Page 79 of Sinister Legacy
Message failed to send.
I release a scream that rips from my vocal cords. I’m so fucking angry and frustrated and betrayed. Kit is dead, and I murdered my own stepdad in cold blood. The killer played me right from the start, and I fell right into his trap.
Again.
Blaring sirens draw nearer in the distance, their blue and red lights flooding the side of the house. They’re everywhere—a flurry of motion and loud voices barking orders. I’m led inside and then Liam is there too, playing the role of the doting boyfriend.
They find no trace of my stepdad’s mutilated body. His office is as if nothing happened. Even the camera up in the corner is gone. I should be relieved to know I’m important enough in the killer’s twisted games to keep me alive for another round, but relief is far from my mind when I’m stuck in an endless nightmare I can’t escape.
* * *
Sunlight pours in through the windscreen. The weather app on my phone confirms it’s barely above freezing temperatures, but streaks of sunshine warm my cheeks.
“Do you want me to come inside with you?” Liam’s voice drags me from my thoughts, and I quickly shake my head before reaching for the car door handle.
“It’s fine. I need to do this on my own.”
Liam watches me closely, unhappy with my unwillingness to let him help me, but I need to face this part of my life on my own. My father is a part of my past, but recently, his legacy has been bleeding into my presence.
Tainting me.
I smile weakly at Liam before stepping outside and pulling my denim jacket closed. With one last look at Liam behind the steering wheel, I walk up the path to the high-security prison.
After I’m buzzed inside and taken through security, they guide me to sit in front of a small booth, one of many. My tired, haunted reflection stares back at me in the glass in front of me.
My father looks exactly how I remember him, but he also doesn’t. He’s now ten years older with a receding hairline, a gaunt face, and sunken cheeks, and his once-dark beard is speckled with gray hairs.
I scan my eyes over his white jumpsuit as he lowers himself down onto the chair on the other side of the glass and removes the phone from the cradle. I try to remember what his voice sounded like. It’s been so long since I last heard him speak that I can’t remember it anymore.
Curling my fingers around the phone on the wall, I pick it up and press it to my ear.
“Hey, sweetheart.”
The organ in my chest ceases to beat as memories of my father reading me bedtime stories flood my mind. Suddenly, I remember it all—the slight rasp to his voice and his booming laughter.
“Hi, Dad.”
We stare at each other until he breaks the moment by scratching his temple. “What are you doing here, sweetheart?”
“We haven’t spoken for over ten years, and that’s the first thing you want to ask me?”
Releasing a soft breath that rushes down the phone line to caress my ear, his eyes soften with regret. “You wouldn’t be here after all this time if you didn’t feel trapped in a corner.”
I study his face, every crease and wrinkle, trying to see the monster in him that killed all those people, but all I see is Dad.
My dad…
My childhood hero until he became the villain.
“I needed to ask you something.”
He clears his throat, scratching his beard. “You can ask me anything.”
Hesitating, I look around for listening ears. “Your blood runs in my veins, and I… I did something… and… How can I stop myself from turning into you?”
Jimmy Hill, as the world knows him, blows out a deep sigh and looks around. He pins his blue eyes on me and leans in, his nose close to the glass. “You have to fight it, sweetheart.”
“But what if it’s already too late? What if I’m already like you.”
