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Another wisp of smoke rose from the hymnal. The corner of the cover curled and the pages behind it smoldered. The flame from the lighter hovered just above it, poised to turn the smolder to fire.

“Did you know where your mom was when you took Dean to the hospital for his last concussion?” asked Josie.

Disgust tightened the corners of his mouth. “I knew which family she was working for, knew their address. I drove there after I got Dean home and settled. I wanted to tell her how she’d failed him, failed us. Do you know I called her a dozen times? Sent almost as many texts? She didn’t even respond. I’d never had the guts to say it before but I was really pissed. Dean was in bad shape that night. Then I got there and I saw all these women leaving the house next door, including Mom and her client. Mom had that stupid fucking baby in her arms, holding onto it like it was so special, and then the makeup lady came out and they all stood there talking and laughing and Mom just kept kissing and hugging the baby. Same old shit. She cared more about other people’s kids than us and she was nice to them, then she’d come home and bitch at us and she was mean. God, she was mean. But I chickened out. I couldn’t confront her.”

“But you couldn’t stand it anymore, could you?” Turner said.

Carter didn’t answer.

“I want Mommy,” Molly said, voice stronger now, more insistent.

“Not right now, Mols.”

She kicked her legs again, more rapidly this time, disturbing the air, adding strength to the orange glow of both the issue of Response Magazine and the hymnal. The flame flickered, licking the top of the hymnal again. More smoke rose, the smell strong in the room now.

“Why Alanna?” Josie said over the lump in her throat. They were going to have to make a move very soon.

“I didn’t even remember her,” he said. “But I was in Morgantown a week later, at the casino. I stopped at a nearby bar on the way home and I saw her. Remembered her. I followed her. Went back a few times and saw she lived alone—when her son wasn’t with her. It was like fate. Like it was meant to be. Then I found that lipstick.” He laughed, seemingly delighted. “It was just perfect.”

“Devil Divine,” Josie said.

The devil and the divine all in one. Two sides, two faces, two personas. Just like his mother. Just like him.

“I have one for every girl.” He dipped his chin toward his pocket. “This one is yours. I haven’t put it in my case yet because it hasn’t finished the job. Of course, my collection will always be incomplete since I screwed up and left Kirstie’s at her house. She just made me so damn mad. It’s her fault.”

Of course it was. Everything was someone else’s fault. Especially if it was a woman.

Carter swept his hand back and forth, widening his target area. Taunting them. The flame caressed the tops of issues of New World Outlook which sat beside Response Magazine. Luckily it didn’t hover long enough over any of them to catch them on fire.

“It must have felt good,” Turner said. “The first time. When you killed Alanna Jarrett? Finally getting out all the rage you felt toward your mom. Did it feel even better once you finally got to kill your mom?”

Carter didn’t answer but his eyes darkened as he followed the path of the flame, mesmerized. How the hell much lighter fluid was in that damn lighter? Surely it would run out soon.

“It was the interview, wasn’t it?” Josie said. “That’s why you decided to kill her once and for all, isn’t it? Because by going public, she showed she wasn’t afraid of the Last Kiss Killer anymore. Your taunts lost their power.”

Molly shrieked and pulled her feet up, away from Carter’s roving hand. Her tiny arms wrapped around his neck as she tried to climb him. “Daddy, no! No fire!”

Carter still looked entranced as he watched the path he made with the flame. “My mother always said we were both going to hell, but she still looked for ways to avoid it.”

Josie’s heart gave two uneven thuds before breaking into a gallop. She took a brief glance at Turner. His frown told her that he’d picked up on it too. Both. Both of them were going to hell.

Molly squeezed his neck, her small feet trying to find purchase against his chest. Somehow, he kept hold of her one-handed.

“Carter?” she said. “Why would your mother think she was going to hell?”

He smiled and the dance of the flame was reflected in his eyes. “The most important things to know about my mother are that she was an excellent liar and ultimately, she always chose someone or something else over her own children. Like that interview would bring some kind of salvation.”

“Daddy, no!” Molly cried, limbs flailing to no avail.

Josie didn’t need Carter to tell her that Sylvia had been an excellent liar. She had made a science of keeping big things from everyone around her. Josie could think of only one reason why Sylvia would have believed she was going to hell with her oldest son and why he would think her giving the interview was an attempt to gain salvation.

“She knew,” Josie said.

My mother always said we were both going to hell.

“She knew the entire time, didn’t she?”

While Carter continued to be captivated by the lighter, Turner used the opportunity to slowly get closer. Molly stopped trying to climb Carter when he abruptly hugged her to his chest so tightly that she croaked, “Daddy, ow ow ow.”