"You were locked in the closet, Madison Kate," Archer said, his tone low and cold. "You didn't see."
I shook my head, denying what they were saying as the dark memories crashed through my brain. Pain and terror clawed at my throat, as fresh as it had been that night exactly seven years ago. Yet another reason for me to hate this stupid holiday... it was the anniversary of my mother's murder. A fact I'd managed to steadfastly ignore every year since then.
Until now.
"I saw," I insisted, ignoring the dampness on my cheeks as my eyes streamed. I was past the point of holding back the tears anymore. "Through the slats of the closet door, I saw everything he fucking did to her. I heard every scream of pain and plea for mercy. I heard her bones breaking and—" My voice hitched with a sob, and I swallowed past the bitter pain.
Sucking in a deep breath, I gathered my shattered emotions up and wrapped them around me like a poison-dipped blanket. "When the closet was opened again, it was your brother standing there looking down at me like I was a fucking complication."
If I could have killed someone with the force of my glare, Archer D'Ath would be a smoking pile of ash. All my pain and anger and hate that had been building for years now transferred to this bastard.
Yet he just looked back at me with something dangerously close to pity in his eyes.
"Why do you think that makes him your stalker?" Kody asked, his tone low and calm. It was the same tone he'd used when Archer was throwing his temper tantrum.
I cast a scornful look over at him. He'd taken Archer's side, they both had, and I was fucking done with trusting them. Done.
"Because I'm not fucking stupid, Kodiak. My mom was being stalked, too. That day she thought someone was following us, and..." I trailed off as the memories assaulted me, becoming confused as they mixed with the haze of time and the warped way an eleven-year-old's mind processed what had happened. "We were in a car crash. Both of us were knocked out, and when we woke up, taped to the steering wheel was a Polaroid of my mom, unconscious, taken probably only a minute before." I swallowed heavily, lost to the memory. I'd been so scared, my head bleeding and my wrist aching with blinding pain where it'd snapped. Mom had been terrified, too; I could tell by the way her voice had shaken as she’d called an ambulance for me. "She refused to go to the hospital with me, and no one could get ahold of my dad. Bree's mom ended up dropping me home hours later, but Mom was in a panic. She kept whispering that he was in the house. She shoved me in the closet and locked it from the outside. That's when..." I trailed off, swiping at my cheeks with my palms. "That's when Zane killed her."
None of the three guys spoke, all just staring at me, but I refused to meet their eyes. I wasn't done.
"A year later, I visited her grave and someone had left a doll." I spat the word out like it burned my tongue. "A replica of how my mom died, covered in bruises, wrists bound, and a bullet hole through the side of her head." I flicked my gaze up to Archer's face. "So yeah, I'm pretty confident your fucked-up brother is the one stalking me now."
"Madison Kate," he said, his voice rough and low. "Zane didn't kill your mother."
I curled my lip, ready to snarl back at him, but Steele spoke first.
"He's right. Zane didn't do that. He couldn't. Madison Kate, your mom was having an affair with Zane. She was—"
"No," I barked. "No. No way. Are you shitting me right now? This isn't a fucking telenovela. My mom wasn't sleeping with a gang member ten years younger than her."
Steele blew out a breath, scrubbing his hands over his face and looking helplessly at Archer.
The big guy just tightened his jaw and folded his arms. He was still pissed. Maybe even more now that I'd accused his brother of stalking and murder. "It's true," he said, biting the words off.
I shook my head, not wanting to believe them on this. It was too insane, like the script of a daytime soap opera. Or a slasher flick. But now that they'd said it, more and more long-forgotten memories crept into my brain. Memories of Zane visiting our house while my father had been away on work trips. Of my mom laughing at something he said while touching his arm. Of her dancing around the house like she was deliriously happy... but only when my father wasn't around.
"That doesn't mean he didn't kill her," I finally said, my teeth grinding together so hard my jaw hurt. "She probably broke it off, and he killed her out of rage. It's typical domestic-abuse escalation."
Kody snorted a bitter laugh, and I shot him a furious glare. "Sorry, babe. If anyone was abusing your mom, I'd look a hell of a lot closer to home. Zane fucking loved Deb."
It jolted me to hear them use my mom's first name, but they were a few years older than me. If she really had been having an affair with Zane, they might have spent some time with her.
"Look, Madison Kate," Steele said, his voice coaxing like he was trying to harness a wild horse, "think about it logically. Don't rely on the memories of a messed-up, scared eleven-year-old. Analyze it with detachment. You'd been in a car accident, one that hurt you enough that you'd been knocked unconscious. That's a head injury, babe. You probably had other injuries too?" He paused, and I gave a jerking nod as I thought of my broken wrist. "So they would have given you painkillers at the hospital. When you got home, it would have been late. Your mom was freaked out, and that would have freaked you out. She shoved you in a closet and locked you in." He was listing these things, and I could sense he was coming around to a point. I wanted to shut him up. I wanted to stop him from getting to that point, because if he did...
"It was late at night, too, right? And the lights were off?" He didn't need my response; he clearly already knew this much. "Did you actually see his face? The man who murdered Deb?"
I couldn't speak to answer him. Cold horror washed over me in waves, and my stomach rolled with bile. Could he be right? Had there been someone else in the house that night?
"You were in that closet for hours, MK," Kody told me softly. "We've all seen the police reports. The time of death was some six hours before Zane found you there."
I shook my head over and over, refusing to hear what they were saying. Because if what they were saying was true... if Zane wasn't the one who murdered my mom... then her killer was still out there.
He was still out there and stalking me, and I had no clue who it might be.
"You don't believe any of this, do you?" Archer scoffed at me, his eyes hard and cruel again. "Well, maybe this will help you gain some clarity, Princess Danvers." He sneered that nickname at me with something that smacked of hatred himself. "Deb was pregnant. That car crash you were in? She was running away. She'd just gotten the DNA results proving it was Zane's baby, and she was scared."
That was the last straw.
I laughed. It was a cold, bitter sound, but it helped me draw up my defenses again.
"You almost had me," I told them, frigid fury dripping from my words. "You fucking almost had me." I shook my head and stalked back to the G-Wagen. Fuck this shit, I could push past my dislike of driving if it meant getting me the hell out of there.