Chapter Ten
Lila woke before her alarm went off for the first time in her life. Of course, she told herself that it was less to do with the camping trip and seeing Charlie and more to do with her need to . . . oh, who was she kidding?
Kicking out of her covers, she went into the kitchen and turned on her Keurig, then smiled, because she couldn’t seem to stop smiling. Would they sleep in the same tent together? Charlie lying beside her, wow. She wondered if he snored or if he was a heavy breather or if he was one of those people who looked like angels when they slept—peaceful, beautiful.
Okay, she wasn’t even there yet and she was already fantasizing about him. This was going to get bad and fast unless she reeled in her emotions. What she needed to do was focus on the camping park and what all she would need. A sleeping bag? Sunblock? Bug spray? Trail mix? What wasn’t she thinking of?
Just when she’d decided to make a list on her phone, a knock at the door pulled her attention away. Lila placed her favorite mug on the Keurig and hit the largest size, then went to the door. She opened it up without looking, expecting to find Annie on the other side, some delicious baked good in hand, but instead there was no one there. Hm. Maybe Annie went back to her house to grab something and would be back in a second.
Lila went to close the door, but the light from inside caught on the small, wooden deck off her door. Sitting there, bound by plastic and a rubber band, lay a newspaper.
Huh. She hadn’t received the paper before, and she hadn’t signed up for a subscription. Maybe Annie signed her up, but then it was five thirty in the morning, still dark outside. The paper delivery guy wouldn’t be out for hours. Which meant someone had put it there.
With trepidation, she reached down to pick up the paper, quickly slammed the door shut and locked the doorknob and the deadbolt, and then set the paper on the kitchen counter, not willing to open it. Not yet.
Okay, calm down, she told herself. This could have been Annie last night or Marty had an extra, so he dropped it for her. It could have been there yesterday and she didn’t notice.
But then she noticed the name of the paper—the Charlotte Observer. Not the Crestler’s Key Independent. Not the Lexington Herald. The Charlotte Observer. There was no way that a Charlotte paper would get delivered in Kentucky unless someone specifically ordered it. Who would send her a Charlotte paper?
She reached over to smooth down the plastic, and read the headline on the front page: “Another Charlotte Woman Missing.”
No, not another one. Tearing through the plastic, Lila flattened out the paper to read the article. Another woman was missing in Charlotte, this time a twenty-seven-year-old teacher, but this woman never returned home after a date. Her family didn’t know the man’s identity, but the police were investigating.
Two women.
Two disappearances.
Both in Charlotte.
Her blood turned to ice, each thought sucking more of the warmth from her body. Because it couldn’t be a coincidence. He took those women. And someone wanted Lila to know about it, but not just any someone.
Suddenly, she couldn’t breathe. Only a handful of people knew what happened to her—her lawyer, her parents, Lucas, and him. Neither her lawyer nor her parents would send this to her, and Lucas was halfway around the world, which meant . . .
Anger ripped through her, replacing the fear so fast she hardly recognized it. “No. No! You will not get me here. You won’t!” She opened her trash and shoved the paper inside, then reached for her cell and dialed her lawyer. But again, the office wasn’t open. Needing to do something, she left a message with what had happened, her fears, and then without thought, called Charlie.
The phone rang three times, and she worried he was still asleep when a groggy voice answered. “Hello?”
“Did I wake you?”
“No, this is my normal voice at five a.m.”
She cringed. “I’m sorry. I can call you later.”
“No, I’m up now. What’s the matter?”
The words were on the tip of her tongue, right there, begging to be spoken: Tell him. Tell him everything. But then she thought of last night, how he talked to her, how he joked around. All of that would be gone, replaced with a constant look of worry, always on edge. So instead of saying anything about what had happened to her or the missing women or the newspaper, she said, “Just wondering what time you’d be here so I can be ready.”
There was a pause on the other end. “Lila?”
“Yeah?”
“You know I’m here, right?”
Her bottom lip trembled, but she refused to break down. She wouldn’t give that man the satisfaction of still affecting her. She was stronger now, able to defend herself. Lucas’s suggestion that she take self-defense classes had helped tremendously, and she was still working through the moves every evening when she got home from work. She was strong, capable, unyielding.
So why did she feel so weak? “I know, thanks. See you in a while?”
Another pause. “How about I come over now?”
“No, I’m fine, really. Get some more sleep.”
“You sure you’re okay?”
“Fine.”
They hung up, and Lila set the phone on her counter, her hands trembling because she wasn’t fine. Nowhere near fine.
She walked over to her family room and began to work through her moves, needing to punch, to kick, to remember how to drop someone with a single move, and with each sequence, her breathing normalized. She might not be fine, but she would not allow herself to fall apart.
Never again.