Page 44 of Traitorous Lies (Prey Security: Charlie Team #6)
Chapter
Twenty-Two
When two men with guns ran into the study, Jax lost it.
One of the men must have hit Cassandra because the view from her camera was suddenly coming from the floor.
Monique’s camera remained steady, which meant she was still on her feet, but he’d seen the other man approach her and didn't have to have a vivid imagination to know that she currently had a gun held on her.
“We have to get in there,” he ground out, already heading toward the house.
“We can't, not yet,” Cade said in that infuriatingly calm tone that his oldest stepbrother seemed to be a master at.
How could Cade be so calm?
How could any of them?
Even if they didn't care about Monique—and he knew that they did—their sister was in there.
“We have to,” he snapped, a thread of panic obvious in his voice. “He’s going to kill them.”
“Not yet,” Cade said, voice still even like this was no big deal.
“He can't kill them here,” Cooper said.
“Not if he doesn’t want to get caught,” Connor added.
“He has to be smart enough to know that even if we let Cassandra and Monique come here alone, we wouldn't let them go without knowing where it was they were going. If they turn up dead, we’re going to be going after him publicly, and he can't risk that. He is going to kill them, but he’s not going to shoot them dead in his study at a property owned by his family, because forensics would prove where they died,” Cole elaborated.
“Look, listen,” Jake said, indicating the tablet he was clutching in his hands.
“What are you doing, Dad?” Monique’s strained voice came through the comms. “Men with guns? Really? One of them just knocked Cassandra unconscious. What do you think you're doing? Are you really going to stand there and watch your own daughters be murdered? Your own flesh and blood?”
“My daughter and her friend are going to tragically pass in a car accident right down the street. So sad, I was going to be visiting with my daughter after her ordeal in Paris,” Samson Kerr said, and from the look on the older man’s face, he would feel no remorse for ordering the death of his own children.
“They know, Dad. They know that you're Cassandra’s father. Do you really think they’ll believe that?” Monique asked. “They’re not stupid. DNA tests will prove Cassandra is your daughter, and this whole lie you’ve been living is going to come crashing down around you.”
“They don’t have any proof,” her father snapped.
“Oh yeah, we do,” Connor said, drawing Jax’s attention away from the tablet.
“It was there?” he asked, somewhat incredulously.
On the flight, they’d all discussed Monique’s mother, and what kind of proof she could have discovered that proved her husband was a rapist. They’d wondered if maybe she’d kept something hidden, or made copies of whatever she had, something that, if stumbled upon, would be enough to alert whoever had found it of her husband’s crimes.
Monique had come up with a spot on the grounds of this property that she thought might have held enough significance for her mother to hide evidence there.
The spot from the photo.
The picnic in the woods with the balloons and bubbles that he’d recreated for her yesterday.
Monique couldn’t articulate why that photo had been one she’d clung to over the years, only that, for some reason, it had always been in her room, and she hadn't been able to get rid of it even though she was angry with her mother.
“A folder, inside a box, buried right where the picnic blanket would have been. There’s a letter to Monique in here as well, along with what looks like copies of a calendar, along with a key that explains all his codes.
There are a few items of bloodstained clothes, and some other things as well,” Connor explained.
“So we have enough to destroy him?” Jax confirmed, because that was the only thing stopping him from running into that building and saving the woman he was madly in love with.
“I’d say that along with the footage from Cassandra and Monique’s cameras we have more than enough to bury him,” Cooper said.
Still, they all looked to Cade for the final say. With a young daughter to care for, the oldest of them might have asked Cooper to step in and lead Charlie Team, but they all knew that Cade was the head of their family.
Giving a single nod, Cade started for the house. “Let’s go and end this once and for all.”
Not needing any more urging, all six of them took off toward the house. They’d already combed the grounds before Monique and Cassandra arrived, and neutralized half a dozen threats. They knew two more, three including Samson Kerr, were inside, possibly more.
Since they knew the layout of the house, they entered through a side door that led into a pretty conservatory, close to Samson’s study.
The house was quiet, and while Jax would love nothing more than to just go bursting into the room, he held it together and kept his cool.
Or at least as much of it as he could manage.
Monique was in there, and he’d already acted rashly once and wound up hurting her, he had no intention of doing it again and risking her life in the process.
“I gave you a choice, Monique,” Samson’s irritated voice boomed. “You made it. You decided to side with outsiders instead of your own father.”
“My own father, who had my mother killed, who used me as a bargaining chip, and would easily have killed me too. Who almost got me killed in France, and then again at my rescue, and who is currently standing there doing nothing while someone holds a gun to my head,” Monique said, her voice strong and confident, and he was so very proud of her.
She was holding it together, gathering every bit of evidence she could so her father would pay for what he’d done.
“I didn't ask you to side with those lowlifes,” Samson spat.
“Lowlifes? They’re not the ones who went around raping who knows how many innocent women, and they’re not the ones who have killed to cover it up. You think you’re better than them just because you have more money? You're nothing. Nothing but a run-of-the-mill criminal.”
The sound of flesh hitting flesh was the last thing Jax heard before he shoved open the door and all hell broke loose.
Both the guards in there turned and moved to fire, but Connor took out one, and Cooper the other, before any bullets could come flying their way.
Samson Kerr reacted quicker than any of them could have expected, pulling out a weapon and grabbing Monique, yanking her up against his body and using her as a human shield.
“This is who you're siding with over your own family?” Samson sneered.
“Don’t talk that way about them, they’re good, honest men.
Loyal and protective. They make mistakes sometimes, but they own them and try to fix them.
” Monique’s gaze met his, and in them he read her forgiveness.
“If you're going to kill me, then they’re going to kill you. It’s as simple as that, Dad, and I’ll take my last breath happy knowing that you finally got what you deserved.
I’m glad Mom saw the truth in you, and I'm so proud of her for doing something about it. ”
“You always were so much like her,” Samson snarled, in what he clearly thought was an insult, but Monique smiled.
“Thank you. I’m glad I'm not like you,” she told her father.
“We have your wife’s proof,” Jax informed Samson, and panic flared in the older man’s eyes.
“Plus, both your daughters were wearing wires. We have all of this recorded. There is not a chance in the world that you are getting away with any of it. You raped my stepmom, and then when you realized there was living proof you had her husband’s team ambushed just so you could have her set up as a traitor. ”
“For once in your life, do the right thing,” Monique said softly. “Tell them the truth. They deserve it.”
“It’s over either way,” Jax said. Both of Samson’s guards were dead, and there were currently six weapons aimed at him. He had no training, and while he could kill Monique if he wanted to, all it would get him was six bullets to the head.
Slowly, the weapon pressed to Monique’s temple lowered. “All she had to do was abort the baby, and none of this had to happen,” Samson said, the reality of his situation seemingly beginning to sink in.
“I didn't deserve to die for your mistakes,” Cassandra—who had looked like she was unconscious—yelled as she snatched up the dead guard’s weapon and stood, firing at her biological father and hitting him right between the eyes.
Ending a quarter of a century-long nightmare with a single bullet.
Samson dropped, and Jax was by Monique’s side before she hit the floor beside her father, sweeping her up into his arms and burying his face against her neck.
It was over, Samson was dead, his words enough to clear his father and stepmom’s names. They were all safe, no longer tied to the past, no longer living, looking over their shoulders, waiting for the next attack. No longer spending every waking minute searching for the truth.
For the first time in almost two-thirds of his life, he was free.
The only thing standing between him and the future he craved was his own mistake. Monique forgave him, but was she willing to give him another chance?
November 14 th
6:18 P.M
Twelve hours.
It felt like a lifetime had passed, but in reality, it had only been twelve hours since she and Cassandra were sitting outside the gate waiting to drive down the driveway and confront their father.
Now he was dead, at Cassandra’s hand, and they were all back on a plane heading for the Delta Team property to reunite with the rest of the Charleston Holloway family.