Page 68 of Fallen Creed

The ruddy color from the wind and cold seeped away. Her face went white. A hand shot out and grabbed the counter. The other hand swept the unruly hair out of her face.

Her eyes met his again, and he wouldn’t let her look away this time. She stuttered-stepped to the opposite bench and dropped onto it. He saw the emotion behind her eyes, moist and raw, before she blinked it away.

She reached for one of the mugs and wrapped her fingers around it, leaned over the steam.

“Did you leave the scarf for the baby or for Nora?” he asked.

This time, she looked at Grace.

“So she found my scent from the scarf?” she asked.

“She’s also a cadaver dog.”

The wince was real, a fresh sting like reopening a gaping wound.

He gave her a reprieve from his scrutiny and looked out the window. Downed tree branches made it impossible to see very far. Anything that was green twenty-four hours ago was now covered. The wind swirled so much it was difficult to tell if it was new snow falling or the old stuff still blowing around. It wouldn’t be easy to navigate out there. He wondered what was keeping Ariel. Maybe she’d gotten lost.

After a few minutes, he said, “Nora was worried you ran off to hurt yourself again.”

“Yeah, well, Nora worries too much.”

When she took off her coat, she pushed her sweater sleeves up. With only a glance, Creed could see where the skin still puckered on her wrists. She saw him notice. Her fingers left the mug and tugged the cuffs down, then returned to the mug, all in two quick, simple motions that seemed familiar to her.

“I’m sure Nora and Ted have the entire county sheriff’s department out looking for me,” Libby said.

“No, just me and Grace. ”

She studied his face as if checking for sarcasm. She still hadn’t taken a sip of her coffee. Maybe she didn’t trust that he’d do the same to her as she had done to him.

“Everyone else was out searching the ditches,” Creed told her, pausing so he could study her reaction. Then he added, “They’re looking for more black garbage bags with body parts.”

“Right. Very funny.”

“A young woman was murdered and cut up into pieces.”

Now she stared at him, genuinely surprised.

Surprised, but not shocked.

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that?” he asked.

—54—

“Why would I know anything about it?” Libby countered.

She tried to keep the shock from her voice, but she knew her face had already given her away. Soon the man would be able to hear the hammering of her heart against her ribcage.

He was lying. He was clearly playing with her, and she didn’t appreciate it, even if she deserved it. He just wanted to get back at her for drugging him. Tying him up.

Truthfully, she probably didn’t need to drug him. The knife wound had to be painful. Between that and the storm, he had already been incapacitated. But if she didn’t knock him out of the picture, Ariel would have done something worse. Something irreversible. Libby could see it in her fiery green eyes.

But this guy wasn’t messing around about the body parts. A young woman, cut into pieces? In the back of her mind, Libby immediately thought about Ruben.

“Nora thought it was me?” she asked.

“At first, yes.”

He was watching her again. There was something about this guy that unnerved her. It wasn’t like he was judging her or anything like that. And he certainly didn’t waste time with bullshit. He was straight in your face. Nothing held back. In the past, she’d wished more people would be upfront and honest. He was doing exactly that, and she didn’t like it.