An Embarrassment of Monsters: A Dark Romantic Suspense Novel (Alace Sweets Book 3)

by MariaLisa deMora

  “What will you do with it all?”

  Alace grinned, because that was the easiest of all the questions he could have asked. “A number of charities and programs have already found themselves the recipients of large anonymous gifts, a process which will continue. Owen and I agreed neither of us wanted to profit from this gig, so what’s not used in the pursuit will be donated.” She snorted indelicately. “It’s surprisingly difficult to give away that much money, but where there’s a will—”

  “There’s a way.” The tip of his finger trailed along her cheek, tucking a strand of wayward hair behind her ear. “You and Owen, you both amaze me. I’m humbled by your dedication, Alace. Humbled and proud.”

  “It’s what’s right. The things that happened to those kids aren’t acceptable. The money is also funding accounts for their ongoing care. Some of them were hurt, Eric. Badly. Those without physical scars will still live with the memories all their lives. The least that can be done is to take care of everyone as well as we can. To ease their way in the world, financially. We can’t take back what was done to them. The terror and pain. But we can walk ahead of them and smooth the path. There’s plenty of money for that.” His head jerked back in surprise. “Oh, yeah. I know what you’re thinking. There were more than a hundred kids rescued from the single location. Trust me when I say there’s enough money recovered from the organization and the buyers.”

  She winced and stared down at her belly, watching as a foot crossed from the side and up to press against where Eric’s hand rested. He laughed softly and tunneled his hand under the covers and her clothing until he was skin to skin, and then he rubbed the heel of their daughter’s foot. “She’s proud of Mommy, too.”

  “Pray God she’ll never need to know about what Mommy does.” Alace grimaced when the baby shifted again, applying pressure against her bladder. “I gotta pee.” She swung her legs off the bed and swore when Eric shoved his hands underneath her ass, helping lift her upright. “I hate this part of it all.”

  “Not long to go now.” He took the tablet when she held it out to him. “If Owen calls before you get back, want me to answer it?”

  “Yeah, I’ve got no secrets from you except the ones you want me to keep.” She paused and stared at him thoughtfully. His open and loving expression astonished her all over again. “Which are less and less these days. Maybe that’s something we should discuss, too.”

  “Mmhmm. Right now, you should go pee.”

  “On it.” She had scarcely rounded the corner into the bathroom when a cramp hit, strong enough to steal her breath. Lips pursed tightly, she leaned a shoulder against the linen closet, hands running up both sides of her rigid belly. Forcing herself to breathe slowly, she pulled in measured amounts of air with each inhale and blew it out in a disciplined exhale as she waited it out.

  “Alace?” Eric’s voice held a note of concern, and she clamped her lips together. “All okay, baby?”

  “Uh-huh. Yep. Braxton Hicks is not my friend.” The cramp eased, and she made it to the toilet, taking care of her business quickly. Pulling herself back upright using the edge of the sink, she leaned against the porcelain and stared at her reflection, focusing on her eyes. “I’ve got this,” she whispered. Another cramp took hold, cinching down on her stomach forcefully, the pain a solid band around her back. She dropped her head low, letting it dangle between her shoulders, attention focused on the pain and on breathing through it.

  “Beloved?” A warm hand settled on her low back, Eric’s thumb stroking a soothing path across the tense muscles. “More contractions?” Alace nodded, eyes remaining closed. “Are they regular?”

  She stopped herself in mid-headshake and shrugged. “Not.” She blew out a breath. “Really.”

  “I’ll keep track of them for a little bit, see if there’s a pattern.” He sounded so calm she pried one eyelid open and rolled her neck until she could see his face. His expression matched the tone. “We’ll wait to call the doctor until you think it’s time.”

  As rapidly as it came on, the cramp eased, and she stood upright and washed her hands. “Okay.” Drying them on the hand towel draped over the side of the sink, she turned to face him. “Did Owen call yet?” Eric held up the tablet in the hand not curled around her hip and shook his head. “Okay.” Heaving a sigh, she deliberately relaxed the muscles in her shoulders. “I’m gonna waddle back to bed.”

  He grinned and ducked his head, his hand moving to her elbow as he paced beside her through the room. Covered to her waist with blankets, she waited for Eric to get settled next to her and then leaned against his shoulder. “You remember the trip back from New Mexico?”

  He stiffened, and she turned her head to press a reassuring kiss against his skin. “Yes. Of course, Alace. Why?”

  “I tried to tell you I wasn’t a good person. Not a monster-slayer, I think, were my exact words. I was trying to scare you off by pulling back the curtain a little. That was before I knew you didn’t scare easily.” She trailed a finger along the back of his hand, hiding her smile when he turned the hand over invitingly, clasping tightly when she pushed her fingers between his. “I’ve changed my mind.”

  “Oh? In what way?” His casual tone was a lie that she decided to let him keep.

  “I do kill the monsters. Even if it’s not my hands doing the work, it’s my decision to pursue people who are monsters.” She cradled her belly with her other hand. “If at some point my daughter learns what I do, I have to believe she’ll have enough of her daddy’s goodness inside her to see my work for what it is.”

  “Vengeance,” he whispered, scarcely loud enough to be heard.

  Pleasure flashed through her at how well Eric—fucking, fucking Eric—understood her. Had always seemed to understand her. “Vengeance for those who cannot take it on their own. I fight for those who’ve been abandoned by society’s rules. I don’t see myself changing.”

  “I wouldn’t want you to.” When Eric’s head turned, it was to pin her with his gaze, blazing and ferocious. “Because the work you do, the cases you take—they matter. It’s pro bono work of the highest caliber.”

  “Oh.” The contraction had come out of nowhere, startling the sound out of her. “Another one,” she hissed out between clenched teeth. “If you’re—oh, man—keeping track.”

  “I am,” he assured her, lifting their joined hands to rest against her stomach, sliding them up and down in a slow caress. “You do what you need to, Alace. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “That’s good.” She rocked her head back and immediately decided that wasn’t a good position, dropping her chin to her chest instead. “I’d hunt you down if you tried to leave.” The sentence was broken into phrases by her breathing, but it got the reaction she’d aimed for as Eric chuckled at her.

  The tablet buzzed and Alace shook her head, silently telling Eric not to answer it.

  He did anyway, and his first words to Owen showed how he’d chosen to interpret her actions. “Give Alace a minute, Owen. She might be in the early stages of labor and is having a contraction.”

  “Oh, wow.” Owen’s voice held a tone of awe. “Holy cow. Is she okay?”

  “Yeah, the doctor said the baby’s ready any time, so we’re waiting things out to see if these will keep going or peter out.” Calm and reasonable, Eric structured his response in a way that also reassured Alace, reminding her that this was all normal and expected. Just like the doctor had said. “How’s young Kelly?”

  “You saw that, huh?”

  Alace breathed through the tail end of the contraction as she listened to their conversation.

  “He’s better already. Fever’s coming down, and the food stabilized him more than I expected. The last time he woke, he was back to asking about his—how much did you hear, Eric?”

  “Everything. It’s all good, Owen. I understand the kind of case you guys are facing with this one. He asked about his sister?” Alace lifted her head in time to see Owen’s nod. “Who do you have to care
for him while you look for her?”

  “I don’t know. That’s part of what I wanted to talk to Alace about.”

  “If you lived closer, you could bring him here to me.” Alace’s tightened grip on Eric’s hand had him looking at her. “Is it over?”

  “Yeah.” She reached out to take the tablet as she blew out what the books had called a cleansing breath. “Not as intense as the last one, so possibly they’re tapering off. False alarm.”

  “Natural order of things is all. Our time will come when they don’t fade.” Eric bumped her shoulder. “I’ll go get a cold bottle of water while you chat with Owen.” He slipped out of bed, careful movements barely jostling her as she sat propped against the headboard. “Back in a few minutes. Text me if you have another contraction and I’m not back yet.”

  She watched Eric walk from the room before giving Owen her attention. “Hi.”

  “He’s good for you. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but damn, woman, he’s a truly good guy.” Owen gave her his crooked smile, the one she always sensed cut closest to the core of who he was. “Keep him.”

  “I intend to.” She shook her head. “Tell me about the hike, and how everything happened, and what we need to do now.”

  “Damn, Alace. Bask in the moment a little, why doncha?” His smile changed, evening out, muscles around his eyes relaxing and flattening his expression. This was “work” Owen, and she appreciated his willingness to drop into their productive mode so easily. “I was on my way back out. I hadn’t told anyone other than you where I was headed, and the timeframe I gave you was longer by a few days than what I wound up taking. There’s no way anyone could have known when or where I’d be at any given time. I know what you’re thinking, and it’s nothing I haven’t already gone over in my head a thousand times. Why me, why there, why this kid? Am I right?”

  “Yeah.” She breathed out the word. “Something doesn’t add up, Owen. It’s like you were targeted for this. A baited trap.”

  “Maybe fate targeted me.” He lifted his chin. “We’ve seen it happen in bad ways before. Innocents who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and we’ve never questioned that scenario. It only makes sense that the opposite would be true sometimes.” Alace was shaking her head before he finished speaking, and he held up a hand to stave off her ready argument. “No one knew I was there. Have I hiked the Barrens before? Yes, but never from that trail. It’s a big geographic feature, and I’ve covered about a tenth of it, always coming from a different angle. That trail isn’t the closest to my house. It’s unremarkable in any way, other than it leads to a lake I wanted to see. Only if they’d tracked my car would they know, and I’ve got a sweeper mat I park on in the garage. My car was clean when I got home, exactly as it was when I’d left. If I’d decided to eat breakfast on the road home instead of in the forest, Kelly wouldn’t have found me. He found me, Alace. If it were a setup, if I were doing this as a setup, I’d have the target do the finding. There’s an innate trust in one’s own actions, so having the target discover the bait provides greater chances of simple acceptance. He wandered up to me. He had to have been lying there when I made camp, and I just didn’t go that direction to dig my cathole, you know? I went the other way. These are not manufactured accidents. These are true coincidences. I’m not going off gut here but off my years of training and human study.” He made a face as he pulled in a hard breath. “Fuckin’ fate, really? That’s all I kept thinking. That and ‘don’t be an idiot, don’t let yourself be duped, be real, Owen.’ I am being real, Alace. This kid, Kelly, he needs us in a way I haven’t seen since—” Owen interrupted himself and angled his gaze away from the camera for a second before looking back, resolve sitting heavily on his features. “In a long, long time. He needs us, me. If there’s no us on this mission, then I get it. You’ve got shit goin’ on. But you should understand that I’m not backing off.”

  A contraction picked that moment to take hold, and Alace stared at him with narrowed eyes. “Gimme a minute.”

  His eyes widened comically. “Are you having another labor pain thing? Already? That doesn’t look like it’s going away. What’s the time? Eric said to text him. I can do that. You—” He fluttered his fingers at the camera. “—do whatever it is you’re doing.” Eric’s phone dinged, and she glanced over to see it resting on the nightstand on his side of the bed. It dinged again. “Should I call your landline? His phone’s there in the room, right?” She shook her head, unable to answer him. “Okay. I’ll just wait here with you. You doin’ okay? Want me to count or something?”

  Alace blocked out his voice, letting it drone on in the background, focused on the intensity of the contraction. The progression was relentless, determined, as if her body was going to do this whether she was ready or not. Between her legs was wet, her ass heating from the outside, and Alace lifted the covers, looking underneath to see the bottom of the T-shirt she’d stolen from Eric soaked all along the hem. “My water broke.”

  “What?” Owen’s voice was so comically high-pitched she glanced at the tablet in her hand, thankfully still on the right side of the covers. “That’s it, I’m calling your landline.” Eric’s phone dinged and then buzzed against the wooden surface, vibrating sideways. “He’s not answering.”

  The contraction intensified suddenly, clamping around her with force, and Alace bit off the groan that wanted to slip free. “You’re calling his cell.”

  “Eric!” Owen was shouting at the camera, and Alace spared a moment of thought to highlight how hilarious Owen’s expression was. I’ll remember this for later. “I can’t do anything from here.”

  She leaned her head back against the headboard as the contraction eased. “It’s okay. He’ll be back in here in a minute. Owen, I uploaded all the buyer information to your folder. I went through and analyzed them, and there are four that jumped out at me. All four were repeat buyers, which lines up with what Kelly told you about the other kids. All four also own remote property within a three-hundred-mile radius of the park. All four properties were acquired through shell corporations. Not too well hidden, but enough to keep casual inquiries at bay. It could be a fetish ring. They all made purchases at the same auctions, so there’d have been exposure. Cross-contamination. You saw how the buyers were allowed to chat beforehand.”

  He nodded, his gaze anxious as he studied her face. “Like calls to like. Are you okay, Alace?” He tried to hide checking his phone and she wanted to laugh at his serious intensity. “Is the contraction over?” She nodded. “Okay. Wait, was that okay you’re okay, or okay the contraction was over?”

  “Both, actually. Even if this is the main event, we’ve probably got several hours before we have to go to the hospital.” Owen’s chin dipped to his neck, face twisted into a disbelieving expression. “Yeah, hours. All the books say.”

  “Books? You did classes, right?” She lost sight of his face when he yanked a sweatshirt on over the tee he wore. “When did you do classes?”

  “No classes. No time.” She winced. “How long since the last one?”

  He glanced at the wall behind the tablet, then back to the camera. “Nearly three minutes. Are you having another one? Already?” She nodded. “Okay, I’ll text it to Eric, so he’s got it for the record.” Eric’s phone dinged. “Are you breathing? There’s a breathing thing they do, right?” Alace blew out a stream of air, and he nodded. “Damn, yeah, exactly like that. Keep breathing, Alace. You got this.”

  “Beloved?”

  Eric’s voice must have been audible on the video, because Owen began shouting again. “She’s having contractions. Her water broke. I’ve been texting like you said.” Eric appeared next to the bed and crouched, putting his face close to Alace’s. “You left your phone behind, buddy. Do better.”

  Eric ignored Owen, speaking directly to Alace. “Your water broke? Are you sure?”

  “Unless she suddenly developed a watersports fetish, yeah, her water broke.” Owen’s immediate response stopped dead at a heated glan
ce from Eric, and Owen held up his hand. “Sorry, sorry. It’s just exciting.”

  “Yes, it is,” Eric agreed. “Alace, are you having another contraction?” He cradled the top of her belly, which had contorted into a high peak. “Yes, you are. Owen, she’ll have to get back to you on everything. I believe she’s given you what’s needed to start the investigation. Keep us updated on the boy’s condition, as well as what you find.”

  “Yeah, okay.” Owen sounded flustered, and Alace spared a glance for the tablet. He was dragging a hand through his hair, raking it roughly away from his face. “You do the same, okay? Let me know how boss lady’s doing.”

  “We will.” Eric took the tablet and tapped the disconnect icon. “Let me know when you’re ready to move; it can’t be comfortable sitting like that.” He smiled. “At least we put the mattress protector on last week.” The rustling plastic underneath the sheets had been a nightly annoyance to her, but she appreciated his planning now. “I’m going to get towels and a clean nightshirt for you. I’ll be right back, beloved. I’m not going far.”

  “Do you think we should have taken a class?” Alace pulled in a shallow breath and ran her fingers up and down the sides of her belly. “The nursery isn’t finished.”

  “If the class were a must, the doctor would have insisted. He didn’t push it when we expressed no interest.” Eric came back into the room from the bathroom and dropped a stack of folded towels on the desk. He opened a dresser drawer, dug around and came up with a gray shirt he knew she liked. “As far as the nursery is concerned, the first few weeks she’ll be in here with us, and the bassinette is all set up and ready. We’ve got the basics, and a bit beyond. Everything’s washed and ready. Neither of us is experienced at this, but I think we’re gonna be fine.”