How the hell had he not seen this before?
The victims, all stabbed to death, almost eviscerated. Over three days in San Francisco, Bakersfield, and Fresno, the killings had been famous not only for their savagery but for the killer’s audaciousness. All three women were killed whilst trying on wedding dresses—in the dressing rooms of the boutiques. No-one saw anything. Olly gave a choked laugh.
How is that even possible?
But it wasn’t even that which made him shake his head and wonder just what the hell kind of monster they were looking for. The women. The dead women. Their pictures would haunt him. The beautiful faces of Kelly Cho, Zyang Mha, and Melissa Tang stared out at him from the screen, every one of them reminding him of his tiny brunette ex-girlfriend.
“How’s things going, missy?” Tyler smiled down at her. And how is the boyfriend?”
Inca saw Tommaso look up, his interest piqued. They were all gathered in Levi’s restaurant for his partner’s birthday and Inca had invited Tommaso as her plus one. So far, she’d introduced him to her father, Tyler, her friends, and now he was chatting with Scarlett. Olly joined Tyler and Inca, casting suspicious glances at Tommaso. Inca ignored him and turned to Tyler.
“It’s good. I mean, we’re all just getting to know each other. It takes time. Sometimes it can be rocky but … we’re getting there.”
There was a long silence. Inca sighed.
“Just say what you want to, guys,” she said, shooting a glance over to Tommaso at the bar. “But keep your voices down.”
Tyler grimaced slightly. “I don’t know about that one,” he said, his deep, soulful voice low. “Seems to me, you need to watch him. There’s something … off.”
Olly raised his glass slightly. “Exactly what I think.” Inca looked back and forth between them. Both were people she would trust with her life.
“Listen,” she said softly, “I agree he’s not like us—how could he be? But I get the feeling … oh, I don’t know, that there’s more to his story than he’s told me. I don’t think he had an easy time of it.” Inca rolled her shoulders, suddenly tense.
“People deserve second chances,” she said quietly. Her eyes glistened and she felt suddenly very weary. Tyler put his arm around her shoulders.
“You always try and see the best in people, Inca, honey, and I love that about you. I just hope, in the end, your faith is served. I would hate to see you disappointed … or hurt.”
She leaned into him gratefully, wishing for the millionth time that Tyler was her real father. He was the nearest thing she’d ever had. Olly’s face was set and thoughtful. He leaned over to her.
“Inca, not now, but we need to have a talk. Please. For my peace of mind.”
“It’s not your job to protect me,” she whispered back. “As much as I’m grateful for you trying.”
He grinned. “Actually, it is my job. Just a chat. Nothing heavy, I promise’
“Come by the Sakura next week.”
“Just let me know when.” She nodded and he gave her a reassuring smile. She picked up her glass and looked over at Tommaso. He caught her eye and she smiled back, trying to see in his expression any spite, any malice.
There was none. Instead his eyes were full of concern, of truth. She rubbed her hand over eyes.
“Olly, Tommaso is not dangerous. You have nothing to be worried about, although I thank you for your concern. I’m a grown woman. I decide what’s good for me.” She felt bad for her snippiness then. “Truly. You cannot imagine how happy I am that you are in my life. So thankful. But Tommaso and I are having fun getting to know each other. Please, find it in your heart to be happy for me.”
Olly kissed her cheek. “I would never try to stop any happiness of yours, Ink. I meant it when I said you’ll always be my best friend.”
“You too, buddy.”
Raffaelo had fallen into a routine. He would rise at five a.m., take a run along the town’s roads and beaches, shower, shave, and dress. At a quarter of noon, he would drive down to Main Street, sliding his rental car into one of the few spots outside the Sakura. Then he would take up his spot at the counter of the teahouse and talk with his brother’s girl. He liked the routine; it was clean, reassuring, controlled. Inca didn’t seem to mind his regular appearance and even, it seemed to him, made an effort to make him feel … welcome. There was that word again, so very alien to him. Welcome. No-one screaming at him, no-one banishing him.
And, to his utter astonishment, he liked Inca too. For a woman, she was bright, funny, and a good conversationalist without being … chatty, gossipy. When the conversation fell silent, she didn’t rush to fill it, at least, not anymore, now that she’d become more comfortable in his presence. And he took pleasure in watching her, her slim yet softly rounded body, that glorious honeyed skin. On her sweet face, even now at twenty-eight, vestiges of puppy fat remained, making her look at least five years younger.
He kept most of his visits from Tommaso. He didn’t want his brother to think he was making a move on his girl. They’d had that particular problem before, back in Italy, with Perdita. Raffaelo felt the familiar pain flash through him. Perdita had been his girlfriend, his one true love before she’d cheated on him with Tommaso. Tommaso had been guilt-ridden, begging Raff for forgiveness which he had given to him—finally. But Perdita was lost to him; he never saw her again.
So now he trod carefully. He never wanted Tommaso to feel that pain, not from him. And Inca was special; Raffaelo could tell. She was different. Tommaso had always been the playboy, the man-whore—despite what their respective reputations said—but now Raff saw a real change in his brother. He was falling in love with Inca.
Raffaelo would do anything to protect that. Anything.
“Well, why not?”
Tommaso’s question, abrupt, irritated, took her aback. The expression on his face was something else. Anger.
Inca swallowed, remembering Hunter’s warning. “I’m sorry, Tommaso. I need to do some paperwork and I need some time alone. I did tell you I was busy until tomorrow.”
She turned away from him, reaching for the coffee pot. When she turned, he was standing right beside her. She started, and the pot smashed to the floor.
“Jesus, Tommaso!’
He held his hands up. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you, I was just coming to help.”
“Lift a coffee pot?” She was aware her tone was snippy. She crouched down and started to pick the pieces of glass up. He didn’t bend to help, nor did he move. As she stood to put the glass into the trash, she was aware of the closeness of his body, and that he was watching her. Her skin prickled, and she didn’t bother to hide her discomfort. Even in the soft warmth of the teahouse, she shivered.
“Are you okay?”
She didn’t answer him.
“I’ve offended you.” His tone was amused.
Inca wasn’t impressed.
“No, Tommaso, you just startled me. It’s fine.”
“Well, clearly not. I’ll leave you alone.”
He stalked out, leaving Inca to gape after him. Had that actually just happened? Where was the fun-loving, good-time man she had spent last night with? It was like he’d been body-swapped with someone else.
She was still upset later when Olly came to see her and asked her to sit down with him. She closed the teahouse for a while and braced herself.
“We have the DNA results, sweetheart. I’m afraid my hunch was correct. The murder victim was your biological mother.”
Emotions she didn’t understand rushed through her and she gave a little moan of distress. Tears came then, and Olly held her while she cried. “I’m so sorry, Inca.”
“I don’t know why I’m crying,” she said eventually, wiping her eyes, “I never knew her. But even so, I hate to think this happened to her. God.”
Olly nodded, his eyes serious. “And, sweetheart, it makes it more likely that the murders are tied to you in some way. Inca, listen, whatever you tell me now is strictly,
and I mean, completely, between you and me. I won’t tell a soul, but I get the feeling you’re hiding something.”
Inca stared at him for a long moment, then closed her eyes. Olly took her hand.
“Inca … is there anyone who might want to cause you harm? Anyone?”
Slowly, Inca nodded. God, she really didn’t want to have this conversation.
Please, God, don’t let it be him …
“Yes. There is, Olly. There’s someone who would want to kill me … but I don’t know how the hell he found me. I don’t know how …”
Olly leaned forward, his face almost contorted with fear. “God, Inca, who? Who is it?”
Tears began to pour down her face again. “Olly, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry …”
“Who? Who is it?”
Inca took a deep breath in and looked at him, her dark eyes full of misery. “My husband. It’s my husband who wants to kill me …”
Icestorm #2
Inca had already decided to go into the city when her cell phone rang. She’d gotten up late, rested but distracted, disturbed by vivid dreams. She stood under the shower, trying to unravel the parts she could remember. Olly. And her husband, the one she’d never told anyone about—Kevin. Then a choking, suffocating terror. Pain. Despite the heat of the shower, she shivered.
It’s just a dream.
But her stomach was cramped up with tension. After a few minutes, she gave up and ran a bath, hoping immersing her whole body into the water would help. She kneaded her stomach muscles with her fingers, feeling how knotted and sore they felt.
Ever since she’d told Olly about Kevin, she hadn’t been able to shake the fear that ran bone deep. It had been when she was abroad, in England, during her time at college. She’d met Kevin in the student bar of her college and the attraction had been immediate. Kevin hadn’t had the preppy good looks of his cohorts, but he had seemed genuinely besotted by Inca. Even then, though, she had been reticent about telling him everything about her. And when it came to sex, she had refused him.
“I’m not ready,” she had told him, “if you need to go elsewhere for that, I’m okay with it.’
She had never known if he had taken her up on that and slept around. For Inca, that had not been the foundation of their relationship; to her, she had found a good friend. To Kevin, however, it was more. He had appeared to fall in love with her and, when he had told her he wanted to relocate to the States, he had asked her to marry him so he could get his green card. Inca wasn’t keen on the idea, but Kevin had manipulated her into agreeing to it and they had had a five-minute ceremony at a London registrar’s office.
Then, when they had gotten back to the States and moved into a little apartment in New York, that was when he had turned nasty and Inca had realized that was why she had held back from fully committing to him. The menace that lurked underneath his outwardly friendly appearance was now all on the surface. He watched her every move, pressured her to have sex, and got nasty when she backed off.
The first time he had hit her, she had known she’d made the biggest mistake of her life. What had she been thinking? She had planned to leave less than a month after the wedding and get the marriage annulled. But Kevin had made sure she knew that he would never allow her to leave.
“I’ll kill you,” he had raged, and Inca had barely made it out of the apartment. She’d taken the bus across country and arrived back in Washington State, relieved she’d never told him where her hometown really was. Getting the marriage annulled would be difficult without Kevin finding her, so she’d stuck her head in the sand and pretended he didn’t exist.
Except, now, he might have found her. Inca had no doubt that Kevin was capable of killing and that his obsession with her would lead him to try and terrify her into submission. But, God, she really didn’t want to deal with that.
She leaned back in the water. She couldn’t shake the dream. It was sparks and discordant flashes of memory. Kevin. Was he kissing her? She remembered a feeling of resignation. It wasn’t a good feeling. She was resigned to the fact that he was going to hurt her, that she would die. Kevin was killing her—and Olly walked away.
I told you what he was, Inca. I told you.
She screamed for him, but he didn’t look back. Kevin was holding her and she couldn’t move, couldn’t escape. All of his limbs turned to blades, freakishly oversized knives, machetes. His grin was a terrifying rictus; it stretched and stretched until his whole mouth was impossibly large, a gaping maw. Then came the pain …
Inca shook herself. A freaking child’s nightmare. Ridiculous.
She pulled herself from the bath and wrapped a towel around herself. She wanted out of this town for a day, away from everybody. The realtor had arranged for people to come put up a Sold sign today and she didn’t think she could bear to be around them. With everything that was going on, the pain of knowing she was going to have to move out of her ‘safe’ space was eating at her.
She dressed quickly in a plain T-shirt and jeans, pulling her wet hair into a ponytail, sliding her feet into her favorite old sneakers. When the phone rang just as she was going downstairs, she glanced at the display and debated not answering. She hadn’t spoken to Tommaso since she’d confessed Kevin’s existence to Olly. Guilt won out.
“Hi, Tommaso.”
“How are you this morning?”
Inca opened the door of her car and got in. “I’m good. On my way out, is all. How are you?”
“Fine, thanks. Going anywhere interesting?”
“Just into the city.”
“Would you like some company? I was intending to go to the city myself at some point.”
Inca leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes. No, I really, really don’t. But she tried to keep her voice neutral. “Of course. I’ll pick you up on the way. I’ll be five minutes.”
When she pulled up outside the Winter mansion, Tommaso was waiting. He smiled and opened her door, leaning to kiss her cheek.
“I thought I might drive us.”
Inca opened her mouth to protest, but Tommaso was already walking to his car. She sighed and followed him, sliding into the passenger seat of the sleek Mercedes. He smiled at her.
“Ready, my darling?”
Despite herself, the sight of his handsome face and his obvious delight at seeing her made her feel better. She leaned over to kiss him. “Ready.”
He stroked her face. “I’ve missed you, bella. We should see more of each other.”
Inca smiled. “We have all day today if you’d like, Tommaso.”
“I do like.” He grinned. “Come. Show me your city.”
Inca was just getting in when she heard the house phone ring. Grabbing the receiver with one finger, she was surprised when she heard Mindy’s voice. The realtor sounded breathless.
“Honey? Are you okay?” Mindy’s voice was almost frantic.
Inca frowned. “I’m fine … what’s going on, Mindy?”
Against the tumult of Mindy’s greeting, the sudden silence that followed was jarring. And when Mindy spoke, the ice in her voice was a shock.
“Well, I guess then I had no need to call. Do you even care that you’ve ruined someone’s day and lost them money? Wasted my time?”
Inca was speechless. “Mindy … what the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the guys who were coming to set up your house sale signs. Those guys that were going out of their way to do that for me. If you had a problem with the dates, you could’ve just called me and I would have rescheduled. Is this about the apartment? Are you punishing me for losing it?”
Inca interrupted her. “Mindy, I swear to God I have no idea what you’re talking about. The guys were coming today, weren’t they?” A building panic hammered at her chest. She couldn’t recall if she’d seen their sign outside the apartment.
Mindy’s short bark of laughter held no humor. “Well, I thought so until half an hour ago, when you called to cancel.”
�
�Wait, what?” Inca’s head began to pound uncomfortably and she knew another migraine would follow if she didn’t calm down. “I’ve never called them, Mindy, not ever. I wouldn’t even know their number. I certainly didn’t call to cancel this morning.”
Mindy’s voice was hard as she intoned, “I’m calling to cancel the appointment because I don’t want you or your asshole workers anywhere near my property. Fuck you and fuck your signs.”
A ribbon of ice trickled down Inca’s stomach. “Mindy … I swear to God, I never made any calls. I will get you my phone records if you want, but I did not make that call. I was in the city with my boyfriend a half hour ago, or at least in his car on the way back. I would never, ever, treat someone like that. Come on, now; you’ve known me for months. Do you really think I’m capable of behavior like that?”
Mindy suddenly sighed. When she spoke, she sounded tired and drained. “No, I don’t, I guess. I just … the guy was really upset, and the way he said you spoke … what’s going on, Inca?
The pain in Inca’s head was shrieking now. She sat down on the bottom stair and rubbed her free hands over her eyes. “I have no idea … someone must have called and pretended they were me.” She shook her head. “Who would do that, though? I’m really sorry for the sign guy, even if it wasn’t me. Jesus.”
Mindy sighed again. “Who would—”
She didn’t even get the rest of the sentence out when Inca realized. Her shoulders slumped and she gave a low, resigned groan. There was only one person petty enough and who hated her enough to do this.
“Mindy, it’s okay. It’s someone messing with me, and I think I know who it is.” She apologized again, said her goodbyes, and set the phone down. The doorbell rang and, as she went to answer it, she felt anger sweep over her as she contemplated just how she would pay back her tormentor.
She opened the door to see Olly smiling at her, but his smile faded when he saw her face.
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