Page 2 of The Sleeping Girls

ONE

RED CLAY MOUNTAIN

Three weeks later

Some men were not meant to be fathers. Some women were not meant to be mothers.

And some children were the victims of this.

The blood that ran through their veins was troubled. As was his.

The night sounds brought the demons. The whine of the wind. Leaves crackling. Storm raging.

Just like it had that night fifteen years ago. He’d relived the memory every day since. Now it played through his mind in vivid clarity.

The window was open. A storm striking the mountains just as a storm raged inside him. She’d turned fifteen today. The age where she was somewhere between a woman and a child. Wanting to watch R-rated movies. Yet still sleeping with her teddy bear at night.

She was the picture of innocence.

Yet now that innocence was gone.

Her angelic face stared up at him with trusting eyes. He loved her so much. Couldn’t get her out of his mind. Was consumed by his feelings.

But she had to die.

Shock glazed her eyes as he approached her bed. Then fear. She looked as if she was going to scream.

He didn’t give her time. He snagged the heart-shaped pillow from her bed and lurched toward her. In one sudden movement, he pressed the pillow over her face, straddled her slender body and pinned her to the bed.

She kicked and clawed at him. Cried out for help. But he pressed harder on the pillow, drowning out the sound. Her fingernails dug into his arms. A muffled sob escaped her. Then a strangled sound.

Perspiration beaded on his upper lip. He pressed more firmly on the pillow and snuffled out her life. Her body jerked and spasmed. Seconds ticked by. A minute. Two. He lost count.

Another minute that felt like an eternity, then she gasped. Took her final breath. Her body went still.

Tonight, as he watched the young girls through the bedroom window, his hunger mounted. The three of them were what they called besties. They shared secrets. Dreams.

Dreams they would never get to fulfill.

Dreams that would end just as Anna Marie’s had.

A car pulled up, lights blaring, and he ducked into the shadows of the woods. Dammit, her parents were home. He couldn’t take her tonight.

But soon he would. Until then, he’d keep watching and waiting. And when the perfect moment came, he’d kiss her goodbye.

TWO

BLUFF COUNTY HOSPITAL

Cord was gone.

Detective Ellie Reeves searched blindly in the dark, shouting his name. One minute, she was running through the woods, tripping over brush and sticks, the next she was trapped in a cold basement with him. Gas was coming through the vent.

She clawed at the door to escape. Tried to yell out for help.

Monsters lurked all around her. Beady eyes bore into her. The wind howled like a mad animal.

She and Cord… He’d come to rescue her. But he was hurt. Unconscious.

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