Tina watched as Carl rounded the truck’s hood and headed for her side. He knocked hard on the window with one bent knuckle.
She released the seat belts on the car seat and herself. “Are you sure we’re allowed to be here? Is it yours?” It couldn’t be his, legally anyway. West would’ve checked for properties owned by Carl or his mother as soon as Lily went missing. He opened the door and offered his hand.
Tina climbed out with a shiver. She clutched Lily’s carrier to her chest. “What happened to the sitter?”
“She died.”
Tina took another look at the home. “When?”
“A few years ago. Before you and I m-met outside the coffee shop.” Carl pressed a palm to the small of her back, urging her forward.
That explained a lot. With his mom sick and his preferred mother figure dead, he’d needed to fill that void fast, and Tina was everything he’d hoped for. She’d even showed him kindness when he was still a stranger. She chewed the insides of her cheeks in frustration. Kind deeds were supposed to better the world, not crumble hers.
Tina moved slowly, carefully, toward the building where anything could happen to her or her daughter and no one would ever know. Strips of white paint curled away from the wood. The porch steps were tilted and sunken from age and neglect. “Your babysitter left her home to you?”
“N-no. It belongs to her daughter.” He added pressure to her back, forcing her to pick up the pace. “She lives out of state and h-h-hates the thought of the place standing empty like this. It needs a family to care f-for it, to make memories in it like my s-s-sitter and I did.”
Tina doubted that her captivity at this place would be the magical experience the woman had in mind. She moved carefully up the crooked steps. “I really wish I had a few of my things,” she said in an attempt to stall. “I’ve never stayed anywhere without taking at least a toothbrush. Maybe there’s a little store nearby. We could run in for a few supplies. Is there someplace like that?” A place where she could signal the clerk for help, or make a run for it with Lily? Someplace well lit and public or somewhere they could disappear into the night and wait for dawn. She wasn’t picky as long as she and Lily had a fighting chance at freedom.
“No need.” Carl turned the doorknob and motioned her inside. “I t-told you. I’ve taken care of everything.”
The home’s interior lights flickered on, and Tina blinked to make sense of the scene before her. The sheets covering musty old furniture were topped with afghans and throw pillows like the ones from her home. Even the rug beneath the coffee table and magazines spread on top were all hers. No, not hers exactly, but all replicas, purchased by a man who’d taken great care to re-create a place she loved.
“What do you think?” he asked, flipping a series of shiny new deadbolts on the door behind him.
Tina tried not to wonder if he’d installed bars on the windows, too. “It’s lovely,” she croaked. Fear and distress tugged at her composure. Her thoughts shredded as she visually toured the room, pretending to appreciate his work.
Reminders of home were everywhere. The lamps and art were so similar to her own that her skin crawled at the sight of them. She’d never seen anything this twisted outside a horror film.
Carl was far more unstable than she’d dared to imagine. Even after the shooting. Even after everything. This creepy house, the time and detail he’d put into it, was evidence of a man beyond her help. Somewhere along the line, Carl had snapped. His reality had skewed. And trying to talk him out of this would only cause her and Lily harm.
Tina needed time to think. The baby carrier was heavy in her arms, and Lily was sure to wake up eventually. Escaping would be much easier with a quiet baby than a crying one. “Would it be rude if I said I was ready for bed?” She forced a smile. “It’s been a rough couple of days, and I’m wiped out. I should probably rest now and start getting acclimated to my new home in the morning.”
Disappointment clouded Carl’s face. “We—we just got here. Maybe a shower will help w-wake you up.” He moved to a door in the hallway beyond the kitchen and flipped the light switch. A slow smile replaced his dismay. “Take a look.”
Tina inched closer. The outdated bath had pink and black tile, a drippy faucet and loads of fresh hygiene products. Coordinating towels and accessories on the counter matched her shower curtain and bathmat at home.
Tears blurred her eyes, and she disguised them with a yawn, wiping away the drops with the pad of her thumb.
Carl lifted a pink shower caddy. “Toothbrush, paste, floss, s-soap, shampoo.” He pointed to all her favorite brands. “I left your f-f-feminine products under the sink. I know you’ll need them soon, and you’re modest. I d-d-didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. Though, the woman at the store thought I was pretty great for b-buying them for you. She said more m-men should do things like that for their wives.”
Tina pressed her back against the wall and shifted Lily’s carrier in her aching arms. Had Carl’s delusion gone so far that he imagined them married? “I just need a minute,” she said, shooting a meaningful look at the toilet.
“Oh.” He smiled. “Right. Of course.” He gripped Lily’s carrier.
Tina held tight. “What are you doing?”
“P-putting her in her room. I’ll m-make us something in the kitchen while you sh-sh-shower and clean up. I bought you a new n-nightgown. I thought you’d want to start fr-fresh. Wearing something that other men hadn’t...” He trailed off. “I l-left it on the bed.”
Tina increased her hold on the infant carrier. “Maybe you should show me our rooms first.”
Carl’s smile returned. He relented his grip, leaving Tina to carry Lily, and moved to the next door in the hallway. He flipped the light switch inside. “Ta-da.”
A buzzing overhead light illuminated Lily’s nursery. The bedding and mobile, curtains and toys from Lily’s room at Mary’s home were all present.
Carl knelt before her and reached for Lily.
Tina stepped back, but he caught the carrier’s handle in his hands and shot her a warning look. “It’s p-past her bedtime,” he grumped. “She needs to learn to slee-slee-sleep in her bed.”
“I was hoping to sleep with her tonight,” Tina said. “I’ve missed her so much.” She fixed him with her most desperate stare. “Please don’t take her from me again.” A tear slipped over her cheek.
Carl removed Lily from the carrier and put her in the crib. He pointed to the door, indicating Tina should leave.
Tina inched backward. A hole punched through her heart as Carl pulled the nursery door shut behind them.
“Now, ou-our room,” he said.
The next door he opened had a tall double bed inside. The room’s decor was simple, almost thoughtless in comparison to the others he’d so meticulously staged. In fact, nothing about it reminded her of home.
Carl sat on the bed’s edge and patted the space beside him. “I thought you c-could decorate this space. The bedroom at y-your house was designed for y-y-your other marriage. This one should be special. For us.” He scooped a length of white fabric into his hand and held it out to her.
She took it up for inspection. “A nightgown.” As promised. The delicate fabric was nearly sheer, with a scoop neckline and enough length to cover her thighs. There was no way she was ever going to wear it.
“T-try it on,” he said.
“Now?” Absolutely not. She didn’t like the implication, or the fact that she couldn’t make a midnight escape through fields and trees in a sheer nightgown. She’d die of hypothermia before she found the road.
“Yes, please.” Carl smiled. He scooted back on the bed and laced his fingers behind his head. “Sh-show me that you like it.”
Tina set the gown at his feet on the bed and crossed her arms over her middle. “Modest. Remember.” She backed toward the door. “Maybe we should talk first. Get to know on
e another better.”
Reluctantly, Carl eased off the bed. He joined her at the door and slid his palm against hers, then clamped his fingers down. “I kn-know we’re moving a little fast, but y-you like it like this. Y-you only knew Thomas a short while before g-getting married. You were b-barely married for five m-m-minutes before conceiving Lily.” He dropped his gaze to leer briefly at her body before returning the heated gaze to her face. “We can m-make babies together, too. Give Lily brothers and sisters. Raise th-them here.” He lifted their joined hands and pressed a kiss against her knuckles.
Tina tried not to vomit.
He pulled her toward the kitchen and dragged a chair away from the table. “Sit.” He went to the counter to set up the coffee maker.
Tina took a seat. With such attention to detail, she wished he’d included a block of knives like the one on her counter at home. At the moment, what she really wanted was to stab him before he mentioned the nightgown or baby making again. She watched the wall separating her from Lily. She hadn’t even gotten to hold her. She’d just gotten her back and he’d taken her again. Slow tears rolled over Tina’s cheeks, and she swiped them away.
He smiled at her from his position beside the coffee maker. “Do—do you remember when w-we met? You bought me coffee, then w-waved at me wh-when you pulled away. I didn’t know w-why until the lady at the window said you b-b-bought my drink. I followed you home to thank you, but I wasn’t br-br-brave enough to do it. It takes me t-t-t-time to warm up to new people.” His cheeks flushed, and he turned back to the coffee.
He finished up, and the machine chugged to life. “I tried to talk to you for a c-couple weeks before I m-made up my mind. I was going to d-do it the day you went to the g-garden center for those redbud trees.”
“The day I met Thomas,” she said. A flood of nostalgia and grief washed over her. Thomas had been so kind. He was there for mulch and saw her struggling with the trees. “He dropped everything to help me.” Then he’d followed her home to unload them. A frown tugged her lips. She’d made lemonade and served it on the porch because she knew better than to invite a stranger inside. Thomas was nice, but he wasn’t her soul mate, and he was dead now because of her.
Carl selected two mugs from the cupboard with undue roughness, banging them on the counter until Tina was certain he’d wake Lily. “He h-helped himself to my girl is what he—he did. I couldn’t f-forgive it. I had to be a man, stake claim to what w-w-was mine.”
“You killed him.”
“I removed him from our situation.” Carl poured the small amount of brewed coffee into a mug and carried it to the table for her. “His loss h-hurt you for a while, I know, b-b-but you’re better now. Ready to start again, I think. That was w-why I had to be preemptive with Steven. He’d only been to gr-group a few times and you were sp-sp-spending all your attention on him.” He went back for a second mug and drained the pot’s contents once again. “You know that old s-saying. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice—” he pointed at his chest “—sh-shame on me. I couldn’t watch you m-m-marry someone else again. That would have been my fault.”
“I was never interested in Steven romantically,” Tina argued. “You know I won’t have a personal relationship with anyone in my care. It’s unprofessional.” She’d told Carl that when he joined the group and asked her if she wanted to join him for a walk.
“Those men were all wr-wrong for you.” He sighed dramatically. “Speaking of men who are wr-wrong for you. I don’t like the w-w-way you look at the sheriff. I can tell he wants you. Wants this.” Carl motioned between them and around the room. “N-not going to happen.”
“Is that why you shot him?” she asked, chin quivering. “You didn’t need to do that. You shouldn’t hurt people.”
He lifted and dropped one shoulder. “I saw—saw you with him. You t-touch him when he’s near. Lean on him. You’ve only kn-known him for a few days, but y-you chose to lean on him instead of me.” The accusation was thick and strong in his voice and stare.
“I’ve known Sheriff Garrett all my life,” she said, hoping not to set him off. “I grew up in Shadow Point. With him.”
Carl seemed to consider the idea. “I didn’t know that.”
“It’s true.” She lifted her mug, unable to drink, but unwilling to anger him further by refusing it completely.
“You grew up there, but d-don’t have family there?” He cocked his head, maybe wondering if she’d lied.
“I used to.” A tight knot formed in her throat, and she set the mug aside.
“Well, I f-forgive you for leaning on the sheriff,” he said. “I kn-know what it’s like to be l-l-lonely and m-make bad choices. If Sheriff Garrett is familiar to you, it m-makes sense that you’d confide in him, especially once he’d inserted himself into y-your life.” Carl leaned across the table and cupped her hands in his. “B-b-but, Tina, neither of us w-will ever have to be alone again.”
Her skin crawled and her stomach churned. “I can’t be with my patients, unprofessionally. You know that. I could lose my license.”
Carl squeezed her hands hard. “Y-you aren’t g-going back to work. I’m going to take care of you and L-Lily, and you’re g-going to take care of me.” He released her hands with an apologetic smile and moved to stand behind her chair. The calloused skin of his palms scraped over the back of her neck and across her shoulders as he kneaded the bunched muscles there. “I only ask-asked to participate in your group to get c-close to you. I thought you kn-knew that when y-you interviewed me.” He gathered the length of her hair in one hand and planted a hot, wet kiss at the nape of her neck. “Mmm.”
Tina clamped her teeth together, bucking against the instinct to fight. Lily was in the next room. She had to think of Lily. She had to win Carl’s trust and escape with her baby.
He dragged his sticky tongue up her neck until it reached her earlobe.
She dug her nails into her legs as he suckled and winced at the welcomed distraction.
“Gives you a shiver, huh?” he asked. “You l-like that?”
“We weren’t finished talking,” she said, wiggling away. She needed to busy his mind before he remembered the bed and nightgown that waited in the next room. “Tell me why you went to my place after the shooting. That was you who ran from the house, right? You set the table for two while you were in there.”
He tugged sharply on her hair, still wrapped in his fist. “Y-you were supposed to come home alone. I was there to com-comfort you. To listen. I thought we c-could eat, and you could tell me about the tr-trauma. I was going to be your strong shoulder and hero, but y-you brought the sheriff.”
He dropped her hair and gripped the back of her chair instead, yanking it roughly away from the table. “Let’s dance.” He set his phone on the counter and piped a slow country song through the speaker.
Tina needed that phone.
Carl wound one hand over the small of her back and pushed hair off her shoulder with the other. He lowered his mouth to her skin and kissed a disgusting path along her neck. “Y-you taste like honey.”
She held her breath, begging her addled mind to create a plan.
“It can be like this for us every night,” he said, kissing her jawline and chin, moving steadily toward her mouth.
Tina squirmed harder against his advances. “I still need that shower or maybe a hot bath.” A bath would buy her more time to get herself and Lily out the window without him noticing.
Carl’s hands slid beneath the hem of her shirt and skimmed her sides. “I could help.”
“No!” She lunged backward, instantly horrified by both his touch and her loud reaction. Her gaze jumped to the far wall separating the kitchen from Lily’s room. “Sorry,” she whispered. “I’m not ready. It’s too soon.” Suffocating fear silenced her words.
Carl moved slowly in her direction. “I d-didn’t mean to scare you. I w-w-would never h-hurt y
ou, Tina. N-not ever. You and Lily, you’re my l-l-life now.” He pulled her to him again and kissed her roughly. Holding her face between his palms.
Heavy tears rolled down her cheeks as she resigned herself to the worst possible fate. She wouldn’t be able to escape with Lily tonight. For Tina, tonight would be about survival.
* * *
WEST CREPT ALONG the porch of a dilapidated bungalow in Cress County. It wasn’t his jurisdiction, but he didn’t care, and he had a team of FBI agents in play to back him up. Tina’s text had stopped them before they reached the cabin at the lake and sent them back to the station at full speed. Her camera had caught the top of the blue pickup truck speeding away, but what had saved the day was her phone’s presence. A quick search for the number that had sent her the photo of Lily was all tech ops had needed to trace the burner phone all the way to Carl’s hideout.
He pressed his back to the wall and peered into the front window. His pounding heart nearly stopped when he saw Tina’s tears. Carl Morgan kissed her mouth like the sociopath he was while she cried.
West moved to the slanted porch steps and gave them a kick.
“What was that?” Tina’s voice was high and loud inside the home. Desperation had eradicated her cool exterior, leaving sheer panic on her face and tongue.
West moved into the shadows as Carl crept silently toward the window.
Carl glared through the glass. “Go to Lily’s room and lock the door,” he barked. “Make a single sound, or try anything stupid, and she’ll pay for it. Understand?”
West ground his teeth. He hopped over the porch’s railing and raced along the side of the house toward the back.
He peeked into each window in search of Tina, but found plywood nailed over the glass every time. Carl had imprisoned her and her baby. West looked behind him, wishing he could be the one to take Carl down, but Tina and Lily were his priorities.
The front door opened and snapped shut. Carl was coming, probably with a rifle.
The Sheriff's Secret Page 18
