Guilt for not disclosing the fact that I’ve been followed weighs heavily on my mind. What if something happens to Theo, and it’s discovered the owner of that damn sedan is to blame? What if it’s Jackie’s killer? I can’t imagine anyone else would feel a need to track my whereabouts for any other reason. Stefan, my ex-boyfriend, had no qualms about my move, and it’s been months since I last clocked in at the shelter in L.A. If someone from California had issues with me, they certainly would’ve done something about it while I was still living there.

  Theo slips inside the unlocked front door with a crowbar gripped in one hand. I don’t dare breathe as his silhouette creeps past the blinds covering the front picture window. The urgent thud of my heart shakes my entire body as I glance down at my phone, confirming he’s been inside for under a full minute.

  Depending on how long and how often my stalker has been tailing me, they likely know by now that I’ve met with Chief Nielsen and Diane. They would know I’ve become close to both Theo and Diane’s best friend from high school.

  What’s most disconcerting is the fact that they likely know my mom’s identity, and possibly even that of my aunt. Would they have followed us to California? Impossible, I decide. We flew on a private jet. But whoever’s keeping tabs on me likely knows by now that I’m the daughter of a famous celebrity, thanks to my mom’s unannounced visit the prior week.

  I erase the 3 numbers on my phone and navigate to my favorites, intending to warn my mom and aunt to stay alert. As soon as I’ve told them, I’ll run inside and warn Theo next.

  With the firm wrap of knuckles on the driver’s window, I release a blood-curdling scream and drop my phone between the seats. I frantically reach for my purse, intending to snag my mace when a bright light over my shoulder floods the interior of my car.

  “Sorry to scare you, miss,” a deep voice rumbles, slightly muffled through the glass. “Is this the residence of Sterling Pruitt?”

  I’m utterly paralyzed by fear.

  The voice sounds all too familiar.

  The light’s extinguished to reveal a man crouched outside my window.

  Time has not been kind to the once handsome man. Deep creases line his forehead, hinting of countless worries in the past. Large bags beneath his dark eyes tell the story of a man who’s spent the better part of his life hunting criminals.

  My stomach folds over itself.

  I’m staring into the cold, callous eyes of Theo’s father.

  23

  STERLING - 2018

  My short fingernails dig into the steering wheel as I glower back at the evil man who caused Theo endless pain. What is the bastard doing in my driveway? Why is he asking if this is where I live? How did I land on his radar?

  Unbridled fear and seething hatred for the man standing in my driveway prevent me from opening the door. Theo has my keys, so I’m also unable to crack the window.

  “What kind of car do you drive?” I ask through the glass. Although I doubt Theo’s father will confess he’s the one who has been stalking me, I hope the element of surprise will be on my side and his reaction will betray him if he’s guilty.

  “What?” he snaps, frowning and shaking his head.

  “Where…is…your…car?” I shout, carefully annunciating each word.

  Eyebrows drawn into a sharp V, he points across the street. “I rented the white Suburban parked over there.”

  I turn in my seat, squinting until I spot a shiny white SUV beneath one of the street lights. Why didn’t I see his headlights? How long was he parked there?

  “Someone broke into my house,” I tell him, raising my voice enough to penetrate the glass barrier between us. I can hardly think straight beyond the frantic drumming of my heart. What if he’s the one who broke into my house? He could be Jackie’s killer. “The police are on their way.”

  “I’m a retired detective,” he says like I appear naive enough to take him for his word and simply open the door. With a scraggly beard the same streaked gray as his short hair and deeply creased civilian clothing, he’s a far cry from the proud man in an impeccable suit who'd commanded respect in my dreams. “Are you Sterling Pruitt? I’m looking for my son, Theodore. His neighbor told me he often stays over here with his girlfriend.”

  “Dammit, Vicky,” I whine under my breath, fully aware Theo doesn’t speak to anyone else in his neighborhood. As I’m contemplating how to respond, Theo jogs toward us with an irate expression that could melt steel.

  “The hell you doing here?” he demands, squaring up directly in front of his father. Not only is Theo of a considerably larger size, he’s still gripping the crowbar in one hand. “How’d you know where to find me?”

  I swing open my car's door, experiencing a slight lick of satisfaction when the edge slams into the old man’s leg and shoves him aside. He should consider himself fortunate to have been struck with a door rather than the weapon I imagine his son would love to use on his skull. I’d be tempted to cheer Theo on if I weren’t fearful he’d end up in jail for murder.

  I step in between the two men and subtly remove the crowbar from Theo’s grip, holding it behind his back as I nudge my way underneath his tense arm.

  Theodore, Sr. throws me an irritated look before answering his son. “Your neighbor, Vicky, was kind enough to provide me with this address. Considering you haven’t called me in nearly ten years, I assumed the call I’d missed from you yesterday in regards to Jackie Tanner must’ve been extremely urgent.”

  “You assumed wrong,” Theo growls in return. He tips his head back at my house. “Did you break into her place?”

  His father scowls in a mannerism that reminds me too much of the first time I’d met his son. “Of course not.”

  “Either way, you’re not welcome here,” I tell him.

  “You’re not welcome at my place either,” Theo adds, pulling me a little closer to prove we’re united. “Go back to whatever hole you’ve been hiding out in since the government canned your ass.”

  His father was fired?

  Arms crossed over his chest, Theo’s father sizes me up with a stern look. “If you don’t mind, young lady, I’d prefer to speak with my son in private.”

  In one long stride, I close the distance between us and lift my chin. “Why, so you can knock him around the way you did when he was a vulnerable child?” With his father's shocked expression, I release a maniacal laugh and grasp the crowbar in both hands. Since I have to keep my cool when dealing with abusive clients while on the clock, it feels liberating. “You’ll have to get past me first.”

  Theo tugs me back beneath the shelter of his arm with a strangled chuckle ripping through his throat. “Ease up, Tyson,” he whispers against my ear. “Message delivered.”

  Anger visibly vibrates through his father as I’m stabbed by his steely gaze. “Who in the hell do you think you are, speaking to me that way? Do you have any idea what I could do to you?”

  Theo swings his fist, landing it in the center of the old man’s face. The sound of bone-on-bone cracks through the air, more satisfying than anything I’ve ever heard.

  Reeling backwards from the blow, his father winces loudly before attending to his nose. I slap both hands over my mouth to stifle my surprised laughter. I’m normally not a fan of violence, but that punch was a long time coming. Both Jackie and I had fantasized about doing it ourselves.

  Theo flexes his fist before giving his fingers a gentle shake. “Did you really think I would just stand back and let you threaten the woman I love?” He looks ready to go after his father a second time when he yells, “I’m no longer that scared little boy you used as a punching bag!”

  Twinned sirens breach the stillness of the neighborhood, sounding only a handful of blocks away. I toss the crowbar near my feet and bite down on my lips to stop myself from cheering. Not only did Theo finally fight the mean bastard back, he confessed that he loves me.

  Theo Davies loves me.

  Theo’s father stands tall and wipes his bloodied nose on the crook of his elbow. “I guess the police will get to decide who’s in the wrong in this situation.”

  “I called them from inside,” Theo tells him with a firm shake of his head. “Someone with a serious vendetta trashed Sterling’s home. Unless you want to spend the night answering their questions and explaining the reason you were forced to resign, I’d suggest you get the hell out of here.”

  The ecstatic high I’d experienced after Theo’s declaration of love pops with the force of a needle piercing a balloon. Someone trashed my house. We must be getting closer to the truth than any of us realize.

  Theo’s father darts in the direction of the white Suburban, calling over his shoulder, “If you decide you want to carry on a civilized conversation, you can find me at the Courtyard hotel. I’ll be there until Friday afternoon.”

  “Don’t hold your breath,” Theo snarls, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind me. As we watch his father drive off into the darkness in the opposite directions as the sirens, Theo’s lips press against my head. “After the cops leave, you’re coming back to my place where I have access to guns and ammo,” he mutters with his lips still nestled in my hair. “We’ve officially pissed someone off. They left a note saying to ‘keep your nose out of things you don’t understand’.”

  Although rattled by the note and annoyed that Theo’s carpentry skills may have gone to waste, I’d already suspected the invasion was directly related to our hunt for the killer.

  The approaching sirens are nearly deafening when I spin in his arms to face him. “It seems a little convenient your father happened to show up at this exact moment.”

  “We’ll tell the cops where they can find him…let them decide if he’s a suspect.”

  A little smile curls the edges of my lips. “You told him you love me.”

  “Can you blame me?” With a quiet laugh, he gazes into my eyes with a look so sexy that if I wasn’t better educated, I’d worry I was just impregnated. “Sweetheart, I don’t take anything lightly. I already had a feeling that’s the direction this thing with you was headed, but when you told my old man he’d have to go through you before he got to me, I swear my heart did a somersault.”

  As two squad cars pull up to the curb, Theo draws me in for a kiss far too passionate for the officers’ eyes. I don’t stop him, however, because I’m all at once fearful our time together could be cut short.

  I can’t stop wondering how far the invader will go to try to stop us.

  The next morning, Chief Nielsen asks me to stop by to see him at the public safety center before checking in for work. We agreed there’s no longer a need to sneak around now that he’s officially investigating the break-in. Mere minutes after the two squad cars pulled up to my house, he’d arrived in plain clothes. He spent the better part of two hours cataloging the damage to my house and taking notes as I filled him in on our interactions with Diane and Theo’s father, and the instances in which I’d been tailed.

  Crossing his arms, the chief settles behind a wide industrial desk. Countless awards and framed pictures of him shaking various dignitaries' hands line a bookcase over his shoulder that’s otherwise overflowing with binders. “I ran through the DMV records like you asked,” he informs me. “None of the men on your list have a navy blue sedan registered in their name. That doesn’t mean one of them hasn’t been driving a stolen car or borrowed something from a friend or family member, and I’m unable to check for any rental charges made to their accounts without a warrant.” His brows lift. “However, I was able to confirm both Darrel Heinrich and your Pastor Babel are still living in the area. It’s a little odd, because usually ministers move on to another perish after so many years.”

  Maybe this minister wanted to remain close to his victims’ remains. I crack my knuckles, a nervous habit I thought I’d kicked after college. “Have you had a chance to look into Diane’s Marlboro Man?”

  His eyes are notably shadowed from exhaustion when he nods. “A man by the name of Dicky Peterson fit within the perimeters of my search.”

  “You’ve been busy. Did you sleep at all after leaving my place?”

  Grunting, he shuffles a small stack of papers on his desk and tosses one out in front of me. “Dicky was released on parole for dealing coke three weeks before Jackie went missing—same drug of choice consumed by Jackie Tanner’s mom. His P.O. confirmed he dressed like a cowboy.”

  “Three weeks,” I repeat, scanning over the man’s mug shot and long list of drug-related convictions. “That means he would’ve been in prison when Becky and the other two girls went missing.”

  “Doesn’t mean he didn’t do something to Jackie like you said. He’s living up by Brainerd, so his P.O. told me he’d arrange to have someone pay him a visit, see if he can account for his whereabouts last night and if he can produce a solid alibi for the night Jackie went missing. Hard to say what he’ll come up with considering it was so long ago.”

  I shove the paper away as my frustration rises. “What about the note left inside my house? Did you find any fingerprints?”

  “The lab tech assured me he’d have it processed before noon. My guess is whoever’s trying to rattle your cage is too smart to leave any prints behind. Theo’s are probably the only ones we’ll find.” He leans forward with a thoughtful look. “Speaking of Theo, I got to thinking it over last night and I’m not convinced he shouldn’t be on your list of suspects.” His eyebrows lift. “Now would be a good time to let me know if you think your boyfriend could be the one behind all of this.”

  I respond with a humorless laugh. “You think Theo would’ve killed his best friend?”

  “He was the last one to see Jackie alive. He could be lying about how things went down between them that night.”

  “He’s not lying.”

  “Now, Sterling, I understand how you may have been easily charmed by an older man, but—”

  “He’s not lying!” I insist, bolting to my feet. I shake his accusation from my thoughts before it festers. “I know he’s telling the truth because I was there!”

  His shrewd eyes narrow. “We both know that’s not physically possible.”

  “Maybe not, but I’ve seen things that should also be impossible for me to know, like the fact that you had a mustache the day you arrested Becky Myers’s dad, and how you touched the hood of his truck to confirm it was still warm. I saw the terrified look in your eye when Becky’s dad spit on you.”

  He pauses as if to entertain the thought, then shakes his head. “Karrie Schaumberg was there. She could’ve told you all of this.”

  “But she didn’t have to. I’d already seen it in my dreams just like I witnessed that pastor offering Jackie a ride, her teaching giving her a hard time, and Diane saying she’d heard screams inside Heinrich’s shed.” I tug at fistfuls of my hair, wishing there was a faster way to make him understand. “I know how crazy it sounds, but I swear I’m not making any of this up. I’m telling you, Chief, one of those men is a monster hiding in plain sight.”

  There’s a sharp knock on the door before a young, bright-eyed female officer in uniform enters. “Sorry to interrupt, Chief, but we have a situation,” she tells him, breathless. The officer and I assess each other before she nods and smiles with recognition. “Hi, Sterling.”

  “Hi, Sierra,” I reply with a similar smile as I fondly recall how she’d prevented an angry father from coming after me the previous week. We’d grabbed lunch together after.

  “What do you need, Officer Hicks?” Chief Nielsen asks sharply, still eyeing me with skepticism.

  “There’s a frantic mom at the front desk, demanding to speak with you,” Sierra reports. “She claims her eldest daughter was supposed to be watching her younger siblings last night, but they didn’t realize until this morning that the twelve-year-old never came home from a friend’s house. The mom called the friend, friend says the daughter blew her off to meet someone at Minneopa park. They found the daughter’s bike this morning…abandoned on the gravel road leading up to the park’s front gate. Her overnight bag was left behind too.”

  Bile snakes up my throat as I exchange a knowing look with Chief Nielsen.

  The circumstances are too similar to ignore.

  Either there’s a copycat on the loose, or Jackie’s killer has struck again, and is taunting us.

  Taunting me.

  24

  STERLING - 2018

  As I race up the hill toward River Hills Mall, dodging slower cars as if they’re standing still, my phone buzzes with an Amber Alert. I don’t bothering looking, knowing the emergency alert is in regards to a possible abduction of the 12-year-old girl who’d gone missing at the park. I’d briefly considered calling Theo and asking him to meet me, but Chief Nielsen has planted an ugly seed of suspicion inside my head.

  What if Theo isn’t grieving over Jackie’s disappearance like I’ve always assumed? What if he’s feeling remorse for what he’s done? He could’ve doubled back to the gravel road that night after they’d argued. What if he snapped after Jackie rejected his kiss and channeled the resentment he’d been harboring for his father? Last night he’d unleashed an anger on the old man that seemed beyond his control.

  “No way,” I tell myself. Theo’s involvement wouldn’t justify the presence of the navy sedan, or explain how my house had been trashed while Theo was with me at the nursing home. Besides, I’ve been given more than a brief glimpse of Theo’s intentions, and I know his heart to be pure…so pure that I don’t want to get him involved in my plan in case one of my theories on the new girl’s disappearance is right. By reopening this case, we may have poked an angry bear—or literally reawakened a serial killer. I can’t stomach the thought of Theo coming to my rescue and becoming injured…or worse.