CHAPTER FIVE

Martin Godfrey slumped low in the driver"s seat of the jacked-up sedan he'd bought for a hundred dollars from old unfriendly Bob at the lot back in Pinehill. It was the perfect camouflage. Just another middle-aged drone grinding through the daily drudge, nothing to see here.

But he wasn"t idling, wasn"t scrolling Twitter or sipping a third-wave cold brew while the minutes ticked by. No, his gaze was trained on one house in particular – a sprawling colonial five doors down, all brick and wrought iron and professionally manicured lawns. Mia Ripley"s southern belle mansion, so at odds with her true nature. A wolf in porcelain skin, a hard-nosed Fed hiding behind the picket fences and Stepfordian smiles.

Not that the facade had fooled him, not for a second. He"d seen past the soft curves and fluttering lashes to the steel core beneath, the scar tissue and jagged edges that made her so perfect for him. A dark soul to match his own, a broken thing he could piece back together in his own image.

But now it was all falling apart.

And it was all her fault.

Ella Dark. Mia"s partner, her shadow, the gnat buzzing in his ear for days now. Always there, always watching, those shrewd eyes seeing too much. Digging in all the wrong places, connecting dots that should"ve stayed scattered.

She was the reason Mia had turned from him. The reason those once-adoring eyes now held only fear and revulsion. He"d seen it in that cramped storage unit where he"d come face to face with Mia since disappearing.

The way Mia had looked at him, like he was a stranger. A monster.

As if she had any right to judge. As if her hands were any cleaner. They were the same, him and her. Forged in blood and bound by unspeakable acts. They were destined to be one, but Ella had poisoned her against him. Filled her head with lies, with doubts. Twisted their love into something ugly.

He"d catch glimpses of them sometimes when he"d circle the block in the dead of night while Mia thought he was fishing or exercising or resting at home. Ella"s characterless Honda parked crookedly in the driveway, takeout containers littering the porch. The two women framed in the window, heads bent together over a case file or a bottle of wine. Scheming, plotting. Conspiring to rip away the only good thing he"d ever known.

It wasn"t right. It wasn"t fair. He"d done everything for Mia, laid waste to the enemies that dared threaten her. Nash, Carter, Trevor. He'd even tried to take out Ella's ex so she could have a stress-free life, but Ella had responded like he was committing some cardinal sin by removing her enemies.

Martin had been Mia's dark knight, but now she looked at him like he was something to be scraped off her shoe, and it was all Ella"s doing.

He"d tried to fix it. Tried to erase the evidence and burn away the ties that bound him to his righteous crusade. But it was too late. Mia had seen, Mia knew.

And now his love, his light, his very reason for being, was slipping through his fingers like so much blood-tinged sand.

But there was still a chance. Still a way to salvage this, to bring Mia back to his side where she belonged. He just had to remove the thorn in his side, pluck out the poisoned barb that had set this whole sorry mess in motion.

The only way to make Mia see, to make her understand. The depth of his devotion, the lengths he"d go to keep her safe. To keep her his.

He"d thought about it, of course. Dreamed about it, a persistent fantasy playing behind his eyelids in every spare moment. How he"d do it. Quick and clean, a bullet between those knowing eyes? Or slow and messy, a blade across that slender throat, a mirror of the first crime scene that had brought them together so long ago?

In the end, it didn"t matter. The method was inconsequential, just the window dressing on the main event. What mattered was the outcome – Mia free. Free to love him, to let the darkness bind them once more.

He"d have to plan it carefully. Cover his tracks and leave no trace. But that was alright, because there was a part of him, small and tight and pulsing, that relished the challenge. The chance to match wits with a worthy adversary, to prove himself once and for all.

Mia would understand.

Ella Dark had to die.