Broken Dreams (Franklin Blues #2) (15 page)

I walk over to my desk and power up my computer. It feels good to be back to my routine again, but I miss Amy. Even though she’s doing well with the loss of our baby, I still get worried that she’ll leave me. My computer finally loads and I start going through the electronic case files we have on this bastard. The last know body found was about 20 miles outside of town, about halfway between Franklin and Amy’s hometown. I study every detail that I can and before I know it, after looking at the clock, I realize that I should be heading home. I power down my computer and take the paper files with me to study them at home. This case may be the death of me since we don’t have any leads or anything to go off of, but I’m determined.

The drive home passes in a blur, and before I know it I’m pulling into our driveway. Amy’s car is parked in her normal spot, and all I want to do is curl up on the couch and watch Netflix with my girl. However, I know that’s not possible with the new case I’m working on.

I walk into the house and I hear music blaring from the stereo. She’s listening to ‘Play It Again’ by Luke Bryan. This girl has a thing for that man, and if I was insecure I might have a problem with her fascination, but I know that she loves me.

I walk into the kitchen where she is cooking dinner and see her swaying to the music. I stand and watch her for a moment before that familiar pull makes me move to her. She jumps when she feels my arms wrap around her waist from behind.

“Jesus, Lance, you scared the shit out of me!”

She raises her hand to hit me, but I grab it, lean in and kiss her. I lick the seam of her lips, begging for access, and she happily opens for me. The kiss deepens, and before I take it too far, I pull away. I hear her whimper when I pull away and I smile to myself.

“Not that I mind, but what was that for,” she asks breathlessly.

I shrug my shoulders and shake my head. I’m not allowed to tell her about any ongoing investigations, but I really want to tell her how careful she needs to be.

“Nothing Baby, I wanted to kiss my woman after a stressful day at work. We’ve got this new case, and although none of it has hit Franklin yet, that doesn’t mean it won’t, so promise me you’ll be careful until we find this son a bitch,” I almost beg.

She gives me this look, like she wants to ask about it, but she knows I can’t tell her anything so she nods her head. “I promise I’ll be extra careful. Anything in particular I need to be on the lookout for?”

“Anyone lurking around that you don’t recognize, or anyone who rubs you the wrong way; if you see or hear of anything I want you to tell me immediately.”

“Okay Baby, I’ll be on the lookout. Should I be worried?”

“No, I don’t think so as of right now. I’ll let you know if this gets any more serious that it already is. I want to take precautions as of right now.”

She nods her head and starts to say something else when the timer on the oven goes off. Saved by the bell, or the timer.

Amy

Lance came home last night acting really weird. He warned me to be careful when I was out and about in town. I’m always careful, but there’s something Lance isn’t telling me. With the gala being a mere three weeks away, I decide to go to get my dress altered. Since I lost the baby I don’t need my dress to be that loose anymore. I take Hailee with me so I can get her honest opinion on if the dress even still looks good.

“Amy, please come out of the dressing room. Scar and I want to see the dress again.”

I’m currently standing in the dressing room staring at the dress. Now it hangs on me, and I’m no longer wearing the dress, it’s wearing me. It hangs on my body and does nothing for me anymore. I take a deep breath and walk out of the dressing room. I look over at Hailee and she’s giving me this weird look. I can’t tell what she’s thinking, but I can definitely tell she doesn’t like the dress. She’s shaking her head and I let out a sigh of defeat.

“Let me guess, you don’t like it.”

I look at myself in the mirror one last time before I take a deep breath and go back to the dressing room without waiting for Hailee to answer me. I hear her saying something, but can’t make out what she’s saying.

I get dressed again and walk back out where I see Hailee feeding Scar a bottle. I feel a pang of jealousy watching her, but quickly shove it away. I don’t want her to think I’m upset. I tell her to sit tight while I go get more dresses to try on since there’s no way in hell I’m going in that one.

As I’m walking through the racks of dresses, I keep getting the feeling like I’m being watched. I look up towards the huge windows at the front of the store and swear I see Jeremy looking at me. I close my eyes and shake my head. There’s no way he’d be here. When I open my eyes again, he’s gone. My mind must be playing tricks on me. I have about four dresses to try on so I head back to the dressing room. I can’t shake the feeling I had as I start to undress and put the first dress on.

The first dress I try on is beautiful, it’s white with dark green trim around the bodice and the straps where it crosses in the back, the bodice is also beaded with emerald color jewels, the sides have cutout patterns in them, and its floor length. I don’t want to try on anymore dresses because I know this is the one. I’m getting teary eyed looking in the mirror at myself. I open the dressing room curtain and walk out.

As soon as Hailee hears me come out, she looks up from where Scar is sleeping away in her car seat. Her eyes go wide and I can see them fill up with tears as well. You’d think this was my wedding dress with all the tears of happiness being shed.

“So, is this it?”

She doesn’t have to say anything and she doesn’t, she nods her head with tears streaming down her face. I feel the tears starting to fall down my face as well. I go to hug her, and get that being watched feeling again. Damn it, Lance has made me paranoid. He still won’t tell me what this case is all about and I know he can’t, but he keeps telling me over and over again how I need to be careful. I know he’s only being precautious but it’s starting to make me paranoid.

I pay for the dress and head out with my girls. We decide to have lunch at our favorite little café outside of town. We sit down and order our drinks. As we’re waiting I look up, and this time I know that I see Jeremy watching me. I get up from the table and tell Hailee I’ll be right back. I run across the street and stand right in front of the man who I used to want to spend the rest of my life with.

“Jeremy, what are you doing here? Were you watching me earlier?”

He doesn’t say anything, but gives me an evil looking smirk, then turns around and walks away. What the hell is that about? I yell at him to come back, but he keeps walking like he never heard me. I walk back to the café and Hailee is looking at me like she wants to ask me a million and one questions.

“Before you say anything let me explain a few things. That man you saw me with, is my ex-husband, Jeremy. I haven’t seen him since before I got discharged from the hospital. Lance threatened him to never come near me again. When we were shopping earlier, I got the feeling someone was watching me, and when I looked up I thought I saw him watching me through the window. When I looked back, he was gone, so I thought I was being paranoid. Lance has this new case, and he’s telling me all the time that I need to be careful, so I thought I my mind was playing tricks on me. When we arrived here at the café, I got that feeling again, and when I looked up, I knew it was Jeremy I saw watching us. I decided to find out what he wanted and that’s when I got up and walked over to him. I asked if it was him who was watching me earlier and what he was doing here. He never even answered me; he gave me this creepy as hell smile and walked away.”

I shake my head because I keep getting the feeling that something bad is going to happen. I look up at Hailee and she’s got the same look on her face as I’m sure I have on mine.

“Are you going to tell Lance you saw him? I mean, Shawn gave me the same speech that you got, so I think you need to tell him.”

“No, I’m not going to tell him. Jeremy would never physically hurt me, so there’s no point in getting Lance all pissed off for no reason.”

Hailee shakes her head and tells me she disagrees with my decision. I tell her everything will be okay and leave it at that.

The food arrives but I can’t even remember ordering. Hailee tells me she took the liberty of ordering for me because I get the same thing every time we come here.

We eat in silence, and there’s the feeling again. I look around but don’t see anyone. I’ve lost my appetite and ask Hailee if she’s ready to head home. She nods her head and we head out. My mind is going at lightning speed, wondering if I should tell Lance what happened today. I decide once again not to because there’s no use.

I get home and notice Lance still isn’t home. He’s staying later and later every day at work, and most times now I go to bed alone and wake up alone. He comes home long after I go to bed, and then gets back up before I do. I really miss him, but I know he’s in the middle of this case right now.

I walk into the living room and start to straighten up a little bit. I move to the bedroom so I can get some laundry started, and see something sitting on the nightstand. It’s a thick folder, and you know the saying, “curiosity killed the cat”, well I was about to find out how true that was first hand.

I open the folder and pictures fall out of it. I pick them up and immediately feel sick to my stomach; there are dozens of images of women who look strangely like me, dead. They are all naked with the word “Mine” carved into their stomachs. I cover my mouth with one hand and scream. I can’t believe this is what he is working on and that he never thought to tell me that the case he was working on was looking for a killer who is targeting women who literally look exactly like me.

I go through the notes and several key statements jump out of me.

…Women in their late 20s early 30s

...Red hair

…Five foot seven

…Stalking

…Carving Mine into each one’s stomach

…Five victims as of right now

I’m still looking through all the notes when I hear Lance come home. I shove everything back into the folder and run into our bathroom and start the shower. I can’t get those images out of my head. Before I know what’s happening, my knees buckles and sobs rack my body. I’m screaming again, and I know that Lance hears me because he comes bursting through the bathroom door looking around like someone else might be in here trying to hurt me or something.

The shower door opens, and Lance wraps his arms around me, trying to figure out what has me screaming. I don’t say anything at first because the sobs have over taken my body, making it impossible to talk. Once I feel myself start to calm down, I start to stand up. I can still fell Lance’s body pressed against mine as he stands too.

“Amy, Sweetheart, what happened in here? I came inside and no more than set my keys down when I heard your screams. Talk to me Baby.”

I turn and face him all while glaring at him.

“How could you not tell me that the case you’re working on has to pretty much to do with me? I saw the file you brought home. I didn’t mean to snoop, but you’re so secretive these days and I barely see you so I got curious. I saw the pictures first. My God, those poor women. Please tell me they didn’t suffer, and Jesus, they all look exactly like me, right down to the length of my hair.”

“Amy, you know I couldn’t tell you, I’m not allowed to talk about ongoing investigations. I warned you to be on the lookout and to be extra careful when going out, but that’s all I could do. I wish I could’ve told you, but you know I couldn’t. It tore me up not telling you, and I miss you too. I think we might be getting close to catching the guy who is doing this, but I need you to understand that this is going to take time. I’m sorry I’m not here for you, but you have Hailee and I am only a phone call away.”

We stand in the shower holding each other until the water turns cold. Lance reaches around me and turns the water off, strips off his now soaked clothes, grabs a towel for him and wraps it around his waist. He then takes the other towel and dries me off with it, goes into our room and comes back with a pair of panties and his old police academy t-shirt for me.

We lie down in bed and stare at each other for the longest time.

“Lance, I’m scared. What if this guy eventually finds me and makes me his next target. Who knows why he’s choosing women who look like me, but he’s getting closer and closer to Franklin. What happens if he gets to town, then what? Are you going to keep me under lock and key now? Because I’m telling you right now, I might be scared but I refuse to live my life locked away.”

I hope I sound a lot more confident than I feel. I don’t want him to see my fear, because if he thinks I’m afraid, like seriously afraid, he’ll keep me locked away in the house.

“Baby, I promise nothing is going to happen to you. I will not keep you in the house unless he breaks the city limits. After that, I’m sorry, but all bets are off at the point. I promised I’d keep you safe, and that’s what I will do, with whatever means necessary.”

I shake my head. This man, no matter how much I love him, will not keep me locked away like some princess in her ivory castle. I start to open my mouth to argue, but he kisses me, and all arguments leave my head the moment his lips touch mine.

I’m still in only a towel when he reaches between us, loosens the knot, and lets it fall away from my body. He starts to slowly kiss from my lips down my neck while his hands come up and start playing with my nipples. I throw my head back and moan, loudly. My nipples have never been all that sensitive, but for whatever reason they are almost too sensitive with him.

One of his hands leaves my breasts, and travels south until it hits the place I want him to touch more than anything.

“Oh, Lance, please.”

I feel his mouth latch on to the nipple that he abandoned, and I moan his name even more. I can feel him chuckling against my heated skin, I really need him to help a girl out here.