“You can never know everything about another person. Tell me, based on what you know right now, and based on what you feel about her, do you trust Jade?”
The answer thrust itself into my head so quickly, I knew it had been there all along. “Yes. I trust Jade.”
“And are you absolutely sure that you’re in love with her?”
Warmth coated me, releasing the ice from my skin. Just the thought of her… “A hundred percent positive, Doc.”
“All right. Back to your control issue. When you’re hypnotized, you have heightened focus and concentration, and you’re more open to suggestion, but you don’t lose control over your behavior. It’s important that you know that. I think the hypnosis would be helpful, but it won’t do any good until you’re ready. So let’s switch topics to something else.”
“Fine with me. What do you want to know?”
“I think it’s time that you tell me everything that happened when you were ten.”
The boy was tied up, gagged, and thrown onto the backseat of an old brown Ford truck. He had lost track of time but thought they’d been driving for at least an hour. He wasn’t sure.
He hadn’t thrown up. He’d used all of his energy and will to keep the vomit from rising when one of the masked men had held a knife to his throat, telling him that if he made a noise or threw up, he would kill him.
And then the other one had…
The boy closed his eyes, wincing.
They’d forced him to watch. Forced him not to empty his stomach or his bowels.
The blood spattering, bones splintering, gelatinous goo sliming from Luke’s crushed skull…
Luke. The masked men had carved Luke into pieces and stuf
fed him into a black trash bag.
At least Luke hadn’t screamed.
He had already been dead.
The boy fought to keep from puking again. He’d already emptied his bladder. His urine-soaked jeans clung to him.
“Usually we keep them longer than this,” the man holding the blade to the boy’s neck had said. “We got tired of this one quickly. Those damned buckteeth of his… Didn’t work so well. Besides, you’re a lot prettier than he was.”
The evil voice echoed in the boy’s head as the truck screeched to a halt.
The boy was dragged out and his feet unbound.
“Here you are, boy,” one of them said. He had a low voice. “Home sweet home.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Jade
My search for any connection between Larry Wade and Daphne Steel, other than their father’s first two names, came up at a dead end.
I sighed and got ready to leave the office. Talon had looked so strange this morning, and because of what had happened last time we were together, I knew he wouldn’t come to me. So I would go to him. I texted Marj quickly to let her know I was coming to the house. I grabbed the folder of the printed-out articles and also Larry’s and Daphne’s birth certificates and then headed to my apartment. I changed into casual clothes and drove out to the house.
Marj hadn’t returned my text, so I wasn’t overly surprised when she wasn’t home.
I knocked, and Talon came to the door, cute little Roger panting at his heels.
“Hey,” he said when he opened the door. He looked delicious in a burgundy button-down shirt and his signature jeans and cowboy boots. His hair was a mess, though a sexy mess, and the dark circles under his eyes were more pronounced than ever.
“Hey,” I said back. “I wanted to come check on you.”