“I’m glad. It’s just a shame he couldn’t be here.”
“I know,” he says sorrowfully.
"I didn’t want to bring it up before, so soon after the funeral, but I need to know everything, everything you know about Payn.”
Kyle nods, standing up, offering me his hand. “Follow me.”
I take a deep breath before taking his hand, letting him lead me into his office. He guides me over to the desk, and I take a seat in the leather office chair.
He opens a draw to the right of me and pulls out a thick brown file and places it on the desk in front of me.
“This is the file the private investigator I hired gave me five years ago, this is why I accused you of snooping that day, I didn’t want you finding it. I was looking into my mother, and it led to Payn... this is what he came back with.”
I turn the first page to find numerous drawings of a man’s face. Payn's face.
I freeze.
The same face that stares up at me has been etched into my brain for years. The same face I’ve tried so desperately to forget.
“Are you alright?” Kyle comes to stand behind the chair, placing his hands on the tops of my arms, squeezing gently.
“No.” I shake my head. “You don’t know how many times he’s haunted me in my dreams. I wake up covered in sweat, trembling, crying so much my pillow is soaked, having to check every inch of my bedroom to make sure it was just a dream and that he isn’t really there,” I whimper.
“Hey.” He kneels beside me, reaching up to run his thumb along my jaw. “Remember that second night when you found me having a nightmare, when I told you about it?”
I nod.
“You told me that nightmares couldn’t hurt me, because that's all they are, dreams. He can’t hurt you, not anymore. I promise, he’s long gone.”
The edge in his voice has me questioning what he really means.
How could Kyle possibly know that he’s gone?
I smile faintly.
He leans in and presses his lips to mine tenderly. “Are you sure you want to do this? You don’t have to.”
“I need to. I need to know.”
“Okay.” He pecks my lips one more before rising to his feet. “I’ll leave you to it. You know where I am if you need me.” He bends down and kisses my forehead, giving me a comforting smile before he turns and exits the room.
I take a deep breath before peering down at the drawings of Payn's face. I hate the fact that he still has a hold over me.
It must take me well over an hour to read through all of the private investigator’s reports, along with victim statements, including Kyle’s mother, Kyle and his mother’s birth certificate, her death certificate, police reports and medical records. There are photos of the bruises that covered Kyle’s mother's body, not dissimilar to my own.
After I’ve finished, I return the file to the draw where Kyle got it from, hoping that I’d never see it again and make my way to the living room, where I find Kyle sitting in the armchair, forearms resting on his thighs, his legs shaking nervously, staring at the floor.
As I approach, he looks up, rising from where he’s sat.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“I guess.” I collapse onto the couch, shortly joined by Kyle. “I just feel so guilty.”
“Why?”
“I never reported what happened, maybe if I had he could have been caught. I mean, how many more have there been since me? I could have stopped it.”
“You can’t carry that kind of guilt, you don’t have to worry about him, I told you, he’s gone.”
“Kyle, what does that mean? How can you know that he isn’t still out there, doing it to someone else?”
He hesitates. “Because I knew him.” His voice barely a whisper.
My heart stops.
“What?”
“He came to the casino a few times about a year and a half ago.” He grits his teeth. “The name he used was Andrew Myers, that’s his real name, he was a member for a short time. He used so many different names, like you saw in the files, the one he used most often was Nicholas Payn.”
“So what happened, did you go to the police?”
“Not quite.” He exhales slowly. “Hayley, people like him don’t change. It was only a matter of time before he did it to another girl, I couldn’t let that happen if I had just contacted the police he would have got off, there was no evidence.” His hands ball into fists.
“Kyle, what did you do?”
“I set him up... William found out where he lived, some shitty apartment in Brooklyn. I had this idea to set him up, to catch him in the act then hand him over to the police, he deserved to rot inside a prison cell for what he did.”
“So how did you do it?” I ask.
He takes a deep breath and tells me everything.
Chapter 46
Kyle
1 and a half years ago
“This is crazy, Kyle, there’s so much that can go wrong...” My dad shakes his head, his brows knit together in worry.
“Not if I do it right. He needs to pay.”
My dad sighs, his hand on his hip as he leans against my desk.
“I’ve bought the apartment next to his, Cassie has agreed to help us-”
“Cassie? You’re assistant?”
“Yeah.”
I make my way over to the door, pulling it open, finding Cassie sat behind her desk, typing away on her computer.
“Cassie?” She glances over her monitor. “Can you come in here for a second?”
“Sure.” She rounds the side of her desk and heads towards me, passing me as she enters my office. I close the door softly shut behind her.
“Is something wrong?” she asks.
“No, of course not. Are you still willing to help with... you know?”
She looks between my
