Chapter15
Kennedy
I hated telling the story. I hated hearing the words out loud. I hadn’t gone through the details in four years. The one person who had all the information before now was Kimble. He was the only one. The story lived in my head alone. It was easier to pretend it didn’t happen if I kept it close. Only, pretending it didn’t happen didn’t keep me alive. Remembering kept me alive.
“I don’t understand.” Knight’s eyes were dark. I saw fury and concern. “What do you mean you don’t know which family was responsible?”
“There was never a ransom. No one came forward. I still don’t know who it was. Kimble and I have a short list of suspects, but in all these years he was never able to pin it on one family. I have to assume it could have been any of them. All of them.”
“I’d like to know how he found you, especially without a note.” Did I hear distrust in his voice?
“You do realize that Kimble is the most loyal employee I’ve ever had. He saved my life. He found me when no one else even looked. They were focused on my father, not me. Counting his breaths instead of making sure I had more. He was it. I’m only here because of him. No one but Kimble.” My voice was more pained than I wanted it to be. Our conversation was spiraling. I had lost control of the narrative. His anger and fear we’re starting to dominate the room.
“Okay. Okay. I’m sorry.” Knight looked away, but not before I saw how tense his jaw was. “It’s fucking messed up, that’s all. Someone grabbed you out of your own house and four years later you’re no closer to justice?”
“Justice?” I huffed. “Don’t you think I’ve had my justice on this city?”
He turned slowly. I saw the recognition in his eyes. “That’s it. The loan rates. The ruthless buybacks. You’ve been making everyone pay.”
“I don’t trust anyone.” My eyes narrowed. “How can I? Why should I? Someone knows who the kidnapper was. No one has come forward. They all deserve to pay. Everyone is guilty until I know who did it.”
He covered his face with his hands and groaned. “Damn it, Kennedy.”
“What? Would you do it differently?” I snapped. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to sit in the same room around a table of men who are responsible for the biggest nightmare of your life? You have to look in their eyes and smile. Act as if you’re fine. Act as if you don’t sleep with armed guards outside your bedroom door every night. Act as if the worst thing that happened when you were locked below the street was that you chipped a nail. You don’t know what that’s like. Don’t pretend you know. Don’t pretend that you’d do anything differently than I have done.”
He raised his hands in the air. “I don’t know. What I do know is that someone should pay for what happened to you.”
“They’re all paying.” I exhaled and spun on my bare heels. Maybe it had been a mistake to tell him. He was focused on revenge already. “Until someone comes clean, they all have to pay.” I grabbed the upright post of the bed. I just needed a second to lean on something. It couldn’t be Knight.
But suddenly his hands wrapped around my waist and his mouth nuzzled against my neck. I stiffened against his body, but he aligned against me, holding me closer, tighter.
“I’m sorry.” He kissed my shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”
I closed my eyes. I didn’t know whether to trust the moment or not. My muscles relaxed against my instincts.
“If I had been here—”
“No.” I shook my head. “I’m not letting you play the what if game.”
“How do I turn that off?”
“You have to figure out a way not to go down that road,” I answered. “It will drive you crazy. Trust me.” He didn’t want to know all the different ways I thought things could have been different if he hadn’t moved to Paris.
His fingers grazed my waist as he rotated me in his arms. When my eyes blinked open, I was staring into his dark gaze. But the storm clouds were gone. They had been replaced by a different kind of intensity.
“It doesn’t matter to me if Kimble is out there or a hundred miles away. I’m here now. Nothing is going to happen to you again.”
“You can’t make that kind of promise.”
“I just did.”
“I’ve lived with what happened to me. I have measures in place. I’ve been handling it, Knight. I’m quite safe now.”
“But everyone knows your weakness.”
“What’s that?” I studied his eyes.
“It’s Kimble. He’s what holds up your security. Without him, the safeguards disappear and you’re vulnerable.”