Silas (41 page)

If she’d dropped completely
out of my life, it would have been a gaping, aching
hole.

But she’d been my friend,
and I’d been content with that.

Until… this.

“
Silas, are you still
there?”

My mouth was dry. “Yeah, I’m
here.”

“
Did you come?”

“
A while ago.”

“
You didn’t say
anything.”

“
I didn’t want to ruin it
for you. After all, you haven’t had an orgasm in a long time,” I
said.

“
Yeah, my last one was with
you in the woods,” she said, sighing. “They were both pretty
wonderful.”

I gulped. “I want to come
see you.”

“
What?”

“
I want to come to Austin,”
I said. “You’ve got a couple weeks before fall classes, right? I do
too. We could, um… I miss you.”

“
Um, that’s kind of out of
nowhere, but okay,” she said.

“
Really?” I was
surprised.

“
Really,” she said.
“Actually, I’d like that a lot.”

* * *

“
I can’t believe you got a
hotel room.” She turned in a circle, taking in the hotel-issue
decor.

I tossed my bags in an easy
chair in the corner. “What else was I supposed to do? Sleep on the
floor of your dorm?”

“
Well, no, I mean, I guess
it makes sense that you got a room.” She turned and grinned at me.
“It really is good to see you.”

“
It’s good to see you too.”
She was different now. She was still pretty and bouncy, with big,
brown eyes and an even bigger smile. But she had this haunted look
that crossed her face sometimes. Something dark and serious. It
hurt me, but it drew me to her too, because it was our shared past.
It was what connected us.

She hugged herself. “So,
what do you want to do? You want me to take you to all the places
that haven’t yet figured out my ID is fake? Because that is at
least a third of the bars in town. Or we could do touristy stuff.
We could go to SoCo. Or if you want, we could go up to the hill
country. That can be really cool in the summer. There’s a big
swimming hole. It’s kind of crowded sometimes, though.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I
just got here. I thought maybe we’d… eat or something?”

She nodded. “Yeah, okay,
that’s good.”

We stood on opposite sides of the room,
looking at each other.

We didn’t say
anything.

It was awkward. I cleared my
throat.

She looked at her
fingernails.

“
We could, uh, meet up later
if you need to go somewhere,” I said.

“
No, you’re here, I want to
spend time with you.” She smiled at me. “You look good, you know?
Really good.”

“
You look, um…” My eyes
swept her body. “I, uh, can’t think of anything that a friend is
supposed to say. Can I say you look beautiful? Is that too
weird?”

She blushed. “It’s not
weird.”

“
Well, you do.”

She twisted her hands
together. “We’re not really friends, are we, Silas?”

“
Sure, we are,” I said.
“Hell, judging from the amount of time I talk to you, you’re like
my best friend.”

She laughed. “Yeah.
Everybody I know gets sick of me talking about you.”

I raised my eyebrows. “You
talk about me?”

She swallowed. “We’ve never
been friends. Not really.”

“
Why are you saying
that?”

She bit her lip. She took a
deep breath. And then she walked across the room to me. She put her
hands on my shoulders and dragged her fingertips over
them.

I drew in breath.

She peered up at me. “Are
you going to kiss me or what?”

I let out a little laugh. “I
could maybe do that.”

She pressed close.

I wrapped my arms around
her, placing my palm against the small of her back.

I pressed my lips against
hers.

She was so lovely and
delicate, her body fitting into my arms, her mouth wet and warm and
responsive. I adored kissing her. It was the nicest thing I’d felt
in months. I clung to her, not wanting to let go of her.

When our lips parted, she kept her eyes
closed.

I tucked a strand of her hair behind
her ear.

She sighed. “I love you,”
she whispered, her eyes still closed.

My chest tightened. “I love
you too.”

Her eyes popped open.
“That’s why you wanted to come see me, isn’t it? Because I said it
on the phone.”

I hesitated.

“
It feels good to say it.
It’s true you know,” she said. “I don’t know why I had to wait so
long to admit it. But I’ve known for… oh god, since about a week
after I left West Virginia. But I kept telling myself that it might
go away, or that it was too inconvenient because we live miles
apart, and—”

“
You know,” I said,
“I’ve thought about this, and there’s really nothing keeping me in
Morgantown. I was in West Virginia to find Rolf. I knew his hunting
grounds were there. That was the only reason. And now that he’s
dead, I could leave. I want to leave. I don’t want to be tied to
anything that has to do with him. I told you that you could
transfer, but
I
could transfer.”

She took a step back.

“
What?” I said. “Was that
too fast? Did I freak you out?”

“
No. You surprised me is
all.” She shook her head. “What about Sloane?”

“
She says I scare off all
her prospective dates,” I said. “She wouldn’t mind, I don’t
think.”

Christa smiled. “Well,
you
are
terrifying.”

“
I can be terrifying,” I
said, feigning offense.

She stroked my jaw. “No, I
know you can.”

“
Look,” I said. “We don’t
have to decide anything. I mean, I’m only here to
visit.”

She looked into my eyes.
“But you’d want to stay? To be with me?”

“
I want to be with you more
than anything else on earth.”

She kissed me again.

I crushed her against me. She felt so
good in my arms.

“
Well,” she said, tracing
her finger over my chest, “you did sort of imply that you wanted to
go down on me. So, how about you eat my pussy, and if you do a good
job, then maybe I’ll think about keeping you.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Oh, I
have mad skills. Once you feel my lips between your legs, you’re
going to, you know, worship me.”

“
Right,” she agreed. “I’d
forgotten how humble you are.”

“
What can I say? I’m very
talented. You’re a lucky woman to have snagged me.” I reached down
to find the button of her jeans. I undid it.

“
Big talk,” she said. “But
now you’re going to have to blow my mind.”

“
Challenge accepted.” I slid
my hand inside her pants.

She squealed.

Sloane, Assassins Book
Four, is forthcoming.

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VIGIL

“
Have you lost your
mind?”

I turned in a tight circle,
searching for the source of the voice. I couldn’t see
anyone.

It was a deep voice, a little scratchy,
but still commanding. A male voice. A voice that was used to being
obeyed.

I clutched my purse tighter,
reaching inside to turn on my voice recorder. It made me feel
irrationally safer to think that I would have this mysterious,
disembodied voice on tape. Well, not literal tape. It was a digital
recorder. But that hardly mattered. I was nervous, and my thoughts
always got scattered when I was nervous, no matter how hard I tried
to rein them in. “I prefer to conduct conversations with people I
can see.”

Good. My voice hadn’t even
shook.

“
What are you doing
wandering around alone out here?” the voice continued, plowing over
me as if I hadn’t spoken. “Don’t you know that two women have
disappeared from this part of the city, and they’ve only
uncovered
pieces
of their bodies washing up on the shore of the
bay?”

“
As a matter of fact, I do
know that,” I said. What did he think I was doing out
here?

Then it hit me hard and cold
in the pit of my stomach. What kind of man hides in the darkness
and reminds women that they aren’t safe? The killer, that’s
who.

My throat felt dry. I tried
to swallow but couldn’t.

I forced myself to stay
calm. I’d come out here to investigate things. That was my job. I
was an investigative journalist. Well, I was a summer intern, but
that hardly mattered. I had my press pass in my purse. I’d come to
the seedy part of the city because I wanted to find things
out.

Now, here I was, possibly
talking to the killer. I couldn’t afford to be frightened. I had to
be bold.

“
Hayden Barclay?” I said.
“Is that you?”

He melted out of a shadowed
alley. He wore all black—skin tight spandex that hugged every curve
and bulge of his body. He was hulking. Huge. His shoulders were
broad, his gloved hands powerful and enormous. He was wearing a
mask that covered his nose and face, leaving only his lips and chin
bare.

I took a step backwards.

“
Why would you call me
that?”

This wasn’t Hayden Barclay.
I knew Hayden Barclay. Hayden Barclay wasn’t nearly this…
muscular.

But Darlene had been seeing
Hayden. She’d told me about Hayden’s obsession with legs. And then
I hadn’t heard anything from Darlene. Ever again. Because they’d
found her torso on the shore. Minus her legs.

I’d assumed the killer had
to be Hayden Barclay. Never mind the fact that police claimed he’d
alibied out. I knew. It was him. I’d come to the city of Aurora
precisely because Hayden was here, and I was going to catch
him.

But this man standing in front of me
was lethal and powerful and someone else. Someone else
completely.

I was stunned. I kept moving backwards,
slowly shaking my head.

The masked man sprang for
me.

I turned, picking up my feet, and began
to run.

“
Wait,” he yelled after me.
“What do you know about Hayden?”

Was that something a killer
would yell? Why wasn’t he running after me?

Was
he running after me?

I looked over my shoulder,
down at the street. It was dark except under the small pools of
light from the street lamps. The summer heat settled on the
streets, creating a faint mist around everything. The masked man
stood in the fog, faint lights reflecting against his muscular
shoulders.

He wasn’t pursuing
me.

Maybe he liked to watch girls run
before he caught them and cut their legs off.

If so, did that mean I should stop
running?

I wasn’t looking where I was
going, so I turned around.

And ran straight into a man
who was coming out of the back door of a club. There were several
out here, real down-and-dirty places. Most were owned by mobsters.
Organized crime was prevalent in the city, and this part of town
was its pulsing heartbeat.

The man nearly lost his
balance.

He was wearing a flashy suit
with a big purple tie and a black silk shirt.

“
I’m sorry,” I said. I
looked back over my shoulder. The masked man wasn’t there
anymore.

The man righted himself. He
sneered at me. He had a gold tooth. “You should watch where you’re
going.”

“
I know.” My heart was
pounding and sweat popped out above my upper lip. Because I’d been
running? Because I was nervous? All of my instincts told me not to
piss this guy off. “I’m really sorry. So, so sorry.”

He eyed me. “That
so?”

I nodded.

“
Make it up to me then. Buy
me a drink.” He gestured towards the door that he’d just come out
of.

“
In there?” I said. “Oh, I’m
not sure if… What if I just gave you the money for a drink and then
you could get whatever you want?”

His gaze raked my body. “But
then I’d be denied the pleasure of your company.”