The Empath (The Above and Beyond Series Book 1) (9 page)
Read The Empath (The Above and Beyond Series Book 1) Online
Authors: Jody Klaire
Eli held up his hands.
Renee was thankful he didn’t push further. She’d had enough confrontation for one day. “That looked like more than a simple spat. That looked pretty personal.” Her cheek felt like a balloon.
“It is,” Eli said. “Jenny and Aeron . . . hell.”
Eli walked to the porch steps and sat down. “Jenny spent most of her days when they were younger making Aeron’s life hell. It got to the point where it came to blows.”
Renee stared at Eli, wondering just how much of an idiot one man could possibly be.
“And?” Frei asked.
“And . . . Jenny has a scar from her mouth to her chin for a reason.”
Renee looked at Frei who shrugged. She’d not seen a scar either.
“Covered in makeup,” Eli offered. “But it’s there.”
“So what did she do?” Renee asked.
Eli rubbed his chin. He looked ten years older than he had a few days ago when they’d met. “Something that made it real easy for everyone to think she’s a murderer.”
“Which is?” Frei snapped.
“Pushed her through a window. Aeron never apologized or said it was an accident, so it pretty much looked like she was trying to kill her.”
“How old was she?”
Eli sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe fourteen. Why?”
Renee looked at Frei for the go ahead.
Frei nodded.
“So, what you are saying is that Aeron intended to cause harm to Jenny when she pushed her?” Renee asked.
Eli nodded. “She said as much.”
“And she told you she killed Jake. Did you believe that one too?”
Eli blinked a few times while Frei frowned.
Renee’s frustration spilled over. “Is it any freaking wonder she reacted? You said Jenny bullied her. You were just lucky she didn’t hack her into little pieces.”
“Renee,” Frei warned.
“He’s an idiot, Urs. I’m sorry but he is. They all are. The abuse Aeron has suffered—”
“She was not touched,” Eli snapped.
Renee threw her hands in the air. “Well, that just makes it all right then. You tell her you don’t love her, you don’t want her, that she’s a disappointment. Of course that doesn’t hurt her, does it?”
“Renee, calm down,” Frei said.
Renee walked up to Eli. “If Aeron wasn’t such a good woman, if she wasn’t so strong, you’d have built yourself a nightmare.”
“And you don’t think she ain’t?” Eli snapped, getting to his feet. “She comes to my house, assaults my wife, scares the hell out of my kids. She trashes my damn cruiser and you think that’s okay?”
Renee stood her ground. “Yes. If I had been her. I’d have shot you.”
“Renee!” Frei put her hands on her hips but Renee spun on her heels and trotted down the road after Aeron. Frei would kick her ass for this later but there was no way she was leaving Aeron to go through this alone.
“Doing my job,” Renee called over her shoulder in a bid to appease Frei. Like hell that was going to work.
Renee hoped that all they’d been through would buy her the dispensation, otherwise she’d be hauled off the case. And she may not have been an Empath but she didn’t need to be to know Aeron couldn’t survive this alone.
Chapter 61
ELI WATCHED THE fiery blonde stomp off after Aeron and almost smiled. The woman had more fire than a volcano on eruption day and he felt a little twinge of pride that she was defending Aeron. Then he felt the crushing grip of guilt that he couldn’t.
“I need to question Jenny,” Frei said, her tone icy.
“Jenny? Why?”
Frei looked at him like he was stupid. “Someone who has cause to hate Aeron is trying to frame her . . . you said yourself they have history.”
He rubbed his hand over his soaking brow and sighed. “They were children.”
Frei stared at him. Her stoic look and folded arms told him all he needed to know. She was unmoved. “Systematic bullying of another child is a precursor. Did Jenny have friends growing up?”
Eli nodded, she’d had a gaggle of followers. “Jenny was the girl everyone wanted to be.”
“Until?”
He hated thinking about it. The accusation that he’d abused Aeron in some way rubbing raw his already frazzled senses. What was he supposed to have done? Aeron had said she hurt Jenny, said she’d hurt Jake . . . or had he missed something?
“Until she fell through the window . . . she was going to be a model . . . maybe international.”
Frei pulled out her cell and tapped her finger on the screen, no doubt taking notes. “And do you make a habit of forming relationships out of guilt.”
Eli’s anger boiled and he gripped hold of his belt. Like hell was Frei judging him. “Excuse me?”
“You married Jenny because you felt guilty that you didn’t stop the events.”
Eli’s stomach churned, was she right? “She’s a good woman.”
Frei’s eyes remained cold and formal. “She was a bully, who then lost her dream. She’s bitter, angry, and capable of killing if Renee’s statement is anything to go by.”
Eli looked at the gold band on his hand. He hated wearing it. He was pretty sure most men must feel that way. Lilia had asked him to get a tattoo instead of wearing a band and he still had it. A golden eagle in flight to represent her native blood.
Shaking his thoughts free of Lilia, he met Frei’s eyes. Jenny was mean, nasty, but she was a fine mother. She wouldn’t hurt anybody, would she? “Jenny’s highly strung at the moment. Storm an’ all.”
Frei didn’t look like she was buying it, neither was Eli in his heart. Jenny was pretty bitter. What the hell had he done marrying her? He was a stupid fool. A stupid, cowardly fool.
“Let me get the girls, take them over to her mother’s place. They’re probably terrified.”
Frei nodded. “It would be better for everyone if she stayed there for a few days.”
Eli frowned. “Why?”
“Because, Chief,” Frei strolled up to him, her tone as sharp as her eyes, “someone is trying to frame your daughter and if it isn’t your blushing bride, then perhaps keeping her somewhere she will be safer, may be wise.”
He pulled himself up, puffing out his chest. “She’s safe in this house. I can protect my own damn wife.”
“Well, you’ve done such a fine job with your daughter,” Frei fired back in a cold, curt tone.
Eli grabbed his hat off the lawn. “You have no right to talk to me like that.”
Frei’s eyes oozed ice. She was ruthless, that much he could tell. “The only reason I haven’t had you suspended and your wife thrown in jail is that you’re co-operating. So, if you want to keep your badge and your dignity, do as you’re told.”
Eli’s chest cramped. He gripped at it and fumbled in his pocket. Where the hell were his damn tablets? He looked up.
Frei was holding them out to him. “I want you gone in ten minutes.”
He took his medication and rubbed at his sore chest. He wanted to argue. Hell he wanted to put the woman in her place but she had read the label. One phone call and he’d be medically retired.
Chapter 62
AS I HEADED up the road to the cabin I saw smoke puffing out into the sky. My heart sprang into life and I sprinted up the road. A crowd was gathered outside the cabin, including Mary, all hurling abuse as they threw rocks at it. Something felt like it flicked in my head and I lost it. I’ve never lost it before, but everything came to a head and I picked up a metal bar from the old wheel joint.
“It’s the freak!” Mary shouted.
“Murderer!” someone called.
“Child killer!”
“Witch!”
I grabbed hold of Mary, and I swear I was gonna beat her with the bar but the second I touched her, my body shook.
Bill told her the truth but she wasn’t going to believe him. Bill was stupid and naive if he thought Aeron wouldn’t hurt anyone. Everyone knew she was a killer. No, Mary had to take a stand
against the little freak, she’d killed Jake . . . she’d spoiled Sam .
. . who could ever marry Sam now after he was tainted by her .
. . little freak, little witch.
I stepped back and dropped the bar.
A fist caught me in the face. I fell onto the ground. Another blow landed, then another, the pain phased out by the agony in my heart. These people hated me, they had always hated me and why, all I had done was be myself.
I curled into a ball as the blows kept coming, unwilling to fight anymore, unwilling to feel anymore . . . and so I just waited . . . waited for it to be over.
RENEE RAN DOWN the muddy lane and stopped when she saw the crowd around Aeron’s house. She pulled out her cell phone and pressed the alarm button. The flames were licking from the windows on the bottom floor and Aeron was nowhere to be seen.
“Son of a—”
Renee pulled her pistol from her belt and fired into the sky. She saw Aeron on the ground, barely breathing, barely moving.
“Get the hell away from her!” Renee pointed the gun at the mob.
One of the men lurched toward Renee. She pulled the trigger and the bullet kicked up the dirt next to his foot.
“She’s the other one . . . get her,” Mary shrieked, prompting the mob to edge forward.
Renee pointed the gun at Mary’s head. “The next person who moves, I pull the trigger.”
The crowd stopped. Mary stared at her with wide-eyed fear.
“Oh, you scared now? She saves your boy and this is how you repay her?”
“She caused it,” Mary almost screeched, her eyes locked on the pistol.
Renee shook the pistol. “No, you did. Bill back up your story, Mary?” She pulled out her phone. “Why don’t we get him down here?”
Mary shifted her feet in the dirt.
Renee switched the loading mechanism back. Click. “Uh uh. Your roots will be the least of your troubles.”
Renee heard Aeron splutter on the ground and walked to her, gun still trained on Mary. Sirens rang out through the dead silence. Renee pulled Aeron toward her with one hand and brushed a hand through her hair, trying to let her know that she was there, that it was her. “It’s okay, I got you.”
The mud kicked up as the fire engine plowed up the lane, followed by a police cruiser, the ambulance, and Frei’s car.
Mary and the others glanced at one another, a few backed up, whispers, mutters filled the air.
“Now we’ll see how brave you are,” Renee shot at Mary.
The fire crew jumped from the truck and sprinted into the cabin to tackle the blaze. A woman, who looked like the fire chief, was pale and her eyes empty. Renee looked at her uniform name tag.
Borland.
Chief Borland hurried to Aeron, pulled her medical kit out, and worked on her. “What the hell did they do to you?”
Renee kept her gun trained on Mary. “They believe she’s the killer.”
Chief Borland shook her head. Renee could see her brimming tears. “No woman could be that way to a girl.”
The simple sentence broke Renee’s heart. A mother, the one who had just lost her precious child, was able to see, yet the mother whose son had been saved was the orchestrator of this mob attack. Where was the justice?
“What’s going on?” Frei barked as she stormed over to them.
“These people tried to burn down Aeron’s home and beat her,” Renee said.
Eli put his hands over his head, looking helpless.
“Officers, I want everyone here taken in,” Frei said.
Skip and Jo looked at each other, then at Eli.
He narrowed his eyes at them. “You heard the agent, round every damn one of them up.”
Jo sighed then started forward and Skip opened up his arms to corral the hate mob.
“We need to get her to the hospital,” Chief Borland said.
Frei nodded. “Get her moved.”
Mary shook off Jo’s grip on her arm. Renee trained her gun on her. “What are we being charged with?”
“If Aeron doesn’t make it . . .” Frei said in a deep, dangerous voice that made even Renee shiver. Her eyes hardened. “I’ll see every last one of you charged with murder.”
The mob stared at them terrified and let the officers escort them to the waiting van.
The EMTs lifted Aeron onto a stretcher.
Renee watched them work on her and her stomach twisted up into a knot. She gripped hold of the gun as Mary was led away by Jo.
A hand gently took hold of the barrel “It’s okay . . . she’ll be fine,” Frei said in a calm, soothing voice.
Renee blinked back the tears. “God, I hope so.”
Frei smiled—brief, curt but nevertheless comforting. “Me too . . . me too.”
Chapter 63
“YOU’RE LUCKY,” THE doctor told me as he strolled into the pokey hospital room.
I lay beat up on the plastic-covered bed and turned to stare at the wall, the chill from wearing the stupid gown making my skin get bumps. Lucky? Uh-huh. No, lucky was a world away from my life. The sound of shoes squeaked on the floor outside and Renee popped her head through the doorway.
“I got away as soon as I could.” She walked to me and sat on the chair next to the bed as the doctor clipped the X-rays up onto the light-board on the wall.
“You haven’t broken a thing. Not one bone. Remarkable, isn’t it?” He grinned, waving a finger at the board.
I didn’t care. I was past caring.
“Will she be okay?” Renee asked. She glanced between me and the board.
The doctor chuckled. “She is just fine. A few bruises but nothing some painkillers won’t fix.” He squinted at Renee. “You, on the other hand, need to see about that cheek.”
I turned to her and my self-pity vanished. Her cheek looked a kind of blue and purple. “What happened, did they—?”
“No. No, I’m fine,” Renee said to the doctor. “And it was Jenny. It’s fine.” She gave me a “no argument” look.
“Doesn’t look fine,” the doctor and I said together.
“At least check if it’s broken,” I added.
Renee held her hands up as he tried to examine her. “I’m fine, I’ve been checked out.” She turned to me and lifted her hand as if she wanted to touch the cut on my head but stopped. “Really, I’m more worried about you.”
The doctor shook his head and took the charts off the wall. “Clean bill of health.”
I got up from the bed, the room swayed as I tried to focus. My ribs felt like someone had shoved a load of razors under my skin.
“Where’s your shirt?” Renee made me sit down and helped me to dress myself. I was half ready to grumble, but there was no way I could figure to get my arm in the sleeve without help.
“I ain’t helpless.” My voice sounded like I was—wobbly, crackly, and feeble.
Paying me no mind, Renee took hold of my arm to steady me. As I wobbled my way out of the room and started to hobble down the corridor, my left leg felt all numb and buckled every now and again.
“He give you anything for the pain?” she asked.
I shook my head but the corridor wiggled before my eyes. “Didn’t want nothin’.”
I took a breath, trying to clear the fog, and stepped forward only for Renee to steer me to the right.
“Wall,” she said as I tried to focus on her. Go figure how woozy an ambulance ride could make you feel. “Guess we should be glad of the muscles, huh?”
I tried to laugh, to smile, anything, but I couldn’t. I didn’t have anything vaguely close to emotion in my body. I felt tired, drained, and defeated.
“After all this, you should think about a vacation . . . or maybe just moving away.” Her tone was cautious. I knew she was trying to help and I could feel her worry fizzing until it became an annoying buzz in my head.
I shoved my finger in my ear and waggled it to fend off the sound. “Where would I go? Where would be different from here?” I was a freak, it didn’t matter where I was, I’d never fit in.
Renee helped me down the steps as my body groaned and moaned at the effort. It hurt, really hurt.
“There’s a big world out there. Maybe you could come on a road trip with me.” She took a shallow breath. I looked at her. “Let me show you the Rockies?”
I stopped trying to walk.
Renee furrowed her brow. “Okay?”
I leaned against the metal guardrail. The buzz from her got louder. “I thought you were here to protect me?”
“I am.” She puffed herself up, a fake smile plastered on her face. I could see through it, her insecurity rolled off her. “Well, not that I’m doing a great job. I nearly got you sucked into a twister and beaten to death by a mob.”
I didn’t smile at the humor. Somewhere inside I appreciated it. She was trying to help, at least for now. “You’re only here until whatever it is you’re protecting me from is over, right?”
Renee nodded.
“So then why pretend like you care?” I pulled away from the guardrail and staggered my way down the steps. My left leg felt so foreign I wondered if it was still attached.
Renee took my arm. “If you think you can get me to leave you alone by pushing me away, you’re mistaken.” Her voice was so soft and soothing.
Still, I didn’t get her. Why the pretense? “I’m just a client to you, another person in a long list to protect then forget like I never existed.” I folded my arms, feeling like I was on a boat. “Serena will be someone’s sister and you will be someone else.”
Renee shook her head, her smile so warm that I had to fight not to return it. “I’ll be Renee to you.” She rubbed her hand over my arm and fussed over my sleeve. “I hope you’re less grouchy on long drives than this.”
I didn’t get it. Everyone hated me. I had felt how much with Mary’s touch. Why was Renee different?
“Stop trying to figure everything and shove it in a box.” Her eyes twinkled, the gentleness in them easing away any insecurity I had of her leaving. “You’re starting to remind me of Ursula.”
Renee took my arm and helped me down the rest of the steps.
“She backed you up though, that has to mean something?”
Renee sighed and her weariness ebbed over me. “If I still have a job after this, I’ll be pretty amazed.”
The world waved around before me again and I stopped on a step. It took a couple of seconds to catch my breath as the pain in my ribs jabbed at me. “Why? I’m still walking around, ain’t I?”
Renee rubbed my back, but her gaze flicked to the floor. “No thanks to me.”
Hating that she was feeling bad on my account, I nudged her and then winced at the contact. Great, another bruise. “Don’t do that to yourself. It’s not your fault I’m a freak.”
Renee gripped my arm tightly as she tensed. The sharp pain shot right up through my shoulder, and I yelped.
“Sorry,” she mumbled. “Stop saying you’re a freak. The next person who calls you it, I swear I’ll shoot them.” She put her hands on her hips. “I will.”
Her frown was so deep, her tone so serious that I knew I was probably gawping at her. The little glitter showing the truth sparkled around her and I guess the sentiment got to me a little more than it should have. Why someone getting shot warmed my heart I didn’t know, but I caught myself smiling.
“There you are,” Renee whispered, her gray eyes as warm as her smile. “Can’t keep that heart down for long.”
Clearing my throat, I tried to ignore her soft chuckle. The soft light from the windows bounced off the floor as I limped along, Renee beside me. Her words seemed to switch something back on inside me and I became aware of the hospital. The noise, the worries, the busy lives—I shivered, I needed to get out of there, fast.
She watched me in silence as we walked, her eyes making my cheeks get all warm.
“So, what next?” I asked, hoping to make her quit staring.
My own question got me thinking. For someone who was supposed to know so much, I had no idea what to do, how to act, if the cabin was still standing—
“Mrs. Squirrel!” The panic thumped through my veins as I gripped Renee by the shoulders.
Two doctors on their way past looked up from their discussion and one peered over his glasses at me.
Renee put her hands over mine and chuckled. “She’s fine. I attached the box to the willow for now.”
I let out a breath from somewhere so deep, I coughed, bent over, and gripped my side to stop my ribs from falling out. When did breathing get so hard?
“You okay?”
The answer was no, I was a long way from okay and my feet seemed to zoom in and out of focus. “Sure.”
Renee waved to the doctors. “She’s fine.”
The doctors shook their heads at me, one of them still taking a look over his shoulder as they continued on their way. He was about as convinced of me being okay as I was.
Renee took my elbow and helped me to straighten up. “Back to the question. What do we do next?”
I nodded and wished I hadn’t as the ceiling pinged to and fro like a pinball machine. Not good.
“I’ll tell you what we’re going to do.” Renee’s voice next to my ear helped to ground me. Her tone like back in the institution, confident, clear. “We’re going to walk into town. We’ll show them you aren’t going to slink off into the sunset.” She squeezed my elbow, making a shot of pain rocket down to my fingertips. “You deserve to be there the same as them.”
I flexed my fingers to fend off the tingling and tried to roll my throbbing shoulder. I knew from the doc’s examination that it was deep purple. I guessed that must be why my fingers felt like marshmallows. “I don’t want a return visit.”
Renee slid her hand into mine. She rubbed her other hand over the top. I frowned and looked down. Our skin was touching. I met her eyes.
Her brow was wrinkled up. “How don’t you get any visions anymore?”
Weird. Had I lost the ability to feel? I stood still for a moment and the din of the busy hospital bombarded me like hailstones. Nope, still a freak. “I guess maybe . . . I can’t see nothing to do with me?”
Renee’s aura wiggled about around her, her energy like a warm cozy blanket. “And?”
The thought made me smile. “And other than that, I guess, you’re not hidin’ from me?”
Keeping her hand in mine, she led me out into the sunlight. Air, fresh air was good. I didn’t really want to chance sucking in a deep breath, but even the feel of the sun on my face made a difference.
“I didn’t get much of a choice. You kinda found my hiding place,” Renee said as she helped me over to her very nice looking new car.
I ain’t a big one for makes or fancy rides but this one was slick and shiny and fitted her somehow. Weird how a car could echo the person it belonged to. Ignoring her curious gaze, I opened the door and attempted to bend down to move the seat back.
“Wait, I’ll do that.” Renee hurried around, fixed the seat, and helped me in. “I forget you need more space sometimes.”
Even with the seat back, I still had to bend my knees a little but the smooth leather seat against my aching back provoked a sigh deep inside. Man, that felt good. The new car smell filled my nostrils as I lay my head back, enjoying the quiet, the soft, sweet quiet. “Is this yours to keep?”
Renee murmured something. I peeked an eye open. She was smiling, again.
I grinned back. “In that case, a road trip sounds like fun.”
Renee started the car. She was pretending to be cool and Frei-like but her aura was jigging around like it had sat on a termite mound. “I’ll hold you to that.”
Chapter 64
RENEE TOOK ME to the out-of-town store to get some new clothes. The only pair she had gotten me were now pretty ripped and bloodied from the mob attack. I hate shopping with a passion. If you’re someone like me—big and tall and well just not a tiny waif, nothing really fits. It was even worse with the bumps and bruises. Renee had made me eat at a café to stop me from fainting. I was happy to go along with it—anything to delay going back to the town.
As we were driving back to the cabin, my stomach got more and more tied up in knots. I didn’t know what state the place would be in and I didn’t know if I had the energy to start all over again. Maybe Renee was right. A road trip—a permanent one—sounded good.
We pulled onto the Main Street and Renee’s phone rang. She flicked her eyes to me as she picked it off the dash and held it to her ear. Odd, she’d rambled on at me about how she could connect her cell to the car and talk on speaker—something she was pretty proud of so I guessed the call had to be business.
“What? Now? Of course.” She slowed the car as she spoke. “I’ll be there in five.”
Renee cut the call and I smiled. “Drop me off here. I’ll walk the rest of the way.”
She gazed out at the street, and I could see that she wanted to do anything but. Her aura fizzed and wobbled. “Are you sure?”
Sure? Not even close to it but she needed to be someplace else and I needed some time to figure out what the hell I was going to do. “Not like I haven’t gotten a beatin’ before.”
Renee’s eyes darkened but I shrugged. Sad fact was I’d spent a lot of my childhood hiding from baying mobs. Sam had stopped it all. His friendship, however brief it had been, however ill-fated, had pretty much ensured I survived.
I sat and watched her fight with herself. If I was honest. I didn’t really want her going anywhere. “Just remember—”
“Road trip—yeah, I got it.”
Renee pulled the car over, her thoughts rumbling around her. I got that she didn’t want to ditch me in the middle of town alone and although I appreciated that, I wasn’t scared of nobody. I found every sense of dignity I had left and puffed my chest out with it and tried not to cough and splutter.
“I’m not completely helpless, you know?”
Renee looked at me, her mouth scrunched up in one corner. She could probably see through the facade but I’d spent most of my life fending for myself, I wasn’t about to get all needy now.
I took a deep breath and got out, trying not to wince, trying not to just get straight back in and ask her to get me out of there. “See you at the cabin.”
“I won’t be long.” She leaned over to look up at me through the passenger window. “Be careful, okay?”
“Sure.” I made a show of straightening up. The pain jabbed me right in between the shoulder blades. “Take as long as you need.”
Renee pulled off and my confidence withered. The fear of being in this place made me feel like a soldier behind enemy lines. Soldiers had a cause to be there, all I was doing was existing.
I tried not to hobble too much as I walked past the shops. When I was injured or ill, I seemed to be even more open. The huge cloud hung overhead. Its slimy, dark tentacles stretched into every building and looked like a pillar of doom. The voluminous column of hate seeped into the people, the fear building to frenzy. And I could feel it all.
Every face, all eyes—hostile, unforgiving, judging like the barbs of a poison dart piercing my heart, crushing it.
“Murderer!”
“Witch!”
“Child killer!”
I could almost hear their thoughts. The venom punched me from all sides, smashed into me like waves. My heart ached with it as I stumbled on. The tenser I got, the more the pain crushed me, my chest tight, wheezy, my heart hammered, my skin soaked. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t keep going, I—
I collided with something. I found myself staring at Sam.
He raised his eyebrows. “Hey, you okay?”
I nodded but my hands trembled and Sam wasn’t stupid.
“I heard what Mary did.” He scowled, his eyes hardening. “Took great delight in booking her in.”
Not sure if I’d just not heard him right. I blinked a couple of times. “You ain’t on their side?”
Sam laughed, like he always had when we were kids. A laugh that always stripped my defenses. “You think I care what a bunch of small-town yokels think of you?”
Was he just teasing me? Did he really mean that, after Jake, after everything? “Don’t know, been a long time.”
Sam pulled me into a hug, he seemed careful not to catch my bruises or touch my skin. I sunk into it, relief rushed over me. He knew me. He knew me enough to give me space, to guard me from seeing. I was so thankful for it, I could have stayed there forever.
“How ’bout now, Al.” His tone was light, playful. “I good as said that the next idiot who targets you will get my world famous uppercut.”
I clung on. Sam had been such a good friend and I’d brought him nothing but pain. “Even Mary?”
“ ’Specially Mary.” His hearty laugh rumbled through him. “I just got back from telling Bill.” Sam’s heart beat steadily in my ear as I listened to him recount the tale. “I don’t know why the idiot bothered to marry her. I mean sure, he knocked her up after high school but everyone knows he don’t love her.”
I dug Sam in the ribs. “When did you turn into a jackass?”
He grunted and squeezed me gently. “Oh come on, Al . . . if you were a guy, would you have stuck around?”
The question made me pause. I felt like a scared teenager again. I felt like that little girl who was too small to put up a fight and went running to the one friend who could shelter me. “I wouldn’t have been drunk enough in the first place.”
Sam’s laughter flowed from him like light. The cloud overhead shook with it. It couldn’t get him. No, Sam was too strong. “See, that’s what I love about you. You get it.”
He smiled down at me, his puppy dog charm oozed out. “You need a ride? Or you just gonna hobble on home?”
I straightened myself up. “If I got legs—”
“You can walk, yeah, yeah . . .” He rolled his eyes and tucked his thumbs in his belt. “Some women would be happy to catch a ride.”
I launched myself forward and hugged Sam once more. “
Most
women more like.”
Sam lifted his dimpled chin, posing, which just made me laugh and nudge his shoulder. “Get gone, you arrogant ass.”
Sam took his hat off and bowed low. “As you wish, ma’am.”
I stared for the longest time after him as he strutted off down the street. I sure as hell couldn’t figure out why he bothered with me, but he did. I guess the saying “love is blind” was pretty true in his case.
Not for the first time I felt a twinge of regret that I couldn’t return it. What would life had been like if I could have?
I looked at the hairdressers, full of women preening and perming and desperately trying to cling onto youth. Nah, that wasn’t me. I was never going to be one of them.
Sam had told me many times that was why, that was what caught his attention and his heart. I wasn’t them and I wasn’t going to stick him on a pedestal, no matter how handsome he was.
I turned to walk toward the cabin, the red sun now painting the evening sky in color. The whiff of a storm danced on the breeze, the clouds of darkness loomed overhead. But, for this moment, I wandered alone through the town and felt that in spite of it all, Sam was still on my side. And just that thought alone oozed the strength back into me.
Chapter 65
RENEE PULLED UP to the trailer that her team had commandeered. She checked in her mirror for the hundredth time to make sure she hadn’t been followed.
“You’re acting like a rookie,” she muttered and forced herself to get out of the car.
The site was a couple miles out of town and in a perfect spot for the team to work from. The road would be under surveillance and Frei would have warned her if they’d seen anyone.
With a last glance down the dirt track, Renee headed to the trailer and knocked on the door. The fact they were risking her being seen near them said something was wrong. Her vein pulsed in her throat and she soothed a hand over it. Why would Frei call her in? She lifted her hand to knock again and jumped as Fitzpatrick opened it up with a nod.
He stood back to let her enter and Renee glanced over her shoulder, one last check to make sure that no one was watching. “I came as soon as I could. What’s happened?”
Fitzpatrick opened his mouth to speak.
“Close the door, Renee,” Frei said from somewhere behind him.
Renee joined the team at a table they had turned into a command center of sorts.
“Now you’re all here,” Frei said, tapping her pen on a pad. “We can sort out where we are.”
Renee sat beside Fitzpatrick and took a mug offered to her by Donovan, the nerd.
Renee inhaled the rich smell of strong, black coffee as she scanned the others at the table. All eight members in her CIG team were present—not that they were ever in the same place at the same time normally. She pretty much spent her time with Fitzpatrick and Frei. Very rarely did she see Donovan and even rarer did she see the others in the team who worked out of headquarters.
The fact all eight of them were in the trailer confirmed to Renee that Frei was worried. This was, after all, off the record. A favor for Lilia, who no doubt was keeping an eye, somewhere.
“Ewan, you want to take first pitch?” Frei asked.
Fitzpatrick nodded and picked up his tablet. “We got word that Elsie Evans has been found. Turns out she took a trip to Kansas City for a party. Local police picked her up.”
Renee rolled her eyes. She was sure the senator was really proud of his sixteen year old.
“Will?” Frei asked, turning to Donovan.
He pushed his glasses up his nose and rapped his fingers on his tablet. “No hits on the M.O.—it isn’t a copycat, no similar cases in any other part of the country.”
Frei turned to the two guys who Renee had never met. Intel, she guessed. “What you got?”
The more stocky of the two shook his head, his brow was shiny, his eyes wide. “Nothing. The traces for the scene on the forensic guy . . . you know . . . er . . . the one with the fibers?”
Frei nodded but her eyes hardened. She had never been one for patience.
“Looks like it could have been tampered with,” he said, dropping his gaze to his notes. “DNA . . . is . . . er . . . missing.” He sighed. “But whether that was . . . well . . . intentional or not . . . maybe we’ll never know.”
Frei’s scowl made Renee shudder. Sometimes she swore that the woman could shoot ice from her eyes.
“Maybe? You will
never
know?” Frei asked in clipped tones.
Renee lowered her head and sipped her coffee, thankful she wasn’t in Frei’s crosshairs.
“I’ll go back over it.” He exchanged glances with the other Intel guy who nodded.
“Good to be thorough,” the other man added, flinching under Frei’s steely glare.
Renee sat back. She wasn’t an investigator like the others, her skill lay in the field, in protection but nevertheless, it sounded like they were stumped.
“Ben? Daniel?” Frei looked around the table , blue eyes glinting as if to dare them not to give her a satisfactory answer.
Renee looked at the profilers. The identical twin brothers were fidgety, awkward with shaved hair at the sides and slicked over sections on top. They were the best, and good guys, no doubt about that. But, the fact they could read people as well as Aeron, and without the abilities she had, freaked Renee out. Her job, her survival depended on her being able to conceal who she was. These guys, with their facts and figures decoded people like they were computer programs. At least Aeron was more naturally blessed.
The twins were pretty weedy guys and the more awkward one, Ben, cleared his throat. “It’s too wide a base. The killer likes inflicting pain, treats the victims like they are animals.” He flicked his hair back into place and slapped it downward. “It all appears pretty straightforward that our Unsub is a man who hates women.”
“But?” Renee asked, earning a look from Frei.
Ben offered her a toothy smile. “But, the age ranges are all over the place. You had Mari sixteen, her mother—”
“Which we could put down to her being in the wrong place.” Daniel pointed at his notes and slid them over to Frei.
“Exactly,” Ben said as he leaned over and used his pen to show her. “Then there was Darcy, again sixteen—”
Daniel leaned over too until both were almost in Frei’s personal space. Renee gripped her mug, hoping that they would realize. “Then the Unsub goes for Chelsea. Why?”
Ben nodded, his enthusiasm bringing him within inches of Frei’s face. Renee clung to her coffee. “Yes!” He thumped the table. “Why change M.O.?”
Silence.
Ben looked up and jerked backward as he locked eyes with Frei. They scrambled back to their seats, Frei’s unyielding stare fixed on them.
“Could it be a different killer?” she asked, her voice calm but icy.
“No,” Ben and Daniel said in unison, then with identical gestures, twitched their shoulders in shrugs of apology.
“Didn’t you say that the Unsub was trying to frame Aeron?” Renee asked Frei, trying to ignore the freaky and, to her mind, over-excited men. Who the hell thought Unsubs were cause for excitement?
Frei nodded. “I think so but these boys don’t.” She shot them a look which made them fidget. “And Jenny didn’t pan out.”
“How so? She tried to kill Aeron in front of my eyes.” Wasn’t that a pretty damn good motive? Jenny hated Aeron. That sounded like motive to her.
Frei frowned. “The POI was fine. Jenny has an alibi for the Chelsea murder. She was in the hairdressers.”
Renee got up, her mind whirring. “So, what are you saying?”
“That we need to look at this logically.” Frei’s tone was bored as always. Renee fought the wish to shake her into life.
“Aren’t we already?” Renee put her hand through her hair as the panic rumbled in her stomach. “What about Mary or one of the other loons in town.”
Ben and Daniel wrinkled their noses at her term.
“It has to be someone strong,” Ben said, folding his arms.
“And with practical skills,” Daniel added, pointing to his notes.
“Not to mention knowledge of the area.” Ben’s tone said that he felt that settled the matter.
Renee put her hands on her hips. “Which means?”
“Maybe Lilia got half a picture,” Frei said.
Renee raised startled eyes to Frei. She could not be serious about this.
“It’s happened before.”
Was Frei really going there? Renee shook her head. Oh no, not this time. No, they were wrong. “I was with her when the murders took place.”
“Were you awake?” Frei asked.
Renee felt her cheeks flush. Frei hadn’t meant it in that way but her stupid feelings made her react. “Probably not, I don’t know.”
Frei didn’t yield. “Did the POI leave your sight?”
Renee hated being under scrutiny and her neck itched with the blush. She sighed. Hell, she needed therapy. “Yes. I couldn’t exactly get in her tent with her.”
“Then how can you be sure?” Frei’s tone was less curt but Renee still felt exposed, still felt like all eyes were on her.
She wrung her hands together. “I was there, she was in my sight when Chelsea was taken.” That was as good an alibi as Jenny’s was.
Frei lifted her eyebrows, her lips pursed, which told Renee everything she needed to know. The team had discussed this. To them Aeron was not only the POI, but the Unsub too. She didn’t need Aeron to read their feelings. Who was she to tell them how to catch a killer? She was there to protect and shut the hell up.
“What does Lilia say?” Renee stomped through the trailer and slammed open the door at the back. “Do you believe it’s Aeron?”
Lilia looked up from her desk, her gold pen in her long elegant fingers. She placed it down, taking her time to answer, as always. Renee flexed and clenched her hands, willing the tension to calm, willing sanity to prevail.
“I don’t know.” Lilia reclined in her chair and studied her. Renee fiddled with the hem of her t-shirt. She hated that it felt as though Lilia knew everything about her. “I saw Aeron as the center of the storm.”
How could she do that to her own daughter? She’d given birth to her. Surely she, the woman who saw so much, could see how good Aeron was. “So, you’re telling me that you are going to sit back and watch her be framed for something she didn’t do?”
Lilia’s eyes, so much like Aeron’s, studied Renee for long, heavy moments. Renee lifted her chin in defiance. Lilia may have let Aeron go to prison for Jake Casey but Renee was not going to abandon her. Not now, not ever.
“What makes you so sure that she isn’t?” How could Lilia do that? How could she even entertain that Aeron was the killer?
Renee leaned on the desk. “I
know
—with every single part of me—I
know
she wouldn’t.”
“Like you knew about Yannick?” Frei asked from beside her.
Renee turned. “Don’t throw that at me. He got one over on me.” The past wriggled up from the place she had buried it. She swallowed it back down, closing her eyes to slam shut the doors on him, on the pain.
“And what if Aeron has too?” Frei’s hand touched her elbow, making Renee open her eyes. “Lilia said herself that Aeron can see more than she’s telling you.”
Renee turned to Lilia. “She sees what I let her see.”
Lilia’s eyes wrinkled with her beaming smile. “You and I both know that isn’t quite the truth.”
“Oh, so you saw that too.” Renee felt a blush ripple through her cheeks once more. She hated feeling so exposed, so helpless. “You sure as hell could have told me.”
“Tell her what?” Frei asked Lilia. “What are you talking about?”
Renee met Frei’s eyes. “How I feel, Urs.”
Frei looked at Lilia and then folded her arms. “Just frickin’ wonderful, Renee. That’s all we damn need.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose.” Now she sounded like a dumb teenager, she felt just as out of control. She’d tried. She’d tried every way she could think of not to feel anything.
Frei narrowed her eyes. “The decision’s made. I’m sorry, Renee, but even if you love her, I can’t just ignore the facts.”
Renee blinked a few times. Wow, so that’s how much they valued her. After everything they’d been through, her word meant nothing. She threw her gun and badge onto the table. “Then you don’t need me anymore.”
Frei tried to grab Renee’s arm, but Renee swerved around her.