“Thank you, Gabe,” she said in a clipped voice.“Maybe you’re right.Anyway, it’s late out here.I’m going to bed.Talk to you later.”
“Kate—”
She hung up.
She didn’t go to bed, though.She changed out of her uniform into a pair of joggers, a sports bra, and a light pullover.She hadn’t gone on a proper run in a while.Ever since Cox escaped, she’d been worried about jogging, afraid he would pop out of the shadows and snatch her up to complete his promised sacrifice.
Well, let him try.At least she’d know where he was.
She considered sending Marcus a text but decided not to.He might worry and try to find her, and she wanted to be alone right now.
So, she laced up her shoes, left the hotel, and started to run.
The night sky was overcast, a matte black blanket over the city.It contrasted well with the soft white blanket of snow on the ground.Three inches had fallen that afternoon, carried by a surprise cold snap that now bit through Kate’s coat and chilled her skin.
She kept moving.The run would warm her up soon enough.
The snow crunched underfoot, keeping the beat of her footsteps while the gentle crest and trough of light and shadow between the streetlamps counted the measures.Their hotel was located near city center, so Kate’s quiet lasted only a block or so before she reached the scattered groups of people—most of them young—enjoying the nightlife despite the fact that the weekend was over and most of them would have to be at work within ten hours.
She navigated smoothly through the crowds, only twice needing to step off the curb to avoid colliding with tipsy clubbers.From time to time, catcalls floated her direction.She ignored them.She wasn’t even sure they were meant for her, but whether meant for her or not, she wasn’t interested in them right now.
She tried to think back to a time before Cox, back when…
She laughed, and there was no humor in the sound.Before Cox.Back when nightmares of Robert Denton left her unable to sleep through the night without soaking her bed through with sweat.Back when memories of her father grayed her daylight and drove her to run in the first place, run as she was running now, run and run and run but never escape.
Her life had always been hemmed in by evil.Maybe that was why Cox was so obsessed with her.After all, it was fascinating to see someone who existed as a lightning rod for all of the evil in the world.Maybe he didn’t even know why he wanted to hurt her so much.Maybe he couldn’t help himself.Maybe God did exist, and maybe He had put her in this world for no other reason than to make her suffer.
“Hey!”
She looked up and cried out, jumping to the left just out of the way of an older couple walking arm-in-arm from a restaurant to their car.The husband glared at her and flipped her off while the wife clung to him in alarm.
She called back an apology and turned left at the next intersection.This street was even busier than the last, so she slowed to a walk.The run wasn’t helping anyway.
Somewhere out there, Elijah Cox was planning his next murder, taunting Kate, daring her to find him while leaving behind none of the breadcrumbs that would ordinarily lead her to him.
And all Kate could do was keep struggling, like a fish on a hook, until she asphyxiated and hung limp on his reel.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
St.Louis was the kind of city Kate would call a “proper” city.As compared to Portland, which she rightfully thought of as a large town more than an actual city.
To Marcus, St.Louis was more like a sort of city.Too big to call a town but lacking the life a real city provides.It all came down to background.
Kate had spent her childhood in suburban Chicago.Chicago was a real city, but Kate had spent most of her time in the quiet, forested neighborhoods removed from the urban sprawl.As an adult, she’d lived most of her life in Portland, and it was clear that was where she belonged.Her emotions seethed inside her, and since she fought hard to never let them reach the surface, the quiet peace of Portland was a perfect place for her to vent them without needing to let others witness her vulnerability.
These thoughts passed through Marcus without judgment.He wasn’t walking through downtown St.Louis to access his sensitive side, after all.He was far from the most level-headed guy himself, only he looked for the hustling bustling frenzy of a metropolis to soothe his nerves.New York was a place you could hide from everyone and never be alone.
St.Louis was… Well, it wasn’t empty.That was the best he could say for it.
“Hey, baby,” a voice called from the shadows.“You looking for a good time?”
Without turning toward the voice, Marcus replied, “Not tonight, sweetheart, thank you.”
The voice didn’t reply.The fish had swum on.Time to cast the bait elsewhere.
More voices reached him, a gaggle of twenty-somethings stumbling out of a bar and heading down the street, presumably to the next bar.He walked around them, and some punk with swollen arms balanced precariously atop toothpick legs called, “Yeah, you better get out of our way!”
This outburst earned him a scolding from a fragile-looking blond girl walking with him.The punk asked “What?”in an injured voice that told Marcus he’d expected his girl to be impressed with his aggression.