At the sound of the voice, Sydney moved closer to him, standing behind him. His protective instincts went into overdrive, and he immediately moved so he stood between her and the man on the other side of the bars.
Sydney might know who James was, but he had no idea. That she was afraid of this man was plain to see. Given what he knew about the killer, she had good reason to be. But why did the killer believe that Sydney deserved to be here? He couldn’t imagine Sydney doing anything deserving of being abducted by a serial killer. He’d known her all of two minutes and he already knew she was a sweet woman, albeit a little quirky.
Was he wrong about her?
Or was she just another innocent victim of a vicious psychopath?
“Tell him, Syd.” The killer walked up and wrapped his hands around the bars. “Tell him why you’re here. Tell him why this is all your fault.”
12:49 P.M.
* * *
Sydney trembled as James stared at her with pure hatred in his eyes.
She was so glad that Dante was here and that he was between her and James because she was terrified of what he would do to her when he came in here to get her.
Kill her, of course, but she was pretty sure it wouldn’t be a quick death. She was pretty sure it would be a long and slow and agonizing death as possible.
She was terrified.
Of James.
Of what he was going to do to her.
Of what he was going to do to Dante.
Dante moved a little more so that his body blocked her from James. She knew that he was a cop, and he was just doing his job, but it was still reassuring.
She remembered seeing him the other day. She’d felt eyes on her, and for a moment she’d thought they were Mitch’s. It had taken her a second to remember that was impossible because her husband had been dead for half a decade, and then she’d seen Dante. She might not have known who he was, but his gaze warmed her somehow. Took that icy block that had been planted in her stomach when Mitch left her and melted it a little.
“Why don’t you tell me who you are and why you believe that Sydney deserves to be here,” Dante said to James. If he thought that him being a cop was going to help him get out of here alive, then he was mistaken. He didn’t know James like she did.
“Don’t,” she hissed, fearful he was going to make James angry.
“It’s all right,” he murmured, trying to reassure her but she wasn’t reassured. She was scared and she wanted to go home, only she had little faith she would ever leave this cave alive.
“I think the story would be better coming from Syd,” James said. “After all, this is all her fault. It’s her fault that those other women died, it’s her fault you’re here, and it’s her fault that I became the beast that I am.”
“I think you should leave her out of this,” Dante said.
What was he doing?
Why was he antagonising James?
Didn’t he realize how dangerous James was?
“I think you should shut your mouth. Sydney, talk. Now,” he barked.
Afraid of what would happen if she didn’t, Sydney said, “It’s okay. I don’t mind. I’ll tell you what he wants you to know. James and I met about seven years ago.” She wasn’t sure how much detail she should add. If she said what really happened, then she might make James angry, but if she didn’t tell it like it happened, she might make him angry. She was probably stuck in a no-win situation. “James asked me out, and I said no. I-uh-I didn’t think that we had much in common.” That was a nice way of saying that James scared her even from the very first time they met.
“She turned you down, so you did all of this?” Dante asked.
“Do I look like an idiot?” James snapped.
“James was, uh …” She searched for the right word, “… persistent. He kept asking me out, but I had already met someone that I was falling in love with. His name was Mitch and he was just like me, a little bit of a geek, and we both loved books, and we just clicked. But James couldn’t let it go. He kept trying to convince me to go out with him. Even once Mitch proposed he didn’t stop … he even tried to ruin my wedding. And then Mitch died in a fire and I never heard from James again,” she finished softly. At least there would be one good thing about being dead; she would be reunited with her husband.
“You killed Mitch, didn’t you?” Dante asked. “You killed Sydney’s husband.”
“What?” She took a startled step forward, only to be grabbed by Dante and yanked back, where he protectively put her behind him again. “You killed Mitch? You killed your own brother?”
“Mitch was your brother?” Dante looked confused, like he was trying to keep up, but they kept throwing new information at him and he was struggling to put it all together and figure out how to use it to his advantage.
“I didn’t know that when I met Mitch. He used to come to the library where I worked. Then James asked me out, and I didn’t know until months later that they were brothers,” she said softly. She wanted James to deny what Dante had said. How could he do that to his own brother? And all because of her. It was her fault that Mitch was dead.
“You killed your own brother to get Sydney,” Dante said accusingly.
James just shrugged.
Like it was no big deal.
Like he didn’t even care about what he had done.
“She was supposed to die that night, too. I didn’t know that she’d gone out. I thought that they were both in there when I started that fire.”
So, it was true.
James had killed Mitch.
He’d tried to kill her, too, only her baby sister who had only been sixteen at the time had been at a party and gotten uncomfortable when everyone started getting drunk so she’d called her and asked for a ride home so their parents wouldn’t know where she’d been since she hadn’t gotten permission to be at the party.
If it hadn’t been for that, she’d be dead right now.
“All of this was so you could come back for Sydney,” Dante said, like he was catching on. “The other murders were just a decoy so we wouldn’t know who you were really going after. That way you were able to get your hands on her and finish what you started.”
“That’s up to her,” James said. “She can admit that she made the wrong choice, picked the wrong brother, and decide that she’s willing to spend the rest of her life living by my rules, or she can die. You, on the other hand, don’t have a choice. I know you. You have the same darkness inside you that I have inside myself. I could feel it that day in the woods when you looked right at me even though I knew you couldn’t see me. You’re no different from me. We’re both beasts. You hunt prey just like I do; you just do it with a badge. I can’t have you out there; you’ll always be a danger to me. I’ll be back later, and I expect an answer, Syd.”
She just stared at him.
She couldn’t think right now. The only thing filling her head was that she was the reason Mitch was dead.
Why should she care what happened to her now?
James was right; she did deserve this.
1:06 P.M.
* * *