TO DIE FOR (Eva Rae Thomas Mystery Book 8)

by Willow Rose

  Part IV

  One week later

  Chapter 53

  Angel and Owen were finally asleep, so I grabbed my laptop and walked into my bedroom. In there, I found Matt sitting on the bed, watching a show on the TV on the wall. He gave me an annoyed look, and I closed the door and continued on my way. Things hadn’t exactly been good between us lately, and we pretty much avoided one another as much as humanly possible in our small house. The girls were fighting in their room, and Alex played loudly in his room while Elijah sat with his headphones on, watching something on his iPad. Downstairs, my dad and my brother, Adam, were in the middle of some discussion while my grandmother was in the kitchen, cooking something that smelled delicious while listening to Joni Mitchell on the Alexa.

  My family had been here for three days now, and even though I enjoyed being with them, I was kind of tired of a crowded house. They hadn’t told me how long they were planning on staying, and I didn’t like to ask. I didn’t want them to think I didn’t like having them here.

  “You want a sandwich?” my grandmother asked. “There are still a few hours till dinner.”

  “No, thanks,” I said, smiling. My grandmother was the only one who was not on my case about losing weight these days. “I’m good. Just trying to find a quiet spot to check my email.”

  That made my grandmother laugh, throwing back her head with her silver ponytail. Her voice was hoarse and rough, probably from the many years of smoking. She drove here on her motorcycle and slept on the couch in the living room, along with my dad, David, and my half-brother, Adam. Not too bad for a woman who was eighty-two. They all lived together in her house on Amelia Island, only a few hours from us, but we didn’t get to see one another much, so I was actually happy to have them here. Our sister Sydney would come over for dinner later; she had promised. I wanted us together, all of us as much as humanly possible, but Sydney had been so busy at the shelter, she hadn’t been able to come yet. I knew Sydney was just lying to me. She had bigger issues than me about seeing our father again. She grew up with him in London after he kidnapped her when I was five, and she was seven in a Walmart. We grew up apart because of this, and she had never quite been able to forgive him for that. It was hard for me as well, but somehow, it had been slightly easier. I don’t know why—maybe because I knew how easy it was to make a mess of your life. Perhaps because I grew up with our mother, who was cold and distant, and I had always longed for a parent who was different and finally found it in my father. Plus, there was no doubt that I was the one who took after him and our grandmother, not Sydney. He was messy and surrounded by constant chaos.

  Just like me.

  “I think I’ll go in the garage,” I said and pointed at the door.

  That made my grandmother laugh again—a laugh that soon turned into a rough cough. I smiled and wondered how long we would still have her around. I hoped it was many years more. I wanted to get to know her better.

  Barely had I opened the door to the garage before there was a knock on our front door. I walked to open it, then froze to ice as I did.

  Outside stood a woman in yoga pants and a pink running top.

  “K-Kim?”

  “Can I see him?” she asked, tears springing to her eyes. “I really want to see him.”

  Chapter 54

  Lily couldn’t get her arms down. She had just hung up with her agent, who told her she would go on tour as soon as her album was released. The record company was so impressed with her work that they wanted to roll out the big PR machine and make a star of her. She had everything, they told her. The voice, the right music, and she was commercial, which her agent said meant she was pretty.

  Now, she was standing in her living room, holding the phone in her hands, still staring at the display, heart thumping happily in her chest, unable to know whether to scream in joy or dance around or maybe cry.

  She felt like doing all of it at once.

  “They like it; they really like it,” she said into the room that suddenly felt too empty. She realized she had no one to share the good news with. She was all alone.

  What about Peter? You could call him and let him know?

  She thought it over and then found him in her contacts, but she regretted it as she was about to press call. She had broken up with him because she didn’t want him to hold her back. If she brought him into her life again, she would end up hurting him. She wouldn’t be able to bear that. Breaking up with him was hard enough as it was. Seeing those sweet eyes grow teary had just about crushed her heart.

  No, she couldn’t let him think he had a chance with her. It would destroy him all over again.

  Lily put the phone down, then went to look inside the fridge. Did she have any champagne or even just a bottle of wine?

  Nope. Not even a beer.

  Lily closed the door to the fridge again, then grabbed her keys and walked outside. She could buy a bottle of champagne at Publix and then celebrate on her own. She didn’t need anyone here with her—this was her victory anyway. She did this on her own.

  My way.

  Lily walked out on the porch with her purse in her hand. The screen door slammed shut behind her, and she took two steps down when she suddenly paused, frozen in motion. Her eyes had fallen on something across the street from her, and it made her heart stop.

  It was him.

  He was sitting inside his car, staring at her.

  Are those binoculars in his hands?

  “What in the…?”

  Lily felt the rage rise inside of her but didn’t exactly know what to do. She couldn’t believe he had come back. What a nerve this guy had. Had he learned nothing from the last time? She had told the police she didn’t want to press charges against him, mostly because she didn’t want to go through the trouble, and she didn’t want her name involved in anything, not now when she was on the verge of her big breakthrough as a singer.

  The man across the street now realized she had seen him and started the engine. He drove off, but not fast enough. She was still able to take a series of pictures of his car and the license plate as it left her street.

  Then, she called the police.

  Chapter 55

  I took Kim to the nursery, where both babies were still sleeping. Under different circumstances, I would never have taken Owen up from his bed since I believed it was important to respect a child’s sleep, but I did it this time, for Kim’s sake. And for Owen’s. She was showing a genuine interest in the child, and I had longed for that.

  I walked out of the nursery with him in my arms, and we took him to our bedroom. Matt was still watching a movie in there, but when I told him what was going on and that Owen’s grandmother had come, he turned the TV off and left.

  I sat on the bed with Owen, and Kim sat next to me. She exhaled and bit her lip, probably to push back tears. She seemed different somehow, more emotional.

  “He’s adorable, right?” I said and held him so she could see him better. She leaned in over my shoulder and looked at his face closely.

  “He…he looks…” she trailed off, and her shoulders slumped.

  I gave her a look. “Do you want to hold him?”

  She shook her head. “Oh, no, no. I really can’t.”

  I didn’t listen to her protests. I simply handed her the baby and put him in her arms. She mumbled something yet took him anyway, and now, she was sitting with him in her arms.

  “What’s going on, Kim?” I asked.

  She looked at the baby in her arms with tears in her eyes and didn’t give me the time of day.

  “What do you mean?”

  “A few weeks ago, you didn’t even want to know of him.”

  She shrugged. “And?”

  “And now, you suddenly changed your mind and want to see him?” I asked. “Has something happened?”

  She shook her head. “No. Nothing. Can you maybe take a picture of me with him? Here, use my phone.”

  She handed me her phone and opened it for me. I took a coupl
e of snapshots, and she smiled, holding him up for the camera. I felt more confused than ever. What had suddenly changed?

  I was about to shut off the phone when I accidentally saw another photo taken recently and paused. I looked up at her.

  “This picture, taken in front of the church. It was you? You took Owen that day in the parking lot?” I showed her the picture of Owen in his car seat carrier on her phone.

  Kim blushed, her cheeks turning completely red.

  “I…I…no.”

  I lifted my eyebrows. “Kim. I have the picture right here. Why would you do something like that? I thought he had been kidnapped.”

  She looked at me, visibly embarrassed. “I…I’m sorry. I just wanted to see him for a second and hold him and take a picture of him for…and then I panicked. I didn’t want you to see me.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. Was this woman for real? “So, you put him on the steps and ran? Who does that?”

  She shook her head with a tsk. “You found him, didn’t you?”

  “Why didn’t you just come and ask me if you could hold him?”

  “Well, after the last time in Publix, I wasn’t sure you’d let me. Besides, I just wanted to take his picture, so…”

  She paused, and I sent her a glare.

  “So, what, Kim?”

  She shook her head and handed me back the baby. “I should get going now. It was wrong of me to come.”

  She started to walk toward the door. “She’s with you… Isn’t she? Amy? You know where she is, right? The picture was for her, so she could see how big he had gotten. And now, you wanted a new one today so she could keep track of him and know that he’s doing okay.”

  Kim’s eyes hit the carpet. She shook her head, then opened the door. “I…I need to go. Thank you for letting me see him.”

  And with that, she closed the door and left. I sat back, holding Owen, unable to figure out what the heck just happened and what to make of it. These people made no sense to me. None at all.

  I didn’t get to finish the thought before my phone vibrated in my pocket.

  Chapter 56

  Bryan dropped the silverware onto the plate with a loud sound. Sarah jumped and looked at him, gun still in her hand, one eye remaining on the window.

  “It’s driving me insane,” he said.

  “What is?”

  He threw his arms out. “This. You.”

  She turned her head briefly and looked at him before her eyes returned to look out the window at the street outside.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I can’t stand this. You, sitting there by the window, day and night, watching for whatever it is you fear might come. You still haven’t told me what happened to you.”

  Sarah lowered her head and studied the gun in her hand. When she was a child, her dad had taught her to shoot. She had hated it back then, but today, she was glad she knew how to defend herself. No one was going to sneak up on her and live to tell about it. Never again.

  “I can’t tell you. I’m sorry.”

  “Why not? Don’t you think I deserve to know? You come here all bruised up, blood smeared on your skin, dirty like you’ve been living in a mudhole for months. You’re scared as heck and sit by the window constantly as if you’re expecting someone to come driving up to the house to attack you. Why won’t you tell me anything? Every time I ask even the simplest question, you simply ignore it or answer something that doesn’t tell me anything.”

  She exhaled. He was right—she owed him an explanation. She couldn’t keep this up.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Where were you? You were gone for weeks, and no one knew where to find you,” he said.

  “I don’t know where I was,” she said. “That’s the problem.”

  A car drove up in the street outside, and she lifted the gun, keeping it ready. The headlights shone in the darkness, and Sarah couldn’t tell what type of car it was.

  “Okay, so tell me why you’re guarding the house. Is someone looking for you? Are you in trouble?”

  “I can’t tell you that.”

  The car came closer, and Sarah held her breath as it slowed. Could this be it? Had they found her? She cocked the gun and heard her brother sigh deeply behind her.

  “What can you tell me, huh?”

  He got up and walked to the window, pulled the curtain aside, then scoffed. “That is the Thomasons’ car. They’re my next-door neighbors. You ought to recognize them by now,” he said. “You’ve watched them come and go for days now.”

  “It’s hard to see in the darkness,” Sarah said. “All the cars look the same, and I’m not taking any chances.”

  Bryan grabbed her by the shoulders and knelt in front of her. “Just tell me, Sarah. What happened to you?”

  She looked into his eyes and felt a pinch of guilt. Bryan had been so worried about her; she knew he had. And he probably still was.

  “I…I was taken,” she said, already regretting having said it as the words left her lips. “I was kept somewhere…”

  His eyes grew wide. “You were kidnapped? By who? Did you know this person?”

  She exhaled again, then shook her head slowly.

  “I can’t tell you. I am sorry.”

  He rose to his feet, throwing out his arms in frustration. “Why not? We could go to the police and tell them everything. Then you wouldn’t have to live in fear like this.”

  Sarah shook her head, tears springing to her eyes. She couldn’t stand all these questions anymore or the way her brother looked at her. She couldn’t stand any of this anymore.

  “I just can’t, okay?” she almost yelled.

  “Fine,” Bryan said and walked away. “If you don’t want to tell me, then there isn’t anything I can do to help you. Have it your way.”

  Sarah looked after her brother as he left the living room, feeling awful for keeping this from him. If only he knew what she risked, then he would understand. Sarah sighed, then got up, walked to her bedroom, and closed the door behind her. She sat with her back against it for a few hours, catching her breath, listening to all the sounds, jumping every time a car drove up the street outside, wondering if this could be the one—if this were the red pick-up truck coming for her.

  Chapter 57

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  I stared at Scott as Chief Annie brought him out to me. He slumped his head and got into my minivan. His own car had been taken to the impound again after he was arrested, and he wouldn’t be able to get it until the next day, they said.

  “Make sure he is taken out of my town and doesn’t come back here,” Annie said.

  I nodded and got in. I started the engine with an angry movement, and it roared to life.

  “I’m sorry, Eva Rae,” he said. “For having to ask for your help again. You’re the only one I knew would come and get me.”

  “Because I am just that stupid,” I said and stepped on the accelerator, driving the minivan out of the parking lot behind the police station. It was late and very dark outside now. Chief Annie was the one who called me and told me to come to get Scott once they were done with him.

  “No, that’s not what I meant. Not at all,” he said. “Please, don’t say that.”

  “Then what is it, Scott? Why am I suddenly so important in your life? Why is it I constantly have to throw up everything I have in my hands and come tend to your many emergencies?”

  He exhaled. “I’m sorry. What do you want me to say?”

  “What were you even doing at her house? She said you had been stalking her. What is going on with you, Scott? Stalking young girls? What happened to you?”

  He gave me a look, then focused his gaze on the window. We drove for about ten minutes without anyone saying anything, then as we went over the bridges towards Viera, where Scott lived, he looked at me again.

  “Do you ever wonder what our lives would be like if we had chosen differently?”

  I swallowed, feeling my stomach turn
to knots. I had been thinking about exactly that a lot lately.

  “What do you mean?”

  He shook his head. “Nothing. I just wonder sometimes. There’s a lot in my life I would have liked to do differently now, looking back.”

  “I think most people feel that way,” I said. “Life is messy. But at the end of it, I do like to believe we look back at it and say that we made the most of what we had been dealt.”

  He nodded. “I sure hope so. I hate to think I wasted it.”

  I looked out the window while driving, wondering about him. I couldn’t stop thinking about Sarah and the way she had looked at him when we faced her in Winter Park. It was strange. She really didn’t want him. What had happened between them? Had Scott hurt her? Was that why he was stalking that girl too? Because he was some creep that hurt women?

  If so, then why was I helping him again? Just because he had no one else? Or was I deeper in than I thought? After what happened in Winter Park, I had promised myself I never wanted to see him again, yet I came running as soon as Annie called.

  Was he just a creep? Was Matt right, and I was completely blind?

  I drove up in front of his townhouse and parked. He turned to look at me, then smiled.

  “Listen, I know I haven’t exactly shown myself from my best side lately. But I want to thank you for believing in me when no one else did. And for helping me out tonight, again.”

  “The girl is getting a restraining order on you, so you better stay clear of her from now on,” I said. “And Chief Annie told you to stay out of her town, so you should probably listen to that too. If she catches you speeding, she’ll take you back in, and this time, she won’t be as merciful.”

  He scoffed. “Wow. I can’t believe it has come to this. Unwanted in my old hometown. Well, if it can’t be any different, then I guess so be it.”