by Emma Renshaw
“I brought extra desserts today,” Harper said. “Besides, Pepper Jack is too cute to be mad at.”
I snorted. “Sure.”
My phone started ringing in my pocket. I glanced at the screen, put Avery down, and stepped away from the group so they couldn’t hear me. “Hey, sweetness.”
“Can you tell me how to rewind the cameras at my house so I can watch what happened earlier?” Caroline asked, passing right by a greeting. Her voice sounded frazzled..
I froze. “What happened?”
“Someone egged my house and I want to know who. It’s still so hot outside, and it’s going to start to smell if I can’t wash it off.”
“I have a power washer. I’ll pick it up and come over and help.”
She sighed. Her voice wobbled when she spoke again. “You don’t have to do that. I know you’re busy tonight.”
I shook my head even though she couldn’t see me. My lips tugged up at the corners. When was she going to get it? “You’re more important. Go to the security panel in the living room. That one has a screen.”
“I’m already there.”
I walked her through the steps and approached James, covering the mouthpiece with my hand. “Hey, man. I’ve got to go.”
He arched one brow to question me. “I’ll explain later.” I headed out through the open bay door without saying goodbye to anyone else. They would have too many questions that I wasn’t ready to answer.
“That freaking asshole!” Caroline screeched as I got into my truck.
“You know who it was?”
“Yes,” she grumbled and released a long breath. “You know, I’m just glad to know who it was. Dean, that guy I had to fire. He’s the one that egged my house.”
“I’ll be over soon,” I said, starting my truck. Before I picked up the power washer, I had one little stop to make first. After I hung up, I remotely logged on to my laptop at work, from my phone, and ran a fast background check on Dean to find his address. I smiled when I saw he wasn’t far from where I was and wouldn’t detour me for too long before I got to Caroline’s.
I pulled up to the curb at Dean’s townhouse, leaving Pepper Jack in the running, air-conditioned truck. I knocked on his door and turned my back to it, waiting for it to open. As soon as I heard the latch opening, I swung around and rushed him, grabbing him by the shirt collar and shoving him against the wall next to his door.
“Nice to meet you, Dean,” I said.
“Who the fuck are you?” he asked, trying to push me off of him, but he wasn’t any match for me.
“Caught your fun on camera earlier.”
He stopped wrestling against my hold for a minute and paled slightly, before trying to manuever out of my hold again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah you do, asshole. If you ever come near Caroline again, her place of work, her house, anything even remotely connected to her, you’ll deal with me.”
“Who the fuck are you?” he asked again.
I pressed my arm against his throat and kept pressing until it was hard for him to breathe. “Don’t make me waste my time by telling you all the things I could do to you or all the people I could call. Do we have an understanding?”
I tightened my arm again, crushing his throat beneath my hold. He clawed at my arms. His face was turning red, and his eyes were staring at me in panic. I pressed harder one more time until he finally nodded. I released him. “Good,” I said and patted him on the shoulder. “That was your only warning. Hope I don’t see you around, Dean.”
I strolled out of his house, whistling to myself as I hopped in my truck to grab my power washer and head to Caroline’s.
28
Caroline
I’d barely said a word throughout the appetizers. I hadn’t shown up for our family dinners for the past few weeks. This was the first one I’d attended since walking out, and I’d regretted coming almost as soon as I arrived. My mom was giving me the cold shoulder. Our table was silent until my sister arrived, late again.
As my mom and sister chatted, I stayed silent, sipping my water and enjoying the stuffed mushrooms the waiter had brought.
“Are we going to make it through this dinner without you throwing a tantrum like a toddler?” My mother sneered.
I placed the fork and knife I’d been using to cut the mushrooms in half down on the plate, took a sip of my water, and met my mother’s eyes. Her stare was icy. I glanced at my sister; she was smirking. And, as usual, my dad was oblivious. “I didn’t throw a tantrum,” I stated calmly. “You were rude and I left.”
My sister rolled her eyes and huffed.
“You’re so dramatic,” my mother said. “I’ve never understood why you couldn’t simply calm down instead of causing a scene at every turn.”
“I didn’t cause a scene. I got up to go to the restroom and then left. How long did it take you to realize I was gone?” I asked.
“Pretty quickly,” my sister said. “Without your screeching and crying, it was rather quiet.”
Anger started to bubble in my chest. I bit my cheek. I always cried when I was angry; that was when my tears surfaced. I hated it. I loathed that trait because my family had always used my tears as a weapon against me. I took a deep breath. “Kevin was emotionally and verbally abusive, and you suggested that was the best I could get.”
My mother shook her head. “Your sister always has dates and you never do. It’s just that we don’t want you to wind up alone.”
It wasn’t that at all. She wasn’t concerned about me; she didn’t even want me to be happy. She wanted someone who fit into her image. She wanted me to fit into the image she had in her head of a perfect daughter.
“Maybe if you had put a little more effort into your appearance, Kevin would have treated you better.”
“I deserve to be treated with respect, no matter what a number on a scale says or how big my jeans are,” I hissed across the table. I couldn’t stop the flood of tears welling in my eyes or the fury igniting in the pit of my stomach.
“Here come the tears from the crybaby,” my sister said and took a drink from her wine glass.
“Shut up,” I seethed. I clenched my jaw, and my hands knotted into fists in my lap.
Katrina laughed. “Someone’s trying to grow a spine. You’ve always been a pushover.”
“I’m kind, not a pushover,” I stated firmly. “Do not ever mistake my kindness for weakness. Don’t mistake my emotions for weakness…or my tears. My tears don’t make me weak. You are not stronger than me. You are not better than me because you cry less. Crying makes me human. It shows my empathy and compassion and my humanity. I am not weak.”
I swallowed and swiped at a stray tear that fell down my cheek. I glared at Katrina and my mother. These words had been bottled inside me for years. I’d longed for understanding. And I’d found it through my friendship with Daphne and through Kiernan pushing my boundaries. Kiernan showing me my beauty, inside and out.
I deserved more than this.
I was finally understanding that.
My hands shook as I rose from my chair. “I choose to be here because I am loyal to you because you are my family. I don’t have to come, and I refuse to tolerate this any longer. I’m one of the most highly sought after vets in the city. Do you know how rare that is for someone my age? I’m a master dog trainer. I’m kind, loving, empathic, and giving. It doesn’t matter that you don’t find me beautiful, because I do. And so do others. I am your daughter,” I said to my mother, staring hard into her eyes, before swiveling to my sister. “I am your sister. I deserve more than you give me.”
Judging from the smirks on their faces, I wasn’t sure if they’d heard me. To them, this was another crying jag, another fit I was throwing. To me, it was my moment of standing and refusing to conform to what they needed. I wouldn’t live in my sister’s shadow. I strode out the door and into the parking lot. A few stray tears were slowly falling as I got into my car and headed home.
&n
bsp; The shaking had finally subsided by the time I pulled into my driveway. I got out of my car and walked up the front path. A letter was taped to my door. I froze. I gulped. My hands started to shake as I took a step forward, searching around me. There wasn’t anyone around. My street was empty.
The envelope was blank. I knew it had to be from the person who had been taunting me. They’d been silent, and it had only been a matter of time before they came back. I took it off the door and opened the envelope.
Another stack of pictures and another note.
I pulled out the note.
I can get to you anywhere.
You’re next, Caroline Leigh Conroy.
I shivered. The fact that this person knew my entire name, had hacked into my computer, and had shown up at work—and now at my home—proved that they were right. They could get to me anywhere. Fear coated me and I couldn’t breathe as I pulled out the pictures.
The tears I’d worked hard to battle away after leaving dinner came back as I stared down at the photos. Another tally mark in the column proving that they could find me anywhere. It was photos of Kiernan and me having sex in the MarxMen training area. I’d watched Kiernan turn off the cameras. I knew they’d been off.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and the feeling of being watched reappeared. And the safety I’d allowed myself to feel was smashed to smithereens.
29
Kiernan
I’d never imagined what it would be like to come home to someone I wanted to see after a long, tiring day. With every passing day I was getting more frustrated with being unable to find Caroline’s stalker and with the missing person’s case turned homicide case we were assisting Maddox with.
Her body had been found.
In the same area as the vet’s.
We’d speculated that they were connected before, but this was the proof we’d needed that it was definitely the same person. I wanted to sit on Caroline’s back porch with her curled up in my lap as I sipped a beer. I just wanted her near me. I already knew she would be balm to my soul and exactly what I needed on this long day.
I smiled when I saw her standing on her front porch as I pulled into her driveway. She hadn’t invited me over. Pepper Jack wasn’t even here, but Caden and Avery were having a sleepover and had convinced Savannah and Liam to take in Pepper Jack too. So I was showing up at Caroline’s unannounced.
Her hair was down and straight. Her dress hugged her body, and the heels on her feet made her legs look impossibly long. I wanted to spend the night kissing my way up them and devouring her, getting completely lost in Caroline.
I slid out of my truck, jogged across the lawn and up the steps, and wrapped my arm around Caroline’s waist. She screamed and pulled away, spinning around. “Caroline, what’s wrong?”
Her hand was over her heart, and she was breathing deeply. “Kiernan,” she breathed. “You scared me.”
“Why were you so scared?” I asked.
I scanned her face. Her eyes were red from tears, and her cheeks were flushed. I took a step toward her and glanced down at the envelope in her hands. I tensed, my muscles coiling tightly. I took the envelope from her and stared at the pictures.
It took a moment to fully comprehend what I was seeing. Once I did, rage flooded through my veins. My grip tightened and crinkled the edges of the photos. “Let’s get inside,” I said through clenched teeth.
Caroline unlocked her door and turned off her alarm once we were inside. I went to the panel and scanned the footage, going back hour by hour, until I found what I needed. A teenage boy with a hoodie on stopped on his skateboard in front of Caroline’s house and strolled up the driveway. He was patting the envelope against his thigh. When he reached the door, he peeled off some adhesive and let the trash from the sticker fly into the wind and stuck it to her door.
Caroline was behind me, her hand on my back, watching the small screen with me. “Do you know him?” I asked. “Recognize him?”
“I’ve seen him around the neighborhood, but I don’t know who he is or which house he lives in.”
“We’ll find out.” I glanced at the pictures again. I wanted to rip them in half and destroy them. Light them on fire. That moment between us had been perfect. That moment for Caroline had been monumental, and some bastard was trying to destroy it.
“Do you think he’s the one doing all of this?”
I shook my head, lifting my gaze to meet hers. I put the note, which I hadn’t even read yet, and the pictures on the side table and cupped her face. “No, I don’t. He was probably paid to drop it off and had no idea what was in it. With any luck, though, we could have him sit with a sketch artist.” I kissed her and leaned my forehead against hers for a moment, breathing her in. Her arms wound around me, and her hands fisted in my shirt at my back. She closed her eyes and stood in this moment with me. “Don’t let this asshole destroy that memory for you, Caroline. That was one of the best days of my life, and I’ll be damned if I let him take it from either of us.”
“I won’t,” she whispered. “That was ours. It’s still ours.”
I kissed her again, once and softly, before releasing her to grab the photos and the note. I looked at the pictures again. They were definitely from MarxMen security cameras. The ones I’d turned off and knew my men wouldn’t turn on until I gave the all clear. This was personal. This was meant as a slight to me. I knew it. We’d been battling back and forth, trying to gain more information, and he’d done everything he could to block me from infiltrating his system and finding out who the fuck he was. This was meant to show that he could get to her through me.
When I found this asshole, I was going to end him. Hopefully slowly.
I brought the note to the front.
I can get to you anywhere.
You’re next, Caroline Leigh Conroy.
I read the words over and over. The last line was bothering me.
You’re next.
Next for what and after who? The words in front of me blurred as I thought through the options. I stilled. All the air in my lungs halted. “Fuck,” I hissed.
“What is it?” Caroline asked, grabbing my arm. Her eyes were wide and scared. I circled one of my arms around her shoulders and brought her into my side.
“Hold on,” I said. “I need to find something out first and see if I’m right.”
She nodded. I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialed Maddox’s number. I put him on speaker. I didn’t want to hide this from Caroline, because if I was right, she needed to know. I hoped I wasn’t right. I wanted to be wrong and to be overreacting, but as soon as the thought had infiltrated my head, I’d known.
The person after Caroline was also the murderer Maddox was looking for. She was a female doctor with dark hair, like the other two.
One thing I knew for certain, Caroline would never be next on that list. If it was the last thing I ever did, I’d stop this fucker before he got to that point.
Maddox answered on the fourth ring. His voice was gruff and dreary. “Kiernan,” he said.
“Maddox, the two murder victims, the female doctors…did you find anything in women’s homes about being stalked…or threatening notes? Anything?”
He was silent for a long beat. “How’d you know? That was discovered this afternoon on the victim found today. The tech team had the devices sitting in a locker for the first victim, waiting to go through them. Since we found a note in the second victim’s house today, I rushed our tech team. They were both harassed.”
“Fuck,” I hissed and clenched my jaw.
Caroline gasped and her grip tightened on my shirt.
“Who’s that?” Maddox asked.
“Caroline,” I said.
“Kiernan, you can’t talk about an active case in front of her.”
“Remember you sent her to me for a reason. She was being harassed. She came home tonight to a new set of photos and a note. That promised she would be next.”
“You don’t think…”
>
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I think. We need to compare everything Caroline has received to what we’ve found with the other two women.”
“Dammit,” Maddox said. I could tell his jaw was clenched and he was speaking through gritted teeth. “Get down to the station. Bring everything.”
“We’ll meet you there,” I said and hung up the call.
“The person who killed Dr. Velasquez is after me? This is the same person?”
“I think so. I’m almost positive. The other women were brunettes, like you, and both doctors of some kind.”
“Oh my god,” Caroline whispered, shaking her head.
“I will protect you,” I promised her. “You’ve got a twenty-four-seven bodyguard now, sweetness. Me. I’m not fucking leaving your side.”
30
Caroline
Kiernan hadn’t been lying when he’d told me he was going to become my twenty-four-seven bodyguard. We’d barely been out of each other’s sight. He was working from my office and staying at my house. He’d gone from keeping his firearm in an under-the-seat safe or a carrier, when inside my house, to keeping it on his person. He took guarding me very seriously. We hadn’t really been away from each other until this morning. I’d gotten my hair trimmed before going to the park with Kiernan and Pepper Jack.
If I hadn’t been terrified that a real serial killer was after me, I would have found it kind of funny how he hovered and cleared my office and house before I could enter.
The teenager that had delivered the envelope to my house was a dead end. He couldn’t remember what the guy looked like and had no interest in helping. He’d only shrugged and said it was an easy twenty bucks. Well, he did offer two details. It was a male and he was Caucasian. It wasn’t helpful information. I thought Kiernan was going to launch himself across the interrogation table and strangle the kid. Maddox placed his hand on Kiernan’s shoulder, physically holding him back. I watched through the double-paned window, unseen.
