Her eyes became wide. “You… you mean to go back in there?”
“I have no choice.” He turned and strode away from her and back into hell.
*
As an alarm sounded on his computer, a sick smile spread across Jeremy’s face. They’d found his place in New York. Picking up the phone, he made a phone call then sat back to watch the chaos unfold.
*
Taking a moment to get herself under control she could do nothing but stare blindly out the window. If she didn’t get it under control, she would break everything she could get her hands on. Shaking her head to clear it, she turned around to face the room to decide where to start.
There wasn’t much to search out here, so it didn’t take her long to find the letter on the kitchen counter with Anthony’s name on it. She chewed on her lower lip wondering if she should interrupt him or just let him finish. They really needed all the information they could get. With the letter in her hands her fingers itched to open it, she stood in the middle of living room staring at the closed bedroom door willing it to open. When it finally did, the air whooshed out of her lungs.
It looked like his skin was stretched tight across his face and his eyes held a haunted look she wasn’t sure would ever go away. Walking to him she held her arms open and he collapsed into them. She could feel the shivers run through his body.
“That poor woman, she didn’t deserve that.” His voice was muffled as his face was buried in her neck.
“No, she didn’t. None of them did. That’s why we’ve got to catch that bastard. Did you find anything?”
“Nothing, everything was cleaned out. There was nothing of his in there. What did you find?”
She pulled away from him and handed him the letter. She watched as with shaking fingers he opened it. Moving around to stand behind him she raised up on her toes to read over his shoulder.
My dearest Anthony,
Welcome to my home. Feel free to kick back and stay awhile.
I hope you enjoy my little gift. I must admit, I wasn’t planning on giving it to you so soon, however, situations change, and well, quite frankly I couldn’t stand the bitch any longer. Not up to my usual standards either, but what can I say, I let my emotions get ahold of me. Although it was quite a bit of fun to rip open her stomach and allow her guts to run through my fingers. It caused me a lot of glee to be able to see how far I could stretch them before using a fork to pin them to different parts of her body.
Since I know everything about you, I’d thought I’d give you a little something of me. Hear this, know this, I will never give up until everything you love has been taken from you. Until you are left in a puddle of grief on the side of the road wallowing in your own self-pity. Even then, that won’t be enough. I want you to suffer through a millennia of pain with no end in sight.
Good day, I’ll be watching,
Jeremy
P.S. I’ve called the police, they should be there any moment.
She could feel the heat radiating off of him and started to back away. He crumpled the paper in his hand and punched the wall with the other. Before he could scream in rage, she went up and covered his mouth. He looked at her with so much hatred in his eyes, it took everything she had not to run. “I know, but you’ve got to get ahold of yourself. We have to get out of here.”
They both froze as they heard sirens in the distance. He grabbed her hand and they ran out the door. He stopped briefly to call for the elevator. As soon as it opened, he pushed all the buttons. They ran towards the stairs and flew down them. From inside the stairwell, they couldn’t hear if the sirens were getting closer or not. They might not even be coming here but they couldn’t take the chance.
Bursting out into the afternoon sun, they looked up and down the alley. Not seeing anything, they walked towards the street to get lost in the crowd never turning around when they heard the cars screech to a halt in front of the building they just came out of.
*
Once the door was closed and they were safely in their hotel room Evie pulled the wig off of her head and dropped it on the floor. She crossed to a chair and sat heavily in it. Her hands were still shaking and she couldn’t get warm.
Looking up at him with huge eyes she could feel the tears start to build. Saying nothing he walked over to the bed and pulled the covers back. He walked back to the bathroom and turned the light on and the one by the bed off. When he took his shoes off, she still didn’t know what he was doing. He walked over and picked her up then carried her to the bed.
“What are you doing?”
“Shhh… come on, lay down. We’ve both had a lot to deal with.”
Not having the energy to fight with him she let him tuck her in. She didn’t even protest when he climbed in behind her and pulled her close. Letting his heat seep into her, she closed her eyes and fell asleep feeling safe in his arms for the first time in hours.