Slenderman Read online

  Chapter 15

  Overcast and rainy February flowed into March that fluctuated between cold and warm as if trying to shake off winter. Jo lost hope of ever finding Lucy. Fear had seeped into her family. Rian and Evan were so paranoid about Lucy coming to kill them in their sleep, the two had barely left the house. Lisa, Rhys, Jo and her family had tried everything they could think of, but the boys weren’t budging. They still went to GlenCare since they felt that was secure, but restaurants, shopping, or the movies were out.

  To find a balance, Joseph worked with them every other day on hand to hand. While he taught the boys, Juliette and Jo’s family helped by taking Lisa and Charlotte, the new helper, to the gun range. Jenna had beefed up their security so it couldn’t be hacked from outside and hired two new guards that monitored it and patrolled the grounds.

  All of it provided peace of mind for Jo and Rhys but not for Rian and Evan. But for her life moved on and one of the most challenging meetings of her life was today. Her nerves were getting the best of her with her dry mouth and churning stomach that felt like a Tilt a Whirl on speed. The closer they came to their destination the more she struggled to find her calm.

  “You’re quiet over there,” Rhys said, taking a right deeper into downtown banking district.

  “Just nervous.”

  “Why?”

  They had needed to kill time after their bank trip this morning and had gone to their favorite bistro where they had dragged their lunch out as long as possible. Even with lunch lasting more than an hour, they would still be early. Jo lifted the coffee and took a sip as she formed an answer. “I don’t know what to expect, I’ve never been to Joseph’s house. Do you think it’s done in silver and black with guns and grenades?”

  “I don’t think his guns and grenades will be displayed, otherwise guests could walk out the door with them.”

  She was more nervous about going to her father’s house than going to the bank this morning. Seeing how much Rhys was worth had left her gasping for breath and reeling when he’d put her name on everything. Every account, every piece of property, and into the will to watch after Rian should something happen to Rhys. To be trusted with his brother had brought tears to her eyes. The money was just numbers on a screen to her. A lot of them, sure, but they held no value next to Rhys. After everything was signed, notarized, and the attorney had his secretary witness the papers, Jo had passed him the prenup to file as well.

  The entire experience took most of the day, but Rhys had been adamant he wanted it done before the wedding.

  She took a gulp of coffee trying to settle her nerves as they turned into the private drive. A large gate loomed in front of them and was quick to open the second their car pulled up to it.

  A few deft turns and Rhys parked in front of an intimidating fortress. The structure reminded Jo of a prison from the outside. “Bio-dad knows how to roll out a welcome.”

  “I think it’s more about security. There are no blind spots.” Rhys gestured to each corner where cameras perched on the roof. “No windows that would allow someone to breach, except the small ones at the garage and front door.”

  Jo’s gaze swept the entire area. Other than the front door and garage there weren’t any other distinguishing features. An expanse of green stretched at least a hundred yards to the left and the right but there were no bushes or trees to mar the view. The gray and white four-story building loomed over them. Jo stepped from the car and met Rhys at the sidewalk. Lacing their fingers together, they walked to the door.

  Before they touched the doorbell, Joseph was there. “Come on in. I thought you two would sit in the car for another hour.”

  “We weren’t in there that long.”

  “Not yet.”

  He turned on socked feet and headed deeper into the house while Jo shut the door behind them and then followed Joseph. It was odd to see him so relaxed. White socked feet and his salt and pepper hair sticking up in tufts as if he’d run his hands through it repeatedly.

  “Do you want something to drink?” Joseph asked stopping in an archway separating the kitchen from the den. “Wine? Beer? Cola?”

  “I’ll take a beer,” Jo said, taking in her biological father’s home.

  “Same.” Rhys settled on the couch.

  The inside was vastly different from the outside and nothing like Jo expected. There were no weapons in sight, just warm and inviting earth tones with splashes of mustard yellow and deep burgundy. Masculine while not being overwhelming. Floor to ceiling glass faced an inside courtyard that was full to bursting with flowers, a Japanese cherry blossom tree, and other greenery. Paths wound into the middle with arching bridges over a small pond. Unable to see much as the sunset and shadows draped the garden in darkness, it looked like a place to explore later. If she were invited back. Turning back to the den, a gas fireplace taking up the entire wall between the front door and the den drew her eye. The large mantle held row upon row of pictures. Curious, she moved closer, wondering what photos Joseph would showcase.

  “Rhys,” she barely pushed the gasp of breath past her constricted throat.

  Her fiancé was there immediately. “Holy cow, Jo. Are those of you?” He lifted the frame that held a picture of her between her mother and Pop as she held up her high school diploma. The next was of her graduation from the police academy. A few when she was younger. One at her kindergarten graduation and another at a birthday party.

  “I never knew he was there.” She touched each frame as they stood amidst her half-sisters’ pictures. There were several of a woman resembling an older version of Juliette.

  “You weren’t meant to know,” Joseph said from behind them.

  Rhys set the picture down, took his beer, and headed for the archway. “I’ll go help Jenna with dinner.”

  Jo turned to face her father. “You were at all of these events, but you never came to congratulate me? Or give me a hug?”

  “My job was dangerous. I never wanted you in the line of fire.”

  “And yet you have three daughters that live with you. Grew up with you.” She gestured at the other photos.

  “Not by choice.” He dragged a hand over his shadowed jaw. “Karma didn’t come to live with me until she was eleven. Jenna’s only lived with me off and on until the last few years.”

  “Juliette?”

  Joseph lifted his glass of deep red wine and sipped. The silence stretched before he finally answered, “I married her mother, and when she died, all I had left was Juliette.”

  She saw the devastation in Joseph’s gaze and winced. That had been her when she’d learned Rhys was shot and hanging by a thread in ICU. Jo remembered nothing after those words were uttered. It was if her world had imploded until he had woken up and looked at her. “You must have loved Juliette’s mother a great deal if she was the only one you married.”

  “More than life.” Joseph swallowed another mouthful of wine. “I tried to forget her a few years after she died. It’s how Jenna came into this world. It didn’t work. Luckily, Patricia is smarter than both of us. She’s a lot like Maddy. But hearing all this isn’t what you came to talk about.”

  She moved to the overstuffed leather saddle-colored couch and sat. “No, I wanted to ask if it bothered you that I call Carl, Pop.”

  It wasn’t all she wanted to ask but one of the top questions that had bugged her. But she’d been worried about the answer and of hurting this man’s feelings. Stoic and cold though Joseph was he wasn’t unfeeling, she only had to watch him with Rian and Evan to see how much he cared. Now seeing pictures of her growing up mixed with his other family pictures hit home how much they’d missed by not connecting before.

  “Nah, he’s been more of a father to you than I ever was and I like him. Maddy chose well. Don’t see why you needed to drive three hours to ask me that.”

 
“No.” She tipped the half-filled bottle of beer back and forth between her fingers. Nerves tightened in her as she gathered her courage. “I wanted to ask two things. One, if it would be okay to call you Dad, and the second if you would maybe want to walk me down the aisle.”

  She couldn’t look up worried about what she would see. Would he reject her? Or ask her to call him Joseph? After everything that had happened through the past few years, she realized she wanted a relationship with this man. Not friends. Not acquaintances, but as a father and daughter.

  “Look at me, Josephine.”

  She shook off her doubts and met his gaze. It was so eerie to see the icy depths reflected back at her.

  “You can call me Dad as long as Carl and Maddy are okay with that.” He cleared his throat his eyes overly bright. “As for walking you down the aisle? It’d be my absolute pleasure.”

  Not wanting him to misunderstand, she shook her head. “I’ve asked Pop to walk me too.”

  “Oh. Well, I can sit with—”

  “No, I want you both to walk me. I talked to Mom, and she said it’d be fine. To be safe, I talked to Carl about it too over the holidays. I wanted to talk to both of you together, but you didn’t come—”

  “Too many people.”

  She smiled. “Yeah, Carl has a lot of family.”

  “He was okay with me joining you two?”

  “Yes.”

  Carl had been happy to see her attempting to build a relationship with Joseph. He was big on family, and the more, the merrier was his adage. Jo still had a lot to learn from all of her parents.

  Joseph’s smile was blinding.

  “Oh Jesus, Dad. No smiling. It’s creepy since you don’t do it often. Go back to the blank mask or the scowl,” Jenna stated as she set a platter of cheese cubes and a mixture of vegetables on the table.

  Joseph frowned at the platter. “Where’s the meat cubes?”

  “You don’t need those, Dad. Your cholesterol was elevated—”

  He raised his voice to Jenna’s disappearing back. “That’s elevated which doesn’t mean it’s dangerous.”

  “No meat.”

  Jo’s eyes widened. “We’re not having meat for dinner?”

  “Welcome to the hell that has become my world. I’ve not had meat in a week.” Joseph grumbled as he stabbed a toothpick into a cherry tomato and shoved it in his mouth.

  “What’re we gonna have to eat?” she asked in a whisper. Thank God she wasn’t put on a diet.

  “Vegetable lasagna,” Jenna called from the kitchen.

  “She heard that?”

  “I did. I have a hidden mic in there as well as a camera just to keep an eye on things,” Jenna said.

  Joseph winked, and Jo smiled as she stuffed a cube of cheese into her mouth. No way was she getting on her scary cyber sister’s side.

  “Now tell me about this woman who killed Rian’s friend and stabbed Evan and somehow disappeared off the face of the earth.”

  Jo choked on her beer. “I can’t do that, Dad.”

  Jesus, how did he know about Lucy? Rian and Evan probably spilled everything they knew to the man since they had a lot of hero worship going on where Joseph was concerned.

  “No worries, I’ll get Jenna to give me the details.”

  “What?”

  “Oh, did I forget to mention she was hired by the FBI and Interpol to track the psycho down?” Joseph pointed at Jo. “If you’ll start me out, I’m sure I can find her with my contacts.”

  “But,” she tried to figure out where she’d lost control of the conversation, and it dawned her. She had never had it to begin with. “You’re retired. You work with Juliette in bail bonds.”

  He shrugged. “With our skill set we’re never fully retired, and I’ve already put in to help since this one is personal.”

  “You can’t kill her, Dad.” Jo tried to keep the tremble of fear from her voice. Joseph could be vicious when crossed. She had found that out after her kidnapping at five.

  “Oh, I won’t. Just going to find her and hope she’s in a country with crappy jails. Like China. Did she kill a Chinese national?” A fire lit the icy depths of his eyes.

  “No, why?” Jo rubbed her temple scrambling for how to divert the train that was Joseph when he was on a mission. “Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.”

  “Dinner’s ready,” Jenna called.

  “Thank God.”

  “Now I can quiz you and Jenna together,” Joseph stated, standing and striding toward the kitchen.

  It wasn’t what she meant at all, but she couldn’t share that as it’d blare over Jenna’s hidden mic. Jo stood and put on her professional mask and prepared to be interrogated. Just like eating dinner with Carl’s family whenever she was involved in an exciting case, they had grilled her like a steak quite a few times fishing for tidbits.

  ~ ~ ~

  The Hole was the same as ever. Two televisions set on sports channels, Charlie behind the bar prepping orders, as Marcie and another waitress wove between booths and tables taking orders. Blue-collar workers mixed with a few white-collar workers laughing, drinking, and eating whatever pub food they’d ordered. The smell of alcohol and fried food combined with day-old cologne from the button-down men near the far television and motor oil from the group of men near the bar dressed in the uniforms of the car repair shop down the street. Jo liked it when some things stayed the same.

  “Are you sure this is where you want to be for your Bachelorette party?” Terry asked, doubt in her denim colored eyes.

  “Yep. This is where I met Rhys, and it’s where he asked me out for our first date.” Memories of their first conversation near the pool tables made her smile. It had been awkward and surprising when he had pointed out that her sister, Karma, had let her win in their sparring match.

  They had returned as a couple several times both to watch their friends play tournaments and just to hang out with their group before heading to dinner somewhere.

  “Good enough for me, sister,” Karma said leading the way to the pool tables in the back. A snort from Karma froze Jo as she shook her head.

  “Jesus, you two belong together.” Jenna pushed past them and slid up to the high-top bar attached to the wall.

  Rhys looked mouthwatering in well-worn jeans that hugged his ass and legs. A blue BPD shirt Jo had given him last year stretched across his chest and showed his tightly muscled arms to perfection. Why were they in a bar when she and Rhys could be in the hot tub at home? Or better yet, their bed?

  “Get you ladies something?” Marcie asked, jarring Jo from the fantasy of a naked sweaty Rhys.

  No thinking of him naked . . . yet. It was her last night of ‘freedom’ as Jenna continuously reminded Jo. Not that she considered marriage to her dream man a prison sentence. Far from it. Forcing her mind to the present, Jo was glad when Karma answered for her.

  “Beers.”

  “On the house, Marcie.” Charlie came to rest in front of Jo. A beaming smile stretched across his weathered face. Tufts of white hair stuck up around his head and barely covered the bald spot in the back.

  Tugging Jo into a hug. “He’s been here all night. Wanted to be where you two made your first date.”

  Jo laughed. They really were on the same wavelength. She hadn’t wanted to go to a strip joint and watch young, muscled guys grind away on the stage. It wasn’t needed since she had Rhys. Oh, she still appreciated a fine ass and muscles, but it wasn’t what she wanted to see unless it was him doing the grinding.

  “Are you and Stella still coming tomorrow?”

  “We wouldn’t miss it,” Charlie called over his shoulder as he headed back to the bar.

  Karma shook her head. “I still can’t believe you invited him.”

  “Charlie?
” Jo asked confused.

  “Yeah.”

  Marcie handed them their order and bustled across the room to another table.

  Jo shrugged. “I’ve known him longer than I’ve been on the force. He’s one of Pop’s fishing partners for the competitions.”

  “Hey boys, how about girls versus guys?” Jenna shouted as she meandered to the pool tables.

  Rhys’s head jerked up and his gaze latched on to Jo. She grinned as he jogged over.

  “What a great surprise.” He leaned down to kiss her but missed when Karma dragged him back by his belt loops.

  “None of that lovey-dovey crap tonight. Tonight is about bachelors and bachelorettes going head to head in a pool tournament.” She tugged him to the pool tables. “You’ll have plenty of time for kisses tomorrow and on the honeymoon.”

  Abe, Redden, and Ian strode over with refills for the men. Ian pointed a bottle to Karma. “You’re on, but be warned I was a champion snooker player.”

  Karma squinted at the man. “The only snooker I know comes with a doodle at the end and tastes yummy.”

  Jo groaned. “Seriously?”

  “What?” Karma batted her icy blue eyes feigning innocence. “We’re allowed to make all sorts of jokes during a bachelorette party that has to do with balls and sticks . . . or so I’ve read.”

  The rest of the women laughed while Jo pointed her bottle at her sister. “You get me in trouble before the honeymoon, and you’ll be on Bieber duty.”

  Maker squawked. “Hell no.” While Karma looked around. “What’s a Bieber?”

  “I’ve got Karma for a partner,” Terry called. “I’ll fill her in on Bieber and his fannettes.”

  Jo gave Terry a thumbs up while Abigail and Jenna headed for another table chatting about tomorrow.

  “Guess that leaves you and me,” Juliette said, going to the cue sticks in a stand near the far wall.