Page 39 of Grave Kisses
“He’s going to arrest you if you don’t stop picking on him,” Bellamy laughs and pulls me down to sit between them. Hannah, Tim, and Cynthia sit on the couch while Collier sits in an armchair.
“Nah, then he’d be stuck with my ass for the whole trip back to Huston,” I say, grinning at Collier.
“Marcus was right. Youarea brat,” Collier deadpans. “Who are they?”
“Hannah and Tim Waddell,” I say. “And Cynthia Lennon… Suzette Lennon’s sister.”
“And you found this out in the few hours you've been here?” Collier asks suspiciously.
“Mmm. I’m not done,” I say. “Hannah and Tim have a daughter named Tina. They lost her twin sister when they were four weeks old when they got into a wreck. Holly, the missing baby, was presumed dead from the car seat being ejected into the lake close by. Wanna guess what day this happened?”
“When?” Collier asks with a sigh.
“Hours before Suzette died,” I say. “No one but Cynthia and the cops here knew there was a baby with her. No one looked into why she had a random baby, so I was put into foster care,” I say. “So, call up your people and pull the records for Tina Waddell.”
“Why?” he asks.
“One, she sounds like a bitch so I wanna see what her shit looks like. Two, everyone here thought I was her… Hannah thought I was her,” I say. “Look it up. We can wait.”
“You are so sassy,” Marcus says.
“I’m pissed off that all it fucking took was for me to come here to figure it out. Collier has had my records forweeks,and no one thought to check when Archer’s phone also pinged here.”
“Archer,” Hannah says. “Archer Barnes?”
“This is your fault,” I say to Jeff with venom in my tone. I turn and grab the folder off the bed and hand it to Tim.
“Your food,” he says, trading me.
“How much was it? I have some cash,” I say. I turn to go to my bag, but he gently grabs my wrist and pulls me back.
“I know you are about to go through the awful things that have happened to you because we took their word for it… Please know that we would do anything to go back and fix this. We lost God when we lost you, and I’m not giving him credit for getting you back…Whatever we have to do to make up for lost time… We want to try.”
“You were grieving the death of your baby while raising another. Plus, whatever injuries you sustained from the wreck,” I say. “I don’t blame either of you. I want to get to know both of you, so I promise, this will not be the last time you see me.”
“Good,” he says, patting my hand.
I sit back on the bed and hand the trays of wings to the guys before opening the last one for me. “Okay,” I say. “So… When I was fifteen, I was lured to Archer’s house. He was eighteen. He then spent all night and into the next morning raping and brutalizing me. I got free when he passed out, but his father found me. Alan helped me, and the short story for him is that Archer was a monster with a habit of hurting people, so he disowned him and took me in. He became like a dad to me. He is how I got my degree, and the only reason I survived healingfrom the trauma his son inflicted on me. Several weeks ago, Alan died of a heart attack. He left everything to me. He owned CyberSafe and a portion of Vanderbilt Technologies. Now I own that. Archer didn’t like that, so he put a bunch of propane tanks in my closet in my apartment, thinking I’d be home, and set the place on fire. I found in Alan’s stuff basically everything the cops needed to put him in jail, but also a lead on other possible crimes. I permitted them to search the property and… well… he isdefinitelya serial killer. I was getting texts from him, and they were pinging off a tower here. Collier found my records and said that I was found with Suzette here, so now we are here.”
“How do you know him?” Collier asks Hannah and Tim.
“Uhm… Tina has been seeing him for a while,” Hannah says. “He came into some money, and she convinced him to run off.”
“When was the last time you saw them?” he questions.
“Weeks ago,” Tim says.
“Wait…” I say. “So… My twin sister is dating the man who raped, sodomized, and tortured me for hours upon hours… Which means she knows that he is after me… And knows that I exist in general.”
“Tina is… troubled,” Hannah says.
“She’s a psychotic bitch,” Cynthia says. “She will fuck over anyone and everyone. She has no emotion. If she is with that sicklittle son of a bitch who hurt you, I guarantee she is helping and loving every second of it.”
“What does she get out of this, though?” Tim asks. “She always has a motive.”
“I signed over Archer’s trust fund to him,” I say. “Alan still had it in his name, and I knew he’d want me to. So… She is chasing after millions of dollars.”
“Also,” Collier says. “He is obviously obsessed with Kendra, so her twin will fulfill what he wants in the meantime.”
