“I must have loved him, or thought I did.”
Alex sat forward. “He loved you, Saige. He was so miserable when you’d gone back to school.” He sighed heavily. “It was me who convinced him to call you to get you home on that weekend. He didn’t need much convincing, mind you. The minute I suggested it, he called you.” Alex smiled, obviously remembering the time. “He was so nervous and I teased his ass for the rest of the night at how bad he’d been over the phone. He eventually told you that he missed you. At first, he suggested that he could visit you for the weekend. But you surprised him by telling him you were already on the road to him. Although he never admitted it, I was sure his legs gave out at that point because he dropped his ass down into a chair, grinning like an idiot.” Alex laughed. “He was so in love with you, it was amusing.”
“How could it go so wrong, Alex? He was charged with killing those other girls, as well as my abduction and torture. My father said DNA evidence convicted him, yet if he was innocent, how? And why are you telling me about Quinten and me now when you refused to earlier?”
Saige’s head felt like it would explode with everything running through her mind, and yet, apart from that small piece of her memory, nothing else had returned.
“I’ve only really confirmed what you already thought about Quinten and you, anything else you’ll have to remember yourself. As for DNA, he’d needed twenty-two stitches, but at the time he bled everywhere—floor, table where you were held down, the straps holding you down. One of the surgical knives had his fingerprints and blood on it, but he’d used it to cut you free. He basically got his blood all over the whole damn crime scene. And the so-called rag that he used to stem the flow of his blood had been a shirt that belonged to one of the dead college girls. It had her DNA on it.” Alex sat forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “Because he hurt himself, trying to get to you, everything pointed at Quinten being the killer.”
“No other DNA was found?” Saige asked, looking at the ground, surprised that she could still think straight.
“The girls, yours, Quinten’s...and an unidentified one. The unidentified DNA was in one place only. With as much blood as Quinten had lost in the shack, it kind of put the other one on the back burner.” Alex sighed. “My brother doesn’t have a bad bone in his body, Saige. He’d have given his life for you.”
“And you think I betrayed him by accusing him?” Saige had to gulp back her tears a few times before she got herself under control. “I don’t know what else to say. My statement is in black and white and it has my signature. If what you’re telling me about Quinten and me is true, then I don’t see why I would lie. I may not remember, but I do know that I’m not a liar. If I loved him, then I’d have wanted to protect him, not throw him to the wolves.”
Shaking her head, Saige leaned forward to get out of the chair, unable to sit still anymore with everything swirling around in her head, but as she did, her eyes caught on another photograph of Quinten. It was an image of him working. He wore protective goggles, and in his hands, he held the tools of his trade while he carved into a piece of wood.
“You have the smoothest skin.” Quinten caressed up her thighs while she watched his hands get closer to where she needed them the most.
She loved his hands and the beautiful tattoos that crept like vines along his arms to finish around the middle fingers of both hands.
And just as quickly another memory shot into focus.
She couldn’t move.
Her fear of what the man would do next was strong, but she refused to show him.
He wanted her to cry and scream, but so far she hadn’t given him that satisfaction.
She could hear him moving around and knew that soon the pain would begin again.
Everything was black because of the blindfold, but as she strained to see through the gap at the bottom, her eyes widened as she saw his hands move closer to her torso, holding a silver object…a knife.
“I’m going to be sick.” She shot out of the chair and ran to the bathroom, only just making it to the toilet.
Bent double, she retched until there was nothing left inside of her.
Saige pulled away from the toilet slowly, her breathing labored and tears streamed down her pale cheeks.
“Saige...God.” She heard Alex as he moved around her, but she couldn’t stop crying. “Saige, try to breathe and calm down.”
Slowly gaining control over her breathing, she accepted the glass of water that Alex passed to her and took a long drink. She met his gaze from where she sat on the bathroom floor.