Guard of Honor by Tracie Delaney

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Honor fiddledwith the strap on her purse during the short journey back to her townhouse, lost in thought. Mack parked, cut the engine, and captured her frozen hands, rubbing them between his.

“Let me kick it off. By all means, if you have questions, then ask, but I’ll lead, yeah?”

“Okay.”

Her voice came out so small and lost, and he wished he could wave a wand and make all this shit go away, but only finding out the truth would do that. He couldn’t call how this would go down. Would Lizzie deny everything or spill the truth without any pressure being applied? It wasn’t as if he could use the interrogation techniques he’d learned during his time in the Royal Marines, but what he did have in his arsenal was the ability to drill for answers without relenting. One way or another, Lizzie would explain what the fuck was going on.

Mack opened the front door and motioned for Honor to go in first. He checked his surroundings out of habit rather than any concern and followed her into the house, locking up behind himself. He poked his head into the living room. It was empty.

“Wait in here. I’ll go fetch my iPad.” He took off upstairs, returning a minute later. “You seen her?”

Honor shook her head. Mack stepped back out into the hallway. “Lizzie!”

She appeared from the kitchen, her hands covered in a dusting of flour.

“Wash up, Lizzie. I need a word.”

Her eyes moved past him. When she saw he was alone, she glared. “I don’t work for you. I’m busy.”

Spinning around, she returned to the kitchen, kicking the door closed behind her. Mack went after her.

“Honor is in the living room. She needs to talk to you.”

“You said that you wanted a word.”

“Oh, I do. And so does Honor.”

She scowled at him, rinsed her hands under the faucet, and then dried them on a towel. “Very well.”

Honor rose to her feet as he appeared with Lizzie trailing behind him. She clasped her hands together in front of her and cleared her throat.

“Sit down, Lizzie.”

Lizzie fired a glance over her shoulder at Mack, then faced Honor. “You weren’t with your dad very long. Is everything okay?”

“No,” Mack barked. “Everything is not okay. Now sit the fuck down.”

Spine erect, Lizzie perched on the edge of the couch. Honor remained standing. Her eyes met Mack’s across the room, and she nodded. Mack took the spare seat next to Lizzie. She bristled. He’d have laughed at her reaction if this weren’t so serious.

“I want you to watch something,” Mack said.

He tapped on the screen, navigating to the correct folder. Lizzie sat rigidly, her hands folded in her lap, her expression impassive. A nerve beat in her cheek, the only tell that she felt a lot less calm on the inside than she was showing on the outside.

She only had to watch a few seconds to know that her actions the previous evening had been caught on camera, the evidence indisputable. But she carried on staring at the screen as the video played, right up to the point where she finished destroying the pictures and calmly walked out of Honor’s bedroom.

Mack set the iPad down beside him and sat in silence. Honor had paled, as if she might throw up at any second. Lizzie stared at the floor.

“Well?” Mack snapped after a few silent seconds scraped by.

She turned her head, her eyes hard. “What do you want me to say?”

“I don’t want you to say a fucking thing to me. I do, however, want you to tell Honor the truth. All of it, Lizzie, or so help me, you will live to fucking regret it.”

She returned her gaze to the floor. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Lizzie, please.” Honor dropped onto her haunches in front of the housekeeper. “What’s going on? I’m so confused. Are you behind it all? Was it you all along? I thought I was going crazy. I was terrified that I’d end up in an institution, and yet there was nothing wrong with me, was there? All I want to know is why you did it. Why me?”

“Why?” Lizzie snorted. “You want to know why? You’re so privileged. So lucky. You have no idea what I’ve been through.”

Mack rolled his eyes. Screw this. Everyone had a sob story. Difficult childhood, orphan, blah fucking blah.

“Tell her what the fuck is going on, or so help me God, I will force it out of you. I already know the truth, so there’s no point in trying to bullshit your way out of it.”

“If you know everything, then why ask me?”

“Because she deserves to hear it from you!” Mack roared. “We both know you’re responsible for it all, but what we don’t know is why. This woman here”—he gestured to Honor—“deserves to know why.”

“I never wanted to hurt you.”

Lizzie spoke softly, her fists unfurling as her anger withered, her emotions changing at whiplash speed. Mack watched her like a hawk. He didn’t trust this bitch. Not for a second.

“It wasn’t about you. At first, I wanted you to pay, but then I realized you’re a victim, just like me.”

“Then who was it about, Lizzie?” Honor asked.

Lizzie twisted her head and stared out the window. “It all went wrong. So wrong. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. I had to make a new plan. And that was working. I know it was. All I needed was a bit more time. And then he came. He ruined everything. I didn’t know what to do.” She brought her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. “It isn’t fair. He has to suffer.”

Honor lifted her eyes to Mack’s. He shook his head. The housekeeper wasn’t making any sense. She was unraveling, and that made her more dangerous.

“Back it up, Lizzie,” he said. “What went wrong?”

Her head swiveled toward him, her eyes boring into his, and then she glanced away. “The kidnapping.”

The truth hit him with the force of an explosion at the exact time Honor grasped the horror of the situation. She turned wild eyes on him, then on Lizzie, and then back to him.

Launching upright, she cried, “No!”

Mack jumped up, grabbing her as she went for Lizzie. He wrapped his arms around her, her back to his front. “Easy, Red. I got you. Breathe.”

“I’ll kill you!” she screamed, kicking her legs out in front of her. “I’ll fucking kill you!”

Lizzie didn’t move. She didn’t respond to Honor’s rage, didn’t make a run for it. She just sat there, staring into space.

Eventually, Honor calmed down enough for Mack to risk releasing her. The second he did, she bent over, hands on her knees, her breathing coming in gasps.

“Why, Lizzie?” she croaked. “I don’t understand. You kept me there in that hole for seventeen days. Seventeen. What did I ever do to you?”

“Nothing. You didn’t do anything.”

“Then please, please, Lizzie, tell me why.”

Mack stuffed his hands into his pockets. If he didn’t, he might get the housekeeper around the throat and force her to speak. He’d pegged her early on for the misplaced items and shit, but he hadn’tseen this coming. All along, Honor had talked about a man taking her, yet it had been this slip of a girl. How the fuck had she done it?

“Did you have help?” Mack demanded. “Did you?”

An enigmatic smile lifted the side of Lizzie’s mouth. “Do you think I did?”

“I’m asking the fucking questions, not you.”

She raked her gaze over him. “You think that because I’m not some muscle-bound hulk that I’m not strong. I am strong. Maybe I had help; maybe I didn’t.”

She shrugged, and Mack’s nostrils flared while Honor wrung her hands, her expression distraught. He knew exactly where her mind had gone. If Lizzie had help, then maybe Honor’s ordeal wasn’t over, would never be over while a potential unknown assailant walked free.

“May I have a glass of water?” Lizzie asked.

Mack clamped his jaw tight. She was going to draw this out for as long as she could, making Honor suffer in the process.

“I’m losing my fucking patience, Lizzie,” he growled.

“It’s fine, Mack,” Honor said in a strangled voice. “I’ll get it.”

She crossed the room with surprising poise given the shock she must be feeling. The second she was out of sight, Mack gripped Lizzie by the shoulders and hauled her to her feet. He squared up to her, his face mere inches from hers. For the first time, fear flashed across Lizzie’s face.

“You listen to me, you little bitch. When she returns, you’re going to spill it all. Every fucking detail. You got me? No games, no stalling, you give it up, or trust me, you’re going to rue the day you pushed me a step too far.”

He shoved her, and she fell back onto the couch. Seconds later, Honor returned with a glass of water. She handed it to Lizzie, who took it, drank half, and set the glass by her feet. She rubbed her middle finger along her bottom lip, and her right leg bounced.

Mack cleared his throat, a warning that Lizzie picked up on. She shuffled to the edge of the couch and stared up at Honor.

“It was me. All of it. The kidnapping, the stuff to make you think you were going crazy. I was behind it all.”

“But why?” Honor asked for the tenth fucking time. One more and Mack was really going to lose his shit.

Her eyes hardened. “Because your father had to suffer.”

Honor’s eyebrows shot up. “Papa? Why?”

Lizzie snickered. “You really are clueless. I feel sorry for you.”

She smiled, but it was the way her lips stretched, almost in a sneer, that sent prickles racing across Mack’s neck. He had a bad feeling about this.

“Your father is my father,” she said, a hint of triumphant gloating in her tone.

Oh, fuck.

Honor sucked air through her teeth. “I don’t believe you. You’re lying.”

“Why would I lie?”

“I don’t know, Lizzie. You tell me.”

“Ask him.” She pointed her finger. “You ask him about my mom. You ask him right to his face to tell you about Annabel Smith.”

“You’re saying Papa had an affair with your mom?”

“Bingo.”

Lizzie’s smarmy grin grated on Mack’s rapidly diminishing nerves.

“I still don’t get it.” Honor rubbed her forehead. “If you’re his daughter, that means I’m your half sister. And if that’s true, then why would you hurt me?”

“To hurt him. I saw how he was with you, how he idolized you, and yet he tossed me and my mom aside so easily.”

“Maybe he didn’t know about you.”

Lizzie raised her eyebrows, her smile condescending. “You blind, stupid fool. Of course he knew. My mother told him as soon as she realized she was pregnant. She loved him so much, and he told her that he loved her, too, but that he couldn’t leave his wife, your mother, because she was so frail.”

“That’s true, though,” Honor said. “My mom suffered from ill health after I was born. Toward the end, she was bedridden.”

“I never said it wasn’t true,” Lizzie snapped. “He promised her that he’d take care of her. Promised her that she’d never want for anything. That I’d never want for anything. As long as she left his name off the birth certificate, then he’d continue to support her. But he lied. When I was eight, and you were eleven, my mom discovered that your mother had died years earlier, and yet your father had never said a word. He let her go on thinking that the only reason he wasn’t with her was because of your mom’s ill health. When Mom confronted him, he cut her off.” She slashed her hand through the air. “As easy as that. We were nothing to him. Mom worked three jobs to make ends meet after that. Her official cause of death might be cancer, but she died of a fucking broken heart. He did that to her. To me. The day I buried her, I started plotting my revenge. I thought it’d be difficult to get a job in his household, but it was easy. After that, I bided my time, meticulously planned every detail, and struck at the right moment.”

Honor covered her mouth with her palm, her head shaking back and forth in disbelief. Mack moved closer to her in an act of comfort and solidarity, as well as a form of protection. He didn’t fucking trust Lizzie.

“Smith is a fairly common surname,” Mack stated. “But a Charlotte Smith turning up to work for the Reids might be a red flag. That’s why you changed your name.”

Lizzie’s eyes flared, and then that smirk came at him again. “I suppose you think you’re clever. Yes, I changed my name. I took a gamble that a lowly position in a billionaire’s household wouldn’t result in background checks. Turned out I was right.”

Honor paced to the window and back.

“Why did you keep me down there so long, Lizzie? Why wait fourteen days before asking for the ransom?”

“Because I could.” Lizzie smiled maliciously. “At first, I wasn’t sure whether I’d let you live or die. Maybe I’d decide to leave you there to rot.”

Mack’s hands fisted at his sides. Honor wavered. Mack shot out an arm to steady her. She briefly touched him and dipped her chin in a silent “I’m okay.”

“Then the drop went to shit,” Lizzie continued, unprompted. “I didn’t care about the money. It was never about the money. It was only about hitting him where it hurt. Men like him, all they care about is money, status, power.”

“Why sixteen million?” Honor asked.

Lizzie hitched up her right shoulder. “I was two when your mom died. Your father could have taken us in, made a family with the four of us, but he didn’t. He lied and lied, and lied some more. He kept seeing my mom, using her, fucking her for the next six years, until she uncovered the truth. A mil for each year—from the time he lied to my mom until I became an adult—seemed as good a number as any. But when it all went wrong, I knew I’d never get close enough to take you again, so I made a new plan, one that, I realized, would hurt him far more than losing money.”

“To make me think I was crazy. Crazy enough to be put away in an institution.”

“Yes.”

She turned her gaze on Mack, hatred firing from her eyes. He stared back, flat, unwavering.

“And then you arrived.” She huffed through her nose. “Tell me, Mack, what was it about me that made you suspicious? Because you were, weren’t you? Right from the beginning.”

Mack hitched a shoulder. “Seen a lot. Done a lot. Not much gets past me. I didn’t trust you from day one, and every day after that, you only proved me right.”

“And that’s why you took her away from me.”

“Yes.”

“I fucked up.” She switched her focus back to Honor. “With the drawings. I should have waited longer, but when you came back from your trip, you were too… happy. I felt it all slipping away, and I panicked. This… rage boiled up inside me, and when I saw those drawings, I snapped.” She laughed almost maniacally and returned her attention to Mack. “The hidden cameras were a nice touch, though. Gotta hand it to you. I didn’t see that coming.”

Sorrow momentarily pricked at him. She was just a kid. A sad, lonely, bitter kid who got dealt a shitty hand. Then again, plenty of people got dealt shitty hands, but they didn’t kidnap and terrorize innocent women. The brief moment of pity melted away.

“Is someone still out there, waiting to get me?” Honor asked. “Tell me, Lizzie. You owe me that much.”

“I owe you nothing,” Lizzie bit back. And then her face softened. “No one is coming to get you. I promise.”

Her promise might not be worth shit, but something in the tone of her voice made him believe her. He suppressed a relieved sigh. First decent thing the woman had done. At least Honor could move on with her life without constantly looking over her shoulder and worrying that another aggressor was out there, waiting to pounce.

He removed his phone from his pocket, and Lizzie nodded in understanding.

“You’re calling the police,” she stated.

“Yes.”

She lifted her eyes to Honor. “For what it’s worth, I did like you. In the end, I liked you a lot. But I had to do what I did. My mom suffered, and he deserved to suffer, too.”

Honor’s shoulders dropped. “You know what the saddest part is, Lizzie? If you’d told me this in the beginning, I’d have believed you. None of this was necessary.”

She averted her eyes, her hands lying limply in her lap. “Telling you wouldn’t have made him pay.”

Mack spoke rapidly to the dispatcher, who promised to have uniformed officers there as soon as they could. It didn’t matter. Lizzie wasn’t going to run, and if she did, Mack would easily catch her.

Twenty minutes after Lizzie’s confession, Honor stood by the living room window as the police led Lizzie to the squad car, her hands cuffed behind her. As she went to get in, she peered up at Honor and smiled. The car pulled away, and Honor turned to Mack. Her face crumpled. He held her in his arms while she cried.

“I got you, Red. Always.”

She blinked up at him, her vision blurred. “Will you do something for me?”

“Anything.”

“Take me to see my father.”