Desired in Darkness

by Heather Sunseri

  I nodded.

  We held hands as we entered the bar. I immediately smelled food from the restaurant. Dimitri handed some cash to the bartender at his end, a man, and moved toward the exit. As he passed us, he nodded toward the female bartender, confirming it was Rhiana.

  I glanced over at her. She had changed her hair since the photograph I’d found in Mike’s Romeo file box—she now had blond highlights running through the brown, and it was styled with more layers and thick bangs. Her eyes were outlined in thick eyeliner and fake eyelashes—the classy kind that looked natural. She was a beautiful woman, but she looked tired and stressed.

  Declan and I sat at the bar, and Rhiana immediately came over and placed a couple of white napkins with the restaurant’s logo in front of us. She made eye contact with Declan, then shifted her eyes over to mine. If I hadn’t been looking for it, I would have missed the moment she recognized me.

  “Good evening,” she said. Her lips curved just slightly into a forced smile. “What can I get you tonight?”

  “We’ll both have a glass of the Domaine Ponsot Clos de la Roche,” Declan said.

  She set out wine glasses. “That particular wine is only sold by the bottle.”

  “Then we’ll have a bottle,” Declan said with a friendly smile.

  Just a couple out for a date, I reminded myself. But Rhiana clearly knew better. I could see it all over her face. The way lines formed on her forehead and her lips tugged downward told me she was scared.

  “Coming right up.” She didn’t look at me a second time during the exchange. As she walked away to get the wine, she rubbed her hands on her apron.

  “She recognized me,” I said.

  “You think so?”

  “Absolutely.”

  She stopped beside the male bartender and said something to him. He nodded and glanced down the bar toward us.

  “She’s bolting,” I said.

  “I think you’re right,” Declan said. “Let’s go.”

  As we started for the exit, I called Dimitri. “She’s coming your way.”

  “I got her.”

  Declan and I went around the restaurant to the back exit. Beside a dumpster that reeked of stale alcohol and rotten meat, Dimitri was talking to Rhiana. She had lit a cigarette, and her hands were shaking.

  “Rhiana, I’m Brooke,” I said.

  “I know who you are. I asked an FBI friend of mine if they knew you, and they said you were the daughter of the director. What do you want with my brother?”

  “I just want to talk to him.”

  “Well, I can’t help you. I tried to get him to meet me here tonight, but he hung up on me. He said no one could help him.” She tilted her head back and blew smoke upward. Her eyes were slightly glassy when she looked at me again.

  “I am trying to help, Rhiana. I need information about a mutual classmate of ours.”

  “You need information about Woody.” She took a long drag on the cigarette. “Do you think Woody killed Bart and Tony?”

  I glanced uneasily at Declan and Dimitri. “I do.”

  She let the cigarette drop and stepped on it.

  “But I have no proof. I need to talk to Christopher.”

  “He won’t talk to anyone. Said if he’s forced out of hiding, the best he could hope for is to go to prison forever. He’s afraid Woody will kill him. I think he did something really bad. Like what happened to Jeremy.”

  Romeo got to him, I thought.

  I touched Rhiana’s arm. “I need you to tell me how to find your brother.”

  “Don’t you get it? I don’t know!” Her eyes were wide with fear.

  “It’s okay, Rhiana,” a male voice said behind me.

  We all spun around.

  “Christopher!” Rhiana ran to her brother and threw her arms around his neck. “You shouldn’t have come. It’s not safe. You said so yourself. Woody will kill you.”

  Christopher kept one arm around his sister as he asked me, “Do you know where he is?”

  “I don’t,” I answered honestly. “He’s usually nearby, but I haven’t heard from him or seen him in days.” I pulled out the picture I’d been carrying around with me—the picture of the eight young men and seven girls. “Do you remember Anya Bhatia?”

  Christopher’s eyes were shaded by a furrowed brow. He looked like he was struggling with a bad memory. “What kind of question is that? Of course I remember her. I was in love with her.”

  “What? When? I knew you guys dated briefly in college, but I didn’t think…”

  “Not back then. We met up again last year, a couple of months before she was shot. We fell instantly for each other. It was as if we’d finally grown up, and we were ready for the relationship this time.” He shook his head. “She hunted me down to ask questions about Woody. She’d hired Bradley Archer on his recommendation—the guy who shot her…”

  “I know who he is.” I glanced at Declan. Bradley Archer was the reason Declan still flinched at loud noises. They reminded him of the night he was shot in the stomach.

  “She said Archer was acting strange. And she told me she discovered something odd about Woody, but she wouldn’t tell me what it was.”

  This had to have been around the time that I asked Anya to look into Romeo. She must have discovered that the same person who was threatening me had planted himself in her life as well. And that he was one of our college classmates.

  “What did Anya do?” I asked.

  “She was NSA. I assumed she’d handled it.”

  “What made her think you could help her?” I asked.

  “Because Archer had mentioned something to her about an incident in college involving Woody.”

  “The honor code violations?”

  He narrowed his eyes at me, then shot a glance at his sister. “That was part of it.”

  I kept my eyes on Christopher. “What happened back then?”

  Christopher opened his mouth to say something, then closed it.

  “Christopher, don’t,” Rhiana said.

  “Don’t what?” I asked. “Look, Woody is killing off the men in that picture one by one. And he’s made it his mission to screw with my life. If you can help me figure out what it was that set him on this path of destruction, maybe I can stop him before he kills anyone else.”

  “You can’t stop him. Don’t you get it?” Rhiana said. She crossed her arms, hugging herself.

  The door behind her opened, and a man poked his head out. “Rhiana, you going to work tonight? Break’s over.”

  She turned to her brother. “I have to go. I can’t afford to lose this job. You need to get out of here before someone sees you.”

  He hugged her. “I’ll be fine. I’ll call you later.”

  Without a word to the rest of us, she turned and reentered the restaurant.

  “She’s scared, and for good reason,” Christopher said when Rhiana was gone. “When Woody holds a grudge, he holds it forever.”

  My phone buzzed in my pocket, but I ignored it.

  “Christopher,” Dimitri said. “Why don’t you level with us.”

  “Hasn’t this gone on long enough?” Declan added. “Three of your friends are dead. One is in prison for a crime he may not have committed.”

  “Oh, Jeremy pulled the trigger. Of that I have no doubt,” Christopher said. “Woody has been blackmailing and threatening us for years now. Ever since he…” His voice trailed off.

  “What?” I demanded. “What did you do to him? It was more than getting him kicked out of school, wasn’t it?”

  Christopher’s gaze darkened. “There was definitely more to it than that.”

  Chapter 30

  Brooke

  “Until recently, we thought Woody was gone from our lives,” Christopher said. “But then he started calling us from time to time, or leaving little ‘presents’ on our doorsteps—like the heads of our pets. A couple times he planted information in our work emails, trying to get us fired. Like this past spring when he sent information
to a senior partner at my law firm that made everyone at the firm think I was a pedophile.”

  “Are you?” Dimitri asked.

  I twisted my head in his direction, chastising him with my eyes.

  “What?” Dimitri said. “We don’t know.”

  “It’s okay.” Christopher actually laughed, seemingly out of frustration. “Woody’s made us all paranoid to the point of questioning our own identities. But no, I’m not a pedophile. Not that it matters now. I was fired immediately, no questions asked. Pretty sure word has gotten around to the major firms. I won’t work in DC again.”

  “What did you guys do to Woody to set him on this path of vengeance?” I asked.

  “You remember Mark and his twin sister Madeline?” Christopher said.

  Mark was number four on Anya’s list. “Yeah, I remember them from UVA.” Sort of.

  “Well, Woody dated Madeline. They were super hot and heavy for a while—until Madeline broke up with him. But Woody didn’t give up. He was obsessed with her. Stalked her. She called campus police on him several times.”

  “And you remained friends with him?” I said. “I mean, he was in that picture, at the party. You were obviously still hanging out with him, at a minimum.”

  “We didn’t want to be friends with him. But he wouldn’t go away. When the police wouldn’t do anything—they said there wasn’t enough evidence of him being a threat to Madeline—we took matters into our own hands. We planted the evidence of his honor code violation. We thought when we got him kicked out of school, he would quietly disappear.”

  “And he didn’t,” I said. “He stuck around and pretended everything was normal.”

  “What happened to Madeline?” Declan asked.

  “She’s dead,” Christopher said. “About a year ago. Officially, she overdosed on pain meds. Shocked everyone. Besides a tough spell toward the end of college, she’d been doing great. And then we found out the truth. Woody made sure we all knew it when he showed up at Madeline’s funeral. He was disguised, but he cornered Mark and pretty much admitted that he’d killed her. Then he disappeared.”

  “Did you tell the cops?”

  “Yep. They took our statements, checked out our facts, then told us that Woody wasn’t even in the country at the time of Madeline’s death. But that means nothing. Woody was an excellent computer hacker by this point. He could produce whatever paper trail he needed to form a rock solid alibi.”

  “If he loved Madeline, why would he kill her?”

  “I suppose it was because she was engaged. I don’t know. She and her fiancé were planning to move to California after the wedding.”

  “I’m sorry to hear about Madeline,” I said. “But you still haven’t explained why Woody’s after you. What did you guys do to him?”

  Christopher looked at his feet. “Madeline was pregnant with Woody’s child.”

  I placed a hand over my chest. “Pregnant?”

  Christopher nodded. “She felt like her life would be ruined if she had a child then, and she certainly didn’t want Woody’s child. He was already stalking her by then. So Rhiana, Mark, and I went with her to get an abortion. We all covered it up—she even kept it from her parents. We thought there was no way Woody would ever learn of Madeline’s secret, especially after the guys and I worked so hard to bring him up on the honors violation. She just wanted to put everything behind her.

  “And she did, sort of. He didn’t go away after we got him kicked out of school, but he did vanish for a short time after graduation. At some point I heard he’d been recruited by the CIA to work in their cybersecurity division. And before that he worked for the NSA for a stint, which was how he stayed in contact with Anya.”

  “Did Anya know about Madeline’s abortion?”

  “No. I never told her. The guys and I—and Rhiana—swore we would never tell anyone.”

  “But you think Woody found out. You think that’s why he’s after you.”

  Christopher nodded. “From what we can tell, he hacked her medical records. Shortly after Madeline died, her fiancé received forms in the mail—hard copies of ‘the records Madeline had requested.’ Records of her abortion. But she didn’t request those records. I know she wouldn’t have. Like I said, that was behind her. She had never even told her fiancé about it.”

  “He hacked her medical records,” I repeated in a low voice. Nothing in our lives was safe anymore. All of our personal information, from finances to medical, was in the cloud, and anyone with enough know-how could access it. “Did you not think you should tell the police about any of this?” I asked. “When Madeline died? When your friends were dying?”

  “Who was going to believe us? Madeline was dead from an apparent suicide. Jeremy was in jail for murder and plotting a domestic terrorist attack. Bart, Tony, and Anderson had all died from accidents or illnesses that were easily verified with autopsies. My only choice was to disappear before Woody found me.”

  “What about Rhiana?”

  “We don’t think Woody knows that she had any part in it. At least, he’s never come after her in any way.”

  “What about Mark? Where is he now?”

  “He went missing shortly after Madeline died. I’m hoping he’s on some tropical island somewhere, living completely off the grid and happy. Because the alternative is…”

  “He’s dead,” I said.

  Christopher nodded. “But somehow I don’t believe he’s dead. Woody would make sure we knew it if he’d checked Mark off his list.”

  Declan looked at me. Two lines formed between his brows. “What does any of this have to do with you? Why did Harrison choose to meddle with your career? Why jump in and help with your FBI cases? You didn’t know about any of this.”

  “Well,” said Christopher, “you do look a lot like Madeline. I mean, a lot like Madeline. And he stalked her, so…” He shrugged.

  “So now he stalks me.” I shook my head. “But I don’t believe this is all because of some physical resemblance. Woody asked me to that party, and I turned him down because of his honors violation. And I think he feels some sort of pull toward me because we both went to work for intelligence agencies.”

  My phone buzzed again. With a sigh, I pulled it out. Ty had called me three times.

  Declan looked at his phone, too. “I’ve got missed calls from Darren.”

  I swiped at my phone. “Ty, what’s wrong?”

  “Is Declan with you?”

  “He’s right here.”

  “He needs to call Darren. There’s trouble at the Louisville airport.”

  I lifted my widened eyes to Declan. “Call your brother.”

  He pressed a couple of buttons on his phone. “Darren, what’s wrong? What? Where did she get a gun? We can be there in a few hours.” He ended the call. “Claire got caught going through security with a loaded handgun.”

  I held up a finger. “Ty, you still there?”

  “I’m here. I can head to the airport to see what I can do.”

  “Do that. Call us if you find out anything. We’ll change our flight plan and head straight to SDF.”

  “Brooke, one other thing. I located Miles Holbrook. He was in a mental institution in Chicago.”

  “Chicago? I thought he was in the Virginia Beach area?”

  “Apparently he checked himself into a facility. According to a nurse I managed to get talking, he refused to speak while he was there—and he checked himself back out after only two days.”

  “That’s strange. Why bother going in the first place?”

  “That’s what I thought. The nurse said that he seemed eager to be there the first day, but then he suddenly became extremely lethargic. Then a friend of his showed up and took him away.”

  “Lethargic,” I said. “Was he medicated?”

  “No. He wasn’t given any meds. Not by the facility, anyway. They were still in the process of assessing his needs.”

  I had no idea what to make of this information. Was Miles Holbrook mentally ill? Had
he checked himself into a hospital to escape the wrath of Romeo? That seemed likely. But why leave after such a short stint?

  Our driver drove us right up to Declan’s plane. We were all tense, and despite being Kentucky’s Director of Homeland Security, I’d been unable to get anyone in a position of authority from TSA out of Louisville on the phone. As I climbed out of the car, Declan left me to speak to the pilot.

  I called Ty. “I can’t get anyone on the phone at the Louisville airport.”

  “That’s because there’s been a bomb threat.”

  “What?” I looked at Declan just as he was turning toward me. His jaw was tight, and I assumed he was learning the same piece of news, which meant we wouldn’t be able to fly into SDF.

  “Yeah. I spoke with Agent Marshall. She already sent a team over, and I’m on my way.”

  “I’m assuming we’ll have to fly into Lexington,” I said. “I’ll call you when I’m on the ground. We can be at SDF an hour after we touch down in Lexington.”

  I hung up. Declan was walking toward me.

  “You heard?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  He put a hand to my back as we climbed the steps to the plane. Dimitri was already on board.

  “That’s quite the coincidence,” I said as the three of us took our seats. “The same day your… friend… is caught with a gun going through security for an international flight, there’s a bomb threat at the same airport?”

  Declan twisted in his seat beside me. “What are you suggesting?” His voice took on a harsh tone.

  “Not what you think I’m suggesting,” I said quickly.

  He rubbed his face and leaned back in his seat. “I’m sorry. I’m definitely on edge. Let me say that in a different tone: what are you suggesting?” This time he sounded more inquisitive and not like a man who was about to punch me.

  “I think there’s nothing Romeo can’t manipulate. But I’m also wondering how on earth Romeo would even know about Claire or about her flight or…” I let my voice trail off and sat back in my seat.