Deadly Secrets, Loving Lies (26 page)

“Us?” Genie looked at her. Waiting.

“Soon Emerich will have what he’s been searching for more than fourteen years.”

She was getting tired of the riddles. “Which is?”

“Revenge on the Marsters. On all of us.”

Chapter Fourteen

“I’m taking Kyle back to the mainland with us,” Cameron said as they pulled the boat up to the dock on the far side of the island. “You should come with us, Marsters.”

Kyle stared out at the ocean while covertly tracking everyone’s movements in the boat. Someone here knew what was happening, where Genie and Becca went, and what the hell was really going on. And his bets were on the old man.

“I’m going back to my house,” Marsters said.

Big surprise, Kyle thought.

“I’m putting it on record that you’ve been advised against it,” Cameron said. “You need to come with us. You need protection.”

“I need to go home and mourn my daughter.”

Daughters
. Kyle wanted to correct him, but why bother? It didn’t matter. Neither one of them was dead.
Yet
.

“I called the Coast Guard and gave them the coordinates to the wreckage,” Cameron stated. “We should have a report shortly.”

Marsters jumped onto the dock and went across to his boat. “I’ll be at my house if you need me.” Then he drove away without a backward glance.

“That guy is hiding something,” Johnny said as the boat disappeared around the end of the island.

Cameron took out his phone and ordered, “I want Marsters’ house monitored.” He disconnected the call then turned to Kyle. “All right, I want to hear everything.”

Kyle stared mutely at him. He didn’t know where to start. How much he should say.

“Let’s go, Johnny,” Cameron said, his tone filled with disgust. He probably thought Kyle was in shock. Which, in a way, he was.

Johnny drove the boat out into deep water, circling the island back toward the estate, but going in the opposite direction as Marsters. Instead of heading back to the mainland as Kyle had expected, Johnny pulled up next to a 36-foot trawler.

A couple of CTA men appeared on the stern and threw Cameron a line. He quickly tied the boat up to the larger vessel and Kyle followed him onboard. As they walked into the main salon, he was surprised to find the space filled with electronic equipment and men sitting at stations monitoring audio and video feeds.

“What is this?” Kyle asked.

“Surveillance on Marsters. His little trip to his cabin gave us the opportunity we needed to install listening devices around his estate.”

“On what grounds?”

“Associating with a known terrorist.”

“You think Marsters is working with Emerich?”

“The man has been less than forthright. You said yourself Marsters knew all along it wasn’t Becca in the warehouse explosion. He also knew the body left there was supposed to be a decoy for Genie. Couple that with the info you gave us on the disappearance not too far from here of Tom Garrison—who was Emerich’s father, by the way—and we have plenty of cause.”

“Then you’ve been able to discover more about the Amelia Project?” Kyle prodded.

“Not much. Except it had something to do with psychic research, if you can believe that.” When Kyle didn’t act surprised, Cameron looked at him for a long minute.

So Genie’s mom had been psychic? Until he met Genie, Kyle hadn’t really believed in psychics or ESP. Figured it was all a bunch of hooey. But the better they’d gotten to know each other, and the stronger their connection had become, he’d started believing there might be something to it. There were times she’d sensed his thoughts down to the exact words in his head. He hadn’t been quite that good at it, but he’d often also had flashes of intuition about her. They always seemed to know what the other was thinking, or what the other would do, before it happened.

Had it been psychic ability all along, ESP, or just love? Who knew? Who cared?

Apparently the CTA. Go figure.

“How about you fill us in on what the hell happened out there?” Cameron said.

Kyle took a seat at the salon table and told Cameron and Johnny everything that had happened on Emerich’s yacht. As he heard himself speak, he couldn’t believe he just let Genie walk away like that. At least now he knew what was in that envelope and what those papers meant. Marsters had let his wife become some kind of science experiment. The bastard.

“You’re saying Genie got away?” Johnny asked, his face lighting up, his hand slapping his thigh. “I knew it. I just knew it.”

“I’m still not sure why Becca saved me,” Kyle admitted. “I’m embarrassed to admit that I wouldn’t be here right now if she hadn’t. Their disappearance would have worked better for them if I’d gone down with the ship.”

“I’ve had my suspicions that Becca’s been the one feeding us information about Emerich’s plans for a while now,” Cameron admitted. “But I must admit, I doubted myself after her supposed death.”

Kyle leaned back in his chair more stupefied than ever. “So you never found proof?”

“No.”

He digested that. “If you suspect her of being a snitch, what are the odds that Emerich does, too?”

“Honestly?” Cameron said. “Pretty damned good.”

Kyle agreed. “So what’s the plan?”

“We need to find the girls,” Johnny said, stating the obvious.

“You’re telling me even with all this—” Kyle gestured around them incredulously. “—you still don’t know where they’ve gone?”

“We thought we had Emerich nailed down on that yacht.”

“He was never there. It was a decoy,” Kyle said.

“No shit.” Cameron shook his head in annoyance. “One thing about this entire situation has stayed consistent.”

“What’s that?”

“Emerich always seems to be one step ahead of us.”

…

“All this was for revenge?” Genie said, shaking her head. “It’s Medieval.”

“Sean claims Dad killed his father. He wants justice; it’s that simple.”

“So he decided to destroy all of our lives? What happened to evidence and trial by jury? How about innocent until proven guilty?”

Becca shrugged. “I told you the man was an animal.”

“Actually, no you didn’t. And I thought you’ve loved him for years?”

“I guess I’m even more sucky at love than you.”

“Oh, gee, thanks,” Genie murmured. “Now what are we going to do?” Her head hurt. She just wanted it all to go away.

“We’re going to go to see Sean.”

She didn’t think so. “I have a better idea. Let’s find Cameron and Kyle and let
them
go see Sean.”

“They’d never get that far. And you think Emerich couldn’t find us in a hot minute? We’d spend forever looking over our shoulders. We need to get rid of him once and for all. You and I. He still believes that after I show you the proof that Daddy was involved in Mother’s experiments, you’ll be upset enough to listen to him. And now that you’re ‘dead’ no one will be looking for you, and he’ll have time to work on you. Not just mentally but with the drugs, too. He’s going to try and manipulate you over to his side. We can use that to get to him.”

Genie squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. “How could you drag me into this, Becca?”

“Don’t worry, he’s not going to hurt you. Or me. That’s not how he operates. He likes the game, the lies, seeing if he can totally screw with your mind until you’d follow him to hell. Besides, he needs us too much. He has great plans to use us to expand his empire.”

Genie looked at her, worrying her lower lip. “I don’t like this. You’re taking too much for granted.”

“I know him. I know how his mind works.”

“You
love
him. That’s different. The filters you see him through are skewed.”

“You’re right, I do love him. But that doesn’t mean I don’t see him for exactly the sociopath he is.” Her expression was regretful, even sad.

Genie felt an unwilling twinge of sympathy. Loving the right man was definitely key. “I’d tell you I’m sorry, but honestly, I’m still too angry at you.”

Becca gave a weak smile. “Thanks anyway.”

They both gazed out at the sea for a while, then Becca broke the silence. “That Kyle seems like a good guy.”

“He is. You’re just damned lucky he survived that explosion. Both explosions.”

“Of course he survived. I plan my operations down to every minute detail. I told you, I knew the second he saw that bomb, and made sure he had a way out.”

Genie shook her head. “You should have come to work for CTA.”

“Ha! As if,” Becca muttered. “So you gonna marry him when all this is over?”

Genie sighed. “After all this is over, that man is not going to want to have anything to do with me.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” She grinned, that annoying I-know-everything grin that always drove Genie nuts. Mostly because she was always right. “Come on, sis, let’s get this show on the road and get our lives back once and for all.”

Genie stopped her with a hand to her arm. “One thing.” Becca raised her brows. “Will you be able to kill Emerich, if it comes down to it? If you had to?”

Becca’s face was unreadable. Her lips parted but she didn’t answer.

“Because if you can’t push aside your feelings and take him out,” Genie said seriously, “we really need to bring Cameron in on this. This is too dangerous to take chances.”

“I would call Cameron right now, honestly, but he’d have no hard evidence to convict with, nothing that would stand up against Emerich’s lawyers.”

“Even with your testimony?”

“What Emerich could give them on me would be way worse than anything they could get on him. He made it look like I blew up that warehouse. I didn’t text you to meet me there, but he made it look like I did. Once I found out what he was up to, I did text Kyle to come help you. Unfortunately, it looks like I lured you both to a fiery death. I bought the explosives that were used, because Emerich always has others do his dirty work and I was too naive to realize what was happening. I walked right into his set-up.”

“Oh, Becca.”

She held up a hand. “I should have known better, I get that. The truth is, I
did
know better. But I loved him so much. I never imagined he didn’t feel the same way about me. That he was just setting me up to take the fall.”

“How’d you find out?”

“All the drugs and experiments he did on me backfired. Usually his defenses are solid. He’d trained himself how to block me, how to maintain the perfect happily-ever-after shield, which was what I saw whenever I tuned into him. Except it’s hard to keep up a shield of pretense that strong when you’re in the middle of make-up sex. With the help of the enhancement drugs, I saw it all so clearly. How he really felt. About me, about Dad, about all of us. Let me tell you, it wasn’t pretty.”

“What about Kyle? He knows we’re alive. He could give us away without meaning to.”

“Kyle could be a problem. But I couldn’t kill him, not knowing how you— Anyway, I just hope he’s suspicious enough of Daddy after seeing those papers that he’ll keep his mouth shut. At least for a little while.”

“We need to find out about Dad’s involvement,” Genie said. “I don’t want to believe he murdered Emerich’s father.”

“My guess is that would depend on what really happened to Mom.”

Genie frowned. “You don’t think her death was an accident?”

“Do you?”

Genie thought of Dad’s reaction when she’d asked him that same question. “I don’t think Dad does. But that doesn’t make it true. Or mean he would actually kill someone.”

“Even to protect his dirty little secret?”

“I don’t know. I hope you’re wrong.”

“I just hope by rubbing Dad and Sean together the truth will finally come out, and we’ll have enough evidence to put them both away for good.”

Genie was furious at her father, but didn’t really want him to land in prison for murder. “That’s a lot of hoping and not a very strong plan. More likely Dad will end up dead. And probably us, too. Dad is secretive and manipulative, but…” She thought of her father and the way he’d been way back before everything fell apart, when he was her daddy and held up her world. “God, I hate this.”

“I know,” Becca muttered. “Me, too.” She turned the key and started the boat. “You ready to go face the devil?”

“Yes.” Her heart sank. “But Becca, your plan isn’t going to work. I can tell you that right now.”

“You got a better idea?”

Unfortunately, Genie didn’t.

…

“Good job, baby,” Emerich said to Becca as soon as they walked through the door of her father’s barn.

Genie forced all expression from her face and made herself look and feel numb. It was easy to do; she just went back to that moment she saw the ship explode. That insane moment when she’d thought Kyle was dead and her world had fallen apart.

“Hello, Genie. Welcome,” Emerich said.