Lisa Jackson - Most Likely To Die

Right, but he thought it was something else.

Would it help if I told you I felt the same way? he had asked.

I never expected that to happen that night. And when you took off afterward, I figured you weren’t interested in someone like me. So I kept it all to myself…

Kept all what to himself? His feelings? He had feelings for her?

She couldn’t help wondering, in the moments before everything fell apart between them, whether there was actually a glimmer of hope.

Was there some way she and Wyatt could-

The ringing of the telephone shattered that thought.

She swiftly finished outlining her lips, set aside her lipstick, and hurried to answer it, checking her watch on the way. Lost in her reverie about Wyatt, she had taken too long to get ready. Now she was late-only by a couple of minutes, but it was probably Isaac on the phone, wondering if she’d forgotten.

“Hey, stranger,” a female voice greeted her.

“Who-oh my God! Aurora?”

“Hey, very good! But would you have known it was me if Kristen hadn’t told you I was going to be calling?”

Truth be told, she had forgotten all about that.

“Are you in New York, Aurora?” she asked, remembering what Kristen had said about their friend’s travel plans. That conversation seemed so long ago.

“Yup, we just got here. Gosh, it’s huge. I’ve wanted to see it all my life, and now here I am. I just wish Eddie could have come, too.”

“Why didn’t he?”

Aurora launched into a brief description of her husband’s duties back home, holding down the fort and shuttling their other kids to their activities.

“He complains, but he’s a great daddy. He’s loved every minute of it. He cried harder than anyone at Tina’s wedding.”

“I’ll bet.” Lindsay found herself thinking of Wyatt again.

She’d never even given him a chance to be a great daddy. And he might very well have been.

But it was too late now.

Their son was grown.

Wyatt had been robbed.

“So when can we get together?” Aurora asked. “Are you busy tonight?”

“Actually, I’m supposed to be somewhere right now.”

“Hmm…tomorrow, then? Or Saturday? We wanted to see a Broadway show, but we don’t have tickets yet. Everything we want to see is sold out.”

“This is a busy time of year,” Lindsay told her. “But what did you want to see? Maybe I can pull some strings.”

“Are you serious?”

Lindsay grinned, noting that Aurora sounded like her old animated self. “Sure. Just tell me which shows you’re interested in, and I’ll try to get a pair of tickets. They might not be the greatest seats, but-”

“Are you kidding, Linds? Any seats would be great. You’re such a doll to do this.”

Linds.

There it was again-the affectionate old nickname that was such a stark reminder of the girl she used to be.

Nobody called her that now. Strange, because shortening somebody’s name was a natural thing to do when you were close to someone.

Then again, nobody was as close to her as those girls-her high-school friends-had once been. You didn’t bond that intensely with others as a grown woman; there wasn’t enough time in the day as it was. And anyway, you weren’t in a phase of your life where you were insecure and dependent on other people.

But you still needed friends.

And Lindsay was more conscious now than ever of the loneliness in her life.

Maybe it’s not just about longing for friends.

Maybe what you need is a different kind of companionship. Something more lasting. More…

Passionate.

Again, Wyatt Goddard popped into her head.

No, he had never really left. Thoughts of him were always there now, lurking just beyond her consciousness, ready to intrude at any given moment.

Hmm…it was really turning out to be quite a week for Lindsay Farrell when it came to catching up with old friends, the killer thought.

First Kristen, then Wyatt, and now Lindsay had just agreed to a Friday night dinner date with Aurora.

She’d even sounded enthusiastic when she agreed with Aurora’s request that they dine at Sardi’s, one of the most touristy restaurants in town, over in the theater district.

But then, she always was a fake and a liar, so what do you expect?

She checked her watch, wondering where Lindsay was off to now. She’d said she was meeting an old friend.

It couldn’t be Wyatt, could it?

No. She’d had Lindsay’s phone tapped all week, and as far as she knew, the only contact she’d had with him had been in messages. They weren’t supposed to see each other until Saturday, when they had their little family reunion up in Connecticut.

A plan was already forming in her mind for that special occasion.

A daring plan, and one that deviated pretty drastically from her vow not to harm anyone other than the targets on her original list.

But now that the idea had sparked, it was pretty hard to ignore.

It was the perfect way to get to Lindsay, to make her suffer what people-some people, anyway-considered to be “a fate worse than death.”

That had been Caroline Marcott’s pathetically wailed phrasing at her son’s wake on that long-ago February day.

Was losing a child really a fate worse than death?

She wouldn’t know.

Maybe she’d soon find out, though. Through Lindsay.

Yes, she’d see that Lindsay suffered that so-called fate worse then death-and then she would suffer death itself.

And then we’ll decide which was worse, she thought.

Oh, wait a minute, Lindsay…you won’t be around for that part.

I guess I’ll just have to decide on my own, won’t I?

Her lips curved into a wicked smile as she hurried out of the hotel room and onto the street, hoping to get to Lindsay’s building in time to tail her to wherever she was going.

“You don’t seem like yourself tonight,” Isaac observed, setting down his margarita glass and studying Lindsay from across the small table, which held an untouched basket of chips and a bowl of salsa.

Lindsay blinked. “I don’t?”

“No. Normally, you would scarf down those chips in a hurry and ask for more. I’d assume it was because you had eaten dinner before you came, if you weren’t so quiet.”

“Sorry,” she said, and made an effort to smile at him. “I guess I’m just thinking about work.”

“No, you aren’t.” Isaac’s gaze was intent. “Who is he?”

She frowned. “What makes you think there’s a he?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Is it a she?”

“No.”

He swung his arm and snapped his fingers in feigned disappointment. “I was convinced for a second there that the only reason you dumped me was because you played for the other team.”

She winced even as she grinned. “I didn’t dump you, Isaac. It was mutual.”

“I’d have kept it going if you wanted to.”

Maybe that was true. Maybe it wasn’t.

It didn’t matter now.

He had moved on to Kylah…but not, by the sounds of it, past Rachel.

Oh, well.

That was somebody else’s problem now.

And you have enough of your own, she reminded herself, her mind clouding over again at the thought of Wyatt. And Leo.

She was almost tempted to confide in Isaac. He, after all, was far removed from the world she’d left behind twenty years ago. There was no danger that he’d spill her secret.

But you don’t have to worry about that anymore, anyway. Wyatt knows.

Yes, and he was the reason she had kept it so carefully hidden all these years. Because she didn’t want it to get back to him.

Now that he knew what she had done…

Well, there really wasn’t a compelling reason to protect her past so adamantly.

Sure, her parents would be disappointed. But they had mellowed through the years, and anyway, their approval didn’t carry the weight it had when she was living under their roof, dependent on their bank account.