Cambria #2
“Since the murders occurred in states all across the country, and there isn’t centralized cross-state line reporting, no one connected that they had a serial killer at large.
He might’ve raped and murdered women who resembled Mom, but the method used to kill them varied.
That isn’t typical of serial killers. And the items kept as souvenirs were things no one would think about when they went missing in some cases. ”
When I paused, Shadow asked his first question. “What made him, after all those years, finally go after your mom? Had she become suspicious of him?”
“If she was suspecting him, she never said anything to me. I had no idea that there was something wrong until the night I came home unexpectedly. I wasn’t supposed to be home at all that night.
I was staying in town with my tutor. She was a young, single teacher.
My parents paid her to tutor me for my SAT testing.
They wanted me to get into a premier college.
I stayed over about once a week. I have no idea why Garen allowed it.
She was the only one he ever permitted me to stay with.
“I ended up not feeling well. My teacher offered to call my parents to tell them she was bringing me home, but I assured her there was no need. I’d go home, and we’d make up the missed session the following week.
She dropped me off at the end of the private drive we lived on.
It was about half a mile long. It had rained, and it was muddy.
I was afraid her car would get stuck, so I talked her into dropping me off at the end of it and letting me walk to the house.
She made me swear I’d call her when I made it.
“When I got near the house, I heard pitiful moaning and then screaming. Thinking my parents were hurt, because the lights were on, I rushed inside. I found Garen in the kitchen with his hands around Mom’s throat.
She was savagely beaten, stabbed, and even shot.
He was choking the last tiny bit of life out of her.
I screamed at him to stop. He was startled to see me.
I ran up to them and pounded on him, but I was no match for him, and I was too late. I saw life fade from Mom’s eyes.
“I was sobbing, screaming, and lashing out at him, rather than running. However, that changed when he dropped her and turned to me. He dropped her like she was nothing but a bag of worthless bones. She gasped out her last breaths as she tried to speak and warn me to run. He told me about the others he murdered. He said that with Mom gone, no one would stand in his way of doing what he wanted. Garen said that I was old enough to take her place as the cook, cleaner, and maid of the home. She was no longer useful.”
I had to put distance between Shadow and me. My skin was crawling. He let go of me, and I moved to where I could sit with my back to the headboard. I rubbed my hands up and down my arms.
“Can I get you anything? If you need to take a break, we can,” Shadow offered.
“No, I’ll wait. Where was I? Oh, Garen is telling me I was to become his slave.
I told him I’d never do any of those things for him, and that I would tell the cops what he did not only to Mom but also to those other women he bragged he killed.
As I did, I was moving away from him as he stalked toward me.
I don’t know how I made it to the back door that led from the kitchen outside, but I did, and when I was out there, I ran into the woods behind our house.
“Garen enjoyed spending time in the woods. He said he decompressed that way, and he rarely took me with him. A few times, I begged him enough that he finally broke down and did it. When we asked what he did, he said he hunted or fished to relax. He never came home with anything. I asked him why. He claimed he caught and released the fish, and as for killing other animals, he wasn’t capable of that.
If only we knew. I spent time exploring those woods myself, so when I got away from him, I thought I had a better chance of escaping him in there rather than in the open.
I don’t know how I did it, but by some miracle, I managed to evade him and reach a neighbor’s house. They called the police.
“When they arrived at our house, they found Mom’s body.
Garen was nowhere in sight. It turned into a manhunt.
He evaded capture for days. People argued he was long gone and no longer even in the state.
I didn’t believe it. He was too invested in the area, and I was a loose end that would irritate him.
“I was taken into protective custody. The cops had no idea whether I was still a target. I couldn’t go to school or see my school friends, because none of them wanted to be my friend after what he did. Plus, they could become targets.
“I was interviewed multiple times by the police. Eventually, they listened to me when I said he had his regular haunts in the woods, and I knew where they were. I’d sought them out during my solo exploration trips.
I mapped out his special places. One of my maps led law enforcement to an old tree house built out there.
I don’t know if he’d been out there all along, or if he’d run and then snuck back, but they cornered and arrested him.
When they searched his tree house and the other special spots that were his, the ones I’d been too afraid to disturb, even when I found them, they found souvenirs from each woman.
He kept trophies of their hair, fingernails, and teeth.
In other cases, he kept necklaces, rings, and a keychain. It was macabre.
“I was kept in protective custody for over a year while the prosecutor and defense attorney built their cases.
The FBI was involved because those poor women had been murdered across state lines, making it a federal case.
When his case went to trial, I insisted on being present every day.
I wanted him to see me in the front. I needed him to know I was the reason he was there.
When it came down to it, his souvenirs led them to investigate unsolved murders in other states.
“He sat in that courtroom with a smirk on his face. He felt nothing. That was the beginning of his fan club. It was mainly women who came daily to stand outside the courthouse with signs proclaiming their love for him. They nicknamed themselves Garen’s Girls.
It was sick. And they hated me for betraying him.
“I sat there and watched the family members of the other victims. They cried and asked how Mom and I didn’t know.
Why hadn’t we seen the signs? I tried to explain, but what could I say?
They were right. That guilt is something I live with every day of my life—all those victims, both living and dead.
“It was death threats from the general public and the fanatical ones that had me changing my name after it was all over. Plus, Garen swore if he couldn’t kill me himself, he’d have one of his followers do it.” I stopped. I couldn’t say more. Tears streamed down my cheeks.
Shadow gathered me close again. He rocked me as he placed kisses over my eyelids and down my face to my lips.
“I need you to hear something even if you don’t hear and believe anything else about that entire, tragic ordeal.
You have nothing to feel guilty about, Cambria.
You have nothing to apologize for to those families and friends of the other victims, or those fucked-in-the-head followers, groupies, or whatever you call those people of his.
The truth is, you were a child and a victim, too.
You deserved their compassion and understanding. ”
“Shaine, I don’t blame those friends and families for detesting me.
What I can’t understand is his groupies.
They continue to write letters and gather outside the prison to protest his incarceration.
He’s been on death row for fourteen years.
He appeals but without success. He tried to claim that I was the one who killed my mom, and that the real culprit or culprits remain free.
That’s what you, your friends, and the club will have to hide about me. ”
“I don’t give a goddamn what lies we have to tell, what name we give you, or anything else as long as you remain here at my side. Nothing you’ve told me changes how I feel. I love you. Now and forever. I want to marry you and one day, if you want them, to have children,” Shadow earnestly told me.
The hollowness in my stomach and the hole in my heart were shrinking little by little since meeting him and his club. The way they treated me as family. How Shadow cared for me. Then, to find out he loved me, I couldn’t believe it.
“If you’re sure none of that turns you off or makes you reconsider loving me, then my answer is yes. I’ll marry you, Shaine.”
“Wait, we have to do this right. Hang on,” he told me as he let go of me. I tried to cling to him, but he gave me a tender smile and told me he’d be right back.
Shadow slid out of bed and walked into his closet.
He was gone for about a minute before he returned.
He got back on the bed with me. My sexy biker brought my left hand up to his lips, where he placed a tender kiss.
The next thing he did was hold up a black velvet ring box.
Waiting for him to open it almost made me scream, but finally he did.
Nestled inside were two rings. There was a shimmering band with two overlapping pieces.
They held in the middle a heart-shaped glittering diamond encircled by a halo of small diamonds, as well as the diamonds partway down each band.
It had a braided coordinated band. It allowed them to interlock together. It was a beautiful ring.
He removed the ring with the diamond center from the box.
My hand shook as I held it out to him and then watched Shadow slide the diamond onto my fourth finger.
I was stunned to note it fit. It required no resizing that I could tell.
When he had it in place, he lifted it to his lips and placed a kiss on it.
Overwhelmed, yet the happiest I had been since before losing my mom, I glued my mouth to his.
As we kissed, the tears and sad memories receded, giving way to happiness, love, and a burning desire that boiled up inside me.
The next thing I knew, I was rolled onto my back, and Shadow was hovering over me.
“Now that I have that ring on your finger, nothing and no one will stand in our way. You are my fiancée and my old lady. I don’t care what I have to do to ensure your safety and to keep you with me always. Anyone getting in the way of that had better watch out,” he growled.
Then my clothing was being tugged off me and tossed wherever they landed, all over the floor.
My hands were frantically tearing at Shadow’s.
My fumbling hands got in the way of his hands a couple of times as I tore up his shirt, then undid his jeans.
In record time, we were naked and admiring each other.
I thought he was so handsome, and I had some wild thoughts about what we could do to and for each other. I was game for anything.
“I hope you’re ready to call it quits for the day, work-wise. It’s time you gave your fiancé some attention, and for your fiancé to give you more in return,” Shadow rumbled.
“I can think of nothing I’d love to do more. Make love to me, Shaine, and let me do the same to you,” I begged.
“It would be a pleasure,” he answered.