Robin Perini - Last Stand In Texas

“Almost,” he whispered. He removed a plastic-lined sheet from his bag and spread it out, before guiding her a few steps to its center. His body tingled. “It’s time.”

She reached down to his zipper. He slapped her hands away, grabbed her hair and yanked, forcing her to look into his eyes.

She clutched at his hands. “Ow! What are you doing?”

With a smile, he tugged harder. Her eyes blurred with tears before the true nature of her predicament dawned on her less-than-Mensa intellect.

Burke smiled when fear, then panic widened her eyes.

He pulled a knife from the sheath at the small of his back and whipped the blade around. With joyful precision, he sliced long and deep across her throat. She clutched at her neck, but he knew his business. He’d studied. Diligently. For years.

She was dead in seconds.

Her body dropped to the ground. Her eyes stared sightless at the moon. He looked down at her and sighed. The cut had been deadly accurate, but life always left too soon. The efficient kill was a necessary sacrifice. He couldn’t afford for her to resist too much. Scratching and fighting might result in evidence, something he refused to tolerate.

Burke knelt and tugged over his supply kit. He’d been looking forward to this one. The Eyeball Killer had fascinated him since the man’s first mention during Burke’s research.

He laid out his tools and studied her face. Green eyes were the rarest in the world. They would be a nice addition to his collection. He would have liked to collect brown, gray and blue, and maybe even hazel, as well. Too bad his discipline only allowed him the one opportunity to copy a unique modus operandi.

Discipline and preparation. That was what made him successful. And uncatchable. Regardless of his father’s concerns.

Burke pushed her hair aside. Clutching the knife oh so slowly, he pressed the blade at the corner of one of her beautiful, blank and lifeless eyes.

Everything up to this moment had been foreplay.

Now for the main event.

THE MORNING LIGHT broke through the space between the kitchen curtains.

“Can I take the tablet Daddy gave me to school?” Zoe ran into the room at full speed and skidded to a stop in front of her mother, a huge smile on her face.

Faith folded the legal-sized paper and returned the custody agreement to the envelope for the umpteenth time. She rubbed the bridge of her nose to ease the building headache. She couldn’t believe Burke had filed for full custody.

Undeniable proof she’d been a first-class fool. How many years had she believed she’d married Prince Charming, that he’d swept her out of the Shiny Penny, where she’d barely made enough to pay rent, and into a fairy tale? The only good to come of her marriage with Burke was her daughter. And the lesson Faith’s mother had tried to teach her—never rely on anyone but yourself.

With a sigh, she gulped another swallow of coffee. She’d left Zoe with her neighbor half of Friday night hoping to find Burke, praying to talk some sense into him.

She’d finally located him near the bar where they’d first met, but not before he’d hooked up with another woman. Must’ve been some night, because he’d been incommunicado ever since.

Not that she cared. She’d stopped loving him long ago, but Zoe’s well-being was at stake. Zoe irritated him more than anything. She couldn’t imagine him taking care of her every day, seven days a week. He wanted a perfect china doll for a daughter. A child he could show off and then shoo away. Zoe would never be that. Faith’s daughter was a tomboy through and through. She was messy, eager and independent. And definitely not a wallflower. Faith loved every inch of her.

She slid the rubber band off the morning paper. She’d have to fight the Thomas family machine to keep her daughter. To do that, Faith needed a job with more regular hours than her diner gig.

Intent on searching the classifieds, she spread the paper out. Below the fold on the front page, a photo screamed out. A familiar-looking blond-haired woman smiled at her. The caption chilled Faith’s soul.

“Local Woman Murdered. No Suspects.”

Quickly, Faith scanned the story and stopped at a single paragraph. Mandy Jones’s time of death was estimated between seven and ten.

Faith dropped the paper on the kitchen table, her body frozen in shock and disbelief. Faith had seen Mandy that night. She couldn’t make herself believe this was possible, and yet, she knew what she’d witnessed.

Mandy Jones in the passenger seat of her ex-husband’s car.

The gray clouds threatening the West Texas sky earlier in the day had turned black. The air sizzled with electricity, and a rare drizzle of rain seeped into Stefan’s skin. He peered at the sky. Strange, but the weather matched his mood today, so he’d go with it.

He ducked his head and darted up the Carder Texas Public Library’s steps. Rain rolled off the brim of his Stetson, the incessant damp reminding him of the mountains of the tiny European country he’d once called home. A home on the other side of the globe. A home he hadn’t visited in years. A homeland that believed he’d been assassinated along with his older brother during a failed coup d’état.

Instead, he was alive and well and impersonating a native Texan so convincingly he sometimes forgot he wasn’t one.

“Hey, Léon, how’s it going?”

“Can’t complain.” Stefan didn’t blink at the use of his long-term alias. He tilted his hat in acknowledgment as the deputy limped past the library. Smithson had almost died a few years ago. Now he and his wife had a couple of kids and the guy never stopped smiling.

Something Stefan could never see happening for himself.

He couldn’t afford connections or family. Which was why last night he’d made one of the toughest decisions of his life.

Stefan tapped his Stetson to remove the water and pushed through the double doors of the library.

A small girl sat at the front desk. A too-big baseball cap cocked to one side on her head. Her light brown hair fell halfway down her back. She looked up at him and smiled. “May I help you?”

He really should ignore her, or scare her with a terrifying frown, but instead he walked over to the desk. “Just browsing. Worked here long?”

“Do you have a library card?” she asked in a very professional tone. “You can’t check out a book without a library card. My mom told me that.”

Stefan fought back a smile at the girl’s confident antics. “Nope. I like to read here.”

“I don’t have one, either.” She leaned forward. “It’s a secret.”

He bent down so he could make out her whispered words. “I’ll keep your secret.”

“You’re funny. I like you.” She grinned up at him.

“Zoe.” An urgent whisper sounded from his left.

“Uh-oh.” The little girl bit her lip. “That’s my mom. I’m not s’posed to be up here.”

A woman hurried over, an adult version of the imp in front of him. However, instead of Zoe’s charm, she wore an expression that froze him.

He recognized the look. Not apologetic, not angry, not worried. Panic laced her eyes and had tightened her mouth.

Stefan took a step back from Zoe, putting space between them.

Zoe’s mother scooted between her daughter and Stefan in mama-bear mode. “I’m sorry if she bothered you.”

“Zoe was very helpful,” he said with a wink at the little girl. “I definitely need to get a library card.”

“See, Mom.” She straightened her shoulders. “I told you I could help.”

Her mother closed her eyes for a moment and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Do you need any assistance?” she asked him, entire body taut, practically begging him to refuse.