Saying nothing to that, she pulled in a breath and reached for the chair. It took some doing to maneuver the thing out with Luis right behind her and about two feet of space, but Luis dragged the chair out and left it in the hallway. Then there was nothing between them and the threat, except a door.
Silence echoed on the other side, which only heightened the terror coursing through her like ice water. Part of her wondered why Shaun hadn’t followed her up. What game was he playing? The gash on Luis’s face said a dangerous one.
Taking hold of the doorknob, she inched the door open and peered down at the thick darkness below. A frosty draft wafted up, laced with the sour stench she now recognized as blood, and slammed into her. She hissed and gritted her teeth.
“Maybe we shouldn’t...” Luis whispered.
Julie ignored him. She started downward, placing each foot gingerly on the steps. Not that it mattered. Luis stumbled down after her like a pack of elephants. She had half a mind to tell him to go back, to wait for her in the laundry room, but she knew he wouldn’t. For which she was glad. Without her light, the basement was the absolute definition of black. It was vast, cold, and silent. They walked into several boxes and furniture before they reached the spot she had last seen Shaun.
It was silent now. No groaning or shuffling. But the rain was louder. The moldy air was colder and swirling. She followed the draft to the open hatch at the very back of the room facing the side of the house.
“Mason said this was boarded up,” she mumbled to herself.
“Not anymore,” Luis croaked.
“We have to get back upstairs.”
The harsh grind of steel skating over stone ricocheted from somewhere behind her a split second before something struck the side of her head and everything pitched to black.
The world was buzzing when the veil of darkness finally lifted. A dull throbbing resonated somewhere along her skull and down the back of her neck. It made her muscles scream in protested when Julie tried to sit up. She hissed as bright splotches of light flickered through the darkness. Her stomach roiled. She raised a hand to touch the egg-sized bump protruding from the side of her head. Even without being able to see, she could feel the slick sensation of blood on her fingers. Her hair was matted with it.
Don’t panic, she willed herself as she blinked, momentarily terrified that she’d gone blind when all she could see was black.
“Julie?” Someone shuffled closer. Firm hands tucked around her shoulders and eased her up against the wall. “Are you okay?”
She tried to generate spit to speak. Her mouth was filled with cotton and tasted like she’d been licking a dirty carpet. She whined and closed her eyes.
“Take it easy,” he told her. “He hit you pretty hard.”
He? Then she remembered. Shaun.
She struggled out of hold cradling her. “Where—”
“Easy!” Luis stressed. “You’re safe. I got us out of there.”
“What...?” She squinted, trying to make out where they were exactly, but all she could hear was the rain above them and the smell of ocean. “Where are we?”
“Your room,” Luis said. “It’s the only room with a lock.”
She heaved herself a little higher and grimaced at having to jostle her stiffened joints. “Why am I on the floor?”
“Uh, well...” He faltered. “This is as far as I could carry you.”
She let it go.
“What happened?”
She felt him position himself down next to her with his back to the wall and his shoulder and hip brushing hers.
“He got the jump on us,” Luis explained. “I don’t remember it all very well. It all happened so fast.”
“Mason?”
She felt the jerk of his shoulder. “I don’t know.”
Woozy, she let her head fall back against the coolness of the wall, only to further agitate the lump there. She jerked forward once more.
“We can’t stay here,” she mumbled. “We need to get help.”
Luis was quiet for a moment. “I could go to the neighbor’s.”
Julie shook her head. “We’ll both go.”
“You should stay here,” he advised. “You just got hit in the head. You probably have a concussion.”
“I need to help Mason,” she said sharply. “Besides, there’s no guarantee he won’t be able to get in. I’ll be a sitting duck.”
With his help, she got to her feet. The room swam dangerously and she swayed into Luis, who nearly buckled under her weight. She shut her eyes as her stomach lurched and the bitter tang of bile flooded her mouth.
“Okay?”
She waited a beat to make certain her legs could support her before giving him a nod he couldn’t possibly see. “Yes.”
Luis took the lead. He led the way downstairs and the double doors standing open to the stormy night.
“Did you...?”
“No.” Luis’ grip on her arm tightened. “He’s in the house.”
“Or he’s outside.”
“We need to hurry.”
She made no argument to that. They hurried to the door. The rain hit their faces, soaked their clothes. Their feet slipped on the porch steps. Then...
“Hey!”
The silhouette was unmistakable. Shaun, hulking, stained with blood and wielding a knife loomed in the hallway behind them. His face was obscured by shadows, but his eyes gleamed like quarters at the bottom of a dark well.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he growled.
There was a slur to his voice and when he took a step forward, it was unsteady.
“Julie, run!” Luis shoved her, knocking her off the steps and into the rain.
The pavement rose up to meet her and tore through her jeans to rip skin. Her hip splintered with pain and she heard the sickening crack of bone where her left arm cushioned her weight.
Julie cried out as hot sickles of fire snapped at the tendons of her numb arm. Her fingers locked into claws, unwilling to move as she twisted onto her back and cradled her injuries to her chest. Rain stabbed her face, blinding her as she willed herself not to throw up.
Somewhere through the agonizing pain, she heard a roar puncture through the air. Someone screamed and then two figures flew off the porch. They landed with a nauseating crash a mere five feet from her in a tangled heap of flailing limbs.
Julie heaved her throbbing frame up and staggered with the effort. Her head swam dangerously and she momentarily saw double before she blinked and everything came back into focus.
Shaun was on top, straddling Luis who had a hold of Shaun’s wrist with both hands as the knife point hovered inches from Luis’s pale throat. Both had their teeth bared like a pair of wolves fighting for dominance.
“Get off him!” Julie screamed over the whistling wind and pounding rain.
Not allowing herself time to think, she threw herself onto Shaun’s back, wrapped her good arms around his throat and heaved back with all her might. Shaun never so much as budged. The muscles across his back bunched and rolled beneath her chest as he pushed harder to impale Luis on the blade.
“Shaun, stop!” she yelled into his ear. “What are you doing?”
He didn’t seem to be listening to her. All his focus was set on kill Luis. So Julie did the only thing she could think of, she gouged her thumbs into his eyes.
Shaun roared. He twisted his massive body, bucking for all he was worth until he threw Julie off. She landed in the dirt and he tumbled off Luis.
He seemed to sway under the attack as though that single act had zapped him of all his strength. He slumped on his forearms, breathing hard through the rain. His back shuddered like he couldn’t catch his breath. The knife lay forgotten inches from him.
“Shaun?” Julie pulled her aching frame up, never taking her eyes off him.
Luis twisted away, coughing. Julie watched him push to all four before heaving himself up. Like Shaun, like her, he was bathed in shadows that obscured his features. So she couldn’
t tell what he was thinking when he swooped down and snatched the knife up.
“Are you okay, Julie?”
Despite nearly being skewered, Luis sounded ... calm. Slightly breathless, but not nearly as shaken as he should have been.
“Yeah...”
He moved around Shaun’s curled figure and stood over her, the knife glinting at his side. Julie told herself to stop being ridiculous. This was Luis. She trusted Luis. Nevertheless, she flinched when he reached for her.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said as he locked his fingers around her arm and hauled her up.
Shaking him off, she looked down at Shaun. “What do we do with him?”
Luis left her side and circled back around Shaun. “Get inside,” he said. “I’ll bring him.”
“Don’t you need help carrying—?”
“No, no, I got him.”
Shivering, Julie staggered her way back up the porch and into the house. Her mind was spinning. There were too many questions and none of it added up.
Shaun wasn’t the killer. He couldn’t be. She had known him for too long and if he’d spent the last five years running from Dr. Nixon, she would have known. So what the hell was wrong with him? Why would he attack Luis? Why would he kidnap Mason? Why was he chasing them? Julie felt like she was missing a very large piece of the puzzle.
When the floorboards behind her creaked, she turned, half expecting Luis to be staggering under Shaun’s massive weight. Instead, he was alone.
“Do you need help?” she asked, her voice small.
She saw him shake his head as he closed the doors behind him. “No.”
Something cracked in her chest. “Where’s Shaun?”
The locks clicked into place. He turned to her. “He won’t be joining us.”
Julie fell back a step, then two. “What?”
He rapped something against the side of his thigh. It was too dark to see, but she knew what it was.
“Luis, what—?”
“He came at me. I had to defend myself.”
A choked gasp escaped her as the implication of his words hit her square in the gut.
“I didn’t have a choice,” he went on in a tone that was much too gruff, too ... husky.
“You killed Shaun?”
He spread his arms open. “He was going to kill us. I had to do something.”
“Oh my God!”
“Julie...”
He took a step towards her and she jerked back, putting her hands up between them.
“Don’t!”
He halted. He sighed and his head cocked to the side. “I was trying to protect you.”
“You killed Shaun!”
“He had it coming, you know that.”
She rocked her head wildly from side to side. “I can’t believe you...”
“Julie.” There was impatience coloring his tone now. “You need to calm down.”
She took another retreating step back. Luis didn’t seem to notice, or he didn’t care. She was almost at the kitchen. If she could distract him a little longer, she could run for the terrace doors.
“Go ahead,” he taunted. “Run. I haven’t had a runner in two years and I miss it.”
“What...?” It was apparently all she was capable of saying.
He advanced on her, his strides slow and even. “You ruined things for me, Julie. I can’t tell you how disappointed I am in you.”
Julie said nothing. Her sneakers squeaked against hardwood in her haste to keep five steps between them. Her back struck the doorframe and she stumbled into the kitchen.
Luis followed.
“Do you have any idea how hard it is to gain someone’s trust?” he asked her in an admonishing tone that suggested he was simply toying with her. “It’s hard! It takes years, but I was patient. I bided my time. I played nice ... well, most of the time.”
His grin flashed a blinding white in the explosion of lightening that crashed just outside the patio doors. It illuminated his brown eyes, the blood smearing his face, and the knife, dripping with Shaun’s blood, clutched in his hand.
“Even the most patient man occasionally slips,” he went on. “But the trick is to fight it, stave back that hunger until the perfect moment.”
“You’re Jimmy,” she whispered.
His chuckle grated against the length of her spine like razorblades. “I’m Luis,” he corrected. “I haven’t been Jimmy in a very long time. Dr. Nixon will be so upset. I think he really liked Jimmy.”
“He said you weren’t aware of your other—”
“My other what?” he challenged. “My other personalities?” He laughed, cold and brittle. “There is no other personality. This is it. This is me. Jimmy was a means to an end.” He paused. When he spoke again, his voice was sharp. “I should have killed that meddlesome fool when I had the chance. That’s what you get when you become sentimental.”
Julie came up against the table. It skidded an inch under her weight. “I don’t understand...”
It didn’t make sense. None of it. How could Luis be Jimmy? How could Luis be the killer? Luis, shy, thoughtful ... adorable Luis. Part of her wondered if this was some kind of sick joke everyone was in on, except her. Any minute, she expected Mason and Shaun to come bursting through the doors, laughing and teasing her for falling for it.
But the doorway remained empty. Luis continued to standing before her, colored in shadows, wielding a blood stained knife.
“It’s hard to understand,” he agreed with a hint of regret in his tone. “But then again, you weren’t supposed to be here, so really, it’s your own fault.”
Julie could only shake her head soundlessly.
“I was,” he continued, “a little concerned when you brought along the children.” He paused. “I’ve never killed children. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about it, which is why I suggested the camping trip, to save them from meeting the same fate, unfortunately, I’d been careless. Got a little blood on the door handle...” He hissed through his teeth. “Nevertheless, you made it simple again by having the children sent off so...”
He said it with such casual disregard, as though they were discussing a pizza flavor he hadn’t tried that Julie gagged.
“Don’t be like that,” he huffed, offended. “It’s not something I can help you know,” he explained. “I just ... I have to. It’s kind of like when you’re really thirsty, but there’s nothing to drink. You start craving it. Needing it. It becomes so strong that you can’t breathe or think. Then, when you finally put the rim of that cool glass to your lip...” He sucked in a sharp, lusty breath. “It’s beautiful. The high is incredible.”
“You killed that girl ... Bethany Row,” Julie croaked.
Luis hissed through his teeth. “I did,” he confessed. “I feel absolutely horrible about it, too. I haven’t lost control like that in a very long time. But again, your fault.”
“How—”
“This week was supposed to be my honeymoon!” he exclaimed, cutting her off. “Killing that girl ... it felt so ... dirty. Kind of like having meaningless sex with a stranger. Shaun and Mason, however ... I’ve been working on them for years. Teasing myself. Coming so close only to pull away...” He moaned and the sound sent a chill down her spine. “I was finally going to cut into them. I was going to take my time, bleed them out slowly in their beds. Then you showed up. You ruined everything, Julie. You forced me to rush my work. I got a little carried away with the kittens, I’ll admit, but I was pissed.”
“We trusted you!”
Luis laughed with heady delight. “I know! Oh my God! I know.” He exhaled elatedly. “Just when I thought my plans were ruined ... I saw it in your eyes. I saw the trust. It was so disgustingly easy!” He hissed through his teeth with a relish of someone getting steak after being starved for weeks. “There is something uniquely special about killing someone when they don’t expect it, someone who trusts you and watching the confusion and betrayal in their eyes as they realize what’s happening. Som
e just lie there. Some cry and beg me not to kill them. But it’s the ones that scream...” He moaned thickly. “It’s like experiencing the ultimate orgasm.”
“How many have there been?” she wondered sickly.
“That the police have actually found, or in total?” There was a gruesome sort of amusement in his question. “Not nearly as many as I would have liked,” he said. “Building that level of trust ... it takes time and patience like slow, careful foreplay. I may not have hit the hundred mark, but it’s not in the numbers. It’s about the process. The careful planning and research.”
“Who’s Luis?”
She saw his shoulders bunch high in a shrug. “Some kid from Wyoming. Met him in a bar one night. Two beers in, a friendly face and an understanding ear and he was spilling his whole life story to me. Raised by an uncaring grandmother, ran away first chance he got, and had high dreams of becoming a doctor. We hung out a few times, I learned all I could about him before he had an unfortunate accident and was never seen again. The rest was pretty simple, slipping into Luis’s life, becoming him. I even called his grandmother a few times, just for a thrill. She never knew the difference. Between you and me, I think she might have preferred the new Luis to the old one. I even contemplated paying old grandma a visit, but then I met Mason and Shaun. Mason I can almost say I liked, but Shaun ... the fucking douchebag. I wanted to kill him on sight. But I knew that the payout in the end would be much more rewarding if I made him think I was his friend, that I was trustworthy, someone he could sleep down the hall from without worry. All the while, I dreamt of the day I would run my blade across his throat and watch as he struggled to breathe.”
“You’re insane!” The words flew from her mouth before she could stop them.
“I’m sick,” he corrected. “Didn’t you hear Dr. Nixon? I am a poor, unstable young man with so much potential. I should have killed him.” The lightness left his voice. “He almost ruined everything! Do you have any idea how many people I could have killed by now if he hadn’t sent my picture to every fucking pig with a badge? Not that I was worried. I am expert at reinventing myself. My own mother wouldn’t recognize me if I didn’t want her to. I mean, if I hadn’t killed her and my father.”
Kissing Trouble Page 31
