Page 28 of Overkill

I hated him. I hated him so much! I wanted him dead. I wanted him dead, especially now! Why couldn’t he have stayed gone?

“Babe…”

Hands touched my shoulder. I whirled, hand out, palm flat. The slap was a crack of lightning splitting the room in two.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out of my jeans and stared at the screen where the preview showed the entire message.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: You’re next.

I gasped. Whimpered. Stumbled backwards into drawers as I covered my mouth. My vision narrowed on his face, one cheek a bright, angry red, as he approached me.

The world tilted. It was about to topple, and I couldn’t breathe. My chest constricted, like my body would explode and implode at the same time, as my brain became nothing but fog and fear.

“Melody, look at me!”

Chapter 9

Look at Me

Vedder

“I’m sorry!” She teetered on the edge. If I didn’t grab her, hold her, embrace her, she would fall. “I’m sorry.”

“Baby, you have to look at me.” I reached out, stopping short of clamping my hands on her shoulders. “Come on…”

Come on, sweetheart, look at me.

“Don’t call me that!” she wailed.

Call her what? I rewound what I’d said. She didn’t like to be called Baby? Okay.

My cheek stung, but it was fine. I needed her to look at me. I needed her to come back from whatever haunted nightmare she’d plunged into.

“Ma’am, we need you to confirm that’s Luke Gray.”

I was glad this medical examiner worked with the dead, because the woman had no sympathy for the living.

She whimpered again, tears streaming down her smooth cheeks.

“Melody, look at me, please,” I barked, panic seeping through my voice, desperate to get her back.

Her eyes widened as she collapsed into my arms, nose sniveling into my chest and soaking my flannel with snot and tears. Her fingernails dug into my shirt, pulling me into her as she clung on.

“Ma’am, we need you to—”

“Can you give her a minute?” I snapped at the examiner, glaring at her from over Melody’s head as I rested my chin on her crown and wrapped her up in my arms. “She just needs a second!”

The woman rolled her eyes and picked at her nails. Again, I thanked the gods that she only worked with the dead.

“Melody,” I whispered into her hair. Once she gave an answer, we could get the fuck out of here. “Sweetheart, you’ve gotta tell us if that’s him. Can you do that for me?”

I ran my hand up and down her back, feeling her trembling frame through both my jacket and her thick, buffalo plaid shirt.

“Melody?” I wanted to call her darling, baby, sweetheart, lover…but I couldn’t. Not until I knew what had set her off.

She shivered in my arms, so I held her tighter. Willed my blood to flow faster so I could keep us both warm, rocking her back and forth as she cried.

“It’s him,” she whispered.