“Elliot,” Cruz said as he approached me, but the second he touched me, I lashed out at him. “Don’t you touch me!” I screamed. I hit him in the chest, but all it did was hurt the hell out of my hand.
“Elliot?”
My dad’s voice broke through the terrible keening sound that was piercing my brain. Then he was there, his strong arms going around me. “What did you do to him?” A moment later, he said, “You! What the hell are you doing here?”
I forced myself to pull free of my dad’s arms. “Dad, let’s go inside,” I said. My only thought was getting my dad away from the man who’d destroyed our lives with one act of cowardice and the man who’d just destroyed my heart with his lies. I looked around for Ryan and saw that he was still up near the front door. He was clearly upset and confused by what was happening.
“Sam, Elliot, I’m afraid I need to talk to you,” Declan said.
“Go to hell,” my dad snapped. “You’ve done enough.”
I took my father’s arm and began walking up the walkway, but Declan’s next words stopped me cold.
“Elliot, Edward White is dead. So are the two men who attacked you two nights ago.”
“What?” I managed to get out. I could see that Cruz was just as surprised by the news as me.
“Elliot, what is he talking about? What men? The ones who vandalized the foundation?” My dad was completely confused, though I wasn’t far behind him.
“Please, let’s take this inside,” Declan implored and I finally nodded. There were still a few people out and about, on their way home from trick-or-treating, no doubt. My father and I hurried up the walkway to calm Ryan down. Once inside the house, my dad got Ryan settled in his room with his favorite movie. I’d retreated to one corner of the living room in an attempt to get as far away from Cruz as I could. I felt like I was going to throw up.
He’d lied to me.
The whole thing had been a carefully orchestrated lie.
My body felt cold so I wrapped my arms around myself.
The things I’d said to him. The things I’d let him do to me. I automatically lifted my eyes to look at Cruz – to see if I could see how I’d missed the truth so easily – but I nearly stopped breathing when I found his eyes on me. And I could tell he knew what I was thinking.
“It wasn’t, El,” he said softly. “I swear it wasn’t. Not all of it.”
I laughed. It was an ugly, almost inhuman sound. Was he really expecting the fact that it supposedly hadn’t all been a lie to make me feel better? “I don’t believe you,” I said simply.
“Talk,” I heard my dad say as he reentered the room. On most days, my dad was a pretty easygoing guy, but I’d never seen him angrier. If looks could kill, Declan would be six feet under. Cruz probably would, too.
“After Elliot was attacked the other night, I was worried that there was something he wasn’t telling me about the whole thing when my officers and I questioned him,” Declan began.
My dad’s gaze shifted to me. “Was there?” he asked.
I nodded. “I told him that I walked in on the guys, but they followed me in. They had a message for me,” I said.
My father’s anger slipped away and was replaced with concern. “What message?”
“They told me it was a mistake to steal from someone named White. They said I had three days to get him his money back.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Declan asked. “I could have helped you.”
“Like you helped my father?” I asked.
The man instantly paled and I felt a surprising pang of guilt.
“Elliot,” Cruz said. I forced myself to look at him, even though it hurt like hell. “I get it, okay?” he said. “Declan gets it too. He fucked up. But he couldn’t have known what would happen to your father. He was a scared kid who probably has a story just like you do,” he said. He glanced at my dad. “Like we all do.”
I wanted to disagree with him, but deep down I knew there was logic to his argument. It didn’t ease the hurt, but lashing out at Declan Barretti didn’t, either. And it didn’t bring my father back.
“I figured I could find out what happened to the money and return it and everything would be fine,” I said to Declan. I looked at my dad and said, “I didn’t find the money, but the transaction to move the money out of the account had your authorization code on it.”
My dad shook his head. “That’s impossible. I haven’t even logged into the system in months.”
