Page 135 of Fame And Secrets

“Where. Is. She?”

“She didn’t scream, you know,” he said, grinning like a psychopath. “It was a little disappointing. I waited for it…but nothing. Just—silence.”

Zane leveled his own gun at Dalton’s dick. “I’ve heard the jewels bleed pretty badly when they’re blown off. He asked you a fucking question, asshole.”

Dalton laughed again, ignoring the Glocks pointed at him. “Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep…”

“Shut up!” I shouted. “I’m sick of that shit. Where is Phoebe?”

“Lord’s Princess fell fast asleep, and dreamt she heard her screaming. But when she awoke, she found it a joke, for she was but still dreaming. Then up they took, alongside a brook, determined for to find her. They found her indeed, but it made their hearts bleed, for the door had been locked behind her. It happened one day, as Lord’s Princess did play, into a dark room hard by. There they espied the bitch on her side, dead from the heat and the dry.”

“You’re fucking insane.” He continued to laugh, lolling his head on his shoulders in time with the cadence of the rhyme. In that moment, I realized the man in front of me served as a vessel for evil. He’d been a child abuser, and now, a murderer. “You get off on that?” I screamed. “You get off on torturing women? What the fuck happened to you, man? You made her life hell. She screamed every night in her dreams because of you.” Red blinded my vision. “You ruined her.”

Quieting his incessant humming, he tapped his top lip with a dirty finger. “I do have one regret.”

I lowered the gun slightly. “Yeah?”

Dalton smiled a sick grin. “That I didn’t get the first taste.”

“Motherfucker!” I raised my gun to end him, but before I could pull the trigger, a blast deafened my ears. His forehead exploded, and with eyes wide open, he fell forward.

In shock, Zane and I turned to where Chloe stood, her hand outstretched and finger still bent on the trigger. As the lingering smoke cleared, a cold indifference dominated her face.

I took the gun gently from her hand. “Chloe?”

She stared at his lifeless body crumpled on the floor. “I was bad enough. I would’ve never let him touch my baby sister.”

The room was bathed in silence as Zane and I shared a look. Chloe’s powerful words held meaning neither of us could ever rationalize. Daniel Dalton had molested Chloe as a child. She endured it to protect her sister from the same fate.

With two men dead, and Sarah wailing in the other room, I pulled my phone from my pocket to dial 911 when Zane snatched it out of my hand.

“Are you insane?” Pocketing my phone, he pulled out his own and dialed.

“Who are you calling?”

“My friends. I never called them off the job…even after you told me to the second time. I had a feeling something like this would happen.” He spoke low into the phone for a few moments, then ended the call. He glanced from me to Chloe, then motioned to the body on the floor. “They were never here. No trace will ever be found. Jaxon Hough can look all he wants.”

“What about Sarah?”

“They’ll figure something out. The less we know, the better.”

As much as she’d tortured us, I still didn’t want to offer her the same. “I don’t want her dead, Zane.”

A long stare preceded another phone call. “Fine,” he ground out as he spoke low into his cell.

I raked my hands over my face, reality weighing hard. “He never told me where to find Phoebe.”

“That’s not true.” Chloe turned determined eyes on me.

“What do you mean?”

“That damn nursery rhyme. Weren’t you listening?”

“I tried not to.”

She shook her head. “No, he changed the words again. At first I thought he was rambling, then they started clicking. Lord’s Princess fell fast asleep, and dreamt she heard her screaming. I think he was telling us she didn’t die in that video, Julian.” She continued with her analysis. “Then up they took, alongside a brook, determined for to find her. A habitual caller said something about seeing my father at an apartment complex months ago, on the outskirts of Hollywood Hills. She didn’t put much stock in it, but what if it’s near a brook?” My heart sped up. “It happened one day, as Lord’s Princess did play, into a dark room hard by. There they espied the bitch on her side, dead from the heat and the dry.”

“What does that part mean?”

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