Cole(85)

“What?”

“Your husband.”

“Liam?”

“Yeppers, indeedy. That man of yours. He had a patient who told him some things. We’re aware it’s all supposed to be confidential, right? Patients and counselors, right? But we don’t believe this was kept secret, and it don’t matter that your husband was one of our own either.”

His thumb still hovered over my arm. The burning was building, throbbing now. I blinked, trying to clear my head. I needed to follow what he was saying, but my God, I was hurting. And Liam—why was he talking about Liam? Was this why Carol did this to me?

“Carol?” I called. My voice was hoarse. “Carol, what is going on? Liam? This has to do with your son?”

“Don’t.” She was a sobbing mess.

The guy next to me barked, “Get her out of here!”

“No! No. I won’t say anything.” She struggled with someone. “No!”

Then a door opened and slammed shut. Her sobbing was now muffled. “I won’t say anything. I promise.”

“Shut her up! Now!”

The door opened and slammed shut again, this time with extra force. I felt the bang through the floor. Carol screamed, and then it was quiet. It was eerily quiet after that.

“Don’t worry. Your mama-in-law isn’t dead, just silenced. Now, you’re going to tell me what your hubby told you so long ago.”

“What?”

“You heard me. What did he say to you?”

I felt his thumb lowering to my arm, his touch growing firmer. I wracked my mind, trying to remember anything Liam had said—I had nothing. “He didn’t—he didn’t talk about his patients.”

“I find that hard to believe.” Another centimeter. His thumb began brushing back and forth.

I let out a deep, guttural scream. I had no choice. My hands spasmed, opening and closing, and my whole body jerked on the chair. The pain was crushing me.

“All you gotta do…” His voice was calm, sickeningly calm. “…is tell me what Liam told you. It would’ve been right before he died.”

Died—I bit my tongue. Something didn’t make sense. This whole thing didn’t make sense. My head felt full and heavy. My neck was weakening to the point that I couldn’t hold it up. I strained to see who this guy was, but I couldn’t. He stayed just inside the shadow.

“Addison,” he murmured. “Tell me what Liam said to you.”

“I don’t—” My voice was garbled. I could taste my own blood. “I don’t know. I swear. He never talked about his patients.”

“Come on, Addison.”

The man’s hand left my shoulder, but he only scooted closer. I could feel his body pressed against my arm. Tears slipped down my cheeks. He lowered his voice; it was almost soothing.

“I know he told you. You can just tell us, and we’ll let you go. That’s all we want. We actually want to let you go.” His hand trailed up my arm, sending fresh waves of pain slicing through me. “But in order to do that, we need to know what your husband told you because, you see, we’ve been watching you. For an entire year, and now three months, we’ve been keeping track of who you talk to, who you email, who you call, who you see—all of it. When you thought you were alone?” His hand ran down my arm. My body shuddered. “We’ve been there the entire time. All those nightmares? We have to wonder what caused them. And they’ve stopped, haven’t they? When you moved, whatever was haunting you stopped haunting you—am I right?”

“Who the fuck are you? You’re spying on me?”

He laughed. His breath coated me, choking me. “You were so sad when he died. I got chills watching you at the crime scene. You couldn’t move. You were standing on that street corner, your dog going crazy, and you couldn’t stop looking at him.” His voice was almost seductive. “You must’ve really loved him. He shattered you, didn’t he? You sent everything about him away, even his dog. You sent everything away that reminded you of him, didn’t you?”

I drew in ragged breath, feeling tears hot on my face. They slid over cuts, and I winced. I was helpless to stop them.

Liam…

“Yeah.” His hand went away, and he drew a knife over my arm. Up and down, like he was trying to comfort me. “But you have to put yourself in our shoes, Addison. You see, we were okay with letting you live. You didn’t do anything. I mean, why make two deaths happen, you know? And Carol, she fought hard for you. She really did. We were going to pull you in, make you a Bertal, but she was adamant. She said Liam didn’t want that. You were to remain out, but imagine our surprise when you moved into The Mauricio. You went into the heart of our enemy’s territory, and suddenly you could sleep again. Makes me think maybe you unburdened yourself. Maybe there was something on your chest, and you had to get it off? Is that what happened? Did you tell Cole Mauricio something you shouldn’t have?”