Dangerous Place For Love(4)

“I told you to stay fucking still. I’ve got to get myself under control.” Kelly nodded and stood, nervous and shaking but waiting to see what was going to happen.

After a few minutes he stopped and walked over to her. Kelly braced herself and waited to see if he would strike her or leave her alone.

“Your mother first came to us over six years ago. This case with your father has been open for over twenty years. It started with his father as I’m sure you’re aware. Cathy came to us for protection of herself and her only daughter, you.” He ran his fingers through her hair.

“Are you trying to tell me you’re not some crook working for my father but are in fact part of the agency working to bring him down?” It was too surreal to even think about.

Erik Coldwell was a mass murderer. Wasn’t he?

“Don’t interrupt. Seeing as you’ve decided to butt in on something that has been going on longer than you’ve been living, I suggest you keep quiet for a while.”

“How old are you?” she asked. Kelly was twenty-four.

“I’m thirty-seven and way too old to be dealing with young girls,” he said.

“I’m not a young girl,” she argued.

“Look. Do you want me to tell you or not?”

Kelly stood and wondered if she wanted to know what was really going on. She thought it would be a simple and straightforward process to get rid of Arthur but every step had been met with obstacles she wasn’t prepared to deal with.

“Yes, I need to know what my mother was doing.”





Chapter Three





Erik glanced down at Kelly. She was so smart and beautiful it took his breath away. He cursed and turned away from the temptation she’d become.

“Cathy O’Donald made first contact when a young girl by the name of Christine Thompson went missing. A young, fresh eighteen-year-old. She told us her husband Arthur O’Donald had brought a woman that matched her description to the house and fucked her in front of her. She said it appeared as if the girl had been drugged and wasn’t in her right mind. Through investigation and with her help, we found Christine alive, drugged and being forced to whore out her body for payment.”

Erik paused as he saw the horror on Kelly’s face. He gave her time to digest everything she heard.

“Do you want me to continue?” he asked.

Kelly nodded but her eyes were glazed over with tears.

“From that moment, Cathy O’Donald helped us to save over one hundred girls who would have been lost to the system and probably ended up dumped in some river somewhere. Broken and dead. The problem was Cathy was so good at getting us what we needed, we didn’t intervene. We left her with Arthur and she would phone us with details. The only thing she wanted from us was the promise we’d keep you safe once you left home. The deal being once we secured enough evidence we could get you and Cathy out of there.” He stopped as the wounds of the past opened up and threatened to consume him.

“If everything was going so well, what happened to make it all go wrong?”

“We were so close to having him, Kelly. So close and then the calls stopped coming. Our contact, who was there undercover, went missing and turned up three weeks later dead. Arthur found out about what happened and we believe he was instrumental in getting rid of Cathy.”

The pain of hearing the news of Cathy’s bizarre and life-threatening illness had sent a wave of guilt through the entire force where he worked. All of the men in his division had known Arthur was doing something to Cathy but because of the laws, Cathy had died and they’d not been able to find out what happened to the woman they’d come to care about. A great life had been lost that day.

“What do you mean?”

“We think your father poisoned Cathy after learning she’d come to us. He couldn’t kill her and tell you some made-up story, could he? He needed to make it a clean death where nothing could stop him,” Erik said the last on a whisper.

The tears were falling from her eyes and all he wanted to do was reach out and comfort her. To promise he would keep her safe.

“How do you fit into this?”

“The case had literally hit bottom. Cathy was gone and dead and everything we collected pretty much null and void with her death. Our informant was dead and so we needed someone on the inside and after careful thought, I was the one who drew the short straw. My name and everything associated with the force was wiped clean. I was Erik Coldwell, a killer and right-hand man to Arthur O’Donald. The hitch in the plan was you. You came back when you were supposed to stay in another country far from the death. My men worked against me, brought you on board and didn’t inform me. I’ve been in the dark for over a year.”