Page 143 of In the Pursuit of Haven
“It was the least I could do,” Robert said darkly. “After Drake… died, I hid The Lady away where no Crabb could ever get their hands on it again. Walt—ha! He’d tried to get it out of me, but I’ll tell you what—let him rot in his grave. I’m glad he never got to set eyes on that treasure—and I wish the same for the rest of his disgusting family!”
And so Robert had killed Walt Leon out of… spite? Leon had just been some adventurous kid out on a lark. Poor Luther. His brother had been an innocent in all this.
“Consider The Lady my wedding present,” Robert said. He swung away from us, swaying off balance as he rummaged through his flasks in the cramped kitchen.
“Yeah, that wasn’t all he gave us,” Jessie’s voice was filled with resentment. His reproachful gaze was on the old man.
Robert glanced over his flask at Jessie. “Oh, boo hoo. You already know about that locket. So what?” He drank heavily from the tiny bottle and tossed it to the chipped linoleum and easily found another from his wobbly countertop. “I was happy to get that broken heart off my hands.”
I glared.They were already heavy with the stains of blood.
Despite Robert’s protests that he hadn’t killed Matthew, he was the last one with him. Who else could’ve done it? Jessie had turned as white as a ghost when I’d confronted him about it earlier. Was that because he knew what had happened orthoughthe did.
Ask Leon.
“I can’t wait for more of these wedding gifts,” Jessie’s words were smothered with heavy sarcasm. “They’ll be the death of us if you keep it up.”
Yes, they would, but did we have to finish this?My heart raced at what we’d found here. “C’mon, Jessie, let’s go.” My fingers dug into his arm in my haste to get him away from this lunatic.
Robert’s face turned rigid at my escape attempt. He lunged in front of the door, shaking with rage. He waved his flask at us. “You still want to think the worst of me?” he snarled.
Jessie readied at the threat. His hands balled into fists. “Get out of the way, Corwin.”
“She’s my granddaughter,” Robert shouted. “You think I’d hurt her?”
“Okay, okay,” I called out. I had to stop us from becoming bloody pulps ground into this worn shag carpet, and I drew inspiration from Abby with her father. “No one thinks you’re going to do anything wrong, Robert. It’s okay.” The shock of Robert calling me his granddaughter mingled with my fear over what he’d try to do next to “protect” me from my husband fueled me to action. “We just got to go.”
Robert didn’t budge from the door. His glares were all for Jessie. “But you, on the other hand,boy, you had no trouble dragging Roxy into all this danger.”
“He didn’t,” I said. “If you want to blame anyone, it was me.”I’d insisted.
“It wasn’t you, Roxy,” Jessie erupted. “It was this guy! C’mon Corwin, you knew exactly what you were doing when you contacted me. You forced me into this treasure hunt from the beginning. It was you! You’re nothing but a blackmailer. You want your money and you want out.”
Robert laughed in his face. “Now, what are you hiding that someone would try to blackmail you with? Huh? Huh?” he spat.
Jessie winced. The cruelty that Robert had been concealing when he played the wrongfully accused old man came out to toy with us, and it was clear he enjoyed every bit of his revenge against Peter Crabb by taunting his son.
My grandfather’s eyes went to me next. “Is there something you don’t want the little missus to know? C’mon, out with it. Tell her.”
Jessie met my eyes, stiff and more enraged by the second. My heart raced under the flared tempers. Robert’s ridicules flew past me as I put together the final pieces of the puzzle—my grandfather had used this blackmail as the way to get Jessie involved with Hunter, and he’d manipulated him like melted butter.
Jessie whipped around to face Robert. “Quit playing the crazy, feeble old man,” he said. “You’ll use whatever you can to tear us apart.” His hand squeezed mine, and I could feel his body shaking through his tense grip. He steadied himself before admitting the truth: “I know who killed my uncle Drake.”
A breath of surprise left my lips when he freely admitted the secret used to enslave him. He was holding onto me like a lifeline, but also because he was scared I’d run. Every part of me knew what was going through his mind—he’d kept quiet about this blackmail because he thought he’d somehow lose me in it, and now he believed that he’d lose me anyway.
“You don’t own me anymore, Robert,” Jessie snarled. “Back off.”
Okay, well, Jessie standing up for himself by telling the truth was monumental… and we should really go.
Robert’s face twisted into the rage of a cornered animal.
Jessie wasn’t through with him. “I don’t get you. Are you trying to use this to destroy me or your granddaughter?”
I tried to shove him at the door. “C’mon.”
“I don’t care what trouble comes pouring down on your family!” Robert’s shout shrilled into a howl. “Remember that! They’re nothing to me, boy… and mine is everything. Your old man can drink his life away for all I care, and I hope he does.”
“Are you behind this blackmail or not?” Jessie’s voice was low, chilling.
