24
Mysti
Our bags had been packedfor over a month, but with Steve’s death and the police investigation that came with it, we hadn’t been able to leave after Trenton’s party like we’d planned. Trenton backed out of a surfing competition in Indonesia that was scheduled for the week after his birthday, and we’d had to cancel and reschedule flights and hotels for weeks’ worth of travel that we had planned to do.
It wasn’t that we couldn’t leave. We’d been given the okay by Detective Godwin not long after that night. It was that we didn’t feel comfortable, not after the police had found loads of evidence to corroborate our story once they entered Steve’s house.
He’d set up multiple cameras around the outside of my cottage, but he’d only given me access to the feeds on some of them. The others, it seems, were controlled by him, including a whole host of tiny cameras he’d hidden inside my house. And the recordings were saved—everything from that night to long before I’d ever moved in.
I felt violated, knowing that he’d been watching me, recording me, and doing only God knows what. And knowing I wasn’t the only one whose private moments had been recorded only made me feel worse.
The only thing I could do was the same thing I’d learned from Kosta after he’d pulled me out of a violent relationship a few years ago: focus on living the best life I could. And with the bonfire warming the cool summer night, and my friends gathered around me to celebrate the life I was making with Trenton, I knew that Kosta would be proud.
“I can’t believe you’re leaving.” Callie plopped down on the log beside me, a half-eaten bowl of ice cream nearly forgotten in her hand. “I’m going to miss you!”
I smiled and tried to hold back the wave of tears that had been threatening to fall since we arrived at the beach for our going away party. “It’s just for a while. We’ll be back.”
“But who am I supposed to do yoga with? And who’s going to listen to me complain about Calvin at work?”
“Maybe don’t complain about Calvin at all?” Deep laughter rumbled as Calvin took a seat behind Callie and pulled her into his chest. “I’m not that bad, am I?”
She rolled her eyes, but her wide smile never left her face, even as she slapped a kiss to his cheek. “Never. You’re the best.”
“Of course, I am.” Calvin leaned forward, his voice quiet as he locked eyes with me. “Did you hear the news?”
My heartbeat throbbed through my chest and straight up to my temples. “No. What happened now?”
“The police confirmed one of the bodies they pulled from Steve’s basement was his brother, John Blake.”
“You’re kidding!” Callie swung around to face her boyfriend. “He told Mysti to tell John he was sorry!”
Calvin nodded, and I tugged my cover up tighter around my shoulders. “I guess he told the police some twelve or thirteen years ago that his brother moved away. They think he’s actually been dead the entire time.”
“What’s the body count up to now?”
He shook his head. “They’re closed-lipped about it. But my source tells me there were a couple dozen dead bodies down in his basement. They’ve found a few that were buried, but they’re not sure how many more there might be.”
Calvin’s source was his brother, Officer Byron Frasier. He’d shared multiple things with Calvin with the understanding that if asked, it didn’t come from him.
“That’s just sick,” Callie whispered.
“Were they… able to identify any others?” My gaze darted to Anne Marie, who was chatting with Trenton, Miller, and a few of our other friends from Razor’s Edge a little further down the beach. She’d stayed in town and continued to search for her sister, Miranda, and I’d convinced her to take my classes at the gym. We’d since become good friends, and though I loved that she got closure, I hated that it came like this.
The police believed Miranda was one of Steve’s victims. Based on the clothing she’d been wearing when she went missing, they assumed one of the bodies in his basement was hers.
Calvin followed my line of sight, and when we turned back to each other, his face was pulled into a grimace. “Some. They think they found the lady who rented your house before you. The Landrys are trying to help as much as they can. And of course there was that guy, Peter Traven, who went missing from that night club a few days before the break-in. From what I hear, they’re looking through missing persons cases in Seaside and the surrounding areas. But they think they could span back over twenty years or more. They’re even questioning the death of John and Steve’s parents and little sister back when Steve was just a kid.”
Callie pulled a face. “Wait, so, like… the brother was involved?”
He nodded. “They’ve got loads of videos to go through. And I tell you, I feel sorry for the guys who have to watch that shit.”
I shuddered and tugged at my cover up again. But the cool breeze off the ocean was blocked as Trenton wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me into his chest.
“You’ve got that look again, love.”
Peeking at him over my shoulder, I pressed a kiss to his lips. I lingered there, enjoying the feeling of being wrapped up in his love. Since he finally told his brother off, we’d only grown closer, the distance he’d somehow kept between us closing until it felt like we were one.
When I pulled away, I murmured, “It’s just hard to get used to.”