by Lisa Childs
She cleared her throat and asked again, “Why?”
And for the first time since she’d unzipped the garment bag and stepped out, Lexi spoke. “I’m sorry...”
It wasn’t enough. Rebecca shook her head. “I’m not looking for an apology. I want a reason—a reason that you put me through hell.” All the pain and guilt and regret...
And the loss. That horrible ache of emptiness that Rebecca hadn’t been able to fill—not with love for Jared. Not even with love for her son.
“Answer her,” Jared ordered.
Tears filled Lexi’s bright blue eyes. She looked the same, exactly the same as she had six years ago. That was why it had been almost easier to believe she was a ghost than to believe she was real. And that she’d chosen to leave.
“I had no choice,” Lexi said. “It was the only way I could get away from Harris. Or he really would have killed me. I’m sure he’s been killing those other women.” She shivered, and the tears overflowed her eyes and slid down her beautiful face.
Rebecca had missed her sister so much. All she wanted to do was pull her into a hug and hold her. And introduce her to Alex.
But there was so much she didn’t know yet. “How?” she asked. “How did you do it?”
“There was so much blood,” Jared added. “The coroner said you couldn’t have lost that much blood and lived.”
“As well as being a medical assistant, I’m also a phlebotomist,” Lexi said. “I was taking small amounts of my blood for a couple of months and freezing it.”
Jared nodded. He had known about Lexi’s certification. But who would have believed she had used that skill to draw so much of her own blood? Not Rebecca. She was horrified. “You planned it for a while...”
And she’d never said anything to Rebecca. While she should have been thrilled her sister was alive, she still felt as if she’d lost her. Or maybe she’d never really had her at all.
“I’m sorry,” Lexi said again as the tears continued to stream down her face. “But I wasn’t sure you would go along with it. And I had to get away from Harris.”
“You could have just dumped him,” Jared suggested.
Lexi shook her head. “I tried. He nearly killed me then. And he promised me that was the only way I would get away from him—was when I died.” She uttered a ragged sigh of resignation. “So I had to die.”
Rebecca had seen the bruises. She knew her sister spoke the truth. That was why she’d been so convinced that Harris had killed Lexi—because he would’ve had Lexi given him the chance. Instead, she’d saved herself the only way she’d known how.
“Is that who the agents caught outside? Was it Harris?” she asked Jared. “Or was it Kyle Smith?” She wouldn’t have put it past the reporter to try to break into the chapel for another exclusive.
“Kyle Smith is dead,” Jared said.
She noticed then the grimness on his handsome face and the streak of blood on the side of his neck. “Are you okay?” she asked. Had he fought with Smith? Had he been right that was who the killer was?
“I’m fine,” he said. But the grimness didn’t ease, and he still held his gun, the barrel pointed at Lexi—as if she posed some kind of threat. “And the person who was caught outside the chapel is George Droski.”
“George?” Rebecca asked. “I was so sure he had nothing to do with the killings. He was so close to us growing up—like a brother.”
“Maybe he was like your brother,” Lexi said. “But he was never like mine.”
Rebecca wondered about her sister’s tone. She’d been even closer to George than Rebecca had. “But you two were so close...”
“We’re closer now,” Lexi said, and she smiled through her tears. “We’re married.”
“Married?” She’d thought Lexi had been robbed of her wedding, of her life. It was so hard to believe that she’d been living the past six years.
“He saved my life six years ago,” Lexi defended the man, “when he helped me escape from Harris. George would never hurt anyone. He’s only been helping me—trying to save you, too.”
Rebecca’s stomach churned as she had another revelation about her sister. “You were the one behind the warnings?”
“Of course it was her,” Jared said. “Who else would have had the veil with her blood on it? And your grandmother’s earrings?”
“Her killer,” Rebecca murmured. She’d been so convinced that was who had been playing the mind games with her. But Lexi had done it. She’d never really known her sister at all.
“It must’ve been George calling you,” Jared said. “And George who tried to grab you in the dress boutique.”
“Why?” Rebecca asked her sister again. She’d always thought that Alex got his inquisitiveness from Jared. But maybe he’d gotten it from her.
“Because you are in danger,” Lexi said. “Kyle Smith was making too big a deal out of you, making you too tempting a target for Harris to pass up. And I know he was going to try to kill you—especially after he killed Root Beer.”
“Amy Wilcox?” Jared asked.
Lexi nodded. “That had to have been Harris. He only met her once, but he hated her.”
“He has an alibi,” Jared said.
Lexi snorted. “I’m sure he does. But it’s not true.”
“You’re the expert on what’s not true,” Jared said. “You admit you faked your own death and terrorized your sister.”
Lexi flinched as if Jared had struck her.
Rebecca loved them both. And she understood them both. Lexi had felt as if she’d had no other way out. But Jared had to be angry that he’d spent six years trying to solve a murder that had never been committed.
But then Jared pulled out his handcuffs. “Lexi Drummond-Droski, I am placing you under arrest for obstruction and harassment.”
Rebecca gasped. “You can’t!” Anger was one thing, but this felt vindictive. And she’d never thought Jared could be vindictive. He’d forgiven her for not telling him about his son. Hadn’t he?
“I have to,” he told Rebecca as he snapped the cuffs around Lexi’s thin wrists. “She’s broken the law. And the ones I’m arresting her for might not be the only crimes she and George have committed.”
He wasn’t making any sense. Maybe the blood on his neck had come from a blow to the head—one that had addled his thinking. “What are you talking about?”
“She faked her death,” Jared said, “but all those other women are really dead. We found their bodies. And the way they died exactly fits the way we thought she had died.”
But of course they had thought that only after those other bodies had been found—with all those horrible stab wounds. Then it had made sense that they’d found so much of Lexi’s blood if she’d also been stabbed.
But she’d stabbed herself—over and over again—with a needle. She’d been that desperate to get away from Harris. Lexi looked tiny standing in front of Jared—little bigger than Alex. Putting the cuffs on her was like arresting a child—someone vulnerable and innocent.
Rebecca shook her head. “Jared, you’re not making any sense...”
“He thinks I killed them,” Lexi said.
“You and your husband,” Jared said. “It had to be you and George. He abducted the women like he tried to abduct Becca in that dress boutique.”
“He wasn’t trying to abduct her,” Lexi argued. “He just wanted to scare her so that she wouldn’t get any more involved with you and risk her life.”
Jared’s chin snapped up as if she’d struck him. “You think I’m a danger to Becca?”
“You broke her heart six years ago,” Lexi said. “And you put her at risk today. I got in here. George nearly got in here. Harris could have, too.”
“I think you’re the greater danger,” Jared said. “Harris doesn’t know every detail about your crime scene. You do because you staged it. And all those other crime scenes exactly match it. It has to be you and George who killed those other women.”
“I didn’t know those
other women,” Lexi said. “I only knew Amy, and I never would have hurt her.”
“Like you didn’t hurt your sister?” Jared asked. “You’ve been terrorizing her—”
More tears ran down Lexi’s face. “I didn’t mean to—I just wanted her to be careful. To protect herself—”
“But this wasn’t the first time you hurt her,” Jared said. “You nearly destroyed her six years ago.”
“I’m not sure which one of you hurt me more six years ago,” Rebecca said. It was as if they were having a contest, but the loser would be the one who’d hurt her most. “But you’re hurting me now, Jared. I just found out Lexi is alive, and you’re taking her away...” Her voice cracked with emotion. “In handcuffs.”
He looked at her, his amber eyes full of regret. She noticed the dark shadows beneath his eyes and how a muscle twitched in his cheek. He was in pain. He must have been hurt earlier; that was why he hadn’t shown up when he’d promised. And she’d thought he was just trying to stop her from putting herself in danger.
“I have to,” Jared said. “She can’t get away with what she’s done.”
“No, she can’t,” another man agreed as he stepped through the open door of the dressing room. He slammed it shut behind himself. At first Rebecca thought it was the crack of the door hitting the jamb that she heard.
But it was too loud, so loud that she winced. Then she screamed as she saw Jared crumple and drop to the floor. And she turned back toward the other man. Harris Mowery held a gun—a gun he’d just fired at the man she loved.
Chapter Twenty-One
Jared lay limply on the floor, blood trickling down his numb arm and soaking through his shirt and coat to the carpet beneath him. The bullet had missed his damn vest, hitting his shoulder instead. He’d dropped his gun. And because he’d dropped his gun, he’d dropped to the ground, too.
With a wounded arm and probably a concussion from what he suspected was now an earlier confrontation with Harris, he wouldn’t be able to physically overpower him. He needed his gun. And he had to get it without Mowery noticing him reaching for it. He had to play dead and hope that Mowery didn’t fire at him again.
He also had to get a message to his team so they didn’t rush the room and force Mowery’s hand. Because then he would definitely empty his gun—into Becca and Lexi before they’d have a chance to take him down.
Rebecca’s scream had drawn Mowery’s attention to her, so the man had turned away from him. But the gun had fallen too far away for Jared to reach for it quickly—without drawing Mowery’s attention back to him. With his left hand, he pulled his badge from beneath him and flashed it at the stained-glass window.
He didn’t flash an SOS. And because he hadn’t, Rus and Reyes should know to back off and hold back the others. And let him handle it. As long as Harris didn’t realize he wasn’t dead...
“You shot him!” Becca yelled at Harris as she tried to move around him. But he swung that gun in her direction. “Why did you shoot him?”
“So he wouldn’t try to save you,” Harris said. “I needed Special Agent Bell out of my way. And you better stay where you are, Rebecca, or I’ll shoot you, too. And that isn’t at all what I’ve had planned for you.”
Jared knew what he’d planned. The same gruesome death as all those other women but Lexi had suffered.
“What are you doing?” Becca asked.
The madman chuckled. “You knew I wouldn’t be able to resist grabbing you, Rebecca. That was the whole purpose of your little plan. Kyle Smith was right about that...” He sighed almost regretfully. “I don’t know why he resisted giving up the information about your fitting time and location. I knew he had it. And he’d always been so good about sharing his information before—until today.”
“You killed him,” Becca said, and her voice cracked with fear and with tears. She was probably worried that he’d killed Jared, too.
“I would’ve killed Special Agent Bell then, too,” Harris said. “But I needed him to lead me back here. Back to you...” He swung his gun toward Lexi. “I didn’t know he’d lead me to you, as well.”
“You’re not surprised I’m alive,” Lexi said.
Clearly, Harris hadn’t been as shocked as he and Becca had been.
“You’re not going to be alive much longer,” Harris promised her. “But first I intend to take care of your sister. She’s been a pain in my ass for far too long.”
He swung the gun toward Becca but Lexi lurched forward—stepping between them. She glanced down and noticed Jared staring up at her. And she shook her head in warning just before Harris turned back toward him.
So Jared closed his eyes and played dead, like Lexi had the past six years.
“How did you know I wasn’t dead?” she asked, her voice, which had been so soft earlier, was loud and shrill now. She wanted to draw Harris’s attention to her. And away from Jared.
She was helping him.
“I knew because I hadn’t killed you,” he said. “But I did—every time I killed one of those women. I killed you. I saw you—especially when I killed that insolent girl we met at the mall.”
Lexi gasped. “Root Beer...”
“Whatever you called her,” Harris said. “You and your childish little nicknames.”
“Do you know what I called you?” Lexi asked.
“I never let you give me one of your ridiculous pet names,” he said, his voice full of patronization and pride.
She smiled—a smile full of his usual smugness and arrogance. She was playing him hard, hitting all of his triggers.
For Becca...
To keep her sister safe from the man she’d brought into their lives.
“I had a nickname for you,” Lexi told him. “I called you the Little Man.” She laughed. “For so many reasons...”
He lashed out—just as she’d intended, striking her so hard that she dropped to her knees. “You bitch! You stupid little bitch!”
He raised his arm again to deliver another blow.
Lexi couldn’t defend herself. She couldn’t even lift her arm to deflect his blow because Jared had handcuffed her arms behind her back.
Jared reached for his gun, out of reflex with his right arm. But the numbness wasn’t gone. It was like he was paralyzed. He couldn’t move the limb that had been shot. He couldn’t save Lexi from the next blow Harris dealt her.
But Becca could. With another scream, this one of anger instead of fear, she threw herself at the madman. Maybe she’d forgotten about his gun. Or maybe she was just so angry that she didn’t care.
Another shot rang out, rattling the small stained-glass window in the room. Had Harris shot her?
* * *
PAIN EXPLODED IN Rebecca’s head. The bullet hadn’t struck her, but the barrel had when Harris swung it at her. The force of the blow made her fall to the ground next to Lexi. She’d only wanted to protect her sister—like she should have six years ago.
“And that’s one of the reasons you’re a little man,” Lexi said. Blood oozed from the cut he’d opened on her lip. But she didn’t care. She kept taunting him.
It was obvious to Rebecca that Lexi wanted him to kill her first—before he had a chance to kill Rebecca. Despite letting her believe she’d been dead the past six years, Lexi still loved her—enough to die for her. “Stop,” she implored her. “Don’t...”
“Don’t what?” Lexi asked. “Tell the truth? I should have gone on that dead reporter’s show years ago—telling what a weak, little man Harris Mowery is. That he can only pick on women.”
“I killed that reporter,” Harris said with pride. “I beat the dress fitting time out of him.”
“I thought you said he wouldn’t tell you,” Rebecca reminded him. “That you had to follow Jared here.”
He swung his gun back toward Jared. “I killed him, too. Or if he’s not dead now, he soon will be.” He pointed his barrel at Jared’s head.
And Rebecca screamed. The hope that he was only unconscious was what had kep
t her from losing her sanity. If Jared was dead...
She would lose more than her heart. She would lose her mind and her soul, too. “No!” She vaulted to her feet and launched herself at Harris again.
But another shot rang out. She didn’t know if it struck Jared or the floor near his head. She had no time to look—no time to go to him—before Harris tossed her back onto the ground like a rag doll.
She hit with a hard thud, jarring her bones and bruising her muscles. An oath slipped through her lips.
And Lexi screamed now. “Stop! Stop hurting her!”
“I’m going to do more than hurt her,” Harris promised.
“I’m the one you want to hurt,” Lexi said. “I’m the one you hate.”
Harris cursed—calling his former fiancée every vulgar name a man could call a woman. “But you’re wrong,” he said. “I don’t hate you. Not even now.”
Lexi shivered. Maybe she would have preferred his hatred.
“I love you,” he said, then cursed her again. “I love you like I’ve never loved anyone else...”
And Lexi had rejected him. She’d rejected life entirely over a life with him.
“You don’t know what love is,” Lexi said. “You have no idea.”
“And you know?” he said with a snide smile. “Are you talking about your love for your sister? You put your darling Becca through hell when you faked your death.”
Lexi shook her head. “I love,” she said, “my husband. My children.”
Harris’s face flushed red with rage. Lexi had pushed him too far. He was certain to kill her now. “You’re married?”
“Yes,” she replied with a happy smile that made her swollen lip bleed even more. “And we have two beautiful children.”
He lashed out again—so quickly that he struck Lexi before Rebecca could intervene. Lexi fell back on the floor. Then Harris swung the gun barrel toward her. “Don’t move.”
“Don’t shoot her!” Rebecca yelled. She couldn’t lose Lexi again—especially not if she had already lost Jared. She would need Lexi to hold her together.
“I’m not going to kill her yet,” Harris said. “I want her alive to watch when I kill you.” He turned back to Rebecca. But he slid the gun into the back of his belt. And instead he pulled out a knife and unsheathed it. “Of course she doesn’t love you as much as her husband and children.” He flicked his thumb over the shiny blade of the sharp knife. “I really should kill them instead...”
