by J. Lynn
Floorboards creaked, the sound clapping through the room like thunder.
Tiny hairs rose all over my body. Ice drenched my veins.
“I really wish you hadn’t seen this.”
Chapter 25
Terror seized me at the sound of his voice, the shock of realizing I was so not alone making me a little dizzy for a moment. The photos on the wall blurred as I spun around.
He stood in the doorway of the room, his blond hair messy, like he’d run his fingers through it several times. Those sharp, dark eyes appeared to miss nothing, and his arms were loose at his sides, but his hands opened and closed, grasping air over and over.
Kip. It was Kip.
He was the one who’d been breaking into my house and it obviously went further than that. The photos of the other women . . .
Kip tilted his head to the side like he could hear what I was thinking. “You shouldn’t have seen this. You wouldn’t understand.”
Fear had my throat seized up and I croaked out, “What is there to understand?”
One shoulder rose as he glanced toward the closet. “Probably should’ve made sure you couldn’t find your way up here, but I honestly didn’t think you’d find it.” He took a step forward and to the side, putting himself between the closet and the door. My muscles locked up. “I mean, you hadn’t discovered it this whole time. Figured you weren’t smart enough.”
Any other day I’d be insulted for not being “smart enough,” however, today I honestly didn’t care what he thought about my level of intelligence. I had to get out of there. My frantic gaze moved to the doorway. I’d been in James and Miriam’s apartment before, and if the layout was anything like theirs, I knew this room led to a hall and then to the door.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said gently.
I looked at him sharply. “That you’re a freak?”
His eyes narrowed. “And you’re a whore.” He spat the words out. Drawing back, I stared at him as a muscle flickered along his jaw. “You’re just like all the rest of them—just like Shelly.”
“Shelly?” I whispered.
“When it came to her, I was relegated to the friend zone for years, but I loved her. I loved her, Roxy.” His dark eyes flashed. “But she spread her legs for just about any guy who crossed her path. I wasn’t good enough for her, I guess.” He barked out a short, harsh laugh. “Well, I showed her just how good I was.”
When it hit me who Shelly was—the girl that had gone missing at the beginning of the summer—my knees went weak. I doubted showing her how good he was had anything to do with something I wanted to be a part of.
I thought about the other women—the ones in the photos on these walls. “You . . . you hurt them because of Shelly?”
His lips curled up in a mockery of a smile. “I don’t think I hurt them.”
The guy was insane, absolutely crazy-pants insane. I opened my mouth, but then I heard what felt like a lifeline. The distant ring of my cell phone. I’d left it in my closet. I had no idea who could be calling, but I prayed that it was Reece, because I had to think he’d check on me if I didn’t answer. He knew the passcode to the security system and he had a key.
Kip didn’t acknowledge the sound of my phone. He was studying me like one would look at an insect through a microscope. “I sent you flowers.”
I blinked. “What?”
“I sent you the flowers,” he repeated, taking another slow, measured step forward. “I sent them after I heard you talking with your mother,” he continued, sending a shiver of repulsion through me. “I told you things would be better.”
The man was seriously deranged.
“You never brought them home. That upset me.” He shrugged again and then he reached out, brushing his fingers along a photo. “I wanted you to know I was here with you.” A real smile appeared and somehow that was creepier than anything else. “I loved how you thought the place was haunted. Cute.”
Those dark eyes settled on mine. They were bottomless, wholly frightening. I heard the phone ringing again downstairs, and as my heart pounded in my chest, he lowered his arm. His hand opened and closed. “I never got to do that with the rest of them. Only Shelly. I knew where she kept her spare key.”
My arms were shaking so bad I wrapped them around my waist as I took a sideways step, moving closer to the door. I had to keep him talking. That much I knew.
“You really pissed me off when you brought him home,” he said. “I thought you were different. You were different from the rest of them—artistic, funny.”
“You messed up my apartment.”
“Of course I did. How else was I to get you back here?” He inclined his head again. “Sometimes I would watch you at Mona’s. I’d be there and you’d have no idea. Just like I’ve laid beside you and you’ve had no idea.”
My stomach knotted with disgust and horror. I couldn’t even wrap my head around that, couldn’t even allow myself to truly think about it.
“What . . . what are you going to do?”
“That’s such a repetitious question,” he replied, the grin slipping from his face. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I didn’t plan this. You weren’t supposed to come up here. I was supposed to come to you, when the time was right.”
When the time was right? Dear God, I was staring into the face of someone truly unhinged. I heard my phone start ringing again, and this time Kip’s eyes narrowed. His hands closed once more, and I sprang into action, my flats slipping on the wooden floor as I took off toward the door. My stomach was in my throat, and all I could let myself think about was making it to that door—making it outside.
I didn’t make it very far.
Tackled from behind, I went down hard, my glasses flying off, my knees smacking the floor, and my palms scraping across a rough board. Pain flared, but I didn’t cave in to it. I wiggled and twisted, trying to loosen the arms circled tight around my waist.
Kip grunted as he flipped me on my back, and I swung out. His round cheeks flushed, he shifted, pushing his knee into my stomach with enough force to knock the air out of my lungs. “Knock it off,” he ordered, jerking back as I swung again. This time he wasn’t fast enough. My fist connected with his jaw, and I hit him like my brothers taught me to. Hard and fast. Dull pain danced over my knuckles, but I swung again, screaming as loud as I could.
“Scream all you want, Roxy.” He caught my hand and slammed it down, pinning it to the floor with bruising force. “James and his girl aren’t home and you know the Silvers can’t hear shit.”
That didn’t stop me from screaming.
He hauled me up by one arm and slammed me back down. My head cracked against the floor, and for a second, bright lights flashed in back of my eyes, dotting my vision. I was stunned as pain whipped around along the side of my head and down my neck.
Fear rose inside me, insidious as choking, thick smoke, but so did a fury that was far stronger. This would not happen. Not after everything. I wasn’t stupid. The other women obviously hadn’t been able to identify him, and Shelly—that poor girl didn’t sound like she was still walking this earth. I knew the chances of me walking out of there were slim. I was not going to go down like this. There was no way.
I was going to fight.
Rolling my hips, I succeeded in knocking him to the side. Once his weight came off my stomach, I didn’t hesitate. I rolled onto my knees, scrambling to put space between us. “Help!” I screamed until my throat felt raw. “Help!”
Kip snatched my ankle, yanking hard enough that I cried out as sharp pain flew up my leg. I didn’t stop. On my hands and knees, I crawled across the floor, toward the bedroom door.
“I don’t know where you think you’re going.” He grunted as he got a hand on my upper leg and pulled.
I went down, my chin banging against the floor. The walls whirled as he flippe
d me onto my back once more. This time his body settled on mine, and the weight, heavy and consuming—terrifying and repulsive—drove me crazy. I clawed at his face, screaming as my fingernails dug into his cheek. Pink welts appeared, quickly spilling blood as I dragged my hand down.
He threw his head back, howling as he lifted his arm. I didn’t even see his fist coming. Pain exploded along my cheek and eye. A fiery sensation stole my breath as the pain burst along my mouth. I tasted something metallic. Dazed, it took me a second to realize that he’d hit me twice. Twice. A man had never hit me in my entire life. Not counting my brothers when we were younger and used to beat the snot out of one another.
I opened my eyes—or one eye. My left didn’t seem to want to work right. I saw him raising his fist again, and as my heart dropped, I brought my leg up as hard as I could. He anticipated the move, shifting so my knee connected with the inside of his thigh.
Cursing under his breath, he wrapped his hand around my throat and squeezed—squeezed tight enough that I hadn’t realized I’d taken my last breath until it was too late. “For such a little thing, you sure as hell—”
“Roxy!”
Hope kindled to life at the sound of Reece’s voice floating up from my apartment. He was here—oh my God, he was here. I couldn’t believe it. I opened my mouth to yell back, but Kip slammed his hand down on my mouth, muffling my scream. The grip was brutal, smashing my lips against my teeth. He moved so quickly, his other hand reaching around to his back. There was a quick glimmer of something shiny and the cool metal pressed against the base of my throat.
He had a knife.
“Say one word, and I’ll give you a different kind of smile,” he whispered. “Do you understand me?”
My chest clenched as I stared into his cold, piercing eyes. I really couldn’t nod, but he seemed to see the understanding in my face. “Up,” he ordered.
As Kip hauled me onto my feet, I heard Reece down below, shouting out my name again. He sounded closer, as if he were near the closet. My heart pounded as Kip kept the knife against my throat, pushing me toward the bedroom door. Reece was smart. He would see the open door inside the closet, the stairwell, and he would come looking for me. Kip had to have realized that too.
Kip cursed again as he turned so I was facing the closet door. Heavy steps thundered throughout the apartment, matching the tempo of my racing heart. We were almost out of the room when Reece burst out of the closet, gun drawn and pointed straight at where we stood.
Time appeared to have frozen.
Terror and hope warred inside me as my gaze briefly met Reece’s. For the tiniest moment, I saw what he was feeling when he saw me. It was in those beautiful, sea-colored eyes of his. Panic. Fear. A rage I knew could be deadly, that promised retribution. I couldn’t imagine what he was thinking when he came through that door and saw this. I had no idea how I started off the day waking up with resolve and determination to really start the process of moving on with my life and then this, God, this was happening.
But I should know by now that none of life could truly be planned. My life—our lives—were about to be thrown off course yet again.
Kip slipped his hand off my mouth and wrapped his arm around my waist as he kept the knife against my throat.
In a split second, Reece’s jaw locked down and his lips thinned. Everything about his face went emotionless.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my words coming out a little mushed-sounding.
Reece’s eyes were like chips of blue diamonds. “Babe, none of this is your fault.”
I knew that, but I didn’t want Reece to see any of this, and I didn’t want him to get hurt. Those were the last two things I wanted.
“You’re right,” Kip spat back. “If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s yours. She was fine before you came along. You made her into a whore.”
The man was legit crazy.
“You really are making me want to put a bullet between your eyes,” Reece countered, his voice threaded with barely controlled anger.
“And you really want me to finish this?”
The muscle flexed along Reece’s jaw. “Bud, all I want you to do is really think about—”
“Don’t come any closer.” Kip pushed the knife into my skin, causing me to yelp. A thin trickle of wet warmth ran down my throat as he stepped to the side, bringing me with him. “I swear to God, I will end her!”
“I’m not coming any closer.” Reece kept the gun level. “But I want to know what you’re thinking. How you’re planning for this to go down.”
“Does that really fucking matter?” Kip stepped again, and Reece didn’t move toward him, but he mirrored his movements until we’d switched positions. Our backs were to the closet now. “There’s no way out of this. I’m not fucking stupid. I know what needs to be done.”
My pulse skyrocketed as Kip’s fingers flexed around the handle of the knife. My mind raced into scary places, one where my throat ended up slit and Kip got away with everything he’d done by doing one thing. Committing suicide via police officer. Kip knew he was done. I doubted he would just put the knife down and surrender.
I saw Reece’s gaze slide to the left, behind us for just a fraction of a second, but I could’ve been imagining it or seeing things, because my vision wasn’t the greatest without my glasses and one open eye.
“We can talk this out,” Reece said, lowering his gun. “You and me. We talk this through. Let Roxy go, and it will be just you and me.”
I could feel Kip shaking his head behind me, and I drew in a shallow breath. Any move I made would most likely result in the knife cutting into my skin, but I couldn’t just sit here and do nothing. My head spun. What could I do that wasn’t virtual suicide?
If this was going to be my last couple of minutes on Earth, I wished I could kiss him just one more time, feel his hands on me.
My voice was shaky when I spoke. “Reece, I . . . I love you.”
“Babe, you’re going to tell me that again for a long time coming, you understand?” Reece didn’t look at me since he was trained on Kip. “But Kip and me are going to talk this out. He’s going to let you go, and we’re going to chat about this.”
“You think I’m going to let her go? That there’s something to say?” Kip replied, his voice cracking. “This is—”
There was a sickening thudding sound that jolted Kip and then me. The knife slipped, glancing over my skin and then Kip let go. Dazed, I stumbled forward as he dropped to the floor behind me.
A second later, I was in Reece’s arms and he was saying something to me, pushing my hair back and gently pressing his hand against my neck, but I wiggled around to see what happened, because I hadn’t heard a gun fire. I hadn’t seen Reece pull the trigger. I didn’t understand.
But then I did.
Henry . . . Henry Williams stood behind the crumpled body.
Chapter 26
Staring out the window across from Reece’s bed, I absently ran my finger along the bottom of my lip. The swelling had gone down, but the cut just off the center was still rough and the inside of my mouth was still tender, especially if I wasn’t careful and ate something with irregular edges. I couldn’t stop messing with it. Sort of like when I had chickenpox as a kid, and couldn’t stop itching. My self-control hadn’t improved.
I didn’t know what time it was. I’d been awake for a while. Sometime in the early morning, I guessed, since I couldn’t make out the time on the nightstand clock. At some point I needed to get my glasses replaced. Unbeknownst to me at the time, they’d been broken when they’d hit the floor in . . . in that apartment.
It had been four days since I’d found that hidden door in my closet. Four days since I stumbled into a room that reminded me of something straight out of nightmares. Four days of my stomach aching and my face throbbing, a painful reminder of how close I’d come to no
t walking out of that room. Four days filled with a lot of introspection.
I guessed near-death experiences at the hands of a blossoming serial killer did that. Made you rethink a lot of your choices and plans.
Come to find out, Henry had tried to call me back after I’d called him. When I hadn’t answered, he’d called Reece and when he’d found out that I was at my apartment he’d made the decision to come, apparently not wanting to miss his chance to talk to me, and having no idea what he was walking into. When Henry had called Reece to tell him that I hadn’t answered when he returned my call, Reece had tried calling me. He knew I would’ve answered with everything going on. Instinct had led him to my place, and when Henry showed, finding the front door unlocked, he’d grabbed a crowbar from his car and made his way to my bedroom, then he’d heard Reece talking to Kip.
The rest was history.
Funny how one decision, the choice to start letting go, had literally been what had saved my life.
In more ways than the obvious, I was beginning to realize.
Kip had been taken to the hospital for a rather minor head injury and then released into the custody of the county jail. That’s where he was now, and from what I’d been told, he hadn’t confessed to anything, but from what he’d said to me and all those horrific photos on his wall, there was enough evidence to charge him with multiple accounts of assault, plus Colton had explained that Kip would most likely be charged with the disappearance of Shelly Winters even though no body had been recovered. I’d also been told there was a good chance that the district attorney would try to strike some kind of deal if they could get Kip to tell them where Shelly was.
A few weeks ago that would’ve infuriated me. How dare someone like him get a chance to receive a better sentencing—life in prison versus a needle in the arm—when he’d done such terrible things? He’d obviously murdered someone and terrorized innocent women—scared me and violated every definition of privacy—and deserved capital punishment.
