Page 50 of Torn In Two

Another text came in.

Whip:

A dead one. Not sure if that needed to be spelled out or not.

Despite myself and the situation, I choked on a laugh and texted back.

Gray:

Figured as much. But this isn’t the first dead body you’ve seen. What makes this one special?

Whip:

Vic is mid-twenties. Curvy. Brunette.

My blood ran cold.

Gray:

Strangled?

Whip:

Wouldn’t be texting you if she’d just jumped off a bridge now, would I?

Kara.

Fucking hell.

I snatched up my personal phone from the coffee table and stabbed at the screen until the number I’d saved from Kara’s hospital records appeared.

I’d spent days procrastinating on calling her, trying to plan out every word in my head so I would sound charming and sweet and caring. Only to desperately shout her name the second the call connected. “Kara!”

There was a pause on the other end. “Who is this, please?”

I breathed a sigh of relief, recognizing her gentle voice instantly. I sank back down onto the couch.

“Josiah?” she whispered.

I blinked. “Oh, holy shit. No. Kara, I’m so sorry. It’s me. I mean. Not me. Grayson, me. Dr. Frederick Grayson. Do you remember me?”

I closed my eyes and slapped myself in the forehead for the babble of nonsense words that were nothing like what I’d planned in my head.

Kara laughed, her voice filled with relief. “Of course I remember you, Dr. Frederick Grayson. We spent half the week together, remember?”

Of course I remembered. I silently banged my skull into a cushion, wishing the floor would just swallow me up whole. There was no way I was going to be able to explain my ridiculous behavior, unless I told her the truth.

She probably needed to hear it anyway.

I flipped onto my back and stared at the ceiling, feeling awful for being glad it was some other curvy brunette who Whip had found dead and not the one on the other end of the phone line. “I’m sorry,” I offered. “I was just told of another murder, and for a second…”

I didn’t want to scare her by telling her I was so sure there was a serial killer out there who had her in his sights.

Kara’s laughter died away. “For a second you thought it was me.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “I’m really glad it’s not.”

She sighed heavily. “I am too. Though that poor woman…”

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