Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 146477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
I get to my feet and meet him in the middle, hoping like fuck he’s got some good news for me. “Were you able to figure out who’s running up that case?”
He shakes his head, instantly putting me on edge. “That’s just the thing. I’ve been looking into it since you mentioned it, and I can’t find anything that matches the description you gave me from that night. I’ve asked around, and no one knows what I’m talking about.”
My gaze narrows on him, suspicion rattling me. “You sure?”
Gray shrugs. “Don’t know what to tell you. I’m positive. There’s nothing in the system. No homicides were logged for that night. Maybe you got the details wrong.”
Remembering the look in Harper’s eyes when she came to my place after that shift, unease begins to plague me. She was terrified, even her hands were shaking. Nobody can feign that type of terror. There was a body and a message. Now that the body is no longer in the morgue, there is suddenly no information logged in our system, and the detective who dropped the body off wants to claim he knows nothing about it. I can only assume the worst.
“Right,” I say slowly, my suspicions making me feel sick. “I must have my wires crossed.”
Could Gray be the asshole responsible for all of this? The one who’s been watching her, the one who’s been sending sick messages in the form of mutilated human hearts? Or is he just a pawn in somebody else’s sick game?
I need to get to the bottom of this.
Heading back to the sparring mat, I pull out my phone and bring up a number for someone I haven’t thought about in a long time. After hitting call and holding it to my ear, the phone rings three times before a feminine voice answers.
“Knight?” Carly questions in a hesitant tone. Not that I blame her. The last time we spoke, she was confessing her undying love after we’d slept together once. I ran the first chance I got. I don’t even know why I still have her number in my phone, but I’ve never been so glad that I do now.
“Hey, Carly. How have you been?”
“I, ahhhh . . . I’m confused. Why are you calling me?”
“Do you still work in security at Blackstone Hospital?”
There’s a short silence, and I can only imagine the millions of questions floundering through her brain. “Yes,” she finally says.
“Listen, I really need to get some footage—”
Carly cuts me off with a scoff. “Oh, hell no. I’m not putting my ass on the line for you,” she tells me. “You know damn well there’s a process to gain hospital security footage. Go through the proper channels. I can’t help you.”
“Please, Carly,” I say, lowering my tone. “I wouldn’t ask if this weren’t important. Going through the proper channels . . . fuck. It might be too late by then, and this is personal. I need that footage.”
There’s another beat of silence before she finally lets out a subtle sigh. “What do you need?”
“The footage for the past few nights in the morgue. There’s been some weird shit going on down there, and I need to get to the bottom of it before someone gets hurt.”
“By someone, I’m assuming you’re talking about a girl,” Carly mutters, an edge to her tone, telling me she’s still a little pissed about the way I bailed on her, but what did she expect? It was a one-night stand gone wrong.
“Yes, she’s a girl, but this one is different. She’s . . . family. My niece.”
Bile rises in my throat when referring to Harper as my niece, and while I know it’s mostly true, I’m working double time to try and put that little snippet of information aside. Right now, I need to play all the cards I have, and if Carly is still sour about what happened between us all those years ago, then I need to play it smart, and mentioning who Harper really is to me isn’t going to cut it.
Carly pauses for a moment as if deep in thought. “I can maybe get you the last twenty-four hours without raising alarm bells, but I can’t do anything more than that. I’ll need higher security clearance for that.”
“The last twenty-four hours will be great,” I say with a heavy sigh, knowing that while that may not give me Gray delivering the body, it’ll sure as fuck give me the stalker locking her in the refrigeration unit. If it is Gray, we’ll be able to identify him, and then all of this shit can be put to rest. Harper will be safe, and Gray will be well on his way to spending the rest of his life behind bars.
“Okay. Is there anything in particular you want me looking for? A certain time frame, perhaps?”