House of V (Unraveled Series) (13 page)

Then, when George Boyd came back
into her life years later as Holston Parker at St. Mary’s, she’d known he had
been through more than she could possibly imagine. Yet he had been the first
person to save her, so she had done what she could to repay the debt she’d felt
that she owed to him. She had assured him that the Lord would lead the way.
That if he listened hard enough, God would pave the path of
righteousness for him.
As long as he repented, God would forgive. She
hadn’t known at the time how much damage he had done.

And now she feared she had been
wrong for giving him that advice.

She tried to shake the feeling that
was overwhelming her with every push of her leg. She didn’t want to live like
this. She didn’t want to live in constant fear. Whatever it was that would come
to her, she would take it on with full gusto. She would fight for the life that
was worth living.

As the steeple of the church came
into view, Sister Josephine began to feel some of that fear dripping away.
There was nothing like a session of deep prayer and meditation to wash away
these feelings that were plaguing her. She would have a quick session, pop in
to say hello to Carol and then head on to the police department.

Police Chief Sanchez seemed nice
enough, although she had doubted his competence with his tainted police force.
She hoped that the department was clear and on the way up from last year. They
seemed to be taking extra precautions and good measure with the death of Father
Haskens
.

Sister Josephine rode to the side
entrance and put her bike into the rack next to the church. She had requested
the rack a few years back for the after-school kids in her program, and
surprisingly, they had inspired her to get her own bike. The kids ended up
loving it and so did she; it kept her young. As she made her way up to the
door, she let the keys dangle from her hand as she searched for the right one.
That’s when she saw it; the shadow of someone next to her own.

She turned with the keys in her
hand just in time to see a man wearing a black ski mask and holding a rock in
his hand. The rock connected to her skull, causing her head to scream with pain
she had never experienced. Her body instantly crumbled to the concrete. She
tried to call out for
help,
however her mouth was
quickly covered with a piece of duct tape. Her legs kicked, trying to hit him,
but they slowly went limp as her nose was covered with a small cloth. She held
her breath as long as she could and stared at the man huddled next to her.

It all came flooding back, the fear
that she had pushed away. He was back, and he had returned with a vengeance.
Her lungs burned in agony as she held on, not wanting to breathe in whatever
was on that rag, yet she finally submitted, whiffing the smell of ether. She could
have sworn she saw him smile beneath that mask before her eyelids gave up their
fight. Then Sister Josephine’s world was black.

11

June 19, 4:30 p.m
.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

I knew Holston had wanted to kill
me. There wasn’t a revelation in that fact. Somehow, though, seeing my name on
that list with other men who had raped, murdered and who knows what else,
blind-sided me. It was hard to imagine that could happen to a person like me,
but it had.

I wasn’t evil, and I didn’t
classify myself as a murderer. I killed only the people that I needed to kill.
I had no choice; it was a necessity. Killed or be killed situations. He forced
me to do the things that I’d done; things I surely wouldn’t have done had I
grown up as I was supposed to. I should have had a life without Holston.
A life without blood, death and constant shame.
The only
solace that I could find was that I beat Holston to it. I killed him before he
could kill me. How was that for a father-daughter relationship?

After the room stopped swaying and
the rush of anger swept through my body, I pushed the paper back to Sanchez. I
didn’t want to see any more of his papers.

Where the hell was James? What was
taking him so long?

I looked toward the glass,
wondering if Delaney was still standing there. I wondered if she had seen the
list. Once Holston found out that Delaney was his real daughter, he wanted
nothing else than to kill me. I clenched my fists into tiny balls, my skin
stretching over the skin so tightly that I thought it might split. I counted.

One, two, three, four -

The door opened to James holding up
a piece of paper. More sheets. I was ready to set all this paperwork on fire.

“
Evie
,
I’ve got your agreement to look over,” James said, eyeing up Sanchez who was
pulling back all the pictures and stuffing them into the folder. I hated that
folder, but I couldn’t help but wonder what else he had to torture me with.

“I’ll give you some time. I’ll be
back in a few minutes,” Sanchez said, standing up. He tapped the folder on the
table and gave me an extended stare. He was trying to figure me out, just like
most people did. I was unpredictable; no one knew what I would do next or how I
might react to something. I usually prided myself on it as it kept people on
edge around me, yet for whatever reason, I didn’t want Sanchez to feel that
way. Maybe it was the way he looked at me before he showed me the picture of
Holston’s list. His pained eyes didn’t want to show me my own name. I didn’t
blame him.

“We don’t have much time and need
to get back to Appleton to see if they’ve developed any other leads,” Sanchez
added as he walked out of the door.

I sipped my black coffee that had
turned cold by now. The bitterness lurched in my throat, threatening to come
back up, but I willed it down, deep inside my gut where I buried everything. I
took the image of my name,
My
darling
Evie
, and stamped it down until it was buried, right
alongside Elizabeth and Ethan.

“You okay?” James asked as the door
opened again. I saw the green out of the corner of my eye. Delaney. I wanted to
at once punch and hug her, but I didn’t do either. Instead, I merely sat there
with my fists still clenched. I recited my mantra and exhaled, releasing my
hands until I didn’t feel the skin stretch anymore.

“
Evie
,”
Delaney said softly, still standing by the door. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know
what to say. I mean, I didn’t know everything that was going on. I didn’t know
that they were following me. If I did, I wouldn’t have sent you the email. And
I didn’t know about the list
- ”

“There’s nothing to say,” I cut her
off, shrugging my shoulders. “I killed him before he could kill me.”

The silence in the room was
deafening.

“Congratulations to you both, by
the way,” I said, nodding toward Delaney’s roundness of her belly.
“On the baby.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Delaney said,
instinctually cupping her hand around her belly.

“Happened faster
than we anticipated.
We weren’t exactly planning that one, and Delaney
didn’t know if she wanted to have kids or not, especially after everything that
your family has gone through…” James started, but his sentence fell flat.

More silence.

“Things have a way of working
themselves out,” I said, ignoring the indirect dig to me. “Boy or girl?”

“We’re going to wait. We want it to
be a surprise,” Delaney said, leaning against the door. She curled her leg up,
wanting to walk forward, but something was stopping her, as if she didn’t have
permission to come in or that she was afraid of me. Either way, it wasn’t
setting any of us at ease.

“You can come in. I’m not going to
tear your head off,” I finally said, nodding toward Sanchez’s seat. Delaney
returned the nod as her brown hair brushed against her chest that had grown
even bigger since I had seen her last. My eyes fell down to her swollen belly
again. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. “When is the baby due?”

“Your niece or nephew is due in
September,” James said.

The words niece and nephew caught
me off-guard. This
was
my family, but
it didn’t exactly feel that way. A reunion in a police station didn’t give me a
bunch of warm, fuzzy feelings.

“By the blank stare on your face, I
can tell you haven’t thought of it that way,” Delaney offered.
“The baby that is.
You’ll be an aunt, if you’re up for it.”

“I need some time to think on
that,” I replied as James leaned over to grab Delaney’s hand. I stared at their
interlocked hands a little too long before I averted my eyes, looking back to
the agreement James had drafted. I needed to focus.

“Where is he?” Delaney
asked,
her eyes soft and wide.

The pang in my gut radiated as I
thought of Ryan. I tried to push the feeling away.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I
told her, pulling the paper closer to me. I couldn’t think about the real
possibility that I would never see Ryan again. “So what does this say? Are you
letting me sell my soul to the devil? I hope your friend knows what the hell he
is talking about because you sure the hell didn’t seem too confident. ”

“Come on now,” James said
half-defensively. He knew he was a good lawyer, but he also knew he wasn’t cut
out for this kind of work; dealing with people like me. “I’m never in a
courtroom, and I never deal with criminals.”

“We’re off to a good start here,” I
said as I cracked a crooked grin at the mention of my criminal status. “First,
your wife leads me to be arrested and then you call me a criminal. This is the
thanks I get for saving your lives? Did you forget that you were bleeding out
on that couch?”

“When you put it that way,” James
said, placing his hand on his abdomen. “I’ve got quite the scar, but it was all
worth it. I asked Delaney to marry me on the ambulance ride. How do you refuse
that?”

James shot a sheepish grin at
Delaney.

“Impossible to, I suppose,” I said,
feeling a curiosity tick in my head as I pictured James in the bar at Atlas Pub
with Mark right before Gunnar kidnapped Delaney. I felt my jeans rub against
the chair as I turned toward James. “By the way, I never asked you why you were
at Delaney’s house back in January a year and a half ago. What made you go to
her house that day? Delaney mentioned she hadn’t seen you in years. Why were
you in Appleton?”

“I
- ”
James stammered, clearly taken aback. “We ran into each other at
Froedert
. I was in Milwaukee scoping out office buildings.
My firm wanted to open up a branch, which I now know was orchestrated by
Holston. I was supposed to meet a client at the hospital, of all places, but
the client never showed up. Instead, Delaney did.”

“All thanks to Holston. He knew I
was going to be there with my -
our
mother,” Delaney said. “And as
much as I hate everything about Holston Parker and what he did to our family,
I’m grateful that we are where we are today. James and I are finally together.
And, I’ve found you,
Evie
.”

I eyed James’s closely shaven face
and warm brown eyes, and was instantly reminded of Ryan. Despite hating the
words that came out of Delaney’s mouth, she was right. Holston brought her to
James and me to Ryan. James and Delaney were well on their way to their happily
ever after, yet in my world, that ending didn’t exist.

“Are you okay? You never answered
James earlier.” Delaney leaned across the table. “Do you need more coffee? Can
I get you anything else?”

“I’m fine,” I replied, swirling the
last bit of cold coffee in the
styrofoam
cup. The black splashed against the sides, leaving a small stain before
disappearing. I was fine enough to get by, like I always did. I held out my
hand toward James and waited for him to place the pen in my hand.

“One year
probation in the state of Wisconsin.
The location will be determined by
the court,” James started. “And responsibility as an informant for the missing
persons case of Sister Josephine
Angeletto
until she
is found, dead or alive. No expiration or timeframe on the case.”

“She’ll be found alive,” I
asserted, signing
Evie
Parker across the sheet in
tight-inked clarity. I left the tip of the pen on the paper and watched as the
ink bled a large black dot. “If there’s no expiration on the case, does that
mean I’ll have to stay in Wisconsin for as long as it’s open?”

“No, but they’ll need to be able to
contact you, otherwise, you’ll face a warrant for your arrest again,” James
said. “I think Sanchez stuck his neck out for you. My friend couldn’t believe
what you were being offered. He said to take it and run.”

Run. That’s exactly what I wanted
to do. I wanted to find Sister Josephine on my own.

“Well, not run,” James backpedaled,
choosing his next words more carefully under Delaney’s glare. “Whatever you do,
don’t run. Help them with the case, serve your time on probation and then move
on.”

“I got it,” I said, pushing the
paper back toward him. “I would do anything to find Sister Josephine.”

The door opened and Sanchez’s jet
black mane appeared. He held the same folder in his hands. That goddamn folder.

“Are you set?” Sanchez asked as he
eyed the signature in front of me.

“Signed, sealed and delivered. I’m
yours.” I handed the paper to him.

“I can’t tell you how relieved I am
to have you on our side,” Sanchez said as he slipped the paper into his folder
before looking down at his watch. “We’ve got a ton of work to do. We should
head back to Appleton. We have a full night ahead of us. And if it’s okay with
you, we’ve made arrangements for you to stay at my house.” Before I could
contest, he added, “Officer Brian Hobart will be stationed at the house as
well. We don’t think it’s in your best interest to stay in a hotel or anything.
We want to keep a close eye on you. In case the perpetrator finds out you’re in
town, of
course.”
Of
course.
The perpetrator.
I nodded,
knowing that Sanchez really wanted to keep an eye on me. I was a flight risk to
Sanchez.