Chapter 61 #2
“Fuck, Angie,” Zander said, his voice softening. “You all right, darling girl?”
“N-not really.”
“I need you to go onto video, okay?” Zander said. “Keira is freaking the fuck out and she needs to see you.”
“I’d like to see her.”
“Wait, I’ll call you back on my laptop,” North said.
Jared hung up and gave Zander’s number to North.
When Zander answered again, with all of his people, Keira let out a small sob.
Angie waved. “Hey, guys. Keira, I’m okay.”
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“I’m sure.”
“Jesus, what happened to you?” Honey asked. “Did you roll around in a pile of flour?”
“Something like that.” Angie attempted a smile but Jared could see it was weak and shaky.
Keira let out a small sob and Zander drew her close, kissing the top of her head. “What happened?”
“Um, there was a bit of a food fight.”
“I can see that,” Zander boomed. “Never thought I’d see a mafia kingpin involved in a food fight. Fistfight, yes. Gunfight, sure. Food fight? Nope.”
Jared waved that away. “That’s not what we’re discussing.”
“Are you sure you’re all right, Angie?” Keira asked.
“I’m fine. Um, a few things have happened that I haven’t told you about, though. Things that maybe I should have.”
“Like what?” Zander asked.
Miles stared at Angie worriedly. “Angie, are you sure you’re okay? You’re pale and you look like you’ve lost weight you couldn’t afford to lose.”
“You guys are supposed to be taking care of her,” Zander snarled. “What the fuck is going on? I want to know. Now.”
Angie knew she had to calm things down. Quickly.
“I’m fine, guys. We just had a misunderstanding the other day. And I tried to run and I hurt myself. That’s all.”
“How were you hurt? “Keira asked.
“Just punched a hole in my side. Nothing terrible,” Angie said cheerfully.
“You should have told me.”
She winced at the look on Keira’s face. “I’m sorry, Kiki.”
“Angie has been recovering,” Jared said firmly. “But we should have told you.”
“Damn fucking right you should have. Angie, you sure you want to stay with these two?” Zander asked.
“I do. I love them.”
“You love them?” Keira asked with a gasp. “Oh, Angie.”
“I know. They might be crazy and possessive and way too protective. Oh, and they think they’re always right and can tell me what to do constantly. But they’re also . . . mine.”
“Aww, that’s so fucking beautiful,” Honey said, sniffling. “Gorgeous words. They could be wedding vows.”
Jared gaped at her.
“I’m so glad everything is working out for you guys,” Keira told her. “You deserve happiness.”
“Me too. Um.” She looked at Jared, then North. “There’s something else you need to know. And it relates to these bodies.”
Zander frowned. “All right. Tell us.”
Angie let Jared explain everything. About Rex and Antony and how they’d thought this was all about him. But that Beltran was now dead and it seemed that maybe the threat hadn’t been about him at all.
But aimed at her.
“God, what does this mean?” Keira asked. “Why would anyone want to hurt Angie?”
It was a good question. Everyone was silent. Why weren’t they talking?
“Oh, is it my turn to talk?” she asked. “I don’t know.”
“Just think for a moment, Angie,” Miles said. “This is a strange crime. It seems that you are possibly the link between all of these murders. These missing women all looked like you. Was this person taking them to try and replace you in some way or because you angered them?” Miles asked.
“Is there anyone you’ve made mad recently?” Zander demanded.
“I can’t think of anyone,” she said. “And I’ve barely spoken to anyone here.”
“It would likely be someone back here, I think,” Miles said. “The women were taken before the beheadings there.”
“But I barely interacted with anyone back in Stugley. I don’t understand what I did.”
“None of this is your fault,” Jared told her. “This person is obviously unhinged.”
She still felt awful. Those poor women. Rex.
“Or is this a crime of passion?” Honey asked. “I mean, think about it, did he take these other women to replace Angie but they were no good, so off with their heads.”
“Honey,” Keira said. “These poor women are dead.”
“Yeah, I know. So they don’t care how I talk about them. And then when those women weren’t good enough he followed Angie to Chicago. Got mad because he couldn’t get to her because she was tucked safely away against Bartolli’s bosom.”
“I don’t believe I have a bosom,” Jared said.
“You have a chest, though,” Honey said. “So this person gets mad and kills people he can get to in anger.”
“There’s just one problem with that theory,” North said.
“Yeah, who would do that?” Angie said.
“No, I meant how would he know that Angie was here? The only people that knew are all of us. And now a couple of my guards and the Fox.”
“The Fox?” Zander asked.
Angie explained how the Fox visited her. “But it wouldn’t be him. He’d never kill those women and he would have just taken me from the hospital if he wanted me.”
“How did the Fox find you?” Zander asked.
“He said he has his ways,” she said. “But that he wasn’t informed that I was here until recently.”
“Does that mean there’s a leak somewhere?” Zander asked.
“You need to look into that,” Jared said.
“I’m well aware,” Zander replied darkly.
“The point is that it’s not the Fox doing this. So who is it?” Angie said, wanting to distract them both.
“And how did they find you?” Miles said. “Because the Fox having an informant is different from some murderer following you.”
“Somehow, he’s tracked her,” Miles said.
“I put trackers in her shoes,” North said. “Perhaps they did something similar. But I only brought her handbag and the clothes she was wearing with me. And I checked everything.”
God, she hated this.
Who would have done this?
“Maybe make a list of everyone you interacted with,” Keira suggested. “That might help.”
“Well, sure. I was searching for a job, only I couldn’t find one except for . . .” she trailed off.
“Except for what?” Jared asked her. “What is it, baby?”
“Um, well, I did get offered one job. From this guy I met in the library. He was nice but intense. What was his name? Oh yeah. It was Richard Drews and he had a website. He said he was a psychologist. And he was really keen on me interviewing for a job with this man he knew. I was heading to his house for an interview when someone came up to me while I was sitting at the bus stop.”
“Bus stop?” Jared snarled. “Why the fuck were you taking a bus?”
“Well, I can’t actually drive,” she told him.
“Why the fuck didn’t you teach her to drive?” Jared snapped at Zander who glared back at him.
“I would have if she’d wanted me to!” Zander yelled back.
“Shut up, you two!” Keira told them. “This isn’t about that. Angie, do you think this could have something to do with the guy that warned you away or maybe the one that offered you the job?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t really see the guy that warned me off, but I don’t feel like he’d be the one to do this.”
“I wonder why he’d warn you away,” Miles said.
“Can you give us the address, Angie?” Eli asked. “Ammo and I can go check it out.”
“Hey, I want to come,” Honey said.
“You’re staying here,” Webb told her with a frown.
“Party poopers.” Honey scowled.
“Is there anything else you can remember about the person that offered you the job?” North asked. “This guy, Richard Drews?”
“Um, he just always seemed to be at the library when I was there. He wanted to interview me. I might have blurted out that I had been sold to a sadistic mafia kingpin who abused me.”
“You what?” Keira asked, looking shocked.
“I was . . . upset. He came running after me because I left my handbag in the library and asked me if he could interview me. I said no, but he gave me his card.”
“Fuck,” North said. “Maybe he put a tracker in her handbag that I missed.” Getting up, he left the room.
“His credentials are fake,” Miles said. “I’ve been looking into him and nothing looks legit.”
God. She should have asked Miles to look into him in the first place. It made her feel ill to think that this guy had been lying.
“It looks like he stole his identity,” Miles said. “Because Richard Drews died ten years ago in Costa Rica.”
“So it’s looking more likely that he’s the one doing this,” Zander said. “We’ll investigate that address he gave you and see if there is anyone there and if so, what they know.”
“It might not be Richard,” Angie said weakly. “Why would he care about me?”
“Who knows?” Honey said. “Maybe he was just taken in by your beauty and charm. Happens to me all the time.”
Well, she could believe that because Honey was utterly gorgeous.
“What if he kills someone else?” she asked, feeling ill. “One of you? Someone I care about?”
“I’ll get everyone locked down and aware,” Jared said. “No one is allowed to come to the house, and the guards are all fully armed and capable of protecting themselves.”
“You know everyone here is safe and can take care of themselves. And we’ve got Keira and Miles locked down,” Zander told them.
She nodded, shuddering. She hated the idea of anyone else getting hurt because this guy was . . . was obsessed with her? Angry at her?
“Why would he murder people? I just don’t understand.”
“Possibly he was angry that you left,” Miles said. “He likely doesn’t know that it was under, um, duress.”
“I can’t find anything,” North said, coming back into the room. “I thought you could look in your handbag and you might see something.” He drew everything out of her handbag, placing it all on the coffee table. There was so much stuff that she winced.
“Dude, you’ve got everything in there but the kitchen sink,” Honey said as North showed them each item that he brought out.
She ran her gaze over them all. A tin of mints, pens, lipsticks, and pieces of gum. There were hair ties and a small hairbrush. Wait.
“I don’t think I remember this pen,” she said, reaching for it.
North grasped hold of her hand before she could touch it. He picked it up and moved away to Jared’s desk with it.
Could that be how he found her?
“Fuck,” North said after pulling the pen apart. “There’s a tracker in the pen. I should have never brought her handbag with me.”
“You couldn’t have known,” Jared told him.
Yeah, it would be kind of hard to predict that some mad man was going to follow her here and kill people because he was . . . mad at her? Wanted her?
She wasn’t sure.
“What do we do?” she asked.
“North, leave the tracker in one piece,” Jared said. “We don’t want this guy knowing that we’re onto him.”
“Imagine if that person hadn’t warned you from getting on the bus,” Keira said with a shudder. “Who knows what might have happened had you gone to that interview. God, I feel ill thinking about what could have happened to you.”
Yeah, so did she.
She might have ended up like those poor women.
“If he’s after me then we have to use me to lure him out,” she said suddenly
“Like fuck that’s happening,” Jared and Zander said at the same time.
Huh. Who knew the two of them could agree on something?
The call ended with them assigning tasks and promising to keep in touch. Oh, and a warning from Zander to keep her safe to Jared and North.
Like they needed that. They were already overprotective.
Now, she was going to be lucky if she got to leave her bedroom alone.