Page 22 of Unhinged Kallie

‘I love you,’ she’d pant in my ear while her skin warmed me more than standing directly in the sun’s rays on the hottest day. She was my sunshine. Drawn to her even in death, I walked to the side of the table. Cupping her cheek, I ran my thumb across her cold flesh.

“I should’ve made you stay home,” I said, grabbing the hair brush I’d laid on the counter. Fanning her hair out, I started at the ends and eased the knots out of her hair. “I knew something was wrong. I always listen to my instincts, but I didn’t, and I won’t do that again.”

I methodically moved around until it was all brushed out. “I will find him, Sunshine, and make him pay.”

I don’t care about that.

My head snapped up at the sound of her voice, and I blinked, my eyes trying to make sense of the ghostly figure looking at me from the other side of the table. I didn’t believe in ghosts any more than I believed in heaven or hell, which meant my mind was conjuring her, yet I was willing to accept what would normally bother me as a false reality.

“You don’t care about who murdered you? Who stole you from us?” I growled and gripped the hairbrush tighter.

Of course, I do, but I care more about you and the kids. I never meant to leave you alone, doing this on your own.

“So what do you want me to do? Because I can’t let this go, I will not let him get away with this.”

Kirby sighed and looked down at her body lying on the table. Her eyes traced over the marks before finding mine.

“What is it like?”

Being dead?

“Yes.”

She shrugged and walked around the table as light as a summer breeze. Reaching up, she touched my face, but all I felt was the cold caressing me.

I feel lost. You, Kallie, and Carter were my island, and now…

“I don’t want you to go,” I said, releasing the small ball of emotion I’d been holding tight. My throat clogged, the pain like a stab wound piercing my heart. How did people live with emotions like this all the time? It hurt to breathe, to think to move.

I love you, Cain. Please look after the kids. Both Kallie and Carter need you. Promise me you’ll look after them first, then go after my murder. That is my dying wish.

“Can you make one of those when you’re already dead?”

The corner of Kirby’s mouth turned up in a smile even as she stepped away from me and disappeared.

Warm tears trickled from my eyes when I opened them, and I realized I was holding her hand to my cheek.

“I promise to look after them, but I won’t stop looking for Darryl Burton. I will not rest until he is strapped to my table. That is my vow to you.”

Laying her hand down, I stepped back and put the brush away. It was time to get to work. Pulling out my camera, I took pictures of every square inch of her body and the marks he inflicted.

I memorized every wound. Defensive injuries were visible on Kirby’s arms while bruises lined her neck and torso, but it was the three stab wounds that had taken her from me. The one to her stomach had been first.

I could envision it as she cried out, gripping her stomach just below her bulletproof vest. Stumbling back from her attacker, she hunched over, holding the wound. The angle of the strike to her shoulder confirmed my suspicion of her body position. She turned her face away, and the knife slid in at a forty-five-degree angle piercing the bone.

She fell to the floor on her back.

Getting down on the floor, I mimicked her position and rocked back and forth as she fought the weight of the man kneeling on her chest with his hand around her throat. Her nails broke off as she left long scratches on his arms. Her eyes were filled with fear as he choked off her air supply. I held up my hand, picturing the size of Burton. He was a large man, well over six feet. He knew his way around a blade. He changed the position of the knife in his hand and stabbed under her exposed armpit, severing the brachial artery. She bled out within minutes.

Closing my eyes, I went over the attack repeatedly until the man—I already had a file on— was clear in my mind. Where was your backup? Who else is to blame for this?

“If it’s the last thing I do, Sunshine, I will find him and kill him along with anyone else that is at fault. I failed you once, but it won’t happen again.”

Chapter Nine

KALLIE

TWO YEARS LATER