Yes, she would always love him, but could you be in love with someone who was dead?
She slowed up as she got closer to the building, coming to a stop just outside and looking up at the curtained windows. She shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t have come. But she had suddenly, desperately, needed to see them.
When she knocked on the door she caught a fleeting image of Lucas leaning nonchalantly against the wall, a roguish smile on his lips. She closed her eyes and leant her fist against the wall to steady herself.
At the sound of the lock easing back her eyes flew open. Lucas’s sister Flic was standing in front of her, shock plastered across her face. For a moment Evie thought she was going to slam the door shut on her, but she didn’t. After a long beat Flic stepped aside and let her pass.
‘Who are you running from this time?’ Flic asked, one dark eyebrow arching as she shut the door behind her.
Evie didn’t say anything. It was hard, much harder, seeing Flic than she’d thought it would be. She looked so like Lucas with her straight dark eyebrows, sharp cheekbones, and full, overly sensuous mouth. Even the faint husky drawl of her voice was a reminder. She was torn between wanting to stare at her and needing to look away.
‘I’m sorry …’ she stuttered, her hand reaching behind her for the door handle, suddenly overcome.
She shouldn’t have just turned up out of the blue like this. Why had she? She wasn’t even sure. It had been a stupid idea.
‘What are you sorry about this time?’ Flic snapped. ‘For waking me up in the middle of the night yet again? For turning up unannounced? Isn’t this normally the part where you ask me for my help? That’s the usual routine, isn’t it?’
‘No,’ Evie said, shaking her head. She didn’t need Flic’s help. Did she? She frowned to herself. Was that in fact why she’d come?
‘I just wanted to see you,’ she mumbled, realising how lame that sounded.
Flic studied her more closely, her arms crossed over her chest, as though waiting for the punchline to the joke.
‘I miss him,’ Evie blurted.
Flic’s mouth opened, then quickly shut as she swallowed down whatever she’d been about to say. ‘It’s not your fault, you know,’ she finally said.
Evie’s head flew up. Those were the last words she’d expected to hear from Flic. She’d expected Flic to yell, scream, fight, hiss. To shove her against the wall and punch the living crap out of her.
And suddenly, just like that, Evie figured out why she had come. She had wanted Flic to lash out at her. She had wanted to feel Flic’s anger, hoping – no, praying – that it might feed her own.
‘You tried,’ Flic said softly.
‘It was my fault though,’ Evie argued. ‘I should have let Lucas kill Victor when he had the chance. But I stopped him. It would all have been different if I had just let him, back when we had the chance.’
Flic closed her eyes and Evie noticed the dark circles under them for the first time. ‘Maybe. Maybe not,’ she said. ‘No one could stop Lucas from doing what he wanted to do. That was the problem. We all tried. We all failed. There’s just one person to blame – that murdering son of a bitch Victor, who one day I’m going to find and I’m going to …’
‘I know where he is,’ Evie whispered.
‘What?’ Flic asked, her eyes flashing open.
‘I know where he is.’
‘Tell me that you know where he is,’ Flic answered in a low, menacing voice, ‘because you left a marker over the shallow grave where you dumped his body.’
Evie shook her head. ‘No.’ She clenched her jaw shut, feeling the muscles pulse angrily.
Flic prowled towards her, her hands closing into fists. Evie lifted her head, turning it slightly so that her cheekbone would take the hit. ‘I am going to kill him,’ she told Flic in a hoarse voice.
‘Not unless I get there first,’ Flic hissed. ‘Where is he? If you’re too chicken I’ll do it myself.’
Evie laughed under her breath. How many times was she going to get called a chicken tonight? Maybe they were right though. Maybe both Flic and that arrogant new Hunter were totally on the money. Maybe that’s why she’d run halfway across the city in the middle of the night – to hear Flic say it too. She was a coward. Why else