Page 104 of Torn In Two

Grayson’s door closed behind me. “Kara! Who is that?”

I spun around, my chest heaving, heart thumping too fast, and blood rushing in my ears. “The man who killed my sister.”

Grayson caught my arm. “Wait, what?”

I yanked it free, terrifying adrenaline filling me at the sight of Kyle. He’d been missing for weeks. Had he been here all along? Still in Saint View? The cops had said they couldn’t find him, and yet he was right there in front of me, watching the ocean like he didn’t have a care in the world.

While my sister lay dead in a morgue somewhere, the authorities still refusing to release her body because of the graphic nature of her death and their lack of investigative results.

Red hot anger rolled through me.

Alice had been with Kyle the night she’d died. He’d lied to us. Pretended to help us. Only to be the one to pull a cord around her neck and end her life. It was the only thing that made sense to me.

He was Josiah’s little errand boy, and it had me so murderously angry I couldn’t stop myself from screaming into the wind, cursing him for what he’d taken from me.

I didn’t care he was probably still in Saint View because he hadn’t finished the job.

He hadn’t killed me.

All I cared about was that he go down for what he’d done to Alice.

“You took her from me!” My voice was hoarse from the lump in my throat. “You lured her out of that house and ended a life that had barely begun!”

Kyle turned.

His eyes widened and he rifled through his pockets, pulling out his keys.

“No!” I screamed.

He couldn’t get away. I couldn’t let that happen. I needed answers. Needed to hear him admit what he’d done. Admit what he’d run away from.

I wasn’t going to be fast enough. The gap between us was too big. The distance too far. “No!”

Grayson sprinted past me, barreling across the parking lot at twice the speed I could have even hoped to run, his still-damp shirt open and flying out behind him. “Hey!” he bellowed, then called back to me, “Kara, stay with Hayley Jade!”

I stopped dead in my tracks, realizing he was right, backing up and putting myself between the monster in front of me and the daughter I’d do anything to protect.

Kyle noticed Grayson coming and dropped his keys. He bent to retrieve them, fumbling amongst the grass growing through the sand at the edge of the parking lot, but it was the seconds Grayson needed. When Kyle straightened there was barely a hundred yards between them.

Not long enough for Kyle to get to his car, and all three of us knew it.

He turned and fled down the beach, long legs pumping across the dunes.

Grayson was faster.

A scream of fear caught in my throat as Grayson threw himself at Kyle, crash tackling him to the sand. They rolled, the two of them grappling for the upper hand.

The thought of Grayson being hurt because of me turned my stomach. I knew what Kyle was capable of. He’d proved it that night when he’d lured my sister to a club and strangled her to death. He’d shown, despite his boyish face and age, he had the ability to be a cold, callous killer, leaving Alice’s body in a city alley like she was trash.

There was nothing I could do except stand there and watch them fight, terror gripping my throat when Kyle came up on top.

A second later, Grayson switched their positions, pinning him down.

The wind changed directions, as wild as the dark clouds threatening to dump water over the entire beach.

Their shouts filtered back amongst the crashes and thundering of the waves, garbled and unintelligible.

I didn’t start breathing again until Kyle let out a scream of pain, Grayson pushing his arm behind his back.

---