Page 98 of Return of the Bad Girl (Rock Canyon, Idaho 4)

They sat down on the couch, and Ellie continued, “He wanted me to dig up dirt on Dad, which is part of the reason I have that file of all his shady dealings. He said we’d be square if I gathered info and gave it to him, but I couldn’t. Dad may be a rotten bastard most of the time, but he’s still my dad. But when Dad started digging into Kyle’s past, he became obsessed with what Dad might know, and he . . . he started threatening me.”

“Is that when the beatings started?”

“When I told him I wasn’t going to spy for him anymore, he punched me,” she said, waving her hand over her face. “I think he liked hurting me.”

Caroline’s blood ran cold. “He didn’t . . . he never . . .”

Ellie seemed to pick up on what Caroline couldn’t say. “No, he never went that far.”

Caroline’s head was spinning. She had no doubt Kyle was capable of blackmail, but why would he do it? He wouldn’t really jeopardize his cushy life or his freedom for a little wounded pride and petty revenge.

Wait—this was Kyle. Of course he would. Because in his mind, he could never be caught.

“So why accuse Gabe?”

“Because Kyle said he wouldn’t stop until I agreed to press charges,” Ellie said, her voice shaky with tears. “And he just kept kicking me and screaming, and I wanted it to stop—”

Ellie’s voice broke as she released a choked sob. Unable to resist her sister’s pain, Caroline reached out and pulled her into her arms.

Kyle. Everything toxic in her life and the people she cared about came back to him. That was about to change, though. Kyle couldn’t get away with hurting her family. For trying to imprison Gabe and go after her father. Caroline’s body shook so hard with rage, she was afraid Ellie would think she was crying. She wasn’t crying, though. She wasn’t scared or cowed, not anymore. It was time for her to fight back, no matter what kind of shitstorm Kyle tried to rain down on her. This time, he was going to pay.

Pulling away from her sister, she looked into Ellie’s red-rimmed eyes. “Okay, Ellie. You and I are going to the police station.”

“Caroline, I can’t,” she said, her voice rising. “He’ll kill me.”

“No, he won’t, Ellie,” Caroline said, standing up. “Because we’re going to file charges and make sure he never gets out of prison. As it is, we have him on several cases of assault, extortion, rape—”

“But how? How are you going to prove what he did?”

“I’m going to have something for the police,” Caroline said, standing up and heading for the door. “You’re going to have to admit why Kyle was blackmailing you.”

“I don’t think I can do that! I could go to prison,” Ellie said.

Caroline resisted the urge to walk back and slap her sister. Reminding herself that Ellie was a victim and needed support, she said, “Sometimes, part of growing up is facing your mistakes and coming clean.”

“Yeah, I know,” Ellie said, starting down the stairs. “At least if it all comes out, I won’t live the rest of my life with the what-ifs hanging over my head, you know?”

“I know exactly what you mean.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Revenge is a dish best served cold . . . and with a slice of ha-ha, sucker!”

—Miss Know It All

CAROLINE MADE ELLIE wait in the car as she walked up to her father’s door, but she didn’t wait for Teresa to answer before walking inside.

“Caroline, what on earth . . .” Teresa started, coming around a corner.

“Sorry, Teresa, I just need something from my old room.”

“But all your things are in storage!” she called after her as Caroline climbed the stairs.

“It’s okay,” she said, going through the second door on the right. Teresa wasn’t kidding—all of her stuff was gone—but she was a little surprised that her father had left the room bare. What should have been a room of nostalgia and warmth was nothing more than four white walls protecting an awful secret.

Going into her closet, she knelt and pulled up the loose floorboard she had found as a child. Hidden beneath was a treasure box of keepsakes she hadn’t wanted her sisters rifling through, and . . .

A plastic bag with a knee-length dress, and her underwear from that long-ago night.