“If Daniel shows up, text me.” He released his hold of her, even though it was the last thing in the world he wanted to do.
“You’ll be parked out front. You’d see him before I would.”
“And there’s the employee exit out back. I can’t cover both doors.” He’d scoped the place out when they’d arrived, realizing he’d probably need to phone Aiden for additional support.
“You still think it’s Daniel, don’t you?”
“You don’t care what I think. Remember?”
“I do care, but Bobby’s the one in jail.”
He lightly tugged at her elbow, encouraging her to move closer to the entrance so no one could overhear them. The soft music wasn’t loud enough to mask their conversation. “I get that you want it to be him so this will all be over, but how do you not see what I do?”
Concern, or maybe a hint of anger, stung her eyes. “Are you jealous? Is that what this is?”
“Of course I hate that he got to be with you, but that was my own damn fault for not being here,” he answered in all honesty. “But this has nothing to do with my feelings.”
She edged closer. “Are you sure about that?” And with that, she turned and walked away.
And he let her go . . . because what if she was right?
What if his hate for the son of a bitch had clouded his judgment, and he only wished it was Daniel so he could shove a Glock in the guy’s mouth and pull the trigger without remorse?
Christ. What is wrong with— His thoughts were cut off by the vibration of his phone in his pocket.
It was Jake on the line. He’d called his Marine buddy the other day when he and Ava decided they’d need additional reinforcements.
He hadn’t wanted to bring more of his friends into this, but there’d been no choice.
“Hey, man.” He left the restaurant and got back behind the wheel of his SUV. He’d been waiting for this call since Jake had texted him earlier in the day.
“I have Alexa on the line,” Jake said straightaway. “I’m also connecting Aiden and Ava. Give me a sec.”
Ben’s chest tightened, his nerves stretching so tight they’d snap at any moment.
“Hey,” Alexa said. “I think we finally found something.”
Relief poured through him as he waited for her to continue.
“So, using facial recognition software, I was able to get three hits on your man Daniel Edwards. In addition to the man Daniel claims to be currently, there were also two Americans who had approximately an eighty-percent match to his face. If Daniel had plastic surgery at all, it would account for those stats. He could truly be Daniel Edwards, or he could have previously been one of these other men.”
“Could you text me the images of these guys and their names?”
“They should be coming in now,” she said. “I also went ahead and looked into the backgrounds of the other men. One of them is dead.”
Ben tapped open the text and impatiently waited for the images to load. “So, you think that could be our guy then?”
His gut rarely failed him. And so maybe his judgment hadn’t been off, jealous or not.
“It’s possible. He was also a surgeon,” Alexa replied.
“How’d he die?” Ben asked, his curiosity piqued.
“Boating accident with his sister in the Pacific. Bodies never recovered.” Alexa’s soft English accent floated through the phone.
Ben swiped through the pictures and stopped on the third. The nose and chin were a little different—but the eyes . . . they were the eyes of a killer. They were Daniel’s eyes. “The guy who died, is he the second image you sent? Calvin Grey?”
“Yeah,” Alexa said.
Ben zoomed in, his stomach becoming shaky. “It’s him. I’m almost sure of it.”
“You really think so?” Aiden asked.
Ben nodded as if his friends could see him. “Yeah. What else do you know about him?”
“Well, he and his sister were raised by a single dad. The man had a heart attack when Calvin was twenty-four, even though he didn’t have any prior medical or heart conditions. The ME reported concerns that it was a drug-induced heart attack, and he suspected foul play. But nothing ever came to light. After the death, Calvin’s sixteen-year-old sister, Natalie, moved with him to L.A.”
“Where were they from originally?” Ben asked.
“A tiny town in South Dakota,” she said. “Calvin’s father had been arrested multiple times due to child abuse when Calvin was a teen.”
“Maybe Calvin killed him because of it,” Ben suggested.
“Calvin had an alibi at the time of death.”
“Of course he did,” Ben grumbled. “Anything else?”
“Actually, yes. I’m texting you a link to an article in the L.A. Times. You’ll want to have a look at it.”
“The campus serial killer.” Ben read the headline of the article. He vaguely remembered hearing about it, but he’d been in boot camp at the time. He checked the date. It was almost fourteen years ago.
He should have called Alexa sooner, damn it. He appreciated the hell out of Ava, but he’d been stubborn in not wanting to be a burden on Jake and Alexa. And where had that gotten him? Lives might have been saved.
It’d always been dangerous to mix emotions when on an op in the Marines, but it’d been impossible to do the same this time.
He gripped his phone tighter as guilt weaved tight around his organs and squeezed.
“There were four seemingly unrelated murders on the college campus,” Ava said. “And I checked out the case file on the murders—it’s still considered an open case. Guess whose name was one of the suspects.”
“Calvin.” Emotion pushed into Ben’s chest, and anger clawed at him, creating fresh wounds.
“Yup. His sister had been a graduate student at that campus, and she’d been dating one of the victims. He’d been the first of the four killed. The murders stopped, and the police never found the killer, but I’m betting it’s because a week after the fourth victim died—”
“The boating accident happened,” Ben finished for her. “How fucking convenient. Why stage his sister’s death, too, though?”
How long had Daniel been getting away with murder?
“Natalie was about to complete her master’s in computer science, and she was writing her thesis on cyber warfare. She was an expert in hacking,” Alexa explained.
“Oh, shit.” Ava joined the conversation. “Maybe she’s the one who hacked Bobby’s computer to frame him! She could have easily helped create the new identities for herself and her brother.”
“Are we talking about two goddamn killers?” Ben’s nostrils flared as he stared at his phone in disbelief. “You got a picture of the sister?”
“Yeah, give me a sec,” she said.
“Thank you for your help. All of you,” Ben said in a gravelly tone as he waited for the next image to download.
The image was pixelated at first, and he cursed the cell service in his small town as he waited.
“You get it?” Alexa asked.
He narrowed his eyes, disbelief flooding him.
His gaze flickered out the front window for a moment before he dropped his phone and barreled out of the SUV and toward the restaurant.
The corner booth was empty.
He didn’t see Riley.
He didn’t see Mandy.
And never in his life had he felt so sick.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Riley blinked a few times, trying to adjust her vision. It was too dark to see anything, but it was cool and damp as if she were in a basement.
“Hello? Talk to me. Where am I?” Riley forced out the words, noticing a slowness to her speech. Whatever drug she’d been injected with had weakened somewhat, but it was still swirling around her system.
She tried to move, but something tight rubbed against her wrists as she shook her arms. And when she attempted to lift her head, a rough texture rubbed against her throat, pinning her down.
Her legs were free, but she didn’t know how that’d help her from getting off whatever she was attached to.
A sudden glow filled the room, casting shadows overhead.
And then the light blinked out, and darkness devoured the space once more.
“Hello,” she cried out, scrambling to recall what exactly had happened before she woke in the dark.
Vague memories of a knife—no, a scalpel . . . in the restaurant bathroom, pressing to her jugular, came to mind.
No, it can’t be.
She fought at the restraints and tried to scream, but it came out more like a broken sob.
“He loves you. I don’t understand it, but he does,” a voice bellowed from somewhere to her right.
Riley stiffened at the sound of Mandy’s calm voice.
Her chest tightened, the weight of an anxiety attack coming on. She hadn’t had one since Nate died and Ben left, but she remembered how it felt with unmistakable clarity.
It was as if she were being buried alive and there wasn’t enough oxygen.
“I don’t understand.” Riley closed her eyes and tried to slow her breathing before she fainted. She had to keep it together.
Ben had been right about Bobby, and she hadn’t listened to him. Why the hell hadn’t she listened to him?
Mandy pressed something beneath Riley’s ear. The scalpel. And not the one planted in Bobby’s car.
“Why are you doing this?”
“You don’t deserve him. He couldn’t see that, but I’ll help him understand.” Her voice was different. The normal sweetness to her tone had been replaced by something grim and dark. Something utterly disturbing.
But then, recognition struck her. “Are you talking about Daniel?”
The blade nicked Riley’s skin, causing a slight burn. The muscles in her legs tightened with the anticipation of more pain to come.
“I tried to make things right for the two of you.”
With the scalpel at the side of her neck now, where the collarbone met her throat, she couldn’t fight, or she could cause more damage to the jugular.
She focused on thoughts of Ben, on the man she had loved with all of her heart for her entire life, despite her attempts to clear him from her mind over the years.
They needed more time together. This couldn’t be it.
I’m not ready to die.
Fear tried to envelop her, to pull her into a foggy haze—but she had to resist. She had to remember her training. “We’re friends.”
“And how do you think that came into being?” Mandy chuckled lightly, the sound ricocheting off the walls and barreling right into Riley’s heart.
“Daniel had never been in a real relationship before you. He doesn’t normally trust women, and then you came along, and you screwed with his head. You made him weak.”
Her words practically obliterated her control, but she had to hang on.
“I moved to this small hick town to make sure you didn’t hurt him. You were so easy to fool, too. I had hoped for a little bit of a challenge since you’re a shrink, but God, you failed. You failed miserably.”
Riley sucked in a tender breath.
“You chose Ralph over Daniel. That was your first mistake.”
“You killed Ralph because I wouldn’t move with Daniel?”
Mandy was a surgeon. The woman knew how to use a scalpel, and she could probably hack her up while keeping her alive long enough for this sick, twisted ride.
“I was doing Daniel a favor. Get rid of Ralph, and you two could be happy.” Her voice was calm. She spoke as if her words were logical. As if she truly believed she was in the right.
A sociopath.
She went through the characteristic checklist: shallow emotions, can’t empathize with others, a self-made reality, always five steps ahead, charming, liars . . .
Textbook definitions whirled around in her head, but now that she was at the mercy of a killer, it was hard to come to terms with the truth. It was hard to negotiate with someone who was capable of such manipulation—because in Mandy’s world she was doing what was right.
She’d fooled Riley into believing they were friends. It’d all been an act. Their friendship one giant manufactured lie.
And for what?
Riley’s stomach folded in on itself. She continued to fight the bile as it rose in her throat. “Does Daniel know?” He couldn’t possibly know, could he?
Mandy remained silent, and so Riley asked, “Did you choose to frame Bobby because you found out he was cheating on you?”
“Do you honestly think I cared about him? Or that my tears over patient losses were genuine?” A soft hiss left her lips. “Bobby was a convenient choice. I told you what you needed to hear to help me. I knew you’d blabber to the police about him.”
“Yeah? And what’d Lydia do to deserve to die?” Riley wouldn’t be able to get her to back down. No, Mandy would never give up, but she could at least buy herself some time by keeping her talking until Ben got there.
He’ll come.
He has to come.
Mandy must’ve moved positions because the scalpel now rested on Riley’s abdomen. It didn’t poke her skin, and so she tried to relax her stomach.
“Daniel has certain needs you couldn’t always keep up with. And so, he had sex with a few of his interns. It’s human nature for men to fuck around.”
“You’re right.” She allowed her voice to break as if she were truly regretful. “Daniel deserved more.” Maybe it wasn’t much of a lie because Riley never did love him.
“So you admit it?” The blade lifted.
She expelled a slow breath. “Daniel’s an amazing man. A world-class surgeon. I should have been better to him.” She tried to keep her voice from wavering, to sound believable.
“So you would’ve forgiven the affair? If you had found out that Daniel was fucking a twenty-seven-year-old intern, you would have taken him back?”
Riley swallowed the lump in her throat, the pressure gathering behind her lids. “I would have forgiven him, yes.”
“You’re lying,” she said sharply. “I don’t believe you.”
“I promise.”
“Do you really think I give a damn about your promise?”
The scalpel dug deep into her core, but it didn’t perforate the flesh. It was a tease of what was to come, as the cold metal began to slowly scratch.
Chills raked over her body, and she tensed with each slow circling of the tip around her belly button.
“You lost your chance at being with him. I thought I could forgive you for sleeping with Patrick because you said you were drunk and it was a mistake. And that asshole doctor probably did take advantage of you.” She whispered quick curses under her breath. “But Ben . . .”
“Ben.” She repeated his name like a soft echo, not sure where the conversation was going to go. Mandy had clearly made up her mind about Riley long before taking her.
“You still love Ben.”
Mandy could never understand love. How could she? Whatever she felt for Daniel was—
“You ran right into Ben’s arms. You screwed him.” The blade shifted back up her body and met her throat once again. Mandy’s breath touched her ear, and Riley’s fingertips curled inward as she prepared herself for death.
Some people say that when they think they’re about to die, a montage of memories plays through their mind.
But not for Riley.
No, all that flashed through her mind were scenes of the future—of what she so desperately wanted.
To be a wife.
A mother.
“Please.” She cried out the word in her last attempt to somehow change Mandy’s mind. “You don’t have to do this.”
“I really do. But I’m not done yet.”
“Don’t hurt anyone else. You have me. I’m who you hate,” Riley rushed out, knowing her pleas wouldn’t impact Mandy, but the desire to live had taken over.
“I can’t let Ben live. The man won’t g
ive up on trying to find your killer.”
“No!” She tried to jerk up, but the abrasive material around her throat wouldn’t allow for much movement.
“You’re so willing to fight for Ben, but you wouldn’t do the same for Daniel.” Mandy’s palm landed on Riley’s chest, and she pushed down, an attempt to still her. “It’s over, sweetheart. I’m going to comfort Ben as he mourns you, and then I’ll have sex with him. I’ll slit his throat as he comes.”
Tears streaked her face as she continued to resist, forgetting the scalpel at her throat.
But the sudden light in the room had Riley freezing.
She could see Mandy’s face now, her lips twisted in surprise.
“Back away from her!” a familiar voice roared through the room. But from Riley’s vantage point, she couldn’t see anyone other than Mandy.
Mandy kept the blade in position but looked over her shoulder at the intruder. “I can’t do that.”
“You don’t have a choice,” the deep voice rumbled through the room.
“She needs to die,” Mandy said firmly. “This has to happen.”
“Don’t make me shoot. I’ll do it. I will.” A touch of fear, of sadness, slipped through his words.
“No, you won’t,” Mandy said calmly and looked back at Riley.
But the sound of a bullet whistled through the room not even a second later.
The scalpel clattered to the floor, along with a heavy thud.
Mandy . . .
Riley flinched and allowed her gaze to fall to the ground, to see if Mandy was still alive. But all she could see was her open palm.
“Is she dead?” Riley asked in a whisper.
Daniel crouched next to Riley. He was probably checking Mandy’s pulse, but all she could see was his back.
“She’s gone.” He slowly rose and faced her, his skin blanched and colorless.
Oh, God. Daniel had killed for her.
His focus snapped to her throat as he tucked the gun in the back of his pants. “Shit, you’re bleeding. Let me get your hands free first. She must have a key on her.” He knelt alongside Mandy’s body, and a minute later, he had the cuffs off and the rope removed.
His shirt came off next, and he held it to the wound at her neck. “You okay?”
The Final Goodbye Page 19