“To be completely honest with you, baby, it might not have made a difference. With Kasper Hill’s hookups, he probably could have found them anywhere. Anywhere at all. And that’s only if he’s even involved in this at all.”
“But we didn’t even try.” I wipe the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand and burrow into him, knowing that while I might just want to fall to the ground and keep sobbing, I need Ely right now. I need his support, his kindness, his love.
“You did everything you could and then some,” Ely reassures me, brushing a stray tear from my cheek. “You’re the reason Maddy is still alive, Jami. Consider her. Think about that little girl.”
“She’s worse off now than she ever was before,” I tell him. “If Kasper is behind this, we delivered an innocent girl into his dirty hands, no questions asked. God only knows what things he could be doing to her or telling her.”
“At this point, we have to assume that Kasper wouldn’t lay a hand on his daughter, just as he wouldn’t break into their home and beat his wife to death. We already know the intruder wasn’t Kasper, and that’s all we have to go on, baby.”
“And what happens after that? Do we just sit back and wait around until he decides that Maddy isn’t worth the time and trouble? Maybe if we’re lucky she’ll only end up in a coma, too.” The words spill from my mouth before I can stop them, and bile rises in my throat. I’m scared for her. Terrified.
“Don’t be like that,” Ely says, and when he takes me in his arms this time, he doesn’t let go. “You have to keep the faith, sweetheart, otherwise it’s only the worst you will ever see. For now, Maddy is okay. We have to hold onto that.”
29
ELY
Tara’s so-called funeral is the following Thursday, but it’s less of a funeral and more of a tiny get-together at the church near Kasper’s house. Jami and I attend, and Kasper and Maddy are there, along with Katie Mcully, Jake, Renee, and Matt. The rest of the people feel like complete strangers, and they probably are. I don’t know if Tara has family, or if Kasper just didn’t care enough to call them, but no one else is around. No one speaks. No one even really breathes as each person steps up to the urn and mutters a silent prayer for the sad little girl’s mother. Kasper doesn’t cry. Jami does. And Maddy does, too.
By the time the ‘service’ is over, Jami is practically fuming as she stomps back out to the car, shaking her head and mumbling expletives under her breath.
“I guarantee she has a whole slew of family somewhere that Kasper has managed to cut off after years of controlling manipulation,” she seethes, watching from inside the car as Kasper takes Maddy’s hand and leads her to his own vehicle. “This is a game to him, Ely. That’s all it is.”
I open my mouth to say something, anything, that might put her at ease, but then close it again. She’s probably right, and we both know it, but still … there’s nothing to back it up.
“Did you notice that Kasper didn’t let go of Madison even once?” Jami continues, watching the little girl crawl into the backseat of the car. “I couldn’t even say hello to her, he’s isolating her from contact with anyone who isn’t him. Something is up.”
With a soft sigh, I reach across the middle console and take her hand. Sometimes, that’s all there is left to do.
“I need to go back to work,” Jami says, watching Kasper and Maddy pull away. “I’m getting restless just sitting around the house.”
“Doc said you should take it easy at least until Monday,” I remind her. “The stress of work could make you feel worse.”
“Ely, stop,” Jami insists as I pull out of the parking lot and head towards the house. “I’m not a child, I’m a grown-ass woman and I can’t take sitting around twirling my thumbs anymore. Whoever did this is still out there, and I’m not going to lay down and take it while this asshole is running amok.”
“I don’t expect you to, sweetheart, but I also don’t want you getting sick over this.”
“I’m already sick, Ely,” says Jami. “I’m sick over everything that’s happened so far and everything that will continue to happen until the men who killed Tara are rotting in a prison cell.”
I open my mouth to respond to this, but Jami keeps on going, the anger in her voice simmering just below the surface, ready to explode.
“I seem to be the only one taking any of this seriously, and I’m over it. I don’t trust Kasper, and it makes me physically ill to think that Maddy is with him now, unprotected. I can only imagine what kind of horrible stuff he’s putting in her head. She has no one, Ely, and she probably feels abandoned.”
“She still has you,” I tell her, but when I reach for Jami’s hand to hold again, she jerks away as the anger just below the surface explodes.
“Take me home, please,” she says, folding her arms over her chest. “To my apartment. I need some time alone.”
“You don’t want to go to my house?”
“No, Ely, I don’t.” Jami turns away from me to stare silently out the window, and I can see her biting the inside of her cheek as she boils in angry silence.
“Jami,” I start to say, but she scoffs, cutting me off, and shakes her head.
“Home,” she says again. “Just take me home, please.”
And so I do.
30
