Chapter 63

At the command center, the phone in Brian's pocket rang. It was Eddie. Brian's heart gave a thump. "What's wrong?" Brian asked

"Man," He said, "Me and Sarra think maybe__"

The phone fumbled and Sarra came on." Brian, Get Abby! You have to get Abby out of there, all of them_"

"Sarra calm down. Tell me what hap__"

"He is going to burn Abby. Get her out of there, Brian, Please!"

"I am Sarra, I am doing it." To Phil he waved a hand. " Call Jacksonville. Make sure Abby is OK."

"No, no that is not enough!" Sarra heard him. " You have to get them out of there. She will burn! Brian. She will burn. There is going to be a fire___"

Brian didn't know what to do. He was frozen, helpless, thirty miles from the safe house and further than that from Jacksonville. And Sarra sounded like she was cracking up.

Phil was on another phone, contacting Jacksonville surveillance. Saying something about Abby and the Fisk. Then nodding catching brian's eye. " There OK." he said. " They are at the Fisk's house."

There is going to be a fire....

Maybe Sarra had a nightmare about fire. It couldn't have been Brandon, if he called Sarra and threatened a fire, they would have had a trace by now. There couldn't really be a fire.

"Sarra, honey, We call Jacksonville. Abby is OK."

"That is not enough get them out!"

He thought about it for one more heartbeat, then turned to Phil, who still had the phone in his ear. "Tell them to clear out the house."

"What?"

"Evacuate. Call the fire department."

Phil didn't question it again, everyone else in the room stood silent, hardly breathing.

"We are doing it Sarra." He heard a sob, felt her hysteria reach through the phone lines and grip him by the throat. A minute passed, then another and another, then finally Phil  was listening to something again.

"They are out," He said. "Two adults, Two kids. They are in the cruisers now."

"Sarra." Brian said. "Abby is in a police cruiser. The Fisk too. They are all OK. There is no fire."

Sarra collapsed into tears. Normal tears. They sounded like tears of relief.

Eddie came back, "She is OK man. Upset, but she is ok now." Brian closed his eyes. " But Fuller?" Eddie said. "I think you better come see this."

Stard went with him, worried about Sarra's frame of mind, the rest of the task force kicked into high gear arranging for a safe house for the Fisk family, except for Phil, who's dad gene kicked in. Brian heard him on the phone with Nancy, asking her to pull together some toys they could send to the safe house.  Stard had decided that Abby should join Sarra there. The condominiums where Sarra was now being housed were as safe as anything, and just in case  Jacksonville's net had been contaminated, they all agreed it would be good for Sarra to have Abby back. God willing, the dog would wander back soon, too.

When they got to the condo, Sarra was pacing, her arms crossed. Eddie intercepted them.

"She is not nuts agent Stard," He said shortly.

Stard was insulted."I never suggested she was___"

"No I mean there is a reason she wigged out. Wait till you see."

Brian strode across the living room to Sarra. She looked fragile and small to him again, yet when he touched her the steely round of strength pulsed through.

"Abby?" she asked on a thread that barely surfaced as a voice.

"I just got off the phone with the Jacksonville team. They are all in their cars. Its taking them awhile, cause they sent decoys. will make some switches. But Abby is on her way here, and the Fisk's are being taken to another safe house. Your sister in law called her neighbor and asked her to put out food for Justice, and watch for him."

Sarra actually smiled, It made Brian's  heart melt a little more. ' So, what is going on?"

She reached into a flower box Brian hadn't even noticed. She pulled out a doll. A child doll, an antique.

Scorched

"Ah shit."

"A kid came by," Eddie said. " Some English dude paid him to deliver it. Your name was on the order."

Brian pulled Sarra into his arms. Christ she thought Abby was going to burn. "She is OK Sarra. There is no fire."

Sarra returned his embrace then pulled back. "There is something else," she said. she showed him the dismembered Hannah doll and the scroll. Brian's gut clenched.

"Listen Brian." Sarra was saying " You know how I said these dolls reminded me of a set known as the Larousse dolls?"

He didn't but he shrugged.

"I think this doll is one of the Larousse's. I don't know how Mrs. Chadborne could have gotten her hands on it, but we need to check with someone in the Larousse family or their insurance records. I swear this doll came from there collection. And maybe some of the others."

"OK, honey, OK. That's good. We will find out. At this moment, Brian didn't care. He was looking at two new dolls, wondering about Brandon's pattern.

He tugged his cell phone from his pocket, still holding Sarra in one arm. He fumbled with the numbers, calling, Dean.

"Hey Fuller I was just calling you,' Dean said." Eddie___"

"Hold it. Sarra got another doll. I am sending it in with Eddie___"

"Fine". Dean interrupted. " But you need to come back, too."

"Why?"

"911 call just came in. Phil Mead's house is in flames."

Nancy and the kids weren't home___Brian received that blessed news as he sped back. Nancy had done exactly what Phil asked and gathered up some toys for Abby then piled all the kids in the car and was bringing them to Phil so they can be taken to the safe house. By the time Brian arrived on the scene, The mead home was a hollowed out shell of charred wood and bricks, fire fighters pocking at pockets of still smoldering ash, an arsonist investigator searching out the source of the fire. Gasoline trail, it looked like, all around the porches, front and back. Simple. Effective. Any teenager could do it, and as a police lieutenant, Phil had enough enemies that it wouldn't be hard to cough up a list of suspects.

But they didn't need a list of suspects.

Brian got out of his car. The kids had been taken inside a neighbors home and Nancy stood in the street clutching herself, staring at what remained of her home. Brian opened his arms to her, then stopped cold at the sheer of her horror that wrenched her features.

"He is not with you is he?" she whispered.

Brian froze. He glanced at the house, back to Nancy, then at the driveway. through the barricade of emergency vehicles. Phil's car was partially visible. Brian's throat closed. The sedan was dumped over the the curb at a careless angle, trunk hanging in the street. The drivers door stood open.

"Oh, God no...."

"We weren't here," Nancy whispered through trembling lips. "We were out delivering toys, but he must have thought__"

"No man...."

A shout went inside the rubble. Brian stared as three fighter fighters jogged inside to answer the call. Two of them came back a minute later. They fetched a stretcher and a body bag.

Nancy sank to her knees.

Brian dropped down beside her, and she grabbed his shirt as if she was drowning. Her sobs were like a meat hook in Brian's chest, But there wasn't nothing compared to the sight of of the kids filing off the neighbors porch, a woman behind them bobbing up and down with the baby. The boys inched up behind their mom, a gurney wheeling past, and Nancy let go of Brian and her arms opened up to them. He backed away, and a cop in uniform drifted up beside him. " Got to kill that mother Fucker now," He said beneath his breath. " Gotta kill him."

Brian did what he could, which was fucking nothing, for Nancy and the kids, staying on the phone with Quantico. Confirmation of the day's breakthrough wasn't long in coming. Chaborne didn't exist.

It hadn't taken long to figure out once Chadborne's  identity had been cracked. She was registered in attendance at all the exhibitions on the same weekends Brandon took days off from work. At the Dallas show, Chadborne had maligned Daniel Waterford and cultivated a relationship with Sarra, who was only too willing to save a novice buyer like a poor widow from a shark like Waterford. On and off for the past year, Sarra had spoken to Chadborne in person and on the phone, never knowing she was talking to Brandon James. Even Brian crossed his path with him, twice at Sarra's house.

With Phil..

Grief welled up in a tidal wave, and Brian almost went under. He held it back with rage so sharp he could taste it, Hot and sour on the back of his tongue.

Gonna Get you know bastard...

At midnight, when Phil's kids were finally asleep and neighbors nursing Nancy, Brian drove back to the safe house. He dismissed the interior guard and went upstairs, not hesitating to push Sarra's bedroom door open and look inside. Abby and Sarra were there, curled together spoon fashion. Brian's eyes blurred as he bent down to kiss Sarra's temple. The Abby's.

Sarra stirred.

"It's me, honey. I am back." He'd tell her in the morning about the fire. He didn't think he could go through it right now.

"I am glad you are here,' she whispered She pressed Abby a little closer. "Abby was dying to see you."

"Soon." He paused, then shook loose the words that were lodged into his throat. " I am not leaving again. I am staying here with you now."

The realization made him sway on his feet. To Hell with Sarra's secrets. To hell with his ego. None of that mattered. Nancy had convinced him of that tonight, without speaking a word, just by clinging to his shirt and weeping for her loss.

Brian tucked the covers over both pairs of shoulders and forced himself downstairs. He stood in the shower for fifteen minutes, the hot water mixing with tears, then emptied his brief case onto the coffee table. Through the paper. Again. And again. The key to catching Phil's killer was here. somewhere.

He looked up. Not because of a sound or even movement. It was just....a presence.

'He." He stood looking at Sarra. "You OK? Did you have a nightmare?"

"No, No. I just...Well I wanted to talk to you. I hope it isnt to late."

She wasn't talking about the clock, he realized, and ten kinds of tenderness flooded him. "It isn't too late." He said  his throat tight. "I am still right here."

"UMMMM..I have been thinking, and I think I figured it out. I know what you want from me now."

Brian was almost afraid to move."It doesn't matt__"

"You want the rest. You want it all."

Her voice cracked, as if the words themselves were cutting her in two. Guilt clawed at Brian chest. Jesus he didn't need for her to do this now, he was sorry he'd ever demanded it. He didn't need to rip out her heart and expose every last shred to him. He'd take her heart just the way it was, all wrapped up in pride and Independence. Even secrets.

"You don't have to tell me anymore."

"I do, It might help you understand whats driving Brandon. And....It might help you decide how you feel about me."

"I already know how I feel about you." He said, but when he glanced at her hands, they were wringing the flesh of the bone. His heart crumbled. "OK sweetheart tell me what is tearing you up inside."

"I..I promised Adam I would never tell. I swore to myself I would never tell___"

"That Abby is Brandon's biological daughter?"

She froze, dumbfounded. "Y-You knew?"

"I had the lab check hair from on of Abby's hair bands." Brian was careful his voice low and calm, but the rage climbed up him. " Brandon raped you the night he killed Chaney. He got angry after Amy died, hit you with his gun, and raped you."

There was no color in her face. It took a full minute for her to say anything at all."How?"

He stepped closer. "Things didn't add up. The way you wouldn't talk about the moment after Brandon hit you with his  gun. The way Adam convinced you not to go to the police, like there was something more to hide than a accidental shooting." He looked at her left cheek at the pale white scar that had been needle stitches and instead of being treated with band-aids and lies."The way you flinched when.."

"When what."

"I came in your room when I heard you having a nightmare. I touched you and you just about came out of your skin." He could still feel the white hot fury that had gripped him when he realized what Brandon done to her. When he realized she was still afraid. Not just of Brandon, but of him. " And I knew you had a reason for not giving us Brandon's name the first time we talked. There was only one thing I could imagine so important that you would risk handling Brandon yourself rather than let it out. Keeping Abby from ever knowing who her father is. Keeping the Fisk family from ever knowing."

"They still can't know," she whispered. "If his parents knew Abby was..."

She shook her head as if trying to understand it herself. " Look, in the Jane world, it is about blood lines, reputations. Unimpeachable character....Those are the things that matter."

"Unimpeachable character?" Brian had to repeat her words to believe she really just said them. "It is a flaw in Abby's character that she carries Brandon's blood? It was a flaw in your character that you had been raped by a lunatic?"

Her puzzlement hit Brian like a two ton wrecking ball. In one brutal second, he understood. He heard of it before. Abused women taking the blame for their husbands tempers, people stricken  with serious illnesses feeling guilty about being sick. rape victims their attacks was their fault.

Jesus, he had been blind, stupid son of a bitch. "All these years, that is what you believed. wasn't it?"

Tears collected along the line of her lashes, glowing like quicksilver. "Adam always said, I mean, I know it was an accident, but I did everything wrong."

"What did you do wrong?"

"If I didn't call out when I first saw Brandon. If I hadn't just walked into the woods when he told me too. If I hadn't attacked him , or if I did it sooner..."

Brian stared, astounded that she could spin hindsight so casually. Everything she did was wrong; everything she didn't do was wrong. "Is that what Adam told you?"

"He was a lawyer, he knew how it would look."

"You didn't do anything wrong, Sarra. Adam should have helped you deal with it. Not make you bury it. Jesus, you should never have to carry this around for seven years." He had the strange desire to pummel a man who was already dead. "The rape isn't something you caused, Sarra. It does not define you. It doesn't define Abby either."

The quicksilver ran down her cheeks. "Brandon James is her father."

"He is her sperm donor. Abby doesn't have a father." He paused. "But she could."

Brian met the surprise in her eyes with a gaze steadier than he expected. The image on Nancy's upended world wrenched through him. The most desperate, clawing need to love and care for Sarra and Abby rubbing against his grief. "I have told you before, there is more than one person in the world willing to help you. There is more than one man in the world willing to love you and father Abby."

Her voice was a whisper. "I wasn't sure you would still want me. Adam never t-touched me again. And when I turned up pregnant..."

She paused, but Brian was speechless.

"He wanted me to have an abortion. Oh god. Brian," she was nearly choking." I almost did it. I went to the apt. and everything. But I didn't go through with it. Then Adam filed for divorce."

That stupid unfeeling son of a bitch. Brian tamped back the rage and closed the distance between them. "I am not Adam." he said, as certain of his nest words as he had ever been in his life. "And I want you. I want you in my bed, and in my brain and in my blood. and I want to go to sleep every night holding you and wake up every morning making love to you."

Brian scooped her up and carried her to the spare bedroom, kissing her firmly enough too make her stop trembling, gently enough that she knew he would honor her body with tenderness. He took his time with her body, bringing every nerve to life. And Sarra returned each stroke and kiss and caress with rising passion. When the moment came when he nudged between her thighs , he kissed her.

The since of freedom was astounding, the response of her body a source of continuous, intoxicating amazement. The legacy that had stripped her of her sexuality and her woman hood dissipated. slowly and steadily.

Afterwards she lay there in a daze, sated, her breast glowing as his tongue curled lazy circles around her ni**ple."I should get upstairs." she whispered, touching his hair.

"Mmmm." He released her ni**ple and dragged his lips lower scorching a path down to her ribs, her belly.

"I don't want Abby to find us together." she croaked.

"Then you better keep your voice down."

His hands slid beneath her hips, and his mouth made that first shocking contact. She made a sound in her throat, and he lifted his head." Is this when you tell me to stop?"

"God, no," Sarra muttered.

She woke up in the wee morning hours, her body oddly boneless. Beside her the bed empty.

She sat up blinking, Brian stood at the window, staring out at the darkness. She walked over to him."Brian?" She whispered and he turned to her. The look on his face backed her up a little."Oh god, What is it?"

He told her about the fire, and Sarra's heart seized with pain. She hurt for the lieutenant who had taken care of Abby. She hurt for the four children who lost their father, and the warmhearted woman who loved him.

And her heart nearly broke for the man who had been Phil's friend and colleague and brother in law. A man who followed Sarra back to bed and wept in silent tears onto her lap as the rain began to fall, the world weeping with them...

Damn that is super long almost killed me I will upload Brandons pov later tonight hope ya like... Very sad about Phil but its part of the story.... Vote Comment Fan...