Page 36 of Sour Layer

Chapter 21

“Well, what did she say?” Clark asked, coming up behind me.

I met his gaze in the window’s reflection. “I’m the only one that can stop you and your family from dying.”

He rested his hand on my arm and turned me to face him. “Tell me how, and I’ll do it. You don’t even need to be there.”

“I wish it were that simple,” I whispered just as his mother and Walker came into the room. I handed Walker back his phone.

“You good?” he asked with genuine concern in his eye.

I nodded, unable to speak in case my voice quivered. There was a reason my deadly ability was locked in the box and tucked away.

Clark kissed his mother goodbye and carried her bag into the SUV while Walker carried the pie. I watched from the window and gave a sad wave to Dorothy and Walker before he pulled away.

Clark walked back inside and appeared behind me. His arms circled my waist. “Tell me how I can help.”

I turned in his arms and met his gaze. “I need to lure him out away from town. Someplace private.”

“How do you expect to do that when we don’t even know where he’s hiding?”

“I don’t know.” I didn’t have the answers. None I thought would produce results. I knew one thing for sure. He was pissed he’d found me in the bomb shelter and we’d taken the girls.

“We found his hunting cabin. We think he’s been dressing like a woman. He might have multiple personalities.”

My brows dipped. I don’t think in all my life I’d ever encountered anyone with that diagnosis. Maybe the chemist was dead. Maybe the one doing this was someone altogether different.

“Okay,” I said, stepping out of his hold. “We don’t have much of a choice. We need to find the kitchen. All I know is it’s not the kitchen in the inn.”

Clark’s face lit up, and he smiled. “You’re brilliant.”

He pulled out his phone, dialed a number and spoke quickly before hanging up and calling Walker, telling him to bring his mother back.

“This is a safe zone. They’re safer here than where they were,” Clark finally answered. “I’ll get the addresses to Dexter’s house and where he was taking Milly and Charlotte. One of those places has to be where he’s watching. If you show up, then maybe, just maybe, it will set him off, and he’ll attack.”

“You’re right, but I should do this alone.”

Clark shook his head. “Not happening, but that gave me an even better idea.”

Clark took my hand and led me into his mother’s room. He pulled open her closet and stepped inside, shoving the hangers to the side until he pulled out a few of his mother’s clothes.

“And what are we going to do with that?” I asked.

“Not us. Mavis. I’ll have her dress like my mother and take you over to Dexter’s to find the kitchen.”

“You’d put that woman in harm’s way?” I gawked.

“She’s a better shot than me.” Clark chuckled as he grabbed a few more things out of the closet and walked out of the room. “Besides, you can touch her first to make sure she isn’t going to die. If you see her death, then we can come up with something different.”

“That’s risky. She could still get hurt even if she doesn’t die. No, I think I need to do this alone.”

Clark dropped his mother’s clothes onto the kitchen table. “That’s not happening.”

I rested my hand on his arm, pulling his gaze in my direction. I needed him to focus. “How I have to stop him is dangerous. Other people could get hurt in the fallout. I couldn’t live with myself if I hurt an innocent. Not again.”

I dropped my gaze to the table and tried to steel the oncoming rush of memories of that fateful day in the field. I hadn’t known that my emotions were tied to the weather. No one had ever told me that my teenage anger could kill. I should have been locked up, only no one believed me when I’d confessed. Instead, they suggested a mental facility.

“Again?” he asked, lifting my chin with his finger.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but my emotions can call upon the weather.”

“The lightning strike?” he asked.

My heart clenched at the memory, and I rubbed at the tightening ache in my chest. “Matt and I had been fighting that day, and as you can imagine, it was probably something petty. I don’t even remember what it was about.” I swallowed hard.

“You unintentionally killed him?” Clark asked.

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