The man was Keith Hammond.
Danny had first met the man when Keith was a rising star in the sheriff’s department who liked to take out his frustrations on his wife, Celine Hammond. Celine had come to confession at Danny’s parish for a year, each time crying her shame. Her husband beat and abused her weekly.
Danny approached Keith after failing to convince Celine to go to the police. He took the deputy to a warehouse, bound him to a chair, and spoke to him plainly about his choice to inflict suffering on his wife. Keith had shown all the humility of a belligerent bulldog, but Danny was persuasive and the man had finally capitulated, realizing he would lose his life if he did not.
Unfortunately, Keith abused his wife again, and Danny would have ended his life then if not for Celine. Emboldened rather than deflated by his boast that he would beat her in spite of the death threat, she’d gone to the sheriff’s department and exposed their rising star.
The department offered Hammond a deal. If he stepped down and granted his wife a divorce, his secrets would remain safe with his employers. He agreed to their deal, however embittered, and Celine moved out of state six months later. Danny put the issue behind him.
Now Keith Hammond was back, evidently here to take Renee because Danny had taken Celine from him.
Keith stared at him over Renee’s head and a smile pulled at his lips. The hatred in his eyes could only be that of the devil.
“Take your hands off of her.”
Keith’s smile broadened. “It’s been a long time, my friend.”
Renee gasped and tried to spin free, but the man had a fistful of her hair. He jerked her back and backhanded her face.
“Stay!”
She twisted around, eyes flashing with terror. “Danny?”
Three of the guards lifted their rifles and trained the sights on him. It suddenly all made sense. Hammond was working with the warden. If they’d gone to such lengths, the end, too, was already orchestrated. Keith would hurt Renee, and the warden would push Danny to kill, testing him to his breaking point in an attempt to prove he hadn’t truly changed.
Renee’s face was white. “Danny?”
Keith’s hand flashed again, striking her face with enough force to knock her down. He let Renee drop.
Danny stood breathless, immobilized by indecision. They wanted him to rush forward in an attempt to save her. He couldn’t play into their hands so recklessly. He had to choose the moment carefully despite the terrible rage washing through his mind. He had to act with precision. How and to what end he was no longer sure, but there had to be a way. There had always been a way.
And if not?
Keith grabbed Renee’s hair and yanked her head off the floor.
“She has a new name for me, Danny. She calls me Sicko. Unless you care to stop me, I’m going to hurt her. Bad, my friend. Real bad.”
Danny’s heart began to stutter.
I was on the floor, held by my hair. My jaw ached and my lips were bleeding from the blow, but it was all made moot by the sickening violation I felt.
Every conversation between Keith and me pounded through my head. Revenge, Keith had kept insisting. One of Danny’s victims was obsessed with revenge, but I’d never suspected the victim to be Keith. Now it all came to me.
Constance had told me about Randell because they knew I’d go in search of the man who brought him down. Constance was working for Keith. The phone calls had come from Keith. The boy had been taken and mutilated by Keith or someone who was working with him. The two-day waits now made perfect sense. He’d needed the time.
Keith knew about Judge Thompson because Danny, sometimes telling that story to unnerve his victims, had shared it with him. Keith had somehow tracked Danny down, found him at Ironwood, and worked with the warden to get him transferred to Basal, where he could destroy us both.
Keith, not the warden, was the mastermind behind it all. Keith was Sicko.
Everything he’d done during the last ten days was to earn my trust and push me to the brink with nowhere to turn but to him. He wanted me in the prison, in his arms. I’d been manipulated, yes, but that didn’t temper my revulsion. I’d kissed him.
I lay limp on the floor, but something in me changed when I understood what Keith was trying to do. I couldn’t understand all of his reasoning or the depths of his fury, but I could understand that he was getting what he wanted.
He was crushing Danny. Right there, right then.
Two more guards stood in the doorway, both wearing sidearms. Danny had stopped ten feet in front of them, frozen, and I felt my heart breaking for him. I didn’t know what the warden had subjected him to, but I knew those eyes staring at me all too well, and I was appalled by the desperation in them. No man had ever suffered so much for all the right reasons.
And now his suffering was for me. I couldn’t let that happen.
With a ferocious grunt, I hurled myself away from Keith, twisting with all of my strength. His grip on my hair was firm and my head jerked back for a moment before it tore free, leaving Keith with strands spilling from his fingers. Then I was stumbling forward and running for Danny.
I went like an angel, rushing across the room to save Danny. I wasn’t thinking about anything other than comforting him. I didn’t feel any danger or anger or bitterness. I only saw my broken Danny, who needed to know how beautiful he was.
My intent wasn’t to crash into him. I really meant to be gentle and touch him with a soft hand, but I couldn’t seem to slow myself because the closer I got, the more anguish I saw in his eyes. The more I saw that he really was breaking apart, and I couldn’t bear the sight.
With a loud sob I plowed into him and threw my arms around his neck. His arms wrapped around my body and held me as tightly as I clung to him. I could feel his heart pounding in his chest, smell his skin, taste his sweat on my lips.
Danny was like a boy in my arms, unsure and crushed, and it ripped my heart in two.
“No, Danny…it’s okay, Danny. You’ve done well.”
His whole body, all 240 pounds of bone and muscle, began to tremble.
Terrified, I pulled my head back and gently took his jaw in my right hand. “No, listen to me.” His eyes were closed and his face was twisted with remorse. “No, no, Danny, listen to me. You did well. You saved me. You came for me.”
He was trying to stop, trying to be strong, but he couldn’t. Tears began to seep from his eyes. I’d never seen him so undone. What had they done to my Danny?
Or was it because he knew that there was no way out for either of us now? That he’d failed?
“I’m so proud of you. You haven’t failed me. You’ve done good.”
My words sounded hopelessly pathetic in the face of his pain, but I couldn’t bear to see him this way. I wanted to claw the warden’s eyes out!
I kissed his face and eyes and I tried to wipe his tears. “You’ve done everything for me, Danny, I know that. I love you. You’ve done well. You’ve done so, so well.”
He couldn’t speak, but he didn’t need to. I had never felt so much like a woman as I did then, holding Danny in my arms. He could have given me no greater gift than his tears, because it was Danny, you see, and now Danny had even given up his strength for me. Only a very great and mysterious love could reduce him to this. And in truth, it was no reduction at all.
The man in my arms was Danny at his greatest.
He loved me. I knew it then more than I had ever known it. Danny loved me and I loved him, and I didn’t care if I lived or died anymore. As long as I was his and he was mine.
But my heart was breaking because Danny’s whole life came down to knowing if he’d done well. If he’d done
