Page 42 of The Clearing Rain

But Nico wasn’t having a bar of it.

His father was clearly a sick man.But just because he was mentally ill, did not excuse everything he’d done over the past seventeen years.

“Fine, if that’s what you want,” Nico muttered in his father’s ear.

He increased the pressure on his father’s windpipe, ignoring the delighted smile that lit Serge’s face as he did so.Serge relaxed, almost as if he welcomed Nico’s executioner arm across his throat.But soon enough, instinct took over, and Serge began to fight him, fight for breath.Nico merely tensed his arms tighter, clasped his legs more firmly around Serge’s torso.And waited.Serge’s movements became weaker and more sporadic.Nico held on for dear life.

Until finally, his father stopped moving altogether.

He released a little of the pressure on Serge’s neck.When his father didn’t budge, he struggled to push the deadweight of his body off him.He only had about ten seconds or so, and he fumbled around in his pant’s pocket until he found the cable ties he’d slipped in there before he left the cruiser.

Nico was suddenly glad Lacey was trapped inside and hadn’t had to bear witness to this.His father’s indignity.Nico’s humiliation.Working quickly, he bound Serge’s wrists, then went to work on his ankles.Serge groaned and rolled sluggishly onto his side just as Nico tightened the last tie.

“No!”Serge moaned.“No.No, no, no.”He rolled to look at Nico, face suffused with red, spittle flying from his lips.“You were supposed to kill me.I wanted you to kill me.”

“Oh, believe me, I wanted to kill you too.”Nico spat on the dusty ground beside his father.“So much.After what you’ve done to those poor innocent girls.After what you put Lacey through.And me.”Yes, he’d been sorely tempted to go through with it.To keep squeezing until Serge had no more oxygen left, until the blood stopped pumping through his veins.The world would’ve been a better place without Serge in it.His mother, brother, and sister would be better off if Serge hadn’t survived this day.

But that would’ve given Serge what he wanted.

And it would’ve turned Nico into something just as evil as his father.

“No!”Serge shouted again.“You’re not the man I thought you were.”

“No, I’m not,” Nico said with a shrug.It was true.He finally understood what honor meant.What it meant to have integrity.And he finally understood who he was as a man.How far he’d go—or wouldn’t go—to achieve a goal.Serge had made one fatal mistake.He’d assumed that rage and hatred would rule Nico’s heart, just as it had Serge’s.Like father, like son.But Nico had Lacey now, and his unborn child.He had something to live for.Something that meant more than vengeance.

“Perhaps, if you’d had the courage to kill yourself that day in the car crash, instead of faking your own death, you could’ve stopped your own monster.But instead you chose your son to be courageous for you.And I chose justice over freedom.You will pay for your horrific deeds.A life in a cage is all you have to look forward to now.”

“Nooooo,” Serge howled, and Nico suddenly understood that this might be Serge’s biggest fear.To be locked away forever.Was that why he’d decided Nico should kill him?Because he knew that eventually the police would catch up with him, and he couldn’t bear to be locked away.And he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do the deed himself.

Nico ignored his father’s screams of rage as he hunted for something more to contain Serge until backup arrived.He found an old coil of rope underneath the front stairs.It was frayed and gray with age, but it should hold him long enough.

Serge was still writhing on the ground as Nico walked back, raising a cloud of dust which stuck to his sweaty face, making muddy streaks.Without another word, Nico dragged his father through the dirt to the base of one of the large eucalyptus trees at the edge of the drive, and sat him with his back to the tree, wrapping the rope tightly until Serge could barely move.

When he finished, Nico was shaking with the aftereffects of the adrenaline rush.Sweat poured freely off him, and his mouth was as dry as the dust in this front yard.But they were all minor physical ailments that could be healed by one thing.

Lacey.

He jogged back to the house and up the steps.She was still in the corner, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head, tears tracking unnoticed down her cheeks.Picking up his phone and gun from where he’d dropped them on the floor near the door, he strode over to her.

As gently as he could, he removed the tape across her mouth.The ties around her wrists and ankles required a knife or a pair of clippers, neither of which he had on him.So he merely sat down next to Lacey on the dirty floor and pulled her into his lap.

“All I could hear was you fighting, and then your father screaming.I didn’t know what was going on,” she sobbed into his chest.“I didn’t know if you were alive or dead.”

“I’m very much alive, baby,” he crooned, feeling his own eyes well with tears.But they were tears of joy.Tears of commiseration.Of hope and deliverance.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

LACEY STARED AT herself in the mirror, not quite convinced she recognized the person looking back.Perhaps she should go and change back into her comfy jean shorts and T-shirt.Because this didn’t feel like her at all.A vein started to pound in her temple and a light sweat broke out on her forehead.What was she doing?They were rushing things, this was all happening way too quick.Lacey glanced at the open window, a slight breeze ruffling the curtains on either side.Beyond it was the ocean.And freedom.Lacey took a hesitant step toward the window.

A knock at the door startled her out of her reverie.“Can I come in, my love?”It was Nico’s mother.

Oh, God, should she let her in?Catarina would see right through all the makeup and hairspray, down to how rattled Lacey was.Lacey fanned her face and tried to stop her breath coming in short gasps.

“Honey?Are you okay in there?”Catarina’s voice held only concern, not condemnation.Perhaps she should let her in.Maybe her motherly air would help bring Lacey down from the precipice she suddenly found herself standing on.Her sudden need for reassurance was so unnerving.Lacey was an officer in the Tasmanian Police Department.How could a little scrap of lace and silk scare her so?

Lacey took a deep breath and steeled herself.“Yes,” she replied, taking one more panicked glance in the mirror before swiveling to face the door.

“Oh, my!”Catarina’s hands flew to her mouth as she took in Lacey.“You look absolutely stunning, my love.”

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