“No. You’re welcome for my disposal of Dr. Monty Cameron.” Fletcher smacked his lips together. “Now there was a coward. He was fine beating on women, but the second he was in my care, he bawled like a baby.” He sighed. “I normally require quite a substantial retainer to negate problems, so if you consider the situation,youoweme.”
Owe him? “Oh, Jethro is going to cut out your heart and eat it, if I don’t get to you first,” she spat, wriggling her toes to bring back the feeling in them.
“Ah, my baby brother.” Fletcher shook his head. “I have to admit, he has been a pain in my arse for much too long. I set him up so perfectly with our mother, and yet I ended up living in a cell instead of him. Not this time. I’ll get it perfect.”
She pulled up her knees and wrapped her arms around her legs, trying to force warmth into them. “Nobody will believe Jethro would kill me. You could stab me, leave his DNA, and have him on video, and our team will disprove it. No matter what you do.”
“I realize that,” Fletcher said easily. “However, he’s caused enough trouble for the Crown that he’ll be hauled back home, and chances aren’t looking good for his longevity.” He reached in the bag and pulled out a knife crusted with blood. “In addition, I’ve learned that prisons come in all sizes. The one he’ll build for himself after failing you will be stronger than any I’ve ever faced. This will destroy him. That’sprison enough.”
“Then how is it perfect?” Finally feeling was coming back into her ankles.
Fletcher watched her feet. “My brother should never have turned against me. He hunted me and was closing in, so I had to kill our mother to teach him a lesson. Yet he got there earlier than I hoped and had a chance to say goodbye. I wanted him to see her die but not experience closure.” His eyes glowed across the distance. “Now I am going to get it right and not give him that last moment to say goodbye; he’ll arrive just in time to watch you leave this world. I believe that will make this momentperfect, where itwasn’t before.”
“So you just want to hurt your brother? That’s pathetic.” Now that her body was awakening, so was the realization that Fletcher was a trained killer and she wasn’t. Fear crowded into her rational thoughts and she had to squelch it. She was a mother and her child needed her. “Maybe there’s no perfect. Have you thought of that?”
“I have but am willing to keep trying,” he agreed. “Not only did Jethro betray me, he took our entire inheritance when I was incarcerated. It was a double insult, and that has to be repaid in full.” He shook his head. “While I don’t see his attraction to you, he’s lost in a way he’s never been before. Besides, who knows? Perhaps he’ll get here sooner than expected and save you. He did it once, and I’m curious if he can do it again. I doubt it, though. This time I will get everything right, and you won’t get thatlast goodbye.”
The guy was sick. How could he speak so casually about death? “You really are batshit crazy,” she said, testing her shoulders to make sure she could move quickly. Her body still felt numb.Drugged. Slow.
Fletcher tossed the knife up and caught it easily by the handle. “We’re all a little crazy, don’t you think? You see Jethro as a hero, and yet the things he’s done in the name of duty chill even me. He’s not who you think he is and he’s going to show his true face when he finds you…just a mite too late. I’m happy to finally be able to answer his desperate questions aboutgood and evil.”
“What is your answer?” Gemma asked, trying to keep him talking. Her body wasn’t ready to fight yet.
“That they don’t exist,” Fletcher said easily. “We are who we are and there is no question of good or evil. I’m a killer, as is my brother. It might be nature or nurture or a combination of the two. I’m not going to allow him to hide from the truth any longer.”
Gemma could barely follow that reasoning. “So, the murder of your mother, all of these deaths, your poisoning children…are all to force your brother to…what? Be as dark as you?” Theguy was crazy.
“No. Just acknowledge who he is,” Fletcher said. “He’s been under an illusion that he’s the hero in our story. The truth is that everything he’s done in the name of duty is just as bad as what I’ve done, and that in the end, he’s a failure. He tried to make me fail, to show me as a criminal, and I can’t let that stand. Plus, I didn’t get it quite right last time. With Mother. I have to make it perfect.”
He was talking about stabbing her. Gemma’s stomach hitched. “Why wasn’t it perfect last time?” She had to know what she was dealing with here.
“She had a chance to say goodbye,” Fletcher said, his jaw tightening. “I wanted her alive, bleeding out but unable to speak with him. Somehow I got thetiming wrong.”
Oh, God. It was about timing?
He gracefully stood. “If Jethro’s team is nearly as good as he believes, he should be able to get here before you die and see you take yourlast breath.”
“Wait. Don’t you at least want to make this a fair fight? I can’t move my legs yet,” she tried desperately.
“I care little about fairness.” He strode toward her, the knife looking dull with the dried blood covering the blade. It was, no doubt,Monty’s blood.
Gemma tried to scramble away from him, but she was already against the wall. “Please don’t do this. My daughter needs me.” The words poured out of her before she could stop them.
He crouched down, bringing a hint of warmth from his body. “I like it when they beg.” His face cleared, as if he’d just realized something about himself. “Oh, I only kill for country or for money, but to be honest, I feel better right after a fresh kill.” He smoothed her hair away from her face with his free hand, ignoring her flinch.
She wasgoing to puke.
“Killing your ex gave me great pleasure,” Fletcher admitted, apparently feeling free to confess since he was about to stab her. “I liked it when he sobbed. Did you know that he’d actually found you before I senthim the photo?”
She paused. “He had?”
“Affirmative,” Fletcher said smugly. “He’d been messing with you. Something about a slashed tire, a broken window, and even breaking into some cottage through a basement window. The guy wouldn’t stop confessing to me.”
Her stomach lurched.
“It’s like he wanted me to respect him or something.” Fletcher shrugged. “Sometimes I think perhaps I would continue the killing even without financial gain.”
“Yeah. You’re crazy.” Sucking in a breath, Gemma shoved him as hard as she could with both hands and swept out her feet, kicking beneath his knees and catching him by surprise.
