Page 86 of Vengeful Lies

And she recognized those eyes.

They belonged to one of the men who had held her and Essie captive.

Chapter

Twenty-One

September 27th

5:14 P.M.

His phone rang as soon as he left Gabriella’s room.

All things considered, it had gone better than he expected. Better than he could have hoped.

So far, she’d continued to tell him that she wasn't ready to talk to him yet, but not that she never wanted to see him again.

Was it unfair of him to keep bringing his daughter around to see her?

Cade guessed it probably could be considered such since he knew that Essie was a way to soften Gabriella toward him. But it wasn't the only reason he kept bringing his daughter to visit, it wasn't even the main reason.

Bottom line, Gabriella needed Essie, and Essie needed Gabriella.

From here on out, it couldn’t be about weighing the needs of one of his girls against the other. Essie was his daughter and the most important person in his life, but Gabriella sat rightalongside her because she was the woman he was falling in love with, the woman he wanted a future with.

Somewhat absently, he pulled his cell from his back pocket, still picturing the shock on Gabriella’s face when she saw the locket. He hoped that one day the final heart would contain a picture of their biological child, but even if they never had kids together, Essie was every bit as much hers as she was his.

Cooper’s name was on the screen, and he answered the call, wondering what was happening. Essie had gone home with Connor so he knew she was safe, and he sincerely hoped that one of his brothers or their girlfriends hadn't been targeted again.

He was getting sick of this.

Two more names, that was all they needed to put an end to this once and for all so he could finally put his guilt about how he’d treated his mother those last six months of her life to rest.

“Hey, what's up?” he asked as he accepted the call.

“Pretty sure we just IDed one of the other two men involved in Mom’s rape,” Cooper told him. There was excitement brewing in his brother’s voice and it was catching. Immediately, he felt a surge of energy rush through his veins.

“Name?”

“Akio Yamamoto.”

“Who is he?” The name didn't ring a bell.

“He was a famous, pioneering transplant surgeon.”

“Was?”

“Died not long after Mom was raped.”

“So he’s not the remaining rapist?”

“Not Cassandra’s father either. He’s the Asian man you said John mentioned. Akio was Japanese, his parents immigrated when he was a couple of months old.”

While he would have preferred to identify the living rapist first since he was the one who was a threat to the family and not a man who’d been dead for a quarter of a century, at least itwas something. And the more intel they had the easier it would be to figure out who the remaining man was. They now had three of the four names so they could cross-reference all of them and come up with a list of potential suspects. From there, it would be a matter of obtaining DNA so they could test it against Cassandra’s, and this would finally be over.

“There’s more,” Cooper continued. “Akio has a cousin who owned the stationary company, and he has a son who is former military.”

“All the men we’ve been able to catch so far who have come after us have been former military.”

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