Midnight Exposure (Midnight #1)(77)

“Try not to touch anything,” Reed said.

“’Kay.” Jed waved over his shoulder.

Jayne stood back. Her feet were rooted to the shoveled walk. She would not be unhappy if the place was locked up tight. She wasn’t exactly excited to get back in.

Several minutes passed with no sound from Jed. Boots crunching, Reed started around the back of the building. “I’m going to check on Jed. I’ll be right back.”

Jayne had no intention of staying out front alone. Bad things happened to the chicks in horror films when they stayed behind while their boyfriends checked things out. She followed Reed, sticking her sneakers in the trench made by his boots. Moisture invaded, but cold feet were way better than having a masked guy with a machete jump out from behind a tree. “Wait up.”

Reed paused at the rear corner of the property. “Jed?”

Jayne balanced in his last footprints and peered around his body. Jed stood twenty feet away, facing the house behind them. His eyes and jaw hung open. His face was a mime-white mask.

Reed turned his head to track Jed’s gaze. Surprise and horror lit his eyes. Despite the leakage factor of her sneakers, curiosity drew Jayne from the trench. She pivoted for a better view.

“No.” Reed’s hand shot out to grab Jayne’s arm. “Don’t look.”

He tried to push her behind him, but the damage was already done. Her gaze locked on the grisly sight. In Jayne’s belly, her lunch cartwheeled.

Secured to the top of a six-foot post near the back door was a rotting human head. On top of the skull, a crow pecked at a loose flap of dangling scalp.





CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT


Jayne stood up and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Her confused body poured sweat and shivered simultaneously as her panicked thermostat went berserk.

Strong hands grasped her shoulders and propelled her around the side of the house. Her feet followed the momentum. Leaning against Reed’s truck, Jayne gulped cold, damp air. “Is that what I think it is?”

Reed hesitated, then sighed. “Yeah. It is.”

Tremors passed over her like a wave, nearly sweeping her feet out from under her shaking body.

A firm hand on her back bent her at the waist, and held her upright while she leaned both hands on her thighs for balance.

“Head down. Take slow breaths.”

The ground tilted under her feet. Reed wrapped strong arms around her, holding her against his solid body. Jayne leaned in. The hell with independence. Her forehead rested against his broad chest. Her scalp tingled where his fingers threaded through her hair and stroked the back of her head. Closing her eyes, she inhaled and brought the smell of Reed’s soap deep into her nose. The scent steadied her.

Were those his lips against her hair?

She lifted her head. Her knees were barely knocking.

“You OK?” Reed tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“Yeah.” Jayne raised her chin, fortified by his intimate caress.

“I wish you hadn’t seen that.” His green eyes held regret. “Hell, I wish I hadn’t seen that.”

“Me too.” Jayne tried to step away, but her legs weren’t at steady as she’d hoped. She stumbled.

“I’ve got you.” Reed’s firm grip on her elbow kept her on her feet. He steered her around the front end of the truck, opened the passenger door, and boosted her into the seat. Reaching across her trembling body, he started the engine and turned the heat on full. He produced a bottle of water from the pocket behind her seat. “I’ll be right back.”

Jayne took a small sip of cold water as Reed disappeared around the house. He wasn’t going to swoon at the horrible thing in the yard. Neither had Jed, although the hunter had looked shocked as hell. But Reed, he’d acted like it was business as usual.

For an ex-cop it probably was.

He slid into the driver’s seat and shifted into reverse. “We’re going to call Doug. Jed’ll wait here.”

Jayne closed her eyes. A vision of the head immediately popped into her mind. Better to concentrate on the pebbled gray dashboard.

Wonderful. Her kidnapper was a deranged killer—only deranged killers, ancient Romans, and barbarian hordes left decapitated heads on poles—and they were going to call Doug. While he halfheartedly conducted a half-assed investigation into her abduction, the murderer roamed free in Huntsville, possibly preparing to hunt down another victim.

Or come looking for Jayne in Philadelphia.

Reed K-turned onto the main road. “He’ll have to call the state police in now.”

But was it too late?

Would she ever really feel safe again?



Nathan’s eyes shot to his office window. Outside, dusk encroached on the overcast sky with none of the usual sunset colors. The gradual loss of daylight reminded him of the increasing dimness in Uncle Aaron’s eyes, a clouded confusion that made Nathan’s chest ache. His uncle’s illness was progressing. Traditional medicine had failed. His uncle was turning to desperate measures. Nathan dropped his chin into his hands. The gloom and doom felt right on par with the rest of his life.

Accounting spreadsheets blurred as he stared at the computer screen. He set his drugstore reading glasses on the desk and rubbed his eyes with both fists. The phone in the next room pealed, only slightly muffled by the thin wall between Nathan’s office and the storage room where Doug’s temporary office was set up. Nathan could hear everything that went on in there.