The Sound of Secrets (The Monsters Duet #2)

Chapter 19

Win

I stood next to the SUV where the feds planned to load Channing to rush her to her mother’s facility. There’d been no sign of her father or Winnie, and her mom wasn’t talking. There was no coherent plan about how they were going to draw Paul Harvey out into the open and arrest him for kidnapping and extortion. He seemed to think he could use his wife as a shield and his daughter as a tool. I wanted nothing more than for the man to burn in hell. He was just as malicious and cold as my mother. Neither cared who they hurt as long as the ends justified the means.

During the last confrontation that rocked my world, Channing took on my mother single-handedly while I rode to the rescue with backup. This time, I was the one going out on a limb based on her gut feeling, and she was the one showing up with an armed entourage. I felt better about leaving her in the hands of the authorities, but I was still nervous about sending her into an unknown situation .

I sheltered her until the last possible moment. Eventually, the head of the team told us they needed to get going. I kissed Channing on her forehead and whispered, “Be careful. I don’t care about the money. I need you to come back in one piece.” I pulled away. She looked up at me with shining eyes. Her emotions were scattered and hard to read. I knew she was deeply conflicted over facing her mother and making her part of her father’s greedy scheme. The timing wasn’t the best, but it never seemed to be on our side. I had to tell her how I felt, in case something went wrong and neither of us got the chance to be honest with the other again.

I grabbed her cheeks and used the pad of my thumb to rub her lower lip. She held my wrists and watched me with helpless eyes.

“Even if you don’t want to hear it, I need you to listen to me and believe me when I tell you that I love you like it’s breathing, Channing. I don’t have to think about it. I do it unconsciously, and I feel like I’ll die if I suddenly stop. You never imagined us being married, but you’re the only woman I’ve ever been able to picture as my wife. Be safe and come back home to this family.” I desperately needed her to keep in mind she had more than one, and we needed her more than the one that was doing its best to destroy her.

She closed her mouth and let it fall open, as if she couldn’t find the right words to reply. I dropped a gentle kiss onto her soft lips and stepped back so the waiting authorities could hustle her into the SUV. She stared at me in shock until someone tried to shut the door. She moved to stop them and called my name in a panicked voice. I put a hand over hers and calmly told her, “Save whatever you have to say until we have Winnie back and everything is settled. Right now, you need to focus on yourself.” I lifted an eyebrow and warned her before I closed the door, “That’s the last time I’m going to tell you that. When you come back, I need you to worry about all of us, because we’re in this together until the end.”

She looked stunned behind the dark glass. She put her palm on the window and I touched it with mine from the other side until the SUV pulled away from the curb. A fleet of police vehicles and unmarked sedans followed with flashing lights and sirens. It was quite the spectacle.

I was left on the sidewalk in front of the brownstone with Rocco, a few of his most trusted employees, and a befuddled white-haired teenager the police grilled like a common criminal. The poor kid really had the worst luck for being in the wrong place at the right time.

“Boss. Alistair is liaising with the local authorities near the cove, and other seaside towns nearby are searching the shipyards up and down the coast. He even organized a civilian search party already. There’s a lot of shoreline and thousands of boats. Narrowing it down to a specific one is going to take forever. And we don’t know for certain where he stashed Winnie. Channing hasn’t had a relationship with her father for years. All we have is a wild guess to go on.”

I shoved my hands into my pants pockets and narrowed my eyes at the man I trusted with my life. I was disappointed I could no longer trust him with my niece’s. I knew Rocco was trying his best to make amends for not preventing this situation from happening, but I wasn’t in the mood to hear how impossible finding Winnie might be. I wanted results, not excuses or explanations for failure.

I looked at Ky and apologized for the rough treatment. “I’m sorry about all of this. From start to finish, you’ve been in a tough spot through no fault of your own. I’ll compensate you and your mother for the hassle however you both see fit. I appreciate you doing what you can to help my niece, even though adults around her have been less than respectful toward you. You’re a good kid, Kyser Kent.”

The teen spun his skateboard around with the edge against the palm of his hand and watched me with a guarded gaze. Once again, I felt this teenager was more formidable than his years should allow. His tone was cold when he told me, “I want to help you find Winnie.”

Rocco snorted. “Sure. Why not? We have the entire eastern seaboard to search. We can use as many hands and eyes as possible.”

The sarcasm was as thick as taffy, but Ky didn’t seem bothered by it. He cocked his head to one side and seemed to think through the situation from a different angle than Rocco or I considered.

“Channing thinks her father took Winnie to a boat. However, if he needs money, he probably doesn’t have a boat of his own. That guy is an asshole. I doubt he has any friends who would let him borrow a boat, especially if it’s a vessel they use for work.” Everything Ky muttered sounded reasonable.

I frowned and tossed his words around in my mind for a moment. I could not view a situation from the perspective of someone with no means or opportunity. If I needed a boat, I would have a fleet of yachts at my disposal. But someone grifting to survive didn’t have very many options. I was looking at the big picture, not the artist painting it.

“Think about what type of boats are available for public use. Paul Harvey is someone who prefers to be on the water. How does he get around? He has to move between the city and his hometown regularly. What’s the best way to do that if you don’t want to drive or take the train? We all know he can’t afford to fly, so a ferry or some sort of water taxi is probably the best bet.” Ky dropped the skateboard on the cement and gave me a pointed look. “That’s where you should start looking.”

Rocco swore. “It’s not like he could dump a teenager on public transit with no one noticing. Winnie stands out. She’s a public figure. Someone would’ve noticed her. They would’ve called looking for money to hand over her whereabouts if it was as simple as being on a ferry.”

I lifted my eyebrows at the bald man and asked, “Do you have a better idea? Instead of telling me how hard it is to find her, why don’t you look everywhere before ruling anything out ?”

It was rare when I treated Rocco like someone who worked for me rather than a friend who’d been with me from the minute my life was no longer my own to the second I stole it back. I knew he was under an immense amount of pressure at the moment and didn’t want to waste time chasing his tail. Winnie was more than another body he had to protect. Rocco watched her grow up and was there every time the world went against her. I had no doubt he wanted to get her back as much as I did. Which was exactly why he didn’t understand why I was willing to allocate time and effort to what might be a wild goose chase based on nothing more than Channing’s certainty.

“If she puts on normal clothes and wears something that covers her face, she looks like any other teenager. There are so many homeless kids in this city, Winnie would blend right in if she’s dressed right. She would be just another body going from port to port until the final stop.” The more Ky spoke, the more inclined I was to think he was on to something.

“I don’t think she would go willingly and not try to signal for help. I’ve reiterated with her over and over what to do if she finds herself in trouble.” I told Rocco to get me a list of ferries running from the city around the time Winnie disappeared. All we could do was send our people to wait at each port and see if the theory was true. Meanwhile, the search was on for her up and down the coast. The Coast Guard was even involved, looking for any suspicious vessel sailing in and out of the city and cove.

“If her grandfather slipped her something that knocked her out, the other passengers might mistake her for a junkie.” Finally, Rocco was thinking beyond his own panic. He looked at me with stark determination in his eyes. “I’m going to find her.”

While the attitude adjustment was appreciated, I needed action, not assurance. I tried to send Ky home. He was too young to be mixed up in all of this. I held deep regrets for treating him like he was a grown adversary instead of a growing one until this point. He gave a token argument, then rode away on his skateboard. I knew it wasn’t the last I’d see of him while Winnie’s whereabouts were still unknown, but I didn’t have the bandwidth to take care of another teenager’s wellbeing at the moment. Not when I failed to keep Winnie safe. It was the one promise I made to my brother, and I broke it. Regardless if he had a hand in making me do so. Dissatisfaction settled deep in my bones at the thought.

As if conjured out of thin air, Archie came out of the brownstone, looking like a ghost. I knew he regretted his part in his daughter’s abduction, but it was hard for me to find forgiveness for either of us at the moment. All of this was set in motion because he didn’t believe in me. Be it our mother or Channing’s father, Archie put more faith in what they told him about me and my motivations than he did in my actions and assertions.

Archie’s eyes, with their paper-thin lids, blinked at me like a scared animal. I dismissed Rocco to get me the list I asked for and told one of his guys to get the car ready to take me to the port. I wanted to talk to the harbor patrol and see if we could find Winnie on any of their surveillance. When I turned my attention back to my brother, I could tell he would cry if he were able.

“I’m so sorry, Win. This is all my fault.” His voice was raspy and sounded like his lungs were still filled with smoke from that ill-fated fire. “From the start, I screwed up my family. I never should’ve forced Willow to move home. If I wasn’t afraid of Winnie growing up poor, none of this would’ve happened. It’s better to be broke and happy than rich and dead. What have I done? ”

I sighed. My compassion for him couldn’t fight through my current anger and frustration. “You’re always trying to give Winnie more, Archie. At some point, you need to realize what she has is enough. You are enough. There was no reason for you to force a relationship she never asked for to make amends for someone who is no longer around.” He needed to come to terms with Willow’s death sooner rather than later, or incidents like this were going to keep happening. His need to atone was going to be a weakness anyone could exploit if he didn’t get a handle on his emotions.

The fragile eyelids fluttered, and he quietly asked, “Isn’t that what you’re doing with Channing? She never aspired to marry a Halliday. She hates us, hates you.”

I was speechless because he had a solid point. I grunted, “Guess that’s a fault that runs in the family. We can argue about which one of us is more fucked up once Winnie is home. She’s the priority right now.”

We were saved from further argument by Rocco running down the stairs. “They have her on video! Just like the kid said, Harvey took her to the harbor. She’s dressed like a teenage boy, but her face is on camera, clear as day.”

I moved toward the waiting vehicle without hesitation. “What ferry did he put her on?” For the first time in hours, I felt a flicker of hope.

I jumped in the back of the SUV and barked at the driver to take us to the port. Rocco and my brother barely made it inside when the tires squealed and we sped off .

“They were only on video for a brief moment. The crowd was too big to track them all the way to the boat. The harbor patrol has someone combing through the boarding footage, but it’s going to take a while to find the specific boat since it was a peak commute time. The bright side is while we’re waiting for verification, they’re radioing all the possible ferries and starting a search for Winnie. If she’s stashed on one of them, we should know within the next hour. I told them we would offer a hefty reward for any news that helps get her home.”

I nodded in approval and clicked on the link he sent to my phone. Paul Harvey was guiding an obviously unsteady Winnie through a thick crowd of commuters. She was wearing a hoodie that covered her distinct red hair, and baggy pants that made her look like a boy. If she hadn’t turned her head and looked directly at the camera, almost as if she was seeking help, it would’ve been impossible to identify her. I hated the smug look on her grandfather’s face. I didn’t know what it was like to want someone dead until this very moment. I could kill him.

Maybe I had more of my mother in me than I cared to admit.

By the time we reached the spot where Winnie was last seen, the place was crawling with police and harbor patrol. There was no sign of her on any of the boats out on the water, and the boats that were docked had been disembarked and searched from top to bottom. I was doing my best not to panic and keep my intrusive thoughts at bay.

“What if he tossed her overboard? What if she’s out in the ocean somewhere? Does she even know how to swim? How can I not know if my daughter can swim or not?” Archie started spiraling. I didn’t have time to reassure him, so I sent someone to take him back to the car.

While everyone was doing their best to convince me Winnie was fine and that she would be found, I caught sight of an unmistakable head of white hair slipping through the crowd and ducking through a gate marked employees only. I frowned and pointed in the direction where Ky had just disappeared.

“What’s over there?”

The harbor master followed the line of my finger. “That’s the drydock. Those are the boats that need repairs before they can go back on the water and the ones that are out of commission. We have someone patrolling the area regularly.”

“But it’s not on camera?”

“It is, but it’s motion-sensored and not part of the main feed.”

I grabbed Rocco, pointed to the businesses around the port, and ordered, “Find out if any of these buildings have cameras that point at the drydock. This is a major tourist hub. They should have full coverage for insurance reasons. If they do, ask for footage around the time Winnie was caught on the harbor camera.”

Before he could argue, I moved to follow Ky. The harbor master was hot on my heels, warning me to be careful and stuttering that the city wasn’t liable if I hurt myself poking around the broken boats. Every place I touched was covering in damp grime and goo. My hands were filthy, and there was mud splattered all over the hem of my pants .

The last time I was this dirty, I found out there was a whole secret passageway in my childhood home that led to secrets I couldn’t fathom. I was nearly blown to hell by the end of that encounter. I could only hope this one wasn’t as dire and dangerous.

It was dark even with the lights from the city casting a hazy glow. Everything smelled like the sea and felt oppressively damp. It was oddly silent, even though my heart was pounding like a drum and breath wheezed heavily in and out of my lungs.

I was listening for any sign of life and sidestepping rotten wood and misplaced tools. I called myself all kinds of crazy for following this kid, but something told me he understood more about desperation and fear than I ever could.

I was just stepping around the first boat and flinching as an unidentified liquid leaked onto the back of my neck when I heard Ky shout, “I’ve got her!”

I had no clue if he knew I was following him or if he was calling for help from anyone, but I ran faster than I ever moved in my life toward the sound of his voice.

From one of the most dilapidated boats, the teenage boy emerged holding my unconscious niece. Her head lolled loosely backward, and her arms flopped around like she was a broken doll. I heard the harbor master on the radio shouting that she’d been found. I rushed to Ky and hurriedly took Winnie out of his arms. Her face was dirty, but I could see her chest moving in shallow breaths. The flood of relief I felt nearly took me to my knees.

“How did you find her so fast?” I didn’t mean to sound accusatory, but there was no hiding the disbelief in my tone .

Ky stared at Winnie; his mouth pulled into a flat line. “I know a lot of kids who break in here and party. No one ever goes inside the boats. It’s close to the water. I started to think about where I would hide on a boat that’s not so obvious. This is the perfect spot.”

“Why didn’t you mention the drydock earlier?” I turned and hurried with Winnie in my arms to the waiting paramedics. Ky followed behind but kept a bit of distance.

“I didn’t think of it until I started to head to the port. It was a lucky guess.”

I didn’t have to decide if I believed him or not, but I told him, “If you want to know about your biological parents, I can help you. If you want to know where your adoptive father ran off too, I can tell you that as well. I don’t know how to repay you, Ky. But I can tell you that knowledge is power, and the more you know, the more dangerous you get to be.”

All my focus was on Winnie as a swarm of first responders rushed to her aid. The teenager didn’t respond. Ky slipped away when all the attention was placed on Winnie. By the time I was back to the port, the press had arrived, and a curious crowd gathered. It was a growing spectacle, and whether Ky had colluded with Channing’s father and successfully led me around by the nose for the last few hours was the least of my concerns. Even if the kid was out to get me for some imagined slight, in the end, he did right by my niece, which said more about his character than all of his shady actions leading to her rescue.

I looked around, but Ky was nowhere to be found. I figured solving the problems he presented or making major amends could wait for another day .

The paramedic told me Winnie’s vitals were fine, but she was obviously under the influence of a powerful narcotic. One of Rocco’s guys brought over a bundled-up Archie, and the camera flashes that followed were blinding. Everyone had been waiting with bated breath for the first sighting of the resurrected Halliday.

My younger brother asked without saying a word if he could be the one who rode with Winnie to the hospital.

Since all of this started with his unstable belief that I wanted to take his place in Winnie’s life, I let him go without a fight.

I stared at the hordes of reporters and the sea of cell phones recording my lowest moment for their entertainment. Everything was stained blue and red from the flashing police lights. It all felt surreal and so unnecessary, like it was a scene in a movie and the eager audience couldn’t wait to see what came next. I’d never felt more human and stripped bare of every privilege. I was beyond tired of sharing my every triumph and tragedy with an unforgiving world. I was ready to live like everyone else and share my secrets with only the people I loved the most. I was sick and tired of having the things that hurt me be on public display.

I put on my game face and prepared myself to pretend I was godlike one final time while I handled what was, hopefully, the last time my family was on the brink of destruction.