The Lies That Shatter by A.V. Asher
Chapter Forty-Three
Mercedes paced the living room with her phone up to her ear. Alec had arranged a secure line to speak with Charlotte. The poor thing was heading into the last months of her pregnancy and needed some big sister love.
“The baby is lying on my bladder, so I have to pee every five seconds,” Charlotte grumped. “Oh, and I’m so hot all the time, I can’t sleep. I had to buy a portable air conditioner which I keep cranked up at all times. Luke lays next to me shivering and I sweat like a pig. And I feel like a turtle.”
“A turtle?”
“Yeah, a turtle. Like, once I lay on my back, I can’t get back up.”
Mercedes bit back a smile at her sister’s surliness. “Did you go get the pregnancy massage Alec and I gave you?”
“I did, and it was wonderful. Thank you. So good, I paid for another one later this week.”
“Oh, nice.” A little stab hit her heart. “I wish I could be there to help you.”
“Don’t you dare try and come here. You’re exactly where I need you to be right now, which is safe and with Alec.” Charlotte grunted like she’d just eased herself into a chair. “How’s everything going with Alec?”
Just thinking about the past few weeks with him sent a shiver down her spine. “Oh my god, Charlie, it’s perfect. He’s perfect.” The world had finally aligned for her, and she wasn’t letting go of it this time.
“That’s amazing.” Charlotte’s voice quivered. “You both deserve to be happy.”
“Charlie, are you crying?”
“Maybe a little.” She sniffed. “Stupid baby hormones. I only cry at happy things for some reason.”
“Well, it’s nice to have happy things to cry about, right?” Mercedes soothed.
“Uh-huh.” Charlotte blew her nose.
Mercedes braced herself for her next question. “Have you spoken to Ezra?”
“Yeah, he came by before he left town.”
“How bad does he hate me?”
“He looked a bit miserable, but he could never hate you.”
“I screwed up.” Lightning in the distant clouds caught her eye. “I sent him a bunch of mixed signals. It gave him hope.”
“So, are you saying that you wouldn’t have even considered Ezra if things had gone differently with Alec?”
Mercedes didn’t even want to think back to what her world without Alec looked like.
“I don’t know. I was absolutely wrecked and not thinking straight, but that’s not a good enough reason.”
“Sadie, it was always going to be you and Alec. Ezra knew that was a possibility. And you shouldn’t apologize for being with a man you love.”
“I know. And I don’t regret choosing Alec. How could I? But I feel terrible Ezra got hurt.”
“He’ll be okay. If you could forgive him for what he did to you, he can certainly forgive you for choosing the man you were always supposed to be with.”
“I guess,” Mercedes said, looking at her watch. “I better let you go. If you talk to Ezra again, will you let him know I’m sorry?”
“I will. Love you sister.”
“Love you too.”
Mercedes hung up the phone and looked out at the stormy skies. Nothing could make her regret loving Alec, but the fallout of her choices was tough to see.
“Sadie!” Alec called, excitement in his voice.
She turned to find him striding toward her, his computer in his hand. “You won’t believe what Declan just uncovered in England.”
Alec set the computer on the table. Footage from a security camera was frozen on the screen. He pressed a button and a familiar event began to play. Over a year ago, Jason and Adam Wilson had confronted the whistleblower Mercedes had helped hide. They tried to take her hostage. Mara Donavan had gotten free and sent Mercedes the damning evidence against Marcus Cooper on her phone before jumping into a nearby river.
Only this was a different camera angle than they’d ever seen before. The police had released all the security footage from around the square. But this was new. It was lower to the ground, above a neighboring shop’s door.
And unlike the others, it had audio.
The video started with Mara striding out of the alleyway and running right into Adam’s chest.
“Tim!”
Did she just call him Tim?
Adam grabbed her arm. “Hello, Mara. Been a while, hasn’t it?”
Then he leaned down and hissed so quietly, the video barely picked it up. “Send the package, then get the fuck out of here.”
She tried to wrench her arm away, but he held on. “Stop fighting me,” Adam growled loudly. “We’re going to take a little walk. Don’t make a scene, or we’ll make sure it hurts.”
“Fuck you and fuck Marcus. I’m not going anywhere with you. Help me! Please, my ex is going to kill me!”
Then she wrenched her arm away and ran off camera. Jason followed her, but Adam hung back, watching. The crowd had their attention on Jason and Mara, and Mercedes could tell when Mara had thrown herself into the river by the shouts of the onlookers. Adam let out his breath, then looked up at the buildings.
His gaze caught the camera. “Fuck.” Then he walked away.
The footage kept playing, but Mercedes was too stunned to pay attention to it. “What the hell did we just watch?”
Alec’s eyes were wide with disbelief. He held up his phone. “Dec? Cress? Are you still there?”
“Aye,” Declan said. “I about shite myself when I found this video.”
“How did you get it?” Mercedes asked
“Well, I went there to visit the little shop Mara worked at and questioned the owner. He was as tight-lipped as ever, but as I left, I walked the same route she did. I noticed a camera was set above the door of this other tourist shop. I went in and talked to the kid behind the counter, and he was there that day. He said after the woman jumped into the river, the two guys split up. Then a few minutes later, the big bloke came back, offering him two thousand pounds to take the camera down and get rid of any video footage of the incident.”
Mercedes looked at Alec. “So, what does this mean?”
“I think it means that Adam Wilson, aka Tim Barlow, let Mara go.”
“She called him Tim.” Mercedes stared at the screen in shock. “Mara was Marcus Cooper’s mistress for years. She told me that he kept her on a tight leash.”
“Aye, but Marcus Cooper had people who took care of things for him. One of those people was Adam.”
“So, you think they were involved with one another?”
“It’s possible. One thing we know for sure is they were in on this together. He told her to send the evidence to you, which means he knew how you and Mara communicated and how the evidence was stored. Then he got her out of there.”
All this time, Adam was protecting Mara.
“Think of how long Mara avoided Marcus and his men. How did she have the resources to stay hidden the way she did? We’ve always thought she might have had help. I just never thought it would be Cooper’s own man.”
“But that doesn’t make sense. Adam killed an FBI agent because he was desperate to get the evidence. He was so pissed when he figured out Alec had kept it.”
“That doesn’t mean he was trying to get it for Cooper,” Cressida said.
“But why tell Mara to send it to me, why wouldn’t he just tell her to run.”
“Because if Jason took Mara hostage, he would torture her until she gave it up. If she told them she sent it to you, their focus would be off her. Jason wanted to find you anyway.”
Mercedes shivered at the thought of what Jason would have done to Mara. “So it was to distract Jason.”
“Possibly,” Alec said. “So, what do we do with this?”
“If Adam’s been thwarting Marcus Cooper all this time, it’s clear he’s not on the same side. Adam was trying to hang on to that evidence for a reason. If we can figure out his motivations, we’ll know how to deal with him.”
“You need to pay little wifey a visit,” Cressida said.
“Absolutely not,” Alec ground out. “I’m not leaving Sadie alone and there’s no way I’m taking her anywhere near that man.”
Mercedes’s gaze shot to Alec. “What do you mean? We just got our first chance to figure out what’s going on. We should talk to her.”
“Sadie, he could be there, we wouldn’t know.”
“Well, actually,” Cressida broke in. “I may or may not already have access to a doorbell camera at her residence.”
“You can see her doorbell camera?” Mercedes asked.
“Perhaps,” Cressida said coyly. Alec pursed his lips and looked away. “Why don’t I review the footage and see if he’s been there. It goes back two weeks.”
“Go ahead and look,” Alec said. “But if he’s been there, we aren’t setting foot in that valley. Understood.”
“Gotcha,” Cressida said. “I’ll call you when it’s done.”
After Alec hung up, he sat with his fingers tented against his brow.
Mercedes sat next to him and pulled his hand into her lap. “Are you okay?”
“Aye, but I don’t like the idea of engaging a dangerous man whose motives are unknown. At least if I knew why he did things, we could anticipate his movements. Not to mention, he’s likely responsible for the attempts on your life.” His brow creased, and he squeezed her hand. “I’m honestly terrified of what might happen to you.”
“I’ve been scared for so long, Alec. I don’t remember what it is like to not be afraid. But I don’t want to wait for the next trial. I want to fight back now. And if that means we talk to a woman Adam may or may not be married to, then we should do it.”
“I’d feel better if Declan or Mason could come be with you while I take care of it.”
“Oh, so one of them can babysit me while you go out alone?”
He shrugged. “Exactly.”
Mercedes leaned in to kiss him. “Not happening, McKinley. You’re stuck with me.”