He was confused. “At what exactly?”
“Your surgery in the morning.”
“Oh!” That was so automatic to him that he never even let it cross his mind until he was actually in the operating room. “It will be,” he said confidently.
Maude looked at him. “Lord willing it will be,” she said with that smile he actually found attractive too. “Because if the Lord ain’t willing, your patient is in trouble.”So stop being so cocky about it, she wanted to add, but didn’t. He heard her out. He was going to help Natasha. She did what she came to do.
Besides, he gave her some serious food for thought that just might help Natasha’s investigation alone, and her investigation too. Because now that she knew what Ross Hampton was really all about, which seemed to be framing women for murders he just might be committing, she wasn’t about to quit. If anything that visit with Natasha’s brother made her all the more determined to find out the truth and publish the story that could relaunch her floundering career. This was a very successful trip.
Then she looked at Edmund again. And she smiled that angelic smile again. And those eyes. He,which meant she, was in trouble if he didn’t hurry up and close that door. “Good night,” he said to her once she was off of his threshold and actually outside.
“Good night,” she said with a little wave, then he closed himself safely in, and left her safely out.
It was a strange feeling when that door shut. For that small time she spent with him, she felt as if she had something going on. As if she wasn’t alone in the world anymore. But as soon as that door slammed shut, she felt that aloneness like a slap in the face. But she was so accustomed to nobody caring if she lived or died that she got on with it. She walked off of his porch.
Even when she was with all her other boyfriends and they knew she had to work a case that had her out late at night alone, they never once offered to accompany her to make sure she got where she had to be safely. And if they never cared, or her aunt would abandon her the way she did, why should some stranger she’d just met break the mole?
After pulling out her phone and ordering up an Uber, she made her way off of Edmund’s property and headed for the front gate of the gated community where the meet up point with the Uber driver was determined to be. She gathered her shoulder bag close to her small body to fend off the cool night air despite her windbreaker, and she walked. She felt so alone, but she walked on.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
It was a good little walk to the front of the exclusive neighborhood, and it was a scary walk too. All of the houses were huge mansions that were so far off from the main road and with so many high walls and fences that nobody would hear or see her even if she needed their aid. She prayed she didn’t need anybody as she made her way down that long, winding sidewalk that would take her to the front of the guard booth.
Not a car drove by. Not even the sound of a barking dog could be heard. It became so eerily quiet as she walked that it reminded her of all those years ago after that car crash. Itfeltdangerous. She was practically running by the time she got to the front of that gate.
The only reason the Uber driver that brought her there was able to get through the first time was because of his relationship with the guard at the gate. He picked up or dropped off so often in that neighborhood that all of the various guards knew him and always waved him through. Or so he claimed.
But she was to have a different driver this time, and he wasn’t trying to get inside that gate. He was taking no chances. She had to go up front, he said, and wait for him there.
She walked down the narrow sidewalk that led outside of the gate and was surprised to see that the guard booth was unmanned. She thought, in this millionaires kind of neighborhood, a guard would be on duty twenty-four-seven. But what did she know?
And then she saw him. A chubby white man in a plaid jacket. He was apparently on the opposite side of the largebooth. Or maybe he had to go in the woods to relieve himself and was just returning. But in any event, she was happy to see him.
“Hey there,” she said with a smile. “I didn’t think anybody was on duty.”
“Oh yeah?” He spoke with his own friendly smile as he began walking toward her. “I’m on duty.”
But all of a sudden, as he walked toward her, there was something about his manner, something she couldn’t put her finger on, that screamed danger. That told her as if it was a red flashing light to run, and to not look back.
She took off running. She learned to never hesitate when her hackles went up. It was her survival mechanism. But she barely got a few feet away before that man had run up on her, grabbed her violently, and covered her mouth even as she began to scream. Then he lifted her up like she was a feather. She was kicking him and beating on him as he carried her into those woods that were on either side of the entrance as if he knew that area like the back of his hand.
Then he threw her to the ground, got his large body down on top of her, and continued to cover her mouth with one hand as he began choking her with his other big hand.
She was fighting with all she had within her. She grabbed the arm of the hand that was choking her and tried to release the pressure. She was still kicking her legs and shoes, trying to kick him, but she couldn’t reach him. It was as if she was hurting herself more than she was hurting him.
But when he looked into her eyes as he continued to choke her, and then looked down the length of her body, the pressure on her neck eased and he took that hand and began attempting to unbutton her jeans. She started fighting even harder when he couldn’t unbutton them, and he then tried tojust pull them down anyway. But he couldn’t do that with one hand either.
And that was when, for the briefest of moments, his hand left her mouth to help himself pull down her pants. And that was when she screamed a bloodcurdling scream that caused every bird in those woods to fly away as if she was screaming at them.
After she let out that scream and he quickly covered back up her mouth, his rage soared. And instead of removing her clothes as he had intended, he began choking her so hard, and so violently, that she could feel herself going limp.
And then, as her limpness turned into a kind of paralysis, she saw a light, a bright white light that nearly blinded her. And then she went completely dark.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Nope. Valentino,” said Wyatt Peterson.
“He wore that yesterday,” Donnell “Don” McVay responded. “I say Armani.”
