Page 21 of Bitten By Desire (Crooked Point #1)

Monday

Theo Gold was a lying ass. I stormed into Zoey’s house. She was sitting on the couch scrolling on her phone.

“He’s trying to poison me against Bennett. But he’s the poison.” I handed her my phone.

“I’m sorry, who are we talking about? And why do you have so many missed calls from Bennett?”

“Read the article I found.” I couldn’t handle Bennett right now. I could only deal with one lying jerk at a time.

Zoey looked back down at my phone. “Oh my God.” Her eyes grew round as she kept reading. “Someone disappeared at that university ten years ago?”

“That same fall that we ran into Callum Walsh. And not just that same fall. She was reported missing the day after that party we went to.”

“What the hell?”

“And she was never found again. Poof. Gone. Theo Gold is Callum Walsh. And he’s a freaking lying, murderous, womanizer!”

“I thought we agreed that Theo Gold wasn’t Callum Walsh?”

“No, you agreed. I agreed to nothing. And I’m going to prove it. He’s at a meeting right now and I’m going to sneak into his house and find the evidence I need for you to believe me.” I grabbed my phone back .

“What? Emma, you almost got arrested last time you tried the whole breaking and entering thing.”

“Almost is the key word there.” How many times did we need to go over this? “And that’s because I was poking around an abandoned creepy house. This time I’m going to be poking around a really nice house.”

“You do realize that’s way more suspicious?”

“But no crime ever happens in this town, remember? You leave your front door unlocked. Maybe he does too. And who’s going to report me if they can’t see me?” I pulled on a black hoodie.

“Girl, it’s the middle of the day.”

“It’s raining. It’s dark enough.”

She sighed and stood up. “Fine.” She grabbed an umbrella that was sitting next to the door. “Let’s do this.”

“You’re coming with me?”

“Yes, so that when Officer Davis shows up I can flirt our way out of whatever is about to happen.”

“Thank you.”

“I should have known you visiting would somehow end up with us being arrested.” She smiled at me. “I’ve missed you.”

I laughed. “I’ve missed you too.”

We walked out, ducking under her umbrella. I retraced my path from last night until we were standing outside Theo’s cold, modern home.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Zoey asked. “What if he actually is dangerous?”

“He is.”

“Then what the hell are we doing?”

I stared at the house. “You’re not going to really believe me until I find the proof. That he’s Callum Walsh. And that he’s…bad.” I wasn’t even sure if I truly believed he was bad. I was just confused. Could he really be a murderer? Was he somehow trying to pin the blame on Bennett?

“What if I just say I believe you?”

“Like you said you believed he was a vampire? Because you stopped believing me after like two minutes.”

Zoey stared at me. “His eyes are brown, Emma.”

“That’s why you’re going to go upstairs to look for colored contact lenses. And I’ll start in the basement. I want to see if he has those old portraits down there.”

“Please don’t. That’s where everyone dies in scary movies.”

“Come on,” I said, ignoring her. I walked up to the front door. But unlike Zoey, Theo wasn’t as trusting of the town. “It’s locked. See…he’s hiding something.” I took a step back and looked around for where he’d hide a key.

“He’s just new in town. That’s all.”

“Mhm.” I picked up a planter. And then another. “Check that rock,” I said and pointed to a suspiciously large rock on the other side of the path.

But Zoey didn’t respond.

“Zoey?” I turned around and she was gone. What the hell? “Zoey?!” Where had she gone? She’d literally been there three seconds ago. “Zoey?” I said a little quieter.

I thought about the article from ten years ago.

And the people that were reported missing after the Fall Festival.

And now Zoey?! This wasn’t a coincidence.

Theo Gold was….what? Kidnapping people? Killing them?

I pressed my lips together and touched the side of my neck.

Eating them? I thought about the scar on Titan’s face.

And the cut on Bennett’s lip. Something sh arp had done that. Something like…a vampire’s fangs?

Shit. Shit, shit, shit! “Zoey?!” I called again. I was not going to let her get eaten by a blood sucking vampire. “Zoey!” I turned in a circle.

“Stop yelling,” she hissed as she walked out the front door.

“What the hell, Zoey? You scared me half to death. How did you get inside?”

“One of the windows on the side of the house was unlocked. Now be quiet and get in here before someone sees us.” She waved me toward her.

I breathed a sigh of relief and hurried inside. The same cool feeling I had last night wrapped around me. Why was Theo’s house so cold? “Isn’t it suspicious all by itself that he has no decorations?”

“Like I said before, he’s new to town. Or I would have seen him around ages ago. He’s probably still settling.”

“Or he’s hiding all his creepy mansion stuff so no one will figure out his con.”

“What con?”

“The Callum Walsh con.”

“Changing your name isn’t a con.”

I glared at her. “It is when you’re a serial killer.” I looked up the staircase. “Okay, you go up there…”

“No way.” She grabbed my arm. “We’re sticking together.”

“Fine. Basement first.”

She groaned as I pulled her toward a closed door. But…it was an empty closet. We saw the downstairs powder room, another closet, the kitchen, and the pa ntry before I finally opened a door with a set of stairs. “Bingo.” I flicked on the lights.

“I really don’t like this,” Zoey said.

But she kept her hand on my arm as I started going down the stairs.

“Emma, I really, really don’t like this.”

“You already said that.” My phone started buzzing. I couldn’t deal with Bennett right now.

“Ah, you have a phone call. We should probably go back upstairs so you can answer…” Her voice trailed off when we reached the bottom step. “Huh.”

Damn it. The basement was completely empty.

Just a slab of pristine concrete. No doors leading to secret rooms filled with creepy old portraits.

Absolutely nothing. It looked like he’d never even stepped foot down here.

And that honestly didn’t seem very vampirey of him.

Didn’t vampires like cold damp places? Or was that just bats?

“Well, that was fun,” Zoey said. “Oh well. Nothing creepy or suspicious here. We should probably skedaddle.” She pulled me back up the stairs.

I had been so sure that I’d find the portraits. I actually hadn’t even considered not finding them…. “The attic!”

“No.”

“If the basement is empty, there has to be a creepy attic.”

Zoey groaned. “There’s nothing creepy about this house. It’s practically brand new.”

“At least let me look in his bathroom to see if he has brown colored contacts.” After I found proof that he was a contact-lens-wearing liar, I’d get her to go in the attic with me .

“Okay, but if they’re not there, do we get to leave?”

“Yes.”

She stared at me. “You promise?”

“Of course.” No. Absolutely not. If I couldn’t find proof of his fake brown eyes, I’d be even more likely to run up into the attic.

She sighed. “You’re a terrible liar. But fine, let’s go raid his bathroom. How long was his meeting for?”

“No idea.”

“Emma!”

“It’s fine, he seemed really busy.” He hadn’t. It had seemed like he’d gotten caught in a lie and made up a meeting to get away from me. But he clearly wasn’t home. So we were all good.

We hurried up the stairs. I grabbed the doorknob of the first door we came to and tried to turn it.

But it didn’t move. “This is suspicious all by itself. Who locks doors in their house?” I shook my head.

“Actually, his office was locked when I came here for my interview. He used a key to get in. Maybe he’s hiding something in his desk!

” I was about to run back downstairs, but Zoey stopped me.

“Weren’t you in his office last night?”

“Yeah but I didn’t get to snoop around. He didn’t let me out of his sight. You know…because he’s hiding something.”

“Or because he was busy hooking up with you on his desk.” She smiled at me.

I glared at her.

Zoey let go of my arm and tried the next closed door. It was locked too. “Let’s just focus and find his bedroom. Because I’m getting the hell out of here when we discover that all of this is in your head. ”

It wasn’t in my head.

The next door was locked too.

“Seriously, why are you so obsessed with Callum Walsh anyway?” Zoey asked. “Bennett is so hot.”

“Well, Bennett is hiding something too. His bank has seven vaults, Zoey. Seven. Isn’t that suspicious?”

Zoey laughed. “No. It’s a bank. Banks have vaults.”

“But seven? That seems obsessive. Plus he arrived late for lunch and looked super pissed at his friend Otto…”

“Oh, I like Otto. He’s funny. What did Otto do to piss Bennett off?”

I shook my head as we made our way down the hall. “I don’t know. Bennett wouldn’t tell me. But after I signed over all my life savings to Titan, Bennett had a cut on his lip. A really deep cut.”

“So he got in a fist fight with his friend? That doesn’t mean he’s hiding anything. Back to Titan though. He’s hot too, right?”

Yeah, but that was beside the point. “He tried to burn me with a golden pen.”

Zoey laughed.

“I’m serious.” I turned the doorknob of the last door and it opened.

All the shades were drawn and it was practically pitch black.

I hit the light switch. A huge four-poster bed was along one wall.

A dresser and TV along another. His closet doors were closed.

The bathroom door was open, but I couldn’t stop looking at his bed.

“What are those?” I pointed to something hanging from one of the posts.

Zoey lifted it up with her finger and raised her eyebrow at me. “Handcuffs. Okay, this is so sexy. When Officer Davis…” her voice trailed off .

“When Officer Davis what? Finish your sentence.”

“Nothing.” She dropped the handcuffs and they clanged against the wooden post.

“Are you sleeping with your client?”

She laughed. “No. That would be very unprofessional. Kind of like the things Theo Gold is going to do to you in his bed when he gets you in these handcuffs.”

“He’s a murderer.”

“Emma, look around. There are no chainsaws. Or axes. Or blood or body parts.”

“Good point, we should check the garage after we check the attic.”

She sighed. “That’s not at all what I just said.”

I tore my eyes away from Theo’s kinky bed and walked into his bathroom. It was as pristine and empty as the rest of his house. I stared into the shower, picturing Theo scrubbing soap down his abs.

Stop thinking about him naked!

I turned back to the vanity. The medicine cabinet was empty. Seriously, that just screamed psychopath to me.

The cabinet beneath the vanity was empty too. Did he even live in this house? I touched the towel that was hanging on the hook. It was dry.

“I don’t think he lives here,” I said. “There’s nothing in his bathroom. And seriously, no one’s bathroom is this clean.”

“Maybe he has a maid service or something,” Zoey said from the bedroom. “But his drawers are filled with clothes.”

Okay, so he does live here. But where were the contacts? I opened up one of the drawers in the vanity. And then the next. “I found it!” I called. I snapped a picture and then lifted up the contact lens holder and the travel sized saline solution.

Zoey walked in. “You found an empty contact lens container? And a travel size saline solution? Emma…what on earth does that prove? He probably tried contacts once and didn’t like them or something.”

“But his bathroom is virtually empty. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy that leaves things lying around that he doesn’t want.

I think he must have just gotten a sample of brown lenses or something.

” I looked in the trashcan, but it was empty.

What was with this guy? “He probably already threw out the container.”

“That is not enough proof. Not at all.”

“Well, he probably only needed a sample because he thought I was only here for a couple of weeks. Then I’d be gone and he could pretend to be Theo Gold with golden eyes.”

“That’s farfetched.”

“Well, did you find anything in his drawers?”

“He wears boxer briefs. Sexy, right? Back to the handcuff thing. Do you think he handcuffs women to his bed or does he like being handcuffed? I can honestly picture it both ways.”

Why were we talking about the handcuffs? “Zoey, did you look at anything besides his underwear?”

“Yeah. But there’s nothing unusual. Just normal guy stuff. Some sweat pants. Some T-shirts. Jeans. Nothing sinister at all.”

I sighed. She was right. That was all normal. And an empty contact lens case wasn’t proof of anything. I put them back in the drawer exactly as I’d found them and closed it. “Time to go in the attic then.”