Page 115 of Rogue's Path

Please let her be asleep. I can only handle dead bodies with all of the staging found in a funeral home.

“Hello, Dylan.” The man steps out of the shadows.

I don’t know him. “You aren’t the man in the car.”

He laughs and drops the woman on the other metal bed. “Of course I’m not. That would be stupid. Your books taught me how to get away with murder. I soaked up every word you wrote for me.”

Ignore the freaky stuff. Look for clues. “You knew the man, though.”

“Only in the barest sense of the word. I paid a man on one of those odd-job sites to drive a rental car around. Hethought it was a joke, but did it anyway. I’m glad you appreciated my efforts.”

Appreciated isn’t the word I would use.

He turns to tie up the woman. “I’ve got everything we need to reenact our latest book. She’ll be the star.”

Wait.

No.

No.

No. He’s going to make me watch him kill her. No. What can I do? Even if I can’t escape, I need to buy time to come up with a plan. Or for Rogue to find me.

“I’ll have everything ready in a few minutes.”

“That’s so boring.”

“What?” He stops and turns to me, irritated that I challenged him.

This probably wasn’t a good idea, but it’s the only one I’ve got. “I thought you wanted to leave part of us for the world to remember. Repeating something that’s already written is boring. It would hardly be remembered. But if we wrote a book together, one that could be read for eternity, that would leave our mark forever.”

“A book?”

“Our book.”

“We should do that. I knew you loved me. I knew it the moment I saw you at the writer’s convention. I was there for a tech convention and saw you on the way to dinner. You were so beautiful, and your books were always my favorite. I’ve read each of them dozens of times. I’ll go get your laptop. We can start writing now.”

Time. I need time. “No. Not the laptop. I only edit or transcribe on the laptop. All my stories are handwritten in notebooks. We have to have the perfect notebooks to write ourstory on. Maybe something red to remind people of the roses you sent me.”

“I knew you were perfect. Our book is going to take the literary world by storm. I’ll be right back, and we can get started.” He dashes off.

Maybe he’ll forget to lock…Click. But at least he left the light on.

It’s time to escape.

High In The Sky

Rogue

Ugh. This is one nasty hangover.

Hangover!

I didn’t drink last night.

My eyes pop open.

Peaches!