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Cain frowns. “Taylor’s more dangerous than I thought.”
“If you mean he’s good at what he does, yeah. But he’d never hurt me.”
Cain says nothing.
“So what’s in Milwaukee?” I ask him again.
“My mother’s grave.”
“I see.” I thought so. “How… did she die?”
“Accident.”
“Did you see her before she died? I mean, you left home, right?”
“Taylor found that out, too?” Cain asks me.
“No. Nero told me.”
“Nero?” He gives me a puzzled look. “Wait. You mean the guy who tried to kill you.”
“Yes. He said he’s a fan of yours. That he grew up in the same town you did and lived near your house.”
“Really?” Cain’s eyebrows arch. Then his eyes narrow. “What else did he say about me?”
“Nothing. I kept asking him, but all he would say was that you were brilliant and dangerous.”
“Sure?”
I let out a breath. “Well, he mentioned that you killed your father, but I didn’t believe him.”
“You should have,” Cain tells me. “It’s true.”
“What happened?” I prompt him as I clasp my hands on my lap.
I know there must be an explanation, a story.
“My father was a jerk,” Cain says. “He broke my mom’s colorful plates and cups. He trampled on her flowers. He threw the stuff she baked back at her.”
I gasp. What a horrible husband.
“He never said anything nice to her. He was never nice. My mother thought he could change. She tried to change him. She failed. He just got worse. He started going out with other women. Then he started hitting her. Still, she endured it. Then one Sunday morning, they had a big fight and he kept beating her. I thought she was dead. So I killed him. Afterwards, I ran away.”
“Why did you run away?”
“I thought they were both dead.”
And he probably didn’t want to live in a house where his parents had died.
“And when did you find out she was alive?”
“When I was in the army. They found her for me. They wanted someone to give the flag to in case I died.”
I nod. Then I reach for his hand. “I’m sorry you had such a rough childhood.”
“It’s fine,” Cain says. “It was a long time ago.”
It was. And he survived it. He didn’t let that tragedy ruin his life.
“Where did you go after you ran away from home?” I ask him curiously. “How did you survive?”
“Some people took me in. Also, I worked. I put myself through school and then joined the army.”
Admirable. Some people would have given up, but he didn’t.
Cain looks into my eyes. “Satisfied?”
“I just have one more question.” I put up a finger. “Why Archer?”
I doubt it’s his father’s last name.
“Old nickname from my time in the desert,” Cain answers. “Shooter and Bull’s-Eye were taken, so I was Archer.”
I nod. “I see.”
I’m guessing it’s because he was such a good shooter. I wonder how many men he killed. Maybe Nero knows. Maybe he heard about Cain’s time in the service and that’s why he’s convinced Cain is dangerous.
Since I’m done asking, Cain turns his attention back to the laptop screen. I jump off the table.
“You don’t have to look at that. I’ll just…”
“What’s this?” Cain interrupts me with a question.
I look at the screen and realize that he’s opened the other file that was on the drive. Taylor said there were two – one about Cain and the other with new information he’d found regarding Sergio Bianchi.
I look at the woman’s picture at the top of the page then read the information below it.
“Josephine Waller. Deceased. According to medical records, during her time in a mental facility, she kept muttering the name ‘Sergio Bianchi’ and writing it on the wall. She was a violinist in an orchestra.”
A violinist?
I look at the picture again. “Wait. I remember her. She gave me violin lessons.”
Cain looks at me. “Are you sure?”
“It says here that before she went mad, she received a large sum of money from a Tom Bowles, a businessman.”
I scroll down and see his address as well as the picture of the house where he lives. It’s the picture I can’t stop looking at.
“Wait a second.” I press my face to the screen. “I know that house.”
I recognize the windows and the fountain in the driveway.
“You’ve seen it before?” Cain asks me.
“I’ve been there before,” I tell him. “That’s where I was taken when I was kidnapped. Where I was… kept locked up.”
Finally, after all this time, I’ve found it – the house of my nightmares.
I head to the wardrobe to start changing.
“What are you doing?” Cain asks me.
“We have to go there,” I say as I put on a pair of panties. “I’m sure Sergio Bianchi is there. He and this Tom Bowles must be working together. Or they’re the same person. Either way, he’s in that house. We have to go there and catch him.”
Cain approaches me. “If this is where Sergio Bianchi lives, shouldn’t you tell your boss so that he can send a team there?”
