Chapter 17

Even though all I had on was my underwear, the scream had me jumping out of bed. I knew before I ever left my room that it was Rylee.

Running down the hallway, I blew through the entrance to Rylee's room, finding Ashley, clutching Rylee against her as she ran a soothing hand over Rylee's hair and back, murmuring soft words of comfort. I have never been so glad to have my sister as I was at this moment. As I watched them, I knew I would have offered Rylee what comfort I could, but there was just something about a woman's touch that could bring reassurance that a man could not under certain circumstances. With her soft words and gentle hands, Ashley quickly brought a calmness to Rylee, slowing the hiccuping sobs that moments ago had shaken her small frame. I didn't want to disturb them, to draw Rylee out of the need she was filling with Ashley's administration, so I quietly retreated from the room, remaining just out of their eyesight on the other side of the door of Rylee's room. I didn't know what I could do that would help other than what Ashley was already offering, but I wanted to be nearby just in case.

As I leaned against the wall, listening, Ashley continued to softly talk, her voice damn near a lullaby in its gentle pitch. Ashley had always had a gentleness about her, a caring that I had seen few possess. I had called her a bleeding heart when we were teenagers because she had always brought home some animal. At any given time, you could find anything from baby birds to kittens and puppies in her room. She'd even brung a baby opossum home once. Of course, it hadn't stayed long after Mom had walked into her and Dad's bedroom to find the opossum curled up on her pillow, asleep. Looking back, I had just kind of assumed Ashley would become a Veterinarian. So, when she had chosen to become a crime scene investigator, it surprised me. However, I couldn't fault her uncanny investigative skills; she was damn good at her job.

Now, I realized she was damn good with people too. I knew Rylee was in good hands, and turning, I made my way back down the hall and toward my room.

An hour later, I was raking my fingers through my hair in frustration. How the fuck was I supposed to catch this slime ball? I'd left a note on the table for Ashley and Rylee explaining I had gone to the agency and why. Now, I stared at the mess I had made. All organization had flown out the window in my hunt. There had to be something we were missing! But what the fuck was it? Suddenly it dawned on me that we had been concentrating on current murders. We needed to go back to the beginning, back to when Rylee had received her first vision, and then move forward, picking apart each vision, each case; we had a shitload of work ahead of us, but I was almost positive in the past, that we would solve the here and now.

RYLEE

I wasn't a hero, and I sure as shit wasn't made of stone. My breakdown the night before had more than proved that. At some point, I had phased out. I didn't remember much after walking into my temporary bedroom and seeing the blood that had bathed it. My fucking bedroom had become a room of horrors. The sick bastard had taken what had remained of the peace I had held fragilely within me and destroyed it. The demon had danced in glory within the purgatory of his making and would continue dancing with his future victims until I stopped him. So far, though, he had eluded me. With all the gory shit he had done and left to be investigated, he had not failed in leaving nothing to identify him; for that matter, profiling him had become laughable. But I would get him. Someway, somehow, he would slip up, and then he would be mine. But I knew one thing—every move I made was putting those I loved closer and closer to the edge of death. This hunt was my journey alone, and I wouldn't drag the others beneath his eye any longer.

He wanted a game? I'd give him one.

Thirty minutes later, thankful Brice had seen to bringing my pickup to his house, I pushed open the driver's door and stared at the exterior of my home, knowing I would never be able to look at it as mine again.

Walking up to the porch, I crossed its width, then opened the door—anger and determination fueled my steps as I stepped through the entrance. I knew the scene within its walls had been fully worked, so I felt no fear of contaminating it as I walked through the sick bastard's leftovers. I knew what I needed, and after quickly gathering the items and stuffing them in a backpack, I exited my home. I would continue the hunt. I would spend the rest of my days in the carnival of corpses he had left in his wake, alone. This, was a battle between the two of us. He wanted me; the other murders had been to draw me in.

He had my attention now, and when I had finished with him, he'd wish he'd never gained it. He thought he knew me? He thought he knew how I worked? He had no fucking idea of what he had awakened. He thought he was special. He thought, he was all-powerful. He was wrong. There was a side of me that no one knew. A side of me that had come to life for a short period the day my dad had died.

My visionary thought he was coming for me. He was wrong; I was coming for him. He had poisoned my nest; now, I would poison his with his own blood.