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)
He thinks he’s smarter than everyone else. Even now, he thinks he has the upper hand.
I can work with that.
“That’s why you’ve done all this?” I ask. “Killing victims, entire families? You could’ve just asked me to come to you.”
“Would you have traded yourself for them?”
“I’m here now, aren’t I?” I’m tempted to rush him and get this part over with. Let him blow us both. Relieve the intense pressure.
But then—there’s a flicker of something from the corner of my eye.
This time, I know there’s movement behind me.
BK mumbles something, but I’m only half listening. Is that a crunch of gravel under a booted foot?
It takes everything not to turn and run toward help. I don’t need help, but the family does.
“The family on the first floor—you need to let them go,” I say loudly to cover any other sounds of my backup. Go downstairs, I think, as if I could connect telepathically with them. Don’t try to save me. Get the family out. “They’re innocent. They’ve done nothing to deserve this.”
“No one is innocent,” BK says, but I’m not focused on him. I’m watching the shadow. Please, Rex. Please. If it is him, I’m hoping he’ll get the message. I need him to get the family out.
I need to keep BK talking.
“I was,” I say. “So was my family.”
“They would’ve kept you from me. I watched you in the park but couldn’t get close. Your parents were protective.”
“Is that why you killed them?” It’s breaking my heart to talk about this, but I’ll do anything to distract him. If I have to use my pain as bait, so be it.
The shadow moves away. Hopefully, they got the message to focus on saving the family downstairs.
My work is almost done.
I can hear Lacy Collins saying, You’re going to nail him.
BK is coughing again, a hacking sound that doesn’t sound good.
“Are you alright? You sound like you’re sick.” I concentrate on the conversation but keep an eye out for any more movement. Whoever was behind me is gone. I can sense it.
Maybe the family will be okay.
“The after-effects of smoke inhalation.”
“Smoke inhalation?” Keep him talking. Give Rex time.
“The fire in Elyria.”
I shudder when he says my town’s name.
“It almost took my life. Collins made sure of that, the bitch.”
“Lacy?” I try to follow.
“She found me out. I had to blow the building early, and I almost didn’t escape.”
“We all thought you’d died.”
“I nearly did.”
“And then what?”
“I hid out. Healed best I could. Reached out to a friend to help nurse me back to health.”
“A friend?”
“A protégé of sorts.” He says it with such pride that I get a hit of insight.
“Protege. The Blackbird Killer?”
“Yes.” Now, he does sound smug. Like a proud papa talking about his son making the honor roll.
“Who is the Blackbird Killer?” Even though I’m about to die, I want to know.
“My student.”
“Who are they? Give me a name.” I take another small step forward but stop when he raises the trigger.
“Ah, ah.”
Shit, I pushed too hard. I need to have more finesse. But I’m wired, my whole body buzzing with adrenaline and my senses heightened. Suddenly, the lights from the glittering city and the sound of my own heartbeat are all too loud, too bright.
“This isn’t about them,” BK says. “It’s about us.”
“Us?” I can’t keep the disgust out of my tone. “There is no us.”
“Ah, but there is.” His rasp grows softer, more intimate. “That’s why I had to find you. We’re meant to be together.”
The sour taste is back in my mouth.
“Only you can heal me.”
I shake my head. I shouldn’t deny it; I should feed his delusion, feed his fantasy. But I can feel his darkness threatening to pull me under, and if I go down, I’ll drown. “I don’t understand.”
“You know what you said to me? The first night I came for you?”
He means the night he killed my family. “I don’t remember.” I do; I just don’t want to.
“You said you saw me die. In an explosion, in a fire.”
That was the first night my visions came to me. It would be harder now to hear this if I hadn’t told everything to Rex last night.
I’ll let him boast and relive that night. The night of his triumph and my suffering. I’ll give him the fantasy and let him wallow in it.
Only I can do this. Only I can give him what he needs.
“You were so young. So wise. You knew that I had killed them,” BK says. “I didn’t have to tell you. You knew everything.”
I was a child, I want to scream. My body aches like he’s beaten me. “Why did you kill my family? Why did you spare me?”
“I came for you. You were special,” he says now.
I swallow. I’m not a little girl anymore, trapped. I’m a grown woman with a gun nearby. I can take control of this situation at any time because I’m not afraid to die. “That’s why you killed them all?”