“Sometimes our fears are triggered by events in our lives and people around us,” Gil said. “But talking about them can be helpful.”
“I saw the news, too,” the woman named Lily said. “I’m sure you aren’t the only parent who feels that way right now.”
Dana Jo soaked in the woman’s kind voice. “It also brought back nightmares of what happened to me a while back.”
Silence stretched for a long minute, then Gil murmured for her to go on. For a moment, Dana Jo felt the faint beginnings of one of her migraines and massaged her temple. Maybe if she talked about it, her nightmares would stop.
“The problem is that I don’t remember exactly what happened to me,” she said. “But over two years ago, almost three now, I was taken, assaulted, injured and left for dead near the ridge where Minnie died.” Her chest heaved with the strain of the memory. She saw the shadow again. The man cloaked in all black. She was fighting, clawing to escape even as the world spun in circles. For a brief second, an image of a face appeared in those shadows, but… she couldn’t distinguish his features.
God help me. The image was so close she could almost touch it. She closed her eyes, trying to force it. It was on the tip of her mind, but she couldn’t quite grasp it.
“Dana Jo?” Gil said softly.
She opened her eyes, panic building. “I… was assaulted and… his face is on the edge of my memory. Part of me doesn’t want to remember.” Her voice cracked. “But another part wants to see his face so I can make him pay for what he did to me. But then…” Then one day Lou Lou would know how she was conceived.
And she never wanted her daughter to find out the truth about that or feel like she wasn’t wanted or loved. In spite of how she’d been conceived, Lou Lou was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
She’d die if anything happened to her.
SIXTY-ONE
Dana Jo had been at the meeting tonight. He’d watched her fidget as she’d entered and homed in on her nails, which were chewed down to the nubs. A nervous Nellie and all because of him.
Laughter bubbled inside him at the fact that he was responsible for that fear.
Except she didn’t remember his face.
Still, her comments had needled him and he’d left the meeting early, making an excuse about an emergency. Now he hovered in his car where he’d parked in the shadows of some trees across the street from the church.
Being so close to her was bittersweet. Part of him wanted Dana Jo to look at him and remember everything so he could savor the terror in her eyes when she did. But his rational side warned him that if she did recognize him, she might go to the cops and then the truth would be revealed.
He didn’t intend to let that happen.
Sweat beaded his neck as he waited on the meeting to end. Finally she hurried out, walking to her car with her keys poised to fight and pepper spray in her hand like they taught in those self-defense classes for girls. She’d said just enough tonight togarner sympathy from the others in the room but not enough detail to raise suspicion that her story was different from the way the news had portrayed it when she’d been found.
When she got in her car, she locked the doors and looked around, then dropped her head into her hands. Her shoulders shook with her sobs, and she rubbed her temple as if massaging a bad headache.
The door to the meeting room opened again and the woman named Lily stepped outside, the wind tearing her hair from the clasp at the nape of her neck.
Something about her bugged him.
He’d bet his nuts she was lying about her name.
Her face seemed familiar. As if he’d either seen her before or seen her photograph…
Damn, she was a pretty thing. Too old for the profile he was hunting but… she might make a perfect date just to find out more about her.
He’d been tempted to ask her for coffee but wanted to do a little research on her first.
He’d seen her glance at her phone at the break. Wondered if she had a child at home she needed to check on. Or a man. Boyfriend? Husband? He hadn’t seen a ring on her left hand.
Maybe a lover checking up on her.
If not, did she want one? Having a girlfriend would make a perfect foil for what he was doing.
She hadn’t mentioned a kid. But that didn’t mean she didn’t have one.
She’d be fun anyway, but a kid would make it even more fulfilling. One at a time, he intended to save the world from these unfit mothers.
