hadn’t been sure the photograph his private investigator had found online was really his wife. Ex-wife, Gabi would insist, but once something belonged to him he didn’t let it go easily. Someone had taken a picture of a birthday gathering in a park in Eufaula, Alabama, of all places. In the background, a woman and baby had been exiting a small brick building. Zooming in and enhancing the image revealed the name of the clinic. Gabi’s hair was different and the baby was older, but facial recognition had tagged the match. It had been right. From there it had been easy enough to trace her to this small town.
Last night he’d peeked through the window of the only restaurant in town and seen her sitting in one of the booths, having dinner with a man. He’d been tempted to rush in then and there, to drag her out, to make her remember that she was his and always would be. Divorce didn’t change that. Gabi and the child they’d created belonged to him.
But he wasn’t ready. He didn’t want to take her in public, when others might be tempted to try to help her. No, he wanted to get her alone so he could take his time with her punishment.
The dog would be a complication. So would the lawman. They’d seemed close, walking down the sidewalk, heads together, talking with such informal ease. Was the cop screwing her? What about the guy she’d been with last night? She was such a slut. His mother had tried to tell him, before he married her, that she wasn’t good enough for him, that she was unworthy.
Mother had been right. Maybe he could catch Gabi in the act with one man or the other and they could both die. That would be a fitting punishment.
Blake fidgeted, anxious to be on the move, to be doing something. Once he’d gotten the report about Gabi’s whereabouts he could’ve sent someone else to collect her and the kid, but that wouldn’t do. He wanted to punish her himself. Punish? He wanted to kill her, and he would.
After that he could return to his normal life and no one would ever question what had happened to her. He’d take the baby home with him, raise her himself, tell the child as she grew older what a horrible woman the mother who’d abandoned her had been. That’s what he’d tell everyone, that his ex-wife had called him, begging him to take their child because she could no longer be a single mother. She wanted to be free of her responsibilities.
If anyone didn’t believe him, they were welcome to try to prove him wrong. Good luck with that. Gabi’s body would be buried so deep no one would ever find it.
His mother had harassed him about grandbabies for years, and she’d been furious when she’d found out Gabi had been carrying his child when they’d divorced. The elder Mrs. Pierce seemed to conveniently forget that she’d been the one to insist that he sign the papers for the quick divorce, since Gabi, a woman who’d never been good enough for her son, had asked for nothing other than to be free. Good riddance, she’d said. He hadn’t bothered to tell his mother that Gabi had threatened to go to the police with pictures and medical reports, that she’d threatened to make his treatment of her public.
What a shame that his mother hadn’t lived long enough to finally get her hands on the grandbaby she’d wanted so badly. It was her own fault she was dead. She should’ve kept her big, nagging mouth shut.
It had taken too damn long, but he was finally going to get what he wanted. If he couldn’t have Gabi, no one else would.
He’d been in this hellhole of a town for two days. There was a big, white, empty house on the east side of town. An instinct had drawn him there; he’d driven down one road and then another as if on auto-pilot until he’d seen it. The empty house had once been a Bed and Breakfast, according to the sign out front, but no one was home. Judging by the dust and weeds, no one had been there for a while.
He’d parked his car in the separate garage and made himself at home. There were enough canned goods in the pantry to keep him fed for a while, and the power was still on. It was beneath him to live on a diet