Serial Bride (13 page)

Sylvie sucked in a breath. It wasn't that simple. It wasn't that simple at all. “If Sami
was
the copycat killer, we might never find Diana. Even if she's still alive…”

She couldn't let herself panic. She had to keep what little control she had. She had to find out exactly what Reed and Nikki knew and what they didn't. “You think Kane is behind this, right?”

“Yes,” Nikki answered. “We're still exploring other possibilities. But judging from the evidence, Kane seems to be pulling the strings.”

Bryce slipped an arm around her. His body pressed against her side, solid, close. But she couldn't
take comfort in his presence this time. She couldn't take comfort in anything.

She'd been so naive through all this. Purposefully so. She'd stubbornly clung to the hope that she'd be able to find Diana. That she'd be able to get her sister back alive. She'd really believed that Bryce could help her get the answers she needed. She'd believed that once Reed awakened they could work together to save her sister, to get her back. But the truth was, an entire law firm of Bryces and a whole department of Reeds and Nikkis couldn't find Diana. If what they said was true, only she had a shot at doing that.

She pulled away from Bryce's side. Forcing steel into her spine, she focused on Nikki Valducci. “I want you to set up a meeting for me.”

“A meeting?”

“I'm going to talk to Dryden Kane.”

Sylvie's words crashed down on Bryce's skull with the force of a sledgehammer. She couldn't be suggesting what she was suggesting. She couldn't. “You're not meeting with him.”

Sylvie balled her hands into fists by her sides, as if readying for a knock-down-drag-out. “It's not your choice to make.”

“It might not be mine to make, but that doesn't mean it's one
you
should make. He's dangerous. You can't walk into that prison and have a chat with a monster like that. It's like waving a red flag in front of a rabid bull.”

“Even if the copycat isn't Sami Yamal, he already knows I'm Diana's sister. He's already tried to kidnap me. I'm already a target. Talking to Kane isn't going to make any difference.”

“You think Kane is going to tell you where Diana
is? You think he's going to call off his copycat if you ask nicely?”

“I might learn something from him. Something that could help.”

“Learn something?” Bryce couldn't believe his ears. He looked to Reed and his partner. “You can't let her do this.”

“Why not? Why are you acting like I'm not in danger already? Why are you acting like this will change anything? You were there. If you hadn't gotten me out of that van, I'd be with the copycat right now. I have nothing to lose.”

“You have your life to lose.”

“You're not listening to me.”

“You're right. I'm not listening. And if listening means thinking what you're proposing is a good idea, I'll sure as hell
never
listen.” He glared at Reed. “You have to tell her to forget it.”

“He's right, Sylvie. Kane is a manipulator. A sadist. He won't give you any answers if he can help it. He'd only try to cause you pain.”

“And having some copycat killer kidnap my sister and hunt her down like an animal while I do nothing isn't causing me pain?”

Reed looked at Sylvie with troubled eyes. “I understand you're desperate, Sylvie. God, I'm desperate, too. But putting yourself in the same situation as Diana isn't going to help her.”

“I won't be in the same situation. I'll be ready for him. I'll have protection.” She looked to Nikki. “Right?”

Nikki glanced at Reed. Apparently she knew enough not to answer.

Sylvie circled Reed's bed and approached his partner. “You can see where I'm going with this idea, can't you? From a purely objective point of view? I mean, law enforcement uses family members help with cases like this, doesn't it? At least sometimes?”

“She's got a point,” Nikki said.

Bryce sprang toward her. Had she lost her mind, too? “A point? She's talking about going toe-to-toe with a serial killer and you say she's got a point?”

She ignored him, keeping her eyes on her partner. “What's wrong with using a little proactive approach? I mean, really. If she was anyone else, we'd probably take her up on the offer. We'd let her talk to him and make sure she was protected. She needs to be put under police protection anyway.”

Sylvie nodded as if buoyed by Nikki's support. “If we don't do something, more women might die. Diana might die.”

Thunder rose in Bryce's ears. “Have you both gone crazy? This man is dangerous.” Bryce crossed the floor in two strides.

Sylvie glanced up at him, her chin jutting slightly, her eyes determined.

He grasped her arms, forcing her to look into his eyes. He had to make her see what she was getting into. He had to keep her from going through with this insane plan. “I understand what you're going through, Sylvie, but you can't talk to Kane.”

“No, you don't understand. How could you?”

If only he'd had more time this morning before Reed called. Then she would understand. “Because if there were a chance my brother was still alive, I'd risk everything to save him.”

“But I won't be risking everything. You heard Nikki. The police will protect me. Kane won't be able to hurt me.”

His throat felt thick, hot. He couldn't swallow. He couldn't speak. He was not going to lose Sylvie to that monster. He was not going to let Kane take her the way he'd taken Ty. “I need to talk to you.”

“We
are
talking.”

“Alone. Now.”

“I'm not going to change my mind.”

“Please. Just hear me out. Give me that much.”

She glanced at Reed and Nikki. Finally she nodded.

Still holding one of her arms, Bryce led her out of the room. Privacy. They needed someplace private. He didn't want the whole hospital to hear what he was about to say.

Weaving through a maze of hallways, he negotiated his way to the rooftop deck. Sun sparkled off
the two main lakes and bathed the narrow isthmus of buildings stretching between. Not far away, the capitol dome caught the sun. The golden statue on its pinnacle stabbed into a blue sky.

If only they had ventured up here to enjoy the day. If only there was no cold current of wind undercutting the sunny view. Wind that chilled him to the bone.

Leaning against the rail, Sylvie wrapped her arms around herself. She squinted up at him. “Okay. Talk.”

He shrugged out of his coat and attempted to drape it over her shoulders.

She held up a hand. “I don't need your coat. I need to hear what you wanted to say. What you couldn't say inside.”

“I wanted to tell you this morning, when you woke up.” He draped his coat over the rail. His chest ached with each breath. His throat pinched, the words he had to say strangling him. But he had to get them out. He had no pictures, no articles to explain it for him this time. “Yesterday you asked about Kane's lawyer.”

Her eyebrows pulled together. “What about him?”

“I
am
Kane's lawyer. Or at least, I was until about six weeks ago.”

She didn't move, didn't gasp, nothing. She just stared at him with steady eyes, waiting for him to go on, waiting for him to explain.

“When the lawsuits against the Supermax prison started a few years ago, I decided to get in on it. I decided it would give the law firm some press, bring in more clients.”

“But Kane? Why Kane?”

“Because he would bring the biggest headlines.” The picture he was painting for her made him feel sick, but he couldn't stop. It was the truth. He had been that man, chasing headlines, chasing notoriety, playing with the law like it was a game. He had been that man so wrapped up in his own greed and ambition that he couldn't see anything else.

“And this is what you wanted to tell me?”

“No. I mean, yes, but it's not everything.”

She hugged herself tighter. “What else?”

He pulled a breath into aching lungs. He had to continue. “I won the suit against the Supermax. I got Kane a transfer to another facility. But he didn't merely want less restrictive conditions, less solitary. That wasn't enough for Kane.”

“What did he want?”

Bryce looked out at the skyline, at the blue curves of the lakes. He'd gotten Kane nearly everything he'd asked for, everything he didn't deserve. “He wasn't happy with Banesbridge. It's an old prison, just starting to be renovated. But it's very secure. There's never been an escape.”

“He wanted something less secure, didn't he?”

Bryce nodded. “He escaped from Grantsville. He was looking for a place he could escape from again.” He remembered the grin on Kane's thin lips when he'd made his demand clear. And the sense of anger under the surface when Bryce hadn't come through. He could remember every moment with Kane, as vivid in his mind as if he'd seen the monster this morning.

“So what happened?”

“When I refused to get him another transfer, he threatened me.”

Sylvie's eyes flared with alarm. “What did you do?”

“Nothing.” And he'd never forgive himself for it. “I underestimated him. He was in prison. He couldn't get out. He couldn't hurt me from behind bars.”

Sylvie's throat moved under tender skin, as if she was struggling to swallow all he'd told her, trying to prepare for what came next.

Bryce had never been able to prepare. He'd never seen it coming. “He killed my brother. He killed Ty. And the whole thing was my damn fault.”

“Kane killed your brother?”

“He had him killed. I'm guessing by the same guy who's killing these women.”

“The case you talked about, the reason you hate Kane, it was all about your brother's murder.”

“Yes.” She hadn't asked a question, but he needed to answer anyway. He needed to make sure everything was clear.

He waited for that look he dreaded. One of disgust. Horror. Condemnation. The one he'd seen in the mirror every morning for the past six weeks.

It never came. Instead she stepped close and put her arms around him. “I'm sorry, Bryce. I'm so sorry.”

Pain pressed behind his eyes and knifed through his sinuses. He hadn't expected sympathy from Sylvie. He'd expected a lot of things, but not this. As much as he thought of her, as much as he cared about her, he'd underestimated her. “I love you, Sylvie. God, I love you.”

She peered up at him, moisture glistening in her eyes.

He couldn't lose her. Now that he'd found her, he couldn't let her go. “Don't do this. Please. Promise you'll stay away from him.”

Tears spiked her lashes and trickled down her cheeks. “I know how awful this must be for you, Bryce. I understand now.”

His throat closed. He knew where she was leading before she said the words. He knew her decision would scar her forever. And if he lost her because of it, it would destroy him.

“But I need you to understand me, too.”

 

S
YLVIE SHIFTED
on the plain wooden chair. Crossing and uncrossing her legs, she finally settled on crossing her ankles, knees pressed tightly together.

She'd never been inside the walls of a prison before. And even though she was in main building, far from the cell blocks, she already she knew she never wanted to come to a place like this again. She didn't mind the Spartan room, furnished with only a scarred table and four chairs, one bolted to the floor. She didn't mind the antiseptic smell. She didn't even mind the dour-faced guards. What she hated was the sound of doors locking behind them as they passed through the sally ports. And that no matter how deeply she inhaled, she couldn't seem to breathe.

She glanced at the camera in the corner of the room. Bryce was watching through that camera, worrying with Nikki Valducci and several detectives Sylvie didn't know. He had insisted on coming with her, a demand that made her eyes burn. She knew this was hell for him, seeing the man responsible for killing his brother, the man he hated, watching her face that man. The fact that he'd come with her, stuck by her even through this, made her heart squeeze. She only hoped it wasn't all in vain, that she could coax some answers from Dryden Kane, answers that would lead to finding Diana.

The door opened. Two uniformed guards stepped into the room, and between them, hands and feet shackled, shuffled Dryden Kane.

He looked much like his photograph, only older. Brown hair now silver, he appeared as if he should
be wearing a nice suit or a relaxed weekend baseball shirt, not the baggy prison jumpsuit. Although he was clearly in his fifties, the boyish quality she'd noticed in his photograph was still there. The slightly weak slant to his chin, the disarming arch to his eyebrows—all of it conspired to make him appear more like the quintessential next-door neighbor than an infamous killer. He raised his eyes to hers.

His eyes were like his picture, too. Ice blue. And void of emotion.

She suppressed a shiver.

The corners of thin lips lifted in a smile. “Sylvie. You're as beautiful as your sister.”

Diana. That was the reason she was here. To find her sister. To enlist Kane's help. “I want to talk to you about Diana.”

He lowered himself into the chair.

Shackles rattling, the guards handcuffed his hands to the steel rails. One of the guards gave her a pointed look. “Are you sure you don't want one of us to stay in here with you?”

Of course she did. Better yet, she wanted Bryce and the detectives in here, as well, not merely watching from the next room. “I'll be fine.”

“Of course you will be,” Kane said, voice low and melodic. “I'm no animal, despite what they imply with their handcuffs and chains. I'm well-read, civilized. I know how to treat a lady.”

Sylvie resisted the urge to look at the camera, to reassure herself that Bryce was there, just steps away. That she wasn't alone. Only she could do this now. And no one could help her. She folded her hands in her lap, picking at the edges of her fingernails. “I'm not sure how to ask this.”

“I've found the direct approach is best.”

Right. And she'd be willing to bet Kane was as direct as a crazy straw. “I'm glad you feel that way.”

He smiled, thin lips pulling back to reveal straight white teeth. She caught a whiff of mint mouthwash, as if he'd gargled just for her.

“My sister has disappeared.”

His smile faded. “When?”

“Saturday afternoon. Someone kidnapped her from her wedding. Do you know where she is?”

His eyebrows dipped low. A muscle twitched in his clean-shaven cheek. “Why would you think I know anything? If you haven't noticed, I don't get out much.”

“That wasn't a direct answer.”

“Forgive me. I'm a bit shaken by the news.”

He looked about as shaken as a professional poker player. “I'm worried about Diana. I've come here for your help.”

“My help.” A smile curved the corners of his lips, as if he liked the idea.

“Yes.”

“That is as it should be, isn't it?”

As it should be? Clearly he liked the position of power that her coming to him for help gave him. Power over her. But although the thought of giving this man any kind of power over her turned her stomach, she had to submit. She had to do whatever it took to find Diana. “Will you help me find my sister?”