“I need to be at Kerrighan House,” I announced, matter of fact.
Home.
I needed to be home. The only home I’d ever known.
“Me too,” Addison said, her eyes locked on mine.
“I think maybe it’s a good idea if all my babies come home until they’re ready to enter back into the world after all we’ve endured.” Mama Kerri’s voice was filled with heartbreak but her request would not be denied.
“When everyone’s back at Kerrighan House, I can go over the details behind the rest of what happened,” Jonah shared.
I nodded, as did Addy and Mama Kerri. Which was also when Quinn slipped into the room. He waved at Sonia. “They’re not being put off. The press have surrounded the hospital. If you don’t make a statement and let them see you, we’re going to have problems.”
Sonia clenched her teeth and made fists with her hands. She looked around the room and her face contorted into one of sadness and fury. “Fine. Let’s go. Now. I’ll see you all back at Kerrighan House.”
“I’ll wait until Addison is released. Why don’t you all head on over and I’ll bring our girl when she’s out,” Mama Kerri stated.
Jonah nodded and curled his hand around my shoulder. “Come on, baby. Let me take you to your ma’s.”
I clenched my fingers around the railing of the hospital bed, surprised at my sudden reluctance to let go or leave Addison’s side.
“Um, I think I’d rather wait until Addy’s released,” I whispered.
“Si, I’m okay. I’ll be there soon.” She sighed tiredly.
I frowned at my white knuckles gripped around the rail. “But what if something happens between now and then?” I choked the question out, emotion clogging my throat.
She reached her arm out and covered one of my hands with hers. “Let go of the railing, Si. I’m fine. I’m alive. And I’m right here. No one’s gonna get to me in the hospital. And besides, he’s gone. Dead. Remember?”
I peeled my hand away but kept hold of hers then sat down on the side of her bed. “I’m gonna wait until you’re released.”
Jonah rubbed a hand up and down my back soothingly. “No problem. We’ll wait for your sister.”
I nodded, still not sure why I couldn’t break away, just knowing I wasn’t ready to do so.
Not long after the others left a nurse came in and went over the outpatient information and discharged Addison.
Together, the four of us piled into Mama Kerri’s Subaru Outback. Jonah drove. Mama Kerri in the passenger seat, me and Addy huddled together in the back.
As each mile passed and we got closer to Mama Kerri’s, the exhaustion took over. I leaned my head onto Addison’s shoulder, and she leaned hers on to mine.
In the safety of my mother’s vehicle, my mother present, my man ever watchful, Addison safely sitting next to me, I closed my eyes and allowed sleep to take me.
Back at Kerrighan House, we all huddled around one another on the giant U-shaped sectional. Mama Kerri sat in the single chair, a plate with an uneaten grilled cheese sandwich on her lap. She’d made a bunch of sandwiches. I ate mine tasting absolutely nothing. I could have been eating a block of Play-Doh for all I cared. The rest of the sisters were in various stages of eating or not eating.
Jonah entered from the kitchen with his plate in hand. He set the plate on the coffee table and sat beside me. Addison was on my other side, which was exactly where I needed her to be.
Jonah took a deep breath and scanned each of our sorrow-filled faces.
“Wayne Gilbert Black was a thirty-five-year-old sociopath. The building you were found in was where he lived. He was the building owner but mostly a slumlord. After his mother was killed when he was a child, he was in and out of foster homes. This is the reason the FBI thinks he snapped when he didn’t finish the job with you, Simone. He found out that you too had been a foster kid, living a happy life. We can’t know for sure, but it’s part of the theory.”
I nodded and clenched my teeth, breathing through my nose. Jonah’s warm hand surrounded mine and held it in both of his over his thigh.
“His mother was a well-known prostitute. According to the information we found in his apartment, he’d seen her killed and journaled about it incessantly. Apparently, she would regularly park her car down an alley out of sight in order to do business. She’d force Wayne to stand in a dark corner while she brought the clients to the backseat of her car. There she’d do the deed. None of this hidden from her child. Until one of her client’s kinks got out of hand. He strangled her during the act by accident. Or so he claimed when he turned himself in. Apparently, Wayne saw it happen. This is likely when he had his first psychotic break.”
Mami Kerri covered her mouth and closed her eyes.
“He was a deeply demented man, set on killing women in the same manner his mother died. We’ll learn more when we get his foster care details and any psych evals he had in the past,” Jonah continued.
“I don’t care about Wayne Black. What I want to know is how he got into my building,” Sonia groused.
Jonah winced and swallowed slowly.
That meant more bad information was forthcoming.
“He tased the security guard out back and then strangled him,” Jonah stated gently.
I wanted to cry. I really did. Another life lost due to this monster and I had no tears left to give. I was dried up. Empty inside.
“How the hell did Tabby get involved?” Sonia asked directly, arms crossed over her shoulders as though she were angry. She probably was. Sonia had a temper that often exploded if she was hurting.
I cleared my throat and then spoke up. “I’d called Tabby and left a message when Addison went missing. Begged her to come home. Told her none of us were safe, including her. She said she was fine but that she had eyes on the lookout.”
“Our team discovered from the video footage of Sonia’s building that Tabby had been hanging out across the street at the small cafe, watching the front door. Our best guess is that she saw a stranger headed around the back of the building and followed him because not long after we saw the masked man, we saw Tabitha sliding along the outskirts. We got an anonymous lead that a strange man had entered the back of the building and a guard was knocked out. That was the last call I got when I was on the balcony. The timing was a perfect storm.” He rubbed at the back of his neck.
“She must have seen Simone taken and followed them, because when the video shows Simone being carried unconscious, over the shoulder of the man we know now was Wayne Black, we could see a skinny woman all in black running down the long alley and disappearing. Two hours after Simone was taken, we got another call. I spoke to Tabitha,” he said, his voice cracking.
My nose tingled and I shoved my body to his side, cuddling against his chest. He wrapped an arm around my back and took a breath.
“The operator was told if we got another anonymous call to direct it to me, but this time Tabitha asked for me by name. She was either following the case in the media and saw pictures of me and Simone or heard my name when she showed up at Tracks that night. Whatever the case may be, she called and gave me the location of where they took you.”
“Jesus, that girl.” Blessing shook her head as a wave of sadness flashed across her face.