Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 109878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
“Follow me.”
I head for the stairs, not waiting to see if she follows. Her footsteps echo behind me, laced with anger but curious enough to keep pace.
We climb to the third floor, walk through the hallway of skeleton keys that sway gently as we pass. At the blood-red door, I pull out the raven key and unlock it.
“After you.”
Saylor steps into the room, and I watch her face as she processes what she’s seeing. She’s been here before, but now she’s looking with different eyes, searching for answers instead of just recoiling from the horror.
“There,” I say, pointing to an empty eighth table. “That’s where your hunter would go.”
“My hunter?”
“Brutus Crow,” I say conversationally. “His intent is to kill you. When I finally get him, his skull will be sitting on that table with your name on the placard. In due time.
“The skulls aren’t of the women—they’re of the women’s hunters. Each skull represents a man who was hired to kill the woman whose name is on the placard.” I move to stand beside her. “I know it may seem twisted that I keep their skulls, but I like to keep reminders. Just like my cemetery in the garden for all the souls I couldn’t save, or the portraits of the ones I did to remind me of the good, I wanted to keep these to remind me of the bad, the darkness, the reason I’m trying to not be like them. These are my reminders.”
“So all the women on your wall . . .”
“Are alive and well, living under new identities far from whatever danger brought them to me in the first place.
“Margaret was running from an abusive ex-husband who had connections in law enforcement. Eleanor needed to disappear from a stalker who’d killed her sister. Vivian got on the wrong side of a human trafficking ring.” I point to each table in turn. “Catherine had evidence against a cartel. Sophia witnessed a political assassination. The sixth woman—Penelope—was a federal prosecutor whose family was threatened.”
“And Cordelia?”
“Cordelia was the first. Ten years ago. She was Brutus Crow’s girlfriend, but she got smart and tried to leave him.” I run my hand along the edge of her table. “She came to me because she’d heard rumors about what I do. Begged me to help her disappear because Brutus doesn’t let anyone walk away alive.”
Saylor is quiet, processing. “So you faked their deaths.”
“Your father and I gave them new identities.”
“So all these skulls are actually bastards?”
“Every single one. Men who threatened, stalked, or tried to kill the women I was protecting.” I point to the table labeled Margaret. “That’s her ex-husband. Tracked her down three times before I convinced him to stop permanently.”
Saylor moves from table to table, reading the nameplates with new understanding. “Eleanor’s stalker. Vivian’s trafficker. Catherine’s cartel contact.”
“Justice served with a little reminder of the darkness I’m fighting against.”
She stops in front of the table labeled Cordelia. “And this is?”
“One of Brutus’s lieutenants. I wanted Brutus himself, but he was too well-protected. This bastard had to do.” I shrug. “Took me two years to track him down, but I’m very patient when it comes to revenge.”
“I saw Cordelia at the Dryad’s Dance. She was out of hiding.”
“Was teaching elementary school in Portland under the name Lisa Davies. Married to a nice accountant who thinks her first boyfriend died in a motorcycle accident. She was at the Dryad’s Dance because Brutus found her. Somehow tracked her down despite everything we did to hide her. She got away, but not before she heard them plotting. She came to warn me that they were planning the attack, even though showing her face put her right back in danger.”
Saylor sinks into the chair I keep in the corner—the same one I sit in sometimes when I need to remember why I do this work.
“I would never kill an innocent on purpose. I am a serial killer. I just happen to be very selective about my victims.”
“All the women are alive and free.”
She stares at the empty table where Brutus’s skull will eventually sit.
Saylor is quiet for a long time, processing everything I’ve told her. When she finally speaks, her voice is soft.
She stands up, moving toward me with heat in her eyes.
“You aren’t the villain in this story, Blue. You’re the hero.” Her smile turns fierce as her fingers find my shirt buttons.
“Saylor—”
“Shut up.” She yanks my shirt open, buttons scattering across the stone floor. “I’m done pretending I don’t love every twisted, beautiful thing about you.”
She shoves me back against the wall, her mouth finding mine with desperate hunger. When she bites my lower lip hard enough to draw blood, I groan and flip us around, pressing her against the cold stone while the skulls of criminals watch from their tables.
“Here?” I ask against her throat. “You want to do this here?”