Gray nodded. “See? We agree then.” He went to move past him again. Travis shoved him back. Gray growled at him. “Do that again, and we’re gonna have more than words.”
“Bring it,” Travis snapped back. “Because I’m not leaving.”
“You just said you’d punish your sub for keeping something so big from you.”
“Sure, I’d punish her. I’d also try to understand why she’d keep something so big from me. To figure out what was going on underneath the surface. All her life Lacey has tried to be perfect. She needs to learn it’s okay to make mistakes. Not telling you about all of this was a mistake. But she needed you to be okay with that. Instead, you failed her.”
Had he failed her? He’d basically told her he couldn’t be with her and he blamed her for Rory disappearing. He hadn’t considered why she’d kept this from him.
“Did Lacey tell you about Brax’s death?” Travis asked as Gray sank into a chair. Seemed he wasn’t going anywhere soon.
“Yes, she told me.” Where was he going with this?
“Did she tell you that afterwards she stopped eating?”
Gray raised his head with a frown.
“The stress got to her,” Travis said. “Her parents held her partly to blame for Brax’s death, which is fucking ridiculous. But instead of looking at the role they played in his death, it was easier to blame their other child. And Lacey, being the serious and sensitive kid she was, took it all on board. Wasn’t long until she thought she was to blame.”
He nodded. He knew all of this.
“She grew so stressed her hair started to fall out. She stopped talking. As soon as my father saw her, looking like a shell of herself, he took her home with him. He told my aunt and uncle that he’d report them for child abuse if they tried to stop him. He found her a counselor, got her talking and eating again. Then my dad died, and she had to go back to living with her parents. Soon after, my aunt left for Florida, which ended up being a good thing. My uncle turned to booze to cope, but at least he left Lacey alone for the most part.”
“He didn’t. When he was drunk, he used to tell her that it was her fault her brother died.”
Travis stared at him. “She never told me that.” He ran his hand over his face. “Fuck. When she got the profile wrong for the Latin Lothario, when she discovered she’d seen him every day and never suspected a thing, she felt like she’d failed. She couldn’t face those assholes she worked with and she quit. Because she thought she’d messed up. You seeing the pattern?”
And he’d made her feel the same. He didn’t need Travis to say it. He might as well have come straight out and told her it was her fault that Rory had been taken. Shit. “I’m still not happy she kept this from me. I warned her the one thing I wouldn’t stand for was being lied to.”
“And what would you do if you were in her place? A new job, new city, new boyfriend she probably wanted to impress. Would you tell all your deepest, darkest secrets? Your failures?”
“It wasn’t her failure,” he growled.
“Not the way she sees it. Should she have told you eventually? Yeah, she should have. So, and I can’t believe I’m saying this about my own cousin, spank her ass. Make her see that keeping things from you isn’t going to be tolerated. I’m sure you can think of several ways of making her regret keeping things from you. But don’t let her feel that this asshole’s actions are her fault, because they’re not.”
No, it wasn’t. But that was exactly what he’d done. He didn’t want to lose her over this. He knew he’d reacted so harshly because he was stressed. He’d been an asshole.
“I need to talk to her.”
“Yeah, you do.” Travis was turning to the door when it opened and Jace walked in.
“We’ve got something,” he said.
Gray and Travis followed him back into the conference room. Gray looked up at the screen at what looked like an old newspaper article with a grainy, black and white photo.
“It’s from ten years back,” Jace explained. “Connor got a hit on the facial recognition software and sent this through.” He enlarged the photo.
“That’s him?” Gray asked.
Jace nodded. “The quality of the image is poor, though, so we can’t be a hundred percent sure.”
“What’s the article about?” Travis asked.
“It’s about the disappearance of a teenage girl. Maisy Stone. They’re interviewing her uncle, Alan Stone, who basically pleads for any information about her disappearance.”
“Do you think she could have been his first victim?” Gray asked. “From ten years ago? His own niece?”
“Possibly,” Travis answered. “Serial killers can stop killing for a while then start up again. Have you found him yet?”