“I’m going to bash her head against the floor.” He ignored her gasp and looked at his watch again. “Or I might give Kelsey to my uncle. He deserves some fun.”
I blinked. “Your uncle likes to blow things up.”
“Exactly,” Teddy said. Then he walked closer and dropped to his haunches next to me. His gun rested on his thigh, and the barrel pointed directly at my ribcage. His eyes sparkled, not looking quite right. “I’m quite fascinated by you. Most women bore me. They use their looks to hurt a man. Every time. But you? I think you’re different. When you were kidnapped as a child, were you harmed?”
“Is that why you bash their heads in? So women aren’t as pretty and can’t hurt you?” I wasn’t a profiler or a shrink, but I was happy to keep him chatting until help arrived.
“I don’t have time for introspection right now, and I’d much rather learn more about you,” he said. “Tell me if being kidnapped changed who you are. It had to. You’re a lawyer, so others can’t get off like your kidnapper did, right?”
I laid my head back against the wall and just looked at him. He wasn’t getting anything out of me.
He tilted his head. “I was kidnapped as a child, too. Isn’t it fascinating how two unrelated events from so long ago led us both right here to this moment?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked. The longer he kept talking, the more alive Kelsey and I would remain.
“You were kidnapped, Aiden saved you as an adult, he took down my uncle’s organization, my uncle needed my help, we hunted down Aiden, and I found you.” Teddy traced a circle on my thigh. “See? We’re all connected. The minute I found those articles about you as a child, about you being kidnapped, I knew we were meant to be together. Two halves of a whole. Don’t you feel it?”
I shook my head. “Listen, buddy. I already have one sociopath leaving me love letters twice a year. My plate is full.”
Teddy smiled, looking like we shared a joke. Man, he was nuts. “Jareth Davey, right?”
“Yeah,” I said. “How did you know?”
“He was your kidnapper, according to the news reports. Then his case was dismissed, so that makes sense.” Teddy leaned in, and he smelled a little like pepper. The baking kind and not the spicy chilly kind. “I can kill him if you’d like.”
“Sure,” I said, calculating the speed I’d need to get the gun out of his hand before he could fire it. I didn’t have time with him in his current position. “Go ahead and kill him if you can find him. So far, he’s done a great job of staying under the radar.” This time I showed my teeth. “Tell you what. Why don’t you go take care of that now, and Kelsey and I will wait here?”
He laughed and patted my thigh. “You are unique, Anna Albertini. Some would think that’s a bad thing, but I believe it’s fate. You and I are going to have fun together in this world.” He leaned in. “Maybe our first adventure will be to hunt down Jareth Davey and break his head open like a watermelon.”
“Sure. Let’s go right now,” I said. “We don’t need Kelsey with us. She can stay here quietly.” Just how crazy was he?
“We’ll go soon enough,” he said, looking at Kelsey intently. “You’re right. Kelsey will stay here very quietly after I’ve finished with her.”
She pulled her legs up and wrapped both arms around them. Her body shook so hard that I could feel it. “Don’t do this, Teddy,” she whispered.
“I have to,” he said, almost hypnotically.
“Teddy,” I snapped, drawing his attention back to me.
He frowned. “What?”
“Tell me about your kidnapping,” I said. “You brought it up. Who kidnapped you?”
He gulped a couple of times as if drawing back to the moment. “My grandmother. She took me from my mother, who had a drug problem.”
Okay. I got his train of thought off Kelsey for now. I couldn’t let him kill her. “I see. I take it your grandmother wasn’t loving toward you?” I tried to make my voice sound sympathetic, but my voice was hoarse from fear.
He nodded. “She was beautiful—like a snake. So mean. She didn’t want me but didn’t want my mother to have me.”
That was sad, but a lot of folks had sad childhoods. “Maybe you just need help? Let me get you help,” I said.
Teddy stood. “I don’t need help. Believe me, I know exactly how to silence the demons in my mind. Kelsey is going to understand what that means very soon.”
She sucked in her breath but didn’t say anything.
The outside door opened and Norman Barensky walked inside, shaking out a clear umbrella decorated with large blue polka dots. He smiled, showing yellowed teeth from cigarette smoking. A large black duffel bag had been slung over his narrow shoulder. “Well, isn’t this fortuitous? It’s lovely to see you again, Anna Albertini.”
Chapter 39
