Vicious Carousel (26 page)

“You sound like it was planned.”

“It kind of was. Not in advance. I came up with it on the spot. When I drove in to pick her up, I saw the car parked over to the side where I never saw one parked before on a weekend. Then I realized someone was in the car.”

Sully leaned forward, his arms crossed in front of him on the table. “When did you realize it was Jack?”

“On the drive south. The car followed us out. I didn’t tell Betsy about it. I thought at first it was a coincidence. Then I started driving a little slower, making sure I didn’t lose him at lights, and I knew. There wasn’t a lot of traffic that time on a Saturday morning.”

She met Sully’s grey gaze. “That’s when I was sure it was that fucker.”

“I thought you guys were supposed to go do what you did? Wasn’t that planned?”

“Yeah, it was. But we were originally going to walk the trail there at Blind Pass Beach. She didn’t know that. I let her think it was always going to be the other park, especially after.”

He slowly nodded. “You baited him.”

“I saw the fucker parked in the back part of the parking lot when we came off the beach after tai chi. I knew I’d have a better chance of getting a shot at him down south. Open area, more of a chance of it looking right.”

Sully stared at her. “You really had been thinking a lot about killing him, hadn’t you?”

“You were there that night. You helped rescue her. You saw her, what he’d done to her. What do you think?”

“I think Jack would have killed her, sooner or later, had she not left. That night was a test.”

She nodded. “My sister was murdered by her boyfriend two months into our freshman year in college.”

“I thought your sister ran a gymnastics school?”

“That’s my older sister. My
other
sister was murdered.” Her hand shook as she picked up the glass and took another sip of iced tea. “She was my twin. Nobody around here outside my family knows that but Mark. Scrye,” she clarified.

Sully nodded. “So that’s why you set Jack up, to give you a reasonable chance to shoot him.”

“I was hoping for witnesses. I knew it wouldn’t look right if he just jumped out and
bang
in the middle of woods.
Really
? I
just
happened to shoot the guy who attacked my friend, as if I was ready for him.”

Sully smiled. “That’s what happened.”

“Yeah. But with a lot of witnesses. Thank god she was fighting, too. It drew more attention and allowed me time to get a good vantage.”

“True. You okay for that?”

“Yeah. They cleared me. State declined to press a weapons charge against me considering I saved her life. First time I’m happy our state government is a bunch of gun-happy nuts. Finally got my damn gun back.”

She took a deep breath. “I couldn’t believe it, at first. I mean, he was supposed to be in jail. What the fuck was he doing
there
? I couldn’t just go up to the window of his car and kill him sitting there.”

“Security cameras?”

“Fuck,
yeah
, security cameras. At least three in that part of the complex. Damn Kel.” Then, she laughed. “Geez, I sound horrible.”

“I’m a writer, and a former cop,” he said. “I do the same thing. It’s a blessing and a curse.”

Her smile faded. “It’s why I never made the team,” she said. “The US Olympic team. We were trying together. Yeah, we were a little older, but we were good. We were only seventeen.
So
fucking good. Then she died, and my heart died, too, that day. The grief killed my fucking parents. Slowly, but it did.”

“What happened to the guy?”

She picked up her glass and took a long sip of iced tea before meeting his gaze again. “What guy?”

“The guy who killed your sister?”

She slowly shrugged. “That’s the pisser of it. He disappeared. He was listed as the prime suspect. Still is to this day, far as I know. No one was ever arrested for it, no prime suspect but him. Fucker had marks on his hands that looked like he’d beaten her, claw marks on his face, too, from her fingernails. She died with DNA under her nails that matched DNA from a hairbrush the cops found at his apartment.”

“How did they know he had those marks on him? I thought you said he disappeared?”

She looked out the window, at the murky water of the Anclote River flowing just outside the restaurant. “He did.”

THE END

WWW.TYMBERDALTON.COM

Tymber Dalton lives in the Tampa Bay region of Florida with her husband (aka “The World’s Best Husband™”) and too many pets. Active in the BDSM lifestyle, the two-time EPIC winner is also the bestselling author of over eighty books, including
The Reluctant Dom
,
The Denim Dom
,
Cardinal’s Rule
, the Suncoast Society series, the Love Slave for Two series, the Triple Trouble series, the Coffeeshop Coven series, the Good Will Ghost Hunting series, the Drunk Monkeys series, and many more.

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