“Jack, I appreciate the sentiment. I really do. But I don’t think it’s necessary. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself. And like you and everyone else keeps reminding me, I’m safe inside. He can’t come in.”
“But he can get to you outside.”
“So, what? You’re just going to follow me around? That seems silly.”
“Not silly,” Jackson replies, shaking his head. “Your safety is the most important thing. And I know you’re an independent woman—and I love that about you—but damn it, Daphne, I need you to be safe and whole. I don’t trust this asshole.”
“Well, that’s something we can agree on. None of us trusts him. Because, you know, he’s a murderous psycho bastard who’s obsessed with us and all.”
He narrows his eyes on me. “I should stay.”
“No, thanks.”
Suddenly, I feel sick to my stomach. The way I did the other day when I found the photo on my stoop.
“Oh, Goddess.”
“What? What is it?”
I hurry from the couch to the front door and open it. Sure enough, there’s another envelope on the mat.
“Fuck,” Jack mutters. “How did you know it was here?”
“I get nauseous. And I just…know.”
We stare down at it.
“I don’t want to pick it up,” I admit and swallow hard.
Jackson retrieves the envelope, then pulls me back inside and shuts the door.
“The fucker is probably watching,” he mutters. We stand, staring down at the envelope. “Why does it feel like it has a heartbeat?”
“More creep factor?” I ask.
“As if he needs more,” Jack says. “Do you want me to open it?”
“Yeah. No sense in getting more prints on it. I don’t want Cash to yell at me again.”
He breaks the seal—a wax one this time—and pulls out another image.
Black and white.
A different woman with short hair. Round cheeks. Many piercings in each ear, two in her nose, and one in her lip.
And, like the other, no eyes.
“I know it’s coming by now, that the person won’t have eyes, and yet it’s alarming. Every single time,” I mutter.
“I think it should probably be alarming,” he says, his mouth set in a grim line. “The timestamp.”
“Two hours ago.” I sigh and shake my head. “She’s already gone. We have to call the others.”
He kisses my head. “Let’s just get in the car and go to Millie’s. I want this out of your house.”
“Good idea. I’ll let them know we’re coming and call Brielle.”
A short fifteen minutes later, we’re all sitting in Millie and Lucien’s library with the photo resting on the coffee table between us.
“I don’t know why we’re all here,” I say and lift my hands. “We can’t do anything about it. This doesn’t give us a clue to anything. It’s like when the girls were following Brielle. They were just there.”
“I mean, this isn’t quite as bad,” Millie puts in. “At least you don’t have dead girls following you around everywhere.”
“Thank the goddess for small miracles,” I agree and then turn to Brielle. “Wait, you’re not seeing them again, are you?”
“No, I haven’t seen anything new,” she says.
“Can any of you feel the heartbeat?” Jack asks, and four pairs of eyes turn to him. “On the photo.”
“I’m not sure what you mean,” Lucien says.
“When we hold it,” I answer, “we feel heat. And a heartbeat. It’s unnerving.”
“Fascinating,” Lucien says. “I think it’s time for a meeting at Miss Sophia’s. We need her help and insight on some things.”
“If she’ll give us the information,” Jackson adds. “Every time I ask her for information, she tells me she can’t give it to me.”
“She can say some things,” Millie says. “I think a meeting is a good idea.”
“We have to get Mama tomorrow,” Brielle reminds us all, and I feel new nerves set up shop in my belly. “She’s being released from the hospital, and we’re taking her to Miss Sophia’s. Maybe we can meet with her then.”
“Do we want to do this in front of Mama?” I ask.
“She knows what’s going on,” Millie says. “She was there on Halloween. I think she can handle it.”
“Just let us know what time, and we’ll be there,” Cash says. “I’ll take this photo and add it to the other. And I’ll keep my eyes peeled. Daph, would it be possible for you to know what’s going on if you touch one of the bodies?”
I want to scream that it won’t work. But I touched a body before when it was Brielle’s turn, and it was helpful to the investigation.
“Maybe.” I shift in my seat. “I can try, if you think it’ll help.”
“Let’s talk to Miss Sophia first,” Lucien suggests. “And we’ll go from there.”
When we’re in Jack’s car, headed back to my apartment, I reach over to take his hand.
“I don’t want to be alone,” I admit softly. “I’m scared, Jack.”
“Then you won’t be alone.”
He parks the car, but rather than get out with me, his eyes narrow, and his hands tighten on the wheel.