“What about Clive?” Booker asked, smoothly changing the subject. “How did he die?”
I frowned at the memory. “Horribly. He was strung up between two trees. He had been stabbed in the stomach. His insides were on the outside.” I cringed. I was never going to get that image out of my head.
“Who killed him?” Booker asked.
“She wouldn’t give me a name. She said there wasn’t time. She was afraid, almost as if she were helping me escape something.”
“Maybe that’s exactly what she was doing,” Aurora said. “You said you saw a shadow.”
I shuddered at the memory. “I think it belonged to something terrible.” I paused a beat. “The first thing I thought when I saw the way Clive was … posed was that it was like a scene from a television show. Like one of those really creepy serial killers onCriminal Minds.”
“Is that what you think we’re dealing with?” Galen asked. “A creepy serial killer?”
“Mom said he set a trap for me. She also said he put his art — that’s what she called it — near every door to intimidate me.”
“He won’t give up just because you escaped,” Booker said. “We need to figure out who he is, why he’s over there.”
“We also need to figure out if his ultimate plan is to come here,” Galen added. “Maybe he thinks he needs Hadley’s magic to open a specific door.”
“That’s an interesting hunch,” Aurora mused.
“I’m full of them.” Galen glanced at me. “It’s obvious Wesley was taken for bait.”
“We have to get him back,” I insisted.
“We will,” Galen promised, his hands moving to my shoulders. “We’ll do what it takes. Right now, I should get you home. It’s been a long day.”
“Not for me.”
“Maybe you’re whacked out from the fear and adrenaline,” Aurora suggested.
“I guess.”
“We’ll pick up food on the way home,” Galen said. “We’ll get some rest, then we’ll figure this out.”
It was clear he had more he wanted to say but he smiled. “You owe me a back rub for not being mad any longer,” he added.
I reached for a smile but missed. “That seems fair.”
“You’ve earned a lecture too.”
I scowled. “Can’t I just remember all your other lectures and spank myself?”
Booker choked on the water he was drinking. “Sorry,” he sputtered when all eyes turned to him.
Galen rolled his eyes. “Unbelievable,” he muttered.
Now I managed a legitimate smile. “Take me for food. I’m starving.”
“I didn’t think I was hungry when you were missing, but now I’m starving too.”
“We make a great pair.”
He shook his head. “I’m not falling for the mushy stuff. You took ten years off my life today.”
I had news for him: I would go back if it meant finding Wesley. I had no other choice.
8
