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Fear consumes every inch of me, and it takes everything I have not to cry. Not to give him the fucking satisfaction.
“The ties I have won’t hurt you,” he says, “but I swear if you try and pull away, I’ll have you on your knees choking yourself. I don’t want to hurt you unless I have to... Kiersten.”
I freeze and turn my head toward Holden even though I’m still blindfolded. I can hear what sounds like industrial machinery in the distance, but other than that, we’re alone as best I can tell.
A slight tug at my bonds convinces me that following him is the best option, and a moment later, he has me sit down on what feels like wood, cold wood in an even colder breeze. There’s asnapsound, and I realize that my ties have been clipped to... whatever this is. Faintly, I can hear water slapping against concrete, and outside the building, seagulls. “Now that we’re alone and you’re not going anywhere, let’s talk.”
Thump, thump, thump.
Holden removes my blindfold, and I squint as my eyes adjust. The lights are relatively dim, and other than a throbbing headache in the back of my skull, I’m able to look around.
I’m in a warehouse. Or at least, what looks like a warehouse, maybe some other type of small industrial building that has storage capabilities. Weak light filters in through grimy windows, and through an open space to my right is the ocean. “Where are we?”
“Where yelling or screaming won’t help you,” Holden assures me.
A chill runs down my spine. His voice is cold, with a restrained anger that sounds nothing at all like the young man I’ve known for years. “I promise you, Kiersten, you’re not in trouble... yet. I just need you to answer a question for me, and then I’ll go, disappear from your life, maybe.”
“Maybe?”
Holden nods. “As long as you tell me which one of you killed my father.”
I blink, stunned by the statement. Or maybe it’s the headache, because I thought he just asked about... “What?”
“My father... Ivan Lewis,” Holden repeats with his voice raised, and I feel my gut sink into my shoes, if I were still wearing shoes. “I thought it was Gabriel. He was the one who fled the country, after all. I thought he was the one who did it, and I’ve spent years tracking him down and trying to find him.”
“You... you’re Ivan’sson?”Breath is stolen from me as the dominoes fall into place.
“You catch on so very fast,” Holden says mockingly. “I thought you would know where Gabriel was. It was why I inserted myself into your operation. Then as time passed, I realized you didn’t know shit, and it became sort of a waiting game. I never thought he’d come back to you. I didn’t even know if he gave a shit about you anymore. I almost ... almost lost hope. It’s meant to be, don’t you think?”
“What’s meant to be, Holden?” I ask cautiously. My eyes meet his, and there is just anger in dark eyes that look back at me. “Are you going to kill him?”
“Most likely,” Holden says almost agreeably, and my heart shatters. It takes everything in me not to show just how devastating his admission is. “Look, Kiersten. You know I have the skills to make you tell me what I want to know. Now personally, I like you. As Madam Lynn, you’ve always been good to me. So I’m taking that into consideration. Donotpush me.”
“So all those times you brought up your father...” I ask, every conversation we’ve ever had playing in my mind. “You couldn’t have even been in kindergarten when he died.”
“Actually, I was a baby,” Holden admits. “I was only a baby. And my mother, she was left with nothing because of it. All the money was gone. We had nothing. All the money my father had made was tied up in ways that we couldn’t get to. It took me a long time, but I uncovered what actually happened. You took a life from me that was supposed to be mine. You took everything from us.”
“Holden,” I reply, terrified as I jerk forward, but whatever he clipped my restraint to isn’t letting go. Fear sinks its talons into me.
Holden ignores me and continues. “My mother lost her mind,” he says, almost conversationally. “She was batshit by thetime I was in grade school, and she finally killed herself when I moved out five years ago. My one regret in all I’ve done over the past twenty years, Kiersten, is that I never got the chance to tell her that Ifoundyou. That I found the source of all of this pain, and that I was going to find vengeance for my father’s murder. Of all the things in the world... I fucking deserve that. Now, I’ll say it again. Who killed him? Was it Gabriel... or was it you?”
Holden
Five years ago
The rain patters downon me as the small gathering breaks up. I guess I understand it, the lack of attendance. The last few years of her life, my mother wasn’t exactly good company. One of the reasons I moved out, in fact, was that I had to make a choice.
Her life . . . or my life.
“You okay, son?” the priest asks me, patting me on the shoulder. “I know she was troubled, but she was still your mother.”
“I’ll be fine, Father,” I assure him. “I know who caused this.”
The priest sighs. He’s heard me before, when I’ve talked with him in confession. It’s the closest thing to therapy I can afford. “Holden, you know I cannot condone what you’ve talked with me about. Justice comes in God’s time, not ours.”
“No offense, Father, but if He is in any wayjust, he’ll give me vengeance,” I reply. Ignoring my mother’s grave for a moment, I look at the marker next to it, a plain brass plaque on the turf. “Look at him, buried in a pauper’s grave. We had so little when he died. We couldn’t afford a fucking headstone. They took everything.”
He parts his lips to speak, but I cut him off, rage getting the better of me.
