“Maurelle,” I said. “Don’t do anything to her, she’s not a part of this.”
“Kane, you have precisely two hours to find me and them, before I start doing what I do best, you understand?”
“Maurelle, please tell me where I can find you.”
Fear raced through me, pushing me out of bed as if every bone in my body didn’t hurt.
“Where’s the fun in that?”
There was an edge to her voice that scared me. I hadn’t heard that hardness since the day she’d strapped me to the web board in her basement.
“Two hours.”
She hung up.
I immediately called the phone but it went straight to voicemail. Shit, shit, shit.
I called Petra.
“Aren’t you supposed to have the da-”“Petra, trace my ex-wife’s phone,” I said, cutting her off.
Her playfulness was gone immediately and I heard her tapping away.
“It’s not pinging, Garrick.”
“Where was the last ping?”
Putting the phone on speaker, I got dressed as quickly as I could.
“Last ping was an address downtown, near your old house.”
Of course. She would take Mimi to a place that meant something to me, to punish me.
“Thank you.”
“Do you need backup?” she asked. “I can put the call out.”
“No, I just have a hunch,” I said. “I’ll call back soon and let you know what to do.”
“Okay, be safe.”
I hung up and raced down the stairs to my car on the street. I didn’t think she would ever do it, that’s why I pushed them away. She must have been following me since she returned.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I sped down the highway toward my old neighborhood and the house I’d lived in with Mimi. The house hadn’t been touched since we both moved out, and I still owned it, but it was too hard to live there, in those same halls where we had been happy.
It was poetic that she would take Mimi back there, but why? What was her endgame? It couldn’t be me. It couldn’t be that he would take us all out so I couldn’t arrest her.
It had to be personal.
Whatever it was…I had to be ready.
Maurelle
I watched as the woman who had once been Mrs. Kane Garrick squirmed in her chair, against her bindings. Her face was red, mascara running down her cheeks as she sobbed in terror. I couldn’t help but wonder how someone like her had pulled Kane into a marriage. She seemed so sad…so boring.
“Would you stop your incessant sobbing?” I asked her, annoyed by the sound of her nose dripping down to her lip.
