Page 52 of Prey

He nodded and rubbed a small red patch that looked inflamed on the line of his jaw. “Her bedroom was on that side of the house, looking out onto the front yard, so yeah, she had a good view. If she had happened to stand at the window at that very moment,”

“IF she happened to stand at the widow at that every moment,” I reiterated.

“Exactly,” he squirmed as his mind traveled to that place again, raising pain and unresolved anger. “But when I stood at the window trying to replay the scene…” he held his hand up at a 60-degree angle, “I don’t reckon she’d be able to see inside the van at that angle.”

“Didn’t the neighbors say they were wearing masks?” I argued, “So, how the fuck could she ID anyone?” I shook my head and exhaled. “How could she claim to ID me as the one who shot Lars?”

“I know,” he agreed. “But we’ve been over this a thousand times, Mikky, but we’re never going to discover the truth until we find Annika.”

This subject evoked a lot of tension, so I paused for a minute to allow the heat to settle. “How is it going with that? Are you Finding Annika?”

He groaned and rubbed that red mark on his jaw again. “The girl that I’m kinda seeing-”

“Stalking,” I cut in, and his nostrils flared as he shot me a warning look that cracked me up. “You think she might be Annika?”

“I don’t know yet,” he replied impatiently.

“Wouldn’t she recognize you?” I asked curiously.

That’s when he rubbed that red mark again. “No. I wear a mask.”

I snorted, imagining the scenario. “She goes out on a date with you in a mask?” I laughed. “Is that why you’ve got a red mark on your face?”

“Yeah, it’s a ski mask,” he said with a half smile. It makes my skin itch when I get hot.”

I leaned back in the chair, cracking up, and laced my fingers behind my head. “How did she…how does it work, though? Does she think you’re a fucking weirdo?”

“I pretend to have bad burns scars on my face,” he explained, but a dark cloud floated behind my eyes as I remembered the day I was arrested.

“Ah, some girls are captured by a sob story. And do you genuinely believe she might be Annika?” I pressed again to see if he’d give a different answer.

“Riley has no history that we can find,” he said, which I found interesting, so I urged him to keep talking. “She’s from a little town called Luton, population six hundred, but we can’t find any trace of her ever living there.”

“Different surname?” I suggested, knowing he would’ve thought of that.

“Maybe I have to go easy with her so I don’t scare her off,” he stated without realizing the irony. If the girl wasn’t scared off by a man wearing a mask every time they saw each other, then I doubted she’d get scared off by him asking for intimate details.

I had qualms about this Riley girl, but maybe he should invite her here so Ronan and I could meet her and make our minds up. “Invite her here for dinner,” I suggested.

“Are you fucking insane?” he hissed, and I cracked up laughing again. Gunner was so entertaining, reminding me of life at nineteen. “What if she was Annika, and she recognized you?”

“Well…problem solved,” I relaxed. “Isn’t that what we want? To find her. So we can chain her to the desk until she squeals.”

“She’s the same age as me, Mikky. Nineteen,” he stated firmly.

“Yeah, I know,” I sighed, conflicted with wanting to pit revenge against her and needing to understand why. “Someone screwed her over too, but that’s no excuse to betray us. She should’ve told your mom if something was bothering her or if police were pestering her or whoever wanted to set me up.”

“She should’ve told me,” his voice sounded strained, holding back the hurt as his hand pressed against his chest. “I was her best friend, you know, I was…”

“Gunner, it’s not your fault,” I asserted since he wore the burden of his father’s death. “She was a messed-up kid.”

“Yeah, I know, but…I was right there in the same house as her. I was only a few feet away from her. Why didn’t she come to me?” His eyes burned in suppressed rage as his hands clenched into fists, ready to strike someone.

“Why would your mom lie?” I threw the question out there while he was raw and pissed off.

“What do you mean?” he snarled hotly.

“She told police that she hadn’t left home that night, but she told Danny Lam that she did. So why would she lie?”

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