Forgotten (Shattered Sisters Book 2) (27 page)

Joey sat on the dock in a wooden chair long past its prime, trying not to feel a killer’s heart lurking inside her. She felt it invading her again and again, growing stronger with each attack. She felt its evil, its darkness and its rage. She felt its hatred. And she battled it with the love she felt for Ash, for her sister, for her nieces.

She was going to sit in a corner somewhere and go quietly insane.

He could have died last night by the Slasher's blade. God, what if he had? What would she have done if he had?

Quiet. Peace. She needed it in megadoses right now. She still shook all over when she thought of last night. That blade. The killer. So close. That blinding explosion in her mind when she'd stood face-to-face with the embodiment of the shadow of death. When she'd understood, at last, why her fate was entwined with that of a murderer. She had to stop the Slasher. Maybe it was the entire purpose in her having this "gift." Maybe this was what fate had intended by bestowing it. It was a daunting prospect. She wasn't sure she could live up to it.

"You're not relaxing."

Ash massaged her neck and shoulders. His warm breath stirred her hair and his body heat warmed her back. She stared out over the muddy river, her eyes tracing the current and the dapples of orange fire on the water ignited by the rising sun. "Sorry. I'm trying."

"You didn't sleep last night."

"You did," she told him. "I don't know how you could, when you'd just come within an inch of—"

"Don't think about that."

She turned to face him, head tilted up. "Ash, I can't
not
think about it. I almost lost you—"

"But you didn't." He slid his arms around her waist, crossing them at the small of her back and pulling her tight to him. "And you're not going to."

Tears swam in her vision. "Yes, I am. I am, and it's killing me. When you remember...when you know..."

"Go on." He searched her face, his gaze intense. "When I know what?"

She bit her lip and closed her eyes, willing herself to screw up enough courage to be honest with him for once, even as she realized she couldn't. She couldn't let him storm out of her life. Not yet. Not until he was safe from the wrath of the Slasher. Maybe he'd hate her in the end, but it was worth that price to save his life.

Damn, but fate was asking a lot of her.

"I know there's something you've been keeping from me, Joey. Something big, important."

She opened her eyes and let his probe them as she battled inwardly with her urge to be honest and her need to protect him.

"Tell me, Joey. Trust me."

His melted-chocolate eyes were darker than she'd ever seen them. She felt trapped in their depths and felt them pulling her deeper. Like quicksand. She could drown in those eyes and not regret it. God, how she loved him. And it went against everything she believed to love a man this much and still lie to him. Maybe he would understand. Maybe he would find a way to forgive.

"Ash...I'm not really—"

She broke off as her name was shouted. Blinking away her surprise at how close she'd just come to ruining everything, she got up and turned to see Ted loping down the lawn toward the river. For just an instant, she'd thought it was her father. The tall, long-limbed build, the straight-backed stance. She had never realized how much Ted resembled her stepdad. Maybe that was why Caroline had chosen him.

She heard Ash's frustrated sigh, but kept her eyes on Ted as he came to a stop on the dock. He was not in a good mood.

"Caroline up yet?"

Joey frowned. How could he know Caro was here? Dad had taken her minivan back to his hotel last night, so Ted couldn't have seen it parked out front "Ted, I don't—"

"You've always been a lousy liar, Joey. So don't bother. Your father called me last night. I know Caroline and the girls are here."

"She was still sleeping last time I checked, Ted." Ash stepped off the dock, one arm slung around Joey's shoulders to propel her along beside him, and to support some of her weight. "Come on up to the house and have some coffee. Brit and Beth will have her awake any time now, if they don't already."

Joey planted her feet and glared up at Ash, then turned her gaze on Ted. "Look, if my sister wants to see you, she'll let you know."

Ted shook his head. "Not this time, Joey. I have to see her. We've got to talk this out, her and I." He opened his mouth to say more, then snapped it shut again. "How is she? Did she read the diary yet?"

Joey frowned. "I can't believe that bastard told you—"

"What, Joey? The precious family secret? I'm family, too, don't forget."

Ash's arm tightened on her. "He had a right to know, Joey. What's going on between Caroline and your father is having a direct impact on their marriage. You can't deny that."

She tugged free. "The only thing hurting Ted's marriage to my sister is Ted." She took a step closer to her brother in law, tipping her head up to look at him, her breaths coming faster in her anger. "Sneaking out nights, lying about where you were going, spending huge sums of money on God knows what, mysterious phone calls and meetings at all hours. You think she's an idiot? You think she doesn't know what you've been up to?"

"The only thing I've been
up
to is looking out for my wife's hellion sister!”

"Looking out for me? What in hell is that supposed to mean? Dammit, Ted, don't spin me some fairy tale. I trusted you. I loved you like a brother, for God's sake, and you let me down. You let my sister down. You broke both our hearts when you were unfaithful."

He gaped as if searching for words. But it was Ash's deep voice that broke the strained silence. "Just like your stepfather did, right, Joey?"

She closed her eyes at the pain of those words hitting home like well aimed arrows. Then she opened them slowly and met Ted's tortured stare.

He looked drained. "I was afraid it was you, Joey,” he said slowly. “I couldn't tell Caroline. She'd have hated me for thinking it. God knows I couldn't go to the police. I wanted to protect you from them, get you some help..."

Joey puckered her face and shook her head. "What help? What are you talking about?"

"The murders. You've been so obsessed with them, and since the beginning you've been...different. Strange, preoccupied. I knew your feelings for your father."

She felt her eyes widen in horror. "You thought
I
was the Slasher?"

He looked at the ground between them. "Not at first. At first I just wanted to know why you were so involved in the crimes. But once I hired the P.I. and started getting his reports..." He shook his head. "There were the cigarette butts, the way you were seen at the crime scenes...and then this thing with Ash. Hell, Joey, what was I supposed to think?"

"You hired a private investigator?"

Ted nodded. "That's where the money went. Those were the secret meetings and phone calls. I didn't want Caroline to know."

Joey felt like she'd been hit with a hammer. She couldn't even justify feeling angry with Ted for suspecting her. Hadn't she been on the verge of suspecting
he
was the Slasher? She lowered her head, released all her breath in a rush. "God, you're an idiot, Ted." When she looked at him again she asked, "So do you still think I'm a crazed murderess?"

"My P.I. says the Slasher has made two attempts on Ash, both while you were with him. I guess you're exonerated."

"Your faith in me is astonishing." She turned, and the three of them began walking again, toward the house. "So what if your P.I. had found out I
was
the Slasher, Ted? What were you going to do then?"

Ted's brow furrowed. "I have a stack of information on various mental hospitals in the shop."

“So you were gonna lock me away in a psych ward?’

“I figured it would be better than prison.”

When they walked inside, Ted was assaulted by his daughters, still in their matching purple nightgowns with a well-known little girl explorer on the front. They leapt into his arms and he caught them with practiced ease, one on each side. He kissed them both, then his gaze moved past them to Caroline. She stood at the foot of the stairs in her pajamas, her long wavy hair pulled into a ponytail.

"I've missed you, Caroline."

She nodded. "Me, too."

"We need to talk."

Ash heaved a sigh of relief when the four of them left for an overnight getaway. God, the look of bliss on Caroline's face after she and Ted had spent an hour talking alone had almost had Ash choking back tears. He no longer suspected Ted had anything to do with the murders. Partly due to instinct, but mainly because he had proof. While Caroline and Joey were packing the girls' things upstairs, Ash had had a heart-to-heart with Ted. Not only had Ted produced the name of the P.I. he'd hired, but he had also shown Ash some of the reports he'd had from the man. It was obvious the P.I.
had
been investigating the Slasher killings and trying to find evidence of Joey's involvement, or lack thereof. Ted would hardly hire someone to find out if Joey was the Slasher, if he were the Slasher himself.

Cross one more suspect off the list, he thought glumly. He hated to think Beverly Issacs was a killer. But it was looking more and more like that was the case.

At least Caroline and the girls would be out of harm's way tonight and tomorrow. They'd all packed into the wagon to head up north to a popular theme park, where the girls could raise hell to their hearts' content, and Ted would have time to romance his wife.

The lucky bastard.

Ash looked to the sofa, where Joey had collapsed as if exhausted. She sat there now, and her gaze kept straying to the diary on the coffee table.

"There's time now," he said softly. "You can read it if you want."

She met his gaze, shook her head. "I don't know if I can."

"I'll leave, give you some privacy—"

"No. If you go, I know I won't be strong enough to do it."

"Then..."

"Read it with me?"

Ash tilted his head slightly.

"Sit beside me, and hold me close, and read it with me, Ash."

There was so much in her eyes. Pain, fear and something else, reaching out to him with a magnetic pull. There was some sticky, invisible substance that seemed to want to meld him to her—soul to soul, pain to pain. It was an intensely private thing she was asking him to share. And he couldn't have refused her even if he'd wanted to.

He sat beside her, and she curled close to him. He put an arm around her shoulders, and she pressed her head into the crook beneath his chin. She lifted a hand, reaching for the little book, but the hand stopped in midair and began to tremble.

He kissed the top of her head and picked up the diary. He opened it to the first entry and held it low, so they both could read.

Clouds roiled outside, dark black masses blotted out the sun, and thunder reverberated in the distance. Joey sobbed as she hadn't done since she was a child. Violent, racking, uncontrollable spasms that tried to snap her diaphragm in two. And Ash held her tighter all the time. He kissed her. He made love to her with tender caresses and gentle touches and seemed to absorb part of her pain into himself. And later he bathed her face with a cool cloth.

Her life had been a lie. Everything she'd ever believed about her parents, her family, had been make-believe. Everything her father had told her was true. They'd never been in love. Her mother had been the first to indulge in an affair, with Joey’s biological father. But her stepdad had forgiven her. He’d understood, her mother had written. He was truly the best man she’d ever known. And later, they’d both fallen in love with someone else. They'd only remained together for their daughters, and neither could bring themselves to tell the truth.

Her father had, last night. She hadn't believed him then. She still didn't want to believe any of this, but it was unavoidable now. All the proof she'd needed had been shown to her, in her mother's own hand.

And there was more. Tito del Rio, the man who had fathered her, Toni’s dad, had fathered other children. And her mom and dad had found the names of two of them. Caitlin Rossi, a billionaire heiress from Maine, and Alexandra Holt, who was a doctor in Manhattan. Toni had lived in New York City and never known she had a sister so nearby.