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He’d stalked her. Scared her. The smile on his face said he’d enjoyed all of it.
Her mind fought back, determined not to let reality set in. She shifted, keeping him in front of her as she circled, putting her back to the kitchen area. A sturdy wall and no way to be surprised from behind. “Tell me what’s going on, Jared.”
But she knew. Every word, the feral look on his face. He’d come home to his killing ground.
Only one thing stood in his way—her.
“Aaron arrived at my house that night after your big fight, furious and mumbling. You’d been digging around in his stuff. You’d found him out.” He sat on the arm of the couch,looking relaxed and acting as if they were talking about normal things on any other day. “He was sure you’d talk to the police and he wanted you dead. That night.”
“Sounds like Aaron.”
“I said no, of course. People always blame the husband, and I couldn’t have that kind of spotlight so close to me before I had a chance to prepare.”
“Of course,” she repeated the thrown-away comment as she glanced around the room, looking for something that could fend off that hammer.
“He liked the chase. Always did. Never enjoyed the kill.” Jared laughed. “Which really pissed Dad off. All that training and Aaron was a lost cause. He fucked. I killed.”
She froze. “I don’t understand.”
He sighed like he was disappointed in her. “You do.”
God, she did. A family enterprise. Aaron had been blamed for the killings, but that honor belonged to Jared, and to his dad before him. Aaron’s sin was not forgivable but was also not murder.
“Explain it to me.” Still stalling. Still thinking of a way out.
“I’ll give you a hint.” He put his foot on the rocker part of the rocking chair. “This one is mine. The one in your house belongs to Aaron.”
Identical chairs.
He tapped the rocker and set it in motion. “They were on the porch growing up. He’d sit there and look over his property. Watch the games begin.”
Games?
“When Dad died, we each took one. I brought mine here so I could sit outside and enjoy a nice evening. Get a little air.”
He sounded so logical and calm, just as he always did. She’d expected that someone who lived this secret life would be unspooled, deranged. Talking in undecipherable rants. Nothing prepared her for hownormalhe looked. She had naïvely believed she’d be able to pick horror out of the crowd and stay away. But the opposite was true. He’d blended in and made her believe.
“See, Dad liked to hunt. Animals were for eating. They served a purpose. The other hunts, the ones with women, those were for fun. He took us along from the time I was eight or so to this farm in Pennsylvania.”
The thought of the boys being dragged along... “Eight?”
“I still remember it. Fischer’s Farm. It sat near a lake, and the school sometimes rented it out for events.” He let out a harsh laugh. “At first I didn’t understand what was happening. All these men and this naked woman. Then they would give her a head start and go. They’d sit and wait before scrambling after her. Then the game would begin.”
The dizziness hit her, and she fought through it. She had to stay on her feet and focus. “You can’t be serious.”
“Those guys were really sick. The things they’d do once they caught the women?” He shook his head. “Shit, that was too much for me. I liked the hunt, but at the end of every hunt you do the humane thing.”
She didn’t want him to say the words, so she did. “Kill them.”
“Now you get it. You put the animal down.”
“Jared...”
He actually smiled at her. “Aaron didn’t have the stomach for it. He liked to mess with girls, have sex with them. It was this weirdconquer themthing he had. But you know that because you were his biggest prize.”
She couldn’t let her mind go there.
She reached into her pocket and brought out her pocketknife. Tucked it into her palm. “This is your cabin.”
