Blind Date

  I nod sharply. “Hartley said she kept boxes of her husband’s things. It wouldn’t have taken much for him to snoop through them and learn enough to torment her. Then there’s the fact the dirty fuck was dating her, so I’m sure she told him things.”

  “Smart man, involving himself in her life and even helping her when she got scared. He thought it through,” Craig murmurs.

  “He’s a fucking dead man if I get hold of him.”

  “He was right there, the whole fuckin’ time,” Caleb says out loud, but it’s more to himself. “Just dating her … right there, under our noses.”

  I know what he means. The idea that he was right there, right fucking there. I hate it. I study Caleb, and give him a nod. He’s good at his job. He’s working closely on a few murder cases, and he has a knack for it. I spent some time with him going over them, getting tips and pointers. He’s a couple of years younger than me, but the man has an edge that even I wouldn’t want to cross. He has had a hard past—I don’t know much about it but I know he hasn’t had it easy.

  It makes him incredible at his job. A determined, strong worker who doesn’t take any crap. He lives and breathes his job. He doesn’t have a family or even a woman, which surprises me. He’s got the looks that stop most females in their tracks—a dark, dangerous edge. He’ll make something out of himself, that’s for sure, and when he does he’ll take the world by storm. I’m glad to have him on the team right now.

  “It’s a good tactic,” I growl, getting back to the subject. “He was squeaky clean, he did a good job of changing his name and living a clean life. He checked out.”

  “We have his name now, so we’re going to find something,” Craig assures me.

  “What if it’s too fuckin’ late?”

  Both men look at me.

  “We’ll find her,” Craig assures me again.

  “Ace,” another officer says, coming into the room. “I have some information on the mother. I found a few records. I don’t know much about his life with her, but I found a photo. Have a look.”

  He hands me an old photo and a few notes he’s made. I look down to see a junkie-looking blonde standing beside a little boy. She’s got her hand possessively on his shoulder, but it’s what he’s wearing that my eyes zone in on. A bowtie. He’s wearing a bowtie.

  God.

  “How did a woman like this adopt a child?” I growl.

  “She was probably not like that when she adopted. Drugs do bad things to people,” Craig explains. “She obviously tormented the boy.”

  My throat gets tight, but I don’t focus on the feeling long. I go through the notes and come across an address.

  “This her old house?”

  “Yes,” the officer tells me. “It’s about four hours away, but I think it’s worth checking out. There is a high chance he’s taken them there.”

  He’s right.

  I stand. “Let’s find this fucker, and end him.”

  TWENTY-SIX

  Hartley

  The drawers are empty. Every single one of them.

  There are no knives, or anything else that could be used as a weapon, anywhere.

  The smart bastard thought of everything.

  Jacob’s laugh fills my space. “Gosh, I mean I thought you were a little smarter than this, but to run into the kitchen? Did you really think there would be a big butcher knife waiting on the table, so you could kill me and skip off into the sunset? This isn’t a movie, Hartley.”

  My knees tremble. He’s on the other side of the counter, that massive blade in his hand. My head is pounding. My body hurts. I feel like I’m going to pass out. But right now, I’m out of that room. This will be the only chance I have of ever getting out of here. I have to think. Taylor is down there, bleeding. She could die if I don’t get this right.

  God. Taylor. Is it already too late? There was so much blood. She tried to save me, she tried to save me and she got hurt. I have to get us out of here.

  There isn’t much I can do with my hands and feet bound.

  “There is nowhere for you to go, Hartley,” he chuckles, running a thumb down the edge of the knife, looking completely deranged with his bloodied face.

  I cannot believe I let this man into my life.

  I shake that thought.

  Focus.

  “No matter which way you try to escape, I will catch you, and I will slit your throat.”

  My knees are shaking, my hands are sweating, but I don’t move.

  There has to be a way.

  There just has to be.

  “What did you honestly think would happen if you ran from me? Do you think you’d actually be able to kill me?”

  He laughs.

  “We both know you wouldn’t,” he continues. “You might be strong, Hartley, but you don’t have it in you to take a life.”

  Something moves behind him, and my eyes dart to it. Taylor is shuffling down the hall. For a moment, I think I’m seeing things. But it’s her. My brave, beautiful friend. Looking like she may just die, but she’s doing it. She has blood pouring from the wound in her leg, but she’s moving steadily. For now.

  He hasn’t heard her. He hasn’t seen her. He screwed up. They always screw up, even if it’s so tiny no one notices. No one can be that perfect. And he just left his door wide open. In chasing me, he forgot about Taylor. He assumed she was too injured to move, or maybe dead, or maybe in his rush to come after me he simply forgot about her.

  But he screwed up.

  And now here she is, coming down the hall behind him, hands clenched in front of her, determination shining through her pain.

  I have to keep him distracted. This is literally our only chance.

  “I could,” I say, meeting his eyes. “Kill you.”

  He laughs again, swinging the machete around. “What would Raymond think of his beautiful wife doing such a thing? He’d be horrified.”

  That won’t work. I know Raymond would much rather me rid the world of someone like Jacob than allow him to take my life and then go on to take others. “He’d be glad I rid the world of one more piece of scum.”

  Jacob’s face tightens, just a bit. I know I’m winding him up. That’s the point. I want him angry. Mostly, I want him distracted.

  “You’re so worried about what my dead husband would think of me,” I say, shifting just slightly to the left so I can see Taylor without having to look directly at her. “What would your mother think of you? I mean, you’re obviously doing this for her, right? Imagine if she saw you now, letting a victim escape. I’m embarrassed for you.”

  Red floods his cheeks and something incredibly terrifying passes over his eyes. It’s an evil that runs deep. Scarring that is imprinted on his very soul. He’s damaged. Severely damaged. How did I never notice that in his eyes before? After all, they are the window to the soul. I missed the worst part of him.

  “For that,” he hisses, “I’ll slit your throat twice.”

  “Go ahead, I’ll be dead after the first one.”

  His jaw tics.

  “You think you can break me, Jacob, but you’re forgetting one thing…”

  Taylor is right behind him. She is ready. I’m ready. Together we’re going to get out of this. We’re going to, I won’t let it end any other way.

  “You have to be breakable to be broken,” I say, my voice steely. “And in case you haven’t noticed, I’m made out of the strongest steel. You were never going to break me. Take that one to Mommy.”

  Taylor raises her hands, and she hits him as hard as she can with her bound fists, using the cuffs to add force to her blow. She hits him so hard, he falls forward, the machete tumbling from his hands. He goes down to his knees, clearly dazed, and she hits him again, raising her arms above her head, then slamming them down on his. “Nobody hurts my best friend,” she croaks, her voice so weak, yet so incredibly strong. “No one.”

  Jacob’s hands go out in front of him, and he grabs the machete, spinning around. He swings at Taylor, but misses.
I have to act fast. My eyes scan the kitchen, and in the corner, sitting on top of some towels, I see an old meat tenderizer, made of pure, solid steel, used for hitting meat over and over until it’s tender. I don’t even want to know why he left that out, but it’s the only thing I can see. I rush over and pick it up, just as Jacob lands on Taylor, the two of them crashing to the ground. He raises the machete, hissing, “I’ll kill you for that, you little—”

  I don’t think.

  I just swing.

  I swing with every single ounce of strength I have left in my body.

  I smash Jacob in the back of the head, and he goes crashing down, a loud crack ringing out, a crunch I’m not sure I’ll ever forget. Then he slumps to the side, blood pooling around his head, eyes open. The machete tumbles from his hand. Taylor lies on her back, panting, her eyes on me.

  I killed him.

  My knees give out and I drop to the ground, staring at the man with lifeless eyes, laying on the floor. The man who tried to take my life. My best friend’s life. The man who took too many lives. I just killed him.

  Taylor makes a groaning sound, and I look over to her. There is too much blood on her leg. The strain has made it worse, and it’s pooling far too heavily now.

  I glance back at Jacob once more, then I look back to my best friend. I take a deep, shaky breath, and push to my knees.

  I’m not that easily broken.

  Taylor and I, we’re strong. Unbreakable. We always have been.

  It’s time we got out of here.

  So on shaky feet, with shaky hands, I shuffle over to where he is laid out, kneel down beside him, and find the keys to the cuffs, which are in his pocket along with seven or eight others. I heard them jingling when he was moving around. I shuffle over to Taylor and uncuff her, then, using my teeth, I uncuff my hands as well.

  Then, I take a deep, shaky breath and lean down to lift up my best friend.

  It’s my turn to save her now.

  And save her, I will.

  The monster is gone.

  It’s all over.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  “Come on, honey,” I say to Taylor, pulling her along with me. Her arm is slung over my shoulder and we’re both exhausted. All I want to do right now is sleep for the next week, but I have to get us both to safety. I have to. And I will.

  He’s gone.

  He’s gone, but neither of us knows where we are. We could be anywhere. I don’t even know if we’re in the same city, let alone the same state. But I know my friend needs a doctor. Urgently. The deep gash on her leg is bleeding too heavily. My entire body aches, and carrying her weight is draining every last piece of energy from me.

  One foot in front of the other.

  We trudge through the mud, and it makes a squelching sound as we move through the trees. It’s impossible to avoid the rain that’s been falling for the last two hours. I can’t stop. I’d love to stop, to let us both rest, but if we stop now I know she won’t make it. I’ve wrapped her leg again as tightly as I can, but that’ll only hold for so long before she’ll start slipping away.

  “Stay awake for me, Tay,” I say to her, my voice croaky. “Stay awake. If you go to sleep, you’ll die. Do you understand me?”

  “I understand,” she croaks, but her voice is so flat, so broken, it terrifies me.

  “Just keep focusing on one step at a time. One foot in front of the other, we’re going to get you out of here.”

  I can’t see any sign of light, or hear any sound of traffic. For all I know, we could be walking deeper and deeper into the forest surrounding Jacob’s hidden house. I shiver at the horror we left behind. He’s gone—by my hand—and that thought alone puts an angry ache on my heart I’d much rather forget. I don’t even want to think about what happened back there.

  I just have to keep reminding myself he’s gone.

  My mind wanders as we walk, and I try to ignore the throbbing pain in my leg from the deep knife wound and the pounding in my skull. There is so much dried blood on me, I can feel it stuck to my face, cracking when I move, itching. I can’t reach up and scratch at it, because it’ll start bleeding again. I know I’ve already bled quite enough, because my shirt is soaked with it.

  I think about Jacob. I still can’t wrap my mind around it. I still cannot forget the shocked feeling in my chest when he pulled that full-face mask off to reveal a man I dated, a man who was kind to me, a man I trusted, a man I let into my home and into my life.

  Now I look back, the signs were there. He was clever, smart even. He was never going to make those signs too obvious, but he did present them.

  Taking me to the restaurant where Raymond and I got married, making me feel at times like I was paranoid and losing my mind, changing the locks on my apartment, and no further break-ins after Ace replaced those. It all makes sense now, like it was so incredibly obvious.

  Jacob.

  My heart clenches, and I fight back an exhausted sob. I would have never believed for a single second that the human mind would be capable of being so utterly sick and twisted, but he has proved to me that you can stand in the presence of what seems like an angel, only to find out that beneath the surface is the ugliest, deadliest demon you’ve ever encountered. Jacob’s act was flawless. It was perfection.

  He had us all fooled.

  Even Ace.

  “My leg hurts,” Taylor whimpers, her weight getting heavier and heavier with each step.

  “I know, honey,” I whisper, trying to will my knees not to buckle, because I need them to stay up and get us to safety. “Just a little further.”

  “Can we stop?” she pleads in a voice far too weak for my liking. “Can we just stop and sleep? It’s dark. I want to stop.”

  “We can’t stop,” I whisper, trying to keep my body from falling. “We have to keep going.”

  I take a shaky breath and keep dragging her through the trees, pulling us along for hours on end, until I honestly don’t know how I’m still managing to move my feet. One foot in front of the other—I repeat this over and over in my head, it’s on constant. Just keep moving. If I stop, we’re going to die. That alone is enough for me to battle through the ache, through the pain, through the agony.

  My feet have gone numb, my knees burn with every step, sending sharp pains up my thighs. My back is on fire and my shoulders are tight from holding Taylor’s weight. I’m fighting back vomit, and my head is pounding so hard, I’m sure my vision would be blurred if I was sitting in the light. But I keep moving. I just keep pulling us along.

  “L-L-Lights.”

  I wonder if I’m hearing her correctly, because I could swear Taylor just said “lights.” I look up, and I’m right—my vision is blurred. I can’t see much, in fact, I’m fairly certain I can’t see anything at all. Exhaustion has finally taken its toll on my body.

  “What?” I whisper.

  “Blue … red … lights. I can see them.”

  Blue and red? Like police?

  I focus ahead, but I still can’t see anything. My head is spinning, I’m starting to wonder if my head injury is worse than I thought.

  “Where, Taylor?” I order in a soft, weak tone.

  “Str-Straight ahead.”

  Is she imagining it? Is she so far gone she’s picturing an escape? Freedom? I don’t know, I’m too afraid to hope, but I keep walking anyway, moving in a straight line, dodging the trees where I can and trying to keep us headed towards the lights she keeps telling me she can see more clearly as we near.

  “Police,” she cries happily. “It’s police!”

  My knees start buckling as finally I can see very faint red and blue flashing lights. They’re closer than I think, I know because I can hear voices now, too. My vision isn’t what it should be, but Taylor is right, they’re real. With one last deep breath into my lungs, I use the last of my strength to pull her forward, getting closer and closer by the second until finally I feel the road beneath my feet.

  “What the—”

  That’s
the last thing I hear before we both collapse. I don’t feel a thing as I land on the ground—exhaustion, pain, fear, terror, it all consumes my body. Everything I’ve been keeping in for the last few days finally takes over. I fall in and out of consciousness. Frantic voices are all around us, and a hard set of arms curls around me. A face is in my hair, and I hear a hushed voice murmuring, “Oh God. Hartley. Baby. I’ve got you. You’re safe. I’ve got you. Fuck, I’m so sorry.”

  Is that Ace? I don’t know. I know it feels good. So good. Warm. Safe. Now I know he’s here, now I know he’s got me and I’m free, I slip into peaceful nothingness. I finally let it flood my body. I stop holding it back. I stop fighting it. I just let it in. I’ve been praying for it, every second since Jacob got hold of us.

  Bliss.

  Pure bliss.

  * * *

  Blinding lights are the first thing I notice when I come to. I reach up and rub my eyes, wincing as a sharp pain travels through my skull. My head is bandaged, and for a moment, I’m confused and dazed. Where the hell am I? What’s happening? I rub at my eyes again, getting frustrated when I can’t seem to clear my vision correctly. These stupid bandages.

  “Stop rubbing at that, you’re all bandaged up.”

  A feminine voice travels into my ears and I try to focus on it. It’s only then I realize one of my eyes is patched. With the uncovered one, I zone in on the woman standing beside me. I’m in a hospital. As I wake, the beeping machines beside me become more obvious, and suddenly, it sounds very loud in here. I look at the blonde nurse, who is smiling down at me. “Hi there.”

  One blink.

  Then another.

  “What … what?”

  “You’re in the hospital. You’ve been out for a couple of days. Do you remember anything?”

  Jacob.

  Taylor.

  “Taylor.” I croak.

  “Taylor is well. She had surgery on her leg, but she’s recovering just fine. She’s safe. As are you.”

  Safe.

  Safe.

  “Ace?” I whisper, my vision becoming clearer by the second.

  “Detective Henderson has requested to be called the second you wake. I’ll have someone notify him.”