by Amy McKinley
I was headed down the ladder for a drink of water when my phone rang. I crossed to where I’d left it on the partially finished deck then answered after Jaxon’s name flashed across the screen.
“Any news?” My gaze strayed to Riley, who was lying on her stomach and talking on the phone. I could tell he was at work by the clinking sound of handcuffs and the distant whine of a siren leaving the station.
“Not anything good.”
That got my attention. “Tell me.”
“I looked into the hospital report when you told me about how Riley took Charles to the ER for a possible heart attack, the night she broke up with him.”
“And?”
“Higher than normal levels of nitroglycerin were found in his blood. When questioned at the hospital, he denied taking any heart medications that would have explained the substance’s presence. I confirmed from his medical records that it wasn’t prescribed, either.”
“I fail to understand why that’s important. He could’ve had chest pains, and a friend gave it to him.”
“Here’s where it gets interesting,” Jaxon explained, his voice as hushed as it could be amidst the noise of a police station. “If mixed with alcohol, it causes abnormal heart rhythms and fainting. There’s a chance she poisoned him. She’d told the nurse when she first got there that he’d had some wine at her house. When Nolan gets wind of this information—and we just got it so that’ll be soon—he’ll roll with it, using the theory that she tried to kill him before his actual death and that neither incidents were accidental.”
Something about what he’d told me struck a chord, and my mind raced to make the connection.
“Another thing—and this is why Nolan hasn’t seen the tox report yet. A bodiless foot and shoe were found.”
“Was it Charles’s?”
“No. A woman’s. I don’t have any other information than that.”
There had to be a connection there. I could hear someone yell for Jaxon and knew he would have to go.
“We should have the results back from forensics and the coroner’s office shortly, which will also tell us if the blood found on Riley’s apartment door is a match for Charles. Just, be careful.”
“That goes without saying.” I didn’t tell him, but I was grateful Jaxon was involved in this mess.
“You’re sure about her?”
“She’s the one.” That’s all I needed to say to him. I ground my teeth as the similarities about what Jax had told me about Charles’s hospital results connected to the scene in the book Riley had shown me.
“Hell, Xan, I’m glad to hear that, but this is a shit show.”
“There’s more.” I told him about the book Riley was reading and how she thought maybe there was a connection between Charles and the author.
“What, like a girlfriend scorned?”
I had no idea. “Not sure. It’s just a theory.” I gave him the name of the author. “Can you look into it?”
“Wouldn’t hurt.”
“What about the wife? Riley said Charles was filing for divorce the last time she saw him.”
“She has an alibi. I’ve got to warn you that we’ve got nothing else to clear Riley if the blood on her door was his. There’s something else. The knife found on the door didn’t match the cuts on Charles’s foot, but it also didn’t look exactly like a shark.”
“What are you thinking?”
“The barista the other coffee bar whose foot was found severed from her body. It was assumed a shark was the cause. No foul play was suspected.”
“But you found something.”
“Yes. Both were severed at the same spot above the ankle, and the skin looks like shark teeth did the deed. But there are inconsistencies which lead us to believe it was caused by a shark-toothed weapon.”
Dammit. I’d seen those in a museum. Rows of razor-sharp sharks’ teeth were fitted into wooden swords. “So you’re looking for another weapon?”
“You got it,” Jaxon replied. “Nothing turned up in Riley’s apartment, but I need you to go through her things.”
“I was with her the whole time she packed. There is no knife.”
“Just be sure, Xan. What if she’s a killer?”
“She’s not,” I countered. I knew my brother meant well, but I was starting to get angry. “Not that she’s anything like what you’re worried about, but I can handle myself just fine.”
“Not when your heart is involved.”
26
Xander
The screen door slammed behind me as I entered my house to find Riley sitting at the kitchen table with her laptop open to a breathtaking picture of a lookout point on Oahu.
She didn’t notice me until I stood at her side. “That’s beautiful. Did you take it?”
“Yes, but there’s something here that I hadn’t noticed at first. Because of that, I didn’t include it in my thesis.”
“Why? I can’t see anything wrong.”
“I missed it the first time, but check this out.” Quizzical eyes met mine before she focused back on the picture. “Here.” She tapped a fingernail not far from the rock outcropping along the coastline. “This is a face. Super hard to see, but magnify it, and the features are partially visible between the rocks.”
With a few clicks, she enhanced the image so that I was looking at a small cove within the cliff. I braced myself on her chair and the table, leaning over her to see what she was doing.
Goddamn. She was right. It was blurry and partially hidden until she made a few adjustments.
My thoughts flew to our last mission. What if that’s what we missed? If there was someone else there in the jungle that the infrared imaging hadn’t captured? I needed to get to the base and take another look at the pictures from the Black Hawk. It was a long shot but well worth a second look.
I grinned at her. She didn’t know it, but she’d given me an idea that could potentially reveal information that we’d overlooked. I gave her long hair a gentle tug and pressed a kiss to her lips. “It’s gorgeous, even with the photobomb. In fact, that makes it more interesting.”
She grinned. “Thanks.”
Riley and her picture had diverted my attention, which wasn’t uncommon or unwanted—she frequently distracted me. There was news I had to tell her from Jaxon, and I would deliver it as soon as I spoke with Ty. I picked up the sandwich she’d made for me and inhaled it. By the time she finished, the food had turned to lead in my stomach. I thanked her for the sandwich, told her I had to make a call, and stepped outside. As soon as I was clear of hearing distance, I hit Tyler’s contact to call him. I got to the point as soon as he answered.
“Where are you?” I asked. I knew I had to be careful. If there was a mole, as we’d expected, then we had to be smart. What I hoped was that we could find something in the pictures that would point us in a new direction.
“I’m on base.”
“Go somewhere secure.”
There was a sound of a door closing, then the background noise went silent. “What’s going on?”
“We need to recheck the Black Hawk’s images. What if we missed something, and it’s not cartel who hit us?”
We wrapped up our conversation, and my thoughts shifted back to Riley. Stowing my phone in my pocket, I went inside and gathered her in my arms. I had to tell her what Jaxon relayed to me. “I talked to my brother. That night Charles was taken to the hospital, they found nitroglycerin in his blood. The amount caused a reaction with the wine he drank.”
She jerked in my arms, lifted her head from my chest, and leaned back, her eyes wide with shock. “They think it was me, don’t they? Oh God, the book—”
I ran my hand along her back in a soothing motion. “Jaxon is looking into the author. They have another lead, so the connection is good.”
“What if the author is Melanie?” She worried her lip for a moment. “She missed a shift, and Jeff and Chloe were worried about her. They weren’t able to reach her. She told me she’s an author and has
published under a pen name.”
“Why do you think those things are related?”
“Because she dated Charles and was extremely jealous. What if she was like the wife in the book, who posed as a student to find out about the women her husband cheated with?”
She had a point. I pulled my phone from my pocket. After pressing Jaxson’s contact info again, I waited for him to pick up. Several rings later, it went to voicemail, where I left him a detailed message about Melanie. “He’ll check her out, too, when he gets the message.”
“All right.” A small smile eased some of the tension on her face. “Thanks.”
“It’ll be okay.” I drew her to me, wishing I could erase her worry. “I’m with you every step of the way.”
Riley
There was a slight chill to the air—Xander had left the door to the cabin open to allow the strengthening breeze in. Electricity charged the air, and through the screen door, I could see thick clouds headed our way. After a while, I was over the shock of learning the cause of Charles’s symptoms and the parallel to the book, so Xander was comfortable leaving me for an hour to finish the roof. If he didn’t finish, it would leak when it rained later that night—we were due for another storm.
I stayed inside, cleaning up our lunch. When that was done, I wanted to change out of my bathing suit. So I went next door, where I’d spent the first night on the island. He’d told me to move my clothes in with his, but I hadn’t yet. It was time.
It was hard to believe it was Friday, only two days from graduation, where all would feel Charles’s absence. I knew it was the right decision not to go. There would be too much speculation if the connection between us was discovered.
As it was, news of his death had gone out in an email from the university to the students, minus key details. In a slow blink, I shoved the image of Charles’s lifeless body away and focused on why I was in the adjacent house to Xanders.
I’d left my book on the lanai and grabbed it as I moved through the house to toss it in my bag with everything else. I set the bag on the peninsula then straightened up the kitchen and wiped the counters. With the dishes put away, nothing looked out of place.
Muted sunlight filtered through the open window, and a cooling breeze forecasted the approaching stormy weather. The palm tree fronds that surrounded the sides and back of the house rustled in the wind, and I hoped Xander would be done soon—I was still uneasy and wanted to talk to him again about the scenes in the novel and play devil’s advocate about Mel fitting the profile. I padded into the bedroom to finish gathering my things but stopped short.
My clothes were strewn about, with some on the floor and the rest on the bed. My heart slammed against my chest. I hadn’t done that, and I was fairly certain that Xander hadn’t either, but he was the only other person on the island. I frowned as I picked everything up. It was weird, but I couldn’t figure out what other reason there was for the mess.
Once I’d changed into a T-shirt and shorts and all my stuff was back in the bag, I made the bed and sat down, the picture I’d helped Xander enhance filling my head. What if I’m missing something too? I pulled the book into my lap and stared at the author’s picture. Could this be Melanie? My computer was still on Xander’s kitchen table, so I couldn’t upload a digital image and do any editing to see if there was something familiar. I had to rely on my vision.
Inch by inch, I went over the details. The shape of her face, the Gucci oversized sunglasses—oh my God, I knew who had a pair exactly like them, with the same minuscule scratch on the edge of the right lens.
It couldn’t have been her. My hand shook, and my eyes misted, the picture blurring in front of me. I couldn’t handle another betrayal. There had to be some other explanation.
I must have sat on the edge of the bed, staring blindly out the window, for a half hour, maybe longer. A part of me had already accepted that she had abandoned me in the worst possible way, just like my father.
With a pen from my purse, I circled the scratch on the author’s photo then jumped to my feet when the door closed behind me. The book tumbled to the floor, and I whirled around to find Ava there. “What are you doing here?”
She no longer wore her signature bun—her blond hair was down, and she had on the same sunglasses from the author picture.
“It’s you, isn’t it?”
She laughed, and chills erupted along my arms. “I didn’t think you’d figure it out. What gave me away?” She tugged on a strand of hair. “This?”
“Yep.” I wasn’t going to tell her. I wanted to leave the clue I’d circled in case Xander found the picture. Not that he would know Ava had the same frames, but I’d scribbled her name above the sunglasses with a question mark. There was no doubt in my mind that he would share that information with Jaxon, and they would both look for me—if she didn’t kill me first. “What I don’t understand is why.”
“Why what?” She pulled a gun from her oversized bag and pointed it at me. “Why did Charles have to die? Why did I leave you for last?”
“You’re my friend.” I choked on the last word, taking several deep breaths to regain some degree of calm.
“Oh, sweetheart. Don’t you know how far a woman scorned will go?”
“You were his girlfriend?” He’d had many from what I’d learned, so it wasn’t a stretch. I’d entertained the idea that the author was Mel, but obviously, C. Marx was Ava’s pen name. I wondered if Charles’s wife had known about Ava’s obsession.
A bitter laugh ripped from her mouth. “We’re not doing this here. Get up.”
I shook my head, standing my ground. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
She lunged, and I glimpsed the gun before she pistol-whipped the side of my head.
I couldn’t move. My temple throbbed, pain radiating outward. She had the gun fisted in her hand, pointed directly at me.
“You’ll be fine. Get up.”
On shaky legs, I stood. She pulled some duct tape from her pocket and put a small strip over my mouth.
“This is just until we’re out of hearing distance. Can’t keep it on too long, or it will leave marks.” With the gun, she motioned for me to go.
The hard barrel of the weapon pressed against my side. She grabbed my arm and headed out of the house, moving quickly to the side where Xander was not. The sky had darkened, the wind gained strength, and the clouds were thick and angry.
Ava peeked around the corner to see if Xander was looking while I berated myself for not attacking her first. Shock had made me an easy target. First, finding out that she was the author of the book I was reading—not Mel. There were similarities I couldn’t ignore in several of the scenes. The sunglasses. Then the unexpected attack. The medication found in Charles’s blood. It was a lot. I couldn’t dwell on it. When we were clear, she tore the tape from my mouth, making my eyes water.
There would be a time when she didn’t have the gun wedged against my skin. When I found a break, I would go for it. I just had to stay vigilant and block the pain in my head.
Because if I didn’t, she was sure to kill me, and it didn’t seem as if it was her first time.
27
Riley
Ava poked me in the back with the gun, urging me to hurry. The howling wind tangled my hair around my face, making it difficult to see where to walk through the flourishing vegetation on Xander’s island. Fat drops of rain slipped through the trees, and we had to pick our way through plants and fallen coconuts. Mangos, plantains, and an overabundance of ferns meant there was no navigable path.
The storm wouldn’t last long. They rarely did because of the trade winds.
A portion of the terrain rose at a fairly steep angle, covered with dense trees and bushes. Xander had told me a part of the island was a rocky cliff. Ava dragged me around the base of it and away from the houses. She must have set up a way off the island on the other side.
The ache in my temple increased with each step, and a small trickle of blood ran along the
side of my hairline. Through the panic and physical discomfort, I racked my brain for ways to get away from her. Keep her talking. Given the gun, I couldn’t see an easy way to overpower her. A wave of dizziness swept through me, and I stumbled and went down on one knee.
“Get up,” Ava said with a growl. Rain dotted her face, and she hauled me to my feet.
I pulled away from her grip and half pivoted to try to make a break for it. Pain exploded through my back, and I whimpered. She’d jammed the barrel of the gun into my spine.
“Don’t even think about it. I’ll shoot you here if I have to.”
Damn it. “Why are you doing this?”
“No more talking.” She dragged me forward.
I had to make it difficult for her. With my feet feeling like lead, I stumbled several more times. Under the shade of the trees, we were spared from the heavy rainfall, but the little that slipped through softened the ground.
We trudged through the underbrush. I stomped around, dragging my feet as much as possible, forcing her to dig her heels in too. There would be a trail to find me.
“I think you gave me a concussion. I’m dizzy and can’t walk straight.” I couldn’t help the rising hysteria from infusing my voice.
She snorted. “That’s the least of your worries. Hurry up.” She tugged harder. “We’re almost there.”
Shit. I let my legs go weak and slid onto my side on the damp ground, going down on a fern, purposely flattening it while dragging the bloodied side of my head over as many of the plants nearby as I could under the guise of regaining my feet.
“Stay on your goddamn feet!” Ava shouted between clenched teeth, her face taut in anger. Blond hair tangled around her head, forcing the glare she shot me to play hide and seek between the shifting strands. I shivered—not from cold but from the borderline-insane expression in her empty eyes.