He’s turned me into a marshmallow, and I guess I’m a bit more like my father than I realized. It’s actually remarkable that my dad has put up with so much from my mother but still finds it in his heart to not harden and become a bitter and resentful person. I thought that’s what I was doing, but Ari has melted some of that away for me.
Ari is the first person I’ve let slip past my walls, and honestly, I’m not sure I let him. He kidnapped me and then bulldozed right through them. I could tell from his mom’s face when she saw a woman in his home that it was surprising.
I’m kind of glad I didn’t dig deeper into their family before I broke into their offices. At the time, I was only focused on getting what I needed and getting out.
It takes almost ten minutes to get myself out from under Ari, but when I’m free, I push a pillow there for him to grab a hold of. I’m not sure how much time that will buy me, but I won’t hate it when he comes to track me down.
I snag a shirt off the floor and spot my panties next to them. I was sure those were long gone, but since I’m only going to his office, I don’t need much in the way of clothes. I’m also pretty sure my bag is still in his car, and I hold back a laugh at that.
When I open his badass office door, I quietly sneak inside and find one of the folders he pulled out the other day still sitting on his desk. Opening the file, I start to read and I realize he wasn’t lying.
There’s so much dirty crap on my mother, and it’s more than I expected. I don’t think the woman has ever been faithful, not to mention they even busted her stealing money out of one of my dad’s business accounts. Wow. With all this, how has my dad not managed to get a divorce? Hell, I think he could sue her.
The Reins brothers have been thorough, including pulling up some information on me. There wasn’t really a ton, and it’s mostly about my school. Unlike my dad and mother, there are no surveillance pictures of me.
When I flip past my stuff, I stop on a picture of a man I’ve never seen before. He’s not with my mother or father, and it’s only a single snapshot of him on his own. On closer inspection, I’m pretty sure it’s a mugshot.
“Who the hell is this?” The name reads Jeffrey Collins, and for some reason it’s vaguely familiar. I know I’ve never seen him before, but still there’s something about him I can’t shake.
I study the picture, wondering if it’s someone in my extended family that I’ve never met. My mother has always been so tight-lipped about her past that he could be an uncle she’s kept secret.
Turning to the next page, I scan further to see if I can find his name in the documents. It doesn’t take long until I see it again, and thankfully the office chair is there to catch me when my knees give out.
“No,” I whisper as my eyes fill with tears. I brush them away so that I can keep reading the paper while a knot forms in my throat.
Ari’s words from that first night come rushing back to me. People can be blackmailed for things that might not hurt them but could hurt the ones close to them.
“He’s not my dad.” Saying the words out loud makes my chest burn. How can my dad not be my dad? I angrily swipe at my cheeks, wondering if everyone but me knows this. Is this why Ari kept me so distracted from these documents? Did he think I’d forget why I came here?
I don’t understand what I'm feeling because there are so many emotions rushing through me at once. I’m not even sure who I’m mad at.
Everyone.
I jump up from the chair because I need to get out of here. Anger and betrayal fuel my body, and I have to get away from everyone. I rush from the office toward the garage, deciding that I’ll have to be quick. I’m not sure if an alarm is set, and I don’t recall Ari setting one after his mom left. Ari has also come and gone a few times while I was sleeping, so who knows? It’s been days, and there could be a million set for all I know.
When I pull open the door to the garage, I don’t hear an alarm go off, but I keep moving. Snagging the first set of keys off the wall, I get into the same car he used to bring me here. Thankfully, when I hit the on button on the visor, the garage opens.
That’s two doors down, now one to go. Though the last is a gate, I have a feeling it might recognize the vehicle. When I get to the bottom of the driveaway, I’m proven right as the iron gates swing open for me.
Now that I’m free, I feel more lost and alone than ever.
Chapter 14
Ari
Sadie must be wrapped in the blanket because when I cuddle her close, all I feel is fabric between us. Only, the harder I squeeze, the less there is of her, and it has me blinking awake. When I see I’ve wrapped my entire body around the pillow beside me, I chuckle and toss it away. I’m surprised she’s out of bed, but I guess I can’t expect her to stay on her back for much longer. No matter how badly I’d like that to happen.
After I peek in the bathroom to make sure she’s not there, I make my way to the kitchen. The first thing I notice when I walk in is that she didn’t drink the coffee I pre-set for her.
“Sadie?” I call out, but there’s no response, and my sleepy perusal of the house is dissolving and now I’m on alert. “Sadie,” I call a little louder and begin to check all the rooms.
My office door is wide open, and my heart hammers against my chest when I go in. The file I pulled for her is strewn across the floor, and my office chair is tilted against the wall away from my desk. It’s like she was here and then in a rush to leave knocked everything over.
“Oh no,” I say to myself when I walk closer and see the page sitting on top of the pile. Jeffrey Collins’ photo is next to it, and my heart sinks. “Shit.”
When we first took on this case, Megan Delanito didn’t disclose much of anything, but the more we dug, the more awful shit we found. Around twenty-five years ago, she and her boyfriend at the time were working as a team to commit petty crimes. It wasn’t anything too extreme until the boyfriend decided they needed to raise the stakes.
He convinced Megan to be the getaway driver while he robbed a bank, and as far as we can tell, she went along without protest. They ended up hitting it just when the safe happened to be open, and they got away with a ton of cash. The two of them were stupid enough to brag around town about what happened, and they got word that the police were closing in.