Chapter 38 – One Month Later
KAYLA
ONE MONTH LATER
Our life falls into place with each passing day. We fall deeper. Closer. More than I’ve ever imagined.
But here we are, cementing ourselves in the present, hoping for a future neither of us ever thought was even possible.
But things aren’t perfect.
The killer has yet to be found. No trace of Doctor Collins or his accomplice. The only good thing is there have not been any new murders.
Though I do watch my back, and so does A, I don’t let fear control me. I go to school. I see my friends. A and I still kill together, the bodies burning away in his furnace.
Maybe one day when the reaper comes for us, we’ll burn too, but for now, we live and we breathe, and we destroy those who don’t deserve to walk this earth.
Sitting in a café with Elsie and Jade, I stare at my two best friends. They’re so normal. So well-adjusted. While I’m me. I don’t think I’m ever going to change. Nor will I ever tell them what I do. What A does.
No one will understand us.
We don’t need them to. My friends know the important things about me, and that’s what matters in the end. I wish A had his family. It would help him. But they’re still at odds.
Elsie has yet to convince Michael to speak to A, and I’ve been unable to fix the situation either. Adriel still hates his family, and I don’t think that’s ever going to change.
Picking up my iced coffee, I close my eyes and savor the hazelnut. Everything I eat or drink or see is special. I don’t take a single thing for granted anymore.
“I really don’t wanna go back to work.” Elsie groans, and Jade joins her.
They’re both heading to work at Helping Hand, while I have to reluctantly get to class.
“I so don’t wanna sit through another chem lesson.” I twist my face in displeasure. “But I really have to go too.”
“This was nice.” Jade smiles. “Maybe we can grab lunch again tomorrow.”
I start to rise, grabbing my schoolbag. “Sounds good. See you guys.”
“Talk soon!” They both wave as they head in the opposite direction from me, their car on the other side of the lot.
As soon as I slip into my vehicle, my phone rings in my bag. Reaching inside, I look down on the screen and find Cammie’s name. I don’t get nervous when she calls anymore. She’s been doing so well with her new therapist and adjusting to what happened to her. I’m proud of her progress.
“Hey, Cammie.”
Breathing. Heavy breathing.
“Cammie?”
“He…he’s coming,” she whispers.
And my heart instantly trips over the fear in her voice.
I start the car, my body shivering, unsure of what’s happening, but knowing it isn’t good.
“Who?” I make a sharp right, not even sure where I’m going. “Cammie?”
“Doctor C-Collins. He’s at my parents’.”
I can hear someone there, someone calling for her, but I can’t make out the voice.
“Oh, God. I’m coming. Tell me the address.”
I don’t ask why she’s at her parents’. I don’t care right now.
I’ve been by her family’s home, but don’t recall the address.
She once made me drive by, just wanting to see her family.
Then when her mother came out and greeted her father, she made me leave.
It breaks my heart for her to not have a family who loves her no matter what.
Maybe she went there because they wanted to reconcile.
“554 Main Street. You remember the town?”
“Yes. I’m fifteen minutes away. Maybe I should call the cops.”
“No! Please,” she whispers. “You know they’re connected to the Bianchis. We can’t trust anyone.”
She’s right. The thought was stupid. But I have to call someone. I quickly shoot A a text with the address, saying Cammie is in trouble and I’m heading there to stop the killer. He will get angry, but I can’t just sit here and do nothing.
Adriel’s out at a meeting with a new client. Someone wealthy who owns a robotics company overseas. But I know he’ll drop everything to come and help.
I could call Michael. I should. He can help too.
“Cammie? Are you there?”
She snivels quietly. “Y-yes. He’s looking for me.”
“Okay. Just keep hiding. Please just don’t talk. I promise I’m on the way.”
“I’m scared.” She softly cries. “I don’t wanna die.”
My heart shreds into pieces. After everything we’ve been through, we don’t deserve this. We deserve to live, something we never got to do. But now this bastard is after her. After me. And he needs to be stopped.
He probably has no idea she called me. Maybe I can surprise him. I reach into my pocket, feeling for the flip knife A gave me. I also have a gun in my handbag. He was going to give me a small blowtorch too, but I convinced him that a blowtorch would be harder to hide. Now I kinda wish I had it.
“He’s coming!” Cammie whisper-shouts. “Oh my God!”
Her inhales and exhales pick up speed while I drive even faster, not worrying about the cops.
“No!” she shouts. “Get away from me! Help! Kayla!”
“Cammie?” My body spreads with a desperate panic, icy fear clawing through me. “Cammie!”
“No!” she continues to scream, her voice growing dimmer by the second.
Until it’s gone for good.
ADRIEL
This meeting is taking way too long. When I agreed to it, I hadn’t expected this woman to have as many questions as she did.
Not that I mind them. I get it. They’re giving me a lot of their money.
But what I do mind is being underground with no cell reception.
Apparently, she’s the owner of the company for which she’s looking to purchase some of my products.
She personally came down to meet me. And she owns this club too, the one she insisted we meet in.
Glancing around the darkened, empty space, I have a feeling they sell a lot more than wine and scotch here.
She crosses her legs beneath a short black skirt, a hint of flirtation in her eyes. Which, of course, does nothing for me. All I’m thinking about is when this will be over so I can get back to the one woman who matters.
“So, Mr. Smith.” Her blood-red lips curl. “I did love everything I heard. It’s why I would like to contract you to work for my company. Permanently. But unfortunately, that would require you to stop your own…personal endeavors, shall we say?”
I release a chuckle, uncuffing the sleeves of my dress shirt and dropping my elbows across the tops of my knees. “If you came down here to proposition me into quitting my own company, I’m afraid your trip was quite useless, Mrs. Tretoria.”
She smiles tightly. “You do realize I can pay you more than you have ever made doing this. It is your wish to make as much money as possible, yes?”
“No, it isn’t.” I climb to my feet.
This meeting is over. Her men quickly stand. I give them each a seething glare.
“I will not work for you. So next time you have any inclination to call me, don’t. I’ll be seeing myself out. You have a safe flight home.”
“You’re making a mistake,” she calls out coolly.
“Yeah, well, I’m kinda used to that.” I scramble up the stairs, grabbing my cell to check for any missed calls or messages from Kayla.
But as soon as I exit, my cell rings.
I freeze.
Because I know the number instantly. I don’t know why she’s calling, and I don’t even want to answer. But something in me tells me to. Like a ghost whispering in my ear to pick up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Oh, thank God.” My mother’s words swim with anguish.
I shouldn’t care. I shouldn’t talk to her, yet I find myself unable to stop my pulse from rising.
“What’s wrong?”
“Please, you have to help her! He…he didn’t wanna call you,” she sobs.
In a flash, I’m running for my car. “Who?”
But she ignores me, crying and continuing. “Your brothers are stubborn, you know, but I knew I had to call you. I knew you’d wanna help.”
“Who needs help?” I ask again, rage and dread shooting into my veins.
“Sophia,” she wails. “Someone took Sophia.”
A cold dread washes over me. “How long ago? Any witnesses?”
“An hour ago. I think. I…uh… I heard Michael tell Raph that she was at the park and was playing soccer, then her friends saw someone hooded with a mask. It was a scary mask, they said. It had no mouth and had a slash in each eye.”
Fuck! He came for her. He knew I was watching her. He knew what I wore. He knew more about me than I did about him. I’m ashamed of it. Ashamed that I was careless. Stupid. It’s my fault that little girl was taken. Probably killed by now.
Unless he wants me there.
My fingers curl viciously around my phone as I browse through it for the app I need.
“Please say you’re gonna help her. Please!” She shatters right there across the line. “I know you hate me and this family, but please, please don’t hate her. She’s—”
“Ma. I don’t hate her.”
She gasps.
That word. I shouldn’t have.
“I’m gonna find her. You can tell them. I don’t care. Right now, my priority is saving her. So you tell them I will find her, dead or alive.”
“Dead? No…” She weeps. “Please don’t say that.”
“It’s a possibility.” Though it’s the last thing I want to think about. “I’ve gotta go now. I’ll let you know when I find her.”
“I—I’m sorry,” she cries.
“This isn’t the time.”
I quickly drop the call and look through the app that connects to the ring I gave Sophia.
“Please, kid, tell me you still have it.”
It instantaneously pings a location, twenty minutes from here, a house on Main Street. Relief washes over me. There is hope she is there unharmed.
Before I start the car, I find a text from Kayla and immediately open it.
And my heart… It’s never known pain quite like this before.
Kayla
Hey, babe. Cammie called. Says the killer is at her parents’ at 554 Main Street in Lake Anges. Please hurry. I’m heading there now.
Main Street? No…
Adriel
Kayla! What are you doing? Do NOT go there alone. Tell me you’re not there yet. Please!
Silence. Minutes trickle with not a word from her, and my heart only sinks further into absolute, mind-bending fear. Something I’ve never known or felt or experienced. How the fuck do people deal with this shit? To care about another person the way I care about her…
No…
If something happens to her…
“Fuck!”
I pound a fist across the wheel, over and over, speeding down the highway, hating myself for not being there for her. Hating that I was in some meeting for my company that means nothing in comparison to what she means to me.
“Fuuuck!”
I can’t lose her!
Pressing a button on my cell, I track Kayla’s location using the GPS installed in the eye of her wolf necklace. It reveals what I already knew. She’s with Sophia.
The killer has them both.
I know for certain someone is gonna die today, and I pray it’s me.