The Stronghold. Lisa Carter
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Название: The Stronghold
Автор: Lisa Carter
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Религия: прочее
isbn: 9781426795497
isbn:
Alex jabbed his finger in the air. “You shut down. You don’t want to remember anything more.”
“I went catatonic, you mean.” She threw him a hard look. “Surely you got enough semen from the evidence kit for a match.”
Alex flushed. “He’s somehow managed to fly under the radar. With nothing in the system to match it to, we haven’t been able to link the-the . . .” He’d never been able to actually verbalize what had been done to Pilar. “. . . the DNA to anyone.”
The aroma of strong coffee wafted through the kitchen. She opened a cabinet and removed several mugs. “I can’t believe even you would want me to relive those four days of hell.”
Her words flayed him. “Even me?” Alex crushed the stone against his heart.
At the movement of his hand, her brow knotted.
“Healing may only come in the remembering and in the catharsis of telling, Pilar.”
She banged the cabinet door shut. “Thanks, but no thanks, Dr. Torres. I’m doing okay.”
“Are you?” He gestured at her arm. “Doesn’t look like you’re doing okay, Pia. Not from where I stand.”
She hugged her arm to her chest. “Then maybe you should stand away from me.”
“They’re here,” Manny bellowed at the sound of tires on the gravel.
“Shouldn’t be too hard, Alex, to stay away.” She headed toward the living room. “An art form you’ve perfected in the dozen years since I last saw you.”
Not by choice. If only she knew what forcing himself to stay away had cost him. . . . He followed her out of the kitchen.
“What’re you doing with the file?” She snatched the folder from Manny’s hand. “This is official police business.”
Manny gulped. “Is that what the Wicked One did to you, Auntie? Like the dead girls in the photos? I’m not a little kid anymore. I need to know these things. I will protect you.”
The boy pounded his chest. “On my life. My word of honor.”
“Oh, honey.” Pilar placed her palm on his cheek. “I don’t want you anywhere near this monster.”
She bit her lip. “Maybe you should stay with Fiona in North Carolina until Byron returns from his deployment.”
“No, Auntie, please.” Manny wilted into the little boy Alex supposed he’d been not so long ago. “We take care of each other.”
Her mouth trembled. “I should’ve realized he’d come back for me. I should’ve never kept you—”
“Don’t send me away, Auntie.” Manny’s arms engulfed Pilar. “I don’t want to live with Fiona and Dad after they get married.” He buried his head into her shoulder. “I want to stay with you.”
“You know about their upcoming wedding?” She lifted his face with her hands. “You never said anything. You’d have two parents to love you. Normalcy. Security.”
“But I wouldn’t have you.”
Outside, car doors slammed.
She sighed, but a smile licked at the corners of her full lips. “I love you, Manny.”
The boy brought out a tenderness in Pilar Alex hadn’t seen since they were teenagers.
Manny tilted his head. “I love you, too, Auntie.” He also possessed considerable charm when he put his mind to it. “Can I stay?”
Her hand stroked his hair. “For now. But I can’t let anything happen to you, Manny.” Her voice went ragged. “I-I wouldn’t survive that.”
Alex cleared his throat and opened the door to his team. “Neither of you will be staying here. I’m relocating you both to Abuela’s where you’ll be safe.”
“Good idea for Manny. But me?” She straightened. “No way I’m letting you track this psycho without me. You need me, Torres. You won’t catch him without me and you know it.”
Of all the stubborn, hardheaded . . .
But with a sinking feeling, Alex feared she might be right.
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