Chapter Twenty-One
Same Building
Same Time
Before The Storm
To say that Ridge was restless would be an understatement. Only, he simply couldn’t find peace. Awake. Asleep. In between. There was no place he could go to hide from the cold-hard truth in his world.
His wife had cheated on him and had gone behind his back to have an affair.
Whether it was because of him, or not, he’d never know, but Ridge knew that the bottom line was that he’d caused this.
His ties to Lucian were the reason, and there was no doubt in his mind that he’d pushed Wynter too far.
How was he going to get past this?
What he needed was someone to help him figure this out, and he couldn’t ask the one person he’d normally talk to.
Lucian.
Why?
Well, because he wasn’t a neutral party in this.
Already, he’d heard the man tell him that it wasn’t his fault, but he didn’t buy it.
So, until he could come to grips with it, it appeared he was on his own.
Closing his eyes, he prayed.
I know I’m not religious, but please help me get past this. I have a child that I now have to raise, and I’m scared. I don’t know how to do any of this.
When he opened his eyes, he rolled to his side on Lucian and his shared couch, and there was the scent of mate.
He could smell it in the man’s cologne, and that made him hate himself all the more.
Even with Wynter’s death, he still wanted the man.
Was it the spell?
Was it more?
When he felt the touch to his mind, he knew who it would be, and he realized that he must have summoned him.
Ridge, are you okay?
At first, he didn’t answer.
Are you angry with me?
Honestly, Ridge wasn’t sure who to be angry with at this point.
Him.
Wynter.
Himself.
It was a toss-up at this point. What he knew was all he wanted to do was hide now. His heart was pummeled, and there was no way he’d get over this guilt.
Okay, you don’t have to answer. I felt you, and I wanted to make sure you’re safe. I’m here if you need to talk, or if you feel like crying.
Ridge wanted to rage.
He wanted to weep.
What he did was point this at the wrong person, because the person he wanted to be angry with couldn’t be there to fight with him.
Or himself.
I need you to leave me alone. I need you to stop reaching for me and give me goddamn time!
There was a pause at the tone of that, and how the man lashed out at him.
There was also sadness, like he fully expected this to happen.
Finally, he spoke.
Okay, Ridge.
It wasn’t ‘okay’.
She’s dead because of us! She’s dead because we started something we shouldn’t have started! How am I supposed to look at you and not feel that?
There was a moment where he wondered if Lucian would lash back at him. Oh, and he craved that sharp whip of rage, knowing it would only make him feel worse.
And he wanted that.
I’m sorry. If I could go back and change things, I would. I would try to stop her death.
It’s our fault. It’s my fault!
Lucian felt the anger.
What was he supposed to do?
Deep down, he’d expected to be the whipping boy in this. If it had been Bishop, he’d do the same. The grief was talking, and Lucian was NOT fighting back.
I’m sorry.
And that enraged him more.
I can’t be around you right now. I need to figure this out. Please don’t come near me, and please don’t reach for me!
His heart hurt.
Okay, Ridge. If that’s what you want, I’ll give you as much space as I can. I just wanted to tell you that Avalon saved Wynter’s soul. She’s crossed, and she’s no longer at this entity’s control. Her soul moved on, and she’s safe.
That only made him angrier.
Great. She’s at peace. Maybe I’ll be at peace one day, too.
Lucian knew after mourning came anger.
I love…
Only, he didn’t get to finish.
Ridge shut that down.
DON’T!
Quietly, like he’d entered his mind to check on him, Lucian Monroe left. He closed the door behind him, giving Ridge what he wanted.
Distance.
Oh, and Lucian knew the truth.
That was his goodbye.
As he sat in that new silence, Ridge began crying.
His world had been so perfect, until it wasn’t. All his wife had to do was come to him and talk. All she had to do was trust him with her worries, and he would have done anything to fix it for her.
He loved her.
So.
Much.
And now, he was alone.
I’m sorry, Lucian. I didn’t mean that. Please forgive me. I’m just so…angry at her. She betrayed me and lied to me. I slept with her multiple times AFTER him. She let me too. Please don’t leave me.
Only, his sentiments bounced back, echoing in the silence of his head.
Lucian was gone.
And Ridge, for the first time since Wynter saved him, and Lucian found him, was alone.
And he didn’t like it.
One.
Bit.
* * * L I T T L E M O O N * * *
The Waiting Area
Same Time
The Reveal
At their declaration, the whole group gasped. This was exactly what they needed in order to get ready to stop this person from not only getting Avalon, Lucian, and Genesis, but to end their feast on the souls who were getting trapped.
With one more, they were screwed, and they didn’t want that to happen.
Going head-on against this in the static felt like a bad idea, and risky at that.
So, this might just give them a break.
“He was watching you guys!” Pryce said. “We found his identity, but only because you sent us your doorbell camera footage. When we checked with Lucian’s and Ridge’s, we found him there too.”
They couldn’t wait.
“Who is it?”
Connor went there.
“First, we had something weird happen. Julian’s camera hazed him out. It was like the footage was damaged. Then, it cleared up, and we didn’t think anything of it.”
Uh-oh.
“Like this?” Tori asked, as Honor showed him the footage that they got from Trent Steven’s house.
“YES!” he said. “Just like that. It was on all three of the cameras, and the longer we looked, it flickered in and out. At first, we thought it was something wrong with your cameras. Only, it became evident that wasn’t the case.”
Julian explained.
“The witches told us that’s demonic.”
Connor gasped.
“Oh, I don’t like that shit.”
Yeah, well, welcome to that particular club. Neither did Julian, or anyone else there.
“Who is it?” Lucian asked. “We’ve confirmed it’s possessed and being ridden by this entity, so now, tell us who it is,” he said, testily.
Bishop heard the pain, and she rested her hand on his shoulder.
That tone was not normal, Lucian. Her man was as slick as spit, and he was notorious for being calm during the fire. This was not that.
“Hey, are you okay?” she asked.
At first, he was going to lie. Only, that was what got everyone into this mess.
Instead, he shook his head.
“No, but it doesn’t matter,” he admitted. “The only thing that matters now is saving Genesis by finding this. I’m sorry that came out harsh. I didn’t mean it like that.”
They all let it go, but Bishop knew that it had to be Ridge. Lucian was even-tempered, even on a bad day. Something had happened.
Ridge? she mouthed.
He simply nodded, giving nothing more away.
Oh, boy.
They did NOT need this now.
Because they were all eagerly looking at him, waiting for an answer, Connor went there.
“Tell us if you recognize this person,” he asked, holding a printed-out still they’d downloaded.
The second Genesis saw it, she gasped.
“Oh, my God!”
That had all of their attention, and from the look on her face, she wasn’t amused.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” she asked.
They passed the picture around, and that’s when Bishop and Tori also recognized the person.
“What the hell?” they both said at the same time.
Everyone else was confused.
“Who is it?” Julian asked.
Genesis shared.
“That’s Will Sinclair. He is the ME back home. I worked with him in Utah!”
Oh, shit.
There was the Sinclair name rearing its head in the middle of the investigation.
Julian was curious.
“You all recognize him?” he asked.
Bishop nodded.
“Yeah, it all stems back to that one case where I was on maternity leave, and we were planning Hailey’s wedding. Tori found that body, and we met the ME on the scene. Not met, but saw.”
Genesis was horrified.
“He was new there. He’d only been the ME for a short time. He’s the guy I told you kept asking me out, and I was more than happy to hightail it out of there to avoid him. He creeped me out.”
And there it was.
“He found you, and he was studying you,” Lucian admitted.
Pryce was hell on research, and she shared what else.
“He went to school back here. His family is related to the Vanderbilts. His dad was a man by the name of Kennedy Sinclair.”
Oh, boy.
That meant he had to be the kid born right after Stephanie had been stabbed to death in her home.
Julian had to go there.
“You knew someone with the last name Sinclair in Utah, and it didn’t register when we discussed Kennedy Sinclair?” he asked.
She didn’t.
“In my defense, I went to school with two people with that last name, and one cop. It’s not that unusual a name when you’re in a predominantly white area of Utah. It’s like Smith or Jones.”
Okay, that was a good point.
There were about twenty Littlemoons in this town, a bunch of Vanderbilts, and about twenty Proctors.
Tori considered it.
“You said he was new. How new? How long was he ME there?”
She considered it.
“Maybe a year. Maybe nine months. I didn’t think anything of it, since he said he was right out of medical school.”
Honor went there.
“How old is he?”
Pryce had researched him, and they’d gotten lucky since the Kennedy Sinclair thing had been a wall. Apparently, he’d ‘borrowed’ his father’s name, and thought he could hide from them.
He couldn’t.
“I think he was thirty. He just got out of med school.”
They began running him.
Bishop grabbed a tablet, and she started digging into the man’s life, so she could see.
And she whistled.
“Yeah, he’s INCREDIBLY smart. We’re talking he finished college before he was out of high school, and medical school before he was twenty-seven. Only, he wasn’t a new ME.”
Genesis was confused.
“He wasn’t?”
Bishop shook her head.
“No, like I said, he was a prodigy. He’d been an ME here, outside of Salem, and in three other towns. He lasted only three months or so at each, until he found Genesis.”