His head tilted to the side, eventually coming to rest on my shoulder. I stared at our reflection in the mirrored door of the elevator, smiling softly. Austin stared back at me, a matching smile on his lips.
“Better yet,” I started, feeling the need to one-up him this time, especially knowing this was the real thing he needed to hear. I squeezed his hand, grounding both of us. “I’ll give you a reason to always come home.”
Epilogue
Austin
I was going to throw up.
My stomach churned and I felt the bile creeping up my throat. Sweat dotted my brow and I used the back of my hand to wipe it away.
Agent Silva eyed me like he knew I was about to vomit all over the ugly carpet of the Houston FBI office we were currently borrowing.
It had been three months since I’d seen him. I was feeling about the same seeing him now as I did back then.
“Need a minute?” he asked, and his tone was actually genuine.
“No,” I told him with a sharp shake of my head. “Let’s get this over with.”
Four hours I’d been sitting in someone’s office, in a plush chair that did nothing to make me feel comfortable, waiting for this damn moment. I wasn’t happy to be back in Texas. Especially not for the reason I was here.
He led me down a long hall, stopping in front of a door.
“Ready?” he asked.
I nodded as I sucked in a slow breath through my nose. I wished Ford was here. I wished I’d told him the deal I made. I wished…
Agent Silva pushed the door open and walked in ahead of me. My feet were slow to cross the threshold. I scanned the small room, taking in the muted paint on the walls and the two-way mirror. Basically, looking at everything but the man already seated at the table.
“Son,” the man said, causing a deep shudder to run down my spine. “It’s been, what, ten years since I last saw you?”
I turned to face him. His hair was all white and grown out past his ears. His eyes were cloudy and his face looked as if it had been thirty years since we saw each other, not ten.
The monster was in front of me. He was smiling at me, deep wrinkles carved into his face. But it wasn’t a nice smile. No, it was the smile of a monster waiting for the right moment to strike.
“The drive was only a little over an hour to get here, but it’s so lovely to get out,” he said.
“I’m not here for pleasantries,” I told him, doing my best to keep my emotions locked up tight. Maybe it would help if I lied to myself. All I had to do was pretend this wasn’t my father, it hadn’t been my life.
“You want to know why I did it?” His smile was smug as his dead eyes looked at me.
“I don’t give a fuck about why you did it.” I nearly growled. “What I care about…” I took in a quick breath through my nose and tried again, this time making sure to keep calm. “I want to know where you left the bodies. I care about those women and their families. Don’t mistake my visit for giving a shit about what happens to you.”
“Well,” he said, shaking his head as if he were disappointed in me. “The Lord wouldn’t like you talkin’ to your father like that.”
I stared at him blankly. Maybe the kid in me flinched at his words, but I was an adult now. I refused to let him manipulate me.
I snatched the stack of folders out of Agent Silva’s hand before tossing them on the table. Leaning over, I opened the first file in front of him.
“Mary Sherwood,” I said, pointing to the picture of a girl who had gone missing nineteen years ago. He’d confessed to killing her but never revealed where the body was. “Where is she?”
“That one? Pretty little thing. She sure liked to talk a lot.” He leaned back in the chair, the clanging of the chains that bound his wrists and ankles together ricocheted around the room like a shotgun blast. “She was studying to become a nurse, wasn’t that right?”
It was hard not to get sick over the disgusting disregard he had for Mary’s life.
His cold gaze shot over my shoulder to land on Silva, staring the man down in a way that said he enjoyed fucking with the agent.
Part of me was curious to how Silva reacted, but I wasn’t stupid enough to take my eyes off of him. I waited for Silva to reply to my father, but he did right by his promise and stayed stoically quiet.
