Shaking her head, Saige leaned forward to get out of the chair, unable to sit still anymore with everything swirling around in her head, but as she did, her eyes caught on another photograph of Quinten. It was an image of him working. He wore protective goggles, and in his hands, he held the tools of his trade while he carved into a piece of wood.
“You have the smoothest skin.” Quinten caressed up her thighs while she watched his hands get closer to where she needed them the most.
She loved his hands and the beautiful tattoos that crept like vines along his arms to finish around the middle fingers of both hands.
And just as quickly another memory shot into focus.
She couldn’t move.
Her fear of what the man would do next was strong, but she refused to show him.
He wanted her to cry and scream, but so far she hadn’t given him that satisfaction.
She could hear him moving around and knew that soon the pain would begin again.
Everything was black because of the blindfold, but as she strained to see through the gap at the bottom, her eyes widened as she saw his hands move closer to her torso, holding a silver object…a knife.
“I’m going to be sick.” She shot out of the chair and ran to the bathroom, only just making it to the toilet.
Bent double, she retched until there was nothing left inside of her.
Saige pulled away from the toilet slowly, her breathing labored and tears streamed down her pale cheeks.
“Saige...God.” She heard Alex as he moved around her, but she couldn’t stop crying. “Saige, try to breathe and calm down.”
Slowly gaining control over her breathing, she accepted the glass of water that Alex passed to her and took a long drink. She met his gaze from where she sat on the bathroom floor.
“What happened?” Alex asked, and held a hand out to help her up from the floor.
She shook her head and let him lead her back to the chair where she collapsed heavily. “I...I got two memories back-to-back.” More tears hovered on her lashes and slowly slipped down her face. “The photograph of Quinten working.” She pointed and Alex picked it up. She refused to even look at it again so Alex took it with him to the sofa.
“I remembered Quinten caressing my thighs. I also remembered how much the tattoos on his arms and hands intrigued me.” She finally met Alex’s frown with one of her own, knowing that what she was about to say would change everything. “Then I remembered being in that shack. I don’t remember anything about the place because I was blindfolded, but I do remember catching a glimpse from the bottom of the cloth. I remember his hands moving toward me with something silver in them before I felt raw pain...Alex, the man wore clear gloves, and his hands were free of tattoos. I didn’t see any sign of ink.”
Saige would have thought that Alex would be happy to hear that, but instead he looked angry.
“Then why select my brother from a lineup? Why lie? Why sentence my brother to die?” Alex yelled, his gaze stayed unwavering on her, until she felt heat in her cheeks.
Alex was right. Why?
“I’m sorry…I don’t know why. I need to find out though. There are still so many questions that need answers and I think I need to go home and talk to my father.”
“Before we go back to Port Jude, we need to talk to Detective Robinson who was the head detective on my brother’s case. I always had a feeling that he too questioned the evidence, but it was only a feeling, nothing more.”
Alex ran his hands over his head. “I pissed him off. I knew my brother wasn’t guilty, so I wasn’t the easiest person to talk to.” Alex sat down again, dropping all of his weight at once, as though he was dr
ained of energy.
“In which case, let me go and talk to him tomorrow. Maybe he’ll be more open with me, the only surviving victim,” she said softly, trying her best to quell the fire within him.
She could see that he didn’t like her suggestion, but he agreed, “Okay. Call me when you’re done and I’ll pick you up. We can head to Port Jude when you’re finished.”
Saige nodded having no idea what her father would think with her turning up on his doorstep with Alex, but he wanted and deserved answers as well, so she wasn’t about to turn him away.
“How often do you visit your brother?” It hadn’t even entered her head to ask if he did, it was obvious with his love for the man.
“Once a month. I’m due to visit in a couple of days.”
“What will you tell him?”