“So, I heard the news,” Missy said from behind the glass, carefully cradling the phone in her hands. “It appears one of your other girls killed herself. They’re charging you with manslaughter.”
He wondered which girl it was. He’d bet it was the older one. She’d been a hassle from the moment he grabbed her. He’d been aware of the risks, how brazen it was to keep all three girls. It was a little greedy; he knew that. And it wasn’t that he didn’t still love Lily. She was his baby doll after all, but he needed someone younger, a new challenge. He’d liked both girls, figured he’d train them both and then pick his favorite. Which is why this was so ridiculous. They’d barely even gotten to know each other. It wasn’t his fault that weak-minded twit had taken her own life.
“You’re going to rot in prison for the rest of your life,” Missy said, the hint of a smile on her face. She was enjoying this. Damn. He hadn’t seen this side of Missy before. Her vindictiveness was starting to turn him on.
“Mother and Daddy put the house on the market. The Realtor said it would sell in no time because people are so screwed up and would find living in a monster’s home a novelty. I thought about moving back to North Carolina with them, but people would never stop talking about how dumb I was, wondering how I could live with you, how I could go to bed with someone like you and not know what you are.”
Her voice dripped with hatred. Rick almost felt sorry for her.
“Tell me, Rick, did those other girls trap you too? Did that fourteen-year-old hitchhiker tell you that she loved you? Or that sixteen-year-old girl, the one who hung herself with a bedsheet, was she also madly in love with you?”
Really, what more could he say? Maybe Missy was dumb enough to buy his story about Lily, but even she was smart enough to see what kind of person he was. He shrugged and leaned back, giving her a dismissive wave.
“Lily was a wonderful companion, a brilliant mother, and a generous lover. The others demonstrated potential, as well. They were all better than you. All of them.” His words were hollow and revealed who he really was. He owed that to her. To show her that part of him. It was the truth, and she deserved the truth. He expected her to fall apart, to lose it. He was proud that she didn’t. Instead, she leaned in closer, cradling the phone to her ear.
“I hope you burn in hell, Rick.” She paused, then laughed. “What am I talking about? I know you’ll burn in hell for what you’ve done.”
She hung up the phone and walked out of his life. He was disappointed. Not because he lost her, but because he was pretty sure he’d lost the three-hundred-dollar-an-hour attorney her parents had been financing. Now he’d be stuck with some pathetic public defender. He really should have demanded that Lily sign something instead of trusting that bitch. He should have never put himself in this situation. But love blinded you; it made you do foolish things.
All this meant was that he needed a new plan. Over the past few days he’d focused his attentions on Angela, the pig-faced guard. He’d seen her watching him, sizing him up, wondering if everything she’d heard and read about him was true. She kept her distance but he’d been breaking the ice, starting casual conversations about meaningless things like the weather. He’d asked her why she’d intervened that first day when he’d been arrested. Why she stopped his beating.
Angela shrugged and said, “Because that’s not what we do.”
He appreciated her integrity but he hoped that it was tenuous. He needed to figure out an angle, find some way to get closer to her. He’d heard from the animals in this place that she was a single mom, which was good. They were easy targets: vulnerable and desperate for affection. He didn’t know why exactly, but he had a good feeling about her. He sensed something familiar in her, a darkness lurking under the surface. If he played his cards right, she might just be his ticket out of there. He was still trying to assess the situation properly. It wouldn’t be easy, but he was formulating a plan. That was his specialty: planning. One thing he was sure of was that once he escaped, he was going to pay a visit to Lily. She was in need of serious punishment for her transgressions. Don’t get too comfortable, he thought. I’m coming for you, Baby Doll.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
LILY
Please just leave me alone.”
That became Lily’s mantra. For twenty-two days she camped out in her bedroom, perfectly content to stay locked away, perfectly content to shut out Rick, the media, the other victims, or anything else that might come her way. At least that’s what she told her family. Truthfully, after her behavior at the hospital, the things she said, Lily was too ashamed to face anyone. She’d crafted a long e-mail apology to Wes on Eve’s laptop, telling him what he’d meant to her, telling him that she wanted him and Abby to be happy. In the end, she’d deleted the entire thing and simply wrote: I’m sorry. Lily.
She’d tried to talk about it with Abby, but her sister didn’t want to discuss it.