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“Hey, that’s not a bad thing. You taught her to be smart and strong. She’ll survive this.” He took her hand. “We need some fresh air. Wanna go for a walk down the beach before it’s too late?”
“You seen the prediction of Hurricane Jodie?”
“Oh yeah.” They slipped out the sliding glass doors and Bexley texted Josiah that they’d gone for a walk to get some air and would return shortly. “You ever been in a hurricane?”
“Once in Barbados on vacation.”
“How frightening. Were you alone?”
Tiberius cleared his throat. “No. But it wasn’t a romantic getaway exactly.”
Bexley didn’t want to picture Tiberius vacationing with another woman, and it was clear he’d been with a woman in Barbados. She’d walked away. Couldn’t hold other women against him. “What are the chances this maniac doesn’t have her?” she asked instead.
They walked down the private dock to the beach. Sand coating her bare feet and the breeze off the sound blowing her uncontrollable mane. Water lapped at the shore and chilled her toes.
“Slim, Bex. Pretty slim. At least we know she’s probably alive if she is with him. Not much comfort there, I know, but it’s better than dead.”
“How did it go at the tattoo shop?”
“Three of the girls had tattoos before, and embedded in those tattoos was the Family of Glory’s logo.”
“The cross with dogwood blooms in the middle?”
Tiberius nodded as they walked the stretch of beach. The moonlight cast romantic shadows over the water, and the air tasted briny.
“I called Rand for a list of people who’d left the cult or had been disfellowshipped like I told you I was going to. Got squat from him. I need that list to track down who left. Then I can find out who took a job at the tattoo studio and placed the logo on unsuspecting women. I’m not sure we can get a warrant on a logo. Anyone could have done it and tattooing victims months ago with it doesn’t mean he killed anyone.”
“Was it a brand to show he’d targeted them? If you said it that way you might secure one.”
He sighed. “It doesn’t work like that.” They walked quietly a few moments. “Who would have a score this big to settle with me? I need to know why I’m the cause of this. Why my life is getting people killed. I was eighteen when I left. What teenager makes that kind of impression?”
Bexley felt his torment and heard the guilt he carried. “This is not your fault. I don’t blame you. No one does. You were the favorite, and Rand often made decisions that benefited you. Any number of people might be salty about that. Have you talked to your mom? She might know some inside stuff you don’t. Have an idea.”
“I haven’t talked to her other than to let her know I’d made it to the Outer Banks safely. I’ll talk to her, but she left before me. What would she know?”
“Maybe nothing. What’s she doing now?” Bexley often wished she could talk to her mother. She missed her terribly.
“She works for a shipping container company in Memphis.”
“Is she happy?”
Ty nodded. “She’s never dated anyone since, but she has a group of friends she does fun stuff with, and she’s involved in a thriller book club. I told her she ought to write a novel with our lives as fodder, and she said readers would find it far-fetched. Fiction has to be more believable than reality.”
Bex laughed. “I guess that’s true. I like romances but I can’t venture into scarier books. Too many triggers.”
“I wish we’d have grown up differently.”
She stooped and collected a little broken shell. “I do too, but I don’t believe anything in our life is wasted. This shell is chipped and broken. Been tossed by the waves. No control and yet it’s here on this beach. It’s not so far destroyed that I can’t recognize what it’s meant to be or find the beauty in it. I think the broken shells have stronger, richer stories than those I find that are in mint condition.”
Tiberius took the broken, chipped shell from her hand, his fingers brushing her sandy ones and sending a shiver through her. “That makes sense. I took my broken past and studied religions to make sense of life. To discover if anything was true. In doing that, I landed this job, and as much as I detest paperwork—and there are mountains of it—I love it. I mean, I hate that by the time we get on a scene, death has already occurred, but when we track an UNSUB and arrest him, we do save lives. For a moment we’ve made the world a better place to live. Justice is served, and we’re able to give families closure. For so long I wanted closure. Knowing you were alive wasn’t closure, Bex. Now I know why you did what you did, but I feel like we have three dots after our names.”
“An ellipsis?”
Tiberius grinned. “You were always the smarter one.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“How many perfect shells do you find out here?” He rolled the tiny pieces through his fingers.
