Page 16 of Echo, the Sniper (Men of PSI #2)

“I told you—Dane wanted me to go along with him to a business meeting.”

“So?”

I sighed. “Dane and my father were alike in one respect—a woman’s place was in the home.

Dane had never brought me along on a business meeting in the three years that we were married, except that one time he and Edward dragged me to some conference in the Cayman Islands last year.

I was kept at home, unseen and unheard, unless he wanted us to host a business dinner.

Secondly, Dane didn’t like military types, as I’ve mentioned before, yet he was actively pursuing Coates.

And third, my husband was very publicly neck-deep in legal trouble, with indictments piling up a mile high.

Maybe he was trying to act like business as usual, but I didn’t see how it was possible for him to snag any new clientele for his shipping business since he’d hemorrhaged the clientele he already had.

His import-export business was dead in the water, so this whole meeting made no sense to me.

It was almost like we were all just playing barely rehearsed roles in a badly staged play. ”

“Maybe your ex just wanted you there for emotional support?”

Ex . Funny how Echo always called Dane my ex. “I’d believe that if Dane had been capable of shame, but he always had the supreme confidence of a narcissist. In his mind, he could never do anything wrong. There wouldn’t be any reason for him to feel like he needed support from me, or anyone.”

“Then maybe you were a prop.”

“That’s the only thing that makes sense.

” I nodded, grimacing. Even from beyond the grave, Dane had a way of dehumanizing me, turning me into a thing instead of a person worthy of respect.

God, how I hated that. “It’s possible Dane wanted to sell Coates on the illusion of what a solid family guy he was, so he trotted me around this place like I was a show pony. ”

“I really fucking hate this guy,” Echo muttered again.

“Don’t waste your energy, he’s gone. Unfortunately, the mess he left behind isn’t. And now that I think about it, there might have been another reason Dane brought me to this final business meeting.”

I felt more than saw the searching look he shot my way. “What?”

“Coates mentioned Dane’s legal troubles only once. Dane’s immediate response was to grab me and pull me to his side, almost like he wanted to use me as a shield. I think he hoped Coates would be too polite to slam him about being a straight-up crook while in the presence of his wife.”

“Spineless shitbird,” Echo muttered, and I almost laughed. Shitbird. Now there was a new one. Too bad I wasn’t any good at cussing, or I’d use it all the time. “Tell me Coates shot him down.”

“Of course he did. Like I said, I’m not even sure why the meeting took place. It seemed fishy to me right from the beginning.”

“I’m sure everything that fucker did after he was caught red-handed was fishy. That’s probably why you’re feeling that way.”

“Maybe, but... I don’t know. The way Coates talked to my husband was borderline-contemptuous, even though he was obviously there to meet with Dane.

I had the impression Warrington Coates believed their meeting wasn’t supposed to even be about closing a deal on cheap overseas shipping.

It’s almost like Coates believed they were supposed to be meeting over something else entirely. ”

“Like what?” As he spoke, Echo’s eyes kept up a constant sweep of our surroundings, and I couldn’t help but be in awe. Never in my life had I met someone who was so constantly on the alert.

I seriously needed to give this man all the mocha he could drink.

“I don’t know. But I remember when we first met up with Coates, he looked at me like I was some sort of alien that had just dropped in from Mars.

Then he looked to Dane for about five seconds in utter silence before saying, ‘ Are you fucking serious? You want to do something like this in front of her?’ He definitely hadn’t been expecting me to be a part of their meeting, because then he said something about how Dane was a real piece of work, doing something like this in front of me. ”

Again Echo took his time absorbing that. “Do you know what Coates meant when he said, something like this ?”

“I didn’t ask.” I grimaced with a flash of self-loathing that wasn’t healthy or even remotely logical, but I couldn’t help it. There were times when I truly hated the woman I’d become. “It’s not that I wasn’t curious, I swear. It’s just... Oh God, this is hard to admit.”

“What?”

“Over the past three years, Dane... he, uh, trained me to never question him. To never question anything that was going on around me.” Shame bit me hard with its jagged teeth and wouldn’t let go. “You must think I’m the most slow-witted, uncurious person who ever lived.”

“I think you’ve got a top-tier mind that misses nothing, and your shitty ex was so threatened by that top-tier mind he browbeat you into silence,” he replied without missing a beat.

“But you never stopped thinking or trying to figure out what the hell was going on around you. He tried to shatter you, and I consider it a damn miracle that you’re not. ”

I nearly cried with relief that he couldn’t see how I’d tried to glue all my pieces together in the wake of my life with Dane. “You should have seen me right after Dane’s death. Shattered might actually be a good description for it.”

“I’ll admit, I don’t get that part,” he muttered, as I veered right, heading for the glass push-bar doors leading to the convention center’s lobby and banks of automatic doors that led outside.

“Why give a shit about that guy, Rory? You’re free now.

That death certificate fucking frees you from that maniac so you can do whatever you want. ”

“I went from my parents’ home to Dane’s,” I explained on a sigh, all the while knowing he wouldn’t fully understand.

“I didn’t know how anything worked—mortgage, car payments, utilities, taxes, you name it.

I was told by my dying father who hand-picked Dane to be my husband that I was safe with him, so I believed that even through the first time Dane ever hit me.

It was only when he began controlling my every move, to the point of cutting me off from all my friends and punishing me for daring to open an exterior door without permission that I began to realize I was in serious trouble. ”

“So why didn’t you just divorce that asshole and leave him a long time ago?”

The words hit me like invisible fists, uncorking the familiar flood of shame and inadequacy that I’d drowned in for years.

To fight it, I lifted my chin high so he wouldn’t know how deeply his words cut.

“From your point of view, I guess it does look like it’s my fault for not leaving an abusive husband.

Never mind that I had no one to run to whenever I thought about escaping.

Never mind that I had no clue how to stay hidden from him once I tried to leave.

And when would I go? He monitored every move I made, including every time I opened a door without his permission. I have the broken fingers to prove it.”

“I didn’t say—”

“What’s horrible about all this is I even understand where you’re coming from. Believe me, I yell at myself all the time for being so unutterably weak.”

“No—”

“The thing is, it’s hard to put into words how completely Dane worked at cutting my legs out from under me.

Every day he did things that convinced me I was helpless.

Again, something you wouldn’t understand.

I doubt you’ve ever suffered a helpless moment in your life.

You probably don’t know what it’s like to have someone threaten to break your kneecaps just because you came home from the grocery store a few minutes late.

I’d even wager no one ever promised to kill you if you ever tried to leave, and you know they’ll do it because what they’ve already done to you is right up there with murder.

You’re a man . You’re also military-trained for combat.

You’re the master of your universe, and hey, good for you.

I don’t begrudge you that one bit. But I can guarantee you that no woman who’s ever felt threatened by a man—even for a fleeting heartbeat—would ask me the question of why I didn’t just leave. Unlike you, they already know why.”

There was a terrible beat of silence. “Understood.”

I doubt it . “Okay.”

“I do know the death-rate statistics of women trying to leave abusive relationships.”

Bully for you, you can read . “Okay.”

“Also, for the record, I never said it was your fault for not leaving.”

You didn’t have to, asshole . “Okay.”

His sigh was rough. “Look, Rory—”

“This is where Dane, Warrington Coates and I exited the convention center.” I spoke over him as we moved through the sun-drenched lobby and out the doors next to the big blue bear.

“At this point, I was confused all over again, because we’d parked in the parking garage on Champa.

But the street directly ahead of us is 14 th Street.

Champa is way over there, on the other side of the convention complex.

” I waved a vague hand off to the left. Icy wind and brilliant sunshine scraped my cheeks raw as I moved out onto the large, cement pedestrian mall spread out between the convention center and the street.

It was a wide-open area built to host kiosk vendors of all kinds during events.

At the moment it was empty, save for us and a pair of joggers heading away from where we were.

A slow wave of dread crept up on me as I walked out into the sunshine, weighing my feet down and crushing the breath from my lungs.

Eventually I couldn’t help but grind to a halt, unable to take another step.

Icy waves of panic hit without warning, and I looked at the ground with the demented expectation of seeing a pool of blood.