Page 116 of Paternal Instincts
A child’s soft whimpering was the only noise.
I held my breath. Had Imogen told Nixon about the statutory rape when she was thirteen? About the baby? The abortion? About the hush money she’d been receiving for years from his father?
The immediate basement seemed shadowed. I craned my neck and inched forward, glancing from the top of the stairs. Costa crouched behind me, waiting for a report. A light emanated from a room somewhere beyond my line of sight. We had to risk it. I didn’t know if the men were armed, but I knew Flynn wouldn’t let Crowley go.
And if Nixon knew the whole truth…
“Do you mean the money dad’s been paying her?” Flynn’s tone was level again, but a hint of concern leaked to the surface. “I was there when that detective asked you about it. What’s that got to do with me?”
On my feet again and armed, I motioned for Costa to follow me as I slipped quietly down the stairs, weapon aimed at the ceiling as I slid my back along the wall and banister on the one side. The area immediately below proved to be a laundry and storage room. Beyond, an open doorway spilled light from within. The partial line of a man’s body caught my attention.
Recalling what Nixon had been wearing earlier, I knew it was him. His back was to the doorway, which made me assume Flynn faced it. Crowley would be with him.
Flattened against the wall outside the room, I communicated what I knew without words, and Costa nodded.
Nixon hadn’t spoken.
A shuffling came from inside the room before Nixon’s caustic tone said, “I know everything.”
A child gasped.
Flynn snapped, “What the fuck are you doing?”
“You raped her.” Nixon’s voice quivered with emotion.
“I didn’t fucking rape her. We were in love, asshole.”
“She was thirteen.”
“Nixon. Put that down.”
“Dad, what are you doing?”
“You took her away from me.”
“She was mine first!” Flynn, too, had lost his cool, and something was happening that we weren’t privy to. “You got everything in life, you spoiled brat. The grades, the looks, the attention, the girls. All I got was rejected and disowned. I was never good enough. Dad even helped you start your stupid business. But Genie… Genie loved me. Genie has always loved me.”
“She’s my wife.”
Flynn laughed, an ugly sound that raised the hairs on my nape. “Go ahead. I fucking dare you to pull the trigger, but you better make it a clean shot, or I’m taking him with me.”
Costa jerked my arm as I was about to turn to him and tell him we couldn’t wait any longer. We needed to enter. The situation had escalated too far, and someone was going to end up hurt or dead if we didn’t intervene. He made a sign for the letterNand pointed at me, then signedFand pointed at himself.
I nodded with understanding and counted down using my fingers as my phone vibrated in my pocket with an incoming call.
I lost a hiccup of time, wondering if I’d missed what was supposed to be the greatest moment of my life. I closed my eyes and prayed I was wrong.
Weapons at the ready, we barreled into the room.
Chapter 26
Aslan
Torin followed me down the hall and to the bank of elevators. “What do you mean he left?”
Pounding the call button, I hushed him as Jordyn answered her phone. “Where the fuck is—”
“Don’t yell at me,” she said before I could unleash the full force of my annoyance at her allowing Quaid to race off to places unknown on a case he was supposed to be done working. “He was gone before I knew he was going anywhere, and he absconded with my help.”
