Page 29 of Unraveled

“Catalina.”

He took her proffered hand. “Carter. What brings you here?”

She eyed him as her fingers played with his. “Probably the same thing that brought you here.”

He seriously doubted that. He released her hand and picked up his drink. “What’s that?”

“Just looking for someone interesting. Fun.” The woman rested an elbow on the bar and leaned toward him. His eyes followed her movements as she placed one hand on his knee. Everything in him coiled and tensed as she slid her palm upward. “Would that be you?”

It was impossible to miss her intent. Before he could form a response, he felt the sensation of being watched, and he snapped his head up just in time to meet a pair of familiar blue eyes. Audrey’s gaze dropped to the woman’s hand lingering near Carter's crotch, and her cheeks flushed bright pink. Her eyes met his again, and he swore he saw a flash of hurt before she blinked it away. Straightening her shoulders, she strode determinedly past the bar, gaze focused in front of her.

Carter's heart dropped to his toes. He felt simultaneously vindicated that he’d managed to get a rise out of her and guilty for hurting her. Son of a bitch.

He turned back to the woman and extricated her hand from his thigh. “I’m sorry. I appreciate the offer, but I can’t.”

Her eyes clouded with confusion, and he smiled gently. “It’s… complicated.”

With a resigned nod, she turned back toward the bar, and he slipped off the stool and hustled toward the front door. He was already scanning the sidewalk when he stepped outside, but he was too late. Audrey was gone.

CHAPTER

FIFTEEN

“Did you see that they found another body?”

Audrey shot Brandi a confused glance as she closed the door of the fridge and propped one hip against the counter. “What?”

Nate used his fork to point toward the small flat-screen TV hanging on the wall of the break room. “Have you seen this yet?”

Brandi thumbed the button on the remote to turn up the volume. On the screen, a perky blonde reporter relayed details of a police investigation into a body that had been found along the edge of the river. Nate sat there, riveted to the TV.

“Unreal.” Audrey shook her head in commiseration. This made three—and everyone knew what that meant. For the next few moments, they watched the segment. Investigations into all three of the victims’ deaths were ongoing, but there was no mention of them being connected.

Audrey pondered that for a moment. Really, how couldn’t they be? Maybe it was her nature to suspect the worst, but bodies weren’t just found in the woods every day, especially not so close to one another. And she’d bet her left hand that the other remains would show the same brutality the first victim had—the amputated fingers, the missing teeth.

It could, of course, be a complete coincidence. Maybe they hadn’t released the details so as to not spark a panic. That made more sense than anything. She trusted the police to do their job and keep people safe. It was hard to tell, too, just what was happening until they identified the victims and determined an actual cause of death. Was there a connection between them—a similar motive for killing them?

The first victim had been identified only days before as Mr. Robert Tripp. The second body had yet to be identified, as they were still working on a composite for the man. He’d been found only two miles from the cornfield where Audrey had found Mr. Tripp, but what remained of the corpse was so badly decomposed that the police suspected the person—another male, according to the preliminary investigation—had actually been abducted and killed prior to Mr. Tripp.

Between the heat and the animals, a body wouldn’t last too long in nature, but the police had evidently found enough to piece together most of a cadaver. According to the reporter, they had yet to identify the man. Though she didn’t say as much, Audrey wondered if that was because, like in the case of Mr. Tripp, all distinguishing characteristics had been removed.

A searing anger shot through her. Whoever it was had medical training, probably a surgeon. Doctors were supposed to help people, protect them—instead, someone was taking it upon themselves to hunt down innocent citizens of Miami for their own personal gain. Black market organs went for a pretty penny—some sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“Bastard,” she murmured. Three sets of eyes swiveled toward her, and she pointed to the screen. “There is no excuse for something like this. I hope they find the person responsible.”

Brandi’s eyes turned sad. “You never expect things like this to happen in your hometown, to people you know.”

That was an understatement. Bad things happened everywhere, but this was too much.

“Do you remember Mr. Tripp?” Nate asked.

Brandi shrugged. “Only vaguely. I know he was in here a couple times.”

No longer hungry, Audrey tossed her sandwich back in the fridge and headed to her office, where she closed the door and sank down in her chair. The thought of something like this happening so close to home made her sick, and a shiver raced down her spine. Not that it was any consolation, but the victims so far had been male. Hopefully, she wouldn’t have anything to worry about, but that didn’t mean she would let her guard down at all until they figured out who was behind the killings and why.

She desperately hoped they would ID the second and third victims soon. Maybe the police would get lucky and find a definitive connection and catch the killer. That would at least give the families some closure. She couldn’t imagine something like that happening to someone close to her. Hannah’s incident was bad enough. It had been horrible, seeing her story on the news the morning after she and Carter had⁠—

At the mere memory of him, her heart twisted in her chest. He’d tried to call her a couple times, but she’d ignored him each time, unable to bring herself to speak with him. The thought of him with that girl tore her heart to shreds.