Watcher in the Woods (Rockton #4)(96)

“Isabel was a counseling psychologist,” I say. “She has no experience with your issue. We do have someone who does. A psychiatrist who’s an expert in . . . well, killers, actually. Sociopathy and psychopathy, in particular.”

Sebastian’s brows shoot up. “Seriously? Does that mean . . . are there . . . others?” He shakes his head. “Sorry, I shouldn’t ask that, and I guess it’s a bit ironic, a killer worrying if there are other killers around.”

“Our expert is here because his work brought him into danger,” I say. “Not because we have need of his services.”

“Sure, I’ll talk to him, then. I’d love that, actually. A new shrink means new ideas. New techniques. If he’s okay with helping me, then tell him everything. Please.”

“He’s already guessed at your problem.”

His brows rise higher. “Really?” He sounds almost excited. “That’s a good sign. May I ask who it is? Devon in the bakery gives off a therapist vibe.”

“Mathias.”

He blinks. “The . . . scary butcher?”

“Is that a problem?”

“Uh . . .” He gives a shaky laugh. “Besides the fact that he’s at the top of my who - else - might - be - a - killer list? Are you, uh, sure he’s what he says he is?”

“We are.”

“Okay, well, then therapy with scary-butcher dude it is. I’ll do whatever it takes to stay.”

“Why?” Dalton asks.

Sebastian looks at him, and Dalton says, “Why is it so important to stay here? No one found you down south. Sure, they were looking, but you’d avoided it, and now you pay to come up here, willing to live under whatever rules we impose, and do the worst jobs we have. Why.”

“When my parents took me out of school—it interfered with their travels—I begged to be allowed to go back. I said I’d do anything. Send me to a military school and leave me there year-round. I just wanted to be a normal kid. Now that I’m free, I thought I could finally have that. Be a normal kid. Go to university. Get a job. I can’t. Not after what I did. I know I can’t hide up here forever, but I paid almost everything I had for these couple of years. A chance to go someplace where no one knows who I am, where I can be just another face in a crowd. Where I can finally experience ‘normal.’ I’ll have to go back. I’ll have to admit who I am and face that and deal with whatever comes from it. I know that. People dream of all the exotic places they could go if they had the money. I had it. I went all those places with my parents, and none of them gave me the one thing I want. This does. It’s my vacation to normal, and I know if I do anything to screw it up, I’m gone. That’s the biggest leverage you have over me. Threaten to send me back. It doesn’t matter what wiring is missing in my brain—I understand that, because it’s about me. Use that, and I guarantee, you’ll never have a moment’s trouble.”

A shout sounds from town. Then a roar, like a wild beast. Someone screams. And we run.





THIRTY-NINE

We leave Sebastian, but he follows right behind us at a run. He catches up and says, “That sounds like Mindy.”

I glance over.

“Mindy,” he says. “One of the, uh . . . I mean, she works in the kitchens.”

“I know who she is,” I say.

“She’s just wondering how you know what her screaming sounds like,” Dalton says.

Sebastian’s face goes bright red. “Not that. I—”

Dalton waves him to silence. The screaming has stopped, and now there’s just a general commotion in town. Running footsteps. Calls of “what’s going on?” And a man’s voice, his words indistinct as he shouts. That voice, though, is enough.

“It’s Roy,” I say as we run.

Dalton lets out a string of curses. We can see buildings ahead and the blur of people running.

“Go around,” Dalton says. “He’s near Will’s place.”

He keeps running straight. I slow. Sebastian slows with me, and I’m tempted to tell him to go, but there’s no time. I take the path circling town.

“Stay back!” Roy shouts. His words are garbled. They aren’t slurred, as if he’s been drinking, but more like he’s talking with something in his mouth.

“Stay the hell back!” he shouts. “Anyone—” I don’t catch the next few words. “—break this bitch’s neck—” More garble. “—thinks she can disrespect me? Turn down my good money?”

“That would be her right.”

Isabel’s voice rings out. “It is the right of every man and woman in this town to turn down any invitation to sex. That includes those who choose to profit from such interactions. You have just earned yourself a lifetime ban from the Roc. If you do not release Mindy in the next three seconds, that ban will extend to the Lion and to all alcohol . . .”

Isabel trails off. As I jog, I see her through the trees. She’s been walking toward the house beside Will’s, the sparse crowd parting for her. Now she’s slowed and gone quiet, staring at something I can’t see.

I pick up speed, and then I spot Roy on the front porch. He has Mindy strong-armed over the railing, bent forward, and when I see that, my hand goes straight for my gun. But that sexually threatening pose isn’t what stopped Isabel. It’s Roy himself. He’s naked. Completely naked, his pot belly jiggling as he bellows at Isabel. He’s put something in his hair, and it stands up at all angles. He’s shaved swaths from his beard, and blood drips from the mowed patches.