‘But?’ Mercy’s gaze locked on Farrah’s, cold dread spreading from her gut to her extremities, and she put the fork down before her hands became too numb to hold it. ‘Who did they find?’ She’d wanted the question to come out in a strong voice, but she only managed a whisper.
‘Peter Firmin,’ Farrah murmured. ‘And Stan Prescott. The reporter had . . . the video.’
No. Please, no. Mercy didn’t want to believe it, but she knew Farrah would never lie. Not about this. She closed her eyes, more tears burning her eyelids. ‘Goddammit.’
‘What?’ Rafe asked, his voice considerably louder and filled with anger. ‘Who are those guys and what did they say? What vid—’
Mercy swallowed hard and shoved the plate toward Rafe. ‘I need to—’ Pushing off Rafe’s lap, she ran for the office door, barely conscious of Rafe calling her name.
‘Dammit,’ she heard Farrah say as she yanked the door open. ‘I knew I should have told her alone.’
Why didn’t you? Mercy wanted to cry, but she didn’t, intent on finding the bathroom before it was too late.
Granite Bay, California
Saturday, 15 April, 10.55 P.M.
Farrah got up to go after Mercy, but Sasha gently restrained her. ‘Mom’s waiting in the hallway,’ Sasha said. ‘We agreed to let Mom help her if she needed it. Mom’s trained to deal with situations like this and she can tell Mercy what we’re doing to make it right.’
Farrah sank back in the chair, looking miserable. ‘Dammit,’ she swore again.
Rafe turned to stare at his father. ‘What the hell is this about, Dad?’
Karl ran a hand over his face, shattered. ‘Fuck,’ he muttered, then looked at the door Mercy had slammed as she’d fled. ‘I’m sorry. I need her to know that I’m so fucking sorry.’
Rafe blinked. His father didn’t swear often. He gentled his voice. ‘What’s happened?’
‘Mercy had . . . encounters with two men while she was in college,’ Farrah answered for him. ‘Neither were good guys and . . .’ She swallowed, wiping tears from her eyes. ‘Mercy was not okay back then. She was on her own for the first time and trying to deal with her past, with what Ephraim Burton did to her. I didn’t know about Eden then. I only knew that my friend was not okay. I tried to get her to come out of her shell, so I took her to a few parties with me, keeping her close. She started to open up, so I stopped hovering. Which was my mistake. Usually I knew all the attendees, but one night we went to a party off-campus and . . .’ She sighed. ‘Stan Prescott was there and he . . .’ Her voice broke. ‘He put something in her drink and took video. It wasn’t good video, thankfully, and Mercy’s face wasn’t recognizable, but . . . I realized she was gone and found her before anything really bad happened, but it was bad enough.’
Rage boiled over, scalding Rafe from the inside out. ‘What did she do when she found out?’
‘It tipped her over the edge and she spiraled into a depression I couldn’t pull her out of.’
Rafe waited for Farrah to say more, frowning when it became clear that she didn’t plan to. Fucking hell. ‘What about the video?’
Farrah’s body sagged. ‘Prescott was arrested for attempted rape, but he made a plea deal with the DA. Got the charge reduced to harassment, on the condition that he relinquish the video. He got a suspended jail sentence and Mercy didn’t have to go through a court trial. We thought it had gone away.’ She swallowed. ‘But he must have kept a copy.’
‘Sonofabitch.’ Rafe lurched to his feet, only to crash back into the chair when his bad leg buckled.
Sasha moved from her perch on the desk to the arm of his chair, her arm sliding around his shoulders. ‘Dad called his lawyer to get the story taken down. They’re working on it.’
That was something, at least. Karl Sokolov had started his career in radio but had long ago branched out into marketing. Between the marketing agency and his media outlets, he and his lawyers knew more than a thing or two about managing negative press.
‘I called André to get a message to the DA who filed the bastard’s plea deal,’ Farrah said. ‘I’ll let you know as soon as I hear something. I can only guess that someone paid Prescott enough for the video that he thought it was worth the risk.’
Rafe drew a breath, needing the facts before he lost his fucking mind. That someone would do that to Mercy – to anyone – but especially with all Mercy had already been through . . . ‘What about the second encounter?’ he bit out, because there was no way he was going to be able to read that trash. Even if he could, he didn’t think Mercy would get over it if he did.
Farrah’s jaw was tight. ‘Peter Firmin is just an opportunistic jerk. They went on a few dates after she’d started at the NOPD lab, but he broke it off, saying that she was the coldest fish he’d ever tried to kiss. He was pretty vocal about it at the time, telling everyone they knew. Mercy was so embarrassed. André stepped in and paid the asshole a visit.’ Her lips firmed. ‘André convinced him that it would be detrimental to his health if he talked anymore, so he stopped.’
Rafe was surprised. ‘Your fiancé, a cop, threatened him?’ Although that was fine by him.
Farrah’s chin lifted. ‘Firmin is a cop, too.’
‘Well, shit,’ Rafe muttered, and Farrah nodded.
‘That’s the reason Mercy felt safe going out alone with him to begin with after the video nightmare, but the bastard rushed her and then humiliated her when she said no. After that little chat with André, Firmin left her alone. We hadn’t heard a peep out of him until this article.’ Farrah’s eye twitched. ‘He said that if he’d known roofies were what “turned her crank,” he’d have tried that. Then he laughed and said he was just kidding, of course.’
‘Of course,’ Rafe bit out. ‘How did a reporter get this story so fast? I’ve googled Mercy and I never saw anything like this.’ He stopped abruptly when he realized what he’d revealed. ‘I googled her to find ways to help her,’ he said weakly.
Sasha squeezed his shoulder. ‘I did, too. I needed to know if she was okay after she left here. I was afraid she’d try to . . . you know.’
‘Hurt herself?’ Karl asked. ‘That worried me, too. That’s why I wanted to tell her as a group, to make sure she knew she had us on her side. I didn’t think that through. You tried to tell me, Farrah. I should have listened.’
Farrah reached over and patted his knee. ‘Probably you should have, but that you all have her back is something she’ll appreciate when she’s able.’