Fatal Destiny Read Online Free PDF Page B

Christ sake, Sam! Just leave it the hell alone! You’re wading into something you can’t even begin to understand.”
    “You’re seriously saying that to me ? What the fuck, Faith? What waters do you think I won’t understand after twelve years on this goddamned job?” The other woman’s hands were now visibly shaking. “Whatever it is, you can trust me with it. You know that.”
    When Faith looked up at her there was none of the hard-nosed prosecutor Sam had come to know and respect. Rather, she looked into the eyes of a very frightened woman. In a low, soft tone, Faith said, “He threatened to have my baby niece Molly killed if I didn’t drop the case.”
    Sam tried to digest that. “And you believed him? Surely you’ve been threatened before.”
    “Not like this. There’s something truly evil about this guy, Sam. You bet your ass I believed him.”
    “Who knows about this?”
    “You and me. Hope had just had Molly. I couldn’t exactly share this with her or Charity. If Forrester ever found out, it would end my career—and theirs, if they knew. I never told anyone why we declined to prosecute.”
    “What did you tell Forrester?”
    “That I didn’t think we could win. He’s a politician. He wants wins. It didn’t take much to convince him to dismiss the charges.”
    “How about the special victims detectives?” She could only imagine what her police colleagues had thought about their solid case being tossed.
    “Gardner claimed the sex was entirely consensual. I told the SVU detectives it would turn into a he said, she said in court.”
    “And you knew that wasn’t true.”
    “The pictures from the victim’s rape kit haunt me,” she said with a defeated sigh. “Nothing about that encounter was consensual. I have no doubt I could’ve gotten a conviction.”
    “ Why didn’t you come to me? ”
    Faith’s green eyes flooded with tears. “They said they’d chop up the baby and send her back to us in pieces.”
    Fury, hot and potent, streaked through Sam. “Start at the beginning. Don’t leave anything out.”
    “Sam, please . I’m asking you as a colleague and a friend—leave it alone.”
    Sam rested her elbows on Faith’s desk and leaned in. “I’m going to nail his ass to the wall, and you’re going to help me.”
    Faith shook her head and wiped the tears from her face. “Molly is almost three now. How can you ask me to risk that beautiful child—my sister’s child?”
    “How can you sleep knowing you’ve let a violent rapist roam free all this time?”
    “I haven’t gotten a full night of sleep in years.”
    “Faith, come on! You took an oath !”
    “Don’t you dare talk to me about oaths! She’s my niece ! Tell me how well I’d sleep if I go after this sleezeball and something happens to her!”
    “You need to talk to Hope about this. She’ll tell you the same thing I’m telling you.”
    Faith snorted with disdain. “She’ll agree with me. We’re talking about her child . Don’t you have nieces and nephews, Sam?”
    “Four,” Sam muttered. “Fifth one on the way.”
    “Put yourself in my place—what would you do if someone threatened to chop one of them up and mail him or her back to you in pieces?”
    Sam couldn’t even get her head around the idea of it, so she didn’t try. “How did he get to you?”
    “One of his buddies conveyed the message along with up-close photos of the baby with a gun pointed to her head. I have no idea how they got that close to her, but it certainly got my attention. The next day, Gardner and I came face-to-face in the courthouse. He smiled at me…” A shudder rippled through her willowy frame, and her face lost every bit of remaining color. “The evil…Just pure evil. I knew, right in that moment, that he’d have Molly killed if I pursued prosecution.”
    “I have to ask you… Has anything like this ever happened before?”
    “If you’re asking if I’ve been threatened before, the answer is yes. Almost weekly. But