Page 199 of Lau Ahi
“If they didn’t let you speak to anyone what eventually landed him on their radar?”
I smiled at the way he was still thinking like an investigator despite his swearing he was ready to hang up his credentials. “His compound was raided. There were anonymous sources that claimed he was a pedophile and was caught lingering around a private very exclusive children’s school.”
“Was he?”
I shrugged because I wasn’t sure. It was a lie my father had come up with to force action. “I have no idea but the wealthy parents weren’t going to allow that to be the rumor and it not be investigated. The small village he lived in made it easy enough for the locals to be pressured into figuring out whether he had something to hide and poof, they received the all clear to go after him. What they found was much worse, though.”
“What did they find?”
“Bodies throughout his entire garden.” I attempted to remain detached but I couldn’t, as the visions of the dug-up garden and the body bags played in my eyes.
“Bodies?” He emphasized thesand I was sure the investigator in him had him running through his mind to link what he knew to what I was saying.
I nodded solemnly. “Literally everywhere.”
“Bodies.”
“Why do you sound so surprised? He was a cannibal. They were in his freezer, stored in his cellar,canned. They found traces of human flesh in just about everything inside his house. The pipes had stopped working because he had attempted to dispose of someone down the drain. They assumed that had to be an earlier victim and then he thought consumption was the better means of disposal.” I knew that Ori was pissed despite his not saying a word. His eyes had grown tight and he looked me over again and again as though to ensure himself I wasn’t one of the victims that had been found. “I always wondered if the consumption drove him or if his anonymity drove his consumption. He’d gotten so good at it that I’m sure he felt invincible. Women would go missing and there would be no evidence because—”
“He was eating it.” Ori spoke calmly but he wasn’t. The vein in his neck was now visible and he was having strong emotions behind what I was saying. The idea that he was distraught over this potentially being my fate wasn’t too far from my mind.
“Precisely. And now I’ll never know the answers to any of these questions and it drives me mad not to know.”
“Would it make a difference?”
“My brain says maybe. But probably not. A madman and his motivations are never going to be cohesive to what one deems normal in this day and age. Attempting to make it so is probably the first sign that I’m losing my mind so perhaps not knowing is the best course of action after all.”
“I hate that I can’t fix this for you.”
An admission of failure that I’d never thought would cross his lips had me staring at him as though I’d never seen him before. His desire to help superseded everything else.
I put a hand to his tanned cheek, tracing the freckles across his skin. “It’s alright. The fact that you want to, Ori, is comfort enough I guess. No one ever wants to fix this situation. At least not for me, emotionally. Everyone talks about fixing me as though I’m the one who’s broken. My father, as much as he tried, still failed. He failed the test when I came home with my body broken and beaten. My mother had already begged him to avoid the authorities, which is how he found me to begin with. But he failed when he agreed with her.”
“What was her reasoning?”
I laughed then cut it off abruptly as I got angry again. “She didn’t need a reason. She simply didn’t want to bear the embarrassment if something untoward had happened. Had I died she would’ve been the first one weeping over my grave, mourning her beloved youngest daughter whose life had been cut short all too soon. But being abused? Despite not being penetrated with a penis, there were a myriad of other things that entered my body, which meant that my ability to make a good marriage was tainted. Not to mention the way Brandt had cut me. A husband would notice those and have questions. I was now lacking perfection even more in her eyes. Then facing off and having to kill a man? An Englishman? Well, that simply would not do. Not in her social circle so she wanted it covered up. They had to come up with another reason I was behaving the way I was.”
“They made you the scapegoat.”
“They did. I can’t fault them too much because I went along with it—”
He squeezed my thigh forcing me to look at him. “Your mind was in a delicate state because of what you endured. You would’ve gone along with anything if it meant you had a semblance of safety. Knowing the little that I know about your mother is almost too much and I’m sure she would’ve threatenedyour stability in order to get you to comply. Compliance under duress isn’t real.”
“Well, she just knew I’d be alright and I kept my mouth shut because I didn’t want to hear her. Her voice, her antics. Her constant berating me and convincing me she knew what was best for me. The sight of her drove me crazy before, and it was only amplified afterward. And truthfully, I had Sasha to think about.”
Ori’s face shifted again, and his look was one of displeasure. “You’re really going to make me not like your sister and she hasn’t done anything wrong.”
I put my hands on my hips but knocked them down playfully. “You can’t dislike my twin, Ori. That’s not something I can abide.”
“Almost every move you’ve said you’ve made since the day your mother put the offer for the event in front of you was with Sasha at the forefront. Protecting her brand, keeping her reputation with the club promoters intact. Never a word about you and what you needed. Does she do the same for you?”
“I had no issue helping Sasha with her brand. She’s always wanted to act and be in the limelight but it wasn’t my desire. I’ve always helped her out where I could to ensure she could succeed. I take pride in helping her reach her goals because she would do the same for me. But my sister does whatever she can to protect me and defend me in her own way. I don’t expect anything from her—”
“When you almost lost your life because the two of you share the same face you damn well should.”
I pushed him in his chest because there would be no slander of my twin on my watch. “And how is that fair to her? To put a burden on her that she didn’t cause. She couldn’t control someone thinking that she was their destiny. A way to fixtheir impotence or madness or whatever the fuck Jason Brandt thought was wrong with him. I wouldn’t put that on her—”
He sat up swiftly this time not bothering to mask the aggression that he normally kept hidden around me. He wanted me to see how passionately he felt about me and protecting me in every way.
