by Liz Schulte
I dropped my phone and covered my mouth with both hands. “He has Vivian.”
Chapter 25
I took off running toward my car. Aiden called after me, but I didn’t pause. No one else was going to die. Not if I could help it. He caught up with me by the time I made it to the car and grabbed my arms.
“Where are you going?”
“To the hospital. Let me go.”
“No. Stop and think. What if this is a trap? What if Vivian is fine somewhere and you’re playing into his hands? You’ve let whoever this asshole is tie you up in knots, but don’t make rash decisions. What if Vivian is your stalker?”
I tried to pull away, but his grip only tightened. “That’s preposterous.”
“She came here right before you did. She just so happened to come into your store right when you needed someone to work and volunteered though she doesn’t need the money. She’s managed to move in with you. I’m with you all the time, Ryan, and I’ve never seen anyone following you—and yet it’s still happening. What if someone is hiding in plain sight?”
I stopped struggling. “It couldn’t be her.”
“Why not?”
“How long has my family received letters?”
“Since you were a child.”
“Exactly. Vivian would’ve known where I lived all through my school years, even before she was my roommate. Why would she keep sending them to the wrong place? I’m going to the hospital.”
He released me. “I’m driving.”
I followed him to his car and we traveled as we always did, in silence. It was easy to be silent with Aiden. When we pulled into the parking lot, he leaned over, unlocked his glove compartment, pulled out a handgun, and tucked it into the back of his pants. He had another in a holster he wore over his shoulder.
When he was ready, we got out and he walked me inside with his hand on my lower back, gently guiding me. We headed for the stairs and took each one like we were marching into battle, and maybe we were. When we finally made it to the ninth floor, Aiden took a deep breath. “Have at it, Houdini.”
I squared my shoulders and went to the door, one slow step at a time, but nothing happened. Not even a rattle. I made it all the way to the door and put my hand against it, but nothing. “You need to leave,” I told him.
“Not gonna happen.” He stood with his arms crossed, watching me.
“I know how this sounds. Trust me, I do. But it isn’t going to open with you here.”
Aiden didn’t say that that’s because it was never going to work because locks do not magically come undone or make any of the other perfectly reasonable responses he could have. Instead he said, “Then we’ll find another way.”
I stared at the doors and thought back to the previous times they showed signs of life. Last time I was alone, which wasn’t an option, and before that I’d been with Dr. Sadler. Maybe it was something to do with heightened emotions. “Kiss me.”
Aiden went completely still and his eyebrows lowered. “Excuse me?”
“Kiss. Me.” I nodded. “The only other time the locks started to fall off was when I was here with Jack.”
Aiden moved toward me, his eyes serious and closed off. When he was in touching distance he said, “No.”
“Damn it, Aiden—”
A scream that sounded far away but definitely came from behind those doors cut me off.
“You heard that, right?”
He gave a slight nod and inspected the locks.
“Vivian?” I shouted and was answered with another scream.
“Go get help. Go to the tenth floor and get a custodian, nurse, the police, whoever has a key,” Aiden commanded.
I started for the stairs.
“Ryan?”
I paused.
“Throw your family name around as much as possible. If you have to, call your father and raise holy hell until someone lets us on this floor.”
I took the steps two at a time and ran directly for the nurses’ station, scanning the hallways for anyone who worked there, but everything was quiet. I stood at the counter, tapping my foot and frantically looking around. How was it possible that no one was there?
I dug through my purse for my cell phone and came across a business card for Melinda Schaffer, the hospital administrator. I called her number and the hurried sounding woman answered on the third ring. “Schaffer, hello?”
“This is Ryan Sterling.”
“Well, hello, Ms. Sterling. What can I do for you?” A nurse came out of a nearby room, carrying a small tray.
“I need to get into the ninth floor.” The nurse dropped the tray and stared at me. “Right now.”
“Ms. Sterling—” Schaffer’s voice had that too familiar tone of regret.
“I don’t have time to fuck around. Someone’s on the floor screaming as we speak. I need you to open the door or find someone who can—or I’ll start calling each of the hospital board members, starting with my mother and brother.”
The other end of the line was silent.
“If someone else is dying, Ms. Schaffer, it’s on you,” I said through gritted teeth.
She sighed. “I’ll meet you in the north stairwell.”
“Fine.” I ran back down to get Aiden. We headed for the north stairwell and arrived just before her. She glared at me as she walked up.
“This is highly irregular.”
“But screams coming from a locked floor are normal?” Aiden said.
She pursed her lips. “They are more common than I would like.” She unlocked the door at a painstaking pace. I strode back and forth like a caged animal while I waited. Aiden stood silently between us.
Schaffer pulled the chains through the handles and opened the doors. I skirted around her and Aiden and entered first. I was slightly disappointed that it looked like a dated, dirty version of every other floor. “Hello,” I called.
Nothing.
“Check rooms.” Aiden’s voice made my heart jump up into my throat. We moved down the hallway together, Ms. Schaffer trailing behind, checking in each room. We did the first couple together. “You do left, I’ll do right.”
“Okay.” I started to go into the room nearest me, but he caught my arm.
“Do not leave the hallway or my sight for any reason—just look. Do you understand?”
I nodded. We moved down the hallway, approaching the nurses’ station. One door—nothing. Two doors—nothing. Three doors—my stomach twisted with anticipation. At any minute I expected to be attacked. For something, anything, to jump out, but there was nothing. The longer it went on, the tighter my insides wound. I didn’t get to check the seventh door on my side. Aiden’s stillness and Ms. Schaffer’s gasp at their sixth sent a chill down my spine. I turned slowly, but Aiden had already shut the door.
“Who was it?” The words barely pushed out of my throat.
“Call the police,” he told Schaffer. She nodded, stuttered something incoherent, and ran down the hall to the door.
“Aiden?”
He shook his head. “It’s not Vivian.”
Relief took all the fight out of me. “Thank God.”
He nodded but had the distinct look of someone who was holding something back.
“Who was it?”
“I’m not sure.” Aiden’s hand twitched up near the gun. “We should go downstairs and wait for the police.”
“The police don’t investigate what happens here. They’ll sweep it under the rug.”
“I don’t think they’ll have a choice this time.”
“You know who it is, don’t you?”
“I have a guess.” His head jerked to the right.
I followed his gaze. “Did you hear something?”
“Maybe.” He looked back at me. “We either need to go downstairs or check the rest of this floor. I don’t like not knowing who we’re up here with.”
I brushed my hair back from my face. “Why won’t the police have a choice?”
He frowned. “I think it�
��s Briggs.”
I clamped a hand over my mouth. That wasn’t possible. My legs wobbled, so I lowered myself to my knees, staring past Aiden to the closed door. I had to look. We had to be sure. “I have to go in there.”
Aiden gave a curt shake of his head. “You don’t need to see that.”
“He was only here because of me. What if it isn’t him? What if there’s a clue, a hint? You didn’t even go in. He could still be alive.”
“Ryan, if that’s him, there’s no way he’s alive.” Aiden offered me his hand and pulled me back to my feet. “But if you want to go in there, I won’t try to stop you.”
I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to go in. I didn’t want to see what could rattle Aiden, but I had to. I wiped away tears and opened my eyes. Aiden moved out of my way. My fingers gripped the handle and I paused. “Will you come with me?”
“I’m always with you.”
I opened the door but couldn’t step through. Vomit rose to my throat. The body strapped to the bed with thick, blood-soaked belts was barely recognizable. The lower part of his jaw had collapsed and thick streams of blood seeped from the edges of his mouth. Long, gnarled gashes covered his bruised and broken body. His bright blue eyes stared lifelessly toward the door.
My stomach lurched. I backed into Aiden, and he steadied me. “I’m going to be sick.” I shoved past him and took off running to a trashcan. I threw up until I had nothing left in me. Briggs was dead. I slid down the wall and pressed my face into my knees. A sour, bitter taste filled my mouth and my eyes burned.
“You need to come back.”
I looked up at Aiden. “Why?”
“There’s a message for you.” He held out his hand to me.
I took a deep breath and pushed myself up. I could do this. I had to do this.
“It’s written on the wall across from the body. Try not to look at him.”
The room had a sweet metallic smell that made my stomach roll, but I didn’t look toward the body. Tacked to the wall was a note with “Ryan” scrawled across it in the same handwriting as all the other notes. I reached out and plucked it down, not caring about fingerprints and evidence. He hadn’t left any so far. I doubted he’d be so stupid now. I unfolded the sheet.
Do I have your attention now?
No one will ever take you away from me again. Don’t let anyone else come between us, Ryan, or the blood will be on your hands.
It is almost time. I will come for you soon. If you behave, the girl will live. If you fight me, she will suffer a worse fate than your boyfriend. We will be together forever. One way or another.
I crumpled the note and dropped it to the floor. If he wanted me, why didn’t he just come and get me? Why do this?
“I’m not going to let him take you.” Aiden’s voice was soft but filled with determination.
“I can’t let him kill Vivian.”
“I know,” he said.
At the end of the hallway, the main door slammed open and I yelped. Aiden’s hand went to his gun, and two police officers burst through, guns drawn. After a series of questions and explanations as to why we were in here, they sent us back to the hallway. We stood next to Ms. Schaffer, who was leaning against the wall, a pinched expression on her face.
Deputy Perry showed up, and Aiden and I told him everything we knew, which wasn’t a lot. When we were finally cleared to leave, Aiden took me home because I had no idea where to begin looking for Vivian if she wasn’t on the ninth floor. All the people who could potentially be targets drifted into my thoughts: my parents, Ashley, Blair, Jack, and even Aiden. But why the window washer, who I never spoke with? Why the nurses? I licked my lips. “Maybe you should go back to Boston. No one died while I was there.”
Aiden was quiet for a while. “I think it’s too late now, no matter what you do. He has a taste for killing. It isn’t your fault Briggs is dead.”
I swallowed hard and looked out the window. “I know.”
“And even if your family never paid me another cent, I still wouldn’t leave you right now.”
I appreciated Aiden’s loyalty and that he was trying to make me feel better, even though it didn’t work. “What about the surveillance of the stairwell? Did the tapes show anyone going in or out of the floor? How did people not see someone dragging Briggs there?”
“There wasn’t anything in the stairwell.”
I didn’t understand. If it wasn’t a ghost, then how was the person avoiding being filmed? “I’m not going to survive this, am I? How can we fight against something we can’t see?”
Aiden pulled up in front of my building. “If you die, I die, and I have no intention of dying any time soon.”
“Why do you do it?”
“Because it’s my job.”
My heart tightened in my chest as I fumbled for the handle. I was just another job to him. There was no real connection between us. Suddenly I felt very stupid for feeling otherwise. I shoved open the door and trudged upstairs, but once I entered the apartment, the reality of everything that had transpired hit me like a sledgehammer. I couldn’t stay there. I only had one place I could go.
“Ryan, I wasn’t quite finished.”
I ignored him. I didn’t want to hear any more about how I was a paycheck to him. “Where are my dogs?”
“I asked your father to pick them up after we left for the hospital.”
“I can’t stay here.”
“Where would you like to go?”
“Where do you live?” He raised an eyebrow—always so evasive. “I know you haven’t been living in your car this whole time.”
He nodded. “I got a place across the street so I could stay close.”
“By ‘stay close’ you mean spy.” I felt violated in general and I knew I shouldn’t take it out on him, but he was here and available. “What if I want to go there, to your place?”
He blinked. “Fine.”
He led me across the street and up to a loft above a shot bar. Sparse was too generous of a word to describe where he was staying. A mattress lay on the floor, the covers tight across it. One chair faced the window looking at my place. A fridge. A hot plate. That was literally it. The base thumped against the floorboards from the bar below.
“You’ve been staying here?”
“Your brother pulled some strings with the owner.”
“Gee, that was big of him.” I rolled my eyes. It was worse than Bee’s before I worked on it. “You know a lot about my life, don’t you?” A pair of headphones and a small receiver next to the chair caught my eye. “Is my house bugged?”
“It was difficult to protect you when I had to stay hidden from you. So I had to do as many security sweeps and background checks as I could before you arrived somewhere. You didn’t exactly give me your schedule. I’m afraid your privacy had to suffer as a result.”
“Huh.” I sat in the chair, put on the headphones, and listened to my still apartment for a moment. “I bet you have opinions about the things I’ve been doing.”
“It isn’t my job to have opinions.” He folded his arms behind his back.
I shook my head and didn’t bother trying to hide my disappointment. “You’re impossible to talk to.” I slumped down in the chair and stared at the dark windows of my apartment. I imagined all the nights Aiden did this very thing and considered everything he’d seen and heard. Was the stalker also watching? Did he see me with other people too? Is that why he killed Briggs?
Chapter 26
“I think you should’ve left Briggs years ago,” Aiden said, and I stopped peering out the window to look at him in surprise. His eyes glinted. “You were entirely too easy on him—and you never meshed well with the doctor either. I liked Vivian, though; she brought out the old you. Blair seems like a good kid.” Aiden moved to lean against the wall in front of me. “And as I was saying in the car, I protect you because it’s my job, but the part you didn’t let me say is that I also care about what happens to you. More than I should.”
�
��Caring about me is a risky proposition these days.”
He smiled faintly. “In my case, it’s always been a risky proposition.” He broke eye contact. “We aren’t supposed to be emotionally involved with our clients. If my bosses found out, they’d transfer me to someone else.”
I didn’t know what to say. I definitely felt a connection to him, but now seemed like the wrong time to say so. Briggs was dead, my life was out of control, and neither of us could really be certain what any of this was about. I didn’t want to rush into anything like I had with Jack. The last thing I needed was to hurt another man—or get him killed. “I can’t do this.”
He straightened back up. “I understand.” His voice was brisk and he started past me.
I got up to follow him. “Wait. I don’t think you do.”
Aiden stopped but didn’t turn around. I didn’t have the words in me to give. We stood in awkward silence until he finally faced me. “You don’t have to spare my feelings.”
“Shh.” I pressed my fingertip to his lips. I took a hesitant step forward, stood on my tiptoes, and grazed my lips over his. His arms inched their way around my waist and he deepened our second kiss until I was out of breath when we finally parted. I laid my head against his hard chest and his thumb ran up and down my spine. Stillness and security blanketed me. I squeezed him tighter.
His phone rang, shattering the moment. I went back to the window but listened. His end of the conversation was cryptic at best. It seemed to be a less than endearing trait of his. When he hung up, he said, “Blair’s brake line was cut.”
I smothered a sigh, still staring into the night. “Is it possible you aren’t the only one who’s bugged my house?”
“No. I’ve done sweeps. Why do you ask?”
I shrugged, still formulating my thoughts. “Before I came home no one bothered my family. I mean, they still got the letters for me, but no one was ever hurt. So why now? What changed?” I paced and could feel Aiden’s eyes following me. “The only thing I can think of is me. I came home, I let them back into my life, and now someone is taking them away. Why did I let them take me away—that’s what the letter said. Who was I taken away from by my family?”