Page 4 of Blood & Kisses

“Rae’s got it in her bag,” Blake replies.

“Can you get it, Rae?” he asks me firmly, and I obey in silence, retrieving it for him.

He looks at the scene closely, and I’m sure a detective who works for the Sex Crimes Unit would’ve seen plenty of awful images like this before. But it still doesn’t stop me from the shame of being laid bare and reliving it all again.

After he studies the photograph, he places it face down on the table and lifts his eyes directly at me. “I always had a hunch that you knew who the men were that sexually assaulted you.”

“I don’t remember the person holding the camera,” I confess, “but yes, the men were all associates of Lyons.”

Gabe watches me closely as I talk, and like his son, his facial expression gives nothing away. “What are their names?” he asks.

“I don’t…know if...;” I shake my head, deciphering whether it’s a good idea to tell him. The faces of the men are not clear in the photograph, and one of them is not well-known, whereas the other three are successful in their careers. So, they may be unable to identify them just by looking at the photo alone. “Why?”

Gabe sips his coffee, then laces his fingers together, taking his time to answer. “Thought I might pay them a visit.”

“And do what? Arrest them?” I ask.

“Maybe,” he replies. “They got away with a crime.”

“They threatened to kill my family if I told you,” I confess and sigh as if a weight just expelled from my shoulders.

He nods in understanding. “I figured that. It was obvious that you were trying to protect someone. There were moments back then when you were in the hospital where you could tell it was on the tip of your tongue to tell me, but something kept stopping you.” He exhales. “And now we know. Now we have the faces of the men, and you have their names.” He starts tapping his wedding ring finger on the table. “Is the plan, Rae, to kill them all?”

I lick my lip as my mouth is desert dry, and even though I can quench my thirst with the coffee in front of me, I’m too shaky to lift the cup to my mouth. “Yes,” I sigh, glancing at the faces of the men watching me and wondering what will happen next; now, I have shared my deepest, darkest secrets. “Are you disappointed in me?” I always wanted Gabe to like me more than just a victim of a crime he was investigating. At times, I hated the way he looked at me with sympathy in his eyes. Because I so desperately wanted to be normal and whole, not a girl so broke and bruised that I couldn’t stand to be touched for months afterward.

“Admittedly,” he begins, and I brace myself for his brutally honest answer, “I’m disappointed that you couldn’t come to me when you returned to town. But, ah, Lyons the Coach,” he shrugs his shoulders, “won’t be missed by many, I suspect.”

“Really?” I’m surprised, and Cormac nods in agreement. “But he’s a highly acclaimed, most successful swim coach ever. I’m exaggerating slightly, but you know what I mean.”

Cormac shakes his head. “We’ll survive without him, and I'm sure the female swimmers will celebrate quietly. But we’ll have to go through the humdrum of pretending to be upset and attend his funeral with a coffin draped in the American flag and get riled up that his killer hadn’t been caught blah de blah.”

“It’s a good thing you can act,” Blake chuckles under his breath, and his expression quickly turns solemn. “You know the media and police are going to scramble over this like wasps in a honey jar, so you need to get your stories straight.”

“I doubt Rae would be a suspect,” Cormac states as his bacon and eggs sizzle in the hot pan. “Because no one knows what he did to her.” His eyebrows lower over his eyes as he doubts his own words. “Do they? Is there anyone who knows what he did to you?’

I shake my head. “Just the people in this room. I mean…my family and friends know that I was viciously attacked, but I kept much of the details to myself. They don’t know who…” I swallow over the lump in my throat when the face of the Pig enters my mind. He’s next on my list as long as these men don’t destroy my plan. “So, you’re not going to arrest me?”

Gabe scoffed. “I should, since you just openly confessed to witnesses, but I won’t.”

“Why?” I ask curiously.

“Let’s just say I have my reasons,” he replies flatly.

“And you’re not going to share them with me?” I ask, knowing what the answer is.

“No,” his answer is blunt. He takes his time to sip his frothy coffee. “Drink up, Rae. We’re going to take you to college. It’s important to go on with your life as if nothing happened.”

“That was my plan, too,” I state smugly, pointing at the handsome faces of Blake and Cormac. “Until… these two came along.”

“I’ll repeat,” Blake hits, “if it weren’t for me protecting your back, you would’ve had a witness to your crime.”

I hadn’t noticed anyone following me, which may be the problem, but I saw a passing vehicle. Maybe that was Blake. Gosh, I need to get better at this.

Gabe finishes off his coffee and pushes his chair back. “I have to head to work,” he says, patting his pant pockets to find something, then spots what he’s looking for on the kitchen bench – his phone next to a gun belt, complete with gun, that I hadn’t noticed before.

“Yeah, I better head to class,” Cormac adds, stuffing his face with crispy bacon. “Do you need a lift, Rae?”

“Um…” My head is full of thoughts, and I’m a little disoriented about what time it is and what my class and work schedule are.

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