Safe at Last (Slow Burn 3)

“And then, Jesus, he told us some crazy shit. About how Gracie could read minds but it was some big fucking secret and that you and she didn’t know he knew. He overheard you talking to Gracie on the phone or some shit like that. And he came up with this insane plan.”

The blood leached from Zack’s face and a knot formed in his stomach that felt like a giant bolder. No way. It was too . . . crazy. So far-fetched no one would ever believe this crap.

“He told us that she’d cut off your balls and was leading you around by the dick. That you hadn’t even made it with her because she was holding out for marriage. Said she was manipulating you and trapping you into marriage. Hell, he was so convincing with examples—examples that we had all witnessed—and we began to wonder if he was right. And then . . .”

Stuart closed his eyes and covered his face with his hands.

“Then what?” Zack said harshly, though he knew, goddamn it. He knew and he was sick to his soul. But he had to hear it. Had to hear it said aloud. Had to hear what a complete twisted bastard his father was.

“Then he set us up and he blackmailed us,” Stuart said bleakly.

“How?” Zack snapped.

He was reeling, his mind spinning out of control. His life had been a farce. The only real thing in his life had been Gracie. And he’d lost her. He’d lost her in the most horrifying, repulsive and heartbreaking manner possible. He was utterly gutted and his grief was overwhelming. He would never recover from this. How could he?

“He pulled us over for a bullshit traffic stop and planted enough drugs to charge us with possession with intent to distribute, a felony. Locked us up and told us he’d throw the book at us. Unless we did him a ‘favor.’ He then explained exactly what he wanted us to do, and Zack, he was off his rocker. He was unhinged and incoherent. Kept mumbling about how that bitch was going to ruin things for him. He snapped, I mean completely lost his shit and all sense of reality. Told us he would ruin our lives like she ruined his.

“God, the stuff he told us. At first we thought he was having paranoid delusions. But he was absolutely serious when he said that Gracie could read people’s minds. Well, imagine how nervous that made us. I mean what the fuck? Then he said he had a plan to make it look as though you were behind the whole thing and that it was up to us to be convincing enough that she believed it.”

“And you just went along with it,” Zack said bitterly. “You just violently raped a young girl and why? Did it never occur to you to come to me and tell me what the hell my father was planning? You didn’t think I’d put a stop to it?”

“We were facing felony charges and serious jail time,” Stuart said wearily. “We were young and scared. Had our whole lives ahead of us.”

“And it didn’t scare you that if Gracie had pressed charges you would have gone to jail for aggravated rape of a minor?” Zack asked incredulously.

Stuart sent him an uneasy glance. “Your father told us not to worry about that. He said he’d provide us all an alibi. He’d say we were all out at his place the night in question and that no one would believe some girl from the trailer park over the chief of police. He was smug about it. Patted himself on the back for having such a foolproof plan.”

“And so you just did it,” Zack said, his rage mounting with every breath. “The three of you raped her. And obviously you staged your fucking thoughts so that when she saw into your twisted, fucked-up minds, she saw me. You made her think that I put you up to a completely reprehensible and unforgivable act of violence.”

“I couldn’t do it,” Stuart said painfully. “I mean I tried. But I couldn’t . . . Jesus, it disgusted me. I couldn’t finish.”

Zack’s stomach lurched and he closed his eyes, taking deep breaths in an attempt to steady his raw, exposed nerves.

“You think that makes it better?” Zack asked hoarsely. “Am I supposed to feel better that you couldn’t keep it up long enough to get off raping the girl I loved? I hope you rot in hell, Stuart. That’s where you belong.”

Stuart’s expression was bleak. “I’m already there.”

Zack couldn’t form a coherent thought. His hands shook, his knees kept buckling and it took all his concentration and focus to remain upright. He was floored by the revelation that his father had orchestrated the entire thing. God, the thought and planning that had gone into it was mind-boggling. And how the fuck had he known about Gracie’s ability to read minds?

He had to have overheard Zack on the phone with her at one point, but Zack had always been so careful to guard Gracie’s secret and it made him sick that he’d evidently failed. He’d given his father the means to strike out at her in a believable way that would have destroyed her. Had destroyed her. No wonder she believed the worst. No wonder she was so convinced of Zack’s guilt. The evidence was overwhelmingly not in his favor.

He couldn’t even stand to look at the pathetic excuse of a man he used to call his friend any longer. It was repulsive. The entire sordid mess was repugnant.

“I hope you go to sleep at night with the sound of Gracie’s tears in your head,” Zack rasped. “I hope you go to bed seeing the disgust on your wife’s face and know that you’ll never get her or your children back. And I hope when you die that hell will be waiting for you with open arms.”

TWENTY-SIX

ZACK stared out over the sprawling expanse of Kentucky Lake, hands shoved into his pockets, his thoughts in utter turmoil. The landscape had changed dramatically since he and Gracie used to come here so many years ago. And their tree had been cut down, only a rotting stump remaining. A place they’d spent many a night gazing at the stars and dreaming of their future. A future that had never happened.

In many ways the irrevocably ravaged landscape was symbolic of his broken dreams.

He pulled the small recording device from his pocket that had every damning piece of evidence Stuart had spilled. And it was a good damn thing he’d had the foresight to record the conversation, because who the hell would ever believe the outlandish, unthinkable events Stuart had confessed to? Hell, he wouldn’t believe someone with that kind of story. It was inconceivable that someone could be that diabolical. And that his own father, despite their many differences, had gone to such lengths to ruin his son’s future? For his own perceived selfish gain?