Khan (Bowen Boys, #2)(22)

Chapter Eight


Caitlynne watched her. Monica hadn’t said much since she’d come out of the kitchen with Khan. She wondered what he’d said to her to make her not leave, but whatever it was, she was happy for them. When Khan took her hand again, Monica smiled at him, but even Caitlynne could see she wasn’t really paying attention to what was going on. It was time to take it up a notch.

“Monica, tell me how you encouraged him to see you.”

Monica looked up at her, but didn’t comment.

“I mean, why else would he come across the state to find you and to try and get you to come back with him?”

Khan stood up. “You’re barking up the wrong tree, Caitlynne. I would suggest that you back off.”

“But don’t you see? She had to have done something. Maybe you flirted with him a little. Impressed with his money, maybe?”

“No. I didn’t do anything. He asked me out and I went, but he wanted more.”

Monica looked panicky. Good, this might work. “But you did date him. You said so yourself.” When Khan started for her, Walker stepped in front of him and spoke to him in very low tones. “You went out, how was that?”

“Don’t do this. I told you what happened. Isn’t that enough?” She stood up too. “I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to leave.”

“He raped you, didn’t he?” Monica didn’t move and neither did Khan. “You didn’t tell me that part. You told me how he held a gun to your head while you sat in the restaurant with him. You told me how no one would help you, but you didn’t tell me he raped you, did you?”

“He didn’t. Not…he couldn’t get hard. He said it was my fault that…I knew it was because he was insane, but he blamed me. He said…Why are you doing this?”

“Because it’s eating you alive knowing that he killed his parents. You’re blaming yourself because he raped you and you didn’t report it. Not then and not since.” Caitlynne nodded at Khan. “He told you his story, now you tell us yours.”

“He slammed me against the car and while the limo driver and several other people watched, he ripped my clothes off. All of them until I was naked. Is that what you want to hear? Or is it that he used a bottle on me? Rammed it in my ass so deep I bled for a month. Then when he was through with it, he tried to masturbate over me only to not be able to make himself come that way either.” She pulled up her shirt and pointed to the scar there. “So he beat me. Then he pulled out a knife and tried to cut my throat. He tried to kill me.”

Khan took her into his arms and glared. Caitlynne smiled. “You think this is funny? You think that making her relive this is some sort of joke?”

“No, but she has to know that we don’t care what he did to her before. That we all love her for what she is.” Caitlynne walked to Monica and lifted her chin. “It’s not your fault that he killed them. You tried to tell them all.”

“But I didn’t tell them all of it. I should have told them what he’d done to me and maybe he would have gotten help and off the streets.”

“No, he wouldn’t have. His parents gave him everything he wanted, including you. And for as much as I hate to tell you this right now, he did worse to others like you. We found evidence at his mother’s home that she and his father had been paying off families for a decade. He’s murdered at least four more women. And it’s not your fault.” Caitlynne handed her the check she’d given her. “This helped us. More than you can know. This account is the one they used to pay off the families. The only one that the government didn’t know about when he took the senate seat and the only one we couldn’t monitor. It’s why they divorced, so that she could keep it as quiet as they had.”

Monica took the check with trembling hands. “He gave me this the morning after I was raped. He said if I kept quiet and cashed it, there would be more. But I had to agree by cashing it.”

“Christ.” They all turned to look at Reed. “Look what I just found.” There were numbers and plenty of them. More than they had first thought, maybe as many as fifteen.

“I don’t understand. What are we looking at?” Monica looked at her for an answer. “They’re just check amounts with people’s names.”

Caitlynne waited, knowing that she would understand. And when Monica did, she was glad that Khan was holding her. “No. That’s not possible. Please tell me that he didn’t kill all those girls.”

“I’m sorry. So sorry, but we had to look and you helped us. You made it so we could find them. All of them.” Caitlynne looked at Khan. “She never cashed the check the elder Barr gave her and kept it all this time. Without it, without those account numbers, he might have gone on killing. Had she not been as strong or as resilient, he would have kept on going.”

“She’s my mate. Of course she would be strong.” Khan picked her up and sat with her on his lap. “Now that we’ve all been shocked a little, why don’t you tell us what we really want to know? How to kill this bastard.”

~~~

Tony tried to call his father again. He wanted answers and he wanted them now. Monica hadn’t been around for a couple of days now and he wanted to know where she had friends so he could go and talk to them about her. Next call went to his mother.