Page 54 of The Perfect Deception

As Dallas Henry said goodbye to Hannah and left the café, he tried to project more calm than he felt.

He thought he’d covered pretty well.She seemed to buy it.And his pivot to camping had taken her mind off his interaction with Bryan.Thank goodness, because Bryan Ballantine wasn’tjusta guy from high school.

Bryan was also part of the nascent men’s rights movement that Dallas had immersed himself in soon after his father’s suicide.Most of his interactions with like-minded guys had been on the deepest part of the dark web, where he could hide his identity.But he had shared his thoughts on the way women emotionally castrated young men with a few people in real life.Bryan had been one of them.

Once Dallas realized that he’d have to hide all his connections to the movement if he was going to effectively embed himself in this man-hating, female-centric society, he knew he had to cut ties with people like Bryan.Seeing the guy now could put all his plans at risk.What if Bryan ran into Hannah elsewhere and Dallas wasn’t around?What if Hannah didn’t buy his story and tracked Bryan down on her own?She was good at that sort of thing.

That would destroy all his hard work and put Hannah on her guard.Neither was acceptable.As he returned to his car, he wondered if he had no choice but to eliminate Bryan from the equation entirely.If he ultimately had to, he’d need to do a better job than he had with Finn Anderton.That guy might be a vegetable, slowly rotting to death and unlikely to hurt Dallas.But Anderton was still alive because he hadn’t finished the job.He wouldn’t make that mistake twice.

Nor would he make a mistake with Hannah.He held out real hope that she’d say yes to the camping trip.She looked intrigued.If she agreed, then he could take her to one of the isolated spots he’d scouted out over the last few months.

Once he got her there alone, there was no limit to the amount of damage he could do to her

CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

Ash Pierce didn’t like it when she got frustrated.

It prevented her from thinking clearly and that's what she needed to be doing right now.She could feel her desire for retribution getting stronger with each passing day and knew that soon, it would be too powerful to ignore.But for now, at least, she could control it.

She reminded herself that if she stayed patient, she’d eventually find Kat Gentry.It had been slow going so far.But in the six weeks since she’d returned to America, she had uncovered some crucial information.

Apparently, Kat was no longer living at her old apartment or using the same office.Her detective agency didn't exist under its previous name.Ash was dubious that the woman had quit that work entirely.But she'd clearly changed the title to something that didn't include her name.

More than that, there was no company, apartment or house in L.A.County that currently had Katherine Gentry’s name associated with it.She—perhaps with the help of her wealthy, influential friend, Jessie Hunt—had done a good job of hiding all personal details of her business and residence.

Under normal circumstances, Ash would have simply gone to the home where she knew Kat often went: Jessie Hunt’s.But that wasn’t an option right now.First of all, every cop in the greater Los Angeles area was on the lookout for her.Even with well-designed disguises, it was too big a risk.Law enforcement would probably be using facial recognition to search for her on the thousands of traffic and security cameras in the city.

Plus, she had no doubt that there were regular patrols circling Hunt’s neighborhood.And that didn’t account for the personal security that the profiler had surely installed in her home.Hunt had been stalked by multiple serial killers.She would know how to protect where she lived.Not to mention, she lived with a cop.Pursuing her or Hannah Dorsey right now was a no-go and going near their home was near-suicide.

That was fine, because it was Kat Gentry that Ash really wanted to get first.She was the one who had made this personal.And Ash was more than willing to return the favor.But hunting her down was a slog.

For a month and a half now, she’d bounced among hostels, cheap motels, and even campgrounds far afield from L.A.She’d spent short stints in San Diego, Phoenix, Joshua Tree, Las Vegas, and now Palm Springs.She never got too close, but was always within half a day’s drive of Los Angeles.

At least here in Palm Springs, she had a new assignment.A wealthy, older oil magnate had retired here with his much younger wife.But he'd recently learned that the missus had taken up with the golf pro who gave her lessons at the club.The magnate wanted them both tortured and killed, preferably together.He wanted a video of it, and he wanted to have a foolproof alibi.

Ash was happy to oblige.That’s why she currently had both the wife and the golf pro drugged and tied up in her trunk as she drove on a mostly deserted road to the abandoned warehouse where she planned to do the messy work.

This assignment came at a fortuitous time.She could use an infusion of cash.And more importantly, doing to these people what she eventually intended to do to Kat Gentry and the others should satisfy her jones for bloodlust for a while.

But only for a while

EPILOGUE

Lenore Campos was startled awake by an unexpected sound.

Looking over at the clock on the wall, she saw that it was 1:13 A.M.Maybe it was a squirrel scurrying around outside.Then she heard it again.It was coming from inside the room.

She sat upright in the lounge chair next to Finn Anderton’s hospital-style bed, unsure if she was imagining things.But she wasn’t.The young man’s eyes were open and he was stirring slightly in the bed.

Lenore popped up and moved toward him.“Finn, can you hear me?My name is Lenore.I’m a nurse taking care of you.Don’t try to move.You’ve been badly injured.”

There didn’t seem to be recognition in his wild, blurry eyes.She wasn’t sure if he’d understood or even heard her.And then, as quickly as he’d awoken, it was gone.His eyes closed and he slumped back down.

She looked at the patient monitor.He was still alive.His vitals were okay but the moment of consciousness was gone.Still, this was momentous.She snapped into the action she was instructed to take under these circumstances.

“Rufus!”she called out to the private security officer in the next room.

He appeared in the doorway in mere seconds, looking fully alert.“What’s going on?”

“Finn woke up briefly.His eyes were open for a few seconds and he tried to move.Then he slipped back into unconsciousness.The whole thing couldn’t have lasted more than fifteen seconds.What do we do?”

“You stay here with him,” Rufus said calmly.“Let me know if anything changes.I have to make a phone call.”

Lenore nodded and stood by Finn, checking to make sure the monitor still showed him doing okay.Rufus stepped into the hall for his call but she could still hear him clearly in the small cottage house.

“Marshal Murphy, this is Rufus Harrington with Security Analysis Services, the firm that Jessie Hunt hired to protect Finn Anderton.Sorry to call so late.I’m on duty at the safe house right now.The nurse said he just woke up briefly before losing consciousness again.I was told that if that happened, our first call should be to you.”

Lenore couldn’t hear the response of the Marshal on the other end of the line.But whatever he said, Rufus waited several seconds before answering.

“Neither of us will leave Anderton’s room until your people get here.One question though: do you want to call Jessie Hunt or should I?”