Trust Me (19 page)

Anthony shoved open a swinging door and guided her into the room. Her eyes went immediately to the man
strapped into a chair with duct tape and clothesline. He was blindfolded and gagged. He looked dead already.

Rae’s stomach began to heave, and her mouth flooded with saliva. She closed her eyes and concentrated on not
throwing up. After a moment the sensation subsided, and she was able to open her eyes again. She stepped away
from Anthony and moved up next to the man. “I’ll see what he knows,” she said softly. She had to fight down
another bout of nausea as she reached for his hand and touchedhis fingertips.

The amount of fear she was already feeling tripled as she took in the man’s. He was sure he was going to die.

“It’s-it’s going to be okay,” she nearly whispered, feeling like she had to give him some kind of reassurance. “I’ll get
you out of this alive. I promise.”

Forming the words was a struggle as she tried to speak through everything that was pushing from his mind into
hers. All kinds of memories swirled around while he tried to picture his wife’s smile. Remember what their baby girl
smelled like when he first held her. She caught a fantasy of revenge, where the man broke free like Superman and
annihilated the people who had done this to him.

“Garage,” Rae said quietly. “Guys.”

The man remembered a garage door opening. Figures inside. A flash of blue rushing toward him. Then the pain of
his head hitting the cement. A sweaty hand on his eyes. Over his mouth. Hard to breathe. What? Who?

Rae released his fingers. “Well?” Anthony asked, voice tight with strain.

She opened her mouth to answer, but her throat was too dry. She stumbled over to the sink and took a long drink
directly from the faucet, thenturned to Anthony. “He doesn’t remember anything important. He can’t call up a face or
even a build on any of you guys.”

“Let’s go tell them,” Anthony said.

It felt like years later that Anthony pulled Rae’s father’s Chevette into the driveway. Convincing McGee that the
owner of the house couldn’t ID them wasn’t nearly as hard as Rae feared it would be, especially with Kolsen,
Buchanan, and Anthony urging him that the best thing to do was wipe down everything they could have touched
and just get the hell out of there.

The cleanup had taken longer. Then she and Anthony had picked up Jesse’s bike and gotten him back home.

Finally they’d found a pay phone and made an anonymous call to the cops, telling them that they thought a robbery
was in progress. They figured the cops would find the owner of the house and free him.

“You must be wrecked,” Anthony said, staring straight ahead even though the car was parked. She knew he was
telling her to get her butt inside and leave him alone. But she wasn’t ready to do that.

“Anthony, I wanted to say-I need to say how sorry I am that I went looking for your father without asking you if that
was even what you wanted,” Rae told him.

“Look, it’s late. I have to find a bus and gethome.” Anthony raked his fingers through his hair, pushing it off his
forehead. “There’s no point in talking about this. You did it. You’re sorry. What else is there to say?”

“What else is there to say?” Rae repeated. “How about that you almost screwed up your whole life because of
what I told you? Is this going to be a regular thing with you or what?”

“You’re pissed off at
me?”
Anthony asked, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

“Yeah, I’m pissed off at you,” Rae shot back. Now that he was safe, she was getting angrier by the second. “I know
what I did was wrong. I know it had to hurt like hell to find out the truth about your father. But that’s no excuse-”

“You have no friggin’ idea what you’re talking about,” Anthony said, whipping his head toward her. “What’s the
worst thing your dad ever did-got a parking ticket? Or, ooh, had to pay an overdue fine at the library? I’m the kid of a
freakin’ murderer.” He opened the car door and started to climb out. Rae pulled him back, using both hands.

“So am I,” she told him.

His eyes locked on hers. “So are you what?”

“You don’t know everything about me, okay?” Rae hardly recognized the sound of her own voice. “You’re not the
only one who has to live with being the kid ofa killer.” She let go of his arm, but he didn’t move.

“What are you talking about?” he demanded, his jaw tight.

Rae shut her eyes, then opened them again. “Anthony, my mom-my mom killed someone. Shot her right in the
forehead. Close range.” Tears filled Rae’s eyes, and she roughly wiped them away with the back of her hands.

Slowly Anthony sank back into the car next to her. He leaned his head back against the seat, then turned to face
her again. “And you’ve known this- ” Anthony began.

“Since I was about twelve,” Rae answered, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. “Not all of it. But that she
killed someone. My dad always said it was an accident. And mom died in the loony bin a few months after it
happened, so it’s not like she was around to tell me any different.” Rae stopped as the words from the article she’d
seen today flashed through her brain. “But I found out-I found out more,” she said, her voice catching. She turned
to meet his gaze, swallowing hard. “Anthony, it was her best friend. Not just some random stranger like with your
dad. She killed her
best friend.”

“Rae…” Anthony’s voice was so soft, softer than she’d ever heard him speak.

She took in a deep breath. “I just-I wanted you toknow that I understand how you feel,” she said, trying to keep her
voice even. “I do. And I hate that I’m the one who told you about your dad. I should have lied. I shouldn’t have
looked for him in the first place, but after I found out the truth, I should have lied.”

Anthony shook his head. “You knew how much I wanted to find him. It’s not like you had to ask to know that,” he
said. Rae struggled to read his expression in the dark car, but she couldn’t see enough to know what he was
feeling.

“Yeah, but I also knew how you’d feel when I told you about him,” Rae argued. “Now you’re thinking you’re going
to turn out like him.”

“You can’t keep telling me how I feel,” Anthony protested.

“That’s bull. It’s exactly how you feel,” Rae said. “If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t have ended up in that house tonight.

You wouldn’t be blowing off your chance to get into Sanderson.” Rae squeezed her hands together so tightly, the
bones ached. “I’m afraid, too. I’m afraid I’m becoming more like her every day. But I don’t go and seek it out. I try. I try
to hold it back.”

Anthony reached out awkwardly and covered her hands with one of his own. The warmth of his touch shot
through her whole body. “You could never do anything like your mother did,” he told her. “You can’t seriously think
you could kill someone. Youjust saved someone’s life tonight, remember?”

“You’d have found a way to do it if I hadn’t,” Rae answered. “You were already working on it. The way you feel
about me and my mom-that’s how I feel about you and your dad.”

They looked at each other for a long moment, and the air in the car felt charged, the way it was outside right before
a storm. Finally Anthony glanced away.

“Um, I guess there’s one other thing I should tell you,” Rae said. “Since I know you hate it when I-”

“What?” Anthony cut in.

“Someone’s been sending me pictures of Erika Keaton,” she admitted. “Erika’s the woman my mom, you know.” A
shudder went through Rae. “I never knew the details-I mean, I didn’t know who it was, what her name was. But I
found this article about what happened, and now I know… Anyway, whoever’s out there even sent me some of her
ashes and called my house asking for her. So maybe that’s why all this stuff has been happening-the pipe bomb,
Jesse’s kidnapping. Someone wants revenge. And it’s probably not over.”

Anthony tilted back his head and let out a long sigh. “You’re right.” He glanced at her, not quite meeting her eye.

“But until it
is
over, you’ve got me at your back.” He climbed out of the car, and this time Rae didn’t try to stop him.

She got out, too, and closed the door with a soft click.

“Thanks,” she said as he started heading toward the street. He stopped, turning back to face her. “I mean, for
covering my back,” she added.

Anthony nodded. “Well, you got mine tonight. It’s only fair.” He stood there a second, staring at her. She stared
back, not making a move toward her house. Then he was striding toward her, and a moment later his arms were
around her, holding her tightly against him. Rae wrapped her arms around his back and pressed her cheek into his
shoulder.

Let me stay like this forever,
she thought. She could feel Anthony’s heart beating against her chest, and it was
almost like his heart was her heart. She pulled him even closer, burrowing her face into his shoulder.

That was when she realized that her neck had a numb spot on it the size of a child’s fist.
It’s from holding on so

tight,
she told herself. But even the security of Anthony’s arms couldn’t keep the next thought from coming.

Or I’m dying. Like my mother.

This file was created with BookDesigner program
[email protected]

10/11/2009

LRS to LRF parser v.0.9; Mikhail Sharonov, 2006; msh-tools.com/ebook/