Don't Close Your Eyes (Don't Look Series Book 2), page 20
Audrey steps closer, eyes wide in question, chest rising and falling rapidly.
I press a little harder. “Do you know why Mistress Maxine killed them? The sheriff never found a motive, not counting her dog’s death. But that never made sense to me. Why kill three, possibly four teenagers, over a dog?”
Ms. Miller seethes. “That had nothing to do with it. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
My eyes widen at the nerve I’ve struck. She knows something, is afraid of it. Her expression is pure fear. Pure anger. Mixing hot and pressing on her shoulders. Tightening her fingers around the gun’s handle.
“You’re lying.” As soon as I’ve said it, I know I’ve pushed her too far. She’s going to kill us, right here. Right now. It’ll all be over in a bloody blaze of death. Taryn and me. My parents. All of the people the Gemini Killer annihilated. Four girls who met their ends too early, twenty years ago.
Ms. Miller’s entire body goes taut, her mouth flattening. Eye contact zeroed in on my face. “I have to do it. To beat him. He took everything from me. I’m just returning the favor.”
Some favor, if it ends with bodies on the ground.
Black, turgid ripples are pouring under the glass door more quickly as the water level outside rises. Some sharp piece of debris scrapes the entire length of the office’s front window as it drags past on the murky floodwaters. I gulp, hoping beyond reason that Esau and Noah and their families are safe. Hoping they survive this hellish night with their families intact. Audrey and I aren’t so lucky.
“Mom, let go of me. You can’t do this.” Viv screams, but her mom doesn’t heed.
“We don’t have time for this!” Nate roars, shocking Viv and her mom into looking at him. In a sudden and brutal move, he lunges forward and grabs Audrey by her hair, yanking her back against him and pressing the barrel of the gun against her temple. She cries out, trying to meet my eyes. The brutal angle at which he’s holding her head prevents my sister from seeing much but the dingy drop ceiling. “Enough. I’m tired of waiting. Let’s finish this so we can go.”
Ms. Miller puts a hand on his arm, but it doesn’t relax him. He only tightens his grip on my sister, his lip curled in a snarl. Her voice is high and reedy. “Just a few more minutes, baby, then we’ll go.”
“Baby?” Viv and I say in shades of incredulity and disgust.
Audrey puts it together before Viv or me. “She’s the one you were meeting at the hotel that time? But she’s so much older than. . .”
The way Nate is looking at Ms. Miller sends chills down my spine. Her expression as she returns this gaze sends warning bells buzzing between my ears. Something about this is intensely wrong. He’s looking at her like… he loves her.
Love. That’s what he said when we asked him, in the hospital, why he was doing this. I didn’t understand then, but Viv’s mom is looking at him like she could have loved him, if circumstances were different. From the shining look in his eyes, he doesn’t see the difference.
“Shut up,” Nate growls, yanking my sister’s hair mercilessly. “Age is just a number. It doesn’t matter to us. We love each other.”
Viv stills beside her mom, who she has drifted toward in the last few minutes. “He, he’s the guy you were sneaking off to see? Is that why you wouldn’t tell me? Because he’s my age?” Each word climbs higher than the last until they’re shrill, piercing arrows. Her face aghast in a wide-mouthed gape.
I fight with my lungs, wrestling them into a less erratic pattern. But seeing Nate’s unyielding hand tangled in my twin’s hair, the way he drags her chin higher. The cold gleam of the metal barrel against her skin. Fear settles in its nest in my stomach, making its home in a place from which I’m not sure I will ever be able to evict it. “Let her go. She hasn’t done anything to you,” I plead, eyes locked on Nate’s. “Please. You know what it’s like to lose someone you love. Don’t do this to us. We used to be friends. Remember?”
His scoff is full of hate. “Some good it did me, being friends with you. The Gemini Killer did all of this because of your sister. He used her social media to choose his victims. Admit it. This entire mess is as much your fault as it is his. And I’m going to make sure none of you ever get to hurt anyone else.” His hand is rock-steady on the gun’s handle. My eyes move from it to where Ms. Miller is forcing Viv to stay behind her, shielding her from the weapon.
I hook my eyes back to his. Swallowing, I try to keep him talking. To buy ourselves more time. But the clock is running down, and if what they say about Justin and Karen is true, if they are— There might be no rescue on the way. “It was you who shot at us those times, wasn’t it? The FBI never found the rifle.”
Nate’s chin lifts. “My dad used to take me hunting. He taught me everything he knew about tracking. Showed me how to find hiding places where I could shoot without spooking my prey. I had no idea that it’d come in handy hunting you monsters, but look at that. It has.”
Us monsters? “You hate us that much? For something we couldn’t control?”
“You won’t kill us,” Audrey grinds out.
“Won’t I?” Nate snarls. “You want to know how I met Anna? During the trial, she wrote some articles on it. My sister got an email asking for an interview. Kate didn’t want anything to do with it, but I was so angry. I thought, here’s a way to tell everyone how they should be blaming you two instead of fawning over you. I saw the way they offered you book and movie deals. All of that attention made me sick. So I met with Anna. We got to talking. I could sense right from the beginning we had something in common. We both wanted someone to pay for what had happened to us. You.” With a flick of his thumb, Nate releases the safety on the gun pointed at my sister.
Audrey wails, pulling at his arm banded around her stomach. “I’m tired of being blamed for all the bad things that happened. It’s not my fault. It’s not our fault! If you want someone to pay for all of this shit, go find Robert Baugh.”
Nate snarls at that, tearing at her hair. Making my sister scream. “He has nothing to do with this.”
I manage to stifle a gasp. He doesn’t know about Albert and Robert’s switcheroo. The arrests. Any of it. And I’m not going to tell him, not against the risk it’ll make him even angrier. Even more deadly. But I can’t say nothing. Maybe reminding Nate of his sister will soften him, like Audrey softens me.
“Don’t. Don’t do it. What would Kate say?” Anguish builds inside me until I can’t hold it in. It spills out in hot, angry tears. I swipe at them with the back of a hand, not willing to lose sight of my sister. She locks her eyes on mine, entreating me silently to do something.
For the barest second, Nate wavers. I can see the ignition of doubt in his eyes. His face swivels between my sister, Viv, and me.
Ms. Miller moves, drawing my attention. Achingly slowly, she puts a hand on Nate’s arm. “Baby, let’s not forget why we’re really here, okay?”
He sneaks a look at her from the corner of his eye. “How could I forget?”
A throat clearing makes me jump, my hand covering the thudding organ in my chest. Terrified to see who’s back there, but unable to keep myself from looking, I spin in the floodwaters.
Paunchy belly. Neatly-trimmed beard. Crooked nose that has definitely been broken at least once. Harsh, narrowed eyes under a dripping baseball cap. My insides recoil in abject dread. I know this face, its lines. Its furrows and divots and creases carved by time and anger. The specter glares, an impossibly large hunting knife brandished in the space between us.
“Yes, let’s not forget why we’re here,” Robert Baugh drawls, a single finger sliding lovingly along the blade in his hand.
Chapter 31
Robert Baugh stands, stroking the edge of his blade absently. Seemingly content to wait to get in on the action. Why is he so calm?
I gasp, the knowing, the loathsome understanding coursing through me.
He’s content to let Nate and Ms. Miller completely uncoil before he acts. The man is biding his time, like a true hunter. Waiting for the most opportune moment to spring. Forcing that terrifying thought away, I focus on Nate. In this single, solitary instance, Robert Baugh is right. Nate is a ticking bomb about to blow. And he’s got my sister at the center of the blast radius.
I turn my eyes toward Viv’s mom and Nate. Their handguns that have a wider killing range than the murderer’s knife. I am so irrevocably sick of guns.
All color drains from Viv’s face as she turns to gape in horror at the devil at my back. I steal a glance over my shoulder. Nate goes from shocked to furious. Yanks Audrey in tighter. A human shield against evil.
Face contorted by the fingers of darkness, the Gemini Killer tilts his head. Completely ignores Nate. “You did all of this for me, didn’t you, Lydia? Just like last time. When I got your message, I knew what you weren’t saying. That you missed it—the control. The power you felt as you watched your friends die. That’s why you did all of this, to bring me back here. Back to you. So we could finish this together. After how we left things, I was touched.”
Oh, oh crap, he’s pleased by what he sees. My stomach lurches in disgust.
Wait, Lydia? With stunning clarity, I find another piece of the puzzle. Viv’s mom is Lydia Freeman, the girl who went missing all those years ago. Something about those attacks forced her to flee. To change her name. And now she’s back, trying to hurt Audrey and me. I can’t see the bigger picture, still missing so many of the jagged-edged pieces.
Ms. Miller’s lip curls. Angrily, she spits, “You tried to slice my neck. You arrogant bastard. You’re right. I did want you back here, but I wasn’t trying to help you. You took everything from me. My friends. My family. Now it’s my turn to return the favor. By killing your prey right in front of you.”
Nate stares at the unfolding tableau with a horrified expression. Struck speechless by the back and forth between the woman he loves and the killer who likely haunts his nightmares.
Robert Baugh’s voice is slow, soothing in a way that sends tingles of nausea rippling through my stomach. The man sounds just like I’d imagine a snake would. “What are you talking about? Killing Dana, Yvette, and Theresa was your idea. Remember how badly they treated you? How they excluded you after you confided in them what your father was doing to you and your mother? They weren’t really there for you. They didn’t support you. I did. I gave you the means to get back at them, and the encouragement to follow through. You didn’t know if you could do it, remember? But I believed in you. And I was right. You killed all of them. You watched them die, and you enjoyed it. It made you feel alive, just like it does me.”
The woman flinches at each of her former friends’ names. Her fury shrinks as he talks, as if she believes everything he’s saying. The bastard. He’s gaslighting her right in front of all of us, and she’s buying it.
“What is he talking about, babe?” Nate asks, looking like he might be sick.
Ms. Miller sniffs hard, wiping hair out of her eyes. Musters a glare at the Gemini Killer. “No. You’re lying. None of it was my idea. You’re the one who put it into my head, how easy it would be. You showed me how to do everything. Everything, Bobby. I wouldn’t have done it if it hadn’t been for you.” Her attention is fixed on him, as if she’s forgotten the rest of us are even here.
Viv’s white, bloodless face peeks out from behind her mom, eyes fixed on the man whose evil heat is prickling at the back of my neck. Bobby? She mimics without thought.
Everything in me screams to run, get away, but I can’t bring myself to move. If I do, will it snap the spell that has fallen, reminding them that Audrey and I are here and ripe for the killing? I can’t risk it. Clenching my fists at my sides, I give the smallest head shake I can. Viv bites down on her lip viciously.
Water swirls around Nate’s shins as he snaps, yelling and pleading with the woman he loves. “Don’t listen to him. Let’s kill them, and go.”
Robert Baugh watches me with a feral gleam in his eyes. My heart skitters when he pivots toward Nate. It’s as if my pain alone isn’t raw, real enough to hold his focus. There’s a flicker of something behind his gaze that almost looks like irritation. Good. He’s getting frustrated. Justin said once that perps tend to make mistakes when they’re emotional. Clenching my fists against my thighs, I pray he was right. Still, these three monsters have Audrey, Viv, and me in an uncomfortably tight spot.
Viv’s mom is wrestling her daughter behind her, away from the gun and the knife and the pall of death that fills the room like a colorless, odorless—but no less deadly—gas. From the Gemini Killer, who is slowly inching closer with his knife out held. Feet wide in a killing stance. The tension in his body, the hungry look behind his eyes. I’ve seen them before. Watched in nightmare after nightmare as he approached, ready to loose the blood from my veins.
Fear grips my chest, choking off my breath.
Shaking his head, the devil smiles. The hint of teeth makes my stomach roil. Completely ignoring Nate, he speaks to Ms. Miller. “We both know that’s not true. Don’t deny the choices you made, Lydia. It’s true I gave you the encouragement to be who you already knew deep down you wanted to be. A killer, just like me. And you’ve proved me right, going after these girls. You wanted to kill them, didn’t you? And you even convinced this young whelp to help you.”
Nate scoffs. “Shut up. We love each other. Don’t we?” He looks at Lydia, but she doesn't acknowledge him. Doesn’t even seem to see the hurt in his eyes when he realizes she’s practically forgotten he’s standing right there. She only has eyes for the man standing unbearably close to me.
Robert Baugh tosses his knife between his hands. “Tell me, boy. What did she promise you to get you to help her? No, let me guess. She told you that you two could be together. That you could leave town and start over somewhere else. Just the two of you.”
“The three of us. With Viv,” Nate counters hotly.
“Why does that sound familiar?” Robert Baugh’s eyes twinkle. He loves this. Relishes it. He runs a hand over his beard. “Oh, yes. It sounds familiar because that’s exactly what I promised her, twenty years ago. Before I tried to slit her throat. She was using you, boy, just like I used her way back then. She doesn’t care about you, just like I didn’t care about her. You are nothing. So was she.”
“NO,” Lydia screams.
Nate flinches when Lydia’s gun goes off, the bullet flying wide of where Robert Baugh is standing, feet wide set. A ready stance.
Releasing Audrey without thought, Nate’s focus narrows on the other man. The originator of the Anderson family’s pain, mine and Audrey’s, and so many others. His threat is stone cold. “You’re dead, old man.”
Audrey drops to the floor, whimpering.
I lunge for her.
A steel arm bands around my waist. “I don’t think so,” the killer’s sickening voice purrs in my ear. “Lydia may have lured me here, but I’m not going to let you slip away. I promised myself I’d come back to finish what I started someday, but I hadn’t planned on it being so soon.” His nose makes my hair stick to my neck as he takes a deep inhale. “I can smell your fear. You’re drenched in it, and it’s too delicious to pass up. Besides, you and your sister have made it very hard for me to further my mission, do you know that? So I’m going to take you apart, piece by piece, while she watches. And then I’m going to kill her. How about we start with something easy, eh? Like maybe a finger?”
I fight and kick and scream, but he has my hand gripped in the vice of his palm as he forces it upward toward the blade of his knife. “I admit I’m looking forward to this. In the past, I didn’t have so much time to spend with my victims before I had to leave them. But with you, tonight…” He clucks his tongue. “It doesn’t look like we’re going to be interrupted, does it?”
Fat tears spill down my cheeks as he presses his sharpened knife at the base of my fingers, just enough to make my blood pump like a torrent through my body.
Forcing my eyes open, I latch onto Audrey, who is in a heap on the ground, peeking at me through shaking fingers. “I love you,” I mouth. Trembling, she tells me the same.
“Get up,” I reply with all the force I can muster. “Run.”
With a sniff, Audrey pushes up to all fours, her eyes never leaving mine. “No,” my sister jerks her head. With effort, she peels her gaze over her shoulder to where Nate is pleading with his girlfriend to leave with him. Ms. Miller is crying, shaking her head.
“Please, Anna, baby. I know he was lying. You don’t mean any of this.” Nate reaches out to her. “He was the reason for all this, why we started working together. Don’t lose sight of that.”
She jerks away, forcing Viv to press tighter against the window. Silent tears course down Viv’s cheeks, but I don’t think she’s aware of them as she braces her elbows against the glass.
“Lydia,” Robert Baugh barks, his grip tightening on my waist, making it harder to breathe. “Get rid of that brat so we can finish this.”
Ms. Miller’s resolve hardens, the muscles in her face flattening. Her frown twists into a hard, wet line. The gun in her hand steadies.
Nate looks from my captor to the woman in front of him, his eyes widening in disbelief as her fingers coil tighter around the gun’s handle. Nate’s mouth twists in an avenging smile. “She won’t listen to you, old man. You’re done here. It’s your turn to die.”
The gun flashes as Ms. Miller fires.
I jolt.
Nate’s body drops without even as a splash, a blackening stain widening in his stomach. Deep red mixes with the flood water drowning the carpet.
Sulfurous, burnt gunpowder makes my nose wrinkle, but I can’t look away from the trauma playing out on the watery stage where I watch from a front row seat. Robert Baugh has just manipulated Ms. Miller into mercilessly killing the boy she was seeing. He’s an unintended victim in this deadly game. Who will be next?
My rain boots splash in the icy water as I shift, searching for a steadier foothold and find nothing but slippery, soaked carpet.
