Page 101 of Hurt for Me

She steeled herself and forced her feet to move, to carry her to the great hall, where she hoped to hell she’d find Lily.

“Where you running off to, Echo?”

Rae’s heart stopped at hearing that familiar voice coming from behind her, her old name out of a phantom’s mouth. Shaking so much she could barely move, she slowly turned around, and every drop of blood seemed to drain from her body.

Clint stood up from a leather club chair in a shadowy corner of the library, his dark hair longer and pulled back into a low ponytail, the pure, evil joy in his eyes holding her hostage. She saw the skin on his right arm was red and shiny, like cherry taffy tossed on the ground and left to melt under the blistering sun.

He grinned. “You got here just in time. We’re about to have a lot of fun.”

CHAPTER 62

RAE

2024

Rae couldn’t process what was happening. There was no way Clint was alive and well, standing only feet from her. He was supposed to be dead, burned to a crisp fifteen years ago. This couldn’t be real, but the cold sweat running down her back said otherwise.

“How?” The word caught in her throat, choking her.

“Bet you feel like you’re seeing a ghost, huh?” Clint said with a sneer. “Here’s the thing, Echo. If you really want someone dead, you don’t shoot them in the shoulder. Might’ve helped if you tossed a little of that gasoline on me too. Lucky me, Bobby coughed himself awake in time to save my ass. And here we are. Reunited at last.”

Her mind raced, replaying what Bobby had told her and the news articles she’d read about the fire. There were two unidentified bodies in the house. Maria’s and ... “Who—who was the other person? The body the police found at the Santa Monica house.” The one Bobby made her believe was Clint.

The corner of Clint’s mouth quirked. “Can’t you guess?”

She searched her memories. The putrid, sweet smell in Clint’s bedroom as she had searched for his stash of money, the scent she thought was rotting food. Maria had only been dead for a day. But Beth ... “No.”

“That day we had to move her from the shed to the house before the neighbors could complain about the smell. Pearson didn’t want us burying her in the yard, so we had to improvise until we could get rid of her another way. But that was your fault, wasn’t it, Echo? And you let her little body burn when she could’ve been buried.”

Rae’s insides felt like a hundred eels slithering, making her want to double over. She had burned any evidence of what had truly happened to Beth and Maria, and there was nothing she could do to change that.

He stepped forward, and she instinctively moved back from him.

The old her wanted to shrink into her skin, to protect herself however she could. But she wasn’t that timid, broken girl anymore. He wouldn’t get into her head by blaming her for Beth’s death. Her hands balled into fists. “Where the fuck is my daughter?”

Clint flashed his shark teeth. “Lily. She’s a pretty thing, like you.”

Hearing Clint say Lily’s name, seeing his salacious smile as he called her a pretty thing, nearly paralyzed her again, but she forced herself to refocus. She had to get to her daughter.

“Where is she?” she repeated.

“You were always pretty, Echo. You might’ve been shy and dumb as hell, but you made up for it in looks.”

Rae saw slight movement behind where Clint stood. It was Dayton, his head badly bleeding as he looked unsteady on his feet. He had his gun in one hand, his other raised and pressing a finger to his lips. She pretended she didn’t see him and stared Clint down.

“It always did make you feel like a big man to put women down,” she said, her eyes keeping watch on Clint’s hands, which were twitching at his sides. “And yet here you are still playing lapdog to men more powerful than you’ll ever be. Just doing what you’re told, right? Like whenyou and Bobby met Thomas Highsmith at the Skirvin and convinced him to walk into a trap. That was you, wasn’t it?”

He smirked but not before his eyes widened, giving him away.

“So dumb I’m right, aren’t I?”

“I would love to kill you right now so I don’t have to listen to your stupid fucking mouth anymore, but that would ruin the surprise, and I’ve waited too long for this not to enjoy every second.”

“What surprise? That it took you and Bobby this long to find me?”

The humor left Clint’s face. “We always knew where you were, Echo. If it had been our call, you would’ve been hunted down a long time ago like the sad, pathetic animal you are. But then you and that detective started sniffing around where you didn’t belong, and all bets were off.”

She believed him. For over fifteen years, she couldn’t explain why she never felt safe, even when she was positive Clint and Bobby were dead, and this was why.

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