Open Wounds (Harbour Bay #2)(67)
Coleani was playing with her. He knew she would get the implications of the necklace—knew Burton was on the fringe of her life again. He thought he could throw her off balance. He was right. She was reeling, and she had to get control over her emotions quickly before she made a mistake that could turn deadly.
A loud banging brought her to the door, and she grabbed hold of the baseball bat sitting in the corner that she used for protection. It would do little against a gun but it was the best deterrent she had. Kellie looked through the peephole of her door and let out a deep shaky breath before opening it.
***
Darryl pushed past Kellie and stepped into the house. He swung around and took stock of her pale skin and white knuckles holding too tight onto the bat.
“I hope you’re not planning on using that thing on me.”
Kellie frowned, confused. “Darryl, what are you doing here?”
She still hadn’t relinquished the bat which he took for a bad sign and immediately stepped forward and relieved her of it, placing it in the corner. He then turned his attention on her, looking her up and down, his brief but thorough survey not missing much. She’d showered and changed since he’d last seen her. She wore a pair of grey track pants and an over-sized Snoopy shirt that appeared stretched from years of use. Her blonde hair hung loosely over her shoulders in wavy curls.
He glanced down and noted she was barefoot, her bright pink toenails peeking up at him. Had they had been that colour the night they’d spent together? He couldn’t remember but admitted he hadn’t been interested in her toes at the time.
“How are you?”
Kellie started for the kitchen and he followed, waiting patiently for her to speak. “I’m good. What do you want?” she asked stiffly.
She poured herself a glass of amber liquid. He couldn’t see the label from where he stood, but he smelled it—potent and quite capable of putting hairs on his chest. He noticed she also poured him a glass.
Good. That meant she wasn’t planning on kicking him out just yet.
He’d wanted to talk with her since they’d been at the crime scene, but had been unable to get a moment alone with her. Now he had all the time in the world and didn’t know what to say.
He gave it some consideration, thinking he must be losing his mind. Once, he’d been so level-headed, but she was spinning him around and around and he couldn’t make sense of anything. He looked over at her and his body ached. He took a calming breath before he completely went off track.
“The locket. What does it mean to you?”
Kellie took a deep sip of her drink while she considered his question. “It’s nothing…nothing important, anyway.”
She was afraid to let him in. He saw the fear in her eyes. She wasn’t nearly as good at masking her emotions as she believed. It pissed him off that she was keeping secrets from him. He wanted to protect her, and he wanted her. Would he ever get past her defences? She turned to walk away but he reached out and grabbed her arm gently, effectively stopping her.
“Cut the crap. This is my case too, and I seem to be the only one out of the loop here. What does the locket mean to you?”
He was mad and he wasn’t entirely sure why.
Glancing around her house, he noticed the cream coloured walls with their chocolate skirting boards. Her furniture resembled her—untouchable. Her sofa, a sandstone fabric, rested on dark stained floorboards. She had a small TV, one that any man would be ashamed of, but he could see it was never used. A huge stack of manila file folders were piled in front of it.
She was also a fan of pictures. None were family photos; instead, they were beautifully rendered landscapes of Harbour Bay and the surrounding areas. The photographer must have been local, since most of the pictures were taken in obscure and out of the way places that no tourist would know about.
Had she taken the photos herself?
He opened his mouth to ask her when she met his gaze and he was lost in her eyes.
Running his finger down her cheek, he heard her sharp intake of breath. She moved away from him abruptly, keeping her back to him as she struggled with her inner demons.
“It’s my locket. Mia gave it to me for my sixteenth birthday. The picture inside is her at the same age. I was wearing that locket the day I was raped. Wayne took it off me as a souvenir. All these years, he kept it. He’s telling me he’s here. He wants me to know what he’s capable of.”
She peered at him over her shoulder and he could see the tears shimmering in her eyes before she blinked them away.
“I’m sorry, Kel, I didn’t mean to…”
She put up her hands to stop him. “It’s okay. He was a sadistic bastard. I suspected he’d kept it as a sign of his power over me. But the reality is different. I was just taken by surprise.”
Darryl shook his head and drew her into his arms. She resisted at first before the tension seeped out of her body. He never wanted to let her go. “It’s not your fault. Those boys were dead before Coleani even came to see you. They probably defied him in some way, so he ordered them to be killed. They knew you’d be involved in the investigation so he decided to shake you up.”
He rubbed her back in a comforting gesture. He loved holding her, could go on forever like this. She clung to him and something inside him shifted.
“It’s working.”
He kissed her forehead tenderly. Emotions so pure and potent spiralled through his body, causing an acute ache. He’d never felt anything so right before.