Guilty Secrets (Campus Love and Murder Sorority Eyes Romance Book 1)

by Christie, Ciara

  The witness testified that Shard adopted that moniker due to a love of old blues music and an obscure blues musician who died penniless young man. His name was Slick 'Ice' Shard.

  The witness had no physical description of Shard the killer other than these: Shard was one of the top hundred greatest living snipers in the world. He was a blues music obsessive. He was under the age of thirty. Single. Very. Considered a prolific womanizer. No known family.

  There was a footnote about how Shard had apparently taken a bullet from a target's body guard and lived to kill the intended mark and the body guard.

  It all seemed to add to the mystic of the legend that became Shard.

  And yet it wasn't much to go on.

  The witness hinted at one suspected alias of Shard's. He was known to be living and working under an assumed identity within the Kimberley campus district.

  The witness continued to refuse to identify Shard more specifically until a deal including the witness protection program was finalized. Apparently the deal was over monetary compensation for the witness. A lifestyle, reputedly as a west coast mobster, had to be upheld.

  But before a deal could be finalized, the witness vanished. Never to be heard of again.

  All in all, it wasn't much to go on. But it was a start. I knew what I had to do.

  Somehow filter every male in the Kimberley area through a profile match. Quite how I was going achieve that when the F.B.I. had presumably tried and failed, I had no idea.

  But the first thing I needed to do was speak with Harry.

  "Take me to see Sheriff Gunn."

  Ben sneered. "There's no time."

  "Ben, take me to Gunn or the deal is off."

  Jackson nodded. "Before you go see Sheriff Gunn, I want to know if there's a reason that you and Special Agent Ben Hudson cannot work closely together."

  I felt my eyes widen. "Work together?"

  Ben's smile remained a sneer. "It's part of the deal. Take it, or leave it."

  I rolled my eyes. "Fine. But interfere, put my life in jeopardy and I'll make you wish you'd never asked for my help. Understand?"

  CHAPTER SIXTY FIVE

  Ben nodded and led me down to the basement cells. At the reception, Ben asked a female agent to frisk me.

  "Oh, Ben, your fiancée called to say you left your cell phone at her place."

  Ben turned scarlet and nodded.

  Frisking over with, Ben led me to the cells.

  Harry sat behind a wall of bars. His head in his hands. When he heard footsteps approaching he looked up.

  He saw me and his eyes lit up. Then he saw Ben and a dark cloud moved over his face.

  We embraced through the bars and kissed.

  Ben sneered, "Gunn, back away."

  Reluctantly, Harry complied.

  I turned to Ben, "Do you mind?"

  He walked to the end of the corridor to chat with the female agent.

  I turned back to Harry. "How are you?"

  "What they're saying I did... I'm innocent, Robyn."

  "I know, Harry."

  "Any idea what's going on?"

  I shrugged and whispered, "The F.B.I. suspect Dean Everhardt of money laundering."

  Harry rolled his eyes. "They read your investigative article in the Kimberley Times."

  "But what I didn't know was that Everhardt was laundering terrorist money for Kublai Khan. And now the Dean is dead. They think Khan had him killed."

  Harry's eyes narrowed as he stared at me. He glanced over to Ben and back to me.

  "What are you not telling me?"

  "It's your only ticket out of here."

  "Robyn?"

  "They want me to get close to Khan. Find evidence on him."

  "Find evidence, or plant it?"

  "They're the F.B.I. They don't do things like that?"

  "Oh no? What am I doing here then?"

  "You can thank Khan for that."

  Harry shook his head. "So knowing how bitter and vengeful Khan is, you still want to go ahead with your Ex’s gung-ho plan?"

  "What choice do I have?"

  "You know whatever deal they grant you, they won't let me out of here."

  "I know. I'm working on that."

  I heard footsteps walking toward me.

  I whispered to Harry, "I love you.”

  His eyes lit up and then quickly dimmed. "Maybe that's not such a good idea."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Be realistic. The evidence against me is good.

  "But you're innocent."

  "Only two people in the world believe that, Robyn."

  Ben cleared his throat. "It's time."

  I spun around on the balls of my feet. "Give us a moment."

  Ben’s eyes seemed filled with scorn.

  "Ben, please."

  He shook his head. "Every second you waste with lover boy, is another nail in his coffin."

  I hated knowing Ben was right.

  I nodded and said my goodbye. Harry stepped back into the shadows of his cell and it was like watching his ghost slip away from me. I fought back tears and marched towards the exit.

  It was time to find Shard.

  CHAPTER SIXTY SIX

  The ride back to campus from the F.B.I. Kimberley field office was filled with Ben's brooding silence.

  After a few miles, he broke it. "Do you ever wonder if..."

  "No."

  "You didn't even let me finish. I was going to say-"

  "Forget it. I'm with Harry now."

  He pulled up outside Harry's cottage on the shore of Lake Kimberley.

  He switched off the engine and turned in his seat towards me.

  "Forget Sheriff Lover boy. One way or another he's out of your life. The sooner you get used to it, the better for all of us."

  I opened the passenger door.

  "I'll make my own way back."

  He climbed out of the car.

  "I want daily reports. No excuses."

  "What if that's impossible?"

  "Find a way."

  I unlocked the front door of the cottage and stepped in. Ben followed.

  "Wait outside. I won't be long."

  He brushed by me and entered the cottage.

  "Ben, did you hear me?"

  "You're my responsibility. I need to check out the place."

  "This chauvinist attitude of yours; it's not heroic and certainly not romantic."

  Ben ignored me and gave each room the once over. Five minutes later he returned.

  "I'll be in the car."

  "It's best if we're not seen together."

  He hesitated at the door. "Was it so bad; you and me? That you can't forgive me even now?"

  I sighed. I'd fallen for his lost little boy act too many times.

  "The good times never outweighed the bad times."

  "But we were good together, for a while, right?"

  "Tell it to your fiancée."

  "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "Figure it out, Ben."

  I slammed the front door.

  I went through Harry's record collection to get a sense of the scale and depth of knowledge a blues music obsessive would obtain. There were close to a thousand old vinyl records protected in individual plastic sleeves. I noted the room's temperature was different to the other rooms. The windows in his alcove were hermetically sealed.

  So in essence Shard would have a similar environment for his collection. So now I knew what to look for to identify my parents' killer, I just had to find a way to attract Shard without getting myself killed.

  I found myself in Harry's bedroom. It was just as we had left it. The luxurious soft Egyptian cotton cream sheets still emanated Harry's scent. I put aside the F.B.I. file on Kublai Khan and wrapped myself up in the sheets.

  I felt the ripples of memories of giving my virginity to Harry. The masterful way he seduced me with his unwavering persistence. Saving my life on three occasions. Lurking in the shadows, looking out for me.

  Making his
final sensual play, only once he had secured my heart. Taking me here in his bedroom, on his antique four poster bed beside the log fireplace. His gentle but firm lovemaking bringing me to the heights of ecstasy before allowing me to plunge into a fearful abyss of pleasure.

  Waking up in his arms with the beautiful view through the French doors to the lake was a dream come true. But now that dream seemed so fragile.

  My body responded to the ripples of memories and soon I found the stirrings of love and lust between my legs. It was time for action. I sat up and viewed Khan's file once again.

  There was something in the section about his recent financial investments that might hold a clue as to how to deliver the real Shard and save Harry. And perhaps at the same time, deliver Khan to the F.B.I.

  According to the file, Khan had made a substantial investment in a new software company based in Kimberley University. The company had developed an online dating app. It was the brain child of several students.

  Two names in particular I recognized. Charity Wilson my campus frenemy and my house mate Mai Ling.

  They didn't know it yet, but they were about to help me catch a killer.

  I felt a surge of adrenalin. This was my chance. Shard was single. I just hoped he was actively looking.

  I left the cottage and headed the few miles back to campus by foot.

  After a couple of minutes I came across Ben's car. I could tell he was watching me in his side view mirror. As I drew parallel to it, he wound down his window and leaned out. He knew me well enough to draw things out of me that others were unaware of.

  It frightened me a little. The vulnerability of being around someone who knew me so well, but who was so arrogant in disregarding what was truly important to me. Perhaps because that kind of deep perception that Ben had was what I needed Harry to possess. But we'd had so little time together that it was unrealistic to expect of him.

  Ben smiled.

  "What, Ben?"

  "Feels good to be back, right?"

  There was no way I was going to admit it to Ben, but yes, it did.

  "You're sick, Ben."

  "Yeah, right, Robyn. The rush of finally making real all those arduous months of theoretical training? You feel it. The thrill of the hunt. Knowing you'll go above and beyond the calling. Do whatever it takes to get your man. I know it. Even if you don't recognize yourself."

  It was true. And it worried me. An unexpected aspect of methodically hunting down my sister Madison's killer had slowly dawned upon me. The thrill of the hunt. Of risking everything because I had nothing to lose was what gave me the edge.

  And now it was that same edge I needed to catch one of the world's most dangerous killers. But it was the edge that brought Harry and I together and could be what ends us.

  Terminally.

  CHAPTER SIXTY SEVEN

  "After he saved your life three times, you've given up on Harry already?"

  Mai stared over my shoulder at the dating app I'd just downloaded to my tablet.

  "No, Mai, it's not like that."

  She sat down at our kitchen table and raised a beautiful oriental arched eyebrow.

  "Exactly how is it, Robyn?"

  "First you have to promise to keep a secret."

  "Cross my heart. Hope to die. Now spill."

  I explained about Shard and the F.B.I's ultimatum.

  "Those bastards. There's no way Harry is guilty."

  She gave me a much needed hug.

  Mai furrowed her brow.

  "Robyn, the official singles launch party is tomorrow night. I could get Charity to selectively invite all the profiles that match the killer."

  I shook my head. "At least not yet."

  "You don't have the time to do this alone, Robyn. You know it or you wouldn't have mentioned it to me."

  "But it's Charity we're talking about. She'll use this to get to me."

  "She's over Harry. Besides, I trust her."

  "Will Kublai be at the party?"

  "What's my uncle got to do with this?"

  I rolled my eyes.

  Mai sighed. "OK, Robyn, I know after the whole Kimberley Knights thing..."

  "Where he allowed the Red Queen to execute me."

  "He did save Harry's life, or have you forgotten that part?"

  I swallowed hard. I had forgotten how Kublai's subtle message had been the clue to saving Harry.

  I shrugged, "It was touch and go."

  "All I'm saying is Kublai is not your average villain. It's not a black and white world. He's grey like the world. And he likes you..."

  "Why? What's he said?"

  She avoided my eyes. "Nothing."

  "I know when you're lying, Mai."

  "He simply asked how you were and what your plans are."

  I bet he did.

  I signed up to the dating app and ran a filtered search on men similar to Shard's profile. It gave me a dozen matches in the Kimberley campus area. All of them looked normal, which oddly made the whole search a little creepy.

  "A dozen dates? How long will that take?"

  Mai smiled. "We have a speed date event at the party tomorrow."

  I groaned. "I have nothing to wear."

  Mai laughed. "You never have anything to wear. So shall I invite them?"

  What choice did I have? I had no idea how little time I really had to find Shard.

  I nodded.

  Mai's smile dissolved into a scowl.

  "What is it?"

  "Just promise me one thing."

  I felt my eyes narrow. "What?"

  "These other men. Try not to flirt with them around Kublai, OK?"

  "Why?"

  "Kublai can be somewhat possessive."

  "And by possessive you mean..."

  "You don't want to know."

  Oh great!

  CHAPTER SIXTY EIGHT

  The message on my cell phone read: Urgent. Please meet me at Kimberley Times offices. A.S.A.P. Acting Editor in Chief Hemingway Jennings.

  I'd meant to trawl the search engines for information on the new editor, but there hadn't been enough time. Al I knew was with a name like Hemingway, he was sure to be another hard ass like his predecessor, J.C. Thruster.

  I left Mai at the apartment to sort out the party invitations.

  Within ten minutes I was at the revolving doors of the Kimberley Times.

  Inside the old office of the former Editor in Chief, J.C. Thruster, a tall blond woman in her early thirties looked up from the desk and waved. Compared to J.C's bad tempered bark, she was a breath of air.

  She bounded over to me in long legged strides and shook my hand with a firm, confident manner. Her blue eyes bore into me with a secret look of bemusement.

  "I'm Hemingway Jennings. So the legend in the making that is Robyn Loxley crosses my threshold at last. I was beginning to think you'd been snapped up by the big fish, like the Washington Post or New York Times."

  I laughed. "That'll be the day."

  Her smooth angular features winced. "Robyn, if as I hope, we are to get along fabulously like soul mates on a divine mission to strike fear into the shadow world with the only weapons at our disposal: namely, truth and justice, then you must first promise never to undermine our much maligned species by undermining yourself. That's the job of men. Don't do it for them."

  I felt like I'd turned a corner and walked into a hurricane of righteous indignation wrapped up in a package marked sex goddess. I liked her already.

  "So what's so urgent?"

  She glanced around her at the busy office.

  "Not here. In my office."

  She led the way, click clacking in her stilettos. I followed her long legs with their expensively woven thin lines disappearing up the backs of her silk stockings. Her impossibly tight pencil skirt betrayed the outline impression of her garter belt and suspenders. She heralded the feminine and masculine combination of an Amazon warrior.

  I felt like a chipmunk floundering in her wake as she carved a direct route though rep
orters and admin staff. She was like a nineteen forties Hollywood heroine. The street wise reporter who had seized the top job through hard won luck and determination and no small amount of talent.

  Her obituary would one day far off report: Hemingway Jennings; dedicated to thumping out deadlines or just thumping whoever stood in the way of the oppressed.

  We entered her glass walled office and she shut the door behind me. She sat on a leather reclining chair and coiled her legs impossibly around as she pointed one shoe at me.

  "So Robyn, you're the one to bring down Kublai Khan?"

  "Excuse me?"

  "My source in the F.B.I. spilled his guts over you."

  "Oh."

  "'Oh?' Is that all you've got to say, Robyn? How about confessing when were you going to tell me about what you’re up to? Or is it a done deal with the Post?"

  I sank into an offered chair. "The truth is Ms. Jennings..."

  "Please call me Hemingway. I was named after the great Ernest Hemingway, but I disappointed my parents by being born a girl. Nevertheless, by age ten I could out-ride, outrun, out-shoot and out sail all four of my older brothers. To the point my now dearly departed mother had a crisis of faith and tried to change my name from Hemingway to Hermione. But by then the damage was done and Hemingway stuck."

  I was in awe of her and didn't mind admitting to a burgeoning girl crush. In the most platonic of senses, of course. I hoped.

  "Sounds like quite an identity crisis, Hemingway."

  She playfully dismissed my concern with a graceful wave of her elongated and powerful fingers.

  "So what's the plan?"

  "Plan?"

  "To take down Kublai Khan."

  As much as my crush made it tempting I didn’t exactly feel comfortable relaying my plans altogether. But the way an intoxicated drunk trusts an offered shot of tequila I felt safe enough to confide in Hemingway. At least, with the Kublai Khan part of things. If not the matter of the killer Shard.

  "Well, Hemingway. Apparently, believe it or not, Khan has a soft spot for me."

  Her eyes widen and her luscious full lips broadened into a smug smile.

  "But of course he does. You are gorgeous after all."

  I admit at this point to a little spittle and drool escaping my bottom lip and quickly wiped it away on the back of my sleeve. Pathetic, I know, but the fan love atmosphere was intoxicating.