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“You will be,” he promised. “But I’m sorry anyway.”
We arrived at the café first. Stellan and I took separate seats so he could watch the situation and be ready to respond if Alexander tried anything; I’d have a nice little sit-down with my future mother-in-law one on one.
I ordered a chai and at least it was sweet and delicious even if I had to deal with Rebecca’s bullshit. Maybe I could at least get her to focus on murder this time and not recipes.
Alexander and the Demon were friends—right up until the Demon killed Cain’s aunt. She’d been Alexander’s sister.
And I had a feeling I needed to know why to unravel the last pieces of this particular puzzle. The Demon always had to justify his killings with some kind of misbehavior from his victims. What had Cain’s aunt done?
Rebecca arrived, shadowed by two bodyguards who sat down at another table, looking as subtle as Stellan did with their big blocky bodies in suits, sitting down at a place that served high tea on little floral plates.
Rebecca flashed me a beaming smile, as bright white as the immaculate dress she was wearing. “Aurora! Are you playing a trick on me?”
“I’m sorry. I wanted to talk to you face to face.”
And I didn’t want your asshole husband to kidnap me.
“Well, I’ll always make time for you,” she gushed warmly as she sat down. “And for this place! It’s my favorite tea shop. You have to try the rosemary lemon scone!”
I wasn’t sure she had a great memory for how things went the last time we were face to face. Or maybe she had a great imagination, an endless ability to pretend everything was fine. The image of her smiling with her headphones as the Demon tortured someone to death and Alexander watched rose to my mind.
“Why did you want to talk to me?” she asked. “If you’re trying to patch things up between our boys, well, I am with you! It’s so sad to see them fighting. I had to sneak off; Alexander would never approve.”
“You—” I started, then cut myself off. Now I understood why she had seemed so nice despite the darkness of Alexander’s world. She lived in an alternate reality. “Yes, that would be great. I had a different question for you, though.”
“What’s that?”
“You knew my father.”
“That’s not a question, darling.” She tilted her head to one side. She was all style and grace, her makeup perfect, her hair pulled back into a sleek, low chignon. “But yes. I did. He and Alexander were great friends.”
Were.
“Can you tell me about him?” I asked. “We haven’t been on the best of terms lately. I’d like to understand him better.”
“Oh, that’s sweet,” she said. “Family should really try to patch up their differences.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing him again and talking things out,” I said. And by talk, I mean murder.
“Alexander and I used to go on weekends away with your father,” she said. “I think we went four or five times? They were very close. You know your father can be so charming.”
“He certainly can.” He’d charmed me when I was a little girl, that was for sure. I’d loved him so much after he rescued me from my evil foster mom and the abusive creep who had been my ‘big brother’.
The trail of blood he left through that house, splattered on the carpet outside their bedrooms, should’ve been a clue for me.
And then the briefest flash of another delusion. The blood on the carpet. The Demon, murmuring, “Oh, princess. What did you do?” in a tone I couldn’t read, that might have been shock or pride.
Drops of blood falling from the tip of the blade to the carpet.
The feel of the hilt hard in my small hand.
No, none of that really happened. It was like the faces in the crowd. I was just…coming unraveled. I wished Stellan weren’t sitting a few tables away, watching Rebecca’s bodyguards. It was easier when he was near me.
She was watching me with a curious smile fixed across her face, as if she were trying to figure me out.
“Where did you go?” I asked.
“Once we went to this lovely town, Lake Placid, in upstate New York. It was fall and the leaves were golden and everything was just so gorgeous. In the Adirondacks. Have you ever been? The foliage was beautiful—Alexander and I took a picnic and went for a hike along this trail around the lake.”
