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Kris dozed on and off, jerking awake every twenty minutes, afraid she’d see the sun shining in, discover the day half-gone and her opportunity to “girl talk” with Jamaica gone. Which meant at 5:00 A.M. Kris already stood outside the coffee shop.
No one answered her knock, so she pressed her face to the glass. A circle of golden light spread from the back room. Flickering shadows gave the impression of someone moving to and fro—Jamaica doing paperwork.
Kris tried the door, which wasn’t locked. Probably not the brightest idea with a serial killer on the loose. She’d mention it to Jamaica.
In the gloom, she dodged chairs and tables. It wasn’t until she stood a few feet from the office that she heard the strange sounds.
Heavy breathing. Splashing. Then the screams.
She took the final steps into the room at a near run, then stared at the television, transfixed. It only took an instant for her to recognize the incident on the loch playing across the screen. The woman going under, bobbing up. The figures on the other side, too far away to really see.
“What the hell?” she murmured as something big hit the water and moved quickly across.
Even though she knew Nessie was coming to help, Kris shivered. From this angle, it didn’t appear that Nessie was helping the woman at all. From here, it looked like Nessie was killing her.
A shuffle sounded behind her. “Jamaica, where did you—” Kris turned.
It wasn’t Jamaica.
CHAPTER 26
Liam had planned to keep watch on the cottage until his presence was required in the loch. But after a few hours spent staring at the light in the window, he realized just how pathetic he was and took a walk.
Why had he allowed himself to fall in love with her? Liam kicked at a dead branch in his path. As if he’d had any choice in the matter at all.
So intelligent, so interesting, so brave, and yet so wounded. The way she’d looked him right in the eye and insisted—to him!—that there was no Loch Ness Monster. Yet when presented with undeniable evidence she’d not only changed her goal but also become fascinated with everything about Nessie. About him.
She would tilt her chin just so, and her lips wo
uld tighten as she tried to hold in the pain, but her eyes swam with the memories of love and loss and betrayal. Memories she had shared with him. To be trusted like that had made Liam feel truly human.
He’d thought himself miserable before. But now he would experience the agony of loving with no hope of being loved in return. Who could love a creature such as he? He had blood on his hands that would never wash free no matter how many days he swam in the loch.
Even if by some miracle Kris loved him back—perhaps if she hit her head one too many times and completely forgot the meaning of the words liar and murderer—her loss was inevitable, as she would die and he would not.
Too bad the witch who had cursed him wasn’t still alive to witness his pain. She would love it.
Liam wandered, but the loch and the trees and the bright shiny moon did not give him an instant’s peace, so he came back to Kris.
By the time he returned, the window was dark and she was asleep. He glanced to the east. Just a few hours until dawn.
Suddenly a car pulled up. Her brother got out, then pounded on the front door, shouting her name. He rattled the knob. The door held.
Until he kicked it in.
Liam ran across the road, up the walk, and into the house. He knew even before Marty, staring at her open computer, said, “Fuck!” that Kris was gone.
“What happened?” Liam asked.
“There’s an e-mail from Jamaica telling Kris to meet her at the coffee shop.” He headed for the door.
Liam put his hand to the man’s chest. “What is so wrong with that?”
“Jamaica Blue is in a hospital in Inverness.”
Liam’s blood, which had run cold since that cursed night beneath the moon, suddenly ran even colder. “Why?”
“Someone beat the hell out of her, then left her for dead. The doctors have no idea why she’s still alive.”
