Page 131 of In the Pursuit of Haven
“You want the rest of the story?” Robert said. “Then come see me.”
I froze with indecision. He couldn’t tell me now? This sounded like a trick. He always wanted me alone. Jessie tugged at me again and this time, I let him hustle me away. “He’s a psychopath,” he muttered.
“You think I’d hurt her?” Robert shouted at our backs. “You know better than that, Jessie… don’t you? Pete talks to you, especially when he’s drunk. Yeah, you know the whole thing, and you didn’t bother telling her.”
I studied Jessie’s closed-off expression. Was this what Abby thought he was keeping from me? A secret their father would only confess when he wasn’t sober?
What was Robert hinting at? Only he knew what had happened between him and Pete at that bar all those nights ago when Walter Leon met his death? And why couldn’t Jessie tell me?
Was it really so terrible?
Something big, untouchable, was coming to tear us apart. I’d felt it from the start.
A chilly wind picked up, and I saw the clouds gather menacingly above us to rival the ones from last night, just like the lurking secrets of the past were sweeping around us like a storm, waiting to rip me away from Jessie and carry me off, screaming, with the power of a cyclone.
And I wanted to hold onto him, hold on tight with the last of my strength to make it through this. More than anything I wanted to be there for him after his sister broke his heart, patch up his wounds, bear his griefs; I wanted to be the love of his life that would endure throughout the ages, but I was scared that Jessie wasn’t keeping me out to protect me.
A horrid thought flickered through my mind like a flame. I knew of only one thing that Robert knew that no one else did, and it had to do with Jessie’s uncles. I’d assumed it was Robert who did them in, but if it wasn’t, then who?
Abby said Robert was a blackmailer.
The truth slapped me hard. Jessie knew who killed his uncles, didn’t he?
Oh no! Vengeance was coming for us all, and there was nothing I could do to stop the rains that would beat down on us in its devastating onslaught.
Chapter Thirty-Four
We reached Jessie’s childhood home in what seemed like a cloud of suspicion. The steep stairs creaked under our heavy footsteps. After losing Abby and having Robert cast doubts on Jessie’s motives, finding unbelievable success with our treasure hunt today seemed to pale in comparison.
We were due for a “talk.”
The flimsy wooden door closed behind us in the fisherman’s home as I set the bag against the floor. I turned to Jessie. “You know who killed your uncles?”
He groaned. “Not right now, Roxy.” He tried to get past me and I stepped in the way. True to form, he wasn’t owning up to much.
“You have to tell me,” I said.
“You know what?” Jessie seemed to snap as the waves of pressure overcame him. “Drake got what was coming to him.”
I stiffened in shock. He did know! And worse, he might actually approve of what happened. I felt like I was caught in a nightmare. “What about Matthew?” I asked. “Did he get what he deserved too?”
“He—he…” Jessie sighed and found my hands. He led me over to the couch and reeled me down onto the cushions with him, hand over hand until I was on his lap. “He definitely let his passions get in the way,” Jessie said.
“And that’s bad?”
“Yes.” Jessie nodded. His eyes fastened on me with unspoken desperation. “That’s very, very bad.” He kissed my cheek, and his lips traveled to mine next.
I responded with the emotion building up inside me and he proceeded to quell the rest of my questions with his fervent, despairing kisses, though the consequences of what Jessie had hidden burned through me, as scorching as his touch.
I drew back to meet his fiery gaze. “What about your sister? Won’t she get hurt in all this?”
“Not if I can help it. We’re going to beat them, Roxy. They won’t have a choice except to let her go.
I wondered if that was true. She would do anything to leave this place behind. “She broke into that warehouse, didn’t she?”
He squeezed his eyes shut. “They can’t prove it.”So she had.
That was their indiscretion. I remembered the scraps and pieces of what I’d heard of that conversation at the pub. “That’s why they thought they could force you to work with them again,” I said. “They had all this against your sister.”
