Dwayne glanced at her hand and took in the naked ring finger. “It’s a lie. She’d not sleep with him. Not after all the hell Hudson put Craig through.”
“She did sleep with him. Four years ago and last night. I can still smell him on her.”
Dwayne looked at Adrianna. “That true?”
Adrianna tamped down the panic rising in her throat. “Mr. Wells, please let me go. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“See, the bitch can’t even deny it!” Ben shouted. “She did sleep with him.”
Dwayne studied her eyes. And then slowly he shook his head. “You did sleep with him.”
Adrianna shook her head. “Mr. Wells, please let me go. Ben is insane. He killed his own mother—your wife.”
Dwayne shook his head. “
I
killed her when I realized she’d sent that tape to the cops.” Pain darkened his eyes. “I never figured you of all people would have betrayed Craig with Gage Hudson.”
She tried to roll to the left and undo her other hand. “I stood by his side all the time while he was sick.”
Dwayne shook his head. “Do what you want with her, Ben. I wash my hands clean of her.”
Ben grinned.
Dwayne paused by the door, his shoulders slumping. “Might as well know. Gage is dead. I shot him a few hours ago.” He left.
Adrianna’s eyes flooded with tears. She screamed and clawed at the knot with trembling hands but couldn’t get it loose. “No!”
Ben moved toward her, as if he had all the time in the world
Gage pulled up in front of the Wells home. He needed to find Dwayne or Ben now. Ben’s age. His dedication to the Thorntons.
I was kinda like a Dutch uncle to Craig
.
“Dwayne is Craig’s father,” Gage said.
Vega nodded. “That’s what I’m thinking.”
Gage climbed the front steps two at a time. Vega stood on the bottom step. Both had guns drawn. Gage stood at the side of the door and pounded on it. No one answered the door.
“Let’s have a look out back,” Vega said.
The two ran around the side of the house and spotted a dirt road that snaked into the woods. Fresh tire tracks dug into the dirt. “Look over here.”
“Someone just drove down there.”
Gage headed back to the car. “Let’s go.”
They got in the car and seconds later drove down the rough road. They’d driven less than a half a mile when Gage spotted Dwayne Wells’s truck parked at a dead end.
“What the hell is he doing out here?” Vega said.
“Looks like he’s gone into the woods.” Gage got out of his car. “There are two paths.”
Vega’s gaze narrowed. “You go left and I’ll go right.”
“Sure. Call it in and then head out.”
They split up and headed into the woods. Gage was halfway down the path with he spotted Wells around a bend. “Wells!”
Wells glanced up at him. For a moment shock registered and then he smiled. “Detective. What are you doing here?”
“I’m looking for Adrianna.”
He slid his hands to his waist. “Adrianna? Why would she be down here?”
Gage pointed his gun at the ground but his finger slid to the trigger. “Where’d you just come from?”
“Oh, just back that way.” Smiling, he reached behind his back.
“You were Craig’s father.”
Dwayne tossed them an uneasy smile. “What makes you say such a fool thing as that?” The old man dropped his gaze and kicked the dirt with his booted foot. “I ain’t Craig’s father.”
“You know who is?”
The next seconds played out frame by frame. Wells pulled a revolver from his waistband. Gage raised his gun, pissed that the old man had fooled him.
Wells pointed his gun just as Gage lifted his.
But before either fired, a shot rang out from behind him. Wells stumbled back and a plum of blood blossomed on his chest. He dropped to his knees.
Without taking his gaze off Wells, Gage shouted, “Vega!”
“Yeah.” The voice came from directly behind him. “I’ve got him covered. Go find her.”
Gage ran down the path Wells had been traveling on. Dodging branches and thick brush, he came upon a shed that looked like new construction. He paused and glanced around the area, looking to see if anyone was lying in wait.
But when Adrianna’s cry for help shrieked out from somewhere inside the shed, rational thought deserted him.
Adrianna refused to believe that Gage could be dead. It was too horrible, too wrenching to consider now.
Get out of here! Stay alive! Dwayne is lying!
She repeated the phrases over and over again. Ben moved to the camera and checked its alignment. In one frantic jerk, she freed her hand, but quickly replaced it so he wouldn’t notice.
Ben closed the door but didn’t bother to lock it. He felt so sure of himself. God, she hoped she could use that to her advantage.
“I told you screaming won’t help, Adrianna. No one can hear you out in the woods.” Ben moved toward her and sat on the edge of the bed. He ran his hand over Adrianna’s breast and down her flat belly.
“I want to leave.”
“I made a mistake with the others. I didn’t keep them very long. I was rushed. But now with this new room we will have years and years together. And with Gage gone there won’t be anything to stop me.”
“You can’t do that.”
“I sure can.”
Fresh tears threatened but she forced them back. “It doesn’t have to be this way. Just let me go.”
He reached for the clasp on her pants and unfastened it. “I’ve waited so long for this. I’ve dreamed of loving you.”
No! She held on to the rope wrapped loosely around her hand waiting for him to put down the stun gun. “Ben, please, just talk to me.”
He traced a calloused finger around her belly button and she flinched. “We have our whole lives to talk.”
Her brain scavenged for anything that would keep him talking. “Craig’s doctors said he’d live another twenty years and then suddenly he died. Did you kill Craig?”
A proud smile tipped the edge of his lips. “I guess there’s no need for secrets here.”
“No.”
“Yeah, I killed him. I got so damn tired of hearing everyone always talking about him. Craig is doing better. Craig looks good today. Craig this. Craig that. The guy was a damn vegetable. He was never coming back. And as long as he was alive, Pa would never see me. You would never see me.”
“How?”
“Just held a pillow to his face. Slipped in at night through the service entrance. You were out of town and he never had many visitors at night, so the time was perfect. Didn’t hardly take any effort at all. He was just twisted bones by then.”
Tears slipped down her cheeks.
He wiped her tear away and raised the finger to his lips. “I did it for you. That place was killing you. You deserved to live a real life.”
Thoughts tumbled. And this was the life he wanted to give her? The words begged to be screamed but she didn’t dare.
Keep him talking about anything
. “How old were you when Craig was born?”
He frowned, surprised by the question. “Seven.” He set the stun gun on the table beside the bed.
“That is a hard age for a boy to lose his father’s attention.”
He swallowed. “It was.”
“What was it like before Craig was born?”
“Until then I had my father all to myself. It was perfect. We did everything together.”
His whole body seemed to soften as he talked about the days before Craig. She thought she might be reaching him when his face hardened suddenly. He traced his index finger over her belly and slipped it below the waistband of her pants. “I know what you’re doing. It won’t work.”
Revulsion shuttered through her. She desperately wanted to slap his hand away with her free hand but held steady. She needed him to look away. “The lens is crooked.”
He glanced back. “So it is.”
She waited until he turned toward the camera before she allowed herself to look at the stun gun. She was ready to reach for it when she looked up and saw that he was watching her in the lens’s reflection.
“You ain’t going nowhere.” Ben turned and moved the gun out of her reach.
Adrianna curled her right hand into a fist and as he leaned forward to kiss her she mustered every bit of strength she could and drove her hand into his throat.
He choked, sputtered as he stepped back. “Bitch.”
She rolled on her side and started to pull at the bindings on her left hand. Her fingers trembled. Her mind pushed through the fear that threatened to paralyze her.
Coughing and sputtering, Ben wrapped calloused hands around her neck and used his weight to flatten her on her back. He started to squeeze hard. “You selfish, stupid bitch.”
Adrianna choked. She raised her right hand and clawed at his fingers. With no oxygen, her heart started to thunder. She could count the beats. One. Two. Three.
She was going to die.
The door burst open so hard it slammed against the wall. Gage stood in the doorway of the dimly lit room, the sun silhouetting his frame.
Ben released her and went for the gun in his waistband.
Gage fired as Ben whirled around. The bullet struck Ben in the chest and sent him tumbling back. He fell on Adrianna. Warm blood dripped from his wound and seeped into her sweater. He gurgled his last breaths.
Hysteria bubbled inside her and she started to scream.
Gage jerked Ben’s body off her. He checked Ben’s pulse as he flipped open his phone. “He’s dead, Adrianna. He can’t hurt you.”
“Oh, Gage,” she sobbed.
“Are you all right, Adrianna?”
Terror shuddered through her. “Yes.”
Raw anguish deepened the lines on Gage’s face as he stared at her. “Vega, we need an ambulance. No, I’m fine. Adrianna looks fine as well. Ben Wells is dead.” He closed the phone and shoved it in the holster.
With trembling limbs he undid the bindings that still held her. “God, honey, I am so sorry.”
The tears and emotions she’d struggled to hide from Ben burst inside her. She stood and started to weep. “Gage.”
Gage wrapped strong arms around her and buried his face in her hair. “It’s okay. It’s okay. You’re safe.”
Epilogue
Four months later
A light snow had fallen as Adrianna checked the last of the day’s receipts and locked the cash in the safe under her counter in her store. Normally, she dropped cash at the bank’s night drop box, but today she was in a hurry.
When Adrianna heard a knock at the front door she started. Four months had passed since Ben had held her captive in his basement prison, but she’d not shaken the wariness that likely would linger for a long time. She still kept her doors locked and still jumped at unexpected sounds.
She glanced up and saw Gage standing on the other side of the glass. He wore a dark leather jacket, jeans, and a black turtleneck. Snow dusted his wide shoulders.
Her smile came easily as she quickly tucked her receipts away and crossed the room. She unlocked the door and opened it. He came into the store and kissed her softly on the lips. “Hey.”
Adrianna’s nerves calmed. “I’m just about done here.”
“Great.” He moved up to the counter and leaned against it as she moved back around it and finished counting her receipts.
“It was a crazy day,” she said. “But crazy in a good way.”
He nodded, understanding. There’d been many nights he’d held her when she’d awakened from nightmares that left her screaming and clawing to free herself from an underground coffin.
Ben had done so much damage. Not just to her but also to the families of the women he’d murdered. The grave excavations had continued but there’d been no sign of Jill’s body. Ben had left no clues where he’d buried the teen and most had accepted that she’d never be found. Her mother had at least gotten some closure just knowing what had really happened to her child.
Craig’s body was found, buried on the back edge of Dwayne Wells’s property. The grave had been marked with a simple marble slab that had only read: MY SON.
Gage and the other detectives had pieced together as much as they could and now believed Dwayne had dug up Craig just after his funeral and buried him on Wells property as a final tribute.
DNA evidence had linked Ben to the sweat-stained bandana, and traces of Dwayne and Ben’s DNA had been found on Tammy.
The father-and-son killing team had murdered six women. Jill was killed because she’d involved Craig in drug charges. Kelly Jo had said she was pregnant. Rhonda had been forging paintings for Craig, who was strapped for cash. When she demanded more and Craig refused, she’d threatened to ruin his wedding to Adrianna. Tammy had killed Craig Thornton and Adrianna’s unborn child the day she’d driven drunk and struck their car. Janet had discovered the forgery when the fake painting came up for auction on the West Coast and had planned to go public. And Marie had tried to stop the two murderers.
The last few months had not been all darkness. Adrianna had opted to stay in Richmond and had found another house to buy after hers had sold. Her mother was improving, and though Adrianna longed to know what had happened to the Barringtons’ first child, she’d stopped pressing the issue. She and her mother would never be as close as she’d have liked, but they were no longer at odds. Adrianna had grown closer to Kendall, who felt more and more like a sister each day.
“I should be finished here in just a minute. I don’t want to keep Tess and Alex waiting,” she said. Tess and Alex had eloped to Vegas two weeks ago and had decided to hold a reception for friends and family to celebrate.
“No rush.”
His too-serious expression worried her. “What’s wrong?”
Gage never minced words. “I found something.”
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
He pulled a piece of paper from his breast pocket. Carefully he unfolded it. “I found Baby Adrianna’s grave.”
She released the breath she was holding. She felt some measure of relief but also an odd sadness. “You did? How?”
“I thought about what your mother had said to me. She and Frances were like sisters. It didn’t make sense to me that Frances would leave her best friend’s child in an unmarked grave. So I searched area cemeteries.”
Margaret Barrington swore she’d never hurt the baby and had found her dead. It had been Frances and Margaret’s husband Carter who had assumed the sleep-deprived new mother had accidentally harmed the baby that would never stop crying. Carter had also feared the death would ruin his career. However, he’d had never banked on the fact that hiding the baby’s death would eat at his soul. The anger and loss he felt over his child’s death had been the reason he’d refused to get close with his second daughter.