Even as she smiled at Jake and nodded to the bodyguards, she turned her face up to Gedeon, letting him see her love for him shining in her eyes.You are everything to me, she assured him.We’ll get through this and take care of the problem the way you always do. This is bringing up old memories neither of us needs to deal with right now.
Edge came out of the shadows and took the chair to Jake’s left. “I have no problem answering any of your questions,” he announced as he handed Gedeon the file. “My main concern is Laverne’s safety.”
“Then you can confirm that she is alive,” Meiling said. She didn’t bother to hide her relief. There had always been that underlying fear that Hawkins had killed her and was using them to find her body, or he figured if they couldn’t find her body, no one would.
“Laverne is alive. She realized Guy was getting ready to have her killed. Can you imagine how that would be? Living that lie every day? Knowing your husband was plotting your murder but still acting as if you were the greatestlove of his life? She deserves an Oscar for her performance.”
Meiling had never known that her family had been murdered. In her sleep, she knew, but not when she was awake. She didn’t have those horrific memories. Gedeon had the memories and they were all too clear, burned into his mind, coloring his life forever. He knew exactly what Laverne had gone through. He had to pretend and give the performance of a lifetime in thepakhan’s house.
“I heard his lies. So subtle, trying to gaslight her all the time. Making her feel small. Like she was never good enough. He’d make fun of her when they were out with friends. Never anything big, just a little line or two, and he’d pass it off as a joke. She’d laugh, but I could see the hurt on her face. He undermined her confidence. What he was really good at was manipulating everyone around him into believing he was wonderful to be with a woman who wasn’t quite up to his intellect. She wasn’t quite his equal and yet he was so amazing to treat her so perfectly and love her so much.”
Meiling had come across this kind of man before, but she’d not met men like Hawkins, who had the money to back up his killer tendencies.
“At first, I wasn’t aware he intended to kill her,” Edge continued. “She didn’t share that belief with me. Later, when she did, she told me she didn’t believe it at first. The realization came to her over time. She thought she was becoming paranoid or slowly going insane.”
Gedeon tugged at Meiling’s hair and then stroked one finger down the nape of her neck. “How did she come to understand he really was going to kill her? Did she say? Because her escape took careful planning on her part.”
“Laverne said when she was asleep with him, she would wake up and he would be standing over her with a knife, whispering that she needed to die. She would scramble off the bed and huddle on the floor, terrified. A few minuteslater he would ask her what she was doing on the floor and act as if he hadn’t done anything. He would tell her he’d been in bed the entire time or that he’d gone into another room to read so as not to disturb her. Eventually, she was afraid to go to sleep.”
Sleep deprivation would only add to Laverne’s feelings of paranoia. Hawkins would know that. Laverne would question her sanity even more.
“He had cut her off from any friends. She had no family. She had no one to talk to. I realized she was in a bad way, so I approached her very carefully. I knew I was overstepping, but I was worried, and at that point I didn’t know half of what he was doing to her. When she eventually confessed the nighttime gaslighting and said she was afraid she was losing her mind, I offered to set up a camera he wouldn’t know about.”
Meiling could imagine how alone Laverne must have felt. Hawkins was the man she loved and trusted. Now she had to face believing either that she was losing her mind or that the man she loved was deliberately trying to drive her insane.
Lotus, I can feel you crying. You’re so soft inside. Sometimes I’m so angry with myself for exposing you to more of these cases. Not all people are this way. We just see the worst of the worst.
She felt Gedeon draw her closer, surround her with his strength. It might be in her mind, but it was very real. After being so alone all her life, she knew what it was like to share a real connection with the man she loved. That made it all the worse knowing Laverne and others like her had endured such betrayals.
I chose to be your partner, Gedeon. I want to work these cases with you. It gives me satisfaction to help these women if I can.
Edge continued his story. “The camera proved to her once and for all that she wasn’t losing her mind. It alsoconvinced me that we were going to have to act fast. There was no doubt in my mind that Guy Hawkins was setting his wife up for murder. The subtle rumors planted in the media about her going to parties and using drugs made me think he would do it that way.”
Gedeon nodded his head. “He could lace a prescription drug she takes with fentanyl. It would be easy enough for him to do. Make it look as if she was doing coke with some friends. He could even invite some people over to the house while he was away, using her phone, and give them coke laced with fentanyl. He wouldn’t mind killing others in the process if it served his purposes.”
Edge agreed. “Just before Laverne and I left, Guy had begun calling me away from Laverne to do other tasks for him. I think he was doing that in preparation for me not being with Laverne when she was given the drug that would kill her.”
“So you got away and disappeared. You knew he would look for her,” Gedeon said. “I couldn’t find anything to indicate that he would be better off with her dead than divorced from her. He had no real reason to kill her. That was what made me look much more closely into his past relationships—that, and I just had a bad feeling about him.”
“We knew he would look. We had to have a plan in place immediately. We had to do it right the first time because there would be no second chances. Hawkins has too much money to think he wouldn’t hire the best to find her. I didn’t want to put Drake or anyone else we knew in jeopardy either. I did call in a favor to get her away safely, and then I asked to be assigned here on Jake’s ranch. I knew even Hawkins would have a difficult time getting to me here.”
“I’m not going to ask where Laverne is. As long as you know she’s safe, that’s good enough for me,” Gedeon said. “Hawkins hired us with a sob story about how much he loved his wife. He told us she is bipolar and when she goes off her meds, she does bizarre things that could end hercareer. She risks being ashamed of those things and would end her marriage to him over them because she doesn’t want to embarrass him. He claimed he hired you to protect her from herself should the worst happen, and she went off her medication. He said you took advantage. We knew that wasn’t true the moment we saw how long she’d planned her escape. We also became aware he had someone shadowing us.”
Gedeon extracted another paper from his jacket pocket, unfolded it and passed it to Jake and Edge. “That man is McGregor Handler, and he is considered one of the most lethal hit men in the world today. Once set on a target, he doesn’t stop until it’s done. He will use any means necessary to kill. He will kill a man, woman or child. The elderly, an infant—or if innocents get in his way, he will annihilate them. This man is on a retainer with Hawkins. He has been following me and Meiling ever since we agreed to look for Laverne.”
Jake passed the photograph to Edge.
“We believe his intention is for us to find Laverne and then he’ll kill her and us,” Gedeon continued. “I needed to ensure Laverne was safe. I have no actual proof against Hawkins. I’ve gathered circumstantial evidence, but it would never convict him. I know he’s guilty of ordering those other women killed. I believe he would have had his wife murdered and ordered me and Meiling killed as well. I think, Edge, that you’re on McGregor’s list too, but I don’t know that for a fact.”
Edge shrugged. “He can make his try.”
Jake frowned at him. “Emma told me more than once that my arrogance as a shifter was what was going to get me into trouble. Just because we have superior gifts doesn’t mean humans well trained in combat situations can’t be lethal. We let our guards down and they can exploit our carelessness.”
“I hear what you’re saying, boss,” Edge said. “It wasdifficult being in that house watching Hawkins act as if he was always so nice to everyone. He was supposedly kind and generous, which he was in front of cameras. Under the surface he was a cunning snake and his cruelty was often so subtle people had no idea they were even being shaded until everyone was laughing at them and they were forced to go along with the joke. He knew exactly what he was doing and how far he could take something.”
A trace of anger had slipped into the bodyguard’s voice. “I wanted to take care of that bastard, Jake, not just get Laverne out of there. I knew he’d come after her. He really thinks he’s so superior to everyone. I doubt if any law enforcement agency in the world can touch him.”
Meiling knew Guy Hawkins was well aware he would never be convicted of any crime. Even if he were arrested, the weight of public opinion would always be on his side. He’d been careful to cultivate his image in the media, and nothing was going to change what he’d so meticulously built.
