Breathe Me In (Wired to Kill #1)

Chapter One Bree

Chapter One

Bree

Sheffield, New York

When they’re little, most kids fear the monster under their bed or in their closet.

When I was nine, I hid in the kitchen and spied as my brother watched a movie with his friends about monsters that lived in the shadows of your room.

It didn’t take him long to discover I had seen the movie, and for years he tortured me with it.

I hated him for it, but it also helped me see that monsters were all in my head.

Eventually I got over my fear. Until the baseball game.

“And it’s outa here!” Robert screamed. The crack of the bat against the ball left no one in doubt that it was a homer.

Robert’s scream came from the bottom of his lungs, and my feet pounded against the damp grass as I raced into the woods after the ball.

I was determined to beat Brad, who was right on my heels.

“Go, Bree!” Brad’s best friend, Kennedy, called out. As I glanced over my shoulder, I saw Brad turn around and flip him off with a laugh.

The trees were thick, and the forest closed in around us as we ran blindly, our eyes intent on locating that little white ball. I’d watched where it had arched down and had an idea of which direction to go.

“Bree,” Brad called, “don’t go too far in. They’ll throw out a new one.”

“You scared?” I shouted.

“Don’t be ridiculous—I’m not five,” he shot back. I saw the bushes move as he wove his way toward me through the scratchy grass. “Ha! I found it.” His grin looked suspicious, and when he didn’t run back toward the field to brag about it, I challenged him.

“Sure you did.”

Bradley Stone was a year older than me and was arguably one of the best people in town.

He was on the hockey team and a really good athlete, but he wasn’t like the other jocks—he was nice.

On the weekends we’d play baseball at the school field with some other friends until we got hot, and then we’d all head down to the river to our favorite swimming hole.

“You don’t think I got it?”

I laughed. I could read his face like an open book. “You got shit.”

“Maybe not, but I got swagger with the ladies.” He tucked his shaggy brown hair behind his ear as we wandered deeper into the woods, neither of us wanting to give up.

“Speaking for all the ladies out there, ya got jack shit.” My voice dripped with sarcasm.

He made a noise and shoved my shoulder. “Sherry Cummings thinks I do.”

I hated how that bothered me, but, typical me, I deflected with an asshole comment.

“When you get some standards, add that to your list of shit to forget.” We continued on, and soon the roar of the river that ran through our town became louder.

“You know she’s expecting you to ask her to homecoming?

” I slipped on a rock but managed not to fall.

“She wants the whole grand gesture.” I eyed him hard.

“I got something planned.”

“Let me guess, a Sharpie, a whiteboard, and a bag of Doritos?” I jumped when he swatted my hip. “I know they’re her favorite, but jeez, her mouth must be like the inside of your jockstrap when you kiss her.” I gagged on my own words.

“You’re such an ass.”

“The way that chick inhales a bag of them, oh wait—” I stopped myself and acted like I just realized something. “Oh, now I see it, it’s the Hoover mouth.” I smirked. “All right, I get that, I see that.”

He gave me a side glance. “Finished?”

“No, but you better—”

He snagged my waist and pressed down. I stopped as the pressure made me buck with a laugh. I had one ticklish spot, and I hated that he knew about it. He went still suddenly, and I was able to wiggle free. As I fixed my shirt, I realized his expression had changed. “What?”

“There’s something in the water.” The ball forgotten, he moved down the bank to the water’s edge.

“Here.” He reached back and lifted me down before I could protest the help.

We headed for the old tree that had fallen across the water a few years ago.

It was the only way across this part of the waterway.

The river was a good twelve feet across, and this area was well known to be the deepest part before the waterfall just a mile or so down.

A friend of ours had fallen into the river once near this spot.

A whirlpool had nearly sucked him under just before the waterfall.

If his brother hadn’t been with him at the time, he would have drowned and maybe never been found, thanks to the underwater caves below.

“It looks like something’s caught up in the branches.

I can see white fabric floating around it.

” I tried to see clearly, but the boulders made it tricky.

“We need to cross.” I jumped up onto the tree and slowly made my way over.

Brad gave me a warning to be careful, but I’d crossed at that spot lots of times.

You just had to go slowly and watch the center where it had begun to rot.

The water beat against the trunk and made me question when it might finally let go.

I wondered who’d be on it when it finally gave out.

I kept my focus toward the bump on the shore end. I’d never admit it, but I was scared.

“You good?” He’d noticed I’d slowed my pace.

“Yup.” One foot in front of the other, I told myself and was more than relieved when I hit solid ground.

He hopped down next to me. “Come on.”

I wasn’t sure what we were going to see, but there was no way I’d chicken out now.

“Shit.” Brad fell behind when his shoe got wedged between two rocks. I went back and helped him.

“Hurry, Brad.” My curiosity had gotten the best of me. I grabbed his hand, and we hurried along the riverbank to get a better look.

“Jeez, what’s the rush?” he complained. As we got close, I stopped short, and he stumbled into my back.

“Brad,” I whispered, and I took a step back. A set of lifeless green eyes stared up at me. One eye was just below the waterline, where her blond hair swirled around as if she were alive. Her white dress was caught up around her legs and exposed her bare hip.

“Holy shit.” He bent down and reached out his hand but stopped himself. “Look at her neck.”

I ripped my gaze from her eyes and saw the barbed wire that was wrapped around her throat. Her wrists and hands were covered in cuts like she’d been trying to pull it off her. “What kind of a person would—” Something made a sound, and we both whirled around to scan the tree line.

My brain fired off all kinds of possibilities, and I could barely swallow my own spit.

Then I spotted him as he spotted us. He dragged a woman by a barbed wire leash around her neck.

The way she hung from his hands, it was obvious she was dead.

He wore gloves to protect his hands, but there was no doubt he would feel the pricks of that wire from the pressure of her hanging body.

In a flash of a second, the realization took hold that he was the killer and he was getting rid of the bodies.

“Bree.” Brad slid his hand into mine. “Don’t move.” A strange calmness flooded my body even as my head screamed at me to run.

The killer’s head tilted to one side as he studied us.

I wondered if he was trying to figure out how he was going to deal with the situation.

As we stood there, frozen, I noticed things about him.

I was sure it was a “him” mainly because he had a man’s build and wore a gray zip-up jumpsuit like a janitor would wear.

He had on white sneakers and had a black winter hat pulled down over his ears.

A cotton scarf was tied around his neck, and he’d pulled it up over his face so only his eyes showed under the brim of the hat.

Brad and I both flinched when the man dropped the woman and her lifeless body jolted at the impact. He stood there and looked at us for another bit, then he just stepped back and faded into the thick brush.

“Go, Bree!” Brad’s words broke through my trance, and I suddenly felt my body come alive as fear burst through me like electricity.

His fingers dug into my hand as we raced back toward the log.

Terror made me hang on to Brad’s hand like a lifeline.

Pure fear seemed to put wings on my feet at the thought that the murderer was on our heels and could grab us at any moment.

Brad pulled his hand out of mine when my Converse sneakers suddenly slipped on a wet rock.

He grabbed my arm so I wouldn’t fall and then hoisted me up onto the log ahead of him.

“Hurry!” he urged, and he gave my butt a push.

“Not without you.” I waited for him to jump up and follow.

“Keep your eyes on the log,” he instructed.

I felt the log move and looked over my shoulder.

“Don’t look back,” he cried. “I got you. I promise.” I focused on my footing, and once we crossed, we both hit the ground running.

The uneven terrain made my shoes slip, and I desperately grabbed at trees so I wouldn’t fall.

We finally reached the beaten path, and just as we hit the opening to the field, Brad grabbed my arm and swung me around.

“Wait.” His eyes were wild, and I was sure they mirrored mine. “Just hang on a second.” He quickly scanned around, and it made my heart beat even harder at my need to escape. He cupped my face as we both fought to catch our breath. “I need to know you’re okay. Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” I managed to say.

“All hell’s going to break loose soon.” He shook his head in disbelief. “Once we tell what we saw, all kinds of shit’s gonna happen.”

“Yes, I know. Come on, he might be watching. We need to tell the police!” I cried and tried to pull away, but he leaned down close to my face, and his own barely controlled panic showed.

“Just”—he took a breath—“just promise me if things get real bad, you’ll tell me. I’ve seen this stuff on TV.”

I felt the killer was on our heels and couldn’t understand how he could even form a thought at a moment like this.

“Okay,” I agreed. I just wanted to get to safety.

Brad’s words that day couldn’t have been truer. The whole town became a circus, and we were pointed at and questioned for months about what we’d seen that day. Our lives were never the same. But the fact that he was never found was the worst part. The Barbed Wire Killer was still out there.

That was the day I learned that some monsters were real.