Gone (Deadly Secrets #2)(35)

Raegan moved toward the door, but Barbara Willig stopped her with a hand on her arm. “If you figure out who took my Billy, I’d appreciate it if you’d come tell me. That person didn’t just steal my boy, he ruined my whole family. That’s something he needs to pay for.”

Raegan nodded and squeezed the woman’s hand. “We will.”

Outside, Raegan drew a deep breath that did little to ease the heaviness in her belly. Alec didn’t speak to her, just walked up to the truck, opened the passenger door, then moved around to the driver’s side as she climbed in. Dim barking echoed from inside the Willig house, but Raegan didn’t turn to look. Because the only thing she could focus on was the man sitting next to her. The one who was dredging up a truckload of guilt over something that was not his fault.

Alec put the truck in drive and pulled away from the curb. Raegan waited until they were out of the neighborhood before she glanced his way and said, “You okay?”

“Me? Yeah, I’m fine.”

She frowned because she knew he wasn’t fine. He was spiraling all over again. She just didn’t know what to do about it or if there was anything she could do to help. And that hurt more than anything else, because that’s all she’d ever wanted to do. Just help the man she loved.





CHAPTER NINE


Alec flexed and squeezed his hand against the steering wheel. Knew if he didn’t focus on breathing and finding control that he could easily lose it. As much as he tried not to, though, all he could think about was what Barbara Willig had said.

“They didn’t just take my baby, they ruined my family. That’s somethin’ they need to pay for.”

She didn’t know who’d taken her child, but Alec knew who’d taken his. And that person was sitting in a prison yard right this minute, only an hour away, planning all the ways he was going to mess with Raegan.

Well, Alec wouldn’t let him.

“You know that woman’s situation is completely different from ours, right?” Raegan said softly at his side when they were on the freeway.

Alec huffed. Of course she knew what he was thinking because she knew him better than anyone else ever had. “No, it’s not. The only difference between us and her is that she’s uneducated and has no money.”

“That’s not true. That woman’s husband clearly had issues before their child disappeared. And so did she.”

“We all have issues.”

“Alec.” She looked toward him with sad green eyes. “It’s not the same. We are not the same. I never blamed you.”

This time the pain was so sharp it was all he could do to keep from steering the truck over the divider and into oncoming traffic to ease the misery. “And that right there is your issue.”

“No, it’s—”

He flipped the radio on and turned the volume up to drown out her voice so he wouldn’t have to talk. A sports analyst was running through the Blazers stats from last night’s game, but he barely heard what the man was saying. All he could think about was his father. About the note Gilbert had arranged to be left for Raegan and about how satisfying it would be for Alec to walk into that correctional facility and slam his fist into the fucker’s face.

He finally turned the radio down as he pulled to a stop in front of Raegan’s building. Worry settled over her features, a worry he saw from the corner of his eye but wouldn’t acknowledge.

“Why don’t you come up for a little while?” she said. “So we can talk.”

“No, I’ve got things to do.”

“Alec—”

“There’s nothing to talk about, Raegan.”

Her shoulders slumped even further, and knowing he was being an ass, he drew a calming breath and tried like hell to chill out. For a few minutes. For her sake.

“When you get the next interview set up, let me know. I’ll go with you. Today, though”—he stared out the windshield—“I need to be alone.”

“Are you going to be okay?”

Probably not. But he’d lived through worse than this. “I’ll be fine.”

She stared at him. Bit her lip as if she weren’t sure whether to believe him or not. Then finally popped her door open. “Okay. I’ll text you later.”

Great. Fabulous. She was gonna check up on him as if he were a five-year-old.

She climbed out and closed the door, but she didn’t move toward her building. And unable to handle that worried, heartsick look on her face one more minute, he pulled away from the curb and followed the surface streets back to the freeway.

He didn’t breathe easier until he was halfway to Salem. Make amends. That’s what this was all about, right? And the best way to make amends with Raegan was to make sure his father stayed away from her for good.

That, above all else, was one thing he knew he could control in this nightmare that had become his life.



Raegan stood on the sidewalk long after Alec’s truck disappeared from view, worry and fear mingling inside her. More than anything she wanted to help Alec, but he wouldn’t let her in. He was pushing her away, just as he’d done three years before. And there was nothing she could do to stop him.

She went back upstairs to her apartment, tossed her purse and jacket over the back of the couch, and tried to call Jack Bickam. He didn’t answer, so she left him a message explaining what Alec had said about the note and asked him to compare the handwriting to John Gilbert’s. For the next hour she typed up notes on their meeting with Barbara Willig, then called out to the Columbia River Correctional Institution and tried to arrange a time to speak with Bob Willig, only to discover the man was in solitary confinement for attacking another inmate. It would be at least a week until he could have visitors.