Page 19 of Red

Erik shrugged. “Maybe she thought since you were…well, here, she could go.”

“Go? Where? On a cruise? A vacation?” She shook her head. “No. Grams wouldn’t do that.”

“Did you ever think she’d stand by and watch you be escorted off as payment for her husband’s gambling debts?” Erik’s question was cold, callous. And valid.

Melinda pressed her heels into the floor. Flying at him wouldn’t find her grandmother. It would give him reason to hurt her again.

“She didn’t just stand by—”

Erik’s eyebrows rose. “When you arrived atGrams’house, my brothers and I were already there.” His sarcastic use of the moniker sent her stomach into an angry boil.

“So?”

“You don’t live with her anymore, Melinda. She invited you to dinner that night. Told you what time to be there.” Erik moved toward her, slipping pieces into the puzzle she didn’t want to see yet.

“I saw you at the coffee shop,” she said.

“Right. I had to hurry, but I did beat you to your grandmother’s house.”

She closed her eyes and pulled in a calming breath. “She was expecting you.” She opened her eyes to find him watching her intently.

“Yes. She was.” Erik let the statement drop between them.

Her grandmother had known. She’d invited her over in order for Erik to collect her. Grams had served her up on a silver platter.

“Dinner wasn’t cooking.” Melinda retreated to the bed and sank down onto the mattress.

“What?”

“When I got there, when I walked in, I noticed. Usually, the house smells like dinner. But she hadn’t even started cooking yet.” She looked up at him, tears threatening. “There’s no way out of this, is there?”

“No, Melinda. There isn’t. But I have questions for you.”

She blinked and flicked the tears from her cheek. “Why would Grams send me to college? Why let me finish school if I was to be sold off? She could have used the money maybe to offset what Gramps owed.”

Erik’s brow wrinkled in confused for a brief moment. “She wasn’t lying to you. She didn’t know about what your grandfather had done until I showed her the letters he’d signed. That was only the day before.”

“She could have told me, warned me. I could have left.” Melinda’s mind spun.

“If you had, we would have found you,” Erik said.

Of course, they would have. She was to make him a lot of money when he sold her into hell.

“So, it’s possible your grandmother simply left town,” he continued when Melinda remained silent.

If Grams had served her up so easily to these men, it wasn’t a far stretch to imagine her running away afterward. Melinda rubbed the heels of her hands against her eyes. The burst of pain ricocheting in her chest stole her breath away. She truly had no way out of the situation.

Shoving the impending meltdown to the side, she took a long cleansing breath and peered up at him. “Can you go, now? I just want to be by myself for a little while.” She gestured to the door.

“I have to ask you some questions.”

She clenched her teeth. “What questions? You seem to know more about my grandparents than I ever did.”

“What about your parents?”

“My mom and dad? They died when I was in middle school. A car crash on the bridge. I’ve lived with my grandparents since then. Gramps died last year of lung cancer, but I’m sure you knew that already.”

“What did your parents do for a living?”

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