were fine and perfectly normal. But there were times that were just like the first. Except that each incident got progressively worse. He was verbally and physically abusive.” She fought to keep her composure as tears stung her eyes.
He patted her hand. “It’s okay, Sydney. Take your time.”
“What really changed things for me was not just that he was so awful to me. I thought I could handle that. Really I did. But it all came crashing down on me when he hurt my cat.”
“What?”
“I had adopted a stray cat. The cutest little black furry cat you’d ever seen. I named him Bach because I love classical music. He knew how much Bach meant to me. And one day he kicked him so hard, I knew he had to have injured him, and then he put Bach outside the apartment. I literally searched all night until I found him. I was able to get him into a special animal rescue that I worked with. They gave him medical care and thankfully he recovered. But I was devastated that he’d hurt such an innocent animal. That one act of violence against the cat I loved so much was actually what it took to convince me to leave. It was one thing for me to take his abuse, but when he hurt Bach, I knew I’d never be the same.”
“What did you do?”
“I got out. Right after I took Bach to the rescue, I ran away the first chance I got. I didn’t have anywhere to go, so I ended up driving to a town in the North Georgia mountains. I found a church, and they were able to help me start a new life.”
He looked over at her. “Sydney, I don’t even know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything.” She took a moment to steady herself. “That’s when I found faith. I also decided that I would never be a victim again. I started with basic self-defense courses, but that wasn’t enough. I saved up my money and got one-on-one training from a former marine who owned a gym. I also started working out to gain more strength. It was one of the best investments I ever made. I stayed in that town for about a year. I volunteered at the animal shelter because I missed Bach so much. But I still couldn’t adopt another cat at that point. I had to focus on myself and getting stronger. Make a safe place for myself before becoming responsible for another.”
“That makes sense to me.”
“I’ve never let another man into my life after that.” And she never would again. She’d made that promise to herself after she got away from the monster. Loneliness was a much better alternative.
Max reached out and gently touched her arm. “You can’t let one awful man ruin the rest of your life.”
“As you can imagine, the stress of this situation has brought back a lot of those memories, so you have to forgive me if I...can’t deal.”
“Yes, I understand completely. What you’re probably experiencing is a form of post-traumatic stress that has been aggravated. I’m so sorry you’re having to go through this, Sydney. If there was anything I could do to make it go away, believe me, I would.”
She leaned forward and looked him in the eyes. “I don’t want you to think I can’t handle myself. Because I can.”
“You’ve already more than proven that to me.”
“Thanks, but unfortunately that’s not even the real reason I’m telling you this painful story.”
His eyes narrowed. “What else is there?”
“My ex.” She took a breath, steadied herself. “He had close friends in the East River gang, and after I left I think he got more involved with them. Last I heard he was doing time, but I haven’t kept close tabs on him. I just want to make sure that I never see him again.”
“What’s his name?”
“Rick Ward.” She hated even speaking those words.
“I’ll need to run a check on him ASAP. Maybe he saw you in all of the local trial publicity,” Max said quietly. “Do you think he is actually a member of the gang?”
“I don’t know for sure, but’s it’s definitely possible. He didn’t tell me everything. He was pretty secretive about what he was doing and about his friends. I overheard a conversation one day when a friend of his came to the apartment. They were in the living room watching TV while I was making dinner in the kitchen. They were talking about some other members of East River. At the time I knew it was bad news, but I didn’t understand it was actually a violent gang. Although it makes sense now, because it wasn’t long after he started hanging around with those friends that he got so violent.”
“You did the right thing by telling me all of this, Sydney. But we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves. Let me do some digging and find out if he’s still in prison, and whether the FBI has any current intel on his connections to the East River gang.”
She swiped at a tear that threatened to fall. She never talked about this to anyone—except to God in her prayers. The only reason she had opened up to this man was because he’d proven that he was willing to put his life on the line for hers. And he deserved to know all of the facts even if it made her uncomfortable to relive the past.
“He’d have to be a big enough player in the gang for East River to take action on his behalf,” Max explained. “We can’t discount that as a possibility. But either way, East River is involved in the attacks against you. That much I’m sure of.”
“I agree, and I felt like I had to say something.”
“I’m glad you told me.” He knelt down beside her. “You’re looking a little pale. Why don’t you rest for a few minutes? Then we’ll go and get something to eat. Meanwhile, I’ll make the phone call to get the ball rolling on the FBI’s end.”
* * *
Max sat across from Sydney in a large booth at the Pikeville Diner, located right next to the inn. It killed Max to see Sydney look so worried. But with each passing minute she impressed him more. Her story of abuse broke his heart, but he had a tremendous amount of respect for her. Max thought men who abused women were the lowest of the low. He wondered how a woman like Sydney could’ve even met a man like Ward. But it wasn’t his business to pry into those types of facts. He had all the relevant information he needed to work his case.
He knew it had taken a lot of courage for her to speak up. Ever since he’d seen her wrestle the gun from the guy at the car, he’d had a feeling that something had caused her to get that self-defense training, but he’d had no idea that it had been something so bad.
What made matters worse was that if the threat to Sydney was purely from her ex-boyfriend, and if there was no connection to Kevin Diaz, then he was worried they might pull the marshals off her. That was one reason he was pushing the Diaz angle. He refused to leave her alone in harm’s way. His fallback position with Elena was going to be that regardless of the exact connection, she was a current target because of her testimony. If more than one person had a beef with her, then so be it. In his mind, all roads led back to East River. It was the common thread.
And now he was going to have to break some additional bad news to Sydney. She deserved to know the truth. “I got word back from the FBI.”
“And?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Rick Ward was released early from prison for good behavior last month.”
Fear flicked through her dark eyes. Then she looked down and back up at him. “It could still be a coincidence.”
“Or he could be working on behalf of East River. He gets revenge against you, and it solves the problem of your damaging testimony against Kevin Diaz.”
“Assuming he kills me.”
“I’m not going to let that happen.”
She pushed her plate away, leaving a half-eaten burger.
“If the gang figured out his connection to you, then they could exert pressure on him to go after you. Or vice versa. He uses East River resources