Chapter 36
THIRTY-SIX
Explosions go offin my brain, and my hands are burning with a wet, sticky substance. I try to shake my head to clear the brain fog, but that only makes everything hurt more. I try to move, but no luck. My body won’t budge.
What happened to me?
I sort through my choppy memories until I recall following Lilith into the woods to find Lucy. My heartbeat quickens as the turn of events begin to unfold from the point when I first suspected Lilith was up to no good to Jenkins leaping from the bushes and bashing Lilith’s head with his cane and finally to my failed heroics when I tackled Jenkins and brought him down to the ground, only to look up to see Lilith bring down a boulder on his skull.
All my bones and muscles ache at once when I remember how I shielded Jenkins from the blow by throwing my body on top of him. Lilith’s rock landed on my shoulder with a loud crack. Pain lanced through my right side, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I pushed through the pain and began rolling over, but that’s when the gold cane came down—once onto Jenkins’s head, and next onto mine.
Everything went black after that.
Groaning, I force my eyes open, which isn’t easy considering the weight of them. Everything is fuzzy as I look around. The sky has darkened considerably since I was last conscious, but I see familiar flashes of blue, yellow, and green lights that make my chest ache with thoughts of Carley.
“Run, run as fast as you can,” a singsong voice taunts from several feet away. “You can’t catch me.” A swoosh of air rushes past my skin. “I’m the Firefly Man.”
Lilith.
My brain hisses her name as all the events that led to this moment play out in my mind. I turn my head, searching for Jenkins yet coming up empty in the near-darkness. I’m about to turn away when I spot a figure propped up against a nearby tree. I blink, attempting to make my vision less fuzzy, and vaguely make out the gray slacks and black cotton shirt Jenkins was wearing.
“Don’t worry,” Lilith says with a devious cackle. “He’s just resting to give us some alone time.”
Resting? As in…I gasp. “You killed Jenkins?”
Lilith gasps in dramatic fashion. “Kill the man who spent the last fourteen years protecting my secrets? I think not.”
Confusion grows in my brain. “The man who just lunged at you and tackled you to the ground? Are we talking about the same person?”
Lilith waves a hand like the scuffle was no big deal. “Oh, he’ll pay for that.” She winks and raises his gold cane, the one she’d just used to knock us both out. “He always felt guilty for what happened to your sister. I was his patient, and he somehow convinced himself her death was his fault. So he continued to work with me.”
She pauses thoughtfully. “Of course he was right, but of course I denied having anything to do with the rest of the murders over the years. Deep down, I knew he must have been suspicious.” She looks over at him and sighs. “Never thought he’d turn his back on me like that, but…” She shrugs. “I suppose the FBI will finally have someone to blame for all these unfortunate lives.”
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that what she’s insinuating. She’s going to set Jenkins up for murder. Mine and all the others. That’s when I notice the black leather gloves she managed to slip onto her hands at some point while I was unconscious.
“Where’s Lucy?” I can’t stop my voice from trembling.
Lilith chuckles. “Your daughter is perfectly safe—hanging back at camp, roasting s’mores, listening to tales of the Firefly Man, and starting her venture at the trailhead to look at the fireflies. Like father, like daughter, right, Foster Pruitt?”
I freeze, my aching body molding me to the ground. “How long have you known?”
She chuckles again, this time it’s airy and free. “How long have I known that Doctor Lincoln Reed is Foster Pruitt?” She holds up my wallet and tosses me the worn picture of Carley and me I’ve kept there. “That was quite the little twist in our story, I must say. I am pleasantly surprised. It’s like I’m getting two for the price of one.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I mutter angrily.
“Let’s just say, I don’t take rejection very well. Just ask my dead father. It was so easy to make it look like he killed himself after he passed out in that bathtub. As I got older, I fantasized about doing something just like it to all the men who wronged me over the years.” She gives me a half smile. “So I did, but it was all supposed to start with you.”
Anger continues to brew in my chest like an inevitable storm, clouds gathering before the first strike of lightning. “Then what about Carley? How did she fit into your little revenge plot?”
Lilith’s face twists into something resembling annoyance. “It was dark. She was wearing your fucking sweatshirt. I thought she was you until she turned around, but she’d already seen me coming for her.” Her mouth curls into an evil smirk. “I even considered pretending it was all a stupid joke, but then that little bitch screamed, and something just came over me. She was only able to run a few feet before I caught up to her and bashed her pretty little skull in.” She tsks. “Poor thing.”
I lunge to my feet—at least, I try—but my muscles scream with pain as loud as I do. “I will kill you,” I roar as I fumble, trying to get up.
A laugh escapes from somewhere deep in her chest. “You’ve had fourteen years to try,” she taunts. “You failed, but you’ve come pretty damn close, haven’t you?” She paces around me in a wide and slow circle. “That’s right. I’ve known that you’ve been stalking me, you and that FBI friend of yours. I’d say it’s been a few years now, and I’m still five steps ahead of you. Did you think I wouldn’t recognize you in and out of all the same towns I visited? Did you think I wouldn’t realize what happened to my long-time therapist?”
She lets out another low laugh. “At first, I thought you already knew it was me. When you replaced J.D. at Calm Waters and you wanted to have that free consultation, I thought the cuffs would be snapped around my wrists then.” Her pace picks up. “But no. Which begs to ask the question… why did you move here and replace J.D. if you didn’t have a clue who the Firefly Man was?”
I shrug. “To re-investigate the original murder. I replaced Jenkins to get up close and personal with the locals. Somewhere in there, I hypothesized that the ascending age of the male victims could match the age of the killer too, which means you would have been fifteen at the time of Carley’s death. And there weren’t any fifteen-year-olds visiting from out of town that week, aside from Evie and my family. And then there was the firefly map… ”
Lilith’s eyes brighten like I’ve just made her day. “Clever, wasn’t it?”
“Not exactly what I would call it,” I tell her, dryly.
After a few more attempts to move, I look down at my feet to find the reason I’m not gaining an inch. A rope has been pulled tightly across both of my ankles, and each end is secured to a boulder, pinning me to the ground. Desperate now, eyes wide, I look to my right then left, confirming my arms are tied down too.
Panic clutches my chest, my desperation to break free as intense as my search to find Lucy. Just because Lilith says she’s okay doesn’t make it true.
“Since when do you tie your victims down, Lilith?” Distracting her is all I can think to do as I wiggle my feet against the rope. “Seems out of character for you.”
She stops pacing and moves toward me, the moonlight casting an eerie halo around her head. “It’s not every day your first intended victim reappears in your life with a whole new identity and FBI credentials. Call me curious.”
That makes two of us. “What do you want to know?”
She narrows her eyes. “Let’s start with this. Why Evie?”
“Does it matter?” I know through our therapy sessions that Lilith hates when I answer a question with a question. “A femme fatale isn’t in it for a lasting relationship.”
Her lips curl at one corner, her eyes flashing wider with excitement. I can practically see every ounce of her delighted by the connection I just made.
“So you’re familiar with my favorite species of fireflies?”
How had I never made this connection before? With all my research, with all the time spent on my investigation, I completely overlooked this one, interesting fact about a certain species of female fireflies.
“You mean the species that trick males, signaling to lure them in just to kill them and eat them?”
Lilith’s amused smirk transitions into an expression of mock innocence. “Only to acquire defensive steroids to ward off their enemies.”
Anger blasts through me. “Except you’ve got one thing wrong in your attempt at symbolism.”
Her eyes narrow, challenging me. “And that is?”
“In order to lure a mate, the male needs to show interest in you first. Did Billy reject you too?”
She breathes in and out deeply while keeping her slitted eyes laser-focused on me. “As a matter of fact, Billy had a girlfriend back home that he didn’t mind cheating on. I did her a favor.”
“Ah, so you’re a mission-oriented killer now? And here Dylan and I thought this entire time that you were just plain hedonistic. Thrill-seeking. Possibly just into the power and control of it all.”
Lilith steps forward again, this time placing one foot between my legs and the other to my side so she’s towering over me. “I kill because I want to. Call it a charitable contribution to the world by ridding it of men like you.”
“Oh, you mean men with high standards?”
Her foot kicks me hard, hitting square in the balls with so much force that I wish I could keel over to attempt to ward off the pain that’s about to wash over me. Instantly, everything goes numb and my stomach clenches, and I just know the pain will be more intense than anything I’ve ever experienced before.
“Don’t worry,” she jeers before stepping to the side to reach for her pet rock—the one she tried to smash Jenkins with earlier. “When I’m done with you, you’re not going to need any of that to work anyway.” She picks up the rock, looking at it like she’s in some dreamlike trance as she rotates it in her hand. “I’m going to squish you like a little bug.”
I can’t even focus on her words as I groan through the swelling pain that only seems to be getting worse. I’m nauseous and in agony, knowing I don’t have much time to figure my way out of these ropes but physically incapable of doing a damn thing.
Sucking in a strangled breath, I reopen my eyes to find Lilith still there, admiring her rock. In the distance, I see Jenkins stir against the tree, and hope blooms in my chest. He doesn’t seem to be tied down.
It’s like I’m watching a movie in slow motion as Jenkins slowly, stealthily pulls himself away from the tree and takes several unsteady steps to reach his cane. He continues toward Lilith from behind, maintaining his slow pace while raising the cane above his head.
The sound of crunching leaves nearby steals all our attention. Lilith, Jenkins, and I look in the direction of the noise. I panic, not wanting anything to distract Jenkins from his intended mission.
“Now!” I yell.
Lilith whips her head back toward me just as Jenkins sends his cane down on her head. But this time, Lilith is too fast. She turns and drops the rock, shooting her hand up to grip the cane before it strikes her.
A laugh booms from her chest as she yanks the cane from him. “Nice try, old man.”
My heart sinks, but it only lasts a moment before a figure bursts into view, coming from the direction of the earlier noises.
“Everybody freeze!” Gabe yells.
Just like that, Lilith’s evil laughter transitions into a cry of fright so real, I almost believe her.
“Thank god!” She points the cane at Jenkins. “He’s trying to kill us!”
Gabe glares back at Lilith. “Cut the shit and put your hands up, Lilith. We already heard everything.”
We?
Two more figures come out from the same section of woods Gabe just stepped out from.
First is Dylan, who raises his gun and aims it for her head. “Hands up, Lilith. You’re under arrest for the attempted murder of Billy McDouglas, for starters.”
Attempted murder?
I’m not sure what to make of all that yet, but I’m too shocked by the sight of the third figure walking toward me. Evie looks just as shocked, confused, and scared as me.
She darts immediately over to me. “Are you okay?” she asks, tears brimming in her eyes. “I was so scared, Lincoln.” She yanks away the rope at my feet then moves to my hands. “Lucy’s okay,” she tells me in a rush as she unknots my hands. “I’m so glad we got to you in time.”
As much as I want to kiss Evie senseless, I’m not letting Gabe and Dylan take over this arrest without me. I leap to my feet, ignoring my body’s screams of pain. Then I reach for my back pocket and pull out my gun.
That’s three guns pointed at Lilith, but she refuses to put up her hands. She doesn’t even look phased as she looks down the barrel of each one.
“Well, shit,” is all she says.