Chapter 26
Parker
After Dante dropped me off at my cabin, I dragged myself into the shower.
I used the hot water to rinse off the sweat from our encounter, while at the same time, trying to untangle my confused thoughts.
The more time I spent with them, the more wrapped up my feelings got.
I was becoming tangled in a mess I had never intended.
It was supposed to be casual, a short-term arrangement that ended when I left.
So why was my heart falling for each of them?
All three men were breaking down my walls, not with subtle knocks.
No, they were smashing against it with a sledgehammer.
There weren’t just cracks. Gaping holes where I’d once carefully guarded my every thought and feeling were making me bleed inside.
After I climbed out of the shower, I toweled myself dry. I couldn’t keep letting the men in. No matter what, I had to build those walls back up and shield my heart. No good would come from falling in love. Not now. Maybe not ever.
Still wrapped in nothing but a towel, I sat on my temporary bed and pulled out my laptop with my notepad and pen beside me. I had work to do, a monster to find. Once that task was completed, I could get back to my real life. One that didn’t include three men or sex.
I glanced at the list of names I had compiled of missing men over four decades.
Men who had been reported for domestic abuse, yet were never sent to jail.
Men who had children with mysterious injuries, or reports from schools of odd behavior consistent with sexual abuse.
My fists tightened. There were reports of infidelity and drunken fights with spouses.
Too many family members had gone to the hospital.
One thing that they all had in common was that the law wasn’t able to convict them, so they walked free.
Then, somehow, conveniently, they disappeared.
Hunting trips, fishing trips, running away with mistresses, most of whom couldn’t be reached for a statement.
But those who did corroborated the story.
None of those missing people had anything to do with the serial killer we were hunting.
That led me to the conclusion that we had a second killer on our hands.
One who thought he was doing good, perhaps, but still a killer.
A vigilante rarely ended well. Eventually, they would start to kill indiscriminately.
Innocent people would die because of the vigilante’s taste for the kill.
I looked at the timeline. Forty years was a long time for a person who did justice killing to stay sane without falling into the trap of bloodlust. Still, I shook my head. A killer was a killer. A question continued to stand out in my mind. What actually happened to all the bodies?
Using the search bar, I typed in the simple phrase serial killer Selene, Texas.
Then sat back as the air left me. Casey Rivers was nearly killed by the Castle Killer almost 30 years ago, right here in Selene.
He’d tracked her down where he’d kidnapped her, ready to finish what he’d started after she’d escaped him the first time.
Casey Rivers, who was now Casey Hardgrove-Mason. Gage’s mother.
It was a massive coincidence. I didn’t believe in coincidences. I told myself not to do it. I tried to stop my fingers from typing, but my curiosity was too much. I began to search deeper, into Gage’s family.
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed as I sat there, my fingers trembling on the keyboard.
Slowly, pieces began to fit together like pieces of a giant, fucked up puzzle.
Brent Mason had a sister who was sexually abused and took her own life after it became too much.
Brent had nearly killed his father the day he caught him raping his sister.
Only a few years after that, disappearances started happening all over the county. Ethan, his partner, was a cop, someone with access to information. His aunt and uncle owned a ranch, one with pigs.
“We need to move the pigs tomorrow.”
“I’ll tell the guys to have the lime ready to clear the run.”
The conversation at dinner just a few nights ago.
Lime was used on ranches all the time. It was hardly unusual for ranches, big or small, to buy lime.
It would also not raise any suspicion when large quantities were purchased.
It was a great means for composting organic material —like any human blood leftover in a pig run.
My hands shook as I suddenly remembered how enraged Gage had been when Ryu Nakamura, a police detective, told him about a man who had abused his wife and murdered his unborn child. A man who was now dead, seemingly caused by a freak accident.
I shook my head. “No.” But inside, a sinking feeling had already taken hold. I closed my eyes.
Gage, beautiful Gage. A man who’d held me tenderly, even though he always looked and acted so cold.
Ry, sweet, kind Ry, who had shown me nothing but acceptance and love.
Dante, troubled by his past, who proved himself to be loyal and had a deep, innate kindness in his soul.
I thought of the police Chief. He’d been furious about the serial killer. Was it because he was against killing, or was it because the man killed innocent women?
I glanced down at the list again. All men. All who had a violent tendency towards women and children.
“Oh my god,” I sobbed, my chest heaving with emotion. All my training taught me that serial killers were monsters who needed to be locked away. Vigilantes were desperate people who turned on innocents eventually, many of whom forced the law to kill them when they felt their mission was completed.
Forty years of killing. How long had Gage been involved?
Did his dad start teaching him early? Was that why he was so cold?
I didn’t believe he was a psychopath. He had emotions, though he held them close.
He wasn’t manipulative—he let me make the decision to have a relationship with them.
Gage had left it completely up to me. He wasn’t impulsive. No, he wasn’t a psychopath.
Perhaps he had psychopathic tendencies, though I wasn’t a psychologist who could make that determination. He also did not fall into the definition of a sociopath who had zero regard for the feelings of others. Gage may hold his feelings close, but he felt deeply for those he cared about.
I couldn’t fall for a murderer. A quiet voice in my head made my stomach tighten into a ball of unease as it whispered, you already have.
I climbed off the bed and got dressed. Slowly, mechanically, I pulled a T-shirt over my head, not bothering with a bra.
Next, I tugged on a pair of jeans, all the while, my mind raced.
I was supposed to find monsters and lock them away.
People like the one who killed my sister without remorse.
He had raped and tortured her repeatedly, then dumped her body, pretending to himself she was an angel. The Angel Killer. What a pathetic name.
What did that make Gage and his dad? If they killed other monsters, the same monsters that, instead of being locked in a prison to continue living, breathing, eating, reading, learning, fighting, loving, fucking…
A sob tore from my chest as I picked up the notebook that I’d added several more pages of handwritten notes to. It was a testament to Gage’s life, his family. If someone, anyone from my team found it, their lives would be over. I stared at it, the cover growing blurred as my vision swam with tears.
Leaving my cabin, I walked barefoot, having forgotten to put on my shoes before leaving.
I walked the short distance to the main house ahead, ignoring the pain as gravel bit into the soles of my feet.
I climbed the stairs, my knees feeling as weak as my heart.
I waited after I knocked, knowing someone would come eventually.
Ruby was the one who answered the door. As soon as she took in my appearance, her smile faltered.
“Oh, honey. Come in.” She didn’t ask me what was wrong, likely knowing that I was seconds from breaking. “Gage is in his office, let me show you where.”
She opened the door wider, and as I passed through, I caught my reflection in the decorative glass that made up their fancy entrance.
A part of me was shocked at my appearance.
My hair was stringy, hanging in dried clumps, while my face was paler than I could remember seeing it.
It occurred to me that I’d forgotten to brush my hair out after my shower.
I had gotten so engrossed in my research that it had completely slipped my mind.
But what really made me pause was the haunted look in my eyes.
I turned away from my reflection and followed Ruby as she led me further into the large house until we reached a room I hadn’t been in before.
She glanced at me as she gave the door a quick knock.
After a brief pause, I could hear Gage’s deep voice call out for Ruby to enter.
Just like always, I wasn’t unaffected as a shiver ran up my spine.
Unlike what I normally felt, there was a small part of me that was uneasy.
Ruby opened the door and stuck her head in. “Hey, Gage. You have a visitor.” She eyed me again, the concern clear. “Is it okay if Parker comes in?”
I heard movement coming from inside the room, and I could picture Gage standing from his chair.
“Parker is here?” His tone didn’t sound surprised. He sounded just as concerned as Ruby looked, probably picking up on her demeanor. “Of course, she never has to ask.”
Ruby turned and gave me a smile before reaching out to squeeze my shoulder gently. Without saying another word, she walked away, heading down the hallway to finish whatever tasks she had to do to keep the huge house running. I took a deep breath to center myself.
“Parker?” Gage called out. Letting my breath out slowly, I glanced down at the purple cover of the notebook. It was plain. Boring. A simple notebook that could be found anywhere in the country at any store that sold school supplies. Yet it held so much information that could hurt so many people.
I turned the corner and stepped through the door, my eyes immediately finding Gage, who looked as if he were about ready to storm into the hall to find me.
As soon as I appeared, the stiffness in his frame relaxed.
But then he saw the condition I was in. The rumpled clothing I had tossed on without care.
My bare feet. My hair hanging limply after drying from the shower, tangled and unbrushed.
As he visibly grew concerned, I stepped forward, not allowing him time to question what was wrong.
I wouldn’t know how to answer him. There were too many feelings inside me.
I could barely make sense of my emotions.
When I reached him, I looked up into his face, meeting his blue eyes and seeing the worry there.
Underneath the worry, there was also the smallest hint of fear.
Instead of speaking, I held out the notebook.
Gage took it from my hands without looking away from my eyes, then, finally, he broke eye contact.
Flipping open the first page, he saw the list of names.
Dozens of them. His brows furrowed as he looked them over, not yet understanding their significance.
Turning the page, he saw where I began to fill in the blanks. Reason for disappearance. The different accusations made against them. Dates. Names of family members or girlfriends who had been hurt. Pages upon pages.
I watched as he scanned each page, taking his time. The confusion left his expression, replaced by anger. Not against me, I could sense. Rather, anger against the men who had done unspeakable crimes against innocent women and children.
Then the final name. Mark Shumar. Two days ago. An alcoholic abuser who’d hurt his fiancée and murdered his child. Died by a fall down the stairs in a freak accident. Gage paused, and his jaw clenched as his eyes roamed over the information. Then he continued, flipping to the next page.
His mother’s name was next, followed by information about the Castle Killer. His dad, Brent, and his experience as a young teenager. The aunt he’d never met because she chose to end her suffering rather than continue living with the unfathomable abuse that her own parents dealt.
Still, Gage never looked up to meet my eyes.
When he turned the final page to see where I had pieced together the role the ranch played in his and his father’s game of justice, he closed the cover and held the notebook in his hands. He finally looked at me.
Everything about the Gage I had come to know, the one that I had so easily fallen in love with, was gone, locked behind an impenetrable mask of indifference. He was cold, unfeeling Gage again. He held the notebook out to me with steady hands.
“What’s next, Parker?”
Sounds of footsteps reached my ears as I took the notes I’d written from him.
I turned to face the door as both Dante and Ry appeared together, both of them with worry filling their expressions.
They looked back and forth between Gage and me, taking in the scene as we stood a mere foot apart, though at the moment it felt as if an entire world of space was between us.
Ry’s gaze landed on my notebook, the same one he’d seen me working on over the last several days.
He knew what was inside, though he didn’t know the contents.
He only knew that I had been researching the town.
His mouth opened and closed before his panicked eyes flew up to Gage’s face. Then he turned to me.
“Parker…”