Madden shot his head back and laughed at the quickly darkening sky.
Just as he was about to say something, his daughter squirmed her way between us, then leaned on me instead of Madden.
“Hey, Uncle Taos,” Sophia said quietly. “Do you think I could borrow your car?”
I snorted. “No.”
She sighed. “I promise to treat it with care.”
“You promised to treat my last car with care, too, and you ended up wrecking it by wrapping it around a telephone pole,” I countered.
She sighed. “I need a new car then. Mine is too slow.”
I looked over at Madden who was very carefully being quiet so she didn’t ask to borrow his car.
He’d probably say yes.
“Why is yours too slow?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Well…” She started to go into a long, dragged-out story about how she wanted to start racing again, and how she thought that she might be able to get a lot of money by doing it.
It all degraded from there because Madden started to get upset.
Because really, the last time that Sophia raced, she’d smashed into a pole at the track. A pole that’d been fifty feet in the air.
I’d lost about eighteen years off of my life witnessing that wreck.
I wasn’t eager to get her behind the wheel of the car again, let alone get her behind the wheel of a car that she was planning on racing.
But she was right.
She was good.
The only problem was, she had to prove her driving skills to the boys because of her gender. In turn, proving herself had made her more determined not to lose.
And in the end, I wasn’t sure it was worth it, because they played dirty when they realized she wasn’t about to lose.
Before either her father or I could tell her that, Sophia disentangled herself from my arm and sprinted away.
I realized why when the man that she was sweet on, Johan, walked up behind us, sweating profusely.
“Bad run?” I teased.
Johan rolled his eyes. “I felt like I was going to die about two miles in.” He took off his weight vest. “Who the fuck thought this was a good idea?”
Soren, his brother, bumped him with his large, muscular arm to get him out of the way.
“You did, dumbass.” Soren chuckled as he passed both of us by and headed for his water that was set up in the corner of the gym so that he wasn’t messing up or interfering with the class.
Johan sighed and walked to the bar beside his brother, then started to do his burpee pull-ups, which were part of a particular hero WOD that Johan had decided that they should do for the day.
Sadly, since I’d been teaching a class that Madden had conveniently stuck me with, I hadn’t joined them.
Which I normally did since they were two of the best athletes in the gym. But, since Soren had had his child, Tessa, I hadn’t been able to join them much at all due to the weird hours they had to keep.
Which got me to thinking about kids… and how many that I wanted to have with Fran.
I winced at the thought almost immediately.
“What was that look for?” Madden asked after a few seconds.
I grinned.
“I was thinking about kids,” I told him.
Madden’s face soured.
Some movement behind me caught my eye, and I turned slightly to see Mavis making her way toward us, a huge grin on her face that was aimed down at the little boy in her arms.
“I don’t want any more kids,” Madden said, unaware of the woman that was creeping up behind him until the words had already leaked from his mouth.
Shit.
The dumbass.
I hadn’t had a chance to tell him about Mavis and Vlad. Or ‘Imp’ as in ‘Vladimir the Impaler’ for short like Fran called him.
Then again, I’d heard her call him Lad, too.
I swear, she called him whatever happened to come up in her head at the time.
Mavis, crestfallen at his words, seemed to stiffen her spine almost resolutely, then cleared her throat.
Madden whipped around. He opened his mouth, but then it snapped shut at seeing Mavis and Vlad.
It then fell open again.
“Mavis…” Madden started.
Mavis smiled at Madden, but her eyes turned to me.
“You’re the first person that she’s ever told that story to,” she whispered. “I wanted you to know how big that was for her. And that, though she left yesterday, she tried to call you about eight hundred times.”
I saw Madden frown out of the corner of my eye.
My gaze was all for Mavis, though.
“I’m glad she did,” I said. “I’d always wondered about her. Now that I know…”
“Now that you know she’s a survivor. Now that you know that she didn’t die. Now that you know that she is stronger than ever… because of you,” Mavis whispered.
The boy in her arms started to scream, drawing both Madden’s and my gaze.
I walked over and held out my hands for him. “May I?”
Mavis smiled and handed her son over. He came willingly, and I couldn’t help but laugh at the drool that came out of his mouth as he smiled at me.
“This is one cute kid,” I told Mavis. “I would never think a butterball like this would’ve come from someone like you. You’re so in shape. I never even knew you were pregnant.”
“That was why I went missing for half a year last year.” She snickered. “Vlad benched me for a bit. But I’m doing better than ever. His dad… well, let’s just say, things didn’t go as planned. But the guy was definitely a butterball just like him. Big, too. Vlad was nearly nine pounds at birth.”
Madden stood silently behind me. I could practically hear his silent questions.
Before either Madden or I could say another word, my favorite person in the world ran up.
“Hey!” Fran panted as she ran up to us. She spotted the baby in my arms, and her face whirled into a devastating smile that took my breath away.
Then she was close, her face only inches from mine, as she gave Vlad a sweaty kiss on the lips.
The baby squealed and dove for her.
Fran, obviously used to it, caught him up and swung him up on her hip, and I was assaulted with a devastating vision of my own child on her hip as she smiled down at him.
I wanted that.
I didn’t realize how badly until just now.
I just had to make her mine first.
Then marry her.
She wouldn’t look at me, though.
Not even a damn glance.
It made me pissy.
“I came to pay my bill.” Mavis cleared her throat. “Madden, can we do that real quick while I have a babysitter?”
“I’m not done!” Fran laughed as she gave me back her nephew.
Mavis opened her mouth to say something but I waved her off. “Go take care of what you need to take care of. I have him.”
And I did.
He helped me cheer everyone on while they finished the last ten minutes of their workout.
It was when we were in the last two minutes of it that I heard my phone ring from across the gym.
Normally, I would ignore it.
But this one was my grandmother.
And I hadn’t seen her since she’d gotten on a plane to head to Alaska for a two-month-long cruise.
I hurried toward it, a smile already on my face.
When I got there, I place the phone to my ear and said, “Gran!”
“I’m home!” Gran cried. “And I can’t wait to meet this girl that I keep hearing about.”
I rolled my eyes. “How did you know?”
“Flora saw you and her out to eat a few weeks ago,” she answered. “But she said she hasn’t seen you out and about since. But she did make sure to mention that you were working a case again, and maybe that was why.”
That was the reason.
I felt the need to defend myself.
<
br /> “That’s exactly why,” I admitted, repeating my earlier thoughts. “I tried to give up the case. But then another girl died and…”
“And you couldn’t help yourself.” She snorted, her voice sounding wobbly. “I don’t want to die after you, Taos. Please be careful.”
I felt my stomach sink. “You’re not dying, Gran.”
“I’m dying, kid. I’m ninety-four years old. I’m dying. There’s no other way around it. Whether or not it’s going to be anytime soon, I don’t know. But it’s probably going to happen sooner rather than later. I can feel it in my bones.”
I snorted.
“Come see me, boy,” she ordered. “Case or not. We can talk about your lady, and when you’re going to bring her to see me.”
I smiled softly as I closed my eyes. “I’ll be there as soon as class is over.”
“Good.” She paused. “Are you still dieting?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not dieting. I’m just eating healthy.”
“That’s dieting, kid. In my day, a man ate a couple of fried pork chops, some mashed taters, gravy, and peas. Then had dessert. All prepared by his woman, and not a restaurant. Trust me when I say our men ate good,” she charged.
I smiled. “I’ll eat a little bad.”
“So you’ll have mashed potatoes?” she teased.
“Yes, ma’am,” I confirmed.
“But I don’t get to make fried pork chops too often…”
In the end, I agreed to all the food.
But, secretly, I wasn’t going to deny that if there was one day that I needed comfort food, today would be it.
“I’ll be there soon.”
Then I hung up, thinking that maybe if I asked Fran to come with me, she would.
Only, when I looked up to ask her if she would want to go, it was to find her dropping down into her car, expertly avoiding talking to me.
Again.
I must’ve looked so sad looking out the windows that Mavis came down from the office.
“You okay?” Mavis asked, taking Vlad from my arms.
Vlad who’d fallen asleep on my shoulder and I hadn’t even noticed.
Who did that?
“Your sister left,” I accused.
Mavis smiled. “You scare the shit out of her.”
I didn’t like the sound of that.
“Why?” I asked.
She tilted her head, pursing her lips and trying to decide how much to tell me, I was sure.
In the end, she gave me a bone.
“My sister has been a different person these last two years,” Mavis started. “Do you know that when it first happened, she wouldn’t even leave the house?”
The thought of Fran, so scared like that, literally tore my heart to shreds. “No.”
“She brought you a present at the police station,” she said. “Did you get it?”
I had. It’d made me happy that the girl was all right.
But I’d had my own struggles with leaving the department. Trying to figure out how to go about doing that while also being able to live. It hadn’t been an easy time in my life, and I felt like a shithead now for not thanking her for the gift.
“Yes.”
“That was the first time that she left the house on her own.”
Now I really felt like shit.
“Yeah?” I rasped.
“Slowly but surely, she’s come out of that protective shell. But this bootcamp? You? This is the first time that I’ve seen the real Francine Pope in a really long time.” She paused. “You probably don’t realize it yet, but Fran could’ve easily stayed holed up and lived in fear the rest of her life. Very comfortably.”
I knew the name Pope was synonymous with money around here. The Popes had founded the fuckin’ town. The matriarch Pope, however, was a bitch. I hadn’t met her but one time, but the one interaction I’d had with her was enough for me to realize two things. One, I was a lowlife because I didn’t have an office job that made me a shit ton of money. Two, I didn’t have a lineage I could track back to aristocracy.
They were rich and powerful.
“Yeah,” I said.
“But my sister hates our grandmother even more than I do. Two stubborn people that think they’re right… and in the end, she was stubborn enough not to let her win,” Mavis continued. “This is something that Fran will share but… we’ve had a rough childhood. We may have the Pope name—at least most of the time—but we definitely don’t have the Pope love.” She inhaled roughly and brushed her lips across Vlad’s head. “The money released each month is like blood money. It reminds us of how much we should have had but don’t. That we’re on a leash when we’d rather be flying free. And that money is what Fran lived on for a year because of me.” Mavis paused. “Before you and CrossFit, she was working with her errands business, trying to make ends meet, but wasn’t really giving it her all. I mean, what’s the point? She’d already been hit hard too many times to count. If anyone deserved to live and do nothing, it’s her. But then you and this bootcamp came along, and I’ve watched her change. Flourish. Turn into the person that I hadn’t seen since before the attack.”
I felt raw inside.
“She’ll come around,” Mavis promised. “Just give her another day. She has more to tell you. And I think that she’ll figure it out with herself rather quickly. Especially with the way she whined last night about how she’d pushed you away.”
That gave me a small smile to wear.
That small smile eventually fell off my face as I closed up the gym with Madden.
Sadly, despite my Gran’s attempt to cheer me up, the night went to complete shit about halfway through dinner, thanks to another murder.
Even worse, there were news reporters at the house, and frustrated, one of the other officers that was there controlling the police barricade let it slip that there’d been a witness to one of the murders.
Who had that witness been?
Fran.
Son of a bitch.
CHAPTER 18
If the bar ain’t bending, you’re just pretending.
-Text from Fran to Taos
FRAN
“I told Taos to give you one more day,” Mavis said as she spoon-fed Vlad some green baby food.
Peas, I thought.
“What?” I asked, sounding shocked. “Why?”
I practically all but thrust my entire face into hers to better witness her explanation.
“Because you looked like you needed to work up the courage to finish telling him everything,” she said simply.
I felt my stomach jolt.
“There’s not really much to tell,” I admitted. “I just… I’m scared to talk to him. I’m scared he’s going to look at me differently.”
She rolled her eyes, then cursed. “Dang it. I forgot to go get the paper. Can you take over for a second?”
I rolled my eyes as she took off for the front door, handing me the spoon as she passed.
Vlad shrieked in protest, but I picked up the jar—yep, I was right. Peas—and brought a spoonful to his lips.
He ate it hungrily.
I laughed at his exuberance—oh, I wished he would keep loving peas—and fed him the rest of the jar before Mavis returned with the paper open as she walked into the room.
“Anything?” I asked.
Vlad’s father, Bayne Green, was on the way into town with his band. She wanted to make sure that she wasn’t anywhere near him and his scheduled appearances this weekend, so she was double-checking everything.
I didn’t blame her. Bayne Green was a dick.
When he’d learned that he’d had a kid with Mavis, he’d told her to ‘get rid of it.’
Mavis went out of her way not to associate Vlad with Bayne, and the good thing was, when you looked at Vlad, all you could really see was Mavis and me.
Thankfully, Bayne’s good looks were nowhere to be found in Vlad.
Bayne whose hometown was good ol’ Paris, Texas. Which was now becoming a loc
al presence in and of itself thanks to it being the hometown of the bad boy of rock and roll.
“Okay, we’re all set.” She heaved a sigh. “The article in the paper says that…”
My eyes went to the paper as she got closer, and my eyes took in the photo on the front page.
My stomach sank as I got a good close up of my freakin’ house.
It was a photo that had my house and the house featuring the dead woman thanks to the serial killer, side by side.
Both looked really gloomy and ugly, thanks to the recent rainstorms battering our area.
Even my dead flowers near the mailbox added to the effect.
At first, I didn’t realize what I was seeing.
Not until Mavis got close enough for me to read the headlines.
I felt my stomach bottom out at the fear that started to overtake me.
It was back.
The gnawing, clawing, living, twisting thing inside of me.
I’d felt this feeling before.
It was my old friend, fear.
I read the headlines, then the article in the paper again, feeling my insides start to scream.
One witness has come forward on the grisly murders of twelve women over the Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana tristate areas. Francine Pope, thirty years old, of Paris, Texas. She is a registered nurse, as well as a critical pillar in the community.
I stopped reading, praying and hoping that more didn’t come of the words that I read.
Hoping beyond hope that they didn’t find what I tried so hard to keep buried—a victim of another serial killer.
What was I, a serial killer magnet?
What were the freakin’ odds that I would become a victim of not one, but two serial killers?
I wasn’t fooling myself. I knew damn well and good that shit was going to happen from this. I knew that the killer of these women was going to read this article, and think that I’d actually been a part of witnessing these murders when, in fact, I hadn’t.
Now I had a rather large target painted on my back.
Now, I was scared to death, and I would have to tell Taos why.
I wasn’t ready.
That’s when another thought occurred to me.
Taos.
He would know about this and…
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