Emily (Dreamcatchers Romantic Suspense Series Book 1) Read online

  “This one’s more violent than the others,” Gabi’s voice sounded behind him as he bent over a large pool of blood. “The victim had bruises across her neck, and her throat was slit almost to her vertebrae. There’s no way this guy doesn’t have blood spatter all over him.”

  Reece stood up and met Gabi’s eyes. “That’s at least two victims in just a few weeks. He’s devolving, turning into a spree killer.”

  Gabi tilted her head to the side, looking back down at the crime scene. “Either that or we’re dealing with a copycat who’s a lot less subtle.”

  Reece called over to the city cop manning the crime tape border. “Did we get an ID?” The man handed him an evidence bag holding the victim’s purse. Reece slipped on a pair of nitrile gloves and eased the wallet from the purse inside the evidence bag. He found her driver’s license and work ID swipe card. Reece didn’t recognize the woman or her name, but one thing slapped him in the face. The victim, Lily Raines, worked in the same building as Emily.

  “No, this is definitely the same guy, and he’s escalating.”

  Waking up the next morning was both a blessing and a curse. It meant that the bastard hadn’t managed to get to her yet, but that another night, and another nightmare, faced her at the end of the day. Unless of course someone put her out of her misery before then.

  You have to be at an all-time low, Emily, if that’s what you’re thinking.

  She was, and Emily was also sick of fighting it anymore. The shock of the dream’s sudden turn last night had sucked any happiness from a night with the girls right out of her and the world seemed a cold and scary place. She dressed for work in silence, sending Reece’s calls straight to voice mail when he rang as she was boarding the train to work. The last thing she wanted to do was to talk to him and find out her dreams were coming true again. For the same reason, she didn’t reach out to Lily. Emily must have keyed in her number ten times before she’d even left her apartment, but then cleared the screen before her trembling hands could hit call. If she rang and Lily didn’t answer, Emily doubted she would have made it out of her apartment that morning.

  The work morning passed in a blur. Emily didn’t even speak to Wanda. Keeping herself at a distance from everyone served two purposes; no one could tell her anything she couldn’t handle hearing and no one else could get hurt. If she never spoke to anyone ever again, then there’d be no one else connected to her for the man in her dreams to hunt down. That made as much sense as anything else right now.

  Finally, the pervasive quiet drove Emily mad, and she had to get out from behind her desk in the beige cubical before her silence turned into screams. She didn’t bother making her own coffee in the break room, instead needing to get further away from the office. Exiting the building into the drizzling rain, she walked to the diner, not caring what the weather was doing to her hair.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Cathy asked the moment Emily stepped through the door. She looked Emily up and down, no doubt taking in her ashen face and dead eyes. “What did he do to you? I’m gonna break his damn face!”

  Emily’s eyes widened in shock, Cathy’s outburst shocking her out of her pity party. Not only was she amazed at the venom Cathy was spitting at Reece, her supposed wrong-doer, but the idea of the two of them in a fist fight was enough to almost make her smile. Almost.

  “How about a coffee and egg sandwich, slugger?” she asked Cathy, who was still fuming. Cathy didn’t want to leave her alone, but Emily gently urged her back onto the floor after she accepted Cathy’s fierce hug. The hug did its usual magic in lifting the cloud surrounding Emily, but one glance at the TV screen seconds later and the picture plastered all over the news report made her heart sink to the bottom of her shoes. She couldn’t ignore it anymore. Emily pulled out her phone and called Lily. Once. Twice. It wasn’t until her call went unanswered for the fourth time that she let her brain begin to believe it. A tear slipped down her face as she stared at Lily’s face on the screen as the news reporter spoke of the death of another young woman in Chicago’s alleyways.

  “Police report that the victim was likely attacked from behind, and died from knife wounds to her throat,” the news anchor was saying. “This morning the FBI made a statement confirming their involvement in the case, and urging all women to avoid walking alone at night if at all possible.”

  The anchor cut to footage of Reece standing in a room surrounded by reporters. He was speaking to the crowd. “Good morning. Firstly, let me thank you for your presence here today. The FBI wanted to take this opportunity to update you on the course of the ongoing investigation into the recent attacks on young women in the downtown Chicago area, and to give you specific information on measures that are being taken by the FBI in collaboration with the Chicago police department. We also want to first and foremost express our condolences…”

  She couldn’t listen anymore. Emily couldn’t stop the flow of tears down her face, but she didn’t want to answer the questions that Cathy would have if she returned with her order and saw her crying. Emily jumped from her seat and ran to the bathroom to wash her face, making it back just as Cathy arrived with her order. Cathy took one look at Emily and opened her mouth. “You should take the rest of day off and we can go get drunk and pick up sexy men,” Cathy said. “What? It’s therapy,” she insisted when Emily rolled her eyes.

  “You know, I worry about the way your brain works sometimes.”

  “So is that a yes?”

  Emily shrugged and took a bite of her lunch. She couldn’t tell her friend that what she wanted more than anything was to just disappear. Maybe if she moved to Mars, it would be far enough away from all this. Instead, she drank her coffee in silence, waiting until Cathy had to move to another table before pulling out her cell phone again and staring at it. Reece had rung again. The last thing she wanted was to be that crazy chick who had never-ending visions of death and all things horrible. People didn’t take her seriously much as it was, she didn’t need to add hysterical to the list. Emily put her phone down on the table and sipped her coffee again.

  But Reece did listen, and he believes you.

  True, he’d only listened to her as long as he had initially because Luke had asked him too, but at the meeting with his partner, he’d actually stood up for her. Believed her. Emily was sure of it.

  “Come see me later,” Cathy said as Emily got up to leave, kissing her on each cheek before wrapping her in another bone-crushing hug. As much as she was scared for her friends, being around Cathy did take some of the stress from Emily. She would try if she weren't in a psychiatric facility by next week. Pulling her coat around herself, Emily took a deep breath before finally clicking on Reece’s name in her recent calls list. He answered on the first ring.

  15

  Reece’s voice came down the line in a rush. “I’ve been trying to call you since last night. God Emily, are you OK?”

  Emily took another deep breath, desperately trying to control the emotions she felt at just hearing his voice. The last thing she needed was to end up a sobbing mess again, this time in the streets instead of the diner’s bathroom. “I know and I’m sorry—”

  “It’s OK, I was worried about you. Listen, something’s happened that you should know about. Can you come by the office again?”

  Emily’s voice faded to a whisper. “I already know. I saw it happen.”

  “What?” came his immediate reply. “There wasn’t any evidence of a third party at the scene.”

  So he’d been there. Seen Lily, cold and lying there in the street. Unbidden tears slipped down her cheeks.

  “No Reece, I saw it in my dreams. Last night.”

  “You dreamed of your friend’s murder?”

  “Yes. She had plans to meet up with a guy and… wait, how did you know she was my friend?” Had someone at the FBI been digging into her background more deeply than Reece had indicated? Oh god, was he spying on her?

  “We found her ID at the scene along with her employee card, and let’
s just say she doesn’t meet the killer’s usual M.O.”

  Emily’s blood chilled. She didn’t want to know, but she couldn’t stop the words from tumbling out. “What do you mean? Lily was a twenty-something woman from Chicago out at night. What more is there?”

  Reece paused, and Emily could almost feel his hesitation over the phone. “I’d rather talk to you about it in person. Are you at work? I can pick you up.”

  Emily agreed. She wasn’t going to be able to avoid what had happened last night for much longer, and she got the feeling if she dodged Reece for much longer he was going to start insisting.

  “Have you heard?” a woman asked as soon as she walked into her building’s lobby. Emily nodded awkwardly before catching the elevator up to her office only to find her boss standing in the reception area with the rest of the floor’s staff. Her boss was passing around a box of tissues, most of the women and a couple of the men with tears in their eyes. She looked over at the grieving huddle of women that she’d been out with the night before. They’d all been drinking themselves into oblivion while Lily was being killed. No, murdered. Emily didn’t need to imagine the guilt they must be feeling. She was already feeling it herself, and then some. She hadn’t known Lily that well, but she’d gone out of her way to make Emily feel included, and now she was dead. Emily had hoped that a friendship with Lily would bring more sunshine into her life, but now with the news of her death that morning, her whole world had turned to gray. She could only imagine what her close friends must be feeling.

  One of them made eye contact with Emily and smiled tremulously at her, gesturing at her to join them. Emily froze, and then took a step back. “I can’t stay here,” she blurted out, a plea to her boss.

  “It’s OK,” the older woman said, kindness in her eyes. “Go.”

  Emily turned swiftly and mashed at the elevator buttons, jumping and almost letting out a small shriek when the doors opened on her floor to reveal Reece standing in the elevator. He took one look at her and grabbed her hand, pulling her in alongside him before he jabbed at the close doors button. “I’ll take you home,” he said. Emily just nodded and dropped her eyes, grateful for the excuse to escape the office.

  Reece held his hand at her back, guiding her to his car and then opening the door for her. It was a refreshing change from men who tended to point at the car and then hop in. As repayment, she reached over and opened his door from the inside as he walked around to the other side. She saw the appreciation twinkle in his eye though he tried his best not to show it. Once he was seated, he looked over at her with an expression she couldn’t place. It was a mix of pity, sympathy, and something else that she wouldn’t allow herself to consider. Reece touched her hand and squeezed it briefly before starting the car and pulling out into traffic. Emily folded her arms and stared straight ahead at the streets unfolding before her. Her eyes were open, but she doubted she’d recall a single thing she’d seen. She was looking through it all, her mind elsewhere.

  As Reece drove through the wet streets, Emily felt her head begin to throb. Her neck was tight and her shoulders hunched. The car felt stifling. On an average day the jazz music playing on the radio would have been soothing to her ear, but today it was a grating nuisance. The air conditioner was chilling her to the bone, and she was exercising every bit of self-control she had not to jump from the moving car and find somewhere to hide. Where she had no clue, she just needed to get away from civilization for a while. Maybe nature would offer her a sweet escape. Or, somewhere where no one else can hear you scream. Smart move, moron.

  “Can we ditch the radio and AC, please?” she asked, massaging her templates.

  “You need something?” Reece asked tentatively. She’d barely spoken above a whisper, unable to muster the energy for anything louder. Her waning resources would just not allow it. She didn’t respond but instead moved her hand to turn down the radio at the same time his hand moved toward the same target, her fingers brushing against his. For just a moment Reece took his eyes off the road and met hers in a searing glance. The electricity that ran through her at the contact pushed her tension headache up another notch, and she quickly pulled her hand away. Reece glanced at her once more and then drove in silence until they arrived at Emily’s apartment. He found a spot to park outside and then turned in his seat to face her.

  “Emily, I wanted to talk to you about Lily’s death.” Emily’s stomach clenched at Reece’s words. She’d only just forced herself to admit the truth. That Lily had been killed, murdered by that scumbag, no—that utter asshole—that was haunting her dreams and now her every waking thought.

  “I know that she worked in the same building as you. How well do you two know each other?”

  Bitter tears stung in the corners of Emily’s eyes at the memory of Lily first approaching her desk to invite her out. God, had that only been last week? What she’d give for another chance to be friends with the vivacious blond. Any chance to warn her. “We worked in the same office, actually. But I didn’t really know her until recently.”

  Reece’s eyes met hers, his eyebrows furrowed. “So you only met her recently? How recent?”

  “Umm, last week. Friday I think. She invited me out to drinks with some others from the office after work.”

  “And did you go?”

  Geez, what was he, the social life police now? Emily closed her eyes briefly. Anything to avoid Reece’s piercing gaze now locked on her.

  “Yeah, I went. She invited me out with the same group last night too. Except she didn’t show. One of the girls said…” Emily stopped talking mid-sentence. Suddenly, she didn’t want Reece to know that Emily had been out on a date. That the other girls had thought Lily must have gotten lucky. She didn’t want him to know that they’d been drinking, that no one had thought to call Lily earlier, or go looking for her when she didn’t arrive. For someone so flighty, Lily was exceedingly polite and would never have been late to her own party. Why the hell hadn’t that occurred to Emily before now? Shame flooded her and her cheeks reddened.

  “Why does all this matter anyway? You know what happened to her. That bastard”—her voice choked and Emily took a deep breath before continuing— “that bastard killed her.”

  Reece leaned back in his seat and ran his hand over his face, huffing out his own breath. “I know that Emily, I believe you. What I need to know though is why he killed her.”

  “Why is he doing any of this crap? He gets his rocks off by killing people. You practically said as much.”

  “No Emily, I meant why Lily specifically. She was, ummm, different from the others.”

  Emily narrowed her eyes. Reece seemed flustered. He didn’t do flustered, at least, he hadn’t until right now. What was bugging him so much about how she and Lily knew each other?

  “Different how, Reece?”

  He turned to face her again. “Emily, I want you to remember that I’m right here, and I’m going to be here until we catch this asshole.”

  What the hell was he not telling her?

  “The thing is, all the other victims, until Lily. Well, they were all of a certain type. Young, all in their twenties or early thirties, tall, with dark hair just below their shoulders, and light eyes. Blue sometimes, or more usually, green.”

  What?

  Emily sat stock still. She could hear her pulse whooshing in her ear, feel her heart beating in her chest, and hear her breath exhaling. That was it. She didn’t hear another breath being taken in. She lost her awareness of the world around her, the edges of her vision began to dim. Perhaps she was getting her wish to disappear after all. Emily longed to close her eyes and just forget, but then someone grabbed her shoulders and shook her, snapping her back to reality.

  “Breath Emily. I’m right here. I won’t leave you alone, I promise. Just take a deep breath.”

  Someone pushed her head down between her knees, forcing her to inhale and her surroundings sharpened. She was in Reece’s car, her head nearly touching the dash and her dark brown
hair falling in front of her face.

  Dark hair.

  Green Eyes.

  Emily swung bolt upright and clamped her hand over her mouth, the other scrambling for the door handle. “Oh my god, I’m going to be sick!” Her fingers found the latch and pushing the door roughly, she nearly fell out of the car. She stood on the sidewalk, still holding onto the door to stop herself from falling over while her body shook with retches. Before she knew it, Reece was there, holding back her hair and running a soothing hand down her back. He guided her to sit back down in her seat and knelt by her at the still open car door.

  “Please, Emily. Is there anything else, anything at all? Just think—”

  Emily’s headache peaked again from the jolting movements. “I am fucking thinking!” she shouted back at him. “Do you think this is easy? My friend is dead!”

  “Don’t you think I know that?” Reece replied with nearly as much venom as she had shot at him. Emily recoiled, Reece’s words feeling almost like they were a physical thing. His eyes widened at the expression that passed over his face, and Reece stood, pacing back and forth.

  “Shit!”

  He knelt before her again. “I’m sorry Emily. I can’t imagine what you’re going through right now,” he whispered a moment later. “I just want to be sure there’s nothing you’re forgetting,” he said firmly but still softly. “Anything at all. I’m worried about you.”

  Reece stroked his thumb over Emily’s cheek, and the tears that she’d been holding back came flooding down her face. She pushed her way out of the car and turned to try to hide them before he could make her feel any more inadequate than she already did.

  “Hey,” he said, grabbing her hand, stalling her intention to leave. “I am so sorry,” he whispered. “I just want to protect you. I need to protect you.”

  Emily stopped tugging away. She didn’t turn to face him, but she didn’t let go of his hand either. If she stopped fighting, maybe that would be his cue to let go of her arm. He didn’t. Instead, Reece gently pulled her toward him, and as he looked into her eyes that were still swimming with tears, he pulled her into his strong arms and whispered against her hair.