The Last Straw (The Jigsaw Files #4) - Sharon Sala Page 0,13
when you remember to acknowledge it...I am also your boss. Talk to me.”
And so she did, from beginning to end.
“Shit,” Charlie muttered when she stopped talking. “Were you scared?”
“No. But by the time I got through with him, he was,” she said.
Relief washed through him.
“You said you got a picture of his driver’s license?”
She nodded.
“After dinner you will send it to me, please. You do your research. I’ll do mine. Understood?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, then,” Charlie said and scooped out a big serving of the Stroganoff onto his plate, added salad next to it and took his first bite, chewed and then swallowed. “It’s good. You outdid yourself,” he said.
“Stifle the sarcasm. Next time, you cook,” she muttered, then served herself and started eating.
They ate in silence now, but the tension was gone.
Charlie felt the prickly energy of the wall she kept between them, and Wyrick knew he wasn’t going to let this go, which was fine with her, because neither was she.
* * *
Barrett Taylor had taken a risk after being booked into jail by using his one phone call on Jeremiah Raver, the leader of the church.
To say Raver was angry was putting it mildly.
“I trusted you to do a simple job, and your incompetence is only going to bring negative attention to us,” Raver shouted.
But Barrett was pissed at Raver for not telling him the whole story about that woman.
“That’s just it. It wasn’t a simple job. You said she was an unnatural abomination. You said she had powers that belonged only to God, but you neglected to mention she was psychic. You didn’t tell me she was six fucking feet tall. She knew everything about my presence without touching me. What was I supposed to be? The fatted calf? The lure? Did you just decide to sacrifice me for her?”
Raver blinked. Rebellion within The Righteous was unheard of. And the fact that Barrett had figured this out made him uncomfortable.
“It wasn’t like that,” Raver said.
“Then get me a lawyer and get me the fuck out of here,” Barrett said. “I’m not sacrificing myself for anyone.”
Raver didn’t like what he was hearing.
“Are you threatening me?”
Barrett lowered his voice. “You hung me out to dry, Raver. You figure it out.” He hung up. But once the link was broken between him and Raver, his defiance faded. This was going to be a learning experience, for sure.
* * *
The game was on with Rachel Dean, and it was all Sonny could think about on the way home. He stopped off at a fast-food drive-through, ordered chicken nuggets and fries and a bottle of water and then drove away.
Rachel was exactly what he’d been needing—a little after-work entertainment was always good for releasing unspent energy and relieving stress.
The weatherman was predicting a light frost tonight. Maybe he’d take her a blanket along with her food. He didn’t want her to get sick before he was done with her. That had happened to him once before. When that one had died in her sleep, he was disappointed to have been cheated out of being the one to deliver the death blow. It was always the delicious denouement to the game.
* * *
Rachel had paced and screamed for help, and pounded on the door off and on for hours. She finally fell asleep from exhaustion, only to be awakened sometime later by a hard slap across her face.
She woke up with a scream. There was a man on his hands and knees above her, tearing at her clothing—and she knew him!
“You!” she cried, and tried to push him off, kicking and slapping at him in desperation.
Even as she was hammering at his shoulders, and trying to claw his face, he was laughing. Then he drew back his fist and hit her on the jaw, knocking her unconscious.
When she came to again, she was naked, and he was on top of her and in her, holding a knife against her throat.
“Move, and you’ll cut your own throat,” Sonny said, and then leaned down and whispered against her ear. “I don’t mind fucking a dead woman. I’ve done it before.”
She saw the expression on his face, and then her own reflection in his eyes, and froze.
The next few minutes were an eternity of pain and despair, and when he finally collapsed on top of her, the knife slid lightly across her throat, bringing blood.
He leaned down, licked it slowly, then kissed her viciously, biting her mouth before he got up.