Deep Trauma

As she watched Themis and Holly, Riley’s stomach dropped. She had to admit she was in over her head. Suddenly, she was acutely aware of how unacceptable her own behavior had been lately. It was one thing to show up to a celebration of life ceremony—wearing a disguise, no less—for a person she’d never met, but it was another to drive forty minutes from home to stalk through someone’s private property in the dark of night. Granted, she told herself now, that hadn’t been her objective initially. She’d come to tell Holly about Sofia. It wasn’t until she’d recognized Themis’s car outside that she’d slipped into stealth mode.

And now, here she was, blending in with the night, eavesdropping . . .

Had she lost her mind? Yes, maybe, she decided. She had to admit, nothing had been the same since the night Leroy Williams had died. That tragedy had seemed to awaken something in her that she’d battled to keep suppressed for years. And now, she wasn’t herself at all. How could she be? Not after everything that had happened recently.

The most daring thing she’d ever done before last week—besides pushing the speed limit—was to borrow the occasional lab coat at work for a few minutes to visit Jackson’s office. But here she was, past her bedtime, having forgotten about dinner, trespassing and literally spying.

Even taking all that into account, Riley couldn’t let go of the more pressing questions. Who was responsible for what had happened to Sofia? And why was Holly now hugging someone who, only the day before, she’d denied even knowing? There was clearly a connection between the two women that neither one had admitted to Riley, and they both had ties to Lexi—and now, it seemed, to Sofia too. True, Riley acknowledged, Holly owed her nothing. She couldn’t be faulted for questioning Riley butting in where she had no business.

She needed time to think, and right now, her head was spinning with more questions than she could process. She was going to have to calculate her next move carefully. Putting her own actions aside, if Riley was purely objective, it looked like Holly had been dishonest with her about knowing Themis and the Avenging Allies. That was disappointing. And now Riley had to consider if perhaps the woman was more than just untrustworthy. Was she, in fact, dangerous? And if she was, Riley had walked right into that one. She’d already told Holly more than she should have about her chat with Detective Roberts, and she had opened herself up by indicating she could access privileged information from the LA medical examiner’s office.

Riley stood in the cool darkness trying to lip-read, too afraid to move.

The thought of being caught spying was too disturbing to comprehend. What she was doing came with significant personal risk—and for what? She couldn’t even grasp the substance of the conversation between Holly and Themis, let alone details.

Right now, she didn’t know who to trust or what to think. Perhaps there was a logical explanation for what she was seeing. Sometimes the best thing to do was nothing at all. Maybe she just needed to go home and sleep on it. It had been an awful day, an awful week.

Riley backtracked quietly down the stairs and around the side yard, keeping to the shadows of the cypress trees lining the fence as she headed toward her bike. That was when she saw the soft red glow of his cigarette.

The man was leaning against the open back gate between the darkened alleyway and the bungalow’s detached garage. A slow curl of smoke drifted above him as he raised and drew on his cigarette. Riley was sure he was the same man she’d seen leaning up against the corner of the bungalow yesterday. She remembered now how he had been staring at Sofia until he’d spotted her watching him, and then he’d suddenly disappeared.

Fortunately, he now had his back to her, facing the alleyway.

Riley studied the shape of him, the way his jeans were hitched above his hips, and the glint of his belt buckle in the headlights of an approaching vehicle when he turned toward it. She froze where she stood in the shadows, too afraid to breathe, watching as he dropped his cigarette and ground it out with his boot. The vehicle rolled slowly along the alleyway toward him, the gravel crunching under its wheels as it came to a stop. The man stepped toward it, reached out, and opened the passenger door before hopping up into the vehicle.

It was a large black pickup truck with raised bumpers and big wheels.

Riley would have recognized it anywhere by the skull emblem on the back window.