next year, and the press—those nosy little bastards—they’d have a field day with this. Can you i
magine the hell that would rain
down on my head if word got out that I’d had an affair, let alone with a gold-digging whore who intended to trap me with a bastard child?”

Ronnie winced at the insult, but she swallowed and said, “But I wouldn’t, Kenny. I told you I was fine raising the baby on my own.”

Graham whirled on her, back-handing the side of her face that wasn’t already red. “Shut up!” he screamed. “Only sound I want to hear out of you is your moaning as I fuck you brainless, and are we fucking right now? No. I didn’t think so.”

He turned back to Martie muttering “Stupid cunt” under his breath. To Martie, however, he offered a smile. “Sorry about the interruption,” he said mildly.

“Why did you tell me to ask Ronnie about Jessica’s father?” Martie asked. “Did you think I’d not find out?”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “To be honest, I was hoping you’d think
it was
Stillman
from the lab—h
ow perfect
it was to discover that we
happen to have the same middle name.
Victor
made the ideal scapegoat even
ten years ago, which is why I used his last name instead of my own.”

“You set the fire,” Martie said, though she already knew he hadn’t.

Graham shook his head. “No, that was another of my acquaintances—
he’s dead now. I’m afraid I h
ad to kill him so he couldn’t identify me. I knew
Victor would know about chemical accelerants
so I stole some
acetone
from
the very lab he works in, which
I knew
would further damn him in the eyes of the prosecution.
Told my little firebug to do with it as he pleased but to make sure the building burned and that the whore and her kid were caught in it.
The plan was to get rid of Veronica and he
r brat, pinning the blame on Victor with nothing leading back to me
.
The connection to Trevor
Breckon
was simply kismet—I knew eventually you’d prove it wasn’t him, but it was a perfect way to muck things up while I figured out how to correct the mistake made in Veronica and the kid surviving the fire.
”

“And what now?
What about me?” Martie asked.

He surprised her by straddling her lap and sitting on her legs, his arms draped casually over her shoulders. “I love you, Martie. You’re so beautiful, and smart. We’re perfect for each other. I’ve wanted you since the moment we met, and it’s been almost more than I could take keeping my hands to myself all these years. You’ve got the most incredible body, with perfectly round tits and an ass I can’t wait to part so I can slide my dick into
you.”

Graham lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers. Martie stiffened and felt her stomach heave in protest, but she didn’t struggle. Instead she remained motionless as he pushed his tongue into her mouth and swirled her own with it.

“Christ, you even taste perfect!” he said when he came up for air. “I’m sorry about this morning. I know I came on too strong. Can you forgive me for that?”

She nodded slowly
, deciding to play along for now
. “Of course I can. I think I can even look past the fact that you’re married. Now that I think about it, I’ve never
really
wanted to get married myself—it’
s probably why I’ve never been able to
settle down with anyone. ”

“You see?” he said excitedly, pressing his lips to hers again. “Perfect! I don’t have to worry about you nagging me to leave my wife. I don’t love her anymore, you know. Truth be told I can’t fucking stand the bitch—have hated her for years—but I have to stay married at least until after I’m Governor. Maybe one or two years into my term I
can finally divorce that dead fish. Except being married looks good on a politician, so unfortunately I have to keep the cunt around for now.”

Martie swallowed. She knew that what she said next had the potential to save her life or end it, but she had to ask.
“But Graha
m, what about the rest of it?” sh
e asked carefully. “I know you’re an accessory to arson. You’ve admitted to committing murder, and you’re planning to commit at least two more. How am I supposed to look past that?”

He had frowned as she spoke,
but then he
happened to
glance down and his face lit up. Martie followed his gaze and saw that her blouse had at some point lost a button, exposing an inch or so of cleavage. Graham licked his lips as he moved his hands to her shirt front and began to undo the rest of the buttons, pushing it off her shoulders to reveal the lacy white bra she wore underneath. She tried not to shudder as he cupped his hands around the sensitive flesh, his thumbs brushing against her nipples.

“Martie, I know it will be hard for you,” he said, still staring down where his hands played. “I know that as a cop, it goes a
gainst everything you believe in
. It truly goes against everything
I
believe in, but something had to be done. You have to believe that I had no other choice—I can’t let Veronica ruin my career. My future—”

He looked up then. “
Our
future is at stake.”

A small gray digital recorder sat between them.
Chris stared at it with equal parts loathing and hope.

After Officer Amanda Blakely’s call for a detective, Sam’s brother Scott and his partner
Cordelia
Givens showed up. Kara had convinced Blakely to allow her to look for Jessica, who was thankfully found in the closet of one of the bedrooms.
After coaxing her out of the safe haven it offered her,
Sam and Kara had examined the girl for injuries and found none, and when Scott arrived he attempted to question her, doing as Kara had done at the hospital that morning and
crouching down before her w
hen he spoke. Jessica refused to speak
until both Kara and Chris had assured her that it was okay, that he was a real policeman.