Never Tell Them, N.L. Hinkens [unputdownable books txt] 📗

clearly enjoying watching her struggle to catch up to the reality of the situation. But what exactly was that reality? And what did he mean by saying that he’d fixed up the cabin with her in mind? She needed to keep him talking—try and figure out what was going on in his head. “I still don’t understand, Finn. How did you keep up the child support payments without your benefits?”

He pulled a chair out from the table and motioned for her to sit down. She sank down in it gratefully, unable to stop the shivering that had taken over her entire body. Finn leaned back against the table, his cruel eyes skewering her. ”I told you I’d always provide for our daughter. I found a way.”

“How?” Sonia demanded. ”You’re obviously not working if you’re living up here. Did you steal the money or something?”

He gave a reproving shake of his head. “You never did have any faith in me, did you? Of course I didn’t steal it. I didn’t have to. Our delightful neighbor, Celia, was only too happy to help when I shared our plight with her. I fed her a sob story about how the assault charges that led to my discharge were bogus, and how much Jessica was going to suffer if I wasn’t able to provide for her.”

He leaned closer, his breath hot on her cold skin. “I also told her you would use it as an opportunity to cut me out of my daughter’s life entirely if I got behind on the child support payments, and how desperately I wanted to patch up our family. Celia offered to give me the money. She was very fond of Jessica. I think she took pity on me because she knew what it was like to have an estranged child she never got to see. I used to call her every month—she liked that. I told her to say it was Tom if anyone ever asked.”

Sonia stared at him, appalled, her brain grappling to take it all in. “You were taking money from Celia Jenkins to support our child?”

“See, that’s precisely the reaction I expected you to have.” Finn cocked an amused grin. “I warned Celia not to mention it to you because you wouldn’t accept the help. I told her my brave military wife would be too proud.”

Sonia shook her head in disbelief. “How could you? Were you the one who stole her purse that time too?”

Finn smirked. “Stupid cow left it sitting out in plain view on the kitchen table with the door unlocked. What did she think was going to happen?”

Sonia glared at him. “The child support was only $1100. What did you do with the rest of the money?”

A sly grin spread over Finn’s face. “I knew old Celia wouldn’t last forever. I’ve been building a nice little nest egg so I can take care of you and Jessica. You see, when Celia showed me the coordinates to her son’s cabin and asked me to find him, I realized it would be the perfect spot to move my family to. I befriended Tom and took over this abandoned cabin. I cleaned it all up and patched the roof, and even added on a room so I could build a bunker beneath it.” He paused and gestured to the door that led into the smaller room. “I’ll show you around your new digs in a minute. “Anyway, I told Celia I couldn’t find Tom—that he’d moved on and hadn’t told anyone where he was going. I knew he would have a good chunk of money coming to him once Celia passed, so I planned on getting his signature giving me power of attorney over his inheritance.”

“Where … is Tom?” Sonia stammered, dreading the answer.

Finn gave a mockingly sad shake of his head. “Ray killed him. Couldn’t stand to share the inheritance with him. I heard them fighting over it. A shame, really. I liked the guy.”

Sonia’s breath came in short, sharp bursts as she tried to digest the information quickly enough to keep up. Conveniently, Tom was dead. She had no doubt Finn had somehow orchestrated that, despite what he was telling her. But where was Ray, and how did he play into this? Maybe he’d found out that the transfers had been going into Finn’s account all along and he’d come here to confront him.

Her blood ran cold when it occurred to her that Finn had had plenty of time to prepare for their arrival. He might even have watched Ray get out of her car and followed him up to his brother’s cabin. Had he killed him too in a bid to get his hands on the rest of Celia’s money? Her heart sank when she thought of Henry and what it would do to him if anything happened to his father. “Where’s Ray?” she asked, in a jittery whisper.

A cunning smile spread across Finn’s face. “He’s on a mission to save poor little Katie Lambert before it’s too late. He knows who the bad guy is who took her.”

A cold chill crept slowly over Sonia. So if Ray hadn’t abducted her, was Finn behind that too? “You know where Katie is, don’t you?”

“How perceptive of you, my love. I’m afraid Ray’s going to be extremely disappointed when his gallant rescue mission comes to a screeching halt.”

Sonia lunged at Finn, dragging her nails across his face and drawing blood. “Is Katie dead? Were you and Tom in on this together? Did you kill him to stop him from talking? Did Ray find the driver’s license in Tom’s cabin?”

“Whoa! So many questions,” Finn said in a mocking tone as he shoved her back down in the chair. “Save them, for now. I’m going to track Ray down and let him know you’re safe.” He let out an amused chuckle. “Then I’ll offer him a generator to charge your car battery. Of course, he’ll have to come back to the cabin to pick it up.”

“Finn,