A Thousand Lies (38 page)

Wes was shocked that he was soaking the money with booze. It made no sense. He didn’t know what was going on, but he didn’t like it.

“Thorpe, if they make one wrong move, kill them all,” he said loudly.

Thorpe swung the AK47 toward them. All he had to do was pull the trigger and the spray would take them all down.

At that point, Sam shouldered his rifle and pointed it squarely at Wes Riordan’s head.

“If you turn Thorpe loose on us, you need to know I’ll get off one shot before I die. And that shot is aimed at you, so I’d be real careful about starting something you can’t finish,” Sam said.

“Let Linny go,” Brendan said.

“Not without my money,” Wes muttered.

Brendan toed the briefcase forward. “Send your hired dog to pick it up.”

Wes turned back toward the motor home and yelled. “Marty!”

The driver jumped out on the run. “Yeah, boss?”

“Pick up that money.”

“Sure thing,” he said and started forward.

“Stop right there,” Brendan said.

At that point, Chance fired up the chef’s torch. The blue flame shot across the space between them, punctuating the order.

Marty hesitated, unwilling to approach the blaze.

Brendan pointed at Linny. “Turn her loose first or my brother is going to start the most expensive bonfire you’ve ever seen.”

“God damn it!” Riordan yelled and twisted Linny’s hair even tighter.

She shrieked again, this time begging Riordan to stop.

Chance’s reaction was instantaneous. “Stop hurting her, damn it, or your money is history!”

He waved the lit torch over the top of the money to punctuate the threat. The air above it was full of the alcohol fumes and instantly flamed. It went out just as quickly as it had caught, but the warning was there.

Riordan stared at the money, then the men, and slowly loosened the grip.

“You think I won’t do it?” Chance yelled. “I burned down over a million dollars’ worth of marijuana. Torching a hundred thou is nothing to me.”

“You burned the fields?” Wes cried. “What the fuck made you do something like that?”

Chance locked gazes with Riordan. “Daddy made me mad. You don’t want to make me mad, too.”

Wes stared at the flame. It was far too close to the whiskey-soaked money for his state of mind. He eyed Poe’s sons with new respect. It was painfully obvious that, even if he had a dozen more men and an army of weapons, these three would still do exactly what they said.

One wrong move—the money would be in flames—and he’d have a bullet in his head.

“Ah, what the hell,” he said, cut the ties on Linny’s wrists, and gave her a shove.

Linny didn’t need a second invitation. She fixed her gaze on Brendan and started running.

Brendan dropped the empty whiskey bottle at his feet, pulled the handgun from the back of his waistband and aimed it at Riordan, too.

“Just in case my brother misses,” he said softly.

His gun was still trained on Riordan as Belinda leaped into his arms, sobbing.

All of a sudden, police cars appeared around the corner of the house, pulling up behind the motor home with lights flashing. Three other cruisers shot out from behind the packing shed and headed toward the house with lights flashing and sirens blaring.

Other deputies came out from the woods where they’d been hiding with their guns drawn, shouting for the men to drop their weapons.

Enraged that they’d been caught in a trap, Wes started screaming at Thorpe, “Shoot them, shoot them all!”

Brendan dropped, shielding Linny with his body as the shooting began, and even though it was just a matter of seconds, it felt like forever.

There was a roar in his ears he later realized were Linny’s screams. He could see a ladybug crawling in the dust by her arm. The scent of her sweaty little body was up his nose, and the faint smell of marijuana was in her hair. He kept praying they wouldn’t die.

The shooting stopped as abruptly as it had begun. The police were in control, and Riordan’s crew was on the ground.

Brendan rolled off Linny, then picked her up into his arms as she continued to sob.

“It’s over, baby. It’s over,” Brendan said as she threw her arms around his neck.

Sam came running with Chance right behind him. “Is she okay?” he yelled.

Brendan nodded.

“Jesus wept,” Sam muttered, then put his arms around them as Chance did the same.

They couldn’t change what had happened to Belinda, but she was alive, and that’s all that mattered.

Sheriff Henry was standing on the porch with Anson Poe in his grip. For once, Poe was speechless, eyeing the number of police on his property and more that kept coming.

Thorpe was flat on his back, the AK47 at his feet and a bullet hole in his head.

Marty, the driver, stood out like a parrot in a cage full of wrens wearing a red and green floral shirt and green shorts. His ensemble went well with his new handcuffs.

Wes Riordan was facedown on the ground with a deputy on top of him, locking handcuffs on him as well.

Linny was sobbing helplessly as Brendan headed for the house with her in his arms. “You’re okay, baby girl. You’re okay.”

“You’re safe, honey, and the bad guys are going to jail,” Sam added.

“I want my Mama,” she whispered.

Brendan frowned. More bad news she wasn’t going to like. “Mama is at the hospital, but we’ll go see her.”

Linny’s demeanor shifted. “What happened to her? Did she get shot?”

“No. She got hurt before you even got here.”

Disbelief was on her face. “Did Daddy hurt her again?”

“Yes,” he said and kept walking to the house.

Sheriff Henry had Anson by the arm and was walking him toward a police car.

Anson gave his daughter an angry glare as they passed. “I should’ve dropped you in the Mississippi the day you were born,” he growled.

Linny looked up from her brother’s shoulder, her eyes and cheek red and swollen, her face streaked with tears.

“You are going to die,” she whispered.

Anson started to laugh, then choked instead as a thin spiral of smoke suddenly appeared on the ground in front of him. He lurched backward, crying out.

“Look! Look at that smoke! Do you see that?”

Henry yanked him back into place. “Stand still. You’re not going anywhere.”

Anson was in a panic as he struggled against his restraints. The smoke had turned into a flame. It kept getting bigger and moving toward him at a steady pace.

He began scream. “Can’t you see it? It’s burning! We have to get away! Get me out of here now!”

Brendan just kept walking.

“Daddy’s going to die,” Linny said as the deputies began shoving him into the backseat of a cruiser.

“Whatever happens to him has nothing to do with you,” Brendan said as he entered the house. “Let’s get your hands and face washed, and then we need to get you to a doctor.”

Linny face crumpled. “I don’t want to see a doctor. I want to see Mama.”

“But they’re in the same place, sugar,” Sam said.

“Why do I have to see a doctor? I’m not sick,” Linny wailed.

The brothers looked at each other at a loss as to how to explain the need to make sure she hadn’t been raped. Then she surprised them by saying it for them.

“They didn’t touch me. Not anywhere, Brendan. I’d tell you if they did.”

Brendan set her on the kitchen counter and then wrapped his arms around her, his voice shaking. “You were so brave. You did everything right, and I was so afraid I had failed you.”

Linny hugged him. “You came just like you said you would.” She looked up at Sam and then Chance, giving them both a shaky smile. “I have the best brothers ever.”

Chance ran into the library and came back with Rabbit. “Here, sugar. You won’t want to go without Rabbit.”

Linny turned her head and wouldn’t look at it. “Rabbit is all bloody,” she whispered. “I think he died.”

It was all Chance could do not to cry. “Yeah, maybe you’re right. We’ll leave him here for now.”

Linny kept her face hidden on Brendan’s shoulder. “You need to bury him. That’s what happens to things that die,” she whispered.

“I’ll bury him for you, baby. I promise,” Sam said.

She wouldn’t look back as they carried her away.

****

LaDelle woke up in ER as a nurse was shaving the hair from her head. All she could feel was a pounding pain at the back of her head before she passed out again. After that, she kept drifting in and out of consciousness, once as an X-ray machine was being moved over her head, and again as they were putting staples in her head. She kept trying to remember what had happened.

The next time she woke up, Claudette was at her bedside praying, and Delle wondered if she was going to die. It wasn’t until Brendan and Linny arrived that her pain went from bad to worse, only it wasn’t her head that hurt then. It was her heart.

****

Delle began coming around after they’d moved her to a regular hospital room. She’d talked briefly to Claudette, but it was awkward. The accusation was in her sister’s eyes. She’d knowingly gone back into a place that had not been safe, and she had to accept that she was mostly responsible for the situation she found herself in now.

She knew Linny had been rescued, but it wasn’t until she saw her for herself that she began to feel easier.

Brendan came in holding Linny’s hand as firmly as if she’d been a toddler trying to walk. And when Delle saw the bruise on her daughter’s cheek and the cut on her lip, even though she knew they would heal, she felt guilty all over again.

“Oh, Linny! Sweetheart! My prayers have been answered. I’m so glad you’re safe,” Delle said and held out her arms, but Linny leaned backward against Brendan instead.

“Your hair is all gone.”

Delle was shocked by her daughter’s reticence, and sensed it had to do with much more than her lack of hair.

“I have a lot of staples in my head. They had to take it off to fix what got hurt. Will you come let me hold your hand? I need to touch my baby girl to know she’s really okay.”

Linny laid her hand in her mother’s palm, but looked out the window rather than in her mother’s eyes.

Delle squeezed the slender fingers gently. “Look at me, honey.”

Linny’s gaze shifted.

Delle sighed. “I’m so sorry about what happened to you. I would never have believed your daddy could have been that bad.”

“I told you he was the Evil Overlord and you didn’t believe me... even when he was mean to you, too.”

“I know. I made a mistake and you paid for it. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Delle said and started to weep.

Brendan frowned. This wasn’t what Linny needed. Not now.

“We have to go, Mama. Sheriff Henry wants Linny to be examined so they’ll know exactly what charges to file.”

Shock swept over Delle again as she realized what this meant. Dear God, they were going to do a rape kit. The invasive exam would most likely scare her all over again, and she wasn’t able to be there with her. She covered her face and started to sob.

Claudette sighed. LaDelle was a strong woman, but with a single weakness that had nearly destroyed them all.

“Brendan, do you want me to go with you?” she asked.

He glanced at Linny and then shook his head. “We’ll be fine, Auntie, won’t we little sister?”

Linny nodded, but tightened her grip just in case. “When we’re done, I want to go home with you, Bren. Can I go home with you?”

“Yes, honey. Once we’re done here at the hospital, you are going home with me.”

****

Brendan was still reeling from what Linny had to go through. The person who’d done the rape kit had been very gentle, speaking to her in a very slow, quiet voice explaining everything she did ahead of time.

Brendan stood beside the exam table, holding his sister’s hand with his gaze firmly fixed on the red imprint on her cheek and the bloody split on her lip where Riordan had slapped her. He wanted to throw up. In the middle of all that, Julie sent him a text.

Is everyone okay?

He sent one back.

We’re alive. For now, it is enough.

Sending you my love. If you need me, all you have to do is call.

Love you, but stay away. I don’t want you dragged into the chaos that surrounds me.

She sent him back one last message. No words. Just a heart. It was enough.

****

The arrest of Wesley Riordan for child trafficking and kidnapping was shocking, but nothing to the uproar that hit when people began learning that Anson Poe had actually sold his nine-year-old daughter into prostitution.

But it wasn’t the sale of a child that was garnering the most attention. It was how her three brothers had pulled off her rescue. One of the cops had captured the whole thing on a cell phone and even though it had been filmed from a distance, the graphic nature of it had been shocking. Once the video showed up at police headquarters, it wasn’t long before it was leaked. It showed up on YouTube, and before night, it went viral. They became instant heroes as the media swarmed the city of New Orleans vying for interviews, and no one was prouder than Juliette March. Once again, the man she loved had proven himself worthy of so much more than the name he bore.

She’d caught part of a news report earlier the following morning, showing Brendan coming out of the hospital holding Linny’s hand, then another of the news conference Sumter Henry held praising Brendan Poe’s quick actions, the brothers’ bravery, and his department’s swift response, and she went to find her grandmother.

****

Portia March was in the back garden, sitting in a white wicker glider with an open magazine in her lap. Every so often she would toe the ground to give the glider a slight push, just enough to keep it in motion as she gazed off into the distance. When she heard footsteps approaching, she saw her granddaughter and smiled.

“Good morning, darling. I was just out here enjoying the sun. Come sit with me.”

Julie slid onto the seat beside her and then took her by the hand. “Nonny, it’s time for me to go home.”