“Maybe, but wherever he has them it has to be secluded enough for no one to stumble upon his victims, that suggests that he has some space, probably a large property. You would think he would have trees.”
“Maybe he couldn’t bring himself to actually physically hurt the baby,” Jonathon said. “Maybe he thought he could, maybe he was all ready to drop that baby out of a tree, but then when it came down to it, he couldn’t.”
She would like to think that was true.
She would like to believe that this killer couldn’t actively murder a child in cold blood.
Even more than that, she would like to believe that this killer wasn't Luke Sleigh.
Allina was torn. She didn’t want the killer to be Nick’s brother, and yet at the same time if it was, they could arrest Luke, and this would be over. The Nursery Rhyme Killer would claim no more victims.
* * * * *
6:31 P.M.
She was so nervous she couldn’t stay still.
It had beensolong since she had been on a date.
Not since she was a teenager.
She had met Carlton Arlidge in her first year of college. He was older, in his mid-twenties and was a personal trainer with an awesome body. He rode a motorbike, had tattoos, and loved to party. She had been in the market for a bad boy and she’d found one. But underneath Carlton had been a good guy.
At least she thought he had.
Summer had grown up in a big family. She had three siblings, one older, and two younger. Her parents divorced when she was eight, and less than a year later her mother remarried a wealthy property developer with three kids of his own. She had gotten along well with her step-siblings, but living in a home with seven kids was so busy that she longed to be out on her own, with her own space.
She had loved the freedom of being off at college, away from the hubbub of her home and her meddling mother. She’d partied hard but managed to keep her grades up, work a part-time job as a nanny, and continue with gymnastics. Then she’d met Carlton, and it seemed like the final piece of the puzzle.
He had proposed eight months after they met, and to her mother’s horror, they had eloped. Summer moved into his house after they were married, and since Carlton made good money, she was able to give up her job and focus on her studies.
They had been married two years when her life was shattered.
One knock at her door.
One accusation.
That was all it had taken to derail her life.
By the end of it all, she had shot and killed her husband, ditched her entire life including her family and friends, transferred schools, and got a new home and job.
It had been so many changes in such a short time.
Some days she still couldn’t believe the whole thing had actually happened.
She’d trusted Carlton. Completely. Blindly. Erroneously as it turned out. And now she had to put her trust in another man.
Summer knew that Luke was nothing like Carlton, but that didn’t make it any easier to put her faith in him. Trust, once broken, was so hard to get back. Carlton hadn’t just decimated her trust in him, he’d made her doubt everyone. Most of all herself.
What if she was wrong about Luke? She’d been wrong about Carlton.
If she’d known the truth about him, she would never have even gone on a date with him, let alone marry him.
She couldn’t do this. She wasn't ready to date yet.
Summer was just reaching for her bag to flee the restaurant when Luke suddenly appeared beside her.
The time to run was gone. She had to go through with this.