Forbidden With Me - Leigh Lennon Page 0,66
cop saved you for only one reason—us being reunited.
My lip begins to quake, but I shove from the bed, not in fear of this man anymore, but pure fury. I’m taking this anger, this issue, and recycling it for good. I’ll take it, learn how to fight, and take back my life for once and for all.
“Mal, sweetheart, what’s wrong?” I stand, giving the phone to Wells.
“How the fuck did he get your number?” My hands are steady. “You’re too calm. Are you all right?”
“It’s time I fight back, this son of a bitch has taken too much of my life, so yeah, I’m okay. He’s not taking one more thing from me.”
He pulls me in his arms. “Hell, Mal, could you be any stronger?” I don’t feel strong, or at least I haven’t thought I was, though I’d told myself this several times since coming back to Seattle.
It’s as though he can read my thoughts. “I know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong. Every other person would crumple under all that’s happened to you.”
His hand soothes my hair, pulling me as tight into his body as he can get me. “I feel like I can do anything with you next to me,” I say.
I won’t shed another tear for the man whose mission it is to ruin my life. “Well, that’s a good thing because I don’t plan on going anywhere, sweetie.”
I let out a small chuckle. “I thought I’d graduated to sweetheart.”
“Yeah, that’s true, but you will always be my sweetie, deep down.”
He holds me tight for several minutes, and in his embrace, I’m me, Malia Strickland, ready to take on the world. I’ll take on this fucking psychopath to live the life I deserve, the one Annie, Gracie, and Cabe weren’t able to live.
Our moment together is interrupted when his phone begins to ring. He reaches for it and my hand, tugging me into the living space. “Shanahan,” he barks out.
“Yeah, Higgie, I was about to call you. Malia got a text from the fucker. Oh, shit. Yeah. But I don’t want to let her out of my sight. No, I haven’t had a chance to tell her everything. Good job. See you soon.”
I’m on the couch, watching him pace back and forth as he had been when he was on the phone.
“What’s up?” I ask as if this is the new normal in my life, if it’s as ordinary as getting ready to go to a movie.
“Yeah, so the victims from two nights ago and the victim from last night, they all had very similar floor plans to yours. Both houses have the same builder, and the same main floor plan with some slight modifications,” he begins. “It’s as though he’s looking for similar houses, more than similar families. If the family configuration is not right, he just brings in dummies.”
I’m making sense of all of this, one piece of information at a time. “You said a victim from last night. So an entire family was not killed.”
“Well, he brought in mannequins like before. There was one adult male victim, but he had been the only one.”
I slap my hand over my mouth. “Holy shit.”
“Yeah, so we have the owner of the construction company coming on in, and Higgie is scouring the employee database.”
My stomach begins to growl.
He doesn’t miss this, pulling me by the hands off the couch. “And because I can’t make you ramen noodles right now, your hungry stomach will have to settle for some drive-through.”
“Can I have a roast beef sandwich?” I ask.
“You can have whatever your little heart desires, sweetheart.”
I insist on buying a couple of sandwiches for Higgie; he has to be starving. And on top of it all, the media is in front of the station when we pull up. I try to shield Stewart’s lunch as Wells tries to shield me.
A familiar face approaches Wells and me when she mouths, “I’m sorry,” to my man. I whip my face to Wells, who gives her a sympathetic smile.
“Is it true, Detective, there’s been a copycat case for the Strickland murders from over eleven years ago?”
He ignores her, opening the door to the station, as the officers, who are assigned to me, block the entrance of the media into the precinct. He ushers me upstairs, but when he touches me, he must sense I stiffen.
“She was only doing her job. She knows a lot about me and my obsession with this case, my obsession with you, and she’s not using