by Katie Reus
“But you can’t keep working like this. Sit down and talk to her and if that doesn’t work, let her go.”
“Yeah, I’m going to. I want you in on that meeting though.”
Zoe nodded. “We’ll record it too.” Because she wanted to make sure her all her boss’s bases were covered in case Viola tried to accuse him of something. Zoe wished he’d just fire the woman but knew Gerard would try to make things work first.
“How’re you feeling after…everything?” he asked as they headed to their vehicles.
She shrugged, not sure about anything at the moment. Zoe didn’t want to say out loud that she was glad her stalker was dead, but she was certainly happy she wasn’t looking over her shoulder anymore. At least not because of Klein. It still freaked her out that a weapon with her fingerprint had been planted at the murder scene. Luckily she’d had a strong alibi. “The whole thing is still surreal. Last night was fun though.”
He snorted. “I saw that. What time did everyone finally leave?”
“Three o’clock.”
He let out a low whistle. “Apparently I really am a senior citizen.”
“Whatever. You left at a normal time. I can’t believe how late everyone stayed.”
“What about your friend Sawyer? How late did he stay?” Gerard’s look turned speculative as they reached his Lexus SUV. Grinning, he pressed the keyfob to unlock the doors, waiting for her answer.
“Why do you ask about him?” Zoe didn’t think they’d been obvious last night. Not that she cared what anyone thought. She was single and could do whatever she wanted.
“The man couldn’t take his eyes off you last night and something is really different about you this morning. Besides the hair.”
“I’ll let you know if anything interesting develops between us.” She considered Gerard one of her closest friends but didn’t want to tell him more about Sawyer until she knew where things were headed between them.
“All right. Just don’t…” He trailed off.
A cool breeze blew up over the parking lot and she tightened her coat belt, fighting off a shiver. “Don’t what?”
Gerard lifted his shoulders. “Maybe don’t push him away or come up with reasons he won’t work out?”
She started to defend herself, to insist that she didn’t do that, but bit her bottom lip. Damn it, she did exactly that. Pretty much all the time. Sighing, she shook her head. “You’re annoying when you’re right.”
He just chuckled, his breath a faint cloud in front of him as he gave her a brief hug.
Once she was on her way home, her boss’s words rolled around in her head. Gah, she did push people away. Men at least. Relationships were so much work and took up so much damn time that she just couldn’t fit one into her schedule.
At least that’s what she told herself whenever someone asked her out. For years she’d just gone out with men who she considered low maintenance. Men who were in a profession similar to her own and therefore worked insane hours and were okay with her limited involvement in their lives. And vice versa. Ugh, thinking about it in those terms was depressing.
After Rubin left her she’d taken it hard. Harder than she’d admitted to anyone, even her brother, who’d been open about his own heartbreak years ago. It had been too much to admit that she hadn’t been enough for her ex. On paper they’d been the perfect couple. Smart, successful, attractive people in the same field with the same views on politics and religion.
Okay, now that was depressing as hell too. Those things were important but she’d seen what her parents had. Their marriage hadn’t been perfect but their love for each other had been. And they’d disagreed on all sorts of things, especially religion and politics. Her father had left a lush lifestyle to marry her mother. His wealthy, elitist parents had been blinded by anger when he’d fallen for a poor, black Jamaican, second-generation American. Zoe wasn’t sure what they’d hated more, her mother’s skin color or her status as a resident. Not that it mattered to her or any of her siblings. Zoe hadn’t talked to them in years. They’d reached out a few times after her father’s death, but she couldn’t be bothered with them. She’d seen what a good marriage was supposed to look like, what a loving family meant and she wasn’t going to let those assholes into her life. Not when they’d flat out rejected her mom. Screw them.
As she steered into her driveway, she mentally shook herself, knowing exactly why she was thinking about her parents’ marriage. She pressed her garage door opener but didn’t pull through when she saw something shiny sitting on her front stoop. Getting out of the car, she hurried along the stone steps, her breath catching in her throat at the next gust of cold that rolled over her.
Smiling when she saw a small gift sitting there, she scooped it up. Probably something from one of the neighbors. Next weekend they’d be doing their annual gift exchange and party. Thankfully this year she wasn’t hosting it at her house.
As she headed back to her car, movement from out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Zoe hid a wince before she let her true feelings show. Letty Nieves was the same age as her and a beautiful woman.
She was also one of the most annoying neighbors Zoe had ever had. Zoe pasted on a smile, thankful her sunglasses covered her eyes, as the woman approached.
Wearing black yoga pants, a black long-sleeved T-shirt and a bright pink puffy vest zipped up over it, Letty smiled as she jogged up the driveway, though the smile was more of a baring of teeth—like a shark. “Hey, Zoe. Everything okay over here? I saw the police here yesterday.”
And there it was. Letty was going to pretend she hadn’t heard from the neighbors what was going on. “Everything’s good. Getting ready for Christmas? Your light show is great this year.” Zoe was the queen of avoiding and deflecting. She’d spoken to a few neighbors about what had happened, but Letty wasn’t one of them. And she wasn’t going to be one of them.
The tall woman with dark hair gritted her teeth, her smile growing sharper. “Thanks. I put a lot of work into it. You’re sure everything’s all right?”
“I’m sure.”
Letty’s gaze narrowed on the gift in Zoe’s hand for a moment before she looked at her face again. “Saw a lot of people over here last night.”
“Oh, yeah, just some people from work and family friends. Last minute get together type of thing.” Zoe inwardly cringed. Maybe she should have invited Letty? No, last night had been a celebration and she hadn’t wanted to have anything ruin that. And it wasn’t like she’d invited the whole neighborhood or anything.
“Okay, well, let me know if you need anything. I’m here for you.” Her voice dripped with a saccharine sweetness that raked over Zoe’s senses.
Seriously, she had no idea why this woman didn’t like her. She figured Letty was just one of those women who didn’t like other women.
Whatever, Zoe didn’t have time to worry about that now. Once she was securely inside her house, she reset her alarm and dropped her purse and coat onto the center island in her kitchen. She wasn’t even going to pretend she could wait to open the gift.
Carefully peeling back the delicate paper, she opened it without tearing any of it. As she lifted the top of the small gold box off, it took a moment to register what she was seeing.
Her stomach lurched and she automatically dropped the square top. It fell to the counter with a soft click. A Polaroid of a gruesome scene—Klein’s dead body, his throat slashed, blood sprayed all over his lanai—
The photo was covering…something underneath it. She could just see the tip of what looked like… No. It couldn’t be.
Swallowing the bile in her throat, she grabbed a pen from her desk on the other side of the kitchen. Chills skittered up her spine that had nothing to do with the cold as she carefully moved the picture out of the way.
A severed finger with dried blood on the stump was nestled on a bed of white stuffing paper.
She wondered if it was Klein’s finger or someone else’s. Klein was clearly dead as tha
t picture showed so who the hell could have done this? Grimacing, she pulled her cell phone out of her purse and called the police.
Chapter 9
Sitting half inside the front passenger seat of Carlito’s police-issued SUV, Zoe wrapped her arms tighter around herself. Her legs were half out of the vehicle as she sat sideways, taking in the scene in front of her.
Still trying to process the fact that someone had sent her a finger, probably Klein’s, though it hadn’t yet been confirmed, and that horrific photo was going to take time. She kept racking her brain, trying to figure out anyone in her life who could have done this. She came up blank. Once Klein had started stalking her she’d done research on the stalker mindset and knew that stalkers were often someone in your life. Definitely not always so this could be random, but…it felt really personal.
“Have you already talked to Vincent?” Carlito asked as he approached the vehicle, tucking his cell phone back into his jacket pocket.
She slid out of the SUV and nodded. “Yeah. I called Vincent and my mom and they’re going to let my sisters know. My mom’s actually going to stay with one of my sisters for a few days. And everyone is going to stay locked down in their houses tonight.” Just in case whoever had targeted her decided to go after her family.
Carlito snorted. “Bet Vincent didn’t want to.”
Despite the situation, a grin tugged at her lips. “No, but he’s got Jordan to look out for and you’re here. He knows I’ll call him when I leave and that I’ll be getting a police escort to his place.” Even though she really didn’t want to go stay with her brother and Jordan. Not because she didn’t love him, but they were newly engaged and planning a wedding. Zoe didn’t want to get in the way of all that. For a brief moment she’d entertained the idea of calling Sawyer but things were new between them and she wasn’t going to ask to move in with him—that would be insane. Plus she was really unsettled by her growing feelings for him.
“Did you finish the list of people—” He glanced to his left, frowning for a moment, then pulled out his radio.
She followed his line of sight. Police cars and two fire trucks lined the front of her house, blocking off most of the street. She’d always thought it was strange that fire trucks came to the scene of crimes but didn’t care now. Red and blue lights flashed intermittently, creating the perfect ‘crime scene’ atmosphere. Zoe couldn’t see whatever it was that still had Carlito frowning.
Gah, she rubbed her hands over her face. She just wanted to get out of here.
“It’s some of your neighbors, they’re across the street and want to talk to you, make sure you’re okay.” There was a questioning look in Carlito’s gray eyes, as if he would let her go talk to them.
Zoe shook her head. “I’ll call them later.” She really appreciated their support but didn’t have the energy to see anyone else now. Her house had been searched by the police even though as far as she knew no intruders had been inside, and she’d answered a hundred different questions.
“We’re almost done here.” He started to say more but his phone buzzed in his hand. Turning away from her, he said, “Yeah? Okay, yeah, he’s good. I called him.” Ending the call, he faced her again.
Zoe leaned against the side of the SUV, counting down the seconds until she could get inside her house. “I finished the list of people who I’ve ever had any sort of issue with in the last year. It’s all there,” she said, nodding to the open passenger door of the SUV where the pad and paper were. “I can’t really see any of them doing this though.”
“You’d be surprised,” he murmured.
Before she could respond, Sawyer appeared from behind one of the fire trucks. She pushed up from the vehicle and was surprised when Carlito waved him over.
The expression on Sawyer’s face was almost angry. But that couldn’t be right. Why was he even here? She’d texted him to cancel their dinner plans tonight and had planned to call him once she was free and explain what was going on.
“Thanks for coming,” Carlito said as Sawyer approached.
Though it was impossible, as he came to stand next to her, she could swear she felt his body heat wrapping around her. Wait—her head snapped back to Carlito. “You called Sawyer?”
The detective nodded, but his attention was on Sawyer. “I’ve gotta take care of something but I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
A couple uniformed police officers were in the nearby vicinity, hovering by Carlito’s SUV, but all Zoe’s focus was on Sawyer as the detective left them alone. “I’m confused, Carlito called you?”
“Yep.” Sawyer’s jaw was clenched tight as he raked a gaze over her from head to toe. The look was completely clinical—mostly. “You’re sure you’re okay?” Real concern laced each word as he met her gaze again.
Feeling unnerved by his presence, Zoe shoved her hands in her jacket pockets. The thick, winter coat had a fleece lining, warming her hands immediately. She hadn’t called Sawyer for a reason. He’d already been witness to so much happening to her, she didn’t want him getting even more tangled up in this mess. “I’m good. I just don’t understand why Carlito called you.”
“What I don’t understand is why you didn’t.” There went that sexy jaw clench again. The man was definitely angry.
At her.
“You’re mad at me?” she blurted.
“Hell yeah, I’m pissed.” He took a deep breath and glanced around their surroundings, as if trying to contain his anger. When he looked back at her again, all she saw was a simmering annoyance.
“But why? I was going to tell you everything once I got over to Vincent’s house.” Because no way was she staying here tonight. And she’d planned to give Sawyer a watered down version.
Reaching out, as if unable to stop himself, he ran his hands down her arms before pulling her close to him. A shudder slid through her, his presence warming her from the inside out. “Why didn’t you call me about this? I would have been here.”
Oh, crap. That was hurt in his voice. Which was way worse than anger. “I…didn’t think you’d want to come down here for any of this. You’ve already done so much, I just…” She trailed off, feeling lame and guilty even though she’d never meant to hurt him. They might have had intense sex earlier that day but they weren’t in a relationship. She didn’t expect him to take on any more of this nightmare. It would be unfair to ask him.
Sawyer was silent, watching her with green eyes that seemed darker tonight. Instead of responding, he pulled her into a tight hug, wrapping his arms around her. She didn’t even hesitate, but leaned into him, holding him tight. God that felt good. He’d come here to be with her, something that struck her deeply. She just wanted to get wrapped up in the strength of him and never let go—and that terrified her.
“How’re you doing, really?” he asked quietly.
“It was awful.” Her voice cracked, her words coming out muffled against his chest.
He rubbed a soothing hand down her spine, helping ease some of her tension. Not much but enough that she didn’t feel like she was about to split apart at the seams.
“Come away with me for a few days,” Sawyer murmured, his chin resting on the top of her head.
Surprised, Zoe pulled back so she could look up at him. “What?”
He fingered some strands of her hair before sliding his hand around to cup the back of her neck. “Instead of going to your brother’s place. Let’s get out of town. I know somewhere we can go. You can get some distance—which I think you need after Klein’s death and your arrest anyway—and take a fucking break. The police can do their job and you can actually rest. Unless you really want to stay with your brother?”
The truth was, she didn’t want to be around her family because she didn’t want to inadvertently put any of them in danger. She knew they’d never worry about that because family was family and she’d feel the same if one of her siblings was in trouble. But…getting out of town sounded perfect. Still, she couldn’t ask that of Sawyer. “You just sta
rted a new job.”
“I know.” His intense gaze never wavered.
She didn’t know how to respond to that. He couldn’t take off time right now. Or he shouldn’t. And she wouldn’t ask that of him. But his offer touched her on such a deep level it left her speechless for a moment. She must mean more to him than just hot sex, right? Or maybe he was just that honorable and didn’t want to turn his back on someone in trouble. She bit her bottom lip, feeling way too indecisive.
Before she could respond, Carlito returned. “We’re clearing out of here now. They’ve dusted the place for fingerprints just in case, but after the party you had, I doubt we’ll get much. And there’s no evidence he or she was ever inside anyway, but I want to cover all bases. Zoe, whatever’s going on here is fucking personal. It’s why I called Sawyer. Everyone in your life needs to be aware of this. And it wouldn’t hurt for you to get out of town. I know you’re going to Vincent’s, but—”
“We’re heading out of town tonight,” Sawyer said, his voice commanding.
“Good. I’ve got a list of everyone you work with, the hospital staff you and Klein both worked with, your personal list and some other names we’re going to be looking into. We are going to find this person but if you get out of Miami, I’ll sleep easier.” A harried-sounding male voice came over his radio, dragging his attention away again. He gave them an apologetic look and held it up to his mouth as he strode a few feet away.
“We’re leaving tonight?” Zoe’s eyebrows lifted as she turned to face Sawyer.
“Yes.”
“Did you plan on asking me?” She wished she could put some heat behind the question but she was all out of steam. And the idea of getting away with him for a few days sounded like heaven.
Sawyer didn’t back down, his expression hard. “Can you take time off work?”
“Yeah.” Gerard wanted her to take off anyway. Once he heard about this, he’d likely pull rank and insist.