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Even though he was a bit perturbed, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. “Look, I’ll do everything I can to find the guy who killed Matt. But in the meantime, you need to go to jail.”
“You said you wouldn’t send me to prison!” She took a few steps back.
He hated the look of betrayal on her face. “And I won’t. I saidjail—I’ll keep you in the cell at my office while I investigate. That way it will be easy to keep you informed about my progress.”
“Yeah, but as soon as Walter finds out you have me, he’ll make sure to transfer me to Deer Lodge. You lied to me!” She took a couple more steps.
“I bent the truth.” Why did he feel like he was confessing a sin? “Look, it’s a tactic. We do it all the time to get suspects to tell us what we need to know. In this case, to get you to take the cuffs off me.”
“You are just like your father.”
His heart wrenched, and he felt as though he’d been punched in the gut. “What did you say?”
“You heard me.” She straightened her spine. “Matthew told me you were different. And I, like a fool, was beginning to believe it. But you’re not. You think only of yourself.” She turned to run, but he grabbed her wrist and held on tight.
“What do you know about Randy?” He fought to put the pieces together.
“Your father sold my mother the drugs that killed her. He only cared about himself, just like you do.” She stood defiant. Tears welled up in her beautiful doe-like eyes. Here stood yet another victim of Randy’s.
“Myfather”—it galled him to call the man that, but sometimes, it couldn’t be helped—“did many bad things.” He loosened his hold. “But you’re wrong. I’m nothing like him. He murdered my mother right in front of me.” The scar of that night ripped wide open. He let go of Dania.
She didn’t step away but stood there studying him. “He murdered your mother?”
Maybe if she knew the unvarnished truth, it would help her realize Brett truly wanted to help her. “Mom sent me to bed late that night. I’d been playing a video game and kept putting her off, but I finally saved where I was and went to my room. I’d only been in bed for a bit when I heard Randy enter the house. He’d jumped parole in California the week before and had tracked us down. He yelled at Mom because there wasn’t beer in the fridge.” Just thinking about it brought a foul taste to Brett’s mouth. He stared at Dania, who stared back at him as if she didn’t know what to think.
“I was so worried for her that I crept out of bed and opened the door a crack. Randy aimed a gun at her. I couldn’t let him hurt her, so I ran out and yelled, ‘Leave her alone!’”
Dania put her hand over her mouth. Her eyes filled with deep empathy. He should stop, but he’d told her this much. She needed to hear it all.
“Mom leaped at Randy to grab the weapon. But he pulled the trigger. Mom dropped to her knees, then fell to the carpet. I ran to her.” All at once, he was there, gazing down on her. “Her eyes were open. I thought she’d be all right. I told her she’d be okay. She didn’t say anything... just stared.”
Dania’s forehead puckered. “Oh, Brett. How horrible.”
Shaking off the moment he’d rarely shared with anyone else, he said, “Kid that I was, I rubbed her arm, not knowing she was dying. Blood spread on her shirt. Randy shoved me aside, and yelled, ‘Get out of the way.’ He stuck the gun beneath his belt and scooped her up. He carried her to her room and yelled, ‘She’s going to be all right. All she needs is rest.’ Right after he laid her down, he attacked me. I tried to get away, but he just kept coming, each blow worse than the one before.”
Dania took hold of his arm. Her touch pulled him from the horror of the moment he’d wrestled with all these years. He stared at her. And though her look was filled with concern, he struggled to calm the anger he felt for the man who was supposed to be his father. “So, no, I’m not anything like Randy.” He’d been so caught up reliving the nightmare, he neglected to ask her a very important question. “Is he the reason why you’ve never cared for me?”
She let go of his arm, inhaled a deep breath, and nodded, avoiding his gaze. “Losing my mother left a big hole in my life. I couldn’t be in the same room with the son of the man who had taken her away.”
Randy selling Dania’s mother the drugs that had killed her explained so much. Brett looked at Dania as if seeing her for the first time. This beautiful, desperate woman with a bump on her forehead had carried deep despair and heartache long before Matthew had been killed all because of Randy. For years, she’d dealt with the loss of her mother much like Brett had his. The same loathsome man had been to blame. And to add insult to Brett’s own injuries, all this time, Dania had directed her pain at him.
When she’d needed Brett most, he had been stuck in Colombia. Nothing he could say would ever repair the grief and sorrow she’d lived with. Why hadn’t Matt told him about her mother?
Maybe he hadn’t known.
Brett cleared his throat, drawing her eyes to him. He opened his mouth to tell her that despite this conversation, he had to turn her in... but the words wouldn’t come.
She stared at him as though reading his mind. Without uttering a word, she abruptly turned and ran into the dark forest.
“Dania, come back!” He took off after her, shining his light ahead of him. His feet pounded the ground. The flashlight’s beam darted this way and that as he gave chase.
Out of the darkness, an animal charged her, taking her to the ground.
The wolf?
No. Jasper. The canine held her down. The dog must have believed they were playing a game. He wasn’t biting her; he was licking her, as if he was happy to see her and he was the winner.
“Good boy!” Brett stroked the dog as he checked him over for signs of bites or an attack. Not finding any wounds, he reached past him and grabbed Dania’s arm, pulling her to her feet. “Are you okay?”
