Sour Layer (Bennett Dynasty Book 5), page 8
“Sick fuck,” Walker said as he stepped up beside Clark.
Clark moved to the container beneath the woman’s bed and pulled it out, opening it up. Three long blonde wigs were sitting on one side of the container, along with pictures of Lynnfield when he was a young boy with the same red hair and freckles on his face. He was chained at the ankle to a post on the floor.
Clark lifted his gaze and glanced between the two beds, his skin crawling. “He’s sick, all right. He’s sick in the head.”
Walker picked up one of the pictures of Lynnfield as a child. When Walker finally figured out what Clark had just minutes ago, his eyes widened in horror. “You don’t think…”
“I do,” Clark answered. “Lynnfield must have a split personality. When he fell off the ladder, it must have scrambled him somehow.”
“That could explain why Mercy thought he was dead,” Walker said. “One part of him, the decent part of him, might be.”
Clark ran his gloved hand over his head. His stomach twisted and turned as he surveyed the scene, trying to figure out what the hell had happened. Those poor girls hadn’t stood a chance against the monster roaming free inside of Lynnfield. No one did.
Bile rose to Clark’s throat as he grabbed the walkie from his hip. “I’m going to call in forensics. Don’t touch anything other than what you’ve already touched.”
Walker nodded and pulled out his phone as Clark stepped out of the room and radioed Brandon.
Brandon, forensics, and two FBI agents showed up at the scene while Walker and Clark were waiting on the porch. Each stood in silence as if needing a few minutes to digest the new information.
They were dealing with a delusional maniac, and neither of them knew what the chemist and his alter ego were capable of, other than the terror depicted in those pictures.
Clark brought the FBI agents up to speed while forensics started collecting evidence. It was three hours before Clark and Walker headed back into town, leaving the FBI on site.
“This changes things,” Clark announced.
“Damn right, it does,” Walker agreed.
Clark glanced in Walker’s direction. “You got Milly and Charlotte?”
“Yep. I’ll personally see to their protection.”
The stress in Clark’s shoulders only eased a fraction. Walker was a perfect shot. He knew how to hunt and kill. The Bennetts would be Milly and Charlotte’s best protection. He knew that now. “I appreciate it.”
“She’s ours,” Walker said and turned toward Clark. “You should send your momma and Mercy over, too, while you hunt this son of a bitch.”
“I might just do that,” Clark said as his stomach finally started to settle. There was no doubt this was going to end in bloodshed. No way was he going to let the pedophile spend one more day walking free and breathing air. He owed that to those girls.
“Good, that’s the smartest thing you’ve said in a long time. I’ll take your momma with me. You either talk Mercy into leaving town, or you bring her over. She doesn’t have a dog in this hunt. You feel me?”
“Oh yeah. I feel you,” Clark answered.
Chapter 20
The front door slammed shut and I jumped like water in a skillet. Heavy footsteps were loud and quick across the hardwood floors when Clark appeared in the kitchen. Dorothy was about to heat an apple pie in the oven.
“Mom.” Clark took a deep breath as if that was the first one he’d been afforded since leaving earlier. “I need a favor.”
“Sure, dear,” she answered, pouring a cup of coffee.
“I need you to go with Walker Bennett. He’s going to take you to Milly and Charlotte.”
Dorothy turned at the statement and abandoned her cup. “What’s wrong?”
Clark ran a hand over his head. “There’s a crazy man on the loose, and they need you.”
“You aren’t making sense, dear,” Dorothy said.
“A little help here,” Clark said, glancing at me.
“I touched Dexter yesterday. It wasn’t good. This guy, Lynnfield, is going to kill him and Milly and kidnap your granddaughter. I warned them last night.”
“And Walker is going to keep them safe while I hunt this guy.”
“What about you?” she asked. Concern made her voice raise an octave. “Who’s going to keep you safe?”
“It’s my job to catch him,” he answered.
“I can’t just leave, Clark. We have guests,” Dorothy said, gesturing to me.
“Don’t worry about me, Mrs. Weller. I’m a big girl.”
“Mercy is either going with you, or I’m taking her to the airport,” Clark interjected.
I snapped my gaze to his. Betrayal sat heavy in my gut. “That’s what you think.” I rested my hand on my hip. “I’m the only one who knows what that kitchen looks like.”
“Don’t fight me on this, Mercy. I can’t concentrate if the people I care about are in harm’s way.”
“I’m not leaving. You can kick me out of the inn, but I’ll just find somewhere else to stay.”
“She needs to be here,” Walker said with the phone pressed to his ear. He stood at the entrance to the kitchen.
“No, she doesn’t,” Clark growled.
I pointed to Walker. “One of your brothers said I needed to stay, right?”
“Actually, it’s my sister, Clara, and she wants to talk to you,” Walker said, holding out his phone. “Come on, Mrs. Weller. I’ll help you pack, and we’ll bring the pie. You can pop it in the oven when we get there.”
I put the phone up to my ear and turned, turning my back to Clark.
“Hi, Clara.” Those were the only words I got out.
“Death is coming and going to steal your heart, Mercy.”
I held a hand up to my chest and contemplated my word carefully. “You didn’t say my life.”
“No, I didn’t,” Clara said, as if impressed I could read between the lines.
I lowered my voice. “I barely know him.”
“I think we both know that’s a lie,” Clara teased. “I think you know him well. Actually, I think you’ve been searching for him your whole life. You’re connected now in ways you can’t begin to imagine.”
I stepped into the living room and glanced over my shoulder to see Clark watching me intently, eavesdropping if I had to guess.
“How do I stop it?” I asked.
“Stop what?” Clark asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
I held up my finger to him and strained to hear so I didn’t miss anything Clara had to say. “Accept your full ability. Open it wide and fully claim what is to become of you.”
“No. No,” I said with a stern voice. “You can’t ask me to do that. You have no idea what you’re asking.”
“It’s the only way, Mercy. If there was another, I promise I’d tell you.”
I dropped my head, and my heart clenched. I’d only used that part of my ability once, and it had killed. There was no controlling the energy. There was no right or wrong. Keeping it locked away was the only thing that stopped me from becoming a killer. I knew death better than anyone because I was a witness to death. I could take a life just as easily as I knew when one would die.
“Godspeed,” Clara whispered and hung up.
My hand dropped to my side as I stared unseeing out the scenic window. What had been beautiful once before now was dark and mysterious. The blue sky had disappeared, replaced with angry clouds and lightning at the top of the mountain. The storm was coming, and it was looking for me.
Chapter 21
“Well, what did she say?” Clark asked, coming up behind me.
I met his gaze in the window’s reflection. “I’m the only one that can stop you and your family from dying.”
He rested his hand on my arm and turned me to face him. “Tell me how, and I’ll do it. You don’t even need to be there.”
“I wish it were that simple,” I whispered just as his mother and Walker came into the room. I handed Walker back his phone.
“You good?” he asked with genuine concern in his eye.
I nodded, unable to speak in case my voice quivered. There was a reason my deadly ability was locked in the box and tucked away.
Clark kissed his mother goodbye and carried her bag into the SUV while Walker carried the pie. I watched from the window and gave a sad wave to Dorothy and Walker before he pulled away.
Clark walked back inside and appeared behind me. His arms circled my waist. “Tell me how I can help.”
I turned in his arms and met his gaze. “I need to lure him out away from town. Someplace private.”
“How do you expect to do that when we don’t even know where he’s hiding?”
“I don’t know.” I didn’t have the answers. None I thought would produce results. I knew one thing for sure. He was pissed he’d found me in the bomb shelter and we’d taken the girls.
“We found his hunting cabin. We think he’s been dressing like a woman. He might have multiple personalities.”
My brows dipped. I don’t think in all my life I’d ever encountered anyone with that diagnosis. Maybe the chemist was dead. Maybe the one doing this was someone altogether different.
“Okay,” I said, stepping out of his hold. “We don’t have much of a choice. We need to find the kitchen. All I know is it’s not the kitchen in the inn.”
Clark’s face lit up, and he smiled. “You’re brilliant.”
He pulled out his phone, dialed a number and spoke quickly before hanging up and calling Walker, telling him to bring his mother back.
“This is a safe zone. They’re safer here than where they were,” Clark finally answered. “I’ll get the addresses to Dexter’s house and where he was taking Milly and Charlotte. One of those places has to be where he’s watching. If you show up, then maybe, just maybe, it will set him off, and he’ll attack.”
“You’re right, but I should do this alone.”
Clark shook his head. “Not happening, but that gave me an even better idea.”
Clark took my hand and led me into his mother’s room. He pulled open her closet and stepped inside, shoving the hangers to the side until he pulled out a few of his mother’s clothes.
“And what are we going to do with that?” I asked.
“Not us. Mavis. I’ll have her dress like my mother and take you over to Dexter’s to find the kitchen.”
“You’d put that woman in harm’s way?” I gawked.
“She’s a better shot than me.” Clark chuckled as he grabbed a few more things out of the closet and walked out of the room. “Besides, you can touch her first to make sure she isn’t going to die. If you see her death, then we can come up with something different.”
“That’s risky. She could still get hurt even if she doesn’t die. No, I think I need to do this alone.”
Clark dropped his mother’s clothes onto the kitchen table. “That’s not happening.”
I rested my hand on his arm, pulling his gaze in my direction. I needed him to focus. “How I have to stop him is dangerous. Other people could get hurt in the fallout. I couldn’t live with myself if I hurt an innocent. Not again.”
I dropped my gaze to the table and tried to steel the oncoming rush of memories of that fateful day in the field. I hadn’t known that my emotions were tied to the weather. No one had ever told me that my teenage anger could kill. I should have been locked up, only no one believed me when I’d confessed. Instead, they suggested a mental facility.
“Again?” he asked, lifting my chin with his finger.
“I didn’t know it at the time, but my emotions can call upon the weather.”
“The lightning strike?” he asked.
My heart clenched at the memory, and I rubbed at the tightening ache in my chest. “Matt and I had been fighting that day, and as you can imagine, it was probably something petty. I don’t even remember what it was about.” I swallowed hard.
“You unintentionally killed him?” Clark asked.
Chapter 22
“Matt wasn’t the most popular kid in school. He was picked on a lot, and we’d planned to talk at the bleachers after school, but when I got there, some football players were shoving him around. They’d taken his backpack and were playing keep away. They were taller than he was. He never had a chance.”
Clark rubbed the stubble on his chin. “Kids can be mean.”
I blinked, and a tear fell. “I ran toward him, and I was angry. Not that I thought I could stop the guys, but I was going to try. They knew my sister, Gwen would have kicked their butts if any one of them laid a hand on me. She was mean like that.”
“I would have done the same for my sister,” Clark said, as if trying to make this easier on me.
“They pushed him down and started hitting him. I saw red as I ran toward them. I jumped on one guy’s back, and he staggered. Lightning struck the ground between Matt and the bully. It could have killed us all. I didn’t know that I was the reason behind the lightning.” I blinked, and a tear fell down my cheek. A trickle of rain hit the window outside. “It should have killed us all. Matt didn’t deserve to die alone.”
“And you think you caused the lightning?” Clark asked, dropping his hands to his sides.
“I know I did,” I answered. “When the bully shoved me off his back, he and his buddies ran while I went to Matt. I cried. I don’t remember much after that. I cried until there wasn’t a tear left in my body and the ground gained three inches of rain between the time Matt died and they wheeled him away.”
“It could have been coincidence,” Clark suggested.
“It wasn’t. We had record rainfall in the month that followed and more lightning outbursts during football games that year. I had so much anger. I couldn’t let it go. Why should the players get to live their lives like nothing happened when Matt was dead?”
“You were grieving,” Clark said, pulling me into his arms and holding me tight.
“I almost killed the bully that year. I would have if my Grams hadn’t stopped me,” I whispered into Clark’s shirt. “Somehow, she knew that the weather was because of me. She knew, and she told me to lock it up tight until I could control it, and so I did. It’s dangerous and unpredictable every time I try to harness it, so I don’t even try anymore. Not when mistakes could turn deadly.”
“You’re a ticking time bomb,” he said as he kissed my hair.
“I am, and Clara said using that gift is the only way I’m going to stop Lynnfield. I just can’t afford to hurt anyone else in the process. That’s why neither Mavis nor you should come with me.”
Clark leaned back to search my eyes. “You said you haven’t used that ability in a long time. What if it’s been too long? What if it’s gone? How would you defend yourself?”
“I’m not going to die. I think I’d know best when my number was up,” I lied. “So, let’s go check out those kitchens. Lynnfield is bound to show up at the right one.”
Clark’s cell phone rang before he could reply. I stepped out of his hold, fighting back the memories of Matt and the icy anger that I’d been storing inside. There was going to come a time when I couldn’t keep it bottled up. I knew it, and so did my family. The last thing I wanted to do was pop that cork while around Clark and his family. The Bennetts might understand, and be more equipped to protect themselves, but something told me that with Clark around, I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything, much less harness it to do my bidding.
Clark hung up and turned to look at me, his brows set in determination. “You might not have to do anything. The FBI agents found something. They need me up at the Lynnfield house.”
“Go.” I smiled and gestured to the door.
“You promise not to leave and go do something stupid?” he asked with a raised brow.
Nothing I cared to share. “I’ll wait on the others to get here.”
“Promise?” he asked, not trusting my words. He was right to question them because, as soon as he left, I was leaving too.
“Go, don’t keep them waiting,” I said and kissed his lips before all but shoving him to the front door.
He pulled it open and went to step out, but he stopped and I ran into his back.
“Hi, I’m looking for Mercy. I believe she’s staying here.”
Clark stepped out of the way for me to see my sister standing in front of him, all bundled up like I’d been when I arrived.
“Honor.” This couldn’t be good. Not good at all. “What are you doing here?”
Honor smiled in that knowing way that I used to hate in high school…when she knew I’d cheated on a test. “Looking for you.”
Clark kissed me once more. “Good timing. You two can visit until I get back.”
Honor watched the exchange and the kiss. Her lips were twisted at the corners as she tried unsuccessfully to hide her smile. “Seems we have a lot of catching up to do.”
I waited until Clark got into the truck and was headed down the road before Honor and I stepped back into the inn.
She pulled off her gloves. “He’s cute.”
“He’s a cop,” I said, making Honor shiver. She had this thing against cops. I didn’t know where her dislike stemmed from, but it was part of her being. The only police officer she ever tolerated was Jimbo, our sister Faith’s best friend.
“Yes, well. Seems like our family attracts them like magnets,” Honor said, stepping into the living room. She tossed her gloves onto the table and held her hands at the crackling fire in the fireplace.
“Why are you here?” I was almost afraid of what her answer might be. Honor was around even less than I was. She was good at having a reason not to be around.
