The Final Omen: Second Sight Book Four (16 page)

“I didn’t take him away, it wasn’t my fault–”

“He’s my son!” Dan exploded. “I wasn’t hurting him. I gave him everything he needed and we were going to start over where no one would know us. And sticking your fat nose in something that wasn’t your business destroyed my chance to be a real father to him.”

“But if you’re Peter, where’s your accent? The way you look?” He was shaking her up and she was trying to conceal her surprise. Never had she thought Peter could be hiding in plain sight.

“I gained weight after I cleaned up in prison and the crystal meth was out of my system. After my release, I changed my hair and bought a pair of contacts. The accent was easy to fake, it just took some practice.” He shrugged and had reverted back to his southern twang.

She could see him shaking off his Dan persona and emerging as Peter.

“I thought it would take a long time to get close to you. I never imagined how easy and desperate your mom would turn out to be…”

Kate swiped the air violently with the knife. “You shut your filthy mouth about my mom. She loved you and trusted you and you violated that trust completely!”

He held up his hands while still keeping a firm grip on his knife. “Hey, I liked your mom. It’s not my fault she got stuck with such a terrible disappointment for a daughter. I never planned to hurt her, but then you had to keep going to her about your visions. She started asking questions I had a hard time answering and she was a liability I had to get rid of.”

“Where is she? I swear if you laid one hand on her, you won’t live long enough to regret it.” She bared her teeth at him and moved a step closer. She wouldn’t allow him to intimidate her and leave her in a vulnerable position in the kitchen. She’d face him head on.

“I was telling the truth, Kate, I was taking you to her.” He smiled viscously. “I mean, she’s dead, but at least you’ll be together. I’m going to throw you into Lake Cooper together after I slice your throat the same way I did hers.”

“You’re lying. You lied about Jared to mess with my head and it’s the same thing with my mom.”
Please be lying,
she silently prayed. Her mom couldn’t be gone and for Kate’s sanity she would file it away as another lie dripping from Dan’s deceitful lips.

He smiled and his eyebrow quirked up in amusement. “Did I lie about Jared?”

“Of course you did. I had a vision of you telling me he died. I
warned
him. He would’ve never gone anywhere alone without backup.”

He dug into his other pocket and she hoped it wasn’t a gun. Gun trumped knife and her hope for a continued existence would be dashed completely. Instead, he revealed a black cell phone with a familiar pink crystallized case. “What if you’d sent him a message to meet him from your phone? This came in very handy today after I stole it from your purse last night.”

She refused to believe him, but the more he talked, the more time she had left to develop an escape plan. She had to choose fight or flight and guess which one would give her the best chances of survival. “What did you do?”

“You texted him that you had a lead on your attacker and to meet you in Cooper Woods. I found a nice secluded spot to lead him and finished him off in minutes. The look on his face when he saw it was me ending his life was priceless.” He stepped towards her. “You have no one now, Kate. Everyone you love is dead and I’ve been setting it up for your dad to take the fall. You should be begging me to end your pathetic excuse for an existence.”

Kate reasoned she would feel it if Jared or her mom had truly died. Something inside of Kate would’ve screamed in protest. Her soul would’ve revolted over being left behind while the two most important people in her life died. Peter was trying to weaken her because he must’ve sensed the fight inside of her. She didn’t want to die. She wanted to keep helping the cops find scum like him and put them away for the rest of their miserable lives.

Suddenly, she lunged with the knife, hoping to surprise him enough to get in a blow that would leave him incapacitated. She doubted her ability to have the skill to land a deathblow in a single shot, so her only hope was to open up an opportunity for her to run or find a phone and call the cops.

Dan sidestepped her attack and the knife sliced across the gray t-shirt. The knife glided over the flesh at his hip, but didn’t penetrate deeply. As she pulled the knife back for another try, he grabbed her arm. He attempted to wrest the knife out of her grasp, but she twisted and turned to stop him from overpowering her. He twisted her wrist backwards and she yelped in pain. The knife tumbled out of her hand and fell onto the wood floor. Despite seeing stars from her potentially broken wrist, she still dropped to the floor and tried to get the knife back. Dan took hold of her long hair and yanked until she was on her feet. He drew her close to his body and she could feel his blood through her own clothes. It gave her satisfaction that even if she was about to die, she wounded him in some way.

He brought his knife towards her as she continued to struggle against him. He tried to angle the knife towards her throat, but her thrashing was making it hard for him. When he was close to getting into the position he wanted, he inexplicably stopped moving the knife. She wasn’t sure what had given him pause until she saw the front door open before her.

Jared, her beautiful and obviously not dead boyfriend, stood before them at the front door. He looked like an avenging god as he growled and reached for the gun at his side. Before he could remove the gun from the holster, Dan had the hunting knife at her throat.

“Move again and I will decapitate her before you have a chance to fire off a shot,” he swore.

“Let her go.” Jared’s voice was low and full of rage. His eyes were blazing and she had no doubt he would murder Dan without a second’s hesitation.

“Fuck you! She’s an abomination and doesn’t deserve to live. I could’ve been happy with Mattie, but she had to meddle in my affairs. Mattie wasn’t hurt, but I still ended up rotting in jail for two years because I’d run away with my own son. Whatever she is, it’s not natural.”

Kate snorted despite her fear. “I’m the one who’s not natural? I had nothing to do with you losing your son. You were a meth head who hit his wife and lost custody of your kid. And now you’re a wannabe killer who had to kidnap his family to get some quality time in with them.”

Dan’s muscles clenched and she knew he was trying to decide if he had enough time to kill her before Jared got to his gun. She was over trembling before Dan and begging for her life. She’d curse him straight to hell and spit in his face before groveling for mercy.

Jared gave her a frustrated look telling her he wished she’d stop antagonizing the maniac with the knife.

“You’re going to let her go, Dan,” Jared said as he locked eyes with Kate. “If she’s hurt, I’ll only make things much worse for you.”

Jared tried to neutralize the threat in his voice. Kate imagined he was getting worried over how hard Dan had begun to press the edge of the knife against her throat. Kate swallowed roughly as she felt a drop of blood roll down her neck.

She hated being put in such a weak position and her salvation dependent on Jared. She wanted to control her own destiny and prove her worth. Dan had tried to destroy her and he would pay for his crimes. She felt eager to cause him pain, to see him wither in his own blood as she watched emotionlessly. He’d tried to mentally and physically annihilate her, but she refused to stop fighting.

“She’s already dead, I’m only finishing what I started.” Dan addressed Jared. “There was no way she should’ve survived what I did to her. She was dead when I left that night. She must’ve made some type of unholy pact to make it out of there alive.”

His words were reminding her of old insecurities, the feeling of being a freak. Instead of weakening her with his words, he only incensed her more. She saw red as she spat out, “You motherfucker—”

“You got that right,” Dan interjected.

He was stirring up every violent impulse inside of her and since she was trapped in his hold, she lashed out at him with her tongue. “You’re not making it out of here. You’re going to die and never see your son again. As if he doesn’t hate you enough. How’s he going to feel when he finds out you’re a crazy freak who’s tortured and murdered people? He’ll be happy to be rid of you once and for all. I wouldn’t be surprised if he came to your grave and spat on it—”

Dan’s tone was panicked. “Will you shut the fuck up? I’m trying to think here. If I’m going to die, you’re going with me.”

She felt him move behind her and expected to feel her skin catch fire as he moved the blade across her throat.

“No!” she screamed.

He freed his hold on her waist and tried to cover her mouth with his left hand to silence her. During her scream, she felt one of his fingers graze against her tongue. Without a second’s hesitation, she clamped down her teeth over the digit.

She didn’t stop once she felt his flesh between her teeth. Instead, she bit down harder, hoping to hit bone. Locking her jaws together, she gnawed on his skin, taking flesh and blood with her as he tried to wrench his hand away.

He jerked his hand up and down, but despite her mouth aching, she wouldn’t let up. The struggle to yank his finger out of her mouth caused his weapon to drop.

Dan screamed and she felt his grip on her slipping.

She saw her opportunity to free herself from his hold and took it. She released Dan’s finger and scrambled away from him. As she ran towards Jared, she kicked the fallen knife clear across the room. She collided with Jared, who had his gun drawn and pointed at Dan.

She spit out Dan’s blood and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Her voice was filled with disgust as she said, “You’ve better not have given me hepatitis, fucking creep.”

Dan’s expression was livid as he examined his bloody hand. Crimson drops were falling steadily on the floor. He brought his hand protectively to his chest and covered his wound with the hem of his shirt. “You’re like a rabid dog. You need to be put down, crazy bitch.” His eyes were murderous as he turned back towards her.

She continued her stare down with Dan for several long seconds until she finally glanced over at Jared. He still had his gun raised in Dan’s direction and Jared’s trigger finger kept flexing back and forth as if he had to make a conscientious effort not to shoot the gun. She put a hand on his arm. “Jared, should I call the police now?”

Jared’s response was mechanical. “Yes, Kate. I want you to take my phone out of my pocket and go outside and call. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

Kate removed his phone from the front pockets of his khakis, but didn’t leave the house. She questioned what Jared had in store for Dan. He was unarmed and temporarily incapacitated from the injuries to his side and hand. The knife was across the room and, as far as she could discern, he didn’t have another weapon to use against the loaded Glock pointed at his chest.

Before she could question Jared’s intentions, she addressed Dan. “Where’s my mom? I hope for your sake you were lying about killing her.” She bared her teeth at him hoping he could still see his blood in her mouth. She didn’t plan on murdering him, but she wasn’t above hurting him to discover the truth.

“You better start talking.” Jared cut a menacing figure as he stormed over. He cocked the gun and pointed it at Dan’s head. If Jared pulled the trigger at close range, Dan’s brains would be splattered across the floor.

Dan cowered and whispered, “She’s in the trunk of my SUV. She’s drugged and tied up, but not dead.”

“You were going to kill us both at the lake,” Kate whispered shakily. She was relieved at her mom’s safety, but also shaken up over how close they’d come to being sent to a watery grave. Kate’s wrist ached, but if a broken wrist was the only injury she was walking away with, she’d count her blessings.

Dan didn’t say anything and his silence apparently egged Jared on. “And where is Michelle and her son? Kate’s seen them both in her visions and knows you’re responsible.”

She clamped her mouth shut and decided it wasn’t the best time to explain Dan/Peter’s connection to Michelle and Matt. She could tell Jared everything after Dan was taken into custody and her mom was released from the trunk. Kate looked longingly towards the front door, but she accepted it was impossible to leave Jared alone with Dan—one of them would certainly end up dead.

Dan scowled in response. “Michelle and Matt are the one card I have left to play. I’m not telling anyone where they are unless I get offered a plea deal.”

Jared swore under his breath, and then grabbed Dan by the arm and snaked around him. A push from behind and he smacked his face on the tile; hard. Once he hit the floor, Jared slammed his foot down on Dan’s injured hand and he howled in pain. Kate stumbled backwards and averted her eyes. She had no sympathy for Dan; after all, her scars had been singing since he attacked her, but it was hard to reconcile her stalker with the image of her mom’s laidback boyfriend who’d always been friendly and kind. As Kate’s fingers brushed over the blood on her neck, she hardened herself against him and acknowledged Dan had never existed.

“Fine,” Dan croaked out as Jared pulled back his foot, “but you better tell them I cooperated. She’s in a house I own in Irvine. The address is 65 Greenlawn Avenue. Michelle’s in the basement and Matt’s locked upstairs in the bedroom. I left them food and water, they’ll be fine.”

Jared seemed to mentally file away the information before tightening his grip back onto the gun. Her premonitions were gaining momentum and a gathering storm was on the horizon. The moment had arrived where she needed to save Jared from exacting revenge against Dan. The specifics had changed, but Kate understood Jared was going to commit murder in the next few minutes if she didn’t convince him otherwise.

“Jared, my mom is still in his car. I have to check on her to make sure she’s okay. But you can’t hurt him again. We have the information we need and it’s time to have him locked away,” Kate said.

“Kate, he’s not going to let you go. He didn’t give up after the first time he tried and failed to kill you. He has to die, it’s the only way you’ll be able to live a normal life.”