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“Oh, it’s Roger.”I read the text and feel my heart speed up.“Oh, God, he’s hurt.He needs me.Mill?—”
“Go,” she says immediately as I untie my apron and shove my phone into my pocket.“Just go, I’ve got this.”
I hop into the Suburban and drive faster than I should the short distance to Roger’s house.I’ve barely turned the engine off when I’m sprinting up the sidewalk to the front door and use my key to get inside.
“Rog?”I call out, my heart in my throat.“Where are you, Roger?”
“Oh, he’s not here.”
I freeze at the sound of that voice.
Iknowthat voice.
ChapterTwenty-Three
Erin
This can’t be happening.
That’s all that keeps running through my mind as I stare at Clay.Thiscan’tbe happening.Because that voice doesn’t belong to Clay; it belongs to Steven Turner, the man who made my life a living hell before he was put in prison.
“Clay?”I ask, my mind whirling as I try to figure out what to do.“Where’s Roger?”
“I don’t care,” he says and shoves his hands into his pockets.The southern accent is nowhere in sight.“He’s nothere.And don’t call me Clay.Clay is a pussy role I played to get close to you.”
“I didn’t even recognize you,” I murmur.I’m shocked that I can hear anything over the pounding in my ears.“You’re supposed to be in Washington.”
“I’msupposedto be wherever the fuck you are!”His voice is hard and loud.“Of course, you didn’t recognize me.I made sure of it.”
He pulls the contacts out of his eyes and drops them to the floor.He peels off a little mustache and even pulls a teeth prosthetic out of his mouth, dropping that, as well.
A damp washcloth appears from his back pocket, and he wipes makeup off his face.And now, aside from the lighter hair, I can see that itisSteven.
“You’re such a fucking slut.”His eyes are wild.Crazy.“You promised you’d wait for me.I did everything right.”
He takes a breath and calms his voice.
“I figured out how to make the guards and warden like me.I got a job in the computer lab, and I finally figured out how to hack into all kinds of servers.I changed my release date.I deleted any mention of victim’s rights so your family wouldn’t have to know.I changed the way I looked.JUST LOOK AT HOW MUCH I DID FOR YOU!”
I take a tiny step back and lick my lips.
“Oh, no.You’re not going anywhere.”He tsks, shaking his head like I’m a kid who’s been bad.“Youmockedmy flowers.MY FLOWERS!They’re beautiful.They’re your favorite.”
“They used to be.You ruined that for me.”
His face pulls into a sneer.“Fuck that.You love them.You stopped working at the coffee shop, so I didn’t get to see you anymore, and that pissed me off.Hurt my feelings.I’ve had to drive back and forth to fucking Washington.Do you have any idea how inconvenient that is?How long it takes?I don’t have a private jet that I can just fly around in at my whim.”
Oh, God.What do I do?I don’t know what to do.
“How did you find me in Bitterroot Valley?”I need to stall him, keep him talking.
“Please.”He rolls his eyes and then looks at me like I’m a child that needs placating.“It’s not like you changed your name or something.You even got a Montana driver’s license.I hack into computers, remember?I tried to chat with you on social media, but you wouldn’t reply to my messages.”
I frown, and then it dawns on me.The spam I deleted.It was fromhim.
“The only good thing that happened is that I got your old apartment and your old furniture.”His face splits into a sick, perverted smile.“I fucked you on every surface in that apartment.”
I’m going to throw up.
