"Just Chad and me." She closed her eyes and worked on breathing. Now that she was safe, the shakes were starting. She was pushed gently onto the bench inside the ambulance. A blanket was wrapped around her shoulders. She sank deeper into its folds, whispering," Thank you."
"No problem. Stay here and rest."
Chad appeared in front of her. "Meg?"
She smiled at him. She lowered the oxygen mask. "I'm fine."
"It was arson."
"Yeah, I got that." In fact, she also thought she knew who it was who had done it. "Pete?"
Chad nodded. "He'd be my first choice. I gather he wasn't real happy about you breaking up with him."
"He'd have been more upset if he had seen us in bed." She shrugged. "It was over a long time ago. Just waiting for the ink to dry, so to speak."
Chad glared at his house. The house that was past saving now.
She followed her gaze, realizing belatedly what he'd lost personally. "I'm sorry."
He glanced down at her. "So am I, but this is not your fault."
That was debatable. But she didn't have the energy. "Is Janelle safe?"
He pulled out his phone. "I had security on her all night. As I haven't gotten a call, I'm presuming all is well, but I'll check."
She hadn't known. "Thank you."
He moved away slightly to talk. She stared at the mess around her. The fire trucks, the ambulance, the cops, the neighbors, everyone watching. She just wanted to hide away until all this was over.
Her gaze wandered, her mind lost on the chaos. She caught sight of something, her mind slow to compute just what, when Chad stepped in front of her.
"Janelle is fine." He said with a big smile. "She's awake."
She blinked and got it.
Meg said, "Don't look around. Pete is in the crowd, behind you to the left."
Chad froze. "Are you sure?" he asked hoarsely. He had his cell phone out. At her nod, he texted someone. "Men are moving into position." He looked up at her. "Get ready. All hell is going to break lose soon."
His cell phone beeped. "Is he still there?"
She didn't want to look and alert Pete but knew it would be impossible not to. "He's on the move, going behind you now."
"Stay put."
And just then someone in the crowd screamed. Chad spun and ran and it looked as if the crowd had scattered. Meg hunched lower trying to sort through the chaos. Her eyes darted left then right, frantically searching for Pete and Chad. There they were, in the distance. She watched Pete dart between several people, then dash behind a car with Chad hot on his trail.
Several other cops were converging on the same spot. Shouts rang out and then the crowd dispersed. She watched the cops split and disappear and realized Pete must have slipped through. Damn. She needed him to answer for Janelle. She didn't know if he was also responsible for Cia and the other victims as well, but this had to stop.
The crowd grew in volume again, and then receded. Her nerves were shot. She couldn't watch any more. She shuffled backwards to lean against the side of the ambulance bench and closed her eyes. Her eyes still burned and the tearing had slowed down but her throat swore it had been rubbed with sandpaper. Not to mention the smell; smoke coated everything and that nasty burning smell permeated the air around them.
She wanted all this to go away and everything to return to normal. She needed Pete caught and safely put away behind bars. God, how did he keep evading the cops?
"Meg."
And there he was, right in front of her, a baseball cap on his head, tugged low and hiding his features. He hopped inside the ambulance to sit beside her, slamming and locking the doors behind him.
She shifted, the movement bringing on yet another coughing fit. He patted her on the back even as she tried to evade his touch. His hand slipped up to her neck and squeezed gently. She turned on him. "Hello, Pete. Or should I say Pero?"
She tried to stay calm and interested, when all she wanted was to claw his eyes out. The men had to be not far away. He wasn't a damn ghost. Surely, someone had seen him. Surely, someone would come. She slipped her cell phone to one side, hitting the redial button to call Chad. She coughed hard, not having to fake it, to cover her actions.
Surprise lit his features. "Figured that out did you?"
"Somewhere around the time you kidnapped Janelle." The pain of that betrayal caused her to cry out, "Why did you hurt her?"
"That bitch. She's the reason our relationship was in trouble. After your brother died, it's like you became this milksop nanny. Anything Janelle wanted, Janelle got. We didn't have a relationship anymore. I tried to give you space...anything to make it work." He shook his head, "Then you found that damn skull and I knew it was the end."
"I'm sorry." She took a deep breath, surprised to realize that, after all this, she really was sorry. "At the time, I was hurting from losing my brother and knew Janelle was hurting too. It was natural to turn to her for comfort and to give comfort to her."
"Right," his tone so derisive she wondered how he'd kept his emotions in check all those months. Stalling for time, she asked him just that.
"Easy. I spent our entire relationship waiting for you to get off standby and into the game. But no matter how patient I was, how understanding, you never actually engaged in the relationship."
She gasped. "That's not fair." God, where was Chad?
"Yes. It is. I hated that you loved Chad all those years ago. When we got together, I figured it was finally my time. Instead all I got was the shell he left behind."
In spite of everything, she felt a pang for all his pain and guilt for her actions. It was all such a waste. She'd been hurting everyone when she had tried so hard to avoid doing just that. And also avoid being hurt herself again. Pete didn't deserve her apology, not after all he'd done. But maybe an apology would help appease his anger. "I'm sorry." She whispered, "I never realized."
"No, of course you didn't. You weren't aware of anything. You stayed locked inside and never came out. A coward."
Stung, she fired back. "Is that why you killed Cia? Did she spurn you too?"
He laughed. "That bitch did the opposite. She was free for the taking. Anytime, anywhere."
"No, that's not true." Meg said, "Cia didn't want Anto. She hated him."
"Ha." But his tone of voice changed: colder, nastier. "She did not hate him."
She stared at hm. God the look on his face... she didn't recognize him. And his reaction was so...off. What was going on? She said slowly, "Cia loved Cia. Your brother terrified her. Hell, he terrified me."
And then Pete smiled; a creepy smile that seemed to start in his eyes and twist him into someone else. Shivers slipped down her spine and, instinctively, she tried to shuffle further away from him. But he had her pinned against the corner.
"And yet you've been sleeping with him for the last ten years."
She stared at him in horror. And then she got it. Finally.
Bile rose up the back of her throat and she vomited over the edge of the seat.
And he laughed and laughed; a maniacal sound of sheer enjoyment that had her heaving a second time.
"You and your high and mighty attitude. Chad this and Chad that. Cia was the same, only it was Pero this and Pero that. Well, I knocked that out of the bitch fast when she realized I was the one meeting her in the woods and not my brother."
"You killed her?" She gasped, hating the shocks that were continuously sending her off balance. She could hardly think. She desperately wanted Chad to come; surely he could hear the conversation.
He shrugged. "I was going to take what she'd been offering around so freely but when she saw me, she pulled the offer." He smiled coldly. "Like I was going to accept that. I just clamped my hands around her throat and squeezed. She died so easily. I didn't think it would be that simple." He smiled in reminiscence. "I raced to the cabin and stashed her in there until the hoopla went away. I'd just got my licence that summer and had wheels to borrow. Came up a few days later and buried her up top."
>
Meg, her stomach still heaving, shuddered. She had to keep him talking. Give Chad time.
"And what about the others?"
"It's addictive, you know?" his tone now conversational and thoughtful. "And did you notice they all looked like you?"
She hadn't thought they looked anything her. "And the necklaces?"
"I wanted them to wear it. Cia had yours on. The bitch. But after her, I was afraid it wouldn't be the same anymore. So I had them made to allow me to pretend...at least, for a little while."
And her stomach heaved again. "Oh God. You kept them alive?"
"Not for very long. I hate tantrums and tears." He shrugged. "At the cabin. My uncle never knew. Neither did Mack. I did wonder though so I laid enough doubt that it was probably his precious Bruce," he added thoughtfully, "Then the accident happened. Recovery was hard. There was the grief over my brother, whom I loved. Then I hooked up with you and I realized that stage of my life was over. It had been all about you. You were my love, my reason. I didn't need those girls anymore. After all, my dream had come true," he mocked. "Until Janelle arrived…"
"How could you kill those women?" she whispered, starting to feel really odd, her thoughts foggy, distant. "Are there more?"
"No. But I'd planned for more. I went to a lot of trouble to build that room at the Williamson's house. It was an easy solution for Janelle and any future others. Only when I got her there I realized I didn't want her. There was only one woman for me. You were mine for almost eleven years; I'm not willing to let you go. And if I can't have you..."
His voice changed. Softened. And that was just wrong. She tried to see into his eyes. Only she couldn't focus. "What have you done?"
And when? When he'd first arrived and squeezed her neck? Could he have done something to her then? So fast?
Her vision started to waver.
"Pressure syringes are the greatest invention and so easy to get a hold of." Pete said, tugging her into his arms. "I have you again no one can take you away from me. Ever. It's a perfect ending."
Black spots appeared in her eyes. She heard shouts from the crowd outside the ambulance. "Why?"
He sighed happily, content. "Because you are mine. Forever."
No. It couldn't be.
"Meg. I love you. I always have." And Pete slumped over her, his weight pressing down heavily on her shoulders.
She tried to scream. Tried to call for help. But her voice didn't work.
Her vision wavered - the world around her blurring.
Then she blacked out.
***
Chad at at Meg's bedside, her hand cradled in his. He'd damn near been paralyzed by fear when he'd finally realized what he was hearing on his cell phone. He'd raced to the ambulance unable to contact anyone else because he'd have had to break the connection of Meg's call to him.
The panic run to the ambulance and the even faster race to the hospital had been heart stopping.
The doctors had done everything they could, but Pete had injected himself with a massive dose and he hadn't made it.
Good thing. Chad would have killed him if he hadn't.
And he didn't want to spend the next ten years behind bars, not when he could spend them with Meg instead.
Now if only she'd wake up. The doctors appeared confident that she would. They'd done everything possible and appeared satisfied with her condition.
Only there was so much they didn't know.
Then that went with this bizarre case too. So many strings to tie up. The paperwork involved would be days, weeks, in the making. Mack had been with him as they tried to open the doors. The two had heard most of Pete's confession on the cell phone. If...when… Meg woke up, she'd be able to fill in the blanks, hopefully.
The fingerprints from the truck had verified Anto's identity. He'd taken his brother's spot after the accident and had started a new life soon after with Meg. To the best of anyone's knowledge at this stage, he'd never killed again. But they had a lot more evidence to go through before anyone was comfortable making that statement with any certainty. The secret room was being printed now. Hopefully, they'd be able to get a better idea of who'd been forced in there – if indeed anyone.
Mack had been horrified. He'd stayed behind to clean up the mess at what was left of Chad's house. They'd need to talk. Eventually.
Right now, Chad had no plans to leave Meg's side. Daniel had already come by and dropped off his laptop, which he'd forgotten in his truck overnight.
His case board, his years of notes, clippings, maps – everything else had been at home. Gone. Maybe that was for the best at this point. They now knew who'd killed Cia and the other girls. Now he could move on.
Still he'd loved that place. But not as much as he loved Meg.
And Meg loved Janelle. He'd taken a quick trip to see Janelle who'd burst into tears at the news about her aunt. He'd been quick to reassure her that the doctors had said Meg would pull through, but she'd been desperate to see for herself. And if Meg didn't surface soon, he might go and get Janelle and bring her here. That little girl had been through enough and if seeing Meg would make her feel better, then he was all for it.
When he'd told her about Pete, Janelle had gone really quiet. Then she'd said, "Good. Maybe I can sleep at night again."
He'd wanted to ask more, but she'd rolled over and closed her eyes.
He'd taken a long look at the beautiful girl and had returned to Meg, his heart heavy, knowing what Pete had intended. She had to have known something was wrong if she couldn't sleep at night. Thank God Meg had gotten wise and moved them out in time.
And he'd heard from Bruce. Stephanie had woken up. She was still groggy about the turn of events that had landed her on death's door, but she did confirm that she'd planned to meet Pete or Pero, as she knew him, for coffee. Then she had changed her mind and run. Bruce was sticking pretty close to her side, especially now that he knew she'd most likely not been going back to her dealer.
Chad wished them well. Maybe with Cia's case solved, they could all move on together.
Now, if only Meg would wake up.
Then a soft voice whispered, "Hey."
He glanced around. The room was empty. He looked at Meg and she smiled at him, a small, frail smile, but a smile nevertheless. His breath gusted free and he gave her a brilliant smile in response. "Oh Lord, is it good to hear your voice. You scared me."
"Scared myself," she murmured, her smile tremulous and hopeful. "Pete?"
"He didn't make it. He gave himself a large dose of whatever drug he was using."
Tears collected her at the corners of her eyes. He didn't know if from relief or regret, but knowing her compassionate heart, probably a bit of both.
"The doctors worked on you for a long time." He grinned sheepishly, lifting her hand to kiss her knuckles. "They said you'd pull through, but I wasn't so sure."
She squeezed his hand. "I'm here. Can't say I feel very good, though."
"To be expected." He leaned over and kissed her cheek, needing to be closer. If he had his way, he'd lie down beside her and tug her into his arms. Instead, he said, "I don't think the doctors would recommend anyone racing out of a burning house then being drugged to the point of death."
She smirked. "You forgot about being ravished first."
He chuckled, loving her bright spirit after all she'd been through. "There is that."
Her gaze widened as something else hit her. "Janelle?"
Ah, he wondered when she'd remember. At least now he knew her brain was awake and firing properly. "Awake," he said quickly, "And wanting to see you."
Meg smiled. "Good." Meg looked around the room, as if searching for her clothing to make a run for it. "When can we get out of here and go home?"
He patted her hand. "Not happening. You're not going anywhere until the doctors clear you. They went through a lot to keep you alive."
"Oh," Her head dropped back onto the pillow. "So, it's not likely today?"
"I wouldn't think
so." He leaned over and kissed her gently. "You need to recuperate from this week from hell."
"In bed, preferably." She winked. "Join me?"
"Oh, gross!"
The young voice from the door had them both turning to see Janelle walking independently, but holding onto a nurse's arm, standing in the doorway."
"Janelle!" Meg struggled to sit up, only to collapse back, her arms wide open.
Janelle raced to the bed where Chad scooped her up and laid her down beside Meg. The two women wrapped their arms around each and burst into tears. Chad stepped back toward the doorway to give them some privacy and kept watch. The nurse stepped back out into the hallway.
Mack approached from the other direction. "How is Meg?"
"Alive." Chad said, his voice cool. "And she appears to be fine," Chad turned to nod at the two females cuddling on the bed.
"Good, good." Mack stared at the two females. "It will be a long road ahead for the little one."
"And for Meg." He forced himself not to add No thanks to you.
"For all of us, in a way." Mack mumbled under his breath. "What a shitty trip."
Chad heard and understood Mack that was talking about the journey from Cia's death to now. "You're going to be okay?"
Mack stared at him in surprise. Then gave a curt nod. "Yeah. With that asshole no longer able to play games with my head, I'll be fine." After another long moment of silence, he sighed heavily. "I'm sorry."
It was Chad's turn to stare at Mack in surprise. Then he nodded. "Apology accepted."
Mack turned and walked away, his shoulders bowed. Chad watched him. Mack would have to live with his actions over the past too. None were criminal, but they wouldn't make him shine either. Then, that was his problem. Chad had enough of his own to deal with now.
He turned back to find both Meg and Janelle smiling at him. He snorted. "All right. What are you two up to? With those looks in your eyes, I'm sure it's trouble."
Meg laughed. "So not. Besides, we were just having a girl talk about you."
And damn if he didn't feel some heat climb his throat.
Janelle giggled a delightfully free sound that had Meg tugging her back into a rocking hug. They looked so enchanting that Chad wished he could join them. He paused in thought as he stared at the two who were now such a huge part of his life.
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