Chapter 22

Killian Savage

I park the car at her house and turn off the engine. I offered to drive from the police station, and she was so lost in thought that she didn't object. The whole way home, which was only a few minutes, she hasn't said a word, and I can't find a single reason to blame her.

While Pierce has a point, I have a gut feeling that he's wrong. However, I don't even know if the Lillian is here. He could have just been passing through when Tori hit one of his women, but I know one thing for certain: I am getting close.

I glance over at her, knowing that if I'm close, I'm that much closer to leaving this town and continuing my search, which means leaving her.

Rubbing at the ache in my chest, I climb out of the car and into the rain. Once I'm around to the other side, I open her door and offer her my hand. She takes it, and I don't know why I do it, but I continue to lock my fingers in between hers until we reach her back door.

She puts her hand on the knob after inserting and twisting the key, unaffected by how drenched we are getting, and then looks over at me. A sadness dulls her eyes as she asks, "You believe me, don't you?"

I wet my bottom lip, tasting the rain. "Yes."

She nods once. "I'm sure you're hungry. Come in with me?"

"Are you offering to feed me?"

For a second, a smile crosses her lips. I didn't think I'd see one of those tonight, but it only makes the ache in my chest hurt more. "Would you turn it down?"

"No," I answer right away because I don't know if I could turn her down for anything at this point. Not while knowing our time is limited.

Satisfied, she turns the key and then the knob, and we head inside. Warmth folds around us, and I slip out of my wet jacket and drape it over the dining room chair. Next, I slide off my shoes at the same time as she kicks hers to the side.

"I don't have much," she says as she turns to the kitchen. "I haven't been grocery shopping in a few days, but-"

She stops dead in her tracks. I frown and fully face her backside. Her shoulders are stiff, and she's looking directly in front of her. Immediately, I get a tingle down the base of my spine, and it has nothing to do with how good her soaked backside looks and how it clings to every curve.

Her breath hitches. "Did you . . . Did you do that?"

"Do what?" I ask.

She moves aside and points toward her counter. "That?"

Resting on her counter is a flower.

One. Single. Lily.

My blood runs cold.

Memories surface, memories of how the same lily was left on my family's bodies. How they smelled when I bent, in rage and tears, to check them for a pulse even though I knew I wouldn't find one. The blood.

Before I know what I'm doing, I stomp my way through the house to check the front door, only to find that it's locked, but as I back away from it, I notice the living room window slightly open. My nostrils flare as I head to it and slam it closed. I stand there for a moment, head bowed and fingers on the window's locks as memory after memory floods the back of my eyelids.

It's happening again. He has to know I'm in town. He has to be here. And he has to know I'm coming for him. Why else would he target Tori? Because that's exactly what that lily means.

"Killian?" Tori whispers from behind me. I hadn't heard her approach.

I shift my gaze over my shoulder, and when I find her holding the lily, I fully turn to face her, careful to keep the turmoil of emotions from my face.

"Is this what I think it is?" she asks quietly.

Flexing my jaw, I give a curt nod.

Her grip on the stem tightens, and I watch as she swallows thickly. Tears gather in her eyes. "Okay," she whispers, and it's then that I watch as realization crosses her face. She's being hunted, and now she knows it.

"Do your cameras reach the front?" I rumble softly as my gut bottoms out.

She shakes her head and sets the lily on the coffee table. "But you can see part of the front of the driveway."

"Let me look then. "

"Okay," she squeaks, and together, we head to the dining room where her laptop rests.

She opens it, clicks a few buttons, and I come to stand beside her as she rights herself from her bent-over position. The camera plays through quickly on fast forward, and when movement comes across the screen, she slows it down. Her breath hitches as a man in an orange raincoat comes into the edges of the screen. In his hand is the lily.

Rage fills me. Rage like before. Rage reminiscent of back home before I left. It does not crest as we watch him leave, empty-handed, a few minutes later.

"Do you have anywhere you can stay?" I ask in a demanding way.

A single tear spills down her cheek as she answers, "With Tegan and Cole, but I don't want to burden them. I don't want them anywhere near this."

I can understand that, so I nod. There's no telling what this guy will do to get to her, and if she wants to keep her friends safe, she'll have to leave them out of it. "Then I'm staying in the house with you."

The way she nods is filled with relief, but still, more tears fall. I take her head in my hands, wipe her tears with my thumbs, and press my lips to her eyebrow. "I won't let anything happen to you."

"Okay," she manages thickly.

I pull away and look hard into her eyes. "No one will touch you." Because I won't make the same mistake twice. How he knew that I was close to Tori, I'll never know because I thought I'd been careful. But the only person who we suspect who knows that I've been spending time with her is the fucking pastor. Tori was right. Based on the camera feed, that man could have easily been him.

I could easily hunt down the pastor. I could easily rip answers from him, but we've already brought in the law. Before, I ran under the radar. But now? Now I have to play by the rules. Nothing pisses me off more.

"Come on," I whisper while hoping that I kept the anger from my tone. "Let's get you to bed."

I start to guide her toward the hallway but halt when she asks, "Sleep with me?"

She didn't know that I had already planned to because I'll be damned if I let her out of my sight now. Not until I find this guy. Not until he pays for what he's done and the threat he just delivered.

Instead of telling her all this, I murmur my agreement.