Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 98819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
“It might be difficult because I’m supposed to be dead.”
“We’ll figure all that out. After.”
After BK is behind bars, he means.
“Come back soon,” I call. I should be grateful to get some time alone with the case, but a sense of foreboding comes over me. Not a premonition, just a feeling that I want him by my side.
He pauses at the door, his body cut through, half in light, half in shadow. “I will.”
He leaves, and I take my time getting out of the bath. This time, Rex left a number of marks on my skin, and I get to catalog them at my leisure.
I dress in jeans and a sweater and head to my situation room. Rex already ordered room service, so I eat while I go back to working on the case. I chomp on a burger and switch on the TV, thinking I’ll put on Rex’s press conference but just leave it on mute. I want to see him, but the notion of me being dead is more depressing than I thought it would be.
I’m immersed in Lacy’s murder book when a phone rings, interrupting my focus.
It’s my cell. I reach for it automatically, but it cuts off after one strangled ring, and I remember I’m not supposed to answer. Once the news announced my demise, the wave of calls from people checking on me died away.
The phone lights up again with another call. I check the screen to see who’s so insistent.
Burgess calling.
The room spins around me, and I blink against the vertigo. Chills go up and down my arms.
It’s not him. Burgess died. I can still see Rex lifting my former partner up by the neck. And even if he did survive that, he was then blown to bits. Right?
The phone goes silent, then lights up again. Burgess calling.
My thumb hovers over the button to answer, but I hesitate too long. The call ends.
But I have to know who’s calling. I hit redial and wait.
“Hello?” It’s a man’s voice, and for a disorienting second, I think it’s Burgess.
“Who’s this?” I make my voice harsh.
“It’s Ted.”
“Ted?” I scrape my memory and finally remember—the man in the bathroom at the ball. So much has happened between now and then. “How did you get this number?”
“He gave it to me.” He, meaning the Bondage Killer. “He said the man who had it let him down.”
The man would be Burgess. Burgess was working with the Bondage Killer. But now BK has Burgess’s phone, which means. . .
He was there. At the warehouse.
“He said I needed to call Detective Ramos. Are you her?”
I take a chance. I have a connection to BK and need to follow it as much as I can. “Yes.”
“Oh, thank gods.” Ted sounds like he’s about to cry. “I thought it was all over for me. The news said you’d died.”
I lick my lips, trying to think of an explanation, but Ted doesn’t stop talking. “He’s got my family. He said you have to come, or he’ll kill them.”
20
He’s got my family. Ted’s panic reverberates through me, turning my stomach. My mouth fills with saliva, the burger threatening to come back up, but I can’t vomit now. This isn’t the worst moment of my life, but it’s up there. Top ten, maybe top three.
Think, Inara. I need to remain calm and clear-headed. Imagining the worst won’t help. “Where are they?”
“He gave me an address. You’re supposed to meet me there, and then he’ll tell you where my family is. But he said you have to come alone.” Ted’s voice wavers, then rises as he starts to lose it. “He’s watching to make sure it’s just you and me and no one else. That’s what he said. No cops or he’ll kill them, even the kids—”
“Okay. Okay.” This is it. The moment I’ve been waiting for. The Bondage Killer must have seen me and Rex leaving the warehouse or guessed that I was still alive. And now he’s going to lure me in, using this innocent family. “I’m coming.” I’m already in the bedroom closet, reaching for my leather jacket. I leave it and take a hoodie instead. “Tell me where to meet you.”
“No one can know,” Ted’s voice thickens as he responds, and he chokes. He sounds like he’s crying. “Or I’ll never see them again. Oh, gods.”
“Ted? Deep breaths. Focus on my voice. He doesn’t want your family; he wants me. And I’m coming.” I will save this family if it’s the last thing I do.
And it might be.
“He took them,” Ted is mumbling, crying. He sniffles. “You’re coming?”
“I’m on my way.” I head out of my room toward the private elevator. I need to slip out of the hotel. Rex’s wardrobe for me didn’t include any baseball caps, so I flip up the hood. I need to look as anonymous as possible so the press won’t clock me. Or my bodyguards, who I’m more concerned with avoiding.