Page 39 of By the Time You Read This

Then he put his beer bottle down into the sand and followed.

“We have to do something,” Delaney said, mostly to herself.

Gabbi blew a ring of smoke into the air, her head tipped back, her face bathed in starlight.

“You think I haven’t tried?”

Chapter Thirteen

Raisa

Day One

On the way back from Gabriela’s, Kilkenny pulled into a diner.

“The letters can wait twenty minutes for us to actually eat,” was all he said, before jumping out.

Now Raisa stared out the window at the quiet port. The tiny town was so idyllic, yet so much darkness lurked beneath.

“I know there’s a crazy murderer running loose out there, and yet I feel safer knowing Isabel’s dead,” Raisa murmured. “Is that odd?”

“Isabel’s greatest trick was that she was able to make herself seem all-knowing, all-powerful, even when she wasn’t,” Kilkenny said. “Sending you that note ...”

“It makes me feel like she can hurt me even beyond the grave,” Raisa finished the thought, and Kilkenny nodded. “Because she recruited a protégé.”

“Hmmm.”

Raisa slid him a look. “Sounds like you don’t agree with Gabriela’s theory.”

“Isabel wasn’t the type to want her legacy carried on by anyone else,” Kilkenny said. “My bet is if itisa protégé, Isabel wanted to use them for a different reason than just teaching them how to kill.”

“Like maybe to send me a letter,” Raisa said. “And take more drastic actions if I’d ignored it?”

Kilkenny lifted one shoulder. “If this person viciously stabbed Emily Logan to death, then ... yeah. I think we can safely assume they’re willing to go to extremes to follow Isabel’s orders. And that one of those orders might be to take you out if you don’t play Isabel’s game.”

“Well, isn’t that a delightful thought,” Raisa said. It worried her and it didn’t. Logically, she knew Isabel’s reach could extend beyond the grave; emotionally, it was hard to be too scared of a ghost.

They didn’t speak as they finished off their meal and then headed back to the hotel.

When they got to their floor, Kilkenny paused outside her door.

“Do you need company?” he asked. There was no hint in his voice that he could tell she was spooked, but she was sure the offer was at least partly because of that.

Raisa truly thought about it, which was new. At any time in her past, she would have immediately declined the offer, preferring silence over any other choice.

“I want to study the letters,” she said, so that she made it clear it wasn’t his presence she didn’t want.

He lifted his hand, and she wasn’t sure whether he was going to give her a gentle nudge on the shoulder or wrap her up in a hug. Instead of either of those, he palmed the top of her head for one brief moment. Human touch, contact with someone who cared.

It made a difference.

She pressed into it, and for a moment time stood still.

He pulled back with a soft, fond smile. “Good night.”

“We’ll attack it in the morning,” she said.

The moment she got inside, she stepped out of her shoes and changed into her comfy clothes, though they were no longer clean.

---