Snared (Elemental Assassin #16)(79)
“Of course,” Porter murmured in a neutral tone, more than accustomed to dealing with Rivera’s drunken demands.
Rivera rolled his eyes, knowing that he was being handled. He stomped out of the cottage and slammed the door shut behind him. He crossed the porch, and the sound of his staggering footsteps faded away. No doubt Rivera was on his way back to his mansion to get his much-needed refill and drink the rest of the night away.
That left me alone with Bruce Porter.
I thought that he might immediately come over and start beating me, as both Tucker and Rivera had ordered. I tensed, ready to reach for my Ice and Stone magic and use it to blast right out of my chair and the ropes still tying me down.
But Porter had other plans. He grabbed one of the chairs from the kitchen table, brought it over, and put it down directly across from me. He sat down, leaned back, and made himself comfortable. Once he was settled, he looked at me and smiled.
And just like that, the Dollmaker finally revealed his true self.
Oh, Porter looked exactly the same as before. Gunmetal--gray hair cropped close to his skull, pale blue eyes, deep lines grooved into his ruddy skin, strong, compact, muscular body in a dark, subdued suit.
But from one second to the next, his entire demeanor changed.
Gone was the dour, serious head of security, the man who stood quietly in the background and waited for others to tell him what to do. Now his eyes were brighter, his smile wider, his posture far more natural and relaxed. He looked . . . happy.
No, I realized, not happy. Giddy—giddy that he was about to act out his sadistic dream yet again.
Well, I hoped he enjoyed it, because his dream was quickly going to turn into the worst fucking nightmare of his life.
“Now we can finally get started,” Porter chirped in a high, almost manic voice that was completely different from his usual soft tone. “It’s been so long since I’ve had a special guest here. You can imagine how excited I am.”
“Oh, yeah,” I drawled. “It’s been less than a week since you kidnapped a woman, dolled her up, brought her here, and beat and strangled her to death. Can’t imagine how you’ve lasted so long without all of that.”
Anger sparked in the dwarf’s eyes that I wasn’t playing along with him, but he forced himself to dampen it down. He’d gone to too much trouble to kill me just yet. His gaze flicked over to the fireplace, and I spotted a photo sitting on the mantel, one of Maria Rivera.
It was the exact same photo that I’d seen in Damian’s office, the one of him standing with Maria and his father, Richard. At least, it used to be the same photo. Someone had cropped both Damian and his father out of the picture, leaving only Maria, with Porter now standing right beside her instead of off in the distance like he was in the original photo. So I’d been right when I’d thought that this was all about Maria. I’d just associated her with the wrong man.
“So this is all about her?” I asked. “You kidnapped and killed all those women trying to find a replacement for Maria? Let me guess. You were in love with her, and it didn’t end well.”
Porter kept staring at that photo, his expression softening with fond memories. “My father worked for hers, and my family lived here in this cottage. The two of us grew up together. I loved her from the first moment I saw her, ever since we were kids. She was always so beautiful, so elegant, so classy. Nobody had style like Maria did.”
“So what happened?”
I was totally stringing him along, trying to keep him talking long enough for me to figure some way out of here. Even with my magic, it would still take me precious seconds to break free of my chair and the ropes that tied me down. Given his dwarven strength, Porter could easily kill me with one blow if he hit me in just the right spot. I needed to find some way to incapacitate him first. Then I could work on getting out of my chair.
Porter kept looking at the photo of Maria. “When we were eighteen, I told her how I felt about her and asked her to run away with me.” His smile vanished, and the happy light was snuffed out of his eyes. “But she didn’t want to run away. She said that she didn’t want to leave her parents behind.”
More likely, she didn’t want to leave their massive fortune behind, but I kept my mouth shut, still analyzing my situation. For as strong an elemental as I was, my Ice magic was useless right now. An Ice dagger wouldn’t help me cut through my ropes, and since my hands were tied down, I couldn’t even raise my wrist and send a spray of them shooting out at Porter.
“So you loved Maria, but she wouldn’t go with you,” I said, just to keep the conversation going, just to keep him prattling on about the past. “And eventually, she married Richard Rivera.”
“It wasn’t her fault,” he growled. “It was her parents. They never liked me.”
Couldn’t imagine why.
“They made her marry Richard. But he didn’t love her. He didn’t appreciate her. Not like I did. All Richard was interested in was drinking and having affairs and spending her money. He broke Maria’s heart over and over again.” Porter shrugged. “So I finally killed him when Damian was a teenager. Made it look like a car accident.”
That got my attention, and I looked at him again. “Does Damian know that you murdered his father?”
He airily waved his hand the same way that Damian had done earlier, dismissing his own evil deed. “Of course not. I covered my tracks very well. I always do. Besides, the boy was better off without him.”