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Serena lit up like a Christmas tree. “Oliver, that’s so thoughtful of you.”
It sucked to be shown up by my own doorman.
When the elevator started its journey, I asked the question I’d waited days to have answered. “What’s the deal with Harvey Fox?”
Pleading eyes looked back at me. “After dinner, please?”
Serena
I’d successfully putoff our talk—or rather my confession—until after dinner, but my time had run out. “This is really hard for me.” I sat on the edge of Duke’s bed and took a big breath, not sure how to start.
Duke settled beside me. “Do you remember what I told you about running from your fear?”
I nodded. “If I don’t face my fear, I’ll be a prisoner to it forever.”
He laid his hand on mine, and I grasped it. “You have a choice to make—prisoner or not, trust me or not.”
“That’s not fair,” I complained. “It’s not that I don’t trust you.” Until now, I’d kept everything about those events locked away as if they didn’t exist. Nobody except Lucas—and, of course, Fox—knew what had happened that day.
Duke gave my hand a gentle squeeze, pulling my attention back to him. “Then trust me with the truth.”
“Okay.” I’d placed my life in his hands. What else could I say?
“Start with why Harvey Fox would want to hurt you.”
Images raced through my mind from the courtroom on the day of his sentencing, his vow to seek revenge, and all the blood. There’d been so much blood. I took in a breath. “He might come after me because it was my statement to the police that put him in prison.”
Duke patiently waited for more.
I looked down at the floor, ashamed of what came next. “And because I killed his brother.” I felt Duke jerk when I said that.
“Start with what he was convicted of,” Duke said softly.
“Attempted murder.”
When I didn’t say any more, Duke asked, “Of whom?”
“Your brother, Lucas.”
I felt Duke’s breathing stop for a few seconds, as much as I heard the hitch in his breath.
His hand caressed mine. “And that’s how you know Lucas?”
I nodded. “Yes.” When I looked up, I didn’t see horror in Duke’s eyes, or judgment, even though I’d told him I’d killed another human being. That gave me the strength to go on. “I didn’t tell you because Lucas is the one who found me.”
“I don’t understand.” His words were slow, almost soothing.
“I was kidnapped.”There, I’d exposed the first secret. I sobbed as the memories of that dark room came flooding back.
Duke held me. “I can’t begin to imagine how terrifying that was, but you’re safe here. Nobody’s going to get to you. I won’t let them.”
He rocked me until I stopped sobbing. “Did Fox kidnap you?”
“His twin brother, Oscar, was the one who took me, but Harvey was part of it too. They’re identical twins, and they bragged about how that meant they couldn’t be caught. Harvey went around San Diego, changing outfits, credit cards, driver’s licenses, girlfriends, and cars, half the time pretending to be Oscar, and half the time himself so that they both had alibis.”
Duke nodded. “How long?”
“It was hard to tell time,” I said, stalling and debating what to say. “A day roughly?” It had been ten brutal days, but I couldn’t admit that. He’d ask about that time, about the rapes. I couldn’t have this man look at me like damaged goods, in addition to being a murderer.
