TO DIE FOR (Eva Rae Thomas Mystery Book 8) - Willow Rose Page 0,60
I just imagined things.”
“Was there anything else different about her?” I asked.
“She seemed angrier. She got upset easier, and she spent a lot of time on her phone, texting. Tommy feared she was seeing someone else, but that isn’t like my sister. She’s very loyal. Our dad cheated on our mom, and she hated him for it. But Tommy did say they never had sex anymore, that she didn’t want to. He also said she was often awake at night, unable to sleep.”
“She had a lot on her mind, maybe,” I said.
I wondered for a minute if she had already met Scott at this point and just didn’t know how to tell Tommy. Had Scott then persuaded her to leave everyone behind and then killed Tommy? He could be very charming and charismatic when he wanted to. I had felt how persuasive he was on myself lately. And then, when Sarah wanted to leave Scott, he locked her up and made up the story of her disappearing because he thought it would be believable since she had done so before? He alerted the police, filled out a missing person’s report. Then he came to me to make sure it seemed legit? He engaged me in finding her so it would seem like he was truly looking for her and help him get the police off his back? But then, things didn’t entirely go as planned. Sarah escaped somehow, and he didn’t know where she was? Was that why I didn’t hear from him for quite some time? Because he was looking for her? And then, I helped him find her again? Had I helped him do that? The thought was devastating. But it would explain why she stuck the gun in our faces.
“Did she know this guy?” I asked. I found a picture I had kept from my research online. It was taken from his Instagram account. “His name is Jeffrey Johnson.”
Bryan looked at it, then shook his head. “I don’t think so. I’ve never seen him before.”
I put the phone back. “Okay. And you have no idea if she was seeing someone else then, or who it was?”
Bryan shook his head. “I just don’t get it, though. She would never betray Tommy. It simply wasn’t her.”
Chapter 63
She snuck around the house and found the back door. She grabbed the handle and pulled it, but it was locked. Gun clutched in hand, Sarah turned to the window next to the door and realized it was unlocked. She pulled it open, then slid inside on the floor, landing with a thud, making too much noise for her liking.
She hurried to her feet, then rushed to the kitchen, where she found her target sitting in a chair, back turned to her. Holding her breath, tiptoeing closer, sweat springing to her forehead, Sarah crept closer until she could almost smell this person. She placed the gun on their neck.
“Took you long enough,” the voice said.
The person spun their head like an owl and looked directly at her. Hands shaking, Sarah placed the gun on the person’s forehead and cocked it.
“Don’t you dare move. I will shoot.”
A smile spread across the target’s face. Sarah shivered when seeing it. So many times, she had looked at that smile while in the hole.
“No, you won’t, Sarah.” A hand was reached out toward her and caressed her cheek gently. The hand was placed on her neck, and her head pulled closer, so she could smell the breath of the person speaking. “You want to know why you won’t?”
Their eyes locked, and Sarah felt herself soften. She exhaled and bit her lip. Then she shook her head, pulling back.
“I don’t want you to speak at all.”
The person sighed. “You won’t kill me, Sarah, because you love me. Do you remember that? Do you recall how much you love me?”
Sarah felt her heart rate go up as she pressed the gun against the person’s forehead. “I will kill you if I have to.”
That made the person smile.
“Really?”
“Really. I don’t love you anymore.”
“Is that what you’ve been telling yourself? You don’t know yourself very well, Sarah. I do. I knew you’d come back. That’s how well I know you.”
“You don’t know me at all.”
A patronizing head tilt made Sarah almost lose it in anger. She pressed the gun hard into the skin and panted as she considered pulling the trigger.
“I would have done anything for you,” the voice said. “But you hurt me.”