The first…
“I watched Jenny. At first, she had hope. Then the knife sliced her…” He touched Lauren’s cheek. “This was the first cut for her, too.”
No.
She didn’t realize she’d screamed the word.
“It took her awhile to die. We didn’t know what we were doing then…”
Lauren stopped screaming. We. She stared at him with horror, a sick knot in her gut.
He leaned his head toward hers as if confiding a secret. “Bet I could find what’s left of her. Just bones now. We buried her…cut her up and buried her…” He gave a nod. “Just like we’ll do to you.”
Lauren couldn’t breathe. Walker was behind her sister’s murder? But Walker would have just been a kid then…
Just like Jenny had been a kid. Sixteen years old.
Lauren stared up into his eyes and saw madness.
“It’s so funny. She kept mentioning you at the end, saying that she had to pick you up. ‘Laurie’s gonna be late for piano…Laurie’s gonna be late for piano…’” He mimicked. “Like the bitch didn’t have more to worry about.”
There was no more pain. Even the rage was gone. Lauren was too numb, her whole body encased in ice. This couldn’t be happening. Her sister?
She started to hear a faint ringing.
Only the ringing wasn’t coming from her and her dulled senses.
Walker swore and jumped back. As she watched, he rummaged in a backpack near him. She tried to twist her head so that she could see him better, but he was too far away. He’d grabbed a phone and scurried back.
She couldn’t see him clearly. If she couldn’t see him…then he can’t see me.
She yanked her legs up and down, again and again, trying to break the chair legs.
“What? What the hell are you saying? I’ve got her!” Walker was yelling at someone on the phone.
She felt the wood begin to crack. Yes. She kicked again. Again.
“I want to kill her! We were going to kill her!”
Her legs were free. Her heart slammed into her chest.
“Fuck!” Walker’s roar. It was the sound of a man who’d just lost control.
This was her chance. If she didn’t get away now, Lauren knew she was dead. She threw her body to the side, her shoulder popped, but the numbness stopped any pain. So much numbness. Then she was on her feet. Her hands were still cuffed behind her, but she ran for the door.
He was screaming. Yelling. So was she.
Lauren had to get the door open. Had to get her freedom. But her hands were behind her, and it was so hard to twist the knob.
He grabbed her. Shoved her against the wall. “I’m not finished with you.”
The one image that flashed through her mind, obliterating the sight of Walker’s bloody visage—it wasn’t Jenny’s face. The face that had haunted her for so long.
It was Anthony’s.
Her chance at life, and it had passed her by. Anthony would find her, she knew that. Eventually, he’d find what was left of her body. He wouldn’t leave her in the swamp.
As she’d left Jenny?
“We’re not even close to finished…” His breath heaved. “But playtime has to wait until he can join us.”
Hope nearly broke her heart.
“I’ve got to get the fuck out of here.” He locked his fingers around her chin. “See you again real soon…” Then he slammed her head back into the wood behind her, slammed it so hard that she saw nothing but darkness and never even felt the floor as she fell.
Anthony ran even faster when he finally caught sight of the cabin just up ahead. They’d lost the blood trail, and Wesley had taken them down the wrong path as they tried to find the cabin in the dark. Every lost second had been like a knife slicing into Anthony’s skin.
He’s hurting her. She could be dying.
While Anthony dicked around in the dark.
“Hell, yes!” Wesley shouted out. He’d been briefly separated from Wesley as they both frantically tried to find the old path that would lead them to this place, but now both men ran forward, coming from two different angles.
The cabin was dark. It looked abandoned. Don’t be. Lauren had to be inside.
Anthony reached the door first. He threw it open and hurried inside with his flashlight positioned above his gun so that he could take the shot he needed.
A shot that would kill the Bayou Butcher.
The light fell on a broken chair. Some pieces of duct tape. A row of knives.
A groan came from behind the door. He yanked the door back, nearly hitting Wesley with it, and there she was. Slumped on the floor, her hair a heavy curtain around her face, blood soaking her clothes.
“Lauren?” His voice was a stark whisper. He fell to his knees next to her. With shaking hands, Anthony pulled her into his arms. Her blood smeared over him, and he just held her tighter. “An ambulance!” he barked over his shoulder to Wesley. “She needs to get to a hospital, now!” He lifted her into his arms, not about to let her go. Her head sagged back, her eyes were still closed. There was a cut on her cheek. A long, thin slice.
And so much more blood on her arm and shirt.
“I’ve got you, baby,” he whispered as he pressed a kiss to her head. “I’ve got you.” She wasn’t ever going to get away from him again.
Wesley was calling for the ambulance, demanding that they get some EMTs or a chopper out there freaking yesterday as Anthony carried Lauren out of that cabin.
“Baby?” His hold tightened on her. “Please, open your eyes, look at me.”
But she wasn’t looking at him. Lauren was out cold, and the fear in his gut was just getting worse with every second that passed.
Jon ran through the woods as fast as he could. His side ached where the bitch had stabbed him. He’d wanted to pay her back for that.
He’d wanted to pay her back for so much.
But the marshal had been closing in. The phone call had come just in time.
I won’t go back in a cage again.
His feet pounded over the earth. He knew how to hide his trail, but there wasn’t time for that now. Blood would be dripping from his wound—dogs would follow the blood. If the marshal didn’t already have a dog tracking after him, he would soon.
He knew how men like Ross worked. They didn’t stop. Not until they’d run down their prey. Jon knew, because he was just like that, too.
He raced onto the old dock. The wood trembled beneath his feet. The boat was there. A motorboat, but he wouldn’t use the motor, not yet. Sound traveled easily in the woods. He jumped into the boat, untied it, and grabbed for the oars.
Going out on the water would buy him time. The dogs would lose him at the water, and if he got to the meeting point, his ride would be waiting. He’d get out of there, and the marshal wouldn’t know what the hell was happening.
Then he’d have another chance with Lauren Chandler. Lauren would finish the circle, a perfect ending to a new life that had begun twenty years ago. He’d just have to be more careful. They would have to be more careful. Lauren couldn’t be protected, not always, and there would come a time when the marshal slipped up, when the uniformed cops weren’t watching.
Lauren would be his chance to prove he was the one in charge. The one with all the power.
Lauren would have nothing but death.
It was dawn. Cadence stood on the small dock at Rattlesnake Bayou, her gaze on the body that had been dumped like garbage.
Helen Lynch, Steve’s ex-wife.
“She’s been dead awhile,” the ME said as he bent near the body. “Lividity has set in.”