Page 40 of Immortal Unveiled

The drive back to her mother’s house seemed to take forever. It gave her plenty of time to think about her next steps. Unfortunately, the events of the previous night kept intruding, reminding her how foolish she’d been. How could she have fallen for Manus’s lies? After he’d opened up about his past the previous night, she’d felt as if she’d known him forever. She’d trusted him like she’d never trusted any man before. And in his arms, she’d felt safe. And desired. He’d used sex to soften her up and lies to seal the deal.

What kind of man did that? What kind of man was so evil that he stopped at nothing to get what he wanted? Had he done the same with her mother? Had he tried to seduce her to get what he wanted and then killed her when she hadn’t complied? The thought made her sick to her stomach.

Arrived at the house, Kim rushed inside. There was no time to lose. She needed to get to Manus before he found out that she was onto him and disappeared forever. In her mother’s bedroom, she pulled out a metal box from the bottom of the closet and opened it. The 9mm gun her mother kept to defend herself from burglars was still inside. A whole lot of good the gun had done her. Kim would make better use of it.

She took the gun, loaded it, made sure the safety was on, then stuffed it into her handbag. Then she took a few steadying breaths and retrieved her cell phone. Manus’s number was in her recent call list. She pressed it and let it ring.

Once. Twice. Three times. Was he not going to answer? Was she too late?

“Hey, Kim.”

Did his voice sound apprehensive, or was she just imagining it?

“Hey, Manus.” She tried to tamp down her pounding heart. She had to make this sound authentic, or he wouldn’t go for it. “Can we meet?”

“Meet? Why, what’s going on?”

“I found something. I think it’s important. But I don’t want to talk on the phone. There was a strange clicking sound in the line earlier when I spoke to a friend of mine. You know what I mean, right?”

There was a short pause, then he said, “Yeah, sure, of course, we can meet. Where?”

“The place where we met the first time,” she said, continuing her ruse that she believed somebody was taping her calls. “In an hour?”

“I’ll be there.”

“Thanks.” She disconnected the call, set her cell phone to silent, and shoved it back into her bag. “Now, let’s see who you really are.”

She knew she should call her best friend to tell her what she was up to, but was afraid that Jennifer would talk her out of it. And this was something she had to see through.