Cursing myself for not locking the front door, I set the hand mixer down on the worktop and moved to the doors that separated the kitchen from the booking and show space. I stuffed my phone in my bra. I needed to get rid of whoever was out here. Then I needed to find out how to disappear. I had no idea why I'd called Ryker. He couldn't help me. Other than pissing me off. A sardonic smile pulled at the corner of my mouth as I got to the double swing doors. He'd helped me. Pulled me back with his ego and arrogance. I was going to have to bake the stupid man some more fucking cupcakes. They could be my going-away present to him.I skidded to a halt as the one and only stupid man stood just inside my shop's door. He looked big and menacing. Heat and emotion vibrated off him in waves and surges that reminded me of the ocean during a tsunami. "Wh-wh-what are you doing here?" I asked, my hand moved to the collar of my shirt. Covered the base of my neck. Shit. Had he guessed what I

I watched his car's lights disappear around the corner. I still couldn't believe that had just happened. One of the best days of my recent life-minus that whole suicide part-had crashed and burned like an A-bomb had gone off. I limped to my car, fished around in my purse for the keys. Asshole. He could have at least taken me home. A soft scratch on the pavement to my left brought my head up. A rush of sound. A quick pinch at my neck and the world floated away.

Someone slapped my face. Not gentle taps either. I struggled to pry my eyelids open.Dread soaked my brain as the unforgettable feeling of sedatives dragged my body's responses to a soul-shaking crawl. I knew this feeling. Hated this feeling. Adrenaline surged through me for a brief moment, making my neurons fire like they were supposed to. My eyelids flew open as I tried to take in as much information as quickly as possible. I had to get out of here. "You won't be able to escape this time, Willow," he said. Ethan Embry Errington. My ex-husband. The serial killer. "What do you want, Ethan?" I asked. The effort to form the words already taxing my slowed system. "What I've always wanted, Willow. For you to help me heal people. You remember my work, don't you?" He moved over so I could see him. He had a prepped syringe in his hands. He looked so normal. So earnest. How the mind of a monster lived behind that mundane mask never failed to amaze me. I nodded. "I

Water splashed in my face, pulling me from the bottom of the drunken well I'd climbed into last night. "You've got one chance, motherfucker, before we tear you a new one. Where is she?" a low whispered voice said. I blinked away the water to try to identify the speaker. The face that belonged to the voice was on the edge of my mind. The name that belonged to the face was on the tip of my tongue. "Where is who?" I asked as I fished around for the name. A husky chuckle. "Wrong answer."Bright, shocking pain tore through my brain. Ripped it open and poured gasoline on it before someone lit a match and tossed it in there to set the whole thing on fire. I tried to move. Tried to evade that all-consuming pain. I was stuck. Unable to move anything but my head as my vocal cords tried to escape the fiery pyre of my scorching body. As quickly as it started, the pain vanished."Where is she?" the man with the broken voice asked again. I blinked, tried to push the pain asi

I clicked back into the room around me. Whimpers ghosted through the room as Ethan shoved the smoldering rebar into the girl's abdomen. His back was to me. I wasn't the object of his focus. He was fully involved in his torture. I forced the cold analytical side of me to the front, demanded she watch, learn. Anything and everything she saw, I wanted to know about it. I spoke with the emotional side of me while she was busy. We're going to do this. We're going to get out of here. We're going to stop him. Even if it kills us, this ends now. My conscious ripped open as the colder side of me thrust me back to the forefront of our mind. Ethan was watching me, a calculating look on his face. "You're still watching, aren't you, Willow? I'd hate to think that you were working against me in these experiments."I blinked once. He smiled. It was sweet-one of the first features I'd fallen in love with all those years ago. A mischievous little boy who just wanted me to join him in h