Page 60 of Shiver

“I couldn’t.”

Her simply stated words tore at him. She still didn’t trust him.

“I didn’t want you to look at me like—like I wasdamaged.” The word caught on something in her throat and came out a hoarse whisper.

He squeezed her, holding her a little tighter. “You can trust me, Devra. I hope I’ve proven that to you.”

Something flashed in her eyes and he realized she still didn’t trust him, even after all he’d risked for her. Disappointment tightened his chest.

“I’m sorry. I’m just scared.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes watching the water tumble over the rocks. “Is this where Tommy was killed?”

She shook her head. “No, we were deeper in the forest, farther down that way.” She pointed upriver.

He nodded. “Is it hard for you to be here?”

“No. The river calms me, it always has. The rushing water soothes my nerves, makes me forget.”

He smiled, but couldn’t agree. The water’s roar was too loud, masking the sound of anything that might be coming.

“What was it like at the sanitarium?”

“Awful. They were told I’d killed Tommy when I was admitted. I tried to tell them differently, but they didn’t believe me, especially after they learned about the dreams.”

“Like the ones about Michelle and our intruder? You had dreams of people dying back then?”

“Not always, but sometimes. In any case, they were always violent and scary. I didn’t understand what they were and no one was able to help me. When I tried to verbalize my fears or talk about my dreams, they medicated me. They said I was delusional and dangerous. I learned to write them down. I had to get the visions out or I really would go insane. I—”

“Shh, you’re not insane. You never were.” Paranoid delusions. Schizophrenic. Withdrawn. Wasn’t that what her father had said? “You shouldn’t have kept all this from me. We need to be honest with each other if we’re going to beat this guy. We can’t keep secrets.”

“What could I have said? How could I have convinced you that I hadn’t killed your sister-in-law, but I’d dreamed of her death? That I’d once been arrested for murdering a boy even though I’d been innocent? No one believed me. They all thought I was crazy. And apparently, they still do,” she muttered. “Before I could have said psychic connection, you would have locked me up in your fine, upstanding New Orleans jail and have forgotten about me.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Oh, yes I do. One thing I know about you, Riley MacIntyre, is that you’ll do anything for your family. You’ll do anything to find Michelle’s killer. The fact that you’re here with me now risking everything you believe in proves that.”

“You’re right. I will do anything for my family. And right now, I consider you part of my family. I care for you, and I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

She looked up at him with a wide vulnerable gaze that reached inside and touched his heart.

“I won’t let anyone lock you up again, I promise.” And he meant it. He would do whatever it took to protect her. To do what her father should have done fifteen years ago, to stand up and fight for her right to have survived the brutality of a madman.

“You might not be able to stop them.”

“We’ll stop them together. We’ll discover the truth and we’ll find your devil.”

“I wish I could believe you. But the river’s talking to me, and it’s telling me this isn’t going to end well. Disaster’s coming, I can feel it with every breath I take, and if I close my eyes I can hear it whispered in the wind.”

The coldness in her gaze, the dead certainty shook him.

“Evil’s going to win,” she whispered. “It always does, and there isn’t anything you or I will be able to do about it.”

Chapter 23

Evil always wins.

It certainly had that day in the park when a mugger got too rough and killed his mother. Riley hadn’t been able to stop it; he hadn’t been able to save her.

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