“Ed and I have a special bond. Something much stronger than a white dress and a piece of paper from the state.”
Risa raised her eyebrows. “And what might that special bond be?”
“Chemistry.”
A smile twisted Farrentina’s mouth, but under the bravado, Risa could sense vulnerability. It was almost enough to make her feel sorry for the woman. Almost.
“Judging from all the letters we saw in his cell, he shares chemistry with a lot of women.”
“I’m special to him,” Farrentina half whispered. “I am.”
Risa averted her gaze. She didn’t want to know the woman had a heart under that facade. A heart that could be wounded. She wanted her to be belligerent, powerful, and every bit as evil as Dryden. Not a poor injured bird like Nikki.
“What’s wrong with you, honey?” Farrentina said, her voice louder this time. “Jealous?”
“Why would I be jealous?”
“Ed said you had a thing for him.”
If wanting to study him and now stop him qualified as a thing, Risa supposed that was accurate.
“Dryden has a thing for Risa, too,” Trent said. “Isn’t that why he asked you to dye your hair?”
Farrentina’s eyes darted to Risa and then back to Trent.
“He wanted you to look like her. Whenever you visited him, whenever he looked at a photo of you in your red lingerie, he pretended you were her.”
“Ed loves me.”
Trent leaned toward her. “No, you are a stand-in. A stand-in for Risa.”
“It’s true, Farrentina. Stay away from him. He’s dangerous.”
Farrentina threw back the rest of her vodka. “You’re full of shit. He despises you and your pathetic sister. He laughs at you. And if the damn police weren’t crawling all over my property, he wouldn’t waste his time. All he would need is me. All he would ever need is me.”
Risa closed her eyes. She didn’t know what twisted road had led Farrentina to Dryden, but she could bet it was a sad one, littered with abuse and neglect.
The same road Risa had left Nikki to travel alone so many years ago.
“Get out. The two of you. I have nothing more to say.”
Trent nodded to Risa, and they both stood and made their way back to the grand foyer and out into the summer night.
Trent broke the silence. “What are you thinking?”
Risa was thinking many things, so many things. But one was more pressing than the rest. One might lead them to Dryden and Nikki. “I’m wondering if Farrentina is right. If the police weren’t crawling all over…”
Trent nodded. “Maybe Dryden would pay Farrentina a visit.”
Nikki
Nikki never thought she would get emotional when she heard her sister’s voice, but even through the pocket door joining the living room with the walk-through pantry, Risa’s calm tones made her throat feel thick, and an empty ache seated itself in her chest.
Nikki hadn’t wanted to come here, to this museum of a house. She’d thought they were going to die when Eddie sneaked her in through a tunnel running from a carriage house filled with fancy cars to the creepy basement wine cellar, right under the nose of police. But the worst part had been meeting the woman Eddie had assured her she would like.
Nikki hated Farrentina Hamilton, and she was pretty sure the witch hated her back. Farrentina treated her like a little girl, and she acted like Eddie belonged to her. Insulting. Demeaning. Constantly pointing out that he loved her best.
And then Risa had arrived and had done the same thing. She and Trent. Saying Eddie really loved Risa. That both Farrentina in her red silk robe and Nikki in her sister’s red silk blouse were stand-ins for Risa. That Risa was the real thing.
And Eddie had listened.
And Eddie had smiled.
Nikki wanted to ask him if it was true. Maybe she would once she got up the nerve. But right now she was scared he’d agree with Risa or Farrentina or both.
So Nikki didn’t ask.
“Okay, they’re gone,” Farrentina said, walking back into the room and throwing open the pocket door.
“That was fun,” Eddie said.
Farrentina’s penciled eyebrows shot up. “Fun?”
“It’s not every day I get to be in the same room with three women fighting over me.”
“She’s a lying bitch,” Farrentina said.
Nikki wanted to agree, but she didn’t have the nerve to push it.
“And Burnell. Thinks he’s so smart. He doesn’t know shit.”
Eddie chuckled. “About some things, he might.”
Farrentina jerked her head back, as if she just smelled something bad. “What does he know? Not that you have a thing for the shrink.”
“Now don’t be selfish.”
“Selfish? Me? I’m not selfish at all.” Farrentina untied her robe and started rubbing up against Nikki’s husband. “I’ll prove it to you.”
“Stop,” Nikki said.
Eddie pushed the slut away. “Not here.”
Nikki shot Farrentina a fake smile. Eddie hadn’t told the bitch no exactly, but at least it was something.
“Then where?”
“I have a place.”
“The one you told me about?” Nikki asked, liking that she knew what Eddie was talking about, and Farrentina didn’t seem to have a clue.
“Yes. It’ll give us the privacy we need to sort this all out.”
Trent
Trent paced the length of his hotel room and tried to ignore the hiss of the shower behind the closed bathroom door. He’d reported his progress to Subera as soon as he and Rees had returned. They’d decided asking Farrentina’s police guard to fall back to give Dryden a chance to reach her was worth pursuing. But when they checked in with the deputies, they found Farrentina was gone, and none of them had a clue how she’d gotten out unseen until they found the tunnel running under the tennis court, connecting the house to the old carriage house.
If she caught up with Dryden, they might be looking at two victims on their hands, and who knew how many more to come.
Trent shoved the thought of Nikki as victim out of his mind and forced himself to sit at the scarred desk and thumb through copies of the reports on Nikki’s car and Risa’s house that had been delivered to the hotel room. Tomorrow he would confront Cassidy, follow up on the three guards Farrentina had paid off, and finally catch up with Warden Hanson.
And even with a killer on the loose, an unknown person who had helped that killer, and a mind-boggling amount of work to do, he still couldn’t manage to keep his thoughts off the sounds coming from behind that bathroom door.
He should have known better than to insist Rees stay in his hotel room tonight. But every time he’d convinced himself to call the front desk and get her another room, thoughts of Dryden’s past “artwork” invaded his mind, and he couldn’t bear the idea of her even one door away.
The hiss of the shower stopped. A rustle filtered through the paper-thin door, undoubtedly the curtain sliding open. The soft flap of a bath towel followed.
Picturing terry cloth moving over bare skin, Trent almost groaned out loud. Having her in his room all night—close enough to hear her breathing, smell her scent, see her hair fanned out over the pillow as she slept—was going to be sheer torture. But if he wanted to protect her, if he wanted any semblance of peace of mind, he had no other choice.
He grabbed a pillow and an extra blanket from the closet shelf and threw them into one of the armchairs. Not the choicest sleeping arrangement, but it would have to do. Sleeping in the same bed with Rees was not an option.
He had just placed his Glock 9mm and his cell phone on the table within easy reach of the armchair when another sound rose from behind the door. A soft mew followed by silence.