“I didn’t come to give you bad news. Actually, it’s good.”
“You needed Calder to tell me good news?”
“I consider it good news. Unfortunately, I don’t think you will.”
Reaper wanted to get up and pace around the room but remained seated. “Tell me.”
Diamond hesitantly began. “Have you … watched the tapes that Slate took of you?”
“No. I didn’t have to watch them; I lived them.”
“I asked you to watch them.” She sighed. “Have you discussed them with Viper or any of the other brothers? They can confirm what I’m about to tell you.”
He clenched his jaw. “I don’t know if Viper’s watched them. Some of the brothers have. I haven’t asked which tapes they’ve seen, nor do I want to. As far as talking about it with him or any of the brothers, I never will. Have you watched them?”
“You know I have.”
He had to give Knox’s wife props for not betraying her opinion of the tapes.
“Then, can you tell me how I’m supposed to talk with any of them, especially Viper?”
Diamond tightened her lips. “I can’t.”
Anyone who cared about Viper would never want him to watch the brutality that Reaper lived through for almost ten years.
“Exactly.” Tensing, he sat forward, linking his hands together. “What’s so important that you dragged Calder out so early this morning?”
Diamond slowly opened her briefcase, taking out a folder before closing the case. “I found out who she was.”
Reaper didn’t have to ask who she was. The woman he killed preyed on his mind every moment since he saw her vacant gaze staring back at him.
As Diamond held out the folder for him to take, his hand slowly reached for it while he mentally prepared himself to see the image of the woman’s face.
Expecting to see the same image back at him that had been burned into his brain from that horror-filled night, he had to blink several times after opening the folder to reconcile the image he was seeing now.
The woman in the picture was smiling laughingly at whoever had taken the picture. He had snuffed that smile out with his bare hands. It didn’t matter that he’d been drugged; it still sickened him to his soul that he had given in to Slate’s goading.
“Her name was Cecile Lelong. She was twenty-six when she disappeared. They recovered her body two days ago.”
“Why didn’t you call me?” Unconsciously, he squeezed his eyes tight, fighting back the grief that he felt at ending a life just for the sole purpose of Slate wanting to capture it on video.
“Because I was in Lexington, and I had to drive back. I only stopped long enough to meet Calder before coming here. I wanted to be here when I told you.”
Reaper closed the folder and handed it back to her. “Is that why you brought Knox here—to arrest me?” He stood up and looked down at her. “You could have saved him the trouble. I would have turned myself in—”
Diamond shook her head. “There aren’t going to be any charges brought against you.”
Dumbfounded, he could only frown at her; he was sure he misheard her.
“I was in Lexington because I was waiting for Knox to get a hit on the DNA that came back after they found Cecile’s body. It was exactly where Ink said he buried her. I wanted to wait until the autopsy and DNA results came in before telling you. Knox showed me a picture of Cecile from her missing poster, and from the tape, I confirmed it was her.
“After I confirmed her identity, I made an appointment to talk with the Commonwealth Attorney. There aren’t going to be any charges against you.”
No longer pacing, Reaper furiously strode around the room as if he were caged in, then stopped in front of Diamond. “I did it! I deserve to be in prison! I didn’t ask you to get a deal for me!”
Diamond remained sitting, her expression resolute despite his yelling. “I didn’t have to cut a deal.” Keeping her voice firm and controlled, she straightened her shoulders. “All I had to do was show him that tape,” she explained in a low voice.
He took a step back as if she had shoved him back physically. “You showed him the tape?”
“Did you really think I wasn’t going to make sure you weren’t going to spend a day in jail after I sat and watched every single one of those tapes?” Diamond shoved her briefcase and folder to the side of her lap to stand. She brought her hands to her hips as she jutted her chin out and stared back at him. “The only ones responsible for Cecile’s death were her and Slate. It’s right there in that folder you don’t want to read, any more than you want to watch those tapes. She made four unsuccessful attempts on her life previously. In fact, she had just been released from a psychiatric hospital where she was on a forty-eight-hour watch after she jumped out of her father’s car at a red light. Slate must have been her backup plan if her last attempt was unsuccessful.”
“It doesn’t matter how many times she tried! I’m the one responsible! My hands choked the life out of her!” He angrily hit his chest with a fist. Then, tormented, he started to hit himself again. “It was me!”
“Watch the damn tape!” Losing her cool, Diamond reached out, grabbing his wrist to stop him. “Look at them!”
Diamond didn’t stop her tirade even though he carefully moved his arm away from her. “You didn’t get those scars by giving in to what they wanted you to do! You kept trying to get away despite being chained to that bed. They administered drugs to you twice, then threatened to kill Taylor. Despite all that, it took them an hour and twenty-four minutes to break you into doing it. You didn’t even realize it was her you were trying to kill!
“I’m sorry for what Cecile must have been going through mentally to bring her to the point that she wanted to take her life. Still, because I did see those tapes, feeling sorry for her doesn’t mitigate the fact that she was using you without regard of the harm it was doing to you. She watched you being chained to that bed, saw those drugs being pumped into you, and allowed Slate to abuse you when you wouldn’t give in to her demands to kill her. Let me tell you something”—Diamond took a shuddering breath—“if it had been me, I would have gladly killed her after five minutes to get Slate to stop hurting me the way he was you.
“And I didn’t have to ask the Commonwealth Attorney not to press charges on you. You want to know what he said? He told me he would have broken after ten minutes. So, don’t you dare stand there and yell at me because you’re not locked up in cell!” Diamond appeared to be earnestly fighting back tears as she watched him scrub his wrist on the side of his jeans where she had touched him. However, he stopped when he saw a tear roll down her cheek.
“I would lock myself inside a cell for the next twenty years before I ever let you spend one more hour behind a locked door again. The Commonwealth Attorney isn’t guided by emotion; he’s following the law, and that’s why a warrant was issued for Slate’s arrest.”
Reaper had to spin on his heel, unable to look at her anguished expression any longer. “Don’t,” he managed to say through clenched teeth.
Knox’s wife’s heartfelt support of him was getting under the barricade he had surrounded himself with. Diamond was slipping beneath the defenses that were already strained from Ginny’s million-watt smile and words that, while his mind shied away from, his soul had felt—as if Ginny had reached inside to caress and soothe the torment that was ripping away what little desire he had left to face another day. The only reason that he hadn’t given in to the struggle was as simple and as old as time—vengeance.