Officers came tearing through my front door with guns pointed at our backs.
“Buckley, you know we’re right,” Daniel said. “Make the connections. The suits Paul wears. They’re too expensive for his salary. The redacted files show you guys were using Anderson’s information to get to this organization and then suddenly he runs away? How does that make any sense?”
The police were pulling my hands behind my back as a gun was pressed between my shoulder blades.
“You got rights you’re gonna read me?” I asked.
“Officer, stop,” Buckley said.
I breathed a sigh of relief as the gun fell from my back.
“Why the hell would I be a part of something that got my family killed, Robert?”
I looked up and into the video feed as my former boss heaved a heavy sigh.
“Shit. Notify the Bend police department. Tell them Graham isn’t their man. Paul is,” Buckley said.
“You can let go of him now,” Daniel said.
The officer dropped my hands, and I rolled my shoulders back. I knew it would take some time for Robert to piece all this shit together, but for now, we had him on our side. He kept scanning the documents as police officers were radioed back to their cars. Something about new information coming in about a wanted fugitive.
“Holy shit,” Robert said. “That son of a bitch.”
“It’s bad,” Daniel said. “He’s been doing it for years.”
“And right under our fucking noses. Graham, I’m sorry. The two of you did a great job. If you guys were still here, you’d be promoted,” Buckley said.
“No thanks. I’m fine where I am,” I said.
“We’ll handle it from here,” Buckley said.
“I’m sure you will,” Daniel said.
“Anderson, you got a pension waiting for you. This will clear your name, and those benefits will be released to you. You planning on sticking around Bend for a spell?”
“Don’t see myself going anywhere else,” I said.
“Good. I’ll need to get in touch with you to settle all this … shit,” Buckley said.
“Knock ‘em dead,” I said with a grin.
Then Daniel reached over and cut the call as the police officers pulled away from my house.
CHAPTER 29
CINDY
“I thought I told you not to come back,” I said to Paul as he stood on my porch.
“Cindy, you’re just not thinking clearly,” he said.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm the anger rising in me. “I’m thinking just fine Paul. I know what I want and it is for you to leave us alone.”
“But Cindy –”
I held up a hand to cut him off. “But nothing. I don’t know how much clearer I can make myself. I don’t want to cut you out of our lives completely, but you are making it very hard for me not to do just that.”
“I swear I’m only trying to protect you and Lily,” he said, raising his hands in mock surrender.
“I can protect my daughter just fine, thank you,” I said, my anger starting to show through in my tone.
“Listen Cindy, as long as that man is your neighbor, you aren’t safe. I’ve already told you what he’s done,” Paul said.
“Graham is not the problem. You are,” I said. “Paul, I think you’re mistaking the nature of our relationship. You’ve been getting a little obsessive recently, and it’s making me uncomfortable.”
“If checking in on you is obsessive, then I’ll own that,” he said.
“I was married to Bradley. You were his best friend. And now that he’s gone, your actions are coming off as if you might …”
I looked up into Paul’s eyes and sighed as I shook my head. My anger was not going to be what stopped his behavior, he’d just buck up against it. I needed to try to reason with him instead. I calmed my voice and tried a different tactic.
“It seems like you’re trying to start some sort of romantic relationship with me, but I don’t feel that way about you. I need you to understand that,” I said.
“I’m not following,” Paul said.
“Following me to work? Wanting to stay the night? Coming over all the time and offering to take Lily and me to lunch? Through an obsessive lens, it looks like you’re trying to take Bradley’s place. And that isn’t a place you will ever hold. I’m not into you that way. I never have been. You were my husband’s best friend, and I cherish you, but not in that way,” I said.
“Cindy, you don’t know what you’re saying. You're scared, and I get it.”
“No, I’m not scared. The only thing I’m scared of right now is you. I don’t trust you around me anymore. Around Lily. Your actions have grown overbearing, and if Bradley was here, he would be telling you the same thing.”
“You have no idea what Bradley would say,” he said.
“I do. I was married to him. I loved him dearly. Had a child with him. Saw a future with him. He would be worried about you, Paul, like I am.”
“You’re worried about me?” he asked.
“In a friendly way, yes. But this relationship you’re trying to forge between us? I don’t want it. I never have. It’s freaking me out, and you need to stop. Okay?”
I watched a fire spark in his eyes, and I took a step back from him. He charged me, his hands outstretched for my waist. He pinned me to my couch, and I tried to get him off me, kicking and yelling out for help.
“Stop it! Paul! What are you doing?”
“I was there through everything,” he said through clenched teeth.
He flipped me over on the couch as his hand slid up my side.
“I watched you fall in love with my best friend at the bar that night. After I sent you that drink instead of him,” Paul said.
“What?” I asked breathlessly. “Paul, get off me. Please, Lily is sleeping right down the hall.”
I felt his knee press into my back, cutting off my ability to breathe as cold metal clicked around my wrists.
“What are you doing?” I asked with tears in my eyes.
“You were supposed to be mine that night, and he stole my thunder. He saw those beautiful green eyes of yours and those thick curves, and he dove in on what I had already claimed.”
“I’m not someone’s property, Paul! Stop it!”
He wrenched me up from the couch, and I stumbled onto my feet. Where the hell was he taking me? He shoved me out onto the porch, and I fell to the ground, skidding my cheek on the pavement.
“Paul, stop,” I said through my sobs. “Please. Lily. I can’t leave her here alone.”
“I watched you marry that man. I watched you have a child with that man. And when he died, I saw my chance, a chance to be with the woman who was rightfully mine in the first fucking place!”
“Graham! Help!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
“He can’t help you now,” Paul said. “He was arrested for his crimes earlier this morning.”
“I don’t believe you,” I said breathlessly. “I don’t believe a word of it!”
Paul opened the back of his car and tossed me into the back seat. I knocked my head against the seat and screamed out as he shut the door. I leaned up with my hands cuffed behind my back and kicked at the door. I tried to reach up and bang my heel on the glass, seeing if I could break it so someone could see me.
But the glass was fully tinted, and nighttime had fallen.
No one would be able to see me in this behemoth of a vehicle.
“Paul! Stop it! Lily’s in the house! What is wrong with you?” I asked.
“Lily will be taken care of. Don’t worry,” Paul said.
“If you lay a fucking finger on her, I will hunt you to the ends of the earth and rip you limb from limb!”
“It hurts that you think I would hurt your daughter. I love Lily. In time she’ll forget all about him, and I’ll be her new daddy.”
“You motherfucker. There isn’t a chance in hell I would let that happen!”
He slammed on the gas, and my face went flying into the car door. I fell to the floorboard and groaned in pain as blood trickled from my mouth. It felt like I was on fire. I could hear the road rumbling beneath the tires of the car.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked.