Chapter 20
Twenty
CASSIE FOLLOWED behind Joel, the boards squeaking beneath them at junctures, foreboding trickling through her at who they might find. Who her stalker was. But whoever it was had disappeared, though clues might remain.
They began in the passageway that wound throughout the lodge—along the bedrooms, out through the kitchen, into halls, down to the cellar, and up to the top floor based on the stairs they passed within it.
The light from their flashlights bounced off the wall as they crept along.
She paused to look through a slat into the hallway.
Lyle walked by, and she stiffened. As one of Talbot’s cousins, they hadn’t really considered him deeply, but what if he was her stalker?
But her stalker got in and out of her home undetected, always knew every aspect of her life—or so it seemed.
He was good. Really good. It was like he had inside knowledge.
She froze.
Devon. CSI.
No. He was a suspect, of course, but of the small group of possibilities, he was her friend. They chatted at work, spent time together. He’d been there for her after she’d had to walk away from Joel. Just as a friend. Only a friend, but what if he viewed it as more?
She stepped back to share with Joel but found herself standing alone in the dark—only her faint flashlight keeping her from being swallowed by it.
Creaking boards sounded upstairs, and she climbed the steps, hoping to find Joel.
Instead, she found her way to what was apparently Heath and Devon’s room—both their packs rested on the floor.
Heath’s was white with lightning bolts, mature man that he was.
Devon’s bag was plain black and streamlined, just like the man.
She moved forward, the sensation of being watched crawling up her spine.
Turning, she spotted nothing, so she faced back around and moved for the first pack.
I watched her through the register from the other side of the wall.
I’d never considered myself a voyeur, but seeing her this way was tantalizing.
I wanted her to know me. The real me—the one enraptured with her.
But, then again, she did know me. I’d poured out my heart and soul in my letters to her.
Worked with her daily. Asked her out more than once, but she always turned me down.
Heat seared inside, bitterness biting. She refused me because she was clearly still in love with Joel.
I gripped the kitchen knife in my hand, fighting the urge to lash out.
To slice Cassie’s throat for being unfaithful.
But it was Joel who was the problem. If I removed Joel from the picture, that love would cease.
Then she’d see how deeply I loved her—the lengths I’d gone to for her.
Waiting in the shadows. Always watching.
Always there and she never noticed. Always pining after Joel.
I gripped the knife harder. I was far superior to Joel.
Once he was out of the picture, she wouldn’t be able to help but love me.
She moved for Heath’s pack. She seriously thought that Neanderthal was her shadow? My skin heated the perspiration clinging to my neck.
I ached to scream out my fury, my love—the two mixing together often. But I wanted her to discover me on her own.
She would. She had to. She was too smart not to realize I was her shadow—glued to her forever. Then she’d appreciate the depth of my love for her, far deeper than Joel Brunswick could muster.
Riffling through Heath’s bag, she dumped it out, the items clanging on the wooden floor. She sank back on the bed, confusion on her beautiful face. She hadn’t found what she wanted.
Her gaze fixed on my pack, and I rubbed my hands together.
Footsteps sounded in the passageway but on the ground level. Joel had no clue. Poor Sheriff Brunswick, unable to get his man.
Her flashlight flickered, the faint light starting to fade. Soon it would extinguish. And they’d find no batteries. I’d seen to that. Soon it would be just me and her in the dark. A smile tugged at my lips.
Cassie bent over, lifted my pack, and laid it on the bed, her back to me.
This was it—the defining moment of our relationship.
She opened my pack and reached inside. I stepped through the passageway opening and slipped into the room behind her—the cloth soaked with chloroform ready in my hand, but she wouldn’t find the bottle of it in my pack.
I put it in a bottle labeled lotion. That wouldn’t alter what was to come, but my letter materials most certainly would.
She smelled of rosemary and lilacs. A new perfume for a new life.
I longed to smell her neck but refrained. Longed to touch her so very close in front of me, but I restrained. Discover me.
She continued riffling through the pockets of my pack. Suddenly, she stilled.
She finally knew. Pulling out the paper and envelopes I’d chosen just for her, she gasped. “No way.”
How could she not know it was me after all I’ve done for her?
She turned. Terror blanketed her face. “You?”
I smiled and reached for her face.
She stumbled back, and I advanced.
“I’m your shadow. With you always. Don’t you know me?” I reached to brush the hair away from her face, and she pulled back again. Anger pulsed hot through me. How dare she? “You’re mine. Don’t you understand that?”
“I-I . . .” She widened her mouth to holler, but I grabbed her before it could come out and smothered her nose and mouth with the cloth. It only took a moment, and she acquiesced to the sleep overcoming her. Such a good girl.
I wanted to take Joel out before the escape, but she was in my arms, and I had a way out, so I’d take it. There would be ample opportunity to kill Joel if he followed, and knowing Joel, once the loser figured it out, he’d surely follow.