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“How did it happen?” Dee growled. “How did you two end up in bed together? Or was it even in a bed?”
Grayson sighed. “The details aren’t important.”
“They’re important to me!” She waved her arm. “How did it happen? How did your asses go from coffee to fucking?” her voice shook the room.
“Dee,” Winston said.
“Be quiet!” She pointed at him. “His ass needs to be embarrassed and ashamed and I deserve the entire truth. How did it happen, Grayson?”
“We flirted through coffee and went to a motel.” Grayson shrugged, looking defeated. “We had sex.”
“Made love?” Dee muttered.
“Sex.” Grayson glared at her. “Love had nothing to do with it. She was just a warm body, Dee. I would’ve hooked up with anyone at the time who showed me some attention.”
“Oh?” She leaned back. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
“I’m sorry.” He shook his hands out to her. “I never meant to hurt you.”
“Then why did your fucking ass go?” She slapped him. “Huh?”
Winston gasped. “Dee.”
Grayson rubbed his cheek, lips shivering. “My world is crumbling without you. Please, give me another chance.”
“Aren’t you curious as to how I found out about Karleen?” Dee explained about her car being at her place and how she might be covering for whoever’s targeting Dee.
“Why would this person be driving Karleen’s car?” Grayson scratched his head.
“That’s the magic question,” Winston said.
“God.” Grayson groaned. “This isn’t coming back to me again, is it? I’m not the one doing this.”
“Do you know someone Karleen could be covering for?” Dee asked.
“No.” He scowled. “I want nothing to do with Karleen. She’s a psycho.”
“What?” Winston asked.
“She became obsessed with me after I broke it off.” Grayson paced. “She wouldn’t leave me alone.”
“Is this another lie?”
“I swear it’s true, Dee.” He raised his hand as if to pledge. “She fell in love with me she claims but after we slept together a few times she became so clingy. She’d call me all the time and even show up at my place.”
“Your bed,” Dee whispered, burning from heartache. “Did you ever sleep with her in your bed?”
“No.” He shook his head. “You’re the only woman I’ve had or wanted in my bed since I met you. I didn’t want anything to do with Karleen. Her way of thinking...” He squinted at the floor. “It was strange. She frightened me.”
“How?” Dee asked.
“When I tried to break it off, she got nasty. Like a completely different person.” He sat at his computer. “I can prove it. I downloaded her emails and saved them in case she did something.”
“You’re afraid she might be dangerous?” Winston asked as he and Dee gathered around Grayson.
“She’s twisted.” Grayson opened a folder and clicked on a file.
Various emails with dates came up.
“Jesus.” Dee leaned over, holding the computer monitor. “There’s tons of them.”
Grayson nodded. “Read one and you’ll see what I mean. She kept sending them for days right behind each other.”
Dee clicked on one and read it. Her stomach turned at the perverted threats Karleen wrote.
“This is twisted,” Winston whispered. “She’s talking about hanging you with a noose, decapitating you.”
Dee looked at another one. “Why didn’t you report this?”
“Because I didn’t want you to find out.”
Dee read through a third one. “She’s threatening me on this one.”
“Jesus,” Winston said.
“She even called me the N-word,” Dee said. “She’s a gem isn’t she?”
“I told you she’s vile,” Grayson said. “I’m the writer and I couldn’t come up with some of the stuff she said.”
“No one in their right mind would.” Winston stood up straight. “Forget about Grayson’s life being in danger. Look how she’s talking about you, Dee.”
“She’s never met me but hates me like I killed her family or something.” Dee pointed to the screen. “Read what she says. She’s blaming me for Grayson dumping her.” She jerked. “Damn.”
“What?” Winston asked.
“Fuck.” Dee tugged on Winston’s hand. “Winston, it’s not a man.”
“What?”
“It’s not a man who’s doing this to me.” Dee moved from the desk. “It’s Karleen. She’s the one who’s targeting me!”
Winston did a double-take. “That’s a leap isn’t it?”
“Are you reading the same emails I am? This woman hates me. There’s no one else who’d want to target me but her.”
“What about the call you got?” Winston asked. “You said it was a man’s voice.”
“I said it sounded fake and distorted too. She could’ve been talking through something to disguise her voice. You can do that shit through apps.”
“Karleen does know a lot about technology and gadgets,” Grayson said. “She lives on the computer. Surfing the net and hanging in chat rooms.”
Dee mocked. “And making fake profiles to ruin people’s lives.”
“Wait,” Winston said. “You said you saw a man in the car at the grocery store.”
“I thought it was a man.” She nibbled her thumb. “But it could’ve been Karleen with a baseball cap on and shades.”
Winston nodded. “You kept saying he had a small build and face smooth as a woman’s.”
“Goddamn it, it’s her.” Dee ran out the living room. “Come on, Winston!”
****
“Mm.” Jake opened his eyes in a bed with both wrists handcuffed to the headboard above him. “What the?” He was fully clothed and still in his shoes. “Rayne!” He jiggled his wrists. “Let me go!”
No sound or trace of Rayne.
“Rayne!” Huffing and puffing, Jake leaned up as a pain shot through his arm. He tried to slip his hands from the cuffs but they were too big.
It wasn’t until the adrenaline of trying to get away died that he realized where he was.
“God.”
Earth tones and rustic hues floated throughout the space. Forest green curtains hung from the window on the left of the bed.
Jake closed his eyes, drifting to not long before his accident. Clear as day he saw Katherine closing these curtains and sashaying to the same bed he was in wearing a thin nightgown.
What shocked him most? Rayne’s actions or being back in the one place he’d been afraid to visit since the accident?
“Rayne!” He focused on the vintage, oak dresser ahead of him.
Pictures of him and Katherine hugging and kissing remained in the order Katherine always kept them in. Along with that were pictures of Katherine with her parents and a photo of her as a girl with her younger sister, Erin. Next to that sat Katherine’s jewelry box and makeup kit.
He remembered how he used to tease her for how long it took her to do her makeup.
Footsteps approached.
“Katherine?” he whispered, hyperventilating. “Jesus.”
Course it couldn’t be Katherine.
What’s wrong with me?
“Aw, he’s awake.” Rayne stood in the doorway in Katherine’s white blouse with the roses on it and jeans he assumed were Katherine’s as well.
“Take that off!” he roared. “You take her clothes off right now or I’ll kill you!”
“Really?” Rayne leaned on the dresser. “Why am I not convinced?”
“I’m not playing with you, Rayne.” He panted. “Not many things get me this angry but you being in Katherine’s house does. How dare you bring me here? Is this part of your sick plan?”
“My you got your strength back fast didn’t you?”
“Come over here.” He jiggled the handcuffs. “And you’ll see how much strength I got.”
“Ooh.” She laughed. “I’m scared.”
“Whatever you got against me it doesn’t warrant you bringing me here.”
“Actually it does. I brought you here to inflict pain, and I knew this place would be painful for you. I’m guessing you haven’t been here since you killed Katherine. Your guilt really gets to you here, doesn’t it?”
“It was an accident! I paid my dues.”
She waved her finger. “Not yet.”
“What’s it to you? You didn’t even know Katherine.”
She walked toward him and leaned over. “You sure about that, Jake?”
He looked at her then glanced at the picture of Katherine and Erin.
No, it can’t be.
Rayne smirked. “You said I resembled her. Wonder why?”
“It can’t be.” He shook his head. “There’s no way.”
She stood. “What’s no way?”
“Erin?” He squinted. “You can’t be.”
“Bravo!” Rayne clapped, jumping up and down. “He finally gets it. Tell him what he’s won, Johnny!”