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‘I already told Detective DeLuca what I know. If you have any more questions, you should talk to him.’

‘Sir…’

‘Am I in trouble?’ I asked, cutting him off. They exchanged a loaded look that did not sit well with me. ‘Am I under arrest?’

The tall officer snapped his notepad shut and stuffed it and the pen back inside their relegated pockets on his vest. Then, they both stood up and levelled me with a serious look that was intended to intimidate, but didn’t do much more than annoy me. Fuck, this wasn’t looking good. I didn’t care what happened to me, but these men were so obviously looking in the wrong place for their answers. I was under suspicion, but for what?

‘I think that’s all we need for now, Mr Emeric. We’ll be in touch.’

They reached the front door before the shorter one turned back to me, a glare fixed firmly in place. ‘And don’t leave town, Mr Emeric. It won’t look good for you.’

I didn’t release the breath I’d been holding until after they let themselves out. Mikey perched himself against the arm of my chair, his own gaze bearing the weight of this new development. We’d known it was a risk to inform the police about what wasgoing on, that it could somehow come back to us in a negative light. But I hadn’t actually expected it to go the way that it had.

Some mysterious person had already informed them that they had a serial killer in the midst, and they had provided a name. By involving myself, all I seemed to have accomplished was painting a target on my back. But who would come for me, and for what reason?

I just hoped this didn’t derail whatever investigation was already underway, because not only would Kali, Chance, and the other victims not receive the justice they deserved, but Blake’s next victim wouldn’t make it out alive.

This got a whole hell of a lot more complicated.

Chapter 11

Kali

Chance was my fucking hero. There was nothing else to say about it. He had pulled himself together after facing the most extreme torture anyone could have ever endured in record time. He wasn’t the same man he had been before – that much was a given – but he also wasn’t whimpering and cowering. He hadn’t debated whether he would fight for his place in this plane or dissipate into nothingness.

He had stayed.

He hadn’t left me.

My heart, or whatever was left of the cold, dead thing that was no longer beating inside my chest, clenched. If it were still beating, I knew it would have skipped a beat. Or a few. I had managed to successfully smother the love I felt for Chance since meeting Blake, but that flicker of a flame had never quite burnt out. Now, as he sent me a smile that revealed straight white teeth and crinkled the corners of his eyes that held so much love and affection in a single look, that tiny little flame roared back to life with so much force I feared it would burn me to a crisp.

‘Kali,’ he whispered my name like the sweetest of prayers.

‘How are you feeling?’ I asked, desperate to turn the attention away from me.

‘Better. I think.’

I made a noise of agreement in the back of my throat. ‘It gets easier with time.’

He tilted his head to the side, his eyes losing their focus as he turned his attention inwards. I could see him taking stock, calculating his own sense of being and the newness of what he had become. Perhaps he was even ahead of the game and would use this moment to more firmly redefine himself. A process which had taken me until recently to accomplish. In fact, I still hadn’t fully reached any sort of particular goal. If I were being honest with myself, I was still floundering.

What comes next?

That question hadn’t plagued me until now, but there it was, burrowing deep and refusing to leave. What happened after I got my revenge? Would I be satisfied? Would I find peace? I hadn’t thought that far ahead, and though it didn’t have any bearing on my decision to enact vengeance against the evil that had stolen so much from me, it did make me pause.

When one purpose ended, how would I find another? All I saw ahead of me was an endless expanse of nothing.

No, not nothing. I saw Chance.

It hit me, then with so much force it almost knocked me over. It was so obvious, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it until now. All my hopes and dreams coalesced into this one moment of clarity, and I knew I had to seize it before it slipped from my grasp. Chance would be my new purpose. I could resolve the mistakes of the past. He could be my future, the way he was always supposed to be before I’d let my doubts and insecurities get the better of me and I’d turned away from what was meant to be.

Because I knew, gazing upon his handsome face that I never believed I’d be lucky enough to see again, that we were always the end game. No matter what came next, we would face it together.

Or so I hoped. He could very well decide I wasn’t worth the hassle and move on without me. I would have deserved it, after all. I’d destroyed all that we could have been without ever giving us a chance to discover that for ourselves. I had been too much of a coward to come clean about my feelings, to confess my wants and desires, or to be the woman he deserved. Instead, I had chosen false promises and a mask, because it was easier to stomach than the truth.

That epiphany rocked me to my core. It changed everything. Yes, I’d been naïve and ignorant,desperateeven, when it came to Blake, but I couldn’t place all the blame on him. Well, Icould, but where would that have left me? I needed to acknowledge the part I’d played in all this. I had stuck my head in the sand and refused to see what was right in front of me, not because I was incapable, but because I hadn’t wanted to. I hadn’t wanted my life to be anything less than perfect, because that was what my parents had had. They had loved each other so much, had built a life together, raised a family, and had even died together. They were the true definition of soulmates, and I’d wanted that for myself.

But I’d been afraid of it as well. I’d been afraid to lose it, just like they had lost everything when they’d died. They had been stolen from the world far too soon and had left devastation in their wake. But by that point, it had already been too late for me. I had made my choice, and it wasn’t true love. It was refusing to take the risk.