The Row Read online

  37

  WE MAKE OUR WAY AS QUIETLY as possible through the dark warehouse. If the alcove outside was a steam room, this place is an oven. I hear scurrying around us that makes my skin crawl. Waiting for our eyes to adjust, I hear the first sign that we aren’t the only people in this decrepit building.

  A sob followed by a long moan makes my heart pound in my ears. I glance at Jordan, and he squeezes my hand before we both move in the direction of the sound. It seems like it came from the opposite end of the warehouse—and maybe above us. I point up and raise my eyebrows. Jordan nods and points to an only partially rusted set of stairs to our right.

  Just as we reach the top half of the steps, I see a shadow that can only be Daddy’s move to block the top of the stairs. A low growl escapes him and I see him crouch a bit like he’s preparing to pounce. My body freezes.

  I whisper the only word that can stop him cold. “Daddy?”

  “Riley?” Daddy jerks upright, sounding startled, and then he seems to make out Jordan standing behind me. In two movements, he’s in front of us, has grabbed both of our arms and is dragging us up the stairs behind him. Instead of heading to the left where I thought I heard the moan come from, he takes us to the right before letting us go.

  One filthy window lets in the light from a nearby streetlamp and I can see sheer panic in my father’s eyes. “Wh—why are you here, honey? Why did you bring him?”

  I try to slow down and think, knowing it probably won’t work to pretend we don’t know why he’s here, but I need to buy time. The silence from the other side of the stairs is chilling. What if she’s hurt? I have to help her. As long as we can stay calm until Chief Vega gets here, as long as I can get Daddy to let me see her, we may be okay.

  “Where’s Mama?” I ask, fighting to mask the terror I’m feeling and keeping my voice steady. He can’t hear the adrenaline in my veins or the pace of my heart.

  The tiniest flash of irritation passes through Daddy’s expression before his face is suddenly serene. “Why would your mama be here?”

  It shocks me how much better he is at the game I’m striving to play.

  Good lawyers are one part actor, one part confidant, and one part shark.

  Daddy’s old saying floats up in my mind, and I swallow back the nausea that comes with it. He definitely has two-thirds of the combination down, I have to give him that.

  “Because of the note she left this morning. It said she was coming with you today.” I tentatively step toward him. “Is she here, Daddy?”

  He takes an abrupt step back and his eyes shift from side to side. He looks out of his depth. The light from the streetlamp outside suddenly shines on his face and I see deep red scratches down one cheek. His other eye is almost swollen shut.

  I gasp. “What happened?” The words come out on instinct, even though it’s immediately clear what happened to Daddy’s face. Mama happened.

  Daddy’s hand goes up to the scratches and he winces before his face turns hard. Sudden and ice-cold hatred flows through his eyes. “What always happens: your mother knows just how to ruin everything.”

  Without giving him a chance to say another word, I bolt for the room on the opposite side and duck under the hand Daddy shoots out to stop me. The room over here is actually better lit than the first. I see Mama immediately. Her body is crumpled into a ball in the middle of the floor.

  “Mama!” I stop running and skid across on my knees as I land beside her. She’s breathing still, but she can’t seem to focus on me. She’s barely conscious. One of her arms is bent at an awkward angle, and she has bruises all over her legs. My knees feel wet and I realize I’m kneeling in a small puddle of her blood. Her injuries look like those that were on his victims’ bodies. My throat feels like it’s closing off. He’s trying to do the same thing to Mama.

  I hear grunts and crashes from Jordan and Daddy, who are fighting by the stairs. I search around frantically for something to stop my father. I see a bloody knife sitting a few feet away on the ground. Grabbing it, I run to the doorway and stick the shaking hand with the knife out toward Daddy. He has Jordan in a chokehold.

  “Let him go!” I scream as I watch a drop of blood roll down the side of Jordan’s cheek from a nasty cut near his eye.

  They both freeze and Daddy looks straight at me before laughing softly. “You don’t want to hurt me, Riley.”

  “No,” I say, trying to get a better grip on my knife as tears run down my face. “But y-you have to stop this.”

  Daddy’s eyes fill with genuine remorse as he meets my gaze. “Things are going to be better, Riley, I promise, but there are some things I have to clean up first.” And then with one immense shove, he pushes Jordan at just the right angle. Jordan’s panicked eyes meet mine for half a heartbeat … and then he disappears, tumbling with horrific thuds and crunches back down the rusty metal stairs.

  And then all I hear is silence.

  “No!” The knife drops from my hands and I run for Jordan without another thought. Daddy catches me around the waist, easily lifts me, and brings me back into the room with Mama. He ties my hands to a pipe in the corner, kicks my knife out of the way, and moves back toward Mama.

  “If you’re going to kill all of us, why not start with me?” My voice comes out hoarse and low. My heart still thuds hard in my chest, but I don’t know how. It feels like it’s been decimated by seeing Mama like this and watching Jordan’s expression as he fell.

  Please, God, let them be okay.

  Daddy looks shocked. “I’m not going to hurt you. I could never do that, sweetie.”

  Daddy kicks Mama’s thigh hard with the toe of his boot and another rush of panic fills me at the idea of sitting here, watching him beat Mama to death. I let all the emotion out, hoping that somehow his love for me will stop this insanity. Tears roll down my face and I clasp my tied hands in front of me, sobbing and pleading. “Please, Daddy. Please don’t hurt her anymore.”

  He stops and turns back to face me with a shake of his head. He looks at me like I’m some sort of poor lost lamb. “I need you to listen. You don’t understand.”

  “Okay, I’m l-listening,” I stutter, striving to keep him busy and not hitting or kicking anyone.

  “I have to leave this hellhole of a state, and I want you to come with me.” As he speaks, he moves over to a bag that sits open nearby. Anything to keep him away from Mama and Jordan for a few more minutes sounds good to me. Then he pulls something out of the bag and runs it through his fingers. I realize with a jolt that it’s a long navy length of rope. Images of the bruises on the East End Killer’s—on Daddy’s victims’ necks from the crime scene photos flood my mind, and my stomach clenches against nauseating waves of fear. I can barely find words to respond.

  “If I go with you now, will you please not hurt them anymore?” I speak slowly, trying to come up with a plan that doesn’t end with all of us dead. Why isn’t Chief Vega here yet?

  “Oh no.” He shakes his head with a laugh. Daddy looks at me like I’m that six-year-old girl from the courtroom all over again. “They’re dying either way, honey.”

  A tiny whimper escapes me before I can stop it, but I find strength to keep my voice steady as I ask, “Why?”

  Daddy tilts his head in the direction of the stairs he’d pushed Jordan down and gives a half shrug. “Him, because I had to watch him touch my daughter—and because I know it will kill Vega to lose him.”

  Then without any prodding, he turns toward Mama, and his face fills with the most intense mixture of hate and rage that I’ve ever seen. “Her, because I’ve been waiting to do this for an incredibly long time.”

  When he turns back to face me, I notice Mama’s eyes fluttering as she tries hard to open them.

  Seeing her fighting so hard despite everything he’s done to her gives me strength. I will not let him hurt her again. “Why do you want to hurt her at all? She’s your wife. She loves you.”

  He looks at me like I’ve just said something ludicrous. “She
hates me.” He shakes his head and laughs. “She killed my son and ripped my daughter away from me. You call that love?”

  I glance back at Mama. Her eyes are open now. They’re wide and terrified. Still, in the midst of all this, she looks at me and her mouth seems to be forming one word over and over again. I have a sudden flashback to the last word Mr. Masters said to me in the grove.

  Run.

  But even if I weren’t currently tied to a pipe, I would still be done running.

  If I’m the only one Daddy doesn’t want to hurt, then I have to find a way to use that to my advantage.

  Besides, I’ll be damned if I have to sit here and watch whatever he’s planning to do to my mother with that rope.

  “How?” I shout out in desperation as he approaches Mama again and her eyes slide closed.

  “What?” He glances back at me in annoyance, like I just interrupted his preparation for an important case rather than another murder.

  “How did Mama rip me away from you?”

  He blows out a puff of air and the hair on his forehead ruffles. Then he steps over to me and touches the side of my face gently. I force myself not to jerk away. “She could’ve lied about being my alibi and kept me from ever going to prison. I might have forgiven her for killing your brother if she’d done that. But she didn’t. She said she didn’t want to lie, but she was just being selfish. She knew she would get you all to herself if I was locked away. But you didn’t forget about me, sweetheart. You just kept coming. Even when your mother stopped, you kept coming.”

  Then he looks straight at me with so much love in his eyes that I truly feel pity and sorrow for whatever has gone so desperately wrong in my father’s mind. “You’re the only one I really need, Riley. No one else, just you.”

  “Me?” I cry softly to myself, for my fear about Jordan, for the horrible pain I see on Mama’s face—and for the loss of the father that I loved so much. He’s undoubtedly sick and incredibly dangerous, but somewhere inside this monstrous person, the man I love still exists.

  But no matter what else happens today, I will never be able to see that man again.

  “My love for you, Riley. That’s the only reason your mother wasn’t my first victim.” He turns his gaze on Mama again and the rage and hatred return. “She was the key to your life, to raising you right. Without her, our lives wouldn’t have looked the way I wanted. What you show the world is what they believe you to be. Nothing else matters. Image matters.”

  I stop trying to understand him. Reason and logic don’t apply here.

  “But Daddy, I love them. Why would I go with you willingly if you kill Mama and Jordan?” I lean forward, trying to find some way to convince him to back down.

  “Well, you don’t have to.” He’s calm and thoughtful, like we’re debating a chess move instead of him murdering everyone I care about. “It just depends on how much pain you want them to go through before they die. For example…” He picks up the small but deadly sharp knife I had earlier, steps next to Mama, and I scream as he plunges the blade halfway into the right side of her stomach.

  “Stop! Please stop!” I yell out. Mama closes her eyes and all fluttering stops. The knife simply hangs there, half in and half out. Blood spills across the clean side of her shirt and down the front.

  “That blade isn’t hitting any crucial organs right now, but an inch to the left or right and it will be.” Daddy looks at me the same way he used to when he taught me a particularly fascinating chess move.

  I watch Mama and can’t seem to catch my breath. I’m panting and I just want it all to stop. Daddy notices my distress and pulls out the blade with a sigh, turning to set the knife back on the table. I see the tiniest movement on the stairs and realize Chief Vega is here. He crouches on the top step with his gun raised, but at his current angle, Daddy is too far to the right for the chief to even see my father, let alone get a good shot.

  “I know it’s hard at first, but you’ll get used to it.” Daddy waves his hand at me like I’m upset that he had to prune my favorite rosebush or something. “Stacia was scared at first, too, but she changed her mind. It’s all about pressure points—you find the right ones and people will do anything you want.”

  Daddy turns back to face me, and I put my eyes on him and only him. I know what I need to do. I need to lure my father closer to me so that Chief Vega can shoot him while Mama still has a chance to survive.

  But he’s my father …

  “I’m nothing like Stacia. Daddy, please don’t do that again,” I whisper so softly that Daddy steps toward me, his eyes filling with confusion and regret.

  “I’m sorry, Riley,” he states simply as he moves a little closer.

  “I know you are.” I look up into his eyes and sob freely as I say one final thing. It’s the thing I most need him to hear as I see Chief Vega line up his gun for a shot.

  “I love you, Daddy.”

  I hear two loud blasts and Daddy crashes down next to me. The shots are through his chest, and he doesn’t try to move. His eyes land on me as he takes his last breath, then he says the one thing I want to remember him saying for the rest of my life.

  “I’m sorry, sweetie.”

  Then he is still as he stares at me with open, lifeless eyes, and I can’t seem to look away. Vega scrambles back to the stairs, calling out orders. I hear many sets of pounding footsteps coming up. Vega checks Mama’s pulse and yells for paramedics in a tone that tells me nothing about how she is. He moves over to me and cuts the ropes that bind me to the pipe. The paramedics rush up and go to Mama first.

  “Are they going to be okay?” I whisper so softly that Chief Vega doesn’t hear me, my eyes still on Daddy. Then I tear them away and look up at the chief.

  “Chief Vega, are Jordan and my mom going to be okay?” I try to grab his arm but I can’t get a grip. I’m shaking all over.

  “Jordan is going to be fine.” We both watch the paramedics lift Mama on a stretcher and carry her out of sight. “I don’t know about your mom, but you gave her the best chance you could.”

  I feel the slightest bit of relief at hearing that Jordan will be okay, but I don’t trust myself to really feel it until I see him for myself. Once I start talking, it’s difficult to stop. “I’m so sorry he got hurt. I understand if you don’t want me to ever see him again, as long as I know he’s all right. Maybe we’ll even move away if—when Mama is better. They just both have to be okay.”

  Vega looks from Daddy’s lifeless form and back to me, then gently takes my arm and places it around his shoulders. He helps me to my feet and a small smile plays at his mouth as he links my arm through his and steadies me on my way to the stairs. “Did you know that Jordan was trying to crawl back up the stairs when I got here? He only made it about six steps up because he was trying to move silently with what looked to be a broken foot.”

  I see the gentleness in his eyes that I always find in Jordan’s.

  “You’ve been really good for him. He had shut down after his mom passed—he didn’t want to be a part of anything anymore. You changed that.” Chief Vega’s eyes are damp. “My boy sure does care about you. If we get down these stairs and he finds out I’ve encouraged the idea of you moving to another state, I will never hear the end of it.”

  He waits until I glance up at him again. “And what you did up there for your father … was one of the bravest and kindest things I’ve ever seen, Riley.”

  “Thank you.” As I murmur the words, the tiniest bit of warmth flows from my hand on his arm and up to my heart.

  “I knew anyone who could make Jordan smile again like you have these last few weeks had to be impressive.” He helps me slowly and shakily to the bottom of the stairs and leads me off to one side. “Now I’m certain that even that was an underestimation of you.”

  I am not sure how to respond to the things he is saying. This is the monster from all my nightmares. Only now I’ve finally discovered who the true monster was.

  “You are so much like Jordan
. So if I may, I’d like to give you a bit of the fatherly advice I think your father would’ve given you if he hadn’t been sick…” He waits until I nod before continuing. “You need to stop taking the world on by yourself. No one has shoulders that wide.”

  My whole body shudders at the thought of what I lost today. That was absolutely something that the Daddy I loved so much would’ve said. I can actually picture him saying something similar over the table at Polunsky. I lean against Chief Vega as my legs start to wobble.

  He helps keep me upright as he continues. “You saved Jordan, hopefully your mother, and yourself today. Try carrying that truth around for a little while. Lean on the weight of what that says about you. Hopefully then the rest will settle into place.”

  I don’t dare speak. All I can do is hope that he’s right.

  “Oh, and Riley?” he asks as he pivots me gently toward Jordan’s stretcher. “Please, call me Nick.”

  The aching all over my body dulls slightly and I think of the conversation I had with Mr. Masters so long ago. I smile to myself at the memory. I turn back to face Jordan’s father. “How about Mr. Vega?”

  He gives me a curious look and then shrugs. “Whichever you prefer.”

  I find my strength once I meet Jordan’s eyes. He sits as far forward as he can on a nearby stretcher and I notice a paramedic trying to make him lie down. I run to his side and try to wrap my arms around him, but he winces while stopping me short, putting both hands on my shoulders as his eyes scan over me. “Are you really okay?”

  “No, but I think I will be.” I stare down at the bandages around his foot as well as the bumps and cuts all over him. A huge bandage covers his head and I see some blood has seeped through onto the thick white gauze. Before I can examine him any further, he pulls me in tight against his chest. “I was so worried about you. I didn’t want my dad to wait for the other officer to take me outside before he went upstairs. I needed him to hurry to get to you—to your mom.”

  “Why didn’t you go to the hospital?” I reach my fingers up to touch the corner of his swollen bottom lip where a deeper cut extends down nearly to his chin.