The trip from Juneau, Alaska, to Spokane, Washington, took over forty-five hours with stops, traffic, and two border crossings. It would have been faster to fly, but we weren’t in a hurry. Better to have our car under one of Jason’s aliases anyway than have to deal with a rental. The tracker on Principal Hagley’s car stayed pretty much stationary. He was camped out in a motel, thinking he was safe from me because he was out of Alaska.
Fucking fool.
When I told Jason about Renfrew claiming Hagley had gambling debts, he was as surprised as I had been. We’d looked into the principal very thoroughly, and that hadn’t come up inour research. There was a rumor while Jason had been employed at the high school that Hagley’s wife had left him because he’d been having an affair, but that had never been proven either.
After a bit of research on the subject, I did discover that it is illegal to bet on high school sports. That’s not to say that people didn’t do it, and there was a big loan shark in the area that Jason had a connection to. After a single phone call, Jason learned that Gary Hagleyhadbeen a customer of the loan shark’s fifteen years ago. But after he’d paid off all his debts in one fell swoop, he’d never returned. Another phone call to a different loan shark said the same thing, along with a third.
How much had Hagley bet on the State Championship? But it did make sense. If he won enough to pay off two large loan sharks, plus the one from Canada,andhad enough money left over to pay off the adults involved in covering up my attack, including my own parents… That must have been one very large bet.
Did it even occur to him that he’d gambled something much more precious than just money? He’d gambled withmy life. His actions hadn’t just covered up my rape, but would also lead to my miscarrying my baby as well as my attempted suicide.
I wasn’t even going to ask him if it was worth it before I killed him.
I’d had this big, long elaborate scheme planned for his death. I’d thought of death by a thousand cuts, or removing all his extra extremities one by one, before moving onto his limbs, and seeing how long he lasts before he bleeds out, or placing him in a barrel with starving rats and letting them eat him alive, or drowning him, or burning him at the stake. Eventually, I landed on methodically skinning him alive and waiting for hypothermia to finally claim him. If shock doesn’t kill him, it could take days.
But now? I was so fucking tired. I might just have Jason beat him to death. After I broke a finger or two. How anticlimactic that I just wanted it done with.
It was near two in the morning by the time we pulled into the motel parking lot. We’d already switched license plates and placed a temporary wrap on the car. Ro-Ro was secured in the trunk. A few minutes in the idling car was all it took for Jason to take control of the cameras facing the parking lot and the main office.
Due to noisy neighbors and fucking Good Samaritans, we had to get the principal quickly and quietly. I’d find another place that was secure and secluded to kill him later.
We entered through the bathroom window.
The moment I stepped into the main room, the lamp between the two queen beds flicked on and my heart nearly stopped beating. Principal Hagley was bound and gagged on the bed closest to me, his eyes widening with horror as they landed on me. On the other mattress, looking haggard and so fucking sexy, was Master Mal.
“Took you long enough, Little Owl,” he said as he stood. Then he pointed his gun at Jason and me, using the barrel to indicate the bed he’d just vacated. “Take a seat. We need to talk.”
Chapter Seventy-Three
Holly
The dark circlesunder Master Mal’s eyes caught my attention as he shifted closer to the door so neither Jason nor I were in reach to disarm him as we walked to the bed. I kept myself between Jason and Master Mal. Jason was the unpredictable factor in this scenario. Did Master Mal realize that or did he think he had the advantage because he was armed? One flick of Jason’s blade, and Master Mal would be dead before he knew what hit him.
Unlike when Dominique had held her gun on Master Mal, his finger was not on the trigger. There was something else in his dark green eyes as we stared at each other, but I couldn’t place it.
There was no question if he knew who I was or why I was here. I could see it in his eyes. I didn’t know how, but Master Mal had not only discovered his little owl was a killer, but that I was the Atelihai Killer. He was here forme. There was no shock on his face, despite that he was seeing me for the first time without any disguise.
Jason sat down first. He was too casual, too obedient. It scared me. I put my hand on his arm, silently begging him not to act. I didn’t want Master Mal to die. I wasn’t sure why he washere or why Hagley was restrained as he was, but I did not want his desire to capture the Atelihai Killer to get him killed.
I lowered myself slowly to the bed. “You look tired, Sir.”
He raised an eyebrow at the title. “Well, after being played the fool, one tends to not sleep all that good, Holly.”
I flinched, but not at finally hearing my name from his lips. “I never played you,” I assured Master Mal, tightening my grip on Jason’s arm. “I was honest with you about everything except who I am.” When he didn’t say anything right away, I asked, “How did you know? When did you learn I was alive?”
Master Mal let out a dry laugh that held no humor whatsoever. “Necrophilia has never been one of my kinks, Little Owl.” I winced at the pain in his voice. PainIhad put there. “I put it all together the night you killed Dominique, and you have a librarian at the state hospital to thank as to how I even knew you were alive.”
My eyebrows furrowed in confusion, because I couldn’t recall any librarians from the asylum that would specifically remember me. “I’m sorry.” It seemed like such a silly thing to say, but it was all I could come up with.
“What’s the plan here, Holly?” He leaned against the wall, lowering his gun to his hip so it was no longer pointed at me. “What happens after you kill Hagley?”
Everyone ignored the muffled protests from the principal. I didn’t even spare the man who’d ruined my life a glance. My entire attention was on Master Mal, and not because he had a gun in his hand. There was not a single part of me that believed he would actually hurt me. I had a feeling that the gun was for Jason, which was equally terrifying. I couldn’t let Master Mal kill Jason either.
“I’m free,” I answered him honestly.
“And the killings stop?”
I nodded. “I have no reason to kill anyone else.”
