Page 25 of Stolen Goods
Thad
“Jo?” He snatched the phone. “Jo, is that you?”
“Thad! You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice—I could just kill you for making me wait so long.”
The soft chiding in her tone made all the tension ooze from his body. For a moment, he felt as though he were home, wherever that might be. “I know, Jo Jo.” The nickname slipped out along with a sigh. “I know. I—”
“Where are you? Where have you been?” she interrupted, in typical Jo fashion. “Why are you with Addy? Are you safe? Are you all right?”
“I’m okay, and I’ll explain everything, but first I— I—” Thad slid his gaze toward Addison, who watched on with a mix of curiosity and concern. Her gaze was sharp as she took in his every word.
There were very few people Thad opened up to, very few people he allowed close enough to see his vulnerabilities, and he didn’t relish this girl being one of them. But he had no choice. He had to know. Hope burned like a dying flame in his chest, sputtering, one breath from going out. His mind flashed back to that hospital bed five years before, to the doctor’s monotone voice saying his father was brain dead, there was nothing they could do, did he know if he was a donor, there were a few organs that could be salvaged. The man had droned on and on, but all Thad had seen were the limp muscles in his father’s left hand as he squeezed tighter and tighter, praying for the slightest bit of pressure to clasp back. He’d spent hours sitting beside the hospital bed, waiting for a sign of life, fighting the inevitable. Somehow, he was there again, silently praying for a miracle.
His arm trembled. His muscles were rigid around the receiver. “Is it true?”
Jo paused. Thad heard soft breathing through the phone, the slightslapas she licked her lips. He’d watched the stories on the news. He’d seen footage of the smoke cloud billowing into the air. He’d read report after report pronouncing Robert Carter dead. But he didn’t believe it, not really, not until right now with the despair so obvious in Jo’s quiet, stilted tone as she murmured, “Yes. It’s true.”
Thad’s knees gave out and he collapsed onto the bed. The squeak of the mattress was like a scream in the permeating silence. Pain tightened his chest, sliced through him, an invisible knife stuck deep in his heart. Thad sucked in a long, slow breath, trying to ease the burn, but it was no use. He was cut open and raw, bleeding out. Thad dropped the phone onto the comforter and cradled his head in his hands, running his fingers through his hair, trying to compose himself. A ringing blared in his ears, growing louder and louder, twisting and shifting into the machine by his father’s bed as his heartbeat puttered out.
Dammit!
Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!
A warm hand landed on his shoulder, a tentative touch.
Thad flinched and looked up, finding Addison above him, brow furrowed. The confusion in her gaze was overshadowed by sympathy, bright and pulsing, reminding him too much of crystal Caribbean waters lit by the glowing sun, reminding him too much of a home that had ceased to exist all because of him. Thad didn’t deserve her compassion.
He tore his gaze away and stood, stepping out of her embrace as he lifted the phone back to his ear, voice rough.Keep going. Keep going. Keep moving forward. Don’t look back.“How?”
“They hot-wired the exterior of the house. Somehow the cameras didn’t pick up on the motion—I’ve been trying to understand why, trying to figure out how they got around all the security I set up. But I guess it doesn’t matter now. I was on the dock, tying off the boat. Daddy was ahead of me. He reached for the door, twisted the knob, and—”
Jo broke off.
Thad didn’t need to hear the rest.And boom.He knew the story. He’d seen the photos of the charred remains of their beach house on the six o’clock news, watched the aerial footage of smoke billowing over the private island he, Jo, and Robert had once called home. Blown to smithereens. A better metaphor for his life than any he could’ve come up with on his own.
“I almost died too,” Jo continued. “The blast knocked me off the dock and I hit my head on the way down. I would’ve drowned if Nate hadn’t found me in time.”
Nate.A sneer came unbidden to Thad’s face.The Fed. The hero. Yet, running through the bitterness, cutting its jagged edge, was a rush of gratitude. Because Thad didn’t know what he would’ve done if Jo were gone too. He wasn’t sure he could’ve survived such a loss.
“He told me what you did.”
Thad barked out a laugh. “What I did? I didn’t do anything, Jo. Not a goddamn thing.”
“That’s not true,” she countered, always giving him the benefit of the doubt, always seeing more in him than he did. “If you hadn’t called Nate when you did, if you’d waited even ten minutes longer, he might’ve missed his plane. He might not have made it in time. You saved my life, Thad.”
“It shouldn’t have needed saving in the first place.” There it was. The ugly truth lurking beneath their conversation. The one Thad had danced around for years, but couldn’t ignore any longer. He didn’t know what to say or how to even begin. “Jo, I— God, I’m sorry, Jo. I’m so sorry. This was never—”
“It’s not your fault, Thad.” Her voice was gentle, caring, not at all accusatory. It was a kinder reaction than he deserved. “It’s not anyone’s fault. It just happened.”
“But—”
“I know.”
“I—”
“I know,” Jo cut him off again. She had an annoying way of interrupting his apologies. “I made a deal with the Feds, Thad. An immunity deal.”Good, he thought, despite the slight shame in her tone. He’d betrayed her long before she’d betrayed him. Jo had never been part of his ties to the mob, and his life in hiding would be a little bit lighter knowing she’d gone free. “Nate gave me access to all of his files, everything the FBI had on us and everything they’d surmised. And before Daddy died, he filled in the blanks. I know…everything.”
Jo paused, letting her words sink in.
