Tears fill my eyes, and I take a deep, steadying breath. “God, please help them. Please keep them safe. And Lord, please help me. If it is Your will that I survive—” I choke on the words. “Please grant me rescue.”
The door opens, and Jack strolls in, soaking wet from the storm. Hair I’ve brushed my fingers through now matted to his head. His eyes—eyes that I’ve stared into lovingly—are wide and excited now.
He looks wild.
Unrecognizable even.
Nothing like the man who proposed to me in my mother’s kitchen or sat heartbroken on my steps.
“Whew, what a storm! It’s exhilarating, isn’t it?”
“Why are you doing this?”
With one hand on the wall to steady himself, he walks over toward the chair across from me and sinks down. “Do you remember when we first met? I told you that I’d been to Stormwatch Landing before with my parents.”
“Yes.”
“That was the truth. I had been there before. Eighteen years ago.”
Bile burns the inside of my throat at the implication. How could I not have put the pieces together? I should have once I discovered he was not the man I thought he was.
But I don’t think I wanted to admit it.
How can I admit—even to myself—that a man I was in a close personal relationship with for eight months could be capable of such horrific things?
“The first time I saw you was on the beach. You were with Violet, the two of you looking so absolutely gorgeous in your swimsuits.” He shivers. “But you—there was something about you that captivated me. I wanted so badly to know you. To reach out and touch your soft skin.” He reaches forward, and I turn away, but he runs his finger over my cheek anyway. “That night, I got invited to a party by some other girls I ran into, so I went. You weren’t there, but Violet was.” He grins at me.
Gone is the charm.
The mask he wore.
Now I see nothing but the obsession that clearly turned to madness.
“It was perfect. We danced, and I convinced her to have a few drinks. The more intoxicated she got, the more she opened up about you. Her perfect friend, who was headed to an Ivy League school. Who was going to change the world. And I just knew that I needed you. So, I asked her to call you. She laughed it off and said it wasn’t your scene. That you couldn’t come out.”
I can see her doing just that.
Did she think he was handsome?
Was she looking for that spark we’d talked about with a boy who would ultimately kill her?
A tear tracks down my cheek.
“I got tired of waiting. So, I slipped her a little something. Meant to just take the edge off. She did call you, but instead of letting me wait with her outside, she lied and snuck out a bathroom window. By the time I realized what had happened, you were already pulling away from the curb. I knew I couldn’t let you get away. My plan was to grab you first, then deal with her. But the road had too much traffic, so I grabbed her first. She was the one who saw me, after all.”
“You killed her,” I whisper. “This whole time, it was you.”
“When I came back for you, you were already gone. I managed to catch up to you right as you found her.” He smiles as if it’s a happy memory. “So beautiful even in your grief. I snapped a picture and moved in to grab you, but that brute brother of hers had arrived. Apparently, you’d called him before getting out of the car. After that, they surrounded you with so much protection I thought I’d lost my chance.”
Anger burns away at my fear. Fury that drowns out all other emotions.
He murdered her because of me.
She died out of convenience. Why does that make it so much worse?
“Anyway. Boring details follow. I decided I would be good at hunting down killers, so that’s what I did. What a perfect place to hide, after all. No one would suspect me. And then I got called back to Stormwatch Landing.” He throws his head back and laughs. “It was too perfect, really. Especially when I saw you standing there. Even more beautiful. And I just knew this was my second chance to get to know you. To have what I still craved even after all those years. Nothing satisfied. No other woman did for me what you did, and we’d never even met.”
Bitter bile burns my throat. “You knew who I was even when we met?” I kissed this man. We went on dates. Laughed together. Held hands.
