“Lost?”
I nod back at him. “Is this normal? To feel so confused?”
The corner of Trey’s mouth lifts in a sardonic smile. “Actually, yes. I felt the same way when I killed my parents. Happy that they were gone, grief for what could have been. As fucked up and evil as they were, they were still my parents. I was angry and I grieved. Excited at the prospect of freedom, but scared of going it alone.”
Letting out a large sigh, I move towards the window, looking out over a covered courtyard. It’s time to go. Time to leave this state and never turn back. Time to leave the past where it belongs, and to start my new life.
The more I think about our looming new future, the more I realize I don’t think either of us will be content to just live and let live. I want Trey, and the incredible life I know we can have together. But I also want death and destruction—the two halves of me will never be whole if I don’t feed both of them. There’s plenty more traffickers and pedophiles out there. Maybe we can hunt them down together, save more children.
Just then, a ray of sunlight peeks out from behind the clouds, falling across my face, warming me. The worries and uncertainties seem to melt away while I bask in it, Trey moving quietly around the room, packing up our things.
When he’s done, he takes my hand, and we leave the doctor behind. Naked and spread open, silver overflowing from her mouth, terror etched forever into her features.
Chapter 37
Special Agent
Susannah Gerhardt
Fuck my life. Seriously.
Charlotte is in the wind—who knows the fuck where. Is she done? Will there be more deaths? And how the hell am I supposed to keep burying evidence?
It’s been days since anyone has seen or heard from Dutch. Days.
I feel like I’m on a merry-go-round that is out of control. Spinning, spinning, spinning—never stopping, never slowing. Faster and faster, threatening to throw me off, out into the universe where nothing makes sense and everything is shit.
Hanging my head in my hands, I knead my forehead, trying to dispel the oncoming migraine that I neither have the time nor energy for.
Calamity Cooper has been storming up and down the hallways, bellowing out orders, and all I want to do is drop him off a cliff somewhere. Preferably one that has very sharp, jagged rocks lining the bottom.
A knock on the door draws a snarled “come in” out of me, and Tommy sticks his head in, hesitating when he sees the rabid look on my face.
“No!” I shout out, waving my hand at him in ashoogesture. “Get out! Every time you come bursting into the room, you’ve got more deaths for me to deal with.”
His face flushes red. I really shouldn’t yell at him, it’s not like he’s the one doing the killing.
“Sorry, Agent Gerhardt. But um, yeah. There’s been another death. A doctor this time. Chase is waiting to escort you to the scene, Detective Latham will be meeting you there.”
Sighing, I pull myself to my feet, dragging my purse off my desk and slinging it over my shoulder. I pat his shoulder on the way out, mumbling a faint sorry as I pass by him. I’ll need to make it up to him somehow. I may be under a lot of stress, but that’s no reason to take it out on the interns.
Chase is waiting by his car, a smile stretching across his face as I approach which quickly melts when he sees my expression.
“Hey gorgeous, you okay?” he asks as he holds the door open for me.
Sliding in, I nod back, a half-smile thrown his way which quickly fades into a grimace. My sight is starting to blur a little, the pounding in my temples resembling a poorly executed high school marching band. “Just a bad headache,” I reply when he gets in the car.
“Sorry to hear that. I’ve got some Tylenol in the glove compartment if you want any?”
“Thanks, I took something already.”
We fall silent as Chase drives to the crime scene. There are days when I get fed up being a federal agent, let me tell you. Sometimes the death and tragedy just get to be too much, and it all just feels a bit hopeless. People are never going to stop waging war on each other, so why bother? Why keep fighting the good fight when there is so much evil in this world?
But then I think of Elizabeth, my sister. Her husband. Charlotte. About what Tony and Dolores D’Angelo did to my family. And it’s then that I know that I can never stop doing this job. There are too many needing saving, too much evil to put down.
If people like me don’t do what they can to stop it, then what hope is there for any of us?
Chase pulls up in front of the office. Crime scene tape is attached to the door, and a perimeter has been marked off. An officer stands guard at the doorway, defending the scene from curious passersby and ravenous media alike.
