His expression is stern, but he’s amicable to both Phoebe and me as we take a seat.
“We’ve got surveillance video that puts Harper at Del Sol Park after you claim to have left. We found traces of blood on his club. It looks like you were right.”
“Knew it.” I nod, waiting for more. “Any news on what happened between him and my sister?” I know for a fact Neil was questioned this morning. I want to know what the bastard said.
Captain looks to Phoebe and winces as if he’s sorry he has to discuss such delicate matters in front of a lady. “They met through you. He found her online. They both had their addictions—mostly physical. He claims she wanted to disappear but also claims she was easy to groom. It sounds as if he had been planning her abduction for some time before the event took place. By that time, he was having an affair with Ashley Engle as well. I understand you have a unique connection to her.” He looks downright sorry for me, but I don’t need anyone’s pity right now. “Regardless, she’s being held with aggravated kidnapping charges. There’s a psychiatric evaluation pending. First sweep of the cabin turned up quite a bit of sexual paraphernalia. Your sister mentioned she was forced against her will.” His lips press white. My stomach drops. I feel lower than dirt. I couldn’t protect my sister. While I was roaming free, she was tortured for sport, and I’m not sure I will ever get over that. “DNA evidence places Karen Gilroy in Harper’s basement. We found a toxic mixture of street drugs, enough to put down an elephant down there as well. As soon as he brought Lizzy to the cabin, he got rid of Karen. Neither your sister nor Ashley Engle realized how dangerous Harper really was.”
I offer up a reluctant nod. “But we knew.” I pull Phoebe’s good hand over to me and tell him about our suspicions regarding those cold cases in Abilene. “Neil was the perfect gentleman to everyone he knew. Just goes to show you. Sometimes you can’t trust your gut.”
Phoebe and I take off and step out into a frozen Wakefield night.
“I’m glad I have you by my side.” I sweep her hair to the side and offer a kiss to her lips. “You okay for one more outing?”
“If we’re going where I think we are, yes. I’ve been itching to see Neil myself.”
I pull her in tight as we make our way to the truck. Neil is lucky he’s alive, but I’m betting right about now he wishes he were dead.
Wakefield General feels like an old friend, one that I have no desire to get to know any further. I’ve been here more in the last twenty-four hours than I care to think. Since Phoebe’s release, I wanted to keep her comfortable, keep her the hell away from this place. But she knew I’d be coming back to see him, and she wasn’t about to let me do this without her. At this point, she needs closure as much as I do.
We take the elevator up to the third floor and head straight for his room, last one down the hall with an armed guard out front. I give the friendly officer a nod as we head on in, and we spot him there in his bed, slumped like the worm he is.
“What’s this?” Neil struggles to sit up before adjusting the mattress to an upright position. Neil was shot twice, one in the side by Phoebe, clean exit, no vital organs. And once by me, just below the heart. Missed his left lung, fractured a rib on the way out. “No flowers?” He offers his mocking grin. All these years I’ve known him, I assumed it was amicable, affectionate, and here I had been reading him wrong the entire time.
“We’ve heard every angle of this twisted story,” I start. “And now we want to hear it from you.”
His affect drops on a dime. Neil actually manages to look bored with the prospect of having to recount the details. “Your sister came onto me during the Officer’s Ball. You remember the time, don’t you?” He lifts a brow, and my stomach pools with acid. I do remember, early spring before last. She had just left Thomas. She had already bought the tickets and boasted of finding someone new there. “She shared her body with me first, then her fantastic pictorials.” He tilts his head, sarcasm thick in his voice. “We had no reason to make it public. Her friend, Ashley, came onto the scene. They devised a plan that oddly fit in with my own.” He lifts a hand, amused. “Imagine that—the prey volunteering for duty. It wasn’t difficult to get her where I needed her to be.”
Phoebe takes a quick breath. “It’s doesn’t make sense. When Ashley saw that you weren’t releasing Lizzy, why didn’t she turn you in?”
“She loved me.” He cocks his head with a marked level of his own disbelief. “She liked the idea of Lizzy on a chain, pun intended. She had no interest letting her out into the wild. Ashley is as controlling as Lizzy is belligerent.”
“And as you are insane.” Phoebe shakes her head, choking on her disbelief.
His lips curl at the thought. “A perfect storm you might say.”
For the life of me, none of it makes sense, and yet as it stands, it’s our new reality. “When did you plan to kill them?”
He glares at Phoebe a good long while before answering. “I could have kept them forever. Ashley needed to come home soon. I had a room prepared for her. She was down to her last few visits but was too prideful to realize I would turn on her. But as soon as you started poking around, digging into the past, discovering things that quite frankly I thought were undiscoverable”—he points to Phoebe—“I knew time was running out. I stockpiled kerosene in the shed behind the cabin. I was about to line the periphery when I heard your girlfriend outside.” He pauses, letting the grim nature of it all sink in. “I had killed Miles hoping to send you to prison.” He looks to Phoebe again. “And you there as well for stealing Lizzy’s identity. How perfectly romantic. If I had more time, I would have pegged you with their deaths.”
Phoebe and I stand there an unreasonable amount of time staring down the monster who took down so many worlds. We leave without whispering another word, simply walk on out and on with the rest of our lives.
On a Saturday in February, a week after Valentine’s Day, Paul Richard—Peavey, and Devyn Benedict are given the blessing of the courts to live with Phoebe and me. After the nightmare died down last December, I had Thomas look into Phoebe’s situation, and we were delighted—for lack of a better word, that the cops eventually ruled her stepfather’s death a drug-related homicide. I had never seen a fiercer embrace than that of Phoebe and her siblings—of course, they pulled me in and included me in their circle. We’re family now, just the four of us living in Wakefield in my tiny little house where we belong. Jackson has graciously agreed to move in with Gabby full-time, and over the span of many weeks, Gabby has opened her entire heart to Phoebe once again.
To celebrate our hard-won victory, Phoebe and I decide to treat our newfound family to where it all began for us, at the Hideaway Café. No formal charges were ever filed against Phoebe. With a little help from my friends on the force, we categorized the identity theft as nothing more than what Phoebe categorized it as all along—a mistake. Joe was willing to welcome her back with open arms, but Phoebe had heard there was an opening down at the public library and she jumped at the chance to spend all day in her favorite environment. But this afternoon we’re happy patrons of the Hideaway Café, sharing French fries and peanut butter shakes—our new normal, the new us. And come tomorrow morning, we’ll all be back for the all-you-can-eat pancakes. A challenge has been issued, and each and every one of us is ready to compete.
Both Neil and Ashley were slammed with murder and kidnapping charges respectively, already locked up and awaiting their sentences. Lizzy is back to her old self, and dare I say, better. She’s mellow, reserved, centered in her own contentment of simply being free, being safe, being with family. Believe it or not, she’s agreed to give it another shot with Thomas, and that boy is walking on air. I hope they make it work. And I really think they will.
That night as Phoebe and I lie in bed, after we compete beneath the sheets for one another’s affection, I hold her tight and press a molten kiss to her temple.
“It could have been true,” I assure her. “Howard Hunter was a very bad man
. He had enemies, more than one. I don’t want you to carry that guilt with you. I want you whole and happy and able to sleep well at night.”
She bubbles with laughter as she spins into me, her hair splayed over the pillow like dark shards of glass. “It could have been.” She tucks a kiss just under my chin. “But I’m whole and happy and able to sleep very well in your bed at night. So don’t worry about me. I promise I’m fine.”
I give her sides a quick pinch. “Good. And that brings me to my next point. I don’t want you to see this as my bed. It’s our bed. This is our house. And”—I slip my hand into the nightstand and come out with a small velvet box—“I want you to be my wife, Phoebe.” The moonlight washes her silver as tears pool in her eyes.
“Theo!” She wraps her entire body around me. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” she shouts, and someone down the hall thumps against the wall.
We share a quiet laugh.
“Thank you.” I land a soft kiss over her lips and linger. “We’d better clarify with them what went on in here tonight. You do realize Paul Richard is built like a linebacker. I’d hate to get on his bad side.” He let me know early on during our first meeting that Peavey was a nickname strictly for Phoebe’s use, and I happily complied. “One more thing,” I whisper, brushing my finger over my new fiancée’s cheek. “I bought four tickets to see Jeremy Newton at the Rock House in two weeks. I thought we might go as a family this time.”
She sucks in a breath and holds it. “You are magic, Theodosius Stavros, you know that?”
“You’re magic.” I dot her nose with a kiss. “And full disclosure, Theodosius is my middle name. My first name was changed once my father left the picture. My mother was gunning for Theo the entire time.”
“Really? So by all means demystify yourself. Who am I really looking at?” She takes a quick bite out of my bottom lip.
“Randal.” I can’t help but groan with the admission.
“What?” Her face bleaches out a moment. “Oh my God. Really? Randal?”
I offer up a sheepish nod. “Why? You’re not allergic to the name, are you?”
“Actually”—she tilts her head, her brows lifting as if she might be—“you are never going to believe this.” Phoebe tells me all about her morbid reoccurring dream, her future husband named Randal, already dead and waiting to greet her, and I can’t help but laugh.
“I guess that means we’re going to have one hell of a future.”
“We already are.” She pulls me in gently by the back of the head, her glowing eyes pinned to mine. “Welcome to your future, Theo. I’m ready to make all of your dreams come true.”
And she does.
**Want to keep reading? Check another romantic suspense,
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Mystery
Little Girl Lost
A Sublime Casualty
Cutie Pies and Deadly Lies (Murder in the Mix 1)
Bobbing for Bodies (Murder in the Mix 2)
Pumpkin Spice Sacrifice (Murder in the Mix 3)
Gingerbread & Deadly Dread (Murder in the Mix 4)
Seven-Layer Slayer (Murder in the Mix 5)
Red Velvet Vengeance (Murder in the Mix 6)
Bloodbaths and Banana Cake (Murder in the Mix 7)
New York Cheesecake Chaos (Murder in the Mix 8)
Lethal Lemon Bars (Murder in the Mix 9)
Romance
Just Add Mistletoe
3:AM Kisses (3:AM Kisses 1)
Winter Kisses (3:AM Kisses 2)
Sugar Kisses (3:AM Kisses 3)
Whiskey Kisses (3:AM Kisses 4)
Rock Candy Kisses (3:AM Kisses 5)
Velvet Kisses (3:AM Kisses 6)
Wild Kisses (3:AM Kisses 7)
Country Kisses (3:AM Kisses 8)
Forbidden Kisses (3:AM Kisses 9)
Dirty Kisses (3:AM Kisses 10)
Stolen Kisses (3:AM Kisses 11)
Lucky Kisses (3:AM Kisses 12)
Tender Kisses (3:AM Kisses 13)
Revenge Kisses (3:AM Kisses 14)
Red Hot Kisses (3:AM Kisses 15)
Reckless Kisses (3:AM Kisses 16)
Hot Honey Kisses (3:AM Kisses 17)
Shameless Kisses (3:AM Kisses 18)
Value 3:AM Kisses Boxed Sets
3:AM Kisses Boxed Set 1-3
3:AM Kisses Boxed Set 4-6
3:AM Kisses Boxed Set 7-9
3:AM Kisses Boxed Set 10-12
The Social Experiment (The Social Experiment 1)
Bitter Exes (The Social Experiment 2)
Chemical Attraction (The Social Experiment 3)
Low Down & Dirty (3:AM Kisses, Hollow Brook1)
Dirty Disaster (3:AM Kisses, Hollow Brook 2)
Dirty Deeds (3:AM Kisses, Hollow Brook 3)
Naughty By Nature
Heartless (Breakers Canyon Billionaires 1)
Wicked Heart (Breakers Canyon Billionaires 2)
Stone Cold Heart (Breakers Canyon Billionaires 3)
Beautiful Oblivion (Lake Loveless 1)
Beautiful Illusions (Lake Loveless 2)
Beautiful Elixir (Lake Loveless 3)
Beautiful Deception (Lake Loveless 4)
The Solitude of Passion
Someone to Love (Someone to Love 1)
Someone Like You (Someone to Love 2)
Someone For Me (Someone to Love 3)
BOXED SETS
Spitfire Kisses Boxed Set
Breakers Canyon Boxed Set (Books 1-3)
Lake Loveless Boxed Set (Books 1-3)
A Totally ‘80s Romance (Books 1-3)
3:AM Kisses, Hollow Brook (Books 1-3)
3:AM KISSES (Books 1-3)
Just Add Mistletoe (Christmas in Gingerbread, Colorado)
Young Adult Romance
Melt With You (A Totally ’80s Romance 1)
Tainted Love (A Totally ’80s Romance 2)
Hold Me Now (A Totally ’80s Romance 3)
Paranormal Romance
(Celestra Book World in Order)
Ethereal (Celestra Series Book 1)
Tremble (Celestra Series Book 2)
Burn (Celestra Series Book 3)
Wicked (Celestra Series Book 4)
Vex (Celestra Series Book 5)
Expel (Celestra Series Book 6)
Toxic Part One (Celestra Series Book 7)
Toxic Part Two (Celestra Series Book 8)
Elysian (Celestra Series Book 9)
Perfect Love (A Celestra Novella)
Ephemeral (The Countenance Trilogy 1)
Evanescent (The Countenance Trilogy 2)
Entropy (The Countenance Trilogy 3)
Ethereal Knights (Celestra Knights)
Season of the Witch (A Celestra Companion)
Celestra Forever After (Celestra Forever After 1)
The Dragon and the Rose (Celestra Forever After 2)
The Serpentine Butterfly (Celestra Forever After 3)
Crown of Ashes (Celestra Forever After 4)
Throne of Fire (Celestra Forever After 5)
Acknowledgments
Thank you for reading A Sublime Casualty. I hope this adventure was everything you wanted it to be.
Huge shouty thanks and praise to Jodie Tarleton for scouring through this book for me. I am forever indebted.
A very special thank you to Ashley Marie Daniels for taking the time to pick through this manuscript. Your input was invaluable!
To the amazing, magnifice
nt Kaila Eileen Turingan-Ramos who is truly a ninja word warrior. You are invaluable.
Thank you to Shay Rivera. You are a wonderful beta, and I’m glad I know you!
Many thanks to Lisa Markson. You have an eye for detail, and I love that about you. And a great big thank you from across the pond to Anastasia Lantilou Steele for gracing it with your eyes! Much appreacaited.
To Paige Maroney Smith, the master of all words. You are simply the best.
And last, but never least, thank you to Him who sits on the throne. Worthy is the Lamb! Glory and honor and power are yours. I owe you everything.
About the Author
Addison Moore is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author who writes contemporary and paranormal romance. Her work has been featured in Cosmopolitan Magazine. Previously she worked as a therapist on a locked psychiatric unit for nearly a decade. She resides on the West Coast with her husband, four wonderful children, and two dogs where she eats too much chocolate and stays up way too late. When she's not writing, she's reading. Addison’s Celestra Series has been optioned for film by 20th Century Fox.
Feel free to visit her on Instagram.
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A Sublime Casualty Page 19