Because of you, we were exposed. Because of you and father, I became a killer.” He kept a careful watch on the rearview mirror while speeding down the streets, turning frequently, keeping to the less traveled paths.
The family home in the woods was there waiting for his next victim, but there wouldn’t be one tonight. Still, he kept driving until he reached it. He needed its peace. Needed to remember his kills there. Needed to forget the past.
But the house was a reminder of how it all began.
He pulled up to the barbed wire gate and got out. The air was thick with snow. Winter still had the area in a chokehold.
With the gate secured once more, he drove to the house. Opening the car door, he slammed it shut without dispersing his rage. Inside the cabin he stared at the simple interior of the house where he’d grown up, and he screamed at the top of his voice. Threw the coffee table across the room, then swiped the magazines off the small desk he sometimes used.
They had interfered for the last time. From here on out, they would play his game. He dropped to the threadbare sofa when his cell phone buzzed again.
His wife. This was the fourth message she’d sent him. She expected him home soon. But he couldn’t go home to her like this. If he did, she’d become his next victim.
Hopping to his feet, he paced the small space, his attention going to the room he’d once shared with his brothers. Every time he thought about Kevin his heart broke. His death had been horrific at the hands of their father. If it hadn’t been for Kevin stepping in to take his punishment, he would have died instead of Kevin.
He walked out the back of the house and stared past the dilapidated garage to the spot he’d buried both mother and older brother Kevin where no one else would ever find them. And then later. . .
The last death had been the most rewarding, but it had come at the cost of his soul.
His mentor had made him give his father all the violence that he deserved. They’d burned the body and scattered his ashes around the property. At the time, he’d thought Edward Buckley was a savior until he’d learned the truth about their connection. By then it was too late.
“I should have killed you along with my father.” The words from his mentor echoed down the sloped landscape past his family’s final resting place.
He’d grown up under Buckley’s strict control. Graduated and married, never realizing the price he’d be forced to pay for his freedom from his father.
Buckley had a thirst for blood. He’d boasted about the lives he’d taken as a young man. Even his wife’s. Through the years of being imprisoned for his wife’s death, Buckley’s quest for blood had grown, ready to be unleashed.
He still remembered the day his mentor came to him and told him killing was in his blood, and it was time to set it free.
The first victim’s death happened quickly. He’d gone outside and been sick. After watching the violence his father exacted on his mother and brothers as well as himself, he never imagined how difficult it would be to take a life. . . until he’d done it.
His mentor’s skills far overshadowed his father’s. He’d done his best to please Buckley, never imagining he would enjoy the thrill of the kill more than his father or Buckley. But he had. And he couldn’t wait to claim another victim.
◆◆◆
Asher spotted her at the back of the room staring out the window. As he approached, Olivia turned. That worried furrow between her brows was the first giveaway of how she felt.
“You okay?” he asked. “How’s Tracy?” It was a shock to learn the killer had tried to get to Tracy again.
“She’s hanging in there.” Olivia forced a smile, and it relaxed her pretty face. She was so beautiful, and he couldn’t deny he had feelings for her, but their past connection to his brother stood between them. Always would.
“Tracy’s tough. She’ll be okay.” He stood beside her and stared out at the city lights. “We have everyone on Lizzy’s list in protective custody. They’re safe.”
Olivia turned toward him. “That’s a relief.” She searched his face. “There’s something else?”
He wasn’t so sure. “Maybe,” he said at last. “There was a single set of footprints at the home of one of the women on Lizzy’s list. They led from