AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A moment of relief washes over me, before I call back, “Thank you!” because I really do say thank you, despite some people claiming otherwise. Being a bitch is not a way of life. It’s a destination I travel to when an idiot guides me there. As for my appreciation, it’s given when and where deserved. Coffee deserves it. Orgasms deserve it. Chocolate, as long as it’s fresh, deserves it. Stale chocolate is really a sin in and of itself, but not completely off-limits if it helps me focus and find a clue to catching a killer. A clue from anyone that is not me for once would be worthy of a hell of a lot of appreciation but rarely seems to flow in my direction.
This is why I’m already walking to Purgatory, thankful that at least for the moment, Miguel is not front and center. He needs to be dealt with but I don’t know how I manage Kane going to war with his uncle at the same time as The Scream King is wearing his crown. One thing at a time, I hope, and I focus on the public interest, not my own. I sit down at my desk, intending to study all of my notes pinned on my board. I also have notes on my notepads to address and plenty of data on my MacBook and in my email. Before I can deal with any of this, my phone is blowing up, just one big text message. I scan the contents of the threads to learn Rollins and his team still can’t find the chainsaw. This makes me think it’s in the vacant apartment next to the murder site.
Rollins apparently has the same thought, as his messages indicate that he’s already checked the vacant apartment. He’s working on getting approval from everyone living on the floor for a search, which is apparently a total of six. I tap the desk. We’re doing what the killer expects. He has to know we’d rapid-fire with warrants. What are we missing? Maybe he really did walk in and out of the building with a chainsaw. The impossible is often more possible than we realize. I text Tic Tac:Is there anything on the cameras that show a chainsaw going in and out of the building?
Kane appears in the doorway, dressed in pajama bottoms and a nice, snug T-shirt, a one-day stubble on his jaw. I don’t know if the stubble or the two cups of coffee in his hands is hotter, but the coffee is steaming. “I dropped the pot and cracked it,” he informs me. “I had to use that old pot we meant to get rid of.”
It’s moments like this when he is just Kane, the man I love, who is fallible and human, that not only make me love him, they keep me grounded. He’s managed to remind me that I’m more,we are more,than a bloody river in an apartment building.
He closes the space between us and hands me my cup and leans on the desk next to me. I sip my coffee. “Perfect,” I say. “The old pot is pretty good.”
“Did you get your four hours?” he asks.
“I went right to sleep,” I say, “but, I actually wanted to tell you something.”
“Another confession?” he teases.
“Actually,” I reply. “Of a sort, yes. I had a nightmare right after I moved to LA, actually quite often, but not anytime recently.”
“But you had it last night?”
“Yes, I had it again last night. I don’t know how I didn’t put it all together but the blood, the phobia, it’s about that nightmare. You and I were on the beach and the ocean turned to blood. At first, I blamed you and then I realized, no. No, it was all me. But the real point here is that I was really shitty to you, Kane. You saved my life, and I didn’t appreciate that. And I’m sorry. Maybe that’s what the guilt is about. Never really saying I’m sorry.”
He sets his cup down and then takes mine from me before pulling me to my feet. “You’ve said you’re sorry, Lilah. We’ve done all this before. You need to set all of this aside and focus on this case. You can get him. You might be the only one who can. And if you really need to apologize again, bella, do it naked,afterthis case is solved. I’m always available to you for those types of apologies. Or fights. Or you naked in general.” He hands me my coffee. “Get him.”
“I will,” I assure him, and before I can stop myself, I’ve gone down the rabbit hole I’d traveled moments before alone. “My track record says I’ll kill him in the process.”
He arches a brow. “Is that a problem?”
“I think arresting someone might look good, but no. No, I actually don’t ever feel guilty about killing bad guys. I really think all my guilt was about you.”
“Well, I’m right here.” He sits down in the chair and it’s then that I realize his laptop is on the table next to him.
“You’re working from here today?”
He sips his coffee and says, “If I leave this apartment without a plan, the plan will be to drive to Miguel and kill him. We know all the reasons that it’s not a good decision. In other words, yes, I’m working from home.”
Who am I kidding? I think I’m dealing with the freak in the maskanda war between Kane and Miguel at the same time. Neither of these things will wait. The sooner I catch this killer, the better. And as for my reasoning as to why I don’t like bloody rivers, in the back of my mind, my answer feels too simple.
For now, I’m focused on the Scream King, not a killer named Lilah Love-Mendez.
She’s buried alive, at least until I need her again.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I’ve barely sat back down when my father calls. I answer with, “You made it until almost seven. Kane was sure you couldn’t make it past six.”
“Perhaps you need a weathered lawman to help you formulate this plan, Lilah. I called to offer my services.”
“Looking at the evidence is my plan.”
“So, you have no plan.”
My jaw tics. “You want a plan? Here’s my plan. Everyone, including you, needs to keep their mouths shut until I have time to work on the evidence. Actually,especiallyyou. I told you, I believe he acted last night to answer your challenge. If you talk before I tell you to talk, then any blood spilled is on your hands. And because I’m not sure that matters to you, let me add that I will make sure the city, state, and the world know you disobeyed an FBI directive to get attention and do so before election night.”
My phone buzzes with another call and I glance at the caller ID to find the mayor calling. “That’s the mayor. Is there some government rule that says you must call and be pains in the asses at seven?”
“Let’s set a meeting. When can you and Kane come to my place? We can discuss the attack on my life, the case, and my security.”
