by Katie Reus
“That’s the problem. You figured and didn’t ask me what I wanted. I’ve been about as blunt as I can about my feelings. I’m in this thing, Serenity. I don’t want casual with you. If an FBI agent shows up and wants to take you somewhere, I want to go with you like a partner.”
She was surprised by the intensity of his words and felt the blood drain from her face. “I thought we were just going to stay friends.” Okay, that was lame, but it was all she could get out.
“You can tell yourself that, but it’s garbage and you know it. We crossed a line the other night.” His jaw clenched once, his emerald eyes shooting fire. “Yeah, I know what you told me, but I also know it’s bullshit. You’re keeping a wall between us that doesn’t have to be there. I’m not running away—you’re pushing me away.” As two of the volunteers drew closer, moving into their space, Lucas snapped his jaw shut.
And she wasn’t sure how to respond, regardless. What he’d said was…true. She was keeping him at a distance. She zipped up her jacket when a few little droplets of rain tickled her face. She called out Paisley’s name again even as she ran over what Lucas had said. He was right about her keeping up walls, but she wasn’t sure she was capable of letting them down.
She didn’t know if she was ready to let someone else into the life she’d created for her and Harper. She’d gotten burned before, and while she could never regret her daughter, she regretted a lot of her past choices. She didn’t want to make another one based out of fear or neediness.
After two hours of walking in their grid area—and ignoring the awkwardness between them—there had been no good news from anyone else. And the stark reality started to sink in even more. She couldn’t help but think about Paisley’s mom, desperate for information. Just like her own mom had gone through when she and Savannah had been taken. Only her mom had never gotten good news. Not truly. Because Savannah had died and Serenity hadn’t come back whole. The scent of the forest, the rain lingering in the air— She had to shove back old memories as they assaulted her senses.
“Serenity,” Lucas said firmly, and she was suddenly under the impression that he’d said her name more than once.
She blinked, wiping away some of the mist that had settled on her cheeks. “What?”
“We need to head back. We’re at the end of the perimeter.” He frowned down at her.
She glanced around, and realized how deep into the woods they’d gone. It was impossible to go any farther through the thicket of the forest.
She nodded and turned back around with him, calling out Paisley’s name again, though in her gut she didn’t think the woman was out here.
The fog had gotten thicker instead of waning, and though she couldn’t see his face clearly, the federal agent was visible through the mist.
She kept imagining the fog turning into fingers, snaking up around her ankles and pulling her under, like in the dream. Hell. She rolled her shoulders, banishing the images.
Suddenly, the agent was next to them, his footsteps wraith quiet as he put a gentle hand on her forearm. “They’ve found her body.”
She stopped, turning to stare at him while her pulse thudded in her ears. “Who?” she rasped out.
“Paisley Long. Not here…in your back yard.”
Chapter 25
Serenity didn’t remember the walk back to the parking lot and she didn’t remember the drive to her house. She was only vaguely aware of Lucas’s strong, steadying presence. Thank God he was here to drive even though he told her he didn’t want her to go to her house.
He’d made his opinion known, but he hadn’t argued with her. Which was good—she didn’t have enough steam left in her right now. Paisley Long was dead and had been left in her yard. She had no more details than that but she was going to get them.
She saw the reflection of the flashing blue lights bouncing off her neighbors’ houses even before they reached her house.
Crime scene tape sectioned off part of her yard and the half-opened gate of her privacy fence.
She saw Amy before she saw anyone else, the petite woman talking to one of her older neighbors, Demarcus Hall. His hands were shoved into his jeans pockets, his standard Braves cap on his head.
Amy glanced over when she and Lucas pulled up. Her entire body language changed and she said something to Serenity’s neighbor before hurrying over to the curb.
Lucas rolled down the window as she approached.
“You don’t need to be here,” Amy said, her jaw tight.
“What happened?” Serenity asked.
Sighing, Amy opened the back door of the extended cab truck and slid in. “Someone dumped her body over the back fence. I’ve had someone watching the front. One of the neighbor’s dogs was going crazy barking, so my guy checked out your backyard and found her.” Amy’s tone was sharp, but Serenity heard the underlying anger.
Whoever was behind this was getting bolder.
“What happened to her?” Serenity managed to rasp out.
She only paused for a moment. “I can’t know for sure, but it looks very similar to what happened to your neighbor. Ketamine overdose if I had to guess.”
Serenity closed her eyes as she held back a curse. “I’m going to see Black,” she blurted, the words pouring out of her. He hadn’t talked to Amy but maybe he would talk to her. She at least had to try, to appeal to whatever sense of…a conscience he might have.
The interior of Lucas’s truck went deathly quiet.
“Serenity—”
“Nope.” She cut Amy off. “I’m going, but I need you to pave the way for me. I know you can get me in. Especially now.”
“Okay. As soon as I’m done here—”
“I don’t need you to go with me. They record those meetings, which I know you can get. I’m going right now. As in, this instant. It’s only a couple hours’ drive from here. I can be back before dinner.” The maximum-security prison was in north Florida, only a couple hours from Verona Bay, a fact that Serenity was very aware of. She’d have to miss Carol’s funeral but she would let her daughter know why. “Maybe he’ll talk to me. And we’ll never know if I don’t try. He wanted desperately to talk to me years ago after the trial, something you know.”
Lucas let out a savage curse, then grew silent and she could practically see the steam coming out of his ears.
“Okay,” Amy finally said. “I’ll have one of my people follow you.” Then she looked sharply at Lucas. “Obviously you’re going too.” Not a question.
“No shit.” His expression was dark and he didn’t take his eyes off Serenity.
“I’m going to put another agent on the Jordan estate as well,” Amy continued.
“Thank you,” she said. She needed Harper to be safe.
“Keep your phone on you at all times.”
She nodded and Amy got out of the truck, already on her phone. Hopefully calling the prison warden or whoever she needed to set this up.
She turned to Lucas. “You don’t have to drive me if—”
“Just stop right there,” Lucas said as he pulled away from the curb. “First, we’re going to go to my parents’ place, get changed and you can say goodbye to Harper. I’m going to pack a small cooler for us because even if you’re not hungry, you need to eat. And I know you’re not going to feel like stopping somewhere. You also probably want to call Carol’s daughter and let her know we won’t be making it this afternoon. Then we’re heading out. That will take an extra fifteen or twenty minutes max, so don’t argue.”
“That’s…very organized and well thought out.”
He simply grunted.
“I kind of can’t believe you’re not arguing with me,” she said a moment later.
“Because I already know how the argument will go. I think it’s bullshit, but you’ll tell me that you want to help—”
“I do want to help!”
“Exactly.”
“It’s a long shot, but maybe he’ll tell me something. I feel so useless sitting here while people
are dying. If I can do something to stop this, I have to.” Her words were impassioned and she felt every single one of them.
“And that’s why I’m not going to argue. I want to go on record as saying I don’t like this, but you know your mind. And it might help talking to him, and give you, I don’t know, closure, if that’s even possible. Maybe it will be beneficial. Or maybe it will help find whoever is tormenting our town.” His jaw tightened now, and another rush of anger from him popped to the surface. It wasn’t directed at her, however. He was just as pissed as she was about what was happening.
She certainly hoped this visit with Black would do some good. “I had a dream last night,” she blurted, needing to tell someone. To get the words out there. “Nightmare, actually. Paisley was in it. She was already dead and she told me that ‘she’ was coming for me. And the she wasn’t a reference to herself, but to someone else. The nightmare was…terrifying.” She shuddered as the vivid details of the foggy forest came back. It was easier to talk about it now, however, that she’d gotten some distance from it. She was used to nightmares but this one had stuck with her, digging its talons in tight.
“She? She who?” Lucas’s voice was sharp.
“I have no idea. And it could mean nothing.” But her gut said otherwise.
“You could have come to me.” His words were quiet now, laced with some emotion she couldn’t define.
“I know. I…” She couldn’t think of anything that didn’t sound lame.
“Dreams or nightmares, sometimes they tell us things that our subconscious already knows.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
“Years ago, during my first tour, I had a dream about a mission we had planned for the next day. In it…one of my guys told me not to storm a certain house. I brushed it off. There was no reason to listen, not when literally everywhere we went we could be ambushed.” He was silent for a long moment and Serenity figured he wasn’t going to continue.
She reached out and squeezed his leg. Of all people, she understood that it was hard to talk about things from her past. She would never pressure him to do the same.
“I should have listened to that dream,” he finally said. “We lost two men. Two of my friends. I’d seen something in our recon that didn’t register until I was asleep and my brain was relaxed. At least that’s what I assume happened. I’ve never ignored another dream or nightmare again. Sometimes a nightmare is just a nightmare. Sometimes it’s more.”
She nodded slowly, laying her head back against the headrest as they turned down the driveway to his parents’ estate. “The nightmare was like something out of a horror movie. I don’t even know what to make of it.” Serenity shuddered again and turned the heat on high to fight the shakes she knew were coming.
“The ‘she’ is interesting.”
“Amy thinks it’s a good possibility that the killer is a woman. Their profiler does, anyway.”
Lucas nodded and reached out to squeeze her hand in his before he put the truck in park. “They’re narrowing it down.”
Yeah, she just hoped they narrowed it down to one person, and soon.
Chapter 26
Even though the back of her neck was sweaty and her palms were damp, the rest of Serenity’s body was ice cold as she stood outside the guarded room. The industrial hallway had a weird echo to it, the sound of a heavy metal door clanging shut in the distance sending a chill up her spine. And the smell was oddly sterile, like a hospital—and absolutely no one she’d come in contact with since arriving at the prison smiled. But the main thing that surprised her was how quiet everything was. Maybe it was just this area though.
Amy must have a lot of clout to get this meeting for her, and so quickly. Some of the guards had been surprised about this, but the warden had made it clear that Serenity was to have this meeting with no interruptions from them or anyone else.
Serenity hated being here, hated being anywhere close to such a monster, but she was going to do this. The fact that Lucas was with her was pretty much the only reason she wasn’t having a full-fledged panic attack.
“I’m right here when you’re done,” Lucas said. “You escaped him. You got away from him. And then you faced him down in court. He has no power over you. And when you’re done, you’re walking away and he’s going back to a shitty cell.”
She nodded even though it didn’t feel true. Because she still had nightmares, and she lived her life a certain way because of what Black had done. No longer was she the free-spirited young woman she’d been before him. Her life had been bisected into before and after. Before the kidnapping, torture, and murder of her sister. And then after.
Even though she was afraid of splintering in two, she reached for Lucas and held him tight, taking all his strength. “Thank you,” she rasped out, her throat scratchy.
He pulled her close, his grip around her fierce and protective as he kissed the top of her head. His spicy scent was barely perceptible in this place, but it gave her comfort. Hell, him simply being here gave her comfort on the most primal level. Lucas would never let anything hurt her. Not if he could help it. That knowledge punched right through her and rearranged everything inside her right then and there.
Taking a step back, she dragged in a steadying breath. She could do this. She would do this. If she said it enough maybe it would be easier.
“We’re going to be standing outside the entire time,” one of the prison guards said, his tone surprisingly gentle. Her gaze flicked down to his name tag. Jake Carter.
As she moved into the small, square room with gray walls, gray floors and an industrial steel table, she reminded herself why she was doing this. Maybe it would do no good, but just maybe he would tell her something. A freaking pipe dream, she knew, but screw it. She was going in.
Even as the door shut behind her, the lock clicking into place, she told herself that she wasn’t stuck. She could leave when she wanted. This wasn’t a nightmare. The guard remained in the corner as she sat at the table, forcing her breaths to remain steady.
Less than ten seconds later, the opposite door of the sterile room opened and in shuffled Michael Black.
The monster from her nightmares.
Shock stole through her as she looked at this man who’d always seemed to loom larger than life in her nightmares and in her memories. He was about six feet tall but he seemed smaller, his shoulders stooped as he made his way to the chair, the chains dragging with him.
His blue eyes were bright as he looked at her. But they looked paler than she remembered and he’d lost a lot of weight. The prison orange hung off him, his arms almost skinny, with no muscle tone. And his dark hair had started graying—and thinning in the way that came from not having the proper nutrition. He didn’t look anything like the man she remembered.
Though her heart still beat out of control, something inside her shifted. She straightened in her seat as she regained more of a sense of self. The guard who’d escorted him inside locked his handcuffs to the table and his feet to the chair so he had limited range of movement.
She was surprised he’d even agreed to see her. Even though Amy had made it possible for her to see him, he could have said no.
“Why did you agree to meet with me?” She was the one that got away. He was in prison because of his crimes but she’d testified against him, had helped put the nails in his coffin. And now he was shackled, imprisoned for the rest of his life before he got the needle.
He lifted a shoulder, much of the pride and arrogance she remembered from before gone. Now a sad, middle-aged man sat before her.
Okay, then. She wasn’t sure where to go now. She’d needed to see him, to see if she could get something from him, but she didn’t have a psychology degree. God, what the hell had she been thinking? When panic started to set in, telling her what a fool she was, she shoved it back down and found her voice. “Someone is stalking me and I believe you are helping them. I don’t know how you are, but the Feds will figure it out.” Or at least she had to believe they
would.
He was silent, watching her with a sort of subdued mania. She could see it right beneath the surface.
Staring at him now, she didn’t feel afraid. And she didn’t feel pity for him because he deserved what he got, but…he wasn’t intimidating anymore. Facing him in the courtroom had been hard. He’d been in an expensive suit, polished and charming-looking, and she’d been a mess, still in therapy, still dealing with Savannah’s death. Now…he was pathetic. A shell of what he’d once been.
“Your partner has gone off the rails,” she said, searching for a button to push. “Killing my neighbor—a great mom and grandma—and they don’t care who they hurt. And if I die, my little girl won’t have a mom anymore.” She stomped on the only button she knew might get a reaction. He was such a psychotic narcissist that she wasn’t sure he would even care, but he’d been so damn adamant as he’d told the entire world about why he’d gone on his killing spree. He’d wanted to kill women before they had a chance to procreate and potentially abandon their kids, just as he’d been abandoned. Though he’d referred to it as a “cleansing.” But once they became mothers—they were off-limits, even with his mommy issues. It was all bullshit though. He simply hated women and wanted to hurt them.
His jaw twitched once. “I don’t have a partner. And I’m not ordering anyone to do anything.” He might be telling the truth, but it was impossible to read him.
“Pardon me if I don’t believe you,” she said, her words coated in ice. When he didn’t say anything more, she continued. “Well if you’re not directing them to leave presents for me, then they’re doing it on their own. They aren’t going to stop.”
He cleared his throat. “The jewelry… It’s real?” he asked carefully.
She knew Amy had already told him about the jewelry when she’d questioned him. “If you mean does it belong to your victims, yes. Now, who is stalking me?” she demanded, rage rising inside her in a tidal wave. She was ninety-nine percent sure he wasn’t going to tell her. She had to try, however. Had to face him down. It was taking all her self-control not to lunge across the table and start choking the life out of him, to hurt him for taking away her twin sister. That kind of violence would accomplish nothing right now—even if it would feel good.
