‘You’re right. She listened, but it doesn’t sound like she could hear what you were trying to say.’

‘I realize that now,’ he said with a shrug. ‘I hadn’t slept in my bed since the police brought me home, and I couldn’t sleep that night either. I was worried about my mother, so later that night I went to check on her, but she wouldn’t wake up. My father wasn’t home and Gayle was still with Stone, so I called 911. They pumped my mother’s stomach, but she almost died anyway.’

‘Did you tell Gayle about your father that night?’

‘No. They took Mom to a different hospital than Stone, and since I’d been home alone with her, the cops took me with them. I heard one of them tell the other to be careful, that I was the kid who’d gone apeshit crazy and clawed up two uniforms a few days before. They even talked about restraining me, and I had a panic attack at the thought.’

‘No wonder. Stupid untrained sons of bitches,’ she muttered.

‘They felt bad when I cried like a baby and begged them not to tie me. They told me if I kept my hands to myself they’d leave me alone, so I made myself small in the backseat of the cruiser and didn’t say another word. They called Social Services and a caseworker came to sit with me at the ER. She was pretty and nice and I almost got the courage to tell her, but my father showed up and took me home. I was petrified he was going to kill me too, but he just told me to go to sleep, that my mother would be all right. The next morning I woke up and he was gone. He’d packed a bag and left my mother a note saying that he was going away for a few days, that he needed to clear his head after Matty’s funeral and find a way to forgive my mother for endangering his kids by defying him and calling in the FBI.’

‘What a prince.’

‘Yeah. What had woken me up was a noise in my mother’s room. I didn’t know I was home alone at that point, so I got up to look. And found the big scary guy from the funeral going through my mother’s jewelry box.’

Scarlett blinked. ‘Shit.’

‘I think that’s exactly what I said. He’d found the letter my father had left and was pissed. I was so scared I almost fainted, and the guy actually took pity on me. He told me he didn’t hurt little kids, that he only needed to find my father because he owed the guy’s boss a lot of money.’ Here, Marcus paused, hesitating. ‘I knew where my father went when he really wanted to get away.’ The words came out in a rush, and she could hear the quickening of his breath.

‘Something else you overheard?’

‘Of course. Plus, I’d been there. So have you.’

Scarlett frowned, then shook her head when realization dawned. ‘No way. The cabin in Kentucky?’ Owned by his mother, it was where Mikhail had been murdered nine months ago.

‘The very same.’ He’d grown quiet, hesitant, and instinctively she knew that this was what he hadn’t wanted to tell her.

‘You told the scary guy where to find your father?’ His silence was answer enough. ‘No one can blame you, Marcus. You were just a little boy and scared shitless.’

‘It would be so easy to let you believe that, but the truth is, I got really calm all of the sudden, because I believed him when he said he wouldn’t hurt me. I thought about Matty dead, Stone almost. My mother not safe. And I made a decision. I asked him if I told him where to find my father, would his boss leave my mother, me and my brother alone, even if he never got paid? He looked me in the eye and said that he wouldn’t hurt me but that he couldn’t promise what any of the other enforcers might do.’

‘Enforcers? This guy was with the mob?’

‘Yep. But I didn’t know that then. I did know that the two kidnappers had taken the whole ransom. I asked the guy how much my father owed his boss and he said about a million. So I told him the kidnappers had taken five million dollars. I told him if he could find the two kidnappers, he could pay back my father’s debt and keep the rest. He said he didn’t know where to look for the guys, so I told him he could ask my father about that – and I told him where I thought he could find my dad. He liked that idea because it was more than my father owed.’

‘He could pay your father’s debt and keep the four million for himself.’

‘Which is what I’m sure he ended up doing,’ he said quietly with a grim finality that said his story was finished.

‘So . . . what happened to your father? Did they find his body in the cabin?’

‘That’s what I expected to happen, but no. He was found in a hotel room in downtown Lexington three days later. Tied to the bed, shot with a nine mil, right between the eyes. It was set up to look like he’d been robbed by a prostitute – his wallet was empty and there were condoms all over the place.’

‘How do you know that?’ she asked guardedly.

‘I overheard the cops telling my mother at the time, but I also checked out the crime-scene photos years later. Freedom of information, you know,’ he added, his tone one of self-hatred. ‘My mother was devastated when the cops showed up at our door to deliver the news, and it hit me then exactly what I’d done.’

This was it. ‘What exactly did you do, Marcus? And I’ll tell you up front, if you say you killed your father, I’m not gonna take it.’

‘I set him up, Scarlett. I all but paid for his murder.’

‘Yes, you set your father up. But you were just trying to protect your family. You knew your mother and brother wouldn’t be safe until the debt was paid. So you thought of a way to get it paid. And you wanted to ensure that the plan would work, so you told the guy where he could find your father. You didn’t know the guy would kill your father if he found him. You didn’t tell him so that he could kill your father. You did it to save your family. Your father was the one who chose to get in touch with the mob in the first place. He deserved what he got.’

‘You’re bloodthirsty for a cop, you know,’ he said lightly.

His minimization pissed her off, so she pushed on his chest until he loosened his hold enough for her to straddle his hips and look him in the eye. The guilt she saw there made her madder.

‘I am not bloodthirsty. What I am is a cop who’s seen more death than I ever want to remember. I’ve seen too many assholes walk away scot-free. I’ve seen too many women dead because the system doesn’t work for them, because even though they followed the rules and reported their abusive SOB husbands and got restraining orders and begged for help, the law couldn’t help them until they could prove they were assaulted, and even then the bastards got out by morning and went home to beat them up again.’ She poked her finger into his chest. ‘You saved your mother’s life. Probably Stone’s and your own too.’ She poked him again. ‘You didn’t kill your father. You didn’t even put out a hit. You were eight years old and simply told the one person who’d listen what had happened to you.’ She drew a breath, her body trembling from the anger she was still holding in. ‘And if that one person happened to be a mob hit man, well, I consider that to be just a weird, ironically satisfying twist of fate.’

The guilt had disappeared from his eyes, replaced with the hungry look that drove her crazy. ‘If I told you that I think I love you, would it be too soon?’

Her heart clenched and twisted at his words, uttered in that smooth voice that made her even crazier. She took his face between her hands and touched her forehead to his. ‘Yes, but tell me anyway.’

His lips curved. ‘I think I love you, Scarlett Bishop. Or at least I’m well on my way.’

She had to remind herself to breathe. ‘Good, because I think I love you too. Even though you have a serious guilt addiction. We have to work on that.’

He kissed her softly, tugged her lower lip gently with his teeth. ‘Gonna repair me, Detective?’

She smiled at him as everything fell into place. I’m happy, she realized. And it feels so very nice. ‘No, because you’re not broken. Just a little banged up. Just like me.’