Chapter 35
Three days later
“Stop staring,” Silvia muttered, her cheeks turning pink.
Berkley just grinned at her friend from across Nick’s dining room table. “I’m not staring. It’s just going to take some getting used to, seeing you guys together.” She looked between Silvia and Apollo. “Though if you end up—”
“Don’t say it.” Silvia brandished her fork in Berkley’s direction as Nick stepped back into the room carrying a bottle of red wine. “Do not even think it.”
Grinning, Nick topped off Berkley’s glass then did the same for Silvia’s when she held hers up and waved it around impatiently.
“How did you know what I was going to say?” Berkley asked as Nick sat next to her. She’d been about to say if they ended up married, they’d be sisters for real.
“Everyone knows what you were going to say, dumbass,” Apollo murmured in typical big brother form, sliding an arm around Silvia’s shoulders possessively.
Berkley had never seen him like this. “And who knows what the future will bring.” He started humming the “Wedding March,” and the look he gave Silvia…
Nope, not touching that, Berkley thought. It was too weird. Good weird, but the last few days had been a lot to process.
A whooooole lot.
“Don’t call your sister a dumbass,” Silvia murmured, but there was no heat in her voice and her cheeks had flushed crimson as he continued humming that obnoxious tune.
Well, then. They were serious serious.
She wondered where she and Nick were on that same serious scale, but hadn’t wanted to ask. Mostly because she hadn’t wanted the wrong answer. But also because she’d been enjoying just sleeping and having sex the last few days.
Clover stepped back into the room carrying a strawberry-covered chocolate cake. “Figured everyone could use dessert. Picked this up from Brunch and Bliss this morning, so you know it’s good.”
They’d already eaten dinner—takeout, because no one was doing any cooking the last few days. And dessert sounded perfect.
“You’re a goddess,” Berkley murmured, wishing she could just dig her fork right into the cake and eat the whole thing herself.
Clover grinned. “There’s strawberry buttercream filling on the inner layers.”
Yep, definitely a goddess.
When the doorbell rang, Clover headed to get it before any of them could move, even though it was Nick’s place. Probably because Krystal had called half an hour ago and told them she was headed over.
With news.
Three days later after…everything, and Berkley still found herself trying to wrap her mind around the fact that Kendall had hated her enough to try to set her up for murder. To actually kill people and run drugs throughout the state and beyond.
Her operation had been relatively small, but it had been growing.
And if it hadn’t been for her murder spree catching the eye of the FBI, they seemed to think she’d have grown exponentially in the next two years.
It was going to take a while for the Feds to uncover her entire operation and who she’d been working with at the hospital, but she’d used her knowledge of the inner workings to her advantage.
Like a total psychopath.
Krystal had been trickling information to Berkley the last few days and she was grateful to get it in little bits. Made it easier to digest.
Mostly, anyway.
Moments later Krystal walked in with Micah, which was surprising but not unwelcome, and two FBI agents.
They were in casual clothes, but she’d already answered what felt like a thousand questions from Special Agents Raine and Bush.
In looks, they were complete opposite. Raine was a tall, beautiful woman and Bush an older man who couldn’t be more than five feet two.
They’d been nothing but kind to her and she was grateful they’d used kid gloves during her questioning.
Later she’d realized that of course she’d been in shock after watching Kendall plummet to her death. So of course they were kind to her. But she appreciated it all the same.
She and Nick both started to stand, but Raine just shook her head. “Sit, please.”
“Do you want some coffee and cake?” Nick asked.
Raine politely shook her head. “No, but thank you.”
“I mean, we could take it to go,” Bush murmured.
The look Raine gave him was familiar and amused, making it clear they’d worked together a long time.
“Done,” Nick said. “And please sit.”
Krystal sat next to Berkley and the two agents ended up standing at the end of the table.
Micah disappeared into the kitchen with Clover, and Berkley was going to ask him later what the heck was going on with the two of them because she wasn’t so sure it was romantic.
Right now, however, she could only handle so much information.
“We’re heading out of town tomorrow and just wanted to check in and thank you again for answering all our questions,” Bush said.
“We also wanted to update you a little and hopefully give you some closure.” Raine cleared her throat.
“Some of this will come out in the news later and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone made a documentary about Kendall Bond.
” She shook her head in annoyance. “As of right now we have her tied to twelve murders. We’re already working to get at least two convictions we think she was actually responsible for overturned and we’re not getting any pushback.
I think once we dig back even further, there will be more. ”
Berkley stared at her in shock. More than twelve…
“A couple pets in her neighborhood were murdered when we were high school seniors,” Silvia murmured.
“What?” Berkley glanced at her friend in surprise.
Silvia nodded. “I thought about it earlier when we were walking Sunshine.”
Hearing her name, Sunshine trotted over to the table and set her head on Silvia’s lap.
“That’s right,” Krystal murmured. “I remember hearing about that. They were killed with antifreeze or something.”
Berkley’s stomach tightened as she wondered if Kendall had been behind that too.
Because she’d thought about the fact that Sunshine had left the guest bedroom when Kendall had arrived the other night.
She’d just assumed Sunshine had wanted to be with her owner, but maybe there had been more to it. Dogs had a sense of people.
Raine’s expression was grim. “That tracks with our profile of her. If either of you think of anything else, please let us know. Female serial killers are rare so we want to be accurate with her profile. But you’re both safe.
Her entire operation has been shut down—or it’s being shut down—and the men and women who worked for her had nothing to do with you. ”
“She said that Henry found out about her operation,” Berkley said, still not sure if Kendall had been lying. The woman had lied about so much.
Clearly.
“From what we can tell, he had found out. They had a short-lived relationship after your divorce and apparently there was bad blood between them. We confirmed that from multiple people at the hospital. We’ve also discovered that she was spreading rumors about you at the hospital.
” Raine looked at Berkley. “Now that she’s been outed as a serial killer and drug runner, I’m sure people will take anything she said with a grain of salt. ”
So instead of standing up for her, of course Kendall had been fueling rumors. Nausea swelled inside Berkley for a moment. “And she really knocked people out and just dumped them at her murder victims’ houses?”
“Yep,” Raine said. “And she’s not the only killer who’s done this.
She took DNA from hospital trash and sprinkled it at all her crime scenes as a way to screw with investigators.
Or that’s our working theory. It was like a calling card, we think.
That’s neither here nor there though. You and Silvia aren’t in any danger now. No one else is coming after you.”
Krystal squeezed her hand for support and Nick squeezed her shoulder. Berkley was grateful her family and Nick were here to support both her and Silvia.
“Was she involved with Louis Cain?” Berkley knew that her sister had questioned him and Kendall had said something about Reed owing someone money.
“No. Not directly anyway. But they had crossover customers and she hired away some of his people.” Raine looked at Krystal, then at Berkley, and she wasn’t sure she could read the agent’s expression as she said, “Cain hasn’t been arrested for anything.
He was very helpful in handing over any and all information on Ms. Bond. ”
Ah, so he’d cut some sort of deal and likely had immunity. Or maybe he was now a confidential informant or snitch or whatever it was called. Whatever, the man wasn’t a threat to them and she could only hope that the cops would bring him down eventually. That was a problem for the future.
The special agents left not long after, then Krystal and Micah left. The other three trickled out after demolishing the rest of the cake, and then it was just Berkley, Nick and Sunshine.
In his kitchen, Berkley stepped into Nick’s arms, buried her face against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. “I feel like I can finally breathe again,” she murmured, turning her face to the side, listening to the steady beat of his heart.
“What do you say about taking the rest of the week off and not leaving my house?”
She laughed lightly. “I think I might go stir-crazy…but I’ll take tomorrow off and start back Wednesday.”
“Fine, but I’ll be working with you.”
She leaned back to look up at him. “Seriously? I promise not to sneak off again,” she said, aiming for teasing, but it fell flat.
“I know, but I’m not ready to let you out of my sight.”
“I guess I can’t complain about that,” she murmured, her gaze falling to his mouth.
“Before we get naked, can we just…talk?” he asked, maybe reading the intention in her eyes.
“Talk?”
He snickered. “You don’t have to sound so deflated by that.”
She lifted a shoulder. “I’m just kidding. And I want to do whatever you want. I’m just happy to…be alive. I still can’t believe that I never knew her at all. At this point I’m questioning my instinct. I didn’t see what a monster she was. Or Henry.”
“Don’t do that,” he said as he led her to the living room where his fireplace was going strong.
Sunshine threw herself onto one of the many dog beds strewn around the house and stretched out in front of it while the two of them cuddled up on his couch.
“It’s hard not to question myself.”
“You already know this, but he was actively hiding who he was from you. Clearly so was Kendall. And not just from you, but from Silvia and most people who knew her. She sounds like an actual psychopath. Or sociopath. I don’t know the difference.”
“There were…I don’t even know if I’d call them red flags, but she could be mean sometimes.
Just say thoughtless stuff and follow up with ‘I’m joking.
’ Or more often than not she’d let Silvia or me pay for stuff when we were all out.
It annoyed Silvia more than me.” She paused.
“Okay it annoyed me too, but Kendall and I were both sort of screw-ups when we were younger, so I felt, I guess, I don’t know, an affinity to her.
We both turned our lives around and… Well that’s a lie. She was nothing I thought she was.”
He kissed the top of her head as she curled into him.
“I didn’t understand this until recently but my dad must have worn quite the mask to get my mom to marry him.
” His voice was low, his tone pensive. “I hate to admit this, but I blamed her for staying. And now I can see that she was a victim. We all were. We were all just trying to cope. And he hid that side of himself from the rest of the world. Everyone else thought he was this perfect family man. They had no idea who the real monster was. I guess I’m telling you because…
monsters are really good at hiding who they are. ”
She was quiet for a long moment, glad he’d opened up to her, then whispered, “I feel guilty for being glad she’s gone. That I won’t have to go through a trial. That I won’t have to look at her lying face again.”
“Pretty sure that’s normal.” He kissed her head again and she just wanted to soak up all of his kisses and affection.
“Is it okay if we don’t talk about her for a while? Or at least the rest of the night?” She looked up at him now.
He must have read her expression clearly, because he grinned. “So no more talking at all?”
“You can talk…as long as you get naked while doing it.”
He let out a bark of laughter. “I like that I never know what’s going to come out of your mouth. I will say one more thing… I’m falling for you, Berkley. The way I feel about you… Pretty sure it’s already love.”
She stared in shock at his declaration.
“You don’t have to say anything,” he continued, brushing his lips over hers. “I just wanted to put it out there.”
Warmth spread throughout her, all the way to her toes, at his words. “For the record, I’m falling for you too.” She was pretty sure she was already there, even if it was way too soon. But she’d been through a lot and was going to grab onto life.
Because it could all end tomorrow and she didn’t want to have any regrets. So she kissed the man she’d definitely fallen for and forgot about the outside world for a while.