I heard the judge talking about facilities and lengths of time, but I didn’t stay to hear it all.
I followed Dorcas out until we were standing in the afternoon sun.
“He won’t stay in there forever,” she said stiffly.
“I know,” I said.
And I did.
“He’ll find a way out, and I’ll just have to deal with this nightmare all over again.” She looked to something behind my back, and I turned to see what she saw.
It was just a man leaning against his car, smoking.
But the way Dorcas was looking at him…
“Dorcas…” I said.
“Don’t call me that,” she whispered pleadingly. “Don’t ever call me that.”
My brows rose. “What would you like me to call you then?”
She never once looked away from the man across the street when she said, “I don’t care. Piece of shit, trailer trash, ugly bitch. Anything but Dorcas.”
Then she turned to leave, and when she looked back, it was definitely not at me.
But at that man again.
I waited until she was in her car, and about to leave before I turned back and found the man that she’d been staring at.
He was still staring at her. And since my ride wasn’t here…
I thought… why not?
I walked across the parking lot to him, and the bad thing was, he was so focused on her leaving that he didn’t notice me coming until I was right on top of him.
He startled, looked at me, and blinked.
“Why are you staring at her like that?” I asked.
The man opened and closed his mouth, looking scared.
“Um…”
I moved until I was in his face.
“Why are you staring at her like that?” I urged, poking him in the sternum with a finger, pressing hard, so I know it had to hurt.
“Umm,” he squeaked when I pressed harder.
My finger hurt, so I knew his chest had to hurt worse.
“I…” He swallowed hard. “I was hired to follow her.”
That pissed me off. Which was why I punched him across the jaw seconds later.
“By who?” I asked.
But I didn’t need to know who.
I remembered Amon’s words.
You’ll pay for going against family.
I’d been in a lot of pain at the time.
My mind had been foggy, and I damn sure had other things to think about than what those words meant.
But now, seeing that man that was ordered to follow her… I remembered the words. And what they might mean.
“From now on,” I said carefully. “You need to forget she even exists.”
He looked ready to argue, but I said, “Seriously. The man just went away for insanity. He killed multiple people. When I say that he’s not of sound mind, I really fuckin’ mean it. Save yourself the trouble and keep away from her.”
He narrowed his eyes, then sighed. “It wasn’t that good of pay anyway.”
Then he left without looking back.
CHAPTER 5
When you say ‘spiritual,’ you need to be more specific. Demons are spirits, too.
-Bram to Price
BRAM
“What do you mean, the trial didn’t finish?” I asked, unaware that things had changed after I’d left.
Or, more importantly, walked home. Because Mimi left me there to find my own way back. Yet again, that was something that I was trying not to think too far into or about, because if I did, I would admit that something had changed in Mimi the day that I’d gone missing. And the subsequent days that it’d taken me to be found, and then recover.
“They think the judge had a heart attack or something,” Shine explained. “Weren’t you there?”
Goddammit. The luck that this psycho motherfucker had…
I shook my head and groaned. “I was… but I left when I heard the verdict.”
“Well, nothing’s finished yet. The judge didn’t say where and what was going to happen. They’re reconvening next week if the judge is better. I’m not sure what that means if he’s not.”
My head spun.
Goddamn, did that man just have really goddamn good luck or what?
“So Amon is free for a few more nights,” I surmised.
“Yes,” Shine snorted. “I’ll bet he’s smug as a bug in a rug.”
“I think that euphemism is supposed to be ‘snug’ not smug.” I chuckled.
But the humor in the saying didn’t stay with me for long.
“Goddammit,” I grumbled. “That man should’ve been given the electric chair.”
“They stopped using the electric chair years ago, bro,” Shine said, sounding just as pissed as me. “You okay?”
Was I okay?
No, the fuck, I wasn’t.
In fact, I was pissed as hell.
“No,” I admitted. “I’m not.”
And I wasn’t. I was so far from okay that it was honestly quite scary to think about.
My life, or what I’d thought was my life, was in shambles. Mimi—though we’d fought before—had never shown me this new side of her. And I wasn’t sure that I liked it.
Not to mention, everyone looked at me differently now. As if I would break at any second.
“Keep your head on straight,” he urged.
Then he was gone.
And, since Mimi wasn’t at my place because she was still mad at me, I found myself getting the keys to the bike and heading out the door.
I never meant to go where I went.
Honestly, it was the last damn place that I should’ve gone.
Yet… I went anyway.
And wouldn’t you know. When I looked across the street… there he was, sitting in his special room, looking out at the world as if he didn’t have a care in his pretty little face.
They’d deemed him a flight risk.
So, since he was out on bail, they’d so nicely provided him with a security detail.
That security detail was drinking coffee and eating, meaning they weren’t paying attention at all to the man that was watching him.
He watched them for a while before disappearing out of his window.
Then there he was, on the side of the house, grinning that soulless grin.
He turned and started walking, and that’s when I saw a girl ahead.
I cursed and started following, keeping far enough back that I didn’t get made.
“Why are you running?” he called ahead.
The girl that’d been there before was now gone. The last I saw of her was her blonde hair as it streaked away through the woods.
I followed him all through town, winding through alleys, and farther into another copse of trees that were on the opposite side of town from where we’d been previously—not that it was hard to get through a town as small as Intercourse.
All the time that I was moving behind him, he never once looked back to see if he had a tail.
Which was lucky for me because I caught him before he could follow another unsuspecting girl.
“Amon,” I chided. “What are you doing?”
Amon whirled and turned, surprised to find me directly behind him.
“What are you doing?” he asked in return.
“Obviously the police’s job,” I grumbled. “Some escort you have. What were you out here doing?”