Page 59 of His Wife

“If he stayed here, I can guarantee this fucker ain’t that stupid to use his real name.”

“I know.” I sigh. “But at least it’s something. And all we can hope for is that somehow, somewhere, he left us a goddamn breadcrumb.”

Not having any leads, any idea who he is, that’s what’s been eating at me the most. It’s the fact that this fucker is outsmarting us on our own goddamn turf, our fucking city. Not knowing has me on a razor-sharp edge, and we’re no closer to finding him than we were since the first murder. As Nicoli said, he could walk past me on the street, and I wouldn’t know. He could be the goddamn waiter at the restaurant where Mira and Leandra are having their lunch right now, and no one would fucking know.

Fuck.

I pull out my phone and dial Leandra’s number, and I’m holding my breath the entire time the phone rings, finally exhaling when I hear her voice. “Alexius?”

“Are you still at the restaurant?” I ask, rubbing my fingers along my forehead.

“No. Um…Mira and I sort of changed our plans.”

I freeze. “You what?”

“Well, technically, we didn’t change them. We just took a little detour on our way home from the restaurant.”

“Where are you?” I bite out.

“I’ll talk to you when you get home tonight.”

“Leandra, tell me where you are.”

“I have to go. I love you.”

“Fuck!” I shout into the receiver, the engaged tone resonating in my ear.

“Where are they?” Nicoli asks.

I swipe my finger across my phone’s screen and click on the tracker. “I don’t know, but I’m about to find out.”

“We have a problem.” I glance up, and Maximo is standing by the door with an envelope in his hand. “This was left for you at reception.”

“By who?” I stomp up to him and grab the envelope.

“A man who goes by the name Micah.”

“Micah?” Nicoli repeats. “Do we know a Micah?”

My breath hitches in my chest, and my heart races as I rip open the envelope. The paper is rough against my fingertips as I pull it from the envelope and open it. It’s crinkled like someone had dug it out of a trash can. Somehow, I know it’s him even before I read the words written with blue ink in elegant calligraphy.

Brothers,

It is time to gather at our Father’s house. To rid your lives of evil for good. As the Word teaches us in Matthew 5, verse 30, ‘And if thy right hand causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body go into hell.’

I’ve gone to the house of our Father to cut the member from your lives. But do not dwell; she will repent and be forgiven. Only then will she be gifted eternal life.

“Leandra,” I whisper, adrenaline flooding my system, flashes of her face, her smile bombarding my mind, terror squeezing the air from my lungs. “He’s going after Leandra.”

“Where?” Maximo’s eyes are wild as he waits for me to sort through my thoughts, to get the goddamn words out.

“His father’s house,” I murmur before looking up at him. “Our father’s house.”

ChapterTwenty-Two

LEANDRA

“You are definitely pregnant.”

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