Page 46 of Darkest Before Dawn (His Perfect Darkness #2)

F aded photographs, peeling from the moldy walls. Feathers crushing underfoot. BK’s scarred face, telling me, “It’s over,” before the flames engulf us all ? —

I wake disoriented, my instincts screaming at me. Something’s wrong, something’s wrong!

I’m in our dark bedroom. The pillow is soft under my cheek, but Rex’s side of the bed is empty. I grope the rumpled covers. They’re still warm, but Rex is gone.

I have a vague memory of him cutting the ropes and letting me down from the cross. It’s okay. You did so well. Just be with me. He must have cleaned me up and carried me to the bedroom. I was too deliciously limp to do anything but allow it.

A few hours later, I remember him rising and waking me. He kissed my head and told me to go back to sleep. I was still drunk from orgasms and pain.

I make a move to get up, and my muscles start screaming, too. My sex is raw, and my abdominal muscles ache. Forced orgasms hurt.

Muscles I didn’t know existed cry out. They’re overextended from me clenching so hard and so often for so long.

I push through the pain and rise. I want Rex. He should be here. It feels wrong that he’s not. He wouldn’t leave me unless it was important.

“Alfie,” I say. “Where’s Rex?”

I expect it to say the cave lab or his office, but it tells me, “En route to New Rome.”

“What?” There’s a fog in my head, and I’m fighting it to clear it and make sense of what Alfie is telling me.

“There was a report from the morgue. The body of Emily Rodriguez went missing. Mr. Roy went to investigate.”

Emily Rodriguez was the last Blackbird victim. How does a morgue misplace a body? Between this unsettling news and my dream, I’m officially freaked out.

“Call Rex.”

“Calling.”

While Alife’s trying to reach Rex, I scramble out of bed.

There’s a shock of pain, like jumping into cold water, but the more I move, the easier it gets.

I push through the stiffness and throw on some clothes.

I’m still chilly, so I find Rex’s bathrobe and drape it around me.

The weight grounds me into the room, allowing me to shake off the lingering ick of the dream.

The robe even smells like Rex. I press my face into the plush lapel and inhale.

“No answer,” Alfie reports, and my nerves start to jangle. I’m awake now.

“Is that typical?”

“No. Mr. Roy has orders to put your calls through no matter what. Re-dialing now.”

I can’t just sit here while Alfie rings Rex. “Is Hamish awake?”

Ten minutes later, I’m in Rex’s office, watching Hamish commandeer the console behind Rex’s desk to check on his whereabouts. The Scotsman looks a bit rumpled in a tartan dressing gown, but he’s wide awake.

“He didn’t want to wake you,” Hamish explains. “He thought he’d be back before dawn.”

This is exactly what I did when Ted called me on Burgess’s number. Now I’m the one left behind, and I hate it.

I’m chewing my lip. “I have a bad feeling.”

Hamish nods as he types. His focus on the computer screen reminds me of Mina. “I’ve contacted Rex’s network. Including his more. . . nocturnal acquaintances.”

“Fraternitas?”

“Yes.”

That reminds me. . . “Hamish, there was someone Rex told me about. The—” Do I just blurt ‘the assassin?’

“Killer-for-hire?” Hamish says for me.

“Um, yes.” I guess Hamish is used to conversations about hitmen.

“His name is Victor. I’ve left a message for him as well.”

“Rex says Victor was following Ted.”

“Ah, yes. Victor had a theory that Dennis used Ted as an errand boy. Ted might have delivered the cash payments to Burgess.”

“Ted definitely delivered the photo of my family to my desk,” I say, shuddering at the memory. “Or Burgess did it and pinned it on Ted. Either way, Ted was involved from the beginning.”

“Indeed.” Hamish opens his mouth to say more, but Alfie interrupts.

“Incoming message from KittyBang.”

“Mina,” I say, straightening in my chair. It’s a bit early in the morning for Mina to be awake.

Scratch that. She probably never went to sleep.

“Message as follows: Is Rex okay?”

“Why?” I ask out loud, knowing Alfie will convey my message to Mina. “What have you heard?”

Alfie puts Mina on speaker, and she says, “Turn on the news.”

Rex

Head, foggy. Pain pulses through me with every heartbeat.

Someone’s hot breath hits my cheek. I try to jerk away from their sour stench but can’t move.

I’m propped up on some sort of hospital bed with my limbs and torso tied down. I’m naked, and my head feels like I’ve been drugged.

“Not so big and strong now, are you?” my captor taunts.

My tongue is swollen, too big for my mouth. There’s no moisture so I fight to speak. “Who are you?”

“Question is. . . who are you? Rex Roy or something more?” He’s gloating. He’s learned my secret. “I bet Inara knows.”

At the sound of her name, I go wild. My muscles bunch, and I strain against the cords holding me.

“Oh, does that upset you? Me talking about that bitch?”

Red bursts in my eyelids. I’m fighting whatever knockout drug they used, clawing to the surface.

Then, something presses to my chest, and electricity crackles through my limbs. My lungs seize along with my muscles.

My captor’s voice comes from far away. “Settle down now, settle down.”

The pain ends, but I feel like I took a punch from a gorilla. While I fight to breathe, my captor says, “She ruined everything. He was obsessed with her, never looked at me.”

What is he talking about? Think, Rex, think. Your body is bound, but your mind is coming back online.

Just have to fight the fog. . .

“Maybe I’ll deliver you to her in pieces,” the man sniggers.

Who is he? The answer’s close, but then I’m falling back under. . .

Inara

The news shows a sky full of smoke against a backdrop of high rises. The remnants of a helicopter that exploded mid-flight litter the ground. Not only did it explode, but it showered the ground with feathers as if it were full of birds.

The silent TV screen shows black feathers raining down from the sky.

I’m supposed to panic.

I’m supposed to think that Rex was in that helicopter and that he’s dead.

But he’s not. I can feel it. When I close my eyes, I see a dark space. A room with no windows and photographs on the wall. Rex is there with the killer.

I need to trust my instincts to see this through. I need to figure this out in time to save him.

Think! What are my clues?

There was an explosion, like the ones caused by the bombs strapped to BK.

Feathers, like the birds left at my townhome and the trail of feathers in each warehouse.

“This is the Blackbird Killer. He’s the one who likes explosives.” My mind is working, putting things together. “He’s the protégé BK told me about. Both times, it was him rigging the warehouses to blow.”

“You’re sure?” Mina asks.

I close my eyes and feel the situation. “BK had help. Not just Burgess. Someone else. His student.” BK is dead, but there’s still a second killer out there.

I open my eyes to find Hamish peering at me, his eyes dark under his bushy brows.

“This is a message to me,” I say. “We have to find Rex.”

“We have contacts in the morgue,” Hamish says. “I’ve checked with them. There’s no sign of Rex.”

“He’s not there?” I ask.

“He got there around two a.m. but left soon after.”

Rex went to the morgue to track down the missing body. If he had a lead, he’d follow it. So where did he end up? What clues would he have found?

“I’ll keep digging,” Mina says, and I thank her.

Hamish is on the call with someone, barking orders.

I stare at the TV screen, letting my thoughts wander. I keep thinking about the warehouse where I faced BK. The first floor, where he tied up the family.

The family. . .

“Hamish,” I ask suddenly. “How is Ted’s family?”

He looks puzzled.

“The family that was tied up?” I explain. “The ones Victor got out.”

“The Walker family? They’re safe. They were admitted to New Rome Central Hospital and are staying in the private Roy wing there. Rex ordered them to be provided with bodyguards and access to excellent psychiatric care. There seem to be no lingering physical effects.”

“How were they drugged?”

“Some sort of gas.”

Gas is what Rex liked to use to incapacitate his victims.

Something else nags at me. “Did you say the Walker family?”

“Yes.”

“I thought Ted said it was his brother? Wouldn’t they have the same last name?”

Hamish frowns. “I could be wrong, but I don’t believe Ted is a relative at all.”

My insides quake. This is a lead, and I’m afraid of where it will take us. “We need to find out.”

We recontact Mina, who confirms it. “No relation between Ted Raider and the Walker family. No obvious contact between them, either.”

“But. . .” My thoughts are coming slowly. It feels like I’m moving through murky water, swimming toward the light. “Ted told me BK had taken his family. That’s why I snuck out of the hotel in the first place. Why else would he try to lure me out?”

Hamish visibly recoils.

“Holy Sith,” Mina breathes.

We’re all coming to the same conclusion. I feel it like a weight in my bones.

Ted lied to me. It wasn’t his family at risk. And he had no reason to lure me out unless. . .

He was working with the Bondage Killer the whole time.

I remember the details of being with BK on the roof. “On the roof, BK was having trouble breathing. He was older, not as mobile. He had to have help capturing the family and tying them up.”

“A partner,” Hamish says.

“A protégé,” I correct. “Someone he mentored.” The Blackbird murders were homework. “But then, yes, they partnered together. BK saw him as a sidekick, but now BK is gone.”

The weight in my body lifts. I break through the surface and breathe the sweet air.

I’ve got it.

I turn to Hamish. “I know where Rex is. I’m going to rescue him, and I’m going to need help.”