“I am scared.” I didn’t miss a beat. “Terrified, actually.”
“Okay.” He gave me a quick nod.
“Okay,” I repeated as we stood a foot apart from one another. “Now what?”
He sat down on the couch and shook his head as if to clear it. “Now I tell you what I know.”
Okay.
That night, we lay in my bed and listened to the wind whip through the trees. I mulled over what he had told me. It seemed as though I stumbled upon the killer as he was killing thirty-two-year-old Elizabeth Cloud. They believed it was the same killer because some of the victim’s blood had transferred onto me. Sadly, I didn’t see anything, so my statement wouldn’t be of any help…
“You’re awake,” he whispered into my hair.
“I am.”
“Tell me what you’re thinking.” He yawned and held me closer. I was wrapped around his body, and my head lay on his chest.
“Just wondering why I was spared and she wasn’t.”
I felt him tug the pillow around his head to get comfier.
“If I was to give my opinion, I would profile him as a psychopath. He has his crimes planned out to the smallest detail. Most killers would run with the possibility of being seen or caught, but a psychopath is smart and resourceful. This guy knocked you out when he stumbled onto you. He didn’t kill you, and he didn’t get carried away in the moment. You weren’t part of his plan. Plus, you aren’t a blonde, so that might be it. Who knows?”
“What makes them that way? Their upbringing?”
“No, they are usually born with some sort of chemical imbalance, not to say that their upbringing can’t play a big part in how they turn out.”
“Still doesn’t explain why I was spared, though, does it?”
He was silent as he dragged his fingertips down my spine, settling on my tailbone.
“No,” he finally said in a distant voice, “it doesn’t.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jonah
“Fuck!” I nearly pulled my hair from the roots. I was incredibly jacked up from what happened. I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling when Spencer got that close while I was in the middle of a murder. She could have connected the dots if I didn’t get to her as quickly as I did. I knew she had never seen my face, didn’t know my name or anything about me, but she did know me, just a different version of me, and if that got out…oh, Lord…all of this would have come to a complete stop and it would be over.
I ran my hands over my face and let out a frustrated sigh.
“Focus!” I scolded at myself and felt a headache plow through the madness inside me. Without thinking, I whirled around and knocked over a glass on the counter. My anger quickly shot high, and I was tossed into a memory.
Smash! Glass and wine flew into the air, turning my living room into a murder scene. I ducked when the second bottle of Rodney Strong flew by only inches from my face. Well, there went forty dollars.
“What did you do?” Tiffany screamed at me in a fit of rage. I had never seen her this angry before. “How can you be so stupid?”
“What?” I tried to catch up, since she started screaming at me the moment she came home.
“You killed them all?”
“No, the daughter and son are okay.”
“Seriously?” Her face was bright red, the veins in her neck popped out, and her eyes were wild with rage.
She honestly scared me in that moment.
Tiffany whirled, grabbed an umbrella off the dresser, then lunged at me on the bed. One hand wrapped around my vocal cords and the other jammed the tip of the umbrella inside my mouth.
Holy shit.
“You have ruined everything, Jonah! Everything!” Spit flung from her lips, and I realized she wasn’t my girlfriend anymore. She was a demon of the Antichrist.
“I did as you asked.” I tried to speak around the metal rod.
Her nostrils flared as her eyes penetrated mine. Sweat broke along my skin, and concern for my life drove me to push her off me.
She bounced off the bed and crashed to the floor.
“What the hell is wrong with you? What the hell is up with that family?” I screamed over her. “I did what you wanted! I can’t help it if things changed. I improvised.”
She slowly got up and lowered the umbrella, then with precise movements ran the pad of her thumb along the corner of her mouth. She glanced down at her red-tipped finger and tilted her head.
“I’m over this.” She sounded like I destroyed her entire world. “You ruined everything.” She moved to the closet and started to pull her clothing out on the bed.
Panic raced through me. What the hell just happened? What was I missing here?
“Tiffany.” I went to stop her, but she jabbed a finger in my face.
“To think I wasted a year grooming you, and when it was time to perform, you fucked it all up. You had one goddamn thing to do.” She slowed her words like I was stupid. “You are worthless, you are pathetic, and now you are a murderer.”
Pain flashed through my chest as I realized I had only been used to do her dirty work.
I stepped back and watched her as she turned back to her packing. I madly rubbed my head as my mind spun out of control. Then it hit me, the reason she couldn’t leave.
“You are just as connected to what I did as I am.”
She laughed and tossed her sweater down with a huff.
“Again, with the stupidity. Think.” She pointed to her temple. “Every text you wrote me, did I respond? Did I answer your calls the days you watched her? Did I ever touch the murder weapon? No.” She was eerily calm.
“But—” I stopped short as all the images flashed in front of me. “Holy shit.” She was right; it was all me. Always me.
“Oh, darling, come here.” She reached for me and pulled me close. Her hot lips did their magic, and I melted into her. She was so beautiful, and I loved her so much. She put her hand on my chest and pressed me back a little. Then she held up her phone and slowly swiped through her photos of me watching Molly, me heading into the house, me leaving the house after the murder.
My world began to shake underneath me.
She took my chin roughly, leaned in, and held my gaze. “We are over. You will not contact me because if you do, I will sink you. I own you, Jonah.”
She pushed by me and headed for the door.
“Wait!” I followed on her heels. I was pathetic and weak, and I hated myself, but I needed to know. “Did you ever love me?”
She opened the door with her back to me. “How can you love something so worthless?”
The door slammed, and so did the door to my heart.
Popping three Advil, I paced my apartment and waited for the alert. She was finished with the book, and I itched for another kill. My control was being tested.
Agent: ETA on book 3?
I dropped to my computer and cursed.
Jonah: Any day now.
Agent: They are working on the blurb now. What’s the name of book 3?
I thought for a moment before my fingers dashed across the keyboard.
Jonah: Smoke.
Chapter Twenty-Five