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CHAPTER 30
Savannah’s first conscious thought was that she was lying on a cold slab. Every muscle ached, and she was freezing. She slowly came awake to realize she was lying naked atop a granite kitchen island. Bluish moonlight left a hard rectangle across her feet, the only illumination in an otherwise dark room.
She tried to lift her hand, but it was tied down. Both hands were. And her legs.
“Been waiting for you . . . ,” a voice said silkily from across the room.
Savvy turned her head sharply and saw he was standing by the fireplace. She could just make out a jumble of wood inside the hearth, but Charlie didn’t seem to be in any hurry to light it. He probably hadn’t put it there, she realized. The house had a cold, empty feel and a faintly musty smell.
The Donatella home. Left to rot and fall into the ocean.
He’d brought Kristina here.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said, coming closer. He was still wearing his dark jacket and jeans, while she was completely nude, and his nose, though swollen, had stopped bleeding. Just looking at him, her teeth started chattering. “Don’t worry. I’m gonna get you real warm,” he said, running a finger along her jawline and down her neck, along the curve of her breast and down her hipline. She was afraid she would feel that noxious sexual thrill again. No wonder Kristina had been so desperate and crazy! He’d put her under his spell, somehow, just like Catherine had predicted.
He was Declan Jr. He’d said so. He’d killed Kristina and he’d killed Owen DeWitt and he’d probably killed his mother, too.
His grin was so malevolent, she had to remind herself that he was just a man. Not a demon. Gift or no gift, he was still just a man.
Savvy had to keep him talking. She had to buy time until what? Victoria saw her car in the driveway? Hale came home and wondered what had happened to her?
“What name do you go by?” she asked him, trying to stop her shivering.
“Henry Charles Woodworth. That’s what my adoptive parents called me, before my ‘mother’ committed suicide, that is. Think I should change it to Declan, like my birth certificate?”
“You’re not Declan Bancroft’s son,” Savvy said. “That was just something Mary told Catherine as a means to hurt her. Your real father is someone else.”
“You’re wrong.”
“I don’t think so.”
“He’s my father. Why do you think I’m working for him? Because I love the job? Bancroft Development is rightfully mine.” He made a disparaging sound. “I’ve been letting the old man know he shouldn’t have ignored me.”
“What do you mean?” She’d turned her head toward the window at the front of the house, and though he’d pulled the drapes closed, there was a sliver of moonlit porch and driveway visible beyond. And her car sat in front of the house.
Her car.
She felt despair. Maybe Victoria didn’t even know she’d come by.
“I mean, I’m a Bancroft and I deserve what’s mine. Oh, don’t shiver. I’ve got what you need right here.” He grabbed his crotch and grinned some more. “But you gotta be patient, like me. I’ve been thinking about you ever since you came to the job site. Couldn’t get you outta my head. It’s too bad, because I treated Nadine pretty badly afterward, but she always comes around.”
“What about Jacob Balboa?” Savvy asked. Her thoughts were on Kristina, but she couldn’t go there. She didn’t think she could stand hearing what he said about her.
She’d surprised him with the name. He blinked several times and asked sharply, “What about him?”
“My partner’s at his house. Did you kill him? Why?”
“Now, hold on. I didn’t say I killed him.”
“You did, though,” Savvy realized, reading between the lines. Would anyone be looking for her? The only one who was expecting her was the nanny, and she had no faith in Victoria.
“Balboa was asking all about you. And he knew a little too much about Good Time Charlie. I had to . . . take care of things.”
“And then you came to the coast, after you killed both him and DeWitt,” Savvy said.
“Dimwit! If anyone deserved to die, it was that piece of human garbage.” He leaned closer. Savvy would have shrunk away if she could have. “But it’s their black souls that hold the mysteries. I look into their eyes and . . .” He closed his own eyes and sucked in air with a sigh of pleasure. “I can see every part of them. Your sister was so easy, but she knew too much, too.”
“That’s why you killed her.”
