The Row(89)

“No!” The knife drops from my hands and I run for Jordan without another thought. Daddy catches me around the waist, easily lifts me, and brings me back into the room with Mama. He ties my hands to a pipe in the corner, kicks my knife out of the way, and moves back toward Mama.

“If you’re going to kill all of us, why not start with me?” My voice comes out hoarse and low. My heart still thuds hard in my chest, but I don’t know how. It feels like it’s been decimated by seeing Mama like this and watching Jordan’s expression as he fell.

Please, God, let them be okay.

Daddy looks shocked. “I’m not going to hurt you. I could never do that, sweetie.”

Daddy kicks Mama’s thigh hard with the toe of his boot and another rush of panic fills me at the idea of sitting here, watching him beat Mama to death. I let all the emotion out, hoping that somehow his love for me will stop this insanity. Tears roll down my face and I clasp my tied hands in front of me, sobbing and pleading. “Please, Daddy. Please don’t hurt her anymore.”

He stops and turns back to face me with a shake of his head. He looks at me like I’m some sort of poor lost lamb. “I need you to listen. You don’t understand.”

“Okay, I’m l-listening,” I stutter, striving to keep him busy and not hitting or kicking anyone.

“I have to leave this hellhole of a state, and I want you to come with me.” As he speaks, he moves over to a bag that sits open nearby. Anything to keep him away from Mama and Jordan for a few more minutes sounds good to me. Then he pulls something out of the bag and runs it through his fingers. I realize with a jolt that it’s a long navy length of rope. Images of the bruises on the East End Killer’s—on Daddy’s victims’ necks from the crime scene photos flood my mind, and my stomach clenches against nauseating waves of fear. I can barely find words to respond.

“If I go with you now, will you please not hurt them anymore?” I speak slowly, trying to come up with a plan that doesn’t end with all of us dead. Why isn’t Chief Vega here yet?

“Oh no.” He shakes his head with a laugh. Daddy looks at me like I’m that six-year-old girl from the courtroom all over again. “They’re dying either way, honey.”

A tiny whimper escapes me before I can stop it, but I find strength to keep my voice steady as I ask, “Why?”

Daddy tilts his head in the direction of the stairs he’d pushed Jordan down and gives a half shrug. “Him, because I had to watch him touch my daughter—and because I know it will kill Vega to lose him.”

Then without any prodding, he turns toward Mama, and his face fills with the most intense mixture of hate and rage that I’ve ever seen. “Her, because I’ve been waiting to do this for an incredibly long time.”

When he turns back to face me, I notice Mama’s eyes fluttering as she tries hard to open them.

Seeing her fighting so hard despite everything he’s done to her gives me strength. I will not let him hurt her again. “Why do you want to hurt her at all? She’s your wife. She loves you.”

He looks at me like I’ve just said something ludicrous. “She hates me.” He shakes his head and laughs. “She killed my son and ripped my daughter away from me. You call that love?”

I glance back at Mama. Her eyes are open now. They’re wide and terrified. Still, in the midst of all this, she looks at me and her mouth seems to be forming one word over and over again. I have a sudden flashback to the last word Mr. Masters said to me in the grove.

Run.

But even if I weren’t currently tied to a pipe, I would still be done running.

If I’m the only one Daddy doesn’t want to hurt, then I have to find a way to use that to my advantage.

Besides, I’ll be damned if I have to sit here and watch whatever he’s planning to do to my mother with that rope.

“How?” I shout out in desperation as he approaches Mama again and her eyes slide closed.

“What?” He glances back at me in annoyance, like I just interrupted his preparation for an important case rather than another murder.

“How did Mama rip me away from you?”

He blows out a puff of air and the hair on his forehead ruffles. Then he steps over to me and touches the side of my face gently. I force myself not to jerk away. “She could’ve lied about being my alibi and kept me from ever going to prison. I might have forgiven her for killing your brother if she’d done that. But she didn’t. She said she didn’t want to lie, but she was just being selfish. She knew she would get you all to herself if I was locked away. But you didn’t forget about me, sweetheart. You just kept coming. Even when your mother stopped, you kept coming.”

Then he looks straight at me with so much love in his eyes that I truly feel pity and sorrow for whatever has gone so desperately wrong in my father’s mind. “You’re the only one I really need, Riley. No one else, just you.”

“Me?” I cry softly to myself, for my fear about Jordan, for the horrible pain I see on Mama’s face—and for the loss of the father that I loved so much. He’s undoubtedly sick and incredibly dangerous, but somewhere inside this monstrous person, the man I love still exists.

But no matter what else happens today, I will never be able to see that man again.

“My love for you, Riley. That’s the only reason your mother wasn’t my first victim.” He turns his gaze on Mama again and the rage and hatred return. “She was the key to your life, to raising you right. Without her, our lives wouldn’t have looked the way I wanted. What you show the world is what they believe you to be. Nothing else matters. Image matters.”