The Killing Game(39)

Andi nodded silently, fighting the waterworks.

“Let down,” her doctor advised kindly, and Andi bent her head and cried.





PART II

MIDDLEGAME





Chapter Ten



The game requires the patience of a saint. Strategizing. One step following another. I have to fight back my increasing desire to be rash. To jump ahead and get going forward faster ... faster ... faster.

But that’s not the way the game works and it’s sweeter for it. That doesn’t mean unexpected turns don’t infuriate me. Miscarriage ... ? Gregory Wren got his sweet little bird pregnant? And it wasn’t the first time he’d spread his seed, supposedly. Just ask the mistress he was f*cking any time he could get away from Andrea ... Andi ... the cool, seductive wife. Just thinking about her gets me hard. Before she dies I will fill her with my own seed.

My blood boils with need and rage. Immediately I recognize the danger. Have to wait ... have to wait ... This miscarriage has shone a light too brightly on my ultimate quarry.

But there are others who can fulfill my need while the game continues ... all part of the misdirection.

*

At seven p.m. Andi lit a candle and put it in the window of her cabin, standing back and staring at the flame. She drew a breath, closed her eyes, and let herself feel the sadness. Today was Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, nearly six weeks since her miscarriage, and each person’s candle, lit at seven p.m. in their respective time zone, sent a wave of light around the world in recognition of their loss. Andi had never really participated in global events until this day, but she had to admit this one small act made her feel better.

She’d gone back to work fairly quickly after the miscarriage, but, as she had after Greg’s death, she’d mostly walked through the days like an automaton.

Her mother had insisted on flying in from Boston to help her. Andi had weakly protested, but her pleas had fallen on deaf ears. As soon as she arrived, the first thing Diana DeCarolis did was refill Andi’s antidepressants, even though she told her mother she still had pills from Dr. Knapp’s first prescription. “Then you should be taking them regularly,” her mother said flatly, holding up the vial. “If you had been, these would be gone.”

She was right, of course, but Andi didn’t care to hear it. She’d been doing fine, and it was just as well she’d neglected the pills because she’d been pregnant at the time. She would have been worried sick if the baby had lived because she’d been taking those antidepressants throughout her three-month pregnancy.

She hadn’t seen Luke much since the miscarriage, and over the last weeks she’d begun questioning whether she should have hired him in the first place. She’d heard nothing more from the Carreras; none of the Wrens had. And when Andi returned to work, there’d been no more talk from Carter about selling any properties to them. The company’s construction loan had finally come through, so they were able to pay their bills and continue building the lodge without the worry of running out of funds. She’d called Luke and given him that information, but she hadn’t pulled him off the job as yet. This could be just a lull, and the Carreras would come back swinging. If so, she hoped Luke would find something on them and put them out of the strong-arm business, but she wasn’t certain how long their business arrangement should be kept in place.

Meanwhile, her mother took over Andi’s move, emptying the boxes, sorting out what was needed and what could go into storage—more, even, than Andi had—then she moved on to what she felt needed to be changed at the cabin itself, namely the nursery furniture and decor. Andi didn’t have the energy to stop her, and truthfully, she didn’t know what she wanted anyway. With the aid of Andi’s brother, Jarrett, Diana brought a double bed out of storage for the spare room, along with various and sundry other items to make the cabin comfortable. She stayed ten days, and by the time she left, Andi was desperate to be alone again. Though she appreciated everything her mother had done for her, a little of Diana went a long way. Organization was her mother’s forte, but her drill sergeant ways wore thin fast.

Now, Andi went to the bathroom medicine cabinet and peered inside, seeing the two vials of pills sitting side by side. She’d started taking the new ones but had switched to the originals. What difference did it make?

She was in the kitchen when there was a knock on the door. She started in surprise, then berated herself for being so on edge. Sometimes she wondered if she’d read too much into Brian Carrera’s remarks that day on the treadmill. Were they as threatening as she’d believed? Nothing untoward had happened at the lodge, no dead-of-night sabotage. And Carter had since insisted to both Emma and her that he hadn’t really been thinking of negotiating with them, which was a bald-faced lie, but whatever. As far as Andi was concerned, she was glad she didn’t have to think about the Carreras for a while. Maybe it was just a honeymoon period, but she was grateful for it anyway.

As she crossed to the door she thought of Luke and her steps quickened. There was no reason to think he would be here. She hadn’t seen him in weeks, not since he’d sent Art Kessler to supervise her landscaping, which she’d gratefully appreciated. Between Art and her mother, the cabin was in great shape. She just wished she had a reason to see Luke more.

She checked the peephole and saw that it was her brother on the steps, all six feet three of him. She was surprised and a little disappointed. But had she really expected Luke? The last time they’d talked he’d told her he hadn’t been able to meet with Peg Bellows yet, and if he was following any other plan to bring the Carreras to justice, he hadn’t let her know.