Worse yet, it was now Tuesday. Only one day left before the anniversary of my kidnapping. I shivered and unwelcomed fingers clacked down my spine. Life was not fair sometimes.
Tess’s apartment was quiet, and I knew my way in the dark, reaching her bedroom and shucking my jeans for a T-shirt I found on our Nana’s fainting couch at the base of Tess’s bed. Dawn was finally breaking outside, barely lighting the room from her open window. She rolled over to face me, her voice muffled as she threw the covers open to reveal flowered sheets that had probably been our mom’s. “Why so late? Or rather, early?”
I slid inside and faced her, much like we had as little girls. Then I told her about the entire night, not leaving anything out.
Finally, I wound down, snuggling beneath the hand-quilted comforter.
“Wow.” Tessa yawned; her wild hair spread out on the pillow. “The dead body sucks, and let’s not talk about that again. But you kissed Aiden.”
I nodded, catching my hair on the pillowcase. “Yeah.” I’d already gone into too much detail about how great of a kiss it was. Finally. “I just can’t believe he’s a killer. I mean, I know he’s with the Lordes, and they don’t seem to be great guys, but it’s Aiden.”
She snorted. “Believe me, it’s easy to be fooled by a guy.”
I already knew that. In fact, I’d dated a jackass in law school for quite a while, but nobody compared to a couple of Tess’s exes. She had horrible taste in men. Truly terrible. Or perhaps she just had bad luck. I wasn’t sure. “What do you think?”
She shrugged beneath the covers. “Heck if I know. It’s really easy to mix up who you want somebody to be and who they really are. You’ve been dreaming about this guy for years, and you’ve created an image in your head. What if you can’t see past that to the Lordes Defender?” Her voice was sleepy but her mind clear in the way that Tess had of getting to the meat of a fact. “Just because you want him to still be your hero doesn’t mean he is.”
That was true. “Do I owe him?” I whispered.
“Doesn’t matter what I think because you believe you owe him,” she whispered back, like we had as kids. “Let’s start there. Do you think you owe him?”
“Yes,” I said.
“If you can save him, are you going to?” she asked.
I nodded.
“Okay. Are you willing to lose your job or break the law to help him?” she asked.
I thought about it. “No. I’ll help him within the law.” If I broke it, then I was as bad as the people I wanted to put away. He’d gotten hurt helping me, and I was willing to get hurt paying him back, but I wouldn’t break the law. I had to believe in something after what had happened to me, and the law was it. Even though Jareth Davey had perverted it. I sighed. “This is hard.”
“I know,” she whispered. “Tomorrow is the day. Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” My eyelids started to droop, even though my anxiety was up and would be until I received the anniversary letter from Davey tomorrow. “Maybe he’s dead and won’t send the card this year.”
“We can always hope,” she said. Then she was quiet for a few moments. “I’ve thought about going after him through the years. Just taking him out so he couldn’t send any more cards.”
I nodded. “Me, too.”
She reached out and held my hand. “Did you know that Dad had the Lugi uncles try and find him a couple of times?”
I swallowed. “No.” It did sound like our dad. Sometimes I thought my family considered me fragile and damaged. Scared. Helpless. One of the reasons I’d become a lawyer was to prove how strong I could be. Now I enforced the law and tried to find justice. “Why didn’t they say something?” I asked.
“They’ve never found him,” she said, sounding more awake now. “That’s kind of scary.”
“He lived off the grid here, so he’s probably doing the same thing elsewhere.” I sounded way too logical, while I felt like a scared kid again. I shook it off. The cards were sent from all over the States, and sometimes from other countries. I figured he had friends send them or something. It didn’t matter. Someday, and I had no clue when, he’d come for me.
I was armed—and I was ready.
Chapter 19
Iborrowed black pants and a cream-colored blouse from Tessa and was late to work on Tuesday, skidding in barely with enough time to head to misdemeanor court that morning. It wasn’t until lunch that I had time to call Thelma and ask her to come in and sign an affidavit. She was delighted to do so and said she’d bring brownies after her appointment with an eye doctor.
I really wanted those brownies.
When she showed up, I ate two before anybody else could get to them. Nick was absent most of the day, and for some reason, Celeste wasn’t inclined to share his location. Maybe she was starting to like being his paralegal. He’d left my car in the lot and my keys at the front desk before I’d even made it to work. So I finished up the day and called him to ask if he wanted me to take the new paperwork to the judge, having to leave a message on his cell.
I stared at the finished paperwork on my desk, which had only a smudge of brownie frosting on the corner.
