The Eyes Tell No Lies

I would like to dedicate this to my sister, Reiana. O
thers
dream
of
hav
ing
a wonderful sister/best friend like you, but they can't have you...you
’
r
e
mine.

And to all my readers old and new
,
I hope you enjoy.

A special dedication to Jessica Anderson who has stayed up listening to me when I
needed an ear throughout this book and others. She has also lost sleep between dealing
with my overactive mind and her
own
books. Thanks, Jess, for taking the time to go over my book when I needed you and
for also being a friend and beta reader all wrapped into one…

A special thanks to Shelby Lynn as well and to the rest of my JK Publishing family….

To Caroline, thanks for answering my wacky questions or soothing my crazy mind when
needed. And also
for
being an awesome editor as well...

Table of Contents

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Epilogue

Books Available by Marquaylla Lorette

Excerpt from A time For Change

Excerpt from Tyrant's Keep

Excerpt from Adrianna’s Storm

Excerpt from Boots, Chaps, and Cowboy Hats

Grace’s heart pounded loudly
,
the beat reaching her ears as she ran through the forest, drowning out everything
else around her for a second. She felt so stupid, she had always promised herself
she wouldn’t be like one of those girls on television or in the movies. The one who
got caught or killed by the suspect they were going after. Grace could hear him getting
closer to her as she ran deeper into the woods.

She knew she should have told her twin brother, Christoph, who was also a police officer,
she had a suspect in mind, but she didn’t want to believe who the suspect was so she
said nothing. Now here she was running from
said
suspect as he taunted her.

“Come here, Gracie, I just want to talk to you, you know I will never hurt you like
the others. We are family
,
”
t
he Daytime killer called out to her in a singsong voice.

He must be stupid if he think
s
using my nickname is going to make me stop running so his crazy ass could kill me,
Grace thought as she kept running; she knew he was lying and wouldn’t let her go if
he caught her so she kept running.

Grace couldn’t believe what was happening. All she wanted to do was help the police
figure out the identity of
The Daytime Serial Killer.
The police chief of Newberryville, CA
,
came up with the name since the killer kidnapped his victims in broad daylight.
He then tortured them for four days and three nights before killing them and dumping
their body in an open field
where there was
a lot of foot traffic. His victims ranged in age from twenty-five through thirty,
all with either blonde hair, blue eyes or black hair with brown eyes.

I will not trip over anything and I will get out of here in enough time
,
Grace thought as she jumped over a log in front of her.

The trees all became a blur as she ran through them.
Her face was now numb from all the branches she had r
u
n into. She knew her face must be scratched up
,
but she didn’t care about that right now. All that was on her mind was getting to
the road before he caught her.

Fuck!
I am just a journalist
,
what am I doing out here
?
My hard head really got me into trouble this time
,
Grace thought as she remember
ed
what her ancestors told her earlier. She was now pissed she didn’t listen.

Grace
wa
s just a journalist who used her Cherokee powers to help the police force solve life
-
threatening cases they couldn’t on their own. Just before she left
tonight,
her ancestors came to her and warned her of the dangers that l
aid
ahead if she didn’t take her brother with her.

Grace could hear the sound of cars passing by at a rapid speed and knew she was almost
to the open highway. She breathed a sigh of relief when she noticed the clearing
to the highway.

Just a couple more steps and I am there
,
Grace thought just before she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head and everything
around her went black.

Arie laid on the hospital bed in the recovery room, her mind foggy from all the medicine
she had received during her cornea transplant. Her thoughts drifted back to the incident
that happened thirteen years ago at the tender age of eleven, causing her to go blind.

Arie
was in her room with the door closed, huddled with her back to the bed, squeezing
her teddy bear tight trying to stay as quiet as possible. She hated when her father
had to leave the house for a meeting for work and it was just her and her mother alone
in their home
because
her mother would find
a reason to strike her or torment
her.

She waited in her room until she heard the phone ring and snuck into the bathroom
across the hall.
Arie
knew she had to hurry
and be as quiet as she could
before her mother was finished with the call.

So she slowly opened her door and tiptoed down the hall, watching for her mother the
whole way there. She silently crept into the bathroom and turned on the faucet to
where it would only drip at a rapid pace.
Arie
placed one hand on the counter, opened the medicine cabinet, stood on her tippy toes,
and reached for the cup in the cabinet.

Her mother came in as she was sipping on the water and became furious in an instance.
“Didn’t I tell you not to leave the room no matter what?
!
” her mother yelled out as she raised her hand and
struck
her.

Arie
was used to this by now after countless years of abuse, and didn’t even flinch.

Arie
’s mother, Georgi
n
a, slammed the medicine cabinet with so much force the glass broke, and some shards
from the mirror landed in Arie’s eyes. She immediately started to scream as the pain
intensified and her vision went blurry. She felt as
though someone was poking her in the eye over and over again with a sharp object
as
the shards of glass scraped against her eyeball and eyelids. The pain intensified
whenever she blinked her eyes. All she could see was the shadowy figure of her mother
looking down at her not moving a muscle to help.

A smirk formed on her mother’s face as she watched Arie
wr
ithe in pain. Georgina didn’t know why she was jealous of her daughter and hated
her. It was like the feelings were deep-rooted into her soul or maybe it was because
when she looked at her daughter, all she saw was what she couldn’t be. Sometimes
she thought it was because Arie had her father wrapped around her finger and neither
of them paid much attention to her. Neither of those reasons were enough for her
to treat her daughter
as
she did, but she couldn’t help it, she got great pleasure from seeing her daughter
hurt. Causing her to think maybe her brother was right
w
hen he said their family was pure evil and got great pleasure from enforcing their
power over anyone while causing them great pain no matter who the person was—especially
her daughter.

A
part of Georgina wanted to help her daughter but something inside of her stopped her
from bending down and helping her. She looked down as her daughter moaned quietly
and her body twitched a little bit. Wondering if she was in enough pain to finally
start listening to her.

Arie
passed out moments later but not before one more scream escaped her tiny lips as
her father walked into the house and called her name.

Fear took over her father as he rushed up the stairs with his gun drawn; he couldn’t
help but think his past was finally catching up to him. He didn’t know what he was
going to do if Arie was harmed because of him. His heart raced and sweat pooled
on
his forehead as his hands shook a little. It was hard for him knowing his daughter
was in pain and it may be his fault. At first his heart
calmed to
its normal
beat
when he saw it was just his wife, but that was before he took in the whole scene
before him. He could see his wife standing over his angel just looking down at her
as blood cascaded down her face from her eyes as though they were tears. A million
thoughts rushed through his head as he pushed his wife out of the way and picked up
his daughter. As he cradled Arie in his arms the one thought he kept coming back
to was that he had failed his daughter in some way. He couldn’t help the thought,
even though he knew it wasn’t his fault, the fact still remained that he didn’t protect
her
.

“What happened?” he turned to his wife and asked in a harsh voice as he descended
the stairs since he couldn’t understand how this had happened under his care.

“I don’t know
,
I was on the phone when I heard a scream. I rushed into the bathroom and found her
like this. I am guessing she shut the cabinet too hard or maybe the cabinet broke
apart,” she said calmly as they climbed into the car.

Arie’s father had no
in
tention of
calling for and
waiting for an ambulance when he could get her
to the hospital
quicker. When he looked down at his unconscious daughter in his arms, he just wanted
to wrap her up in a bubble and never let her out. He was going to do whatever it
took to protect her from the world and far more. His mind snapped back to reality
when Georgina came to a screeching halt in front of the emergency room. He rushed
his daughter into the emergency room and put up a fight until the doctors finally
relented and allowed
him to
come back with them after making him promise to stay back and let them do their job.

Two hours later Arie
woke in a hospital with something covering her eyes. She was startled by a voice
when she tried to touch the bandages.

“No, don’t touch. You can harm your eyes even more, they are sensitive right now,”
a deep male voice said.

When
Arie
tried to ask the man a question, she began to dry heave from the combination of her
nervousness and empty stomach combined. The dry heaves caused her mouth to become
dry and sore.

“No, sweetie, don’t try to talk until I give you some water,” the same voice stated.

She drank in tiny sips as the doctor suggested until the cup was empty. Her mind
went blank as the doctor started talking about her blindness. From what she understood,
her mother told the police and CPS
, Child's Protective Services,
that she was on the phone at the time of the accident and ran up the stairs when
she heard Arie’s terrifying screams.

Arie
’s cornea was damaged by the glass causing her vision to become extremely blurry,
where she could only see blurry outlines of people most of the time while in other
rare moments all she saw was either darkness or clear images of people. It was hard
adapting to life without her eyes at first, until her other senses kicked in stronger.
Arie
also had to learn how to read and write all over again. Experiencing this made
Arie
appreciate everything she had even more.

Two weeks later Arie was allowed to go home from the hospital with several instructions
and after therapy sessions with an eye specialist. The first thing she heard when
she walked through the door of her home was a chorus of ‘Welcome Home’. She didn’t
feel up to it so she extended her cane out in front of her. While she was still standing
at the front door, she knew the stairs were straight in front of her so she moved
her cane from side to side and counted the steps it took from the front door to the
stairs like her therapist suggested in one of their sessions. She hoped everyone
would move out of her way.

Her cane hit the steps after ten steps then she reached out in front of her and felt
for the rail until she could find it.
Arie
could feel everyone staring at her in silence as she began to climb the stairs alone.

Revisiting her past was too much for Arie; she fell into a deep sleep as soon as her
mind drifted back to reality.

****

Arie hated depending on other people, especially strangers but knew she had to since
her parents died a
lmost a year
ago. She had to have a nurse come in to help with certain activities she couldn’t
do on her own and to cook her meals. So she decided to put herself on the cornea
donor list
a couple
months after her parents’ death. Since she was all alone now, Dr. Johnson, the same
doctor who treated her thirteen years ago, had arranged for Arie to be able to stay
at the hospital for two weeks before being released.

Thinking about her parents
'
death had her mind slowly drifting back to that fateful day when her life changed
drastically.

Arie was sitting as still as she could on the couch in the living room as Kylee painted
her toenails. She lived for these moments when her parents were
away
on their two week vacation together and her best friend
,
Kylee
,
was over spending time with her. It was refreshing for her
to be away from her malevolent,
judgmental mother. She couldn’t understand it
;
she had went far beyond what her mother thought she would and graduated.
Yet her mother talked down to her—she just didn’t understand it.

“I’m done
,
” Kylee said to Arie as she tapped her legs to let her know she was finished just
in case she didn’t hear her.

The doorbell rang just as Arie
’s
feet hit the floor.

“Don’t worry about it
,
Arie
,
I got it,” Kylee said as she got up and headed toward the door.

****

Cris could still smell the charred flesh of the victims
in the
hit and run as he pulled up to the victims’ home. It
had been
one of the worst
scene
s
of an
accident
he had
responded
to in a
while. Not only was the victims’ car smashed, their bodies were on fire by the time
the rescue squad
had
got
ten
to the scene. The accident had been over a week ago and they were just now identifying
the bodies through their dental records. This was the worst part of his job; he hated
notifying the victims’ family and so did his partner.

“It’s your turn
,
Cris
,
I can’t do it
,
”
h
is partner
,
Derrick
,
turned to him and said when he turned off the car.

“Nah
,
we are going to have to sh
o
ot this one out
,
”
Cris said
. W
hen Cris
n
or Derrick felt as though they could break the news to the victims
’
family
,
t
hey usually played rock
-
paper
-
scissors
.
S
ome might say it was childish and insensitive
,
but it worked for them. It was just that every time they made one of these calls
it took an emotional toll on them and it sometimes affected their work and home life.

“Fuck!” Cris said as he climbed out of his car, made his way up the walkway, and up
the four stairs on the porch after he lost all three hands to Derrick.

He took in a deep breath and cleared everything from his mind before ringing the doorbell.
Confusion clouded his mind when the door opened and no one was standing there
until he looked down
when he heard a voice shout up to him.

“How can I help you
,
D
etective?” Kylee asked when she realized he
didn’t see her at first
.

“Hi, I am Detective Crow and I am looking for a
n
Arie De
—
” Kylee interrupte
d
him
,
“She
’
s right over there
,
but I have to warn
—
” Kylee was cut off when Arie shushed her and walked to the door.

“Kylee
,
I am blind not deaf
,
I can hear what the Detective ha
s
to say
,
” Arie said as she held her hand out for the
d
etective to shake.

Cris was in shock
, the woma
n standing before him was a sight to behold.
The first thing that caught his attention was her lips
,
they made his eyes instantly gravitate to them. Her light brown eyes with green
flecks were clouded with something
,
but the sparkle they held in them
overshadowed the cloudiness to
him
.
Just looking at her set his body on fire
, which almost
made him forget why he was there.
He finally snapped out of his thoughts when Kylee cleared her throat and pointed toward
Arie’s extended hand. A light electric shock
ran through
his body and set it ablaze when his hand touched hers. He could tell she felt it
t
o
o by the shocked expression
on
her face and the way she quickly snatched her hand away from him.

Cris had suggested they take a seat before he told them wh
y
he was there. He always suggested this after he had countless victims
’
families faint on him after he told them. He waited till both Arie and Kylee were
sitting on the couch before he attempted to tell them.